"Very good, you weaklings actually managed to injure me by teaming up. Wonderful, hahahahaha."
Barrett's irritable voice came from amidst a cloud of smoke. After standing up, he wiped a smear of blood from his mouth.
The aura emanating from him did not weaken despite his injuries; instead, it grew more ferocious, like that of an enraged male lion.
The surrounding terrain was being destroyed by his presence. Purple-black Armament Haki spread toward the ground; his Merge-Merge Fruit had already been trained to the awakened state.
He controlled all surrounding matter, attaching it to himself. As various substances from the ground merged with him, a giant rose up from the land.
Theseus looked in astonishment at Barrett, who resembled a small mountain, and excitedly raised his cannon barrel: "This is much bigger than that stone giant!"
Armament Haki poured out of him as if it were free, covering the giant he had formed and dyeing his constructed body pitch black.
Franky looked at the enlarged Barrett, took off his sunglasses, and declared: "So big! But I also have a secret weapon—Fusion, Giant Emperor!"
Under Hera's look of utter disbelief, Zoro and Sanji lifted Franky's feet from either side, Usopp grabbed his right arm, and Chopper stood on his head.
Nojiko and Robin turned their heads away from the five people before them, unwilling to admit that these people were their allies.
Franky looked at Robin: "Robin, hurry up and come over! We only need you!"
Robin shook her head and retreated a few steps: "No way. As a human being, that is just too embarrassing."
Sanji and Zoro then snapped out of it and threw Franky away.
Chopper also jumped down from Franky's head again: "How could you say that?"
Hera was already laughing uncontrollably, especially at how serious Zoro and Sanji looked; it was simply too hilarious.
Franky knelt on the ground, pounding it with both hands, looking utterly dejected: "What a pity. If the going merry were here..."
A Little Hera clone teleported the going merry behind Franky using the City of Devouring Time, looking curiously at Franky.
"It's here. Will there be any changes?"
Franky looked at the going merry beside him, and his eyes shone with light again, as if his entire being had been revitalized.
He struck his signature pose and shouted loudly: "Fusion! General Franky is here!"
As Franky summoned, two vehicles emerged from the going merry's hold: the motorcycle-style Black Rhino FR-U No. 4 and the heavy tank-style Winding Dragon Tank No. 5.
Franky jumped into the cockpit of the Winding Dragon Tank No. 5 and initiated the fusion sequence.
The Black Rhino's body, the front half transforming into a mechanical palm, docked with the Winding Dragon Tank's shoulder joint at the rear, forming a complete mechanical arm.
Subsequently, the Winding Dragon Tank's turret rotated upward, transforming into the robot's head, perfectly connecting with the torso. The weapon interfaces of both arms connected with the torso's energy core.
As an inspiring piece of music began to play, General Franky's weapon systems, the General Sword and the General Cannon, were activated.
Franky flipped through the air once, struck a superhero landing pose, and shouted: "General Franky, combination complete!"
Behind him, a multicolored explosion erupted.
X Drake, transformed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Urouge, who had already become enormous, were blasted away by Barrett. Drake shouted loudly: "Can you hurry up? I can't hold on much longer!"
Franky quickly retracted the pose he was striking, brought his arms together, and fired the powerful energy cannon, the 'General Cannon,'
blasting toward Barrett and creating a small crater in his merged form.
Then, his feet transformed into tank treads, moving around the battlefield, dodging Barrett's attacks while continuously firing.
Urouge finally realized that this fifteen-meter-tall metal general was actually a ranged attacker.
Cursing under his breath, he intercepted Luffy, who had been sent flying, and charged forward again.
At this point, the strength of Luffy and the other Supernovas was no longer enough to satisfy the berserk Barrett. His fist swung directly toward the second largest figure on the field, Aramaki.
Aramaki looked at the massive fist shadow that enveloped him, Jack, and Charlotte Smoothie, cursing: "This madman!"
He abandoned the attempt to attack Jack and Charlotte Smoothie; his vines twisted together to form a giant, towering tree, attempting to block Barrett's fist.
Jack and Charlotte Smoothie took the opportunity to leave the battlefield and catch their breath.
Facing Aramaki, whose recovery speed from the Rust-Rust Fruit was incredibly fast, even the two of them—one with an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit and the other capable of extracting juice for recovery—felt a touch of fatigue.
Of course, the main reason was that the juice Smoothie extracted was secretly stolen by Hera, and she never got to enjoy it herself.
Jack grumbled: "What kind of powerful figure popped out of nowhere? How have I never heard of him before?"
The giant tree formed by Aramaki barely managed to hold up Barrett's fist. Looking at the chaotic scene before him, he pulled out a World Government transponder snail.
"Is this the Gorosei? An eternal pose leading to the final island, Laugh Tale, has been discovered here. Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors, is already engaged, and Kaido is on his way. I'm struggling to hold on."
Aramaki had initially planned to seize the pose himself and present it to the Gorosei, hoping to exchange it for the chance to become a Celestial Dragon, but the current battlefield situation no longer allowed him to resist alone.
Following Aramaki's report, an angry voice came from the Gorosei's end: "What? A clue to Laugh Tale? Why didn't you report this sooner, you fellow?"
Deep within the Ancient City of Pangea in the Holy Land Mary Geoise, Imu, who was hidden in the Flower Chamber listening to the Gorosei's report from Aramaki, heard the news of Laugh Tale. Only her two eyes were visible in her pitch-black silhouette, and her shock was evident in her gaze.
Imu's voice echoed beside the Gorosei. Her command was only a single word: "Want."
The Gorosei all bowed their heads, careful not to raise their heads too high and displease the one who disliked it: "We shall follow your will."
The next second, Satan Saint spoke to Aramaki: "We will discuss your failure to report immediately upon your return. For now, take out the token we gave you."
Aramaki nodded and took out a pitch-black five-pointed star token from his body, which had already transformed into wood.
"Now, inject your life force into this."
His fanaticism for the Celestial Dragons was so intense that he ignored Barrett's attack and injected the energy extracted by his Rust-Rust Fruit into the token.
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