Chapter 269

Her eyes were blood-red, and she opened her mouth as an incomparably sharp and piercing strange sound, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, rang out across the heavens!

"Ah!!!!!"

232, art is an explosion!

The torrential rain poured down, and the dark, cloud-covered sky was shattered.

The members of the Big Mom Pirates clutched their heads and collapsed to the ground in agony. Even the Sweet Commanders and the ministers of the 34th tier of strength found it difficult to withstand that soul-shaking strange sound at this moment, their faces turning deathly pale.

Luo En frowned slightly.

Even though he had withstood the Conqueror's Haki carried by that strange sound, he could not prevent it from shaking his soul.

Luo En narrowed his eyes, his hand gripping the hilt of the black blade at his waist.

"So damn noisy!"

He drew his blade and slashed at Big Mom.

A condensed black slash, like a black line, carrying an extreme and pure edge, sliced horizontally toward Big Mom's massive body.

Big Mom sensed the threat, stopped her strange sound, and swung the great sword wreathed in blazing flames forward.

"Emperor Sword: Broken Blade!"

The two slashes collided.

After a dazzling sword-light shattered the black-purple flash.

The earth instantly overturned and split apart!

Accompanied by the wild splattering of unmatched sword Qi and blazing flowing fire, and the raging gale kicked up by the shockwave, two crisscrossing straight fissures instantly spread outward from where the two clashed!

The ground rumbled and split apart to both sides!

Forming two crisscrossing, bottomless, pitch-black giant canyons!

After that sword strike, Luo En and Big Mom exchanged another punch.

Likewise without making contact, two jet-black fists hardened with Armament Haki stopped two feet apart, the central area glowing with the dazzling red light produced by the collision of Haki.

After this punch.

A half-meter-thick layer of earth within a kilometer in all directions was once again blasted away.

Luo En and Big Mom continued to fight.

The battle grew ever more fierce.

Flowing fire, thunder, sword Qi, air blasts... terrifying power erupted continuously!

The earth beneath the two of them was like foam or tofu; the mere aftershocks left the land scarred and battered beyond recognition!

The members of the Big Mom Pirates retreated one after another, finally withdrawing with their subordinates and soldiers from this increasingly dangerous grassland.

Only Katakuri and the other Sweet Commanders, along with a few of the stronger ministers, could still stand within the grassland, watching the battle between one of the Four Emperors and the 'Demon King' up close.

……

The sky grew ever more overcast.

The storm grew heavier, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling densely across the sky, each peal of thunder terrifying enough to make one's heart tremble.

Luo En and Big Mom were separated by the shockwave, each standing on one side of the canyon.

One was a massive figure, stepping on the thundercloud Zeus, with the sun Prometheus atop her head, wielding the greatsword Napoleon, her eyes blood-red, her expression savage and mad, her aura overwhelmingly domineering.

The other was a tall, upright figure, wielding a black blade, his azure eyes sharp and cold, his expression calm as still water, yet his aura was no less than hers.

Big Mom had sobered up a bit now.

She stared fixedly at Luo En and said, "I never expected your strength to have reached such a level now, but…"

Her eyes narrowed slightly: "Wanting to become a 'King' is not that simple!"

As her words fell.

Several figures flickered and appeared beside her.

It was Katakuri, Daifuku, Cracker, Smoothie, Charlotte Oven of the Heat-Heated Fruit, Opera of the Cream Fruit, and Perospero, along with other strong Sweet Commanders and ministers of the Big Mom Pirates.

They gripped their weapons and stared fixedly at Luo En.

Standing at their forefront, Big Mom looked at the solitary Luo En on the opposite bank of the canyon and grinned: "A 'King' has never been a lone wolf, you know… boy."

"You're all alone, and you want to snatch that Red Poneglyph from me? That's nothing but a fool's dream!"

"Mama is right."

Prometheus, the sun atop Big Mom's head, glared viciously at Luo En and said: "How dare you oppose Mama, I'll roast you into charcoal!"

Zeus the thundercloud: "I'll electrocute you too."

The greatsword Napoleon clicked its mouth.

Luo En held the black blade Shusui in his right hand, used the five fingers of his left hand to brush the Liu Hai on his forehead upward, then looked at Big Mom and the others on the opposite bank of the canyon, raised his chin slightly, and smiled: "Then come and try."

Cracker and the others looked at him, their hearts trembling.

"Mamamama, what an arrogant fellow!"

Big Mom laughed loudly.

A red glint flashed in her eyes, the greatsword rose, and a devastating slash carved an extremely destructive diagonal air line through the sky, slicing diagonally toward Luo En on the opposite bank with unmatched sharpness!

Before this strike, it seemed as though anything would be cut apart.

Luo En's figure was sliced in half at the waist like a bubble, and that diagonal air line lost none of its momentum, slicing clean through several Shanfeng behind him.

Katakuri's eyes glowed with the strange light of advanced Observation Haki; after glimpsing a fragment of the future, he suddenly turned his head toward a direction.

"Over there!"

His Mochi Fruit activated instantly, his right fist twisting and warping like rice cake, transforming into a giant mochi fist. Hardened with Armament Haki, the jet-black giant fist blasted toward that direction!

The rest also immediately launched all manner of attacks toward the direction he had struck.

Luo En's figure, wreathed in blood-colored steam, appeared in the air at that spot.

What came head-on was Katakuri's pitch-black giant fist, followed closely by all manner of attacks from the others, completely sealing off the entire area.

It looked as though Luo En was about to be hit.

But what happened the next instant made Katakuri and the others' expressions change drastically.

They saw that every attack—including Katakuri's pitch-black giant fist—had stopped one meter in front of that black-clothed youth, as if blocked by an invisible barrier, completely unable to break through.

"!!!"

Everyone was stunned.

Luo En calmly raised his left hand, a black sphere hovering in his palm.

This is—"The jet-black orb that seals the power of all creation and summons chaos."

Then, within Katakuri's suddenly contracting pupils, Luo En, standing in midair, casually tossed that Pursuit-of-Truth Orb—imbued with the power of all creation—downward.

"Not good!"

Katakuri only had time to shout those words, using Armament Haki-hardened mochi to shield himself and those around him.

Cracker and the others hadn't even reacted to what was happening.

That deeply unsettling, ominous pitch-black sphere detonated with a roar above their heads.

The pillar of light from the bursting energy shot skyward, its terrifying might like a nuclear explosion!

Even though Katakuri had responded, he still couldn't withstand the force of that blast and was destroyed in an instant.

The powerful shockwave sent everyone, Big Mom included, flying.

This vast stretch of grassland wailed as it completely shattered!

The sky full of dark clouds and torrential rain was scattered in an instant!

The distant forests and hills were swept flat, and the city of nations built from sweets and candy was reduced to ruins beneath that tremendous explosive force!

The entire Cake Island gradually crumbled.

233, one man defeats a nation.

Big Mom was sent flying by the powerful shockwave from the Pursuit-of-Truth Orb's explosion. She had barely steadied herself on the shattered ground when she heard Luo En's voice.

"That red Road Poneglyph is mine."

She suddenly looked up.

She saw Luo En hovering a hundred meters in the air, a black blade in his right hand, a red Poneglyph stone tablet held aloft in his left, his black robes billowing wildly in the gale.

Big Mom's eyes instantly turned red.

She roared:

"Don't even think about it!"