Dense white fog churned over the sea, blotting out the sky.
The moment the Eclipse entered the Florian Triangle, the temperature plummeted.
"Achoo!"
Buggy huddled under a thick blanket on the deck. "This damn place gives me the creeps no matter how many times I come here. Hey, Enel, can't you just blast this fog away with your lightning?"
"Idiot. A fog this massive can't be dispersed by my thunder." Enel sat cross-legged on his drums, tossing an apple and taking a casual bite. "Besides, we're already here."
As the words left his mouth, a massive, island-like black shadow loomed out of the dense mist ahead.
With the grinding groan of iron chains, the colossal gate of Thriller Bark slowly lowered. The Eclipse sailed directly into the inner bay.
"Kishishishi! Kishishishishi!"
A sharp, signature laugh echoed across the ruined bay.
The crew stood at the bow, following the sound.
On the crumbling castle wall ahead stood a towering figure, a black blade resting on his shoulder.
"Hey, am I seeing things?"
Sabo adjusted his top hat, staring in surprise. "That giant onion head shrunk?"
Standing on the wall was Gecko Moria.
But he looked completely different from the man Enel had brutalized two months ago. His balloon-like gut was completely gone. In its place was a still massive, but clearly solid and muscular frame.
He was bare-chested, Shusui in hand, radiating a fierce, long-lost aura of a Grand Line veteran.
"Lord Moria has been absolutely insane lately."
Perona floated down with her wine-red parasol and landed steadily on the Eclipse's deck. She glanced at Chopper and the mechanical spider with curious eyes, then complained to Ace. "He forces himself to swing his sword with his shadow every day. He's cutting wooden posts when he should be sleeping. Doctor Hogback says if he keeps losing weight like this, he'll work himself to death."
"Kishishishi! Shut up, Perona!"
Moria leaped down from the high wall, landing heavily in front of the Eclipse's deck.
He ignored the surprised looks from Sabo and Buggy, his narrow eyes fixed on Ace as he walked out of the captain's quarters.
"Boss Ace, did you bring the thing you mentioned over the channel?" Moria's voice was thick with undisguised longing.
"You're pretty impatient."
Ace, wearing a loose shirt, held a cold storage box and tossed it to Moria.
"There's only one dose inside. This is the serum that breaks your physical limits. But before you drink it, get those shadows out of your body. The serum essentially shatters your bones and muscles to rebuild them. If someone else's shadow is still inside you, your mind will break."
"Kishishishi, I know that much!"
Moria didn't hesitate. He opened his huge mouth, and with a puff of black smoke, over a dozen pirate shadows he'd captured yesterday flew out. He crushed them into a ball.
"Hogback! Is the meat ready?!" Moria roared.
"Ready, Lord Moria! Fosfosfosfos!"
In the nearby plaza, Doctor Hogback and several chef zombies had already wheeled out a mountain of roasted sea beast meat.
Moria pulled out the stopper, tilted his head back, and downed the glowing blue Limit Breaker Serum in one gulp.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then, Moria's pale face twisted violently. He crashed to his knees, clawing at the stone slabs so hard his fingers left deep bloody grooves.
"AAAAAAARGH!"
Even a man who once stood against Kaido couldn't help but scream under the bone-deep agony of genetic restructuring.
"Eat! Lord Moria! Eat!" Perona stomped her feet anxiously.
Eyes bloodshot, Moria scrambled toward the mountain of meat. He grabbed scorching hot roasts and shoved them into his mouth.
Chewing. Swallowing. Repairing. Restructuring.
The sounds of cracking bones and frantic eating intertwined for over two hours.
When the last giant bone was tossed aside, Moria lay sprawled on his back in the ruins, his entire body steaming with intense white vapor.
"How do you feel, Onion Head?"
Enel, biting an apple, flew down from the Eclipse and hovered above Moria.
"Hah..."
Moria let out a long breath and stood up.
He casually rolled his neck and shoulders. A deep, thunderous rumble echoed from within his body. He looked down at his hands and clenched his fists tightly.
"Kishishishi! Incredible! This feels just like twenty years ago!"
Moria grabbed Shusui, his eyes blazing with astonishing fighting spirit. He looked up at Enel.
"Hey, lightning brat. I heard you got beaten up by Garp in the East Blue? I'm full of energy right now. Come down here and spar with me!"
"Hah?"
Enel raised an eyebrow, casually tossing away his apple core. "A mere mortal who plays with shadow tricks, lost a few pounds of fat, and now dares to challenge a god?"
