Kaido's massive dragon body was covered in deep wounds, his scales cracked and blackened from the lightning and blood mist that had battered him for days.
Somewhere in the fog, whispers of information brokers still echoed them advising Ritter to kill Kaido and seize the Azure Dragon fruit. But Ritter had only laughed at the idea. "A fake dragon. That overgrown lizard doesn't even know what it means to be a dragon."
Kaido gasped for air, blood running down his chin as his crimson dragon eyes locked onto the raging Big Mom before him.
"Lingling! Wake up!" His roar carried both fury and grief.
With a thunderous boom, his Conqueror's Haki burst outward, and he swung his iron club with all his strength. "Thunder Bagua!"
That strike no, that cry of emotion was raw and unrefined, lacking technique, brimming with pain and desperation.
Big Mom's blade, Napoleon, came crashing down with an earth-splitting roar. But at the final instant, her hand froze mid-swing.
Her pupils contracted violently. The "Ritter" she had been attacking wavered, twisted, and slowly shifted back into Kaido's image.
"Kaido…?" she muttered, bewildered, her voice trembling as she realized what she had done. Around her lay the shattered remnants of the battlefield, and above it all, Ritter sat lazily upon his crimson throne, one hand supporting his chin, the other idly swirling the blood mist.
"Well, well," he said with a playful smile, "finally awake? I was starting to think you'd kill each other before the curtain dropped."
Big Mom's fury ignited. Napoleon's blade shot forward, crackling with Haki. "Ritter!!!"
He raised his hands in mock innocence. "Now, now, don't be so hostile. I just did you a favor."
"A favor?" Kaido growled, barely holding himself upright. His claws dug into the earth as blood dripped from his maw.
"Of course." Ritter rose from his throne, the blood mist coiling like serpents around his body. "If I really wanted to kill you, you'd already be corpses."
Kaido spat a mouthful of blood, his dragon claws grinding into the ground as he forced himself up. "Lingling! Don't let him get inside your head!"
But Ritter only tilted his head and chuckled. "Too late."
He snapped his fingers.
Instantly, both Kaido and Big Mom's pupils shrank in horror they could feel something pulsing inside their flesh, something buried deep within their blood.
Did they really think they could soak in Ritter's fog for four or five days, drenched in wounds, and walk away untouched?
No.
"Heh," Ritter murmured, smiling wickedly. "Just a small gift. Don't worry behave yourselves, and it won't do a thing."
But they both knew that was a lie.
Big Mom's sword lashed out again, but her strike only tore through empty fog. Kaido's flames followed, yet the mist swallowed them whole.
"Save your strength," Ritter's voice echoed from all directions, smooth and unhurried. "You can't kill me now. And I have no interest in killing you either… not yet. You're much more useful alive."
At the edge of the battlefield, Whitebeard's massive blade, Murakumogiri, rested on his shoulder. "Gurararara…" he laughed quietly.
Marco frowned. "We could have finished them off. Why let them go?"
Whitebeard's old eyes glimmered with shrewd understanding. "And what then? The Marines would turn their cannons toward us. The whole New World would plunge into chaos and we'd be the first to burn."
Marco fell silent.
He suddenly realized Ritter's plan.
The two Emperors had fallen, but not died. Bound by Ritter's unseen power, they were leashed defanged predators. Neither the Marines nor the World Government would dare provoke him now.
Blood Dawn Pirates safer than ever.
A flawless victory. Ritter had won twice.
Slowly, Ritter stepped forward, the blood mist parting around him like waves bowing to a god.
"Listen carefully," he said calmly, though every word carried suffocating weight. "From this day on, the rules of the New World change."
Kaido sneered. "You think you can command us?"
Ritter shrugged, his crimson eyes gleaming. "Of course not. But you're welcome to try defying my advice. For example allying with the Navy to hunt me down?"
He curled a finger.
Kaido gasped sharply as pain rippled through his body. Big Mom's expression contorted, her nerves spasming as ghostly images flickered at the edge of her vision.
"Understand now?" Ritter smiled. "You can still play your little games, but stay out of mine. Otherwise, I'll erase you before you blink."
That was his bluff but his control wasn't perfect. Outside this field of fog, his influence would fade. Still, the seed he planted was real. With a single thought, he could drag them back into illusion, weakening them to half their strength before the fight even began.
Like a three-year-old Ritter fighting Gol D. Roger it was no longer the same playing field.
Big Mom's hand trembled as her sword dropped, slamming into the dirt. She glared at Ritter, her voice hoarse. "What do you want, you monster?"
Ritter turned his back on them, the blood mist forming a crimson road beneath his feet.
"Who knows?" he said with a smirk. "Maybe I just like the view. Whether the sea should burn or calm " he looked over his shoulder, eyes glowing like molten rubies, " that's up to me now."
He almost laughed at himself. "Damn, I sound so noble I might cry."
Kaido gritted his teeth and roared, "Retreat!!" His massive tail swept through the battlefield. "JACK! KING! QUEEN! FALL BACK!"
The remnants of the Beasts Pirates, once arrogant and bloodthirsty, now broke apart in panic. Days of slaughter had shattered their morale; what remained was fear.
Even the samurai, though exhausted, refused to yield their homeland stood behind them, their families watching from afar.
King's black flames blazed to their limit as he tore open a path through a wall of golden giants, snatching the unconscious Queen and soaring toward the horizon.
Jack, in his mammoth form, rammed through Moria's undead horde, leaving a trail of carnage in his wake.
Kaido shot Big Mom a final look before ascending into the storm. "If you don't leave now, old hag, that brat will drain us both dry!"
The blood mist roiled behind them as Ritter planted his black sword, Black Tide, into the shattered ground.
"Running so fast already?" he muttered with a crooked grin.
His gaze drifted toward the remaining Big Mom Pirates.
Big Mom's eyes widened. Around her, the crimson fog swallowed her weaker children sons, daughters, and old lovers one by one.
The lesser Homies crumbled into ash. Low-ranking officers clawed at their throats, suffocating as the fog stripped the life from their bodies. Ordinary pirates withered to husks within seconds.
"Ma… ma…" one of her sons reached out weakly, his arm turning gray before disintegrating. "Mama… help…"
"No!!" Big Mom's scream ripped across the battlefield, her Conqueror's Haki exploding outward, scattering part of the mist but it was already too late.
She turned toward Ritter, her entire body trembling with fury. "You blood-soaked demon! How dare you?!"
Ritter raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Blood-soaked demon? Coming from you, that's rich. Tell me, Charlotte Linlin who's barking now?"
The fog continued to spread, thick and hungry.
But this time, instead of charging again, Big Mom did something no one expected
She stopped.
Her sword lowered. Her glare remained but there was calculation behind her madness now.
For the first time in decades, the Sea Empress hesitated.
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