Atop the ruins, Gern stood tall in the first rays of sunlight.
He simply stood there, casually, without even deliberately projecting his presence, yet he weighed on everyone's hearts like an invisible mountain.
Every member of the Straw Hat Pirates froze, including Zoro and Sanji, who were battered and wounded from their recent fierce battle.
An overwhelming sense of danger, born of the primal instinct of a creature facing an apex predator,
made their muscles tense and their pupils contract. For a moment, none of them dared make a move. They could only stare fixedly at that figure.
Meanwhile, unlike most of the Straw Hat Pirates, who remained blissfully ignorant,
Lola, who came from the New World, and the knowledgeable Nico Robin, who had once survived in the underworld,
felt their pupils constrict the instant they recognized Gern's face. Their bodies trembled uncontrollably, and cold sweat poured from them.
"Ugh..." A stifled whimper escaped Lola's throat. Her face turned white as paper, and she stumbled backward.
Then her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground.
She was the daughter of Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin!
She had once been the Minister of Chocolate, governing Cacao Island in Totto Land.
She had survived the brutal waters of the New World, where the strong devoured the weak!
How could she possibly not know the weight carried by the man before her?
"It's him! It really is him! The man even Mama... even the Mama I fear more than anyone else sternly warned me never to provoke lightly!
What's he doing here?!"
Seeing Lola's intense terror, Usopp and Franky glanced at Robin, whose expression was equally grave. A powerful unease rose within them.
Usopp was the first to ask, his quiet voice trembling, "H-hey... who... who is he, anyway? He looks like