"You're Alucard, aren't you?"
When Mad Treasure uttered those words, the eyes of everyone present bulged like copper bells.
This teenage girl before them was the legendary manslayer? Even if her killing methods were merciless, the gender was completely wrong, wasn't it?
"Well, form and appearance mean nothing to me," Loli A replied with a light chuckle, her hands in her pockets. Her response was a complete admission of Mad Treasure's claim, causing everyone's expressions to shift in shock.
"Do you still have strength left?"
Loli A glanced toward the hole in the center of the Thousand Sunny. Katakuri lunged out from within; the bloodstain on his left cheek and the wound on his shoulder made his poker face look even more somber.
"The world's strongest, hm? If it's you, I have no complaints," Katakuri said icily.
"Oho~ You actually have some resolve. You're much better than that idiot sister of yours." Loli A was, of course, referring to the 14th daughter of the Charlotte Family, Charlotte Smoothie.
Katakuri vanished from his spot. Suddenly, countless jellybeans flew out, striking the artificial grass surrounding Loli A. Dust billowed into the air, obscuring the view of the confrontation.
BOOM!!
A second later, the dust was swept away by a sudden gale erupting from the center. Katakuri's fist clashed with Loli A's; the resulting air pressure was so violent it sent several members of the Straw Hat Pirates flying.
"If that really is Alucard, Katakuri has almost no chance of winning," Bege muttered to himself. However, a part of him was expectant; if Alucard slaughtered Katakuri, it would significantly benefit his future plans.
"Hmph!"
Katakuri swung a horizontal kick toward his opponent's head. Suddenly, sharp blades sprouted from Loli A's body, parrying the strike.
"This is..."
Katakuri gasped in surprise. In an instant, Loli A's body was covered in spikes. She spread her arms wide and began to laugh, a wide, manic, and utterly maddening cackle.
VOOOM!
Loli A charged. The shockwave from her initial step pulverized the ground beneath her.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The two engaged in zero-distance melee combat. Every time their attacks collided, the sound was as heavy as muffled thunder, placing immense pressure on everyone else watching. This was the pinnacle of world-class power, it was simply too overwhelming.
"You're still not using your full strength?" Katakuri leaped back, landing atop the Thousand Sunny's mast.
"Still not using full strength!?"
No one could believe it, especially the Straw Hat Pirates who were witnessing Alucard's combat for the first time. Their mouths hung open in disbelief. The level of fighting they just saw would have easily surpassed Luffy's best hand-to-hand combat, yet it wasn't even full power?
"Charlotte Katakuri, I acknowledge you as a pirate who possesses true strength."
Loli A smirked. Her hands began to move in a blur, forming eerie, phantom-like signs. Countless afterimages of her hands danced before their eyes, a dizzying display.
"Then I shall let you witness one of the ultimate abilities of a vampire."
As she spoke, Loli A's body transformed entirely into a black shadow. Only the outline of her face remained, dominated by a single, unnaturally large eye. A second later, countless smaller eyes sprouted across the dark mass.
Shadow Form. In this state, Alucard temporarily merges himself with every soul within the River of Death. He can exert the full power of the River, though he loses his functionally infinite lives for the duration. It is essentially another version of the River of Death, Alucard's strongest and yet most vulnerable state.
He had awakened and used this once while fighting the Gorosei at the top of the world, and again during the battle at Water 7. This was the third time.
"What is that thing? A life force my Haki cannot even perceive..." Katakuri frowned from his perch on the mast.
Shadow Alucard flicked his right hand. Suddenly, an immense gravitational pull began dragging Katakuri down from the mast. Dark, liquid-like energy was swirling in Alucard's palm.
"Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit!"
As the man who once had the best chance of claiming the final Yonko seat, Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach and his Dark-Dark Fruit powers were well known to Katakuri and his peers.
Katakuri gripped the mast behind him to prevent himself from being sucked in. Simultaneously, Alucard's other hand generated a white sphere of light, the polar opposite of the dark water.
This sight immediately reminded everyone of the man who dominated the Paramount War: Whitebeard.
"World Tremor!"
The other hand struck forward. Space seemed to freeze for a heartbeat before the sound of cracking glass echoed through the air, accompanied by a dense web of spatial fractures.
BOOM!!!
Before anyone could react, the resulting tsunami proved that this was indeed the authentic power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
"T-t-tsunami! Lower the sails, quick!"
Nami, having snapped out of her trance, couldn't help but scream. As a navigator, she knew exactly how dangerous it was to have sails up during a storm-driven tsunami.
But no one was listening; everyone was struggling just to stay alive.
"Set sail! Avoid the tsunami!" Bege shouted, ordering the Queen Mama Chanter to pull away from the encroaching waves.
The three ships of the Donquixote Alliance brought by Mad Treasure were the first victims, swallowed by the waves and destroyed in an instant. The Thousand Sunny was tossed twenty meters into the air by the turbulent water. Brook, Momonosuke, and Kin'emon desperately clung to the railings, the mast, and anything they could grab.
In the midst of this chaos, Shadow Alucard and Katakuri still stood facing each other. But while Alucard was unscathed, Katakuri was in far worse condition.
"Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit, Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit... It seems you can use many abilities in this state," Katakuri said, his voice heavy.
The dark and vibrating energies vanished from Shadow Alucard's hands. He raised a hand toward the sky. Dark clouds immediately gathered, and lightning crackled through the heavens. As the bolts fell, they reacted to Alucard's Haki and turned a blood-red.
This time, it was Shanks' Spirit of All Things!
"Vanish," Shadow Alucard said tonelessly. "Strike of All Creation!"