The Sole Emperor of the Sea

Thriller Bark, vast as an island, tore through the chaotic edge of the battlefield off Sabaody.

Thick gray-white fog spread from the ship like a living thing, engulfing a vast stretch of sea and swallowing even the din of battle.

On the sinister deck, Gecko Moria's enormous figure loomed in and out of the fog. He opened his huge mouth and let out a shrill, grating laugh.

"Fwahahahaha!"

"Fifth Emperor!" Years of pent-up hatred and twisted delight filled his voice as he swung one massive hand. "I've waited so, so long for today!"

At his gesture, countless sickening splashes and wet scrabbling sounds rose from the fog.

Dense ranks of grotesquely twisted figures crawled out from the ship's edges and the depths of the fog. They rose. They leaped.

The stench of rot overwhelmed the salty sea breeze.

Zombies!

Thousands upon thousands of them, stitched together from bizarre parts, stiff in their movements yet lethally dangerous!

They ignored the pirate alliance on the battlefield. Their empty eye sockets, some flickering with ghostly green light, fixed on the Biscuit Soldiers charging forward in silence.

"Fwahahahaha!" Moria's laughter echoed through the fog, wild with hysteria. "To hell with the World Government! To hell with the Five Emperors! I don't give a damn!"

He thrust a huge finger toward the Ghost Radish, his voice warping with hatred.

"Today, I'll pay back everything you did to me a hundredfold! I'll stuff your shadow into the ugliest zombie I can find and make you suffer for all etern—huh?!"

Smack!

A sharp slap cracked across Moria's contorted face without warning!

The blow was so hard that his enormous head snapped to one side. His laughter stopped dead, leaving only a startled gasp.

An elegant parasol drifted past his eyes as though it weighed nothing.

Clutching his