Charlotte Katakuri Transforms into the Azure Dragon of World Destruction

Katakuri raised his right hand.

His rough knuckles hooked around the thick scarf at his neck. He gave it a hard tug.

The fabric tore with a muffled rip, and the scarf was casually tossed onto the iron floor.

Two rows of sharp fangs were exposed to the air. The sea breeze swept past, carrying a salty tang through the gaps between his teeth.

He strode forward with his long legs. His military boots pounded along the Wapometal passage as he headed outside.

The gate of the steel fortress was slowly opening. Heavy gears meshed together, producing a deafening grinding sound.

Beyond the gate stretched an endless black sea.

On the horizon, more than a dozen three-masted sailing ships flying different pirate flags formed a line. Their battered sails billowed in the wind like a gray wall, pressing straight toward Totto Land's territorial waters.

It was an allied fleet cobbled together by the remnants of Rocks.

The decks were crammed with pirates reeking of alcohol and sweat. They held flintlock guns and cutlasses in their hands.

Katakuri stopped at the edge of the breakwater.

The waves pounded against the wave-dissipating blocks below. They broke into white foam that splashed across his military boots.

He took a deep breath.

The cold sea wind rushed through his nostrils and into his lungs. His chest expanded violently.

Katakuri bent his legs and suddenly charged forward.

The breakwater beneath his feet gave a brittle crack under the strain. Chunks of concrete flew backward.

As he ran, his body began to expand at a speed beyond all reason.

His bones crackled like popping beans. His originally five-meter-tall body grew tenfold within seconds.

His shirt was completely shredded. Strips of cloth were swept away by the fierce wind.

Katakuri planted his left foot on a reef. Because his body had changed too quickly, the sole of his foot slipped.

He did not pause, instead using the momentum to leap upward.

"Riiip."

Large patches of hard blue scales surged beneath his skin. Their edges were sharp as blades, slicing straight through his old flesh. Before the blood could seep out, it was evaporated by the intense heat radiating from the scales.

At the very center of his forehead, two thick dragon horns pierced through his skull and emerged.

A roar exploded from his throat.

It was not a human cry, but a deep dragon's roar carrying the savage aura of an ancient ferocious beast.

A massive Azure Dragon hundreds of meters long smashed through the low-altitude mist above the sea and shot straight into the sky.

The Azure Dragon's body was as thick as a steel train suspended in midair. Its blue scales gleamed with a cold metallic sheen beneath the gloomy daylight.

A huge shadow was cast downward.

It completely enveloped the dozen or so pirate ships ahead in darkness.

On the flagship of the pirate alliance,

a one-eyed captain with a face full of jowls was holding a telescope.

When he saw the gigantic dragon head emerging from the clouds, his hand trembled. The brass telescope crashed onto the deck, its lenses shattering across the floor.

"W-What kind of monster is that!" the one-eyed captain shrieked, his voice cracking like a duck with its neck stepped on.

The underlings on deck were all dumbstruck.

Someone's flintlock fell to the ground, spilling gunpowder into a puddle.

Someone else's legs went soft, and he wet himself on the spot. Yellow urine ran down his trouser leg, and the stench spread through the sea breeze.

"Fire the cannons! Fire now!" several leaders shouted themselves hoarse.

A few scattered solid iron shells flew toward the sky. They did not even touch the Azure Dragon's scales before losing their momentum halfway up and falling into the sea.

The Azure Dragon circled through the leaden-gray clouds.

Its thick claws tore through the clouds, while dark red Conqueror's Haki lightning raced wildly between its scales.

Katakuri lowered his head.

His dark golden vertical pupils locked onto the pirate fleet below, devoid of the slightest trace of pity.

He opened his abyss-like maw.

The surrounding air instantly grew scorching hot. The moisture in the sea breeze was rapidly baked dry, and inhaling it felt like swallowing razor blades.

A blinding mass of fire compressed violently deep in the Azure Dragon's throat.

The radiance grew brighter and brighter, dyeing the surrounding clouds orange-red.

The air let out a strained rumble, as though an active volcano had been suspended upside down in the sky.

"Run! Turn the rudder, quickly!" the one-eyed captain scrambled toward the helm.

It was too late.

Katakuri's lower jaw opened to its limit.

"Bolo Breath."

A devastating pillar of fire more than thirty meters in diameter descended from the sky.

Carrying unstoppable force, the pillar of light slammed straight into the center of the pirate alliance's fleet.

The instant it touched the surface of the sea,

there was no deafening explosion, only a scalp-prickling hissing sound.

Tens of millions of tons of cold seawater instantly evaporated under the heat. A gigantic vortex of vacuum, dozens of meters deep, was burned into the sea.

Dense white steam surged into the sky.

The pillar of fire swept across the water.

The dozen sturdy three-masted sailing ships, along with the pirates on their decks crying out for their fathers and mothers,

were carbonized within 0.1 seconds of coming into contact with the pillar of light.

They did not even have time to scream. Flesh and bone instantly vaporized, turning into black ash that scattered through the sky along with the wood and canvas.

Orange-red embers burned across the sea.

Not a single intact plank remained. The alliance fleet that had been so aggressive moments ago had been burned into nothingness in one strike.

When the sea breeze blew, the black ash scattered into the boiling seawater and vanished without a trace.

At the edge of the dense fog in the distance,

a small three-masted sailing ship disguised as a merchant vessel was anchored.

Several boxes of moldy apples were piled at the bow.

Behind the apple crates crouched a man in a gray windbreaker, an intelligence agent of the World Government.

He held a specially made camera Den Den Mushi in his hands.

The Den Den Mushi's eyes were fixed on the terrifying pillar of fire that had yet to disperse above the sea, as well as the enormous Azure Dragon looming in and out of sight within the clouds.

The agent was drenched in cold sweat. His windbreaker clung to his back.

He swallowed, then pressed the shutter with trembling fingers.

"Click."

The Den Den Mushi spat out a photograph that smelled of scorched cloth.

The agent snatched up the photograph and glanced at it. His legs went limp, and he collapsed onto the deck, breathing rapidly like a bellows.

"The Charlotte Family... They got the Azure Dragon Fruit." He spoke into the encrypted Den Den Mushi at his collar, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

Several hours later,

in the Grand Line, Marineford,

the Marine Headquarters' highest conference room.

Rain poured outside. Raindrops pelted the windows in a dense barrage.

The room was unlit. Only a sliver of cold light spilled in from the corridor.

Sengoku stood behind the broad redwood desk.

His chest heaved violently, and a layer of mist covered his frog-shaped glasses.

A celadon teacup lay shattered on the marble floor. Brown tea spread across the carpet.

"Smack!"

Sengoku swung up his right hand.

He slammed it heavily onto the desktop.

A glaring crack appeared in the solid-wood surface. Splinters pierced his palm.

The stack of brand-new wanted posters just delivered from the printing house trembled violently beneath Sengoku's palm.

The one on top depicted a terrifying Azure Dragon coiled among the clouds, with a boiling, burning black sea in the background below.

The veins on Sengoku's forehead bulged one after another, his blood vessels looking ready to burst.