"Good job, Perona!"
Seeing the chaos caused by the Negative Ghosts, Moria let out an approving shout.
"Die, Oguro!"
He swung both hands. His massive shadow instantly split into countless black bats that rushed toward Oguro from all directions.
"Hah. You really think I'm an easy target."
Oguro let out a cold laugh and whispered the words of Shikai.
"Whisper… Haineko."
Shhh…
The blade dissolved into drifting ash that wrapped around every one of the bats.
The cloud of ash spun violently, becoming a cyclone made of countless razor-edged fragments.
Every bat was instantly shredded and collapsed back into shadows.
"Damn it! What ability is this?!"
Moria cursed as the gigantic cyclone nearly filled the entire corridor and surged toward him.
He didn't hesitate. He slammed both hands onto the ground. "Shadow Doppelman!"
In the next second, his body vanished, leaving only a shadow double behind.
Besides fighting side by side, Moria's doppelman had another crucial function. He could swap positions with it at any moment.
It was an incredibly tactical ability.
It was just a shame Moria himself had wasted it.
Such a talented shadow user…
Yet he insisted on playing with zombies.
In the end, Kaido had crushed his spirit so badly that he'd completely lost the courage to confront enemies head-on.
"I'll be taking your shadow!"
After swapping positions with the doppelman, Moria appeared behind Oguro.
He held a pair of massive scissors and slashed down toward Oguro's shadow on the ground.
"Shadow Cut!"
But the scissors never reached the shadow.
Oguro flickered out of sight.
"Moria, you've really gotten weak. You didn't even bother hiding your intent."
Floating high above, Oguro's eyes glowed red as Observation Haki spread out in full force.
Moria's petty little tricks couldn't hide from him at all.
Oguro swung his Zanpakuto downward.
"One Sword Style… Dragon Soaring the Abyss!"
A mighty wave of sword pressure gathered along the blade, taking the shape of a vivid, lifelike dragon.
As the sword fell, the dragon exploded outward with overwhelming force and roared as it crashed down from above.
The power was so immense it seemed ready to tear apart everything in the vicinity. Air wailed and the ground trembled.
The dragon's pressure was so intense it made even the sky shudder.
The devastating strike flew straight toward Moria.
And in that instant, Moria saw a familiar scene.
A massive azure dragon soaring through clouds…
Destroying his crew as easily as breathing.
"That damned bastard… You won't take everything from me again!"
Driven mad by the memory, Moria snapped.
Countless shadows surged from every corner of Thriller Bark and rushed into his body.
"Shadow Asgard!"
Over a thousand shadows fused into Moria's frame. His body swelled several times larger and his strength erupted.
"Die, Kaido!"
Shadow Asgard was Moria's trump card. The power was immense, but the mental strain was monstrous.
After absorbing over a thousand shadows, Moria's mind was nearly gone.
He even mistook Oguro's technique for Kaido himself.
With a roar, he punched toward the dragon-shaped sword pressure.
The force was so intense it created a half-vacuum around his fist.
In his current state, this punch could easily sink an island.
Boom!
The two forces collided violently. A shockwave blasted outward, tearing through the dense fog around Thriller Bark. Sunlight poured through.
The massive castle shook and collapsed, leaving behind a gigantic crater.
Floating high above, Perona stared at the center of the smoke with tense eyes.
She was in her ghost form, so the shockwaves didn't affect her.
When the dust settled, Oguro was still standing in the air, spotless from head to toe.
Thanks to the special effect of the Royal Soul King Robe, he always remained immaculate.
Moria, on the other hand, stood at the bottom of the crater, wobbling in agony.
The next moment, he opened his mouth and vomited out a torrent of shadows.
Absorbing a thousand shadows was simply too much. Under the pressure of Dragon Soaring the Abyss, many shadows broke free and escaped.
After coughing up about half of them, Moria finally regained clarity.
"You're a real pain to deal with…"
He glared with a heavy expression. Oguro's strength far exceeded his expectations.
"Moria-sama, I'll help! Negative Ghosts!"
Perona remained fiercely loyal. She commanded a group of ghosts to swarm Oguro.
But before the ghosts could move, Perona's face suddenly twisted. She burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Ahahaha! Stop! Stop! Hahaha—!"
Everyone blanked out in confusion.
Only Oguro smiled.
Moria noticed that and shouted angrily. "You bastard! What did you do?!"
Oguro shrugged. "Didn't you notice something? Those two girls who were beside me… They're long gone."
Only now did Moria realize Nami and Robin had slipped away without anyone noticing.
Oguro pointed at Perona, who was laughing uncontrollably. "This little girl ate the Paramecia-type Hollow-Hollow Fruit. She's in ghost form right now."
"So her real body must be somewhere nearby. I sent them to look for it."
"And it seems they found it."
The moment he saw Perona, Oguro knew her ghost form made her basically invincible. The only way was to find her real body.
Luckily, Robin's Hana Hana no Mi could manifest hundreds of eyes throughout the castle. Finding someone was easy.
So Oguro had deliberately created an opening and let the two slip away to raid her room.
Oguro looked at Perona and said, "You should hurry back to your real body."
"Otherwise… who knows what they'll do to it. Maybe shave your head bald and draw a turtle on your face."
"Ha… wha—?! No! Noooo!"
Perona might have been a Devil Fruit user, but mentally she was still a childish girl. Startled by Oguro's words, she fled toward her real body, leaving a trail of laughter behind.
Once Perona left, Moria realized he was completely surrounded.
"Damn it! Shadow Spear… Barrage!"
With Shadow Asgard still empowering him, countless shadow spears rose from the ground like a forest of thorns.
But Brook had already been blasted far away. Only the Shinigami remained.
With Shunpo, they scattered in an instant.
Moria tried to chase them, but his vision blurred. Soifon appeared ghostlike right in front of him.
She drove her fist into his gut, reinforced with powerful spiritual pressure.
Blegh—
Another flood of shadows burst out of Moria's mouth.
Soifon frowned at her hands. "No. This still isn't it. This isn't Armament Haki."
"Damn it!"
Moria swung both fists wildly, trying to counterattack.
***
Read 20 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666