"Where did this mountain monkey crawl out from? He looks like a damn beast."
John stood with his hands in his pockets, chin raised as he looked at Somaz with contempt.
Anyone unaware of the situation might have thought John was the Celestial Dragon and Somaz the commoner being hunted down.
"You lowly life-form that never fully evolved—how did you even have the nerve to stay alive?"
"..."
Somaz was stunned, his body trembling uncontrollably with rage.
How dare he! How dare this lowly pirate from the lower realm say such things?!
How could he insult a great Celestial Dragon like this?!
"John, you..."
"You go on first. I'll catch up soon."
Seeing even Rocks slow down in shock, John impatiently waved him onward.
"Right!" Rocks nodded and abruptly sped up, darting past Somaz.
Somaz paid him no heed. His eyes held only that arrogant purple-haired man with his hands in his pockets.
The hatred had been perfectly drawn in!
"I know you. Captain John, right? The Magnetism Man who ate the Paramecia-type Magnet-Magnet Fruit."
Somaz raised a hand to push his sunglasses back up from the tip of his nose. Breathing heavily, he spoke with barely restrained madness.
"I'll put a Seastone collar around your neck and make your bloodline serve as slaves for generation after generation—"
Crackle—
Before Somaz could finish his threat, purple currents burst from John's body and rapidly spread outward from him.
Then, the earth trembled!
Countless iron particles split away from the soil, becoming densely packed black specks floating in the air.
With a thought from John, the countless black specks suddenly converged on Somaz.
Thorn Wall!
Even with his Immortal Body, Somaz's instincts frantically warned him that he absolutely could not take this attack head-on.
He had to block it!
Thick thorny vines erupted from the ground beneath Somaz's feet, intertwining into an inverted bowl that covered and protected him.
The next instant, the iron-particle storm arrived, turning into billions of all-pervading marching ants that burrowed through the gaps between the thorns.
"Damn it, what is this?!"
Sensing disaster, Somaz quickly dispelled Thorn Wall! and leaped up, trying to jump out of the encirclement formed by the iron particles.
He had already seen through John's intentions. John wanted to imprison him!
An Immortal Body was not afraid of being killed; what it feared most was imprisonment!
Just as Somaz leaped into the air, the iron-particle storm abruptly formed a massive hand and precisely seized his right ankle.
Then, the iron particles spread rapidly from his ankle like maggots clinging to bone. In the blink of an eye, they covered Somaz's entire body, leaving only his head exposed.
Thud—
Somaz crashed heavily to the ground from midair. The iron particles covering him fused together, forming an iron maiden coffin.
Somaz struggled with all his strength, only to discover that the coffin had been coated in Armament Haki. With his strength, he could not tear it open at all.
"What a ridiculous wild monkey."
John stepped forward, undid his belt under Somaz's horrified gaze, and then...
Sss—
A warm stream splashed across Somaz's face, flowing into his nostrils with each breath and down his airway into his stomach.
A faint scent of rum spread through his senses of smell and taste.
Humiliation and rage spread with it...
This felt worse than being killed!
Yet Somaz did not dare open his mouth to curse, or the liquid still pouring down would enter it.
After a while, John let out a long sigh, gave himself a shake, and fastened his belt.
"Sorry. I've been rather depressed these past few days, so I drank a little too much."
As he spoke, John lowered his eyes to Somaz, meeting that bloodshot gaze filled with fury.
"Still, for an unevolved wild monkey to taste such exquisite nectar is the greatest honor of your life."
"Ptui! I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you! And your family, your friends, everything you have!"
Somaz roared hysterically, yet he somehow seemed helpless—almost pitiful.
Faced with the threat, John smiled faintly. With a curl of his finger, he controlled the iron coffin lying on the ground and raised it upright.
"I know my current Conqueror's Haki can't break your Immortal Body. That's why you still have the nerve to bark even after ending up like this."
"But..."
John's smile suddenly turned sinister.
"I have thousands of ways to make being alive far more painful than dying!"
With that, John raised his right hand. Sparks flickered at his fingertips as he drew up iron particles from the earth.
Before long, iron particles had adhered to and wrapped around his entire right arm, forming an iron drill covered in spiraling barbs.
At the same time, an opening appeared in the iron coffin, exposing Somaz's backside.
Somaz felt the tight restraint around his buttocks loosen. Then he saw the vicious iron drill in John's hand and immediately understood what John intended to do.
"No! Don't! I was wrong! Please..."
"Relax. Don't be nervous."
John soothed him softly as he walked behind Somaz. The iron drill began spinning wildly with a bzzzz.
That bzzzz sounded like a demon's whisper in Somaz's ears, filling him with boundless terror.
"No! Please, don't... AHHHH!!!"
Time became incomparably long at that moment. Though the pain was milder than having his head cut off, it became unimaginably piercing.
Somaz's personality, thoughts, and everything else shattered into fragments alongside the drill's buzzing.
After an unknown amount of time, the buzzing stopped, and John walked around to stand before Somaz.
The arrogant, mad Celestial Dragon and member of God's Knights now had hollow eyes and a deathly pale face.
He was still alive, but he was already dead.
"At your age, this is all the mental fortitude you have?"
John curled his lip disdainfully, brought his five fingers together into a hand blade, and thrust it through the iron coffin into Somaz's chest.
Then, he pulled out a mechanical metal heart.
This was Somaz's lifeline. It seemed that destroying the mechanical heart would kill him.
But Somaz, whose personality had already shattered, showed no reaction whatsoever to having his heart removed. He was merely a mindless walking corpse.
"I'll contact you again. Take good care of yourself."
John dispelled the iron coffin, waved at Somaz as he collapsed weakly to the ground without support, then flashed off in pursuit of Rocks.
While hurrying along, John looked down at the mechanical heart in his palm, thoughts racing through his mind.
In the future, Saint Saturn had half his body blown apart by the Straw Hat crew, yet he had remained alive and well.
If that was the case, then did every Immortal Body bound to Imu through a Deep Sea Contract differ from the others?
And Harald, who had been subjected to Black Transference after forming the contract, had been killed by his own son Loki—not because of a mechanical heart, either.
"So the mechanical heart is something only Somaz, or perhaps a very small number of people, possess."
Understanding dawned on John, followed by a helpless sigh.
"Unfortunately, none of these people are weak. They possess Armament Haki and Observation Haki, allowing them to resist my Observation Haki and magnetic perception."
"Otherwise, if someone had such an obvious weakness as a mechanical heart, I could detect it directly with my Fruit ability alone."
Before you continue