"Then let's see if this god can bleed!"
Shhk!
Before he finished speaking, Moria's massive frame exploded with speed completely disproportionate to his size. He closed the distance to Enel in an instant.
Shusui tore through the air with a fierce black slash, arcing viciously upward toward Enel's chest.
"Not bad speed. But..."
Enel didn't even pull out his Gravity Vajra Pestle. He simply crossed his arms and casually shifted his body slightly to the left in mid-air.
Whoom!
The black blade's edge grazed past Enel's nose. After taking the serum and surviving a bout with Garp, Enel's Observation Haki was brushing the threshold of future sight. A straightforward slash like this couldn't touch him.
"Don't get cocky!"
Moria missed, pivoted his waist, and drew a circle with Shusui, turning it into a heavy horizontal sweep.
Enel still didn't elementalize. He even closed his eyes, his body swaying like a willow in the wind, bending backward at an extreme angle half a second in advance.
"Kishishishi! All you can do is dodge like a monkey?!"
The instant Enel dodged the slash, at the exact moment his momentum was spent and new strength hadn't yet risen, a cunning glint flashed in Moria's eyes.
"Shadow Mage: Shadow Thrust!"
The shadow beneath Moria's feet suddenly erupted like boiling asphalt, detaching from the ground and forming another semi-solid black entity identical to Moria.
The Shadow Mage's hands instantly transformed into over a dozen razor-sharp black lances, stabbing simultaneously at Enel's blind spot from an extremely tricky angle.
"Oh? A pincer attack with the real body and the shadow?"
Enel opened his eyes, a cold smirk tugging at his lips. He didn't even turn around. Violent blue arcs crackled directly on his right arm.
Bzzzt!
A layer of jet-black Armament Haki, like impenetrable steel armor, rapidly coated his entire forearm and fist.
"God's Judgment: Thunder Bone Strike!"
Enel spun around and punched toward the shadow lances behind him.
But the instant his fist was about to smash the Shadow Mage.
"Shadow Warrior!"
Moria let out a wild laugh.
Shhk!
The Shadow Mage in front of Enel suddenly vanished. In its place stood Moria's real body, holding Shusui.
Using his Devil Fruit ability, Moria had swapped the positions of his real body and shadow at the critical moment.
Enel, who had intended to casually smash the shadow, was now facing Moria's fully charged, all-out downward slash.
"BREAK!"
Moria gripped the hilt with both hands. The potential that had lain dormant for years, stimulated by the Limit Breaker Serum, finally fully awakened.
Whoom!
A faint, not yet dense, but incredibly solid and pure black luster slowly emerged on his hands gripping the hilt.
Armament Haki. Hardening.
CLANG!
A deafening clash of metal echoed across the plaza, accompanied by a violent shockwave of thunder that swept outward.
Enel's Haki-clad fist slammed directly against the blade of Shusui, which was coated in basic Armament Haki.
The two forces locked in a perilous stalemate in mid-air.
"Kishishishi, I can feel it! My Haki is finally back!" Moria gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with fanaticism.
"Tch, that's all you've got."
Enel snorted coldly, preparing to increase the force in his fist to blast Moria back.
But at that moment, an extremely subtle chill rose from beneath Enel's feet.
The shadow that Moria had swapped to the rear had silently slithered along the ground to Enel's feet. It instantly transformed into a massive black shadow hand, grabbing fiercely at Enel.
"Got you, arrogant god!"
Moria grinned viciously. The shadow hand tightened, trying to drag Enel down and slam him into the ground.
Facing this perfectly coordinated pincer attack from the real body and shadow, Enel finally dropped his arrogance.
"Thunder Sea!"
BOOM!
Violent blue lightning erupted instantly. A split second before being slammed down, Enel's body decisively transformed into a blinding current of electricity, shattering the shadow behind him and retreating dozens of meters into the sky.
"Kishishishi... Well? Want to continue?"
Moria propped himself up with Shusui. He hadn't injured Enel. But forcing a god with top-tier Observation Haki and a top-tier Logia to elementalize and retreat was proof enough of his hellish rehabilitation.
In the sky, Enel dispersed his lightning, clicking his tongue in slight annoyance.
"You're using your abilities much more skillfully than last time. Of course, if I wasn't too lazy to carpet-bomb the area with wide-range lightning, you'd already be charcoal, fatso."
30+ chapters are available now and daily updates! @patreon.com/Authorzero