Chapter 439: Moria Joins the Crew

Britannias.

It was two days later before Moria regained consciousness.

Blinding sunlight streamed in through the window, falling upon him, yet it failed to bring even a shred of warmth.

His memories were somewhat blurred, but he still remembered the scene where his Shadow Stitch, gathering all his strength, pierced Kaidou's heart.

No one could withstand an attack that pierced the heart, not even the Hundred Beasts Kaidou.

He...

Must be dead, right?!

He must be!

A nameless unease stirred within Moria's heart.

He looked around.

Only then did he realize he was lying in a sickbay, and beside him was a... tanuki? wearing a white coat and a pink round hat?

No, this was a reindeer.

Moria recognized it; after all, no tanuki grows horns on its head—surely no one could mistake such a thing?

Facing the existence that had saved him, which appeared to be a harmless reindeer, the unease in Moria's heart gradually subsided:

"Where is this?! Did you save me, Doctor Reindeer?!"

"Doctor?!"

The word 'doctor' seemed to flip a switch within Chopper; his two small ears wiggled, and his chin lifted slightly at that moment:

"That's right, I am Doctor Chopper; this is a task assigned to me by the Captain."

"The Captain?!"

Moria paused briefly, then came to his senses:

"Knight Gao Wen?"

This was Britannias; the only possibility for him to have survived such injuries was if Gao Wen and his crew had intervened.

Come to think of it, when the World Government stripped Moria of his Warlord title years ago and transferred it to Gao Wen, he had once resented the man who tore away his last shred of dignity.

Especially the World Government's unchanged bounty, which seemed to grind Moria's dignity into the dirt.

But as time passed and circumstances changed, that hatred had long vanished; having suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Straw Hats, Moria even felt a few degrees more gratitude toward Gao Wen.

After all, if Gao Wen's existence had not broken his comfort zone, perhaps he would have remained immersed until death in the sweet dream of defeating Kaidou by relying on the power of zombies, unwilling to wake up.

"By the way, what about Kaidou? How is Kaidou?!"

Remembering something, Moria hurriedly asked in pursuit; without news of Kaidou's death, his heart could not be at ease:

"With injuries like that, even with that monster's vitality, I'm afraid..."

"He didn't die."

Accompanied by a slightly deep voice, the door to the sickbay was pushed open.

For the first time, Moria laid eyes on the man hailed as the strongest in the world:

"Knight Gao Wen!"

It was now deep night; moonlight streamed in from outside, falling upon Gao Wen, casting a silhouette of extreme heroism!

Form-fitting silver-white armor, crisp short hair, a handsome countenance...

Moria had already seen these signature features countless times in the newspapers.

But what truly made him feel terrified was that he could not detect even a shred of the oppressive aura a strong person should possess emanating from Gao Wen.

In its place was a sense of calm.

Yes, calm.

Just as when one faces a towering mountain or gazes out at the vast ocean, the heart may feel awe, yet it will not feel fear.

This man merely stood there, yet he made Moria feel exactly this!

Transcendent above all things, unmatched under heaven!

"Knight... Gao Wen!"

This was the only thought in Moria's mind at this moment, so he spoke the man's title once again, but his tone was already completely different.

In his youth, he had also roamed the seas freely, betting his life to cut down powerful figures who vanished into the river of time, all to become that one and only King.

Yet even the strongest individuals Moria had ever encountered did not compare to the man before him by even a fraction.

He simply stood there quietly, yet it made people unable to raise even a shred of desire to oppose him, as if some biological instinct was resisting the very idea of fighting this man.

Moria remained lost in thought for a long while before belatedly realizing what Gao Wen had said; his expression changed abruptly, and his eyes held nothing but unwillingness:

"You say... Kaidou didn't die?!"

"Impossible; I watched with my own eyes as the Shadow Stitch pierced his chest; no one could survive such injuries, not even Kaidou!"

Gao Wen shook his head and explained:

"Your attack indeed broke through Kaidou's defense, piercing his dragon scales and digging deep into his flesh and blood; unfortunately, you failed at the final moment, exhausting your power at the very end."

"If you could have held on for just one more instant then, the outcome of this battle would have been rewritten; alas, your luck was not as good as Kaidou's."

Moria slumped against the wall:

"Even after achieving that level, even after betting the next several decades of my life, I still cannot completely kill that monster?!"

"Hiss—!"

Moria took a deep breath, covered his face with both hands, and leaned against the hospital bed.

From Gao Wen's angle, he could not see Moria's expression.

But what Gao Wen could see was that Moria's fingernails were digging deeply into the skin of his face, crimson blood trickling down his fingers, scarlet and ferocious.

"Wait!"

Chopper intended to intervene, but Gao Wen held him back.

He turned to look at Gao Wen, and immediately received his answer from Gao Wen's mouth.

"This is the bitter fruit the loser must swallow; sometimes fate is simply like that."

"The difference between people lies in the fact that some, after suffering a blow, will give up on themselves."

Gao Wen's gaze fell upon Moria.

Although he had taken a liking to Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit, even saving him, he also harbored some hope of recruiting him.

After all, the next opponent would be the World Government.

A colossal entity that had dominated the world for eight hundred years, suppressing countless heroes and talents, standing tall over the seas for eight centuries without decaying.

In Gao Wen's previous life, this was almost an impossibility.

Eras advance, and contradictions accumulate.

No matter how flourishing a dynasty, it will inevitably decline; this process takes decades at the shortest, and at the longest merely three or four hundred years—a truly enduring era has never existed.

This is determined by objective laws and cannot be changed by individual will, yet the existence of the World Government has extended this process to a full eight hundred years.

It is not hard to foresee that the depth of its accumulation must be beyond imagination.

For this reason, Gao Wen needed to secure as many available combat forces as possible.

Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit, even among the vast sea of Devil Fruits, was an anomaly.

Gathering shadows to boost one's combat power without any upper limit was absurd no matter where one looked.

It could be said that with a sufficient number of shadows, and by elevating Moria's physique and will, his combat power could easily reach a level capable of crushing Kaido.

But the premise for all of this depended on Moria's performance in what followed.

A person who, after suffering a blow, curls up in a corner to muddle through life would absolutely lack the ability to control a vast sea of shadows, let alone realize Gao Wen's vision.

Previously, Moria's ability to suppress the shadows of thousands of prisoners relied not only on a physique nearing his peak period but also on the hatred he bore toward Kaido in his heart.

From this, it was not hard to see that to stack the upper limits of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, both physique and will were indispensable.

The former was naturally no concern under Gao Wen's command; as long as one trained bitterly, it could be caught up to, while the latter depended entirely on Moria himself.

This was also a point of worry for Gao Wen.

"Kaido!"

Moria's voice was hoarse, suppressing rage and venomous resentment.

Twenty years ago, in that battle, he had lost nearly everything.