After Ulysses died, his Devil Fruit Powers vanished. The life force he had devoured poured out of his body and returned to its rightful owners.
A powerful pirate sat up on the ice, gasping like a drowning man. After a long while, he stared blankly at Kong and touched the bite marks on his neck.
"Is... is it over?"
A Devil Fruit User's powers vanished when they died. Apart from released attacks like those of a Logia, all such powers followed that rule.
In the Four Blues, a Devil Fruit User was an extraordinary rarity. People there had little chance to learn what happened when one died.
But this was the Grand Line, the place pirates across the world dreamed of reaching. The moment these powerful pirates woke up, they realized Ulysses had been defeated.
Then—
"What?!"
"The Blood Earl lost!!"
"You've got to be kidding! Someone that powerful?!"
As the pirates erupted into uproar, muskets swung toward them. "Don't move! Hands up!"
The pirates turned in surprise. "Marines?"
"Heh, heh, heh. You lot have guts, trying to arrest me!" A pirate captain laughed strangely and drew the great sword at his waist.
"If I were you, I'd surrender quietly."
Loa's voice suddenly echoed in his ear.
At those words, the terrifying figure he had seen before passing out flashed back into his mind. His hand froze around his weapon.
The pirates swallowed hard and turned to look.
An enormous creature lay coiled in the waters behind them, as majestic as a mountain and stretching beyond sight. The sea was a hundred meters deep, yet it barely covered his bent knees. Every breath he took raised terrifying waves and made the ocean tremble.
And now that colossal being watched them in silence with golden slit-pupiled eyes that radiated boundless authority.