"Desert Sword!"
Crocodile, who had swiftly flown high into the sky, didn't hesitate or waste any words. The moment his upper body returned to human form, his right arm transformed into a mass of intensely vibrating sand, and he hurled a sand blade down at the 'Black Smoke' below, which hadn't noticed him at all.
[Whoosh!!]
The sand blade, growing with the wind, became enormous in the blink of an eye under the astonished gazes of everyone. It had already swept past the 'Black Smoke' in the time it took to blink, slicing the massive body formed by densely packed Kabane diagonally in two, and in the process, also cleaving the two bare gray hills on either side.
[Boom————]
Only after all this had happened before their eyes did a deafening air explosion sound, followed by a surge of air rushing towards them—a side effect of the sand blade rapidly splitting the air.
"..."
The hundreds of soldiers on the city walls, armed with Steam Rifles and long swords, were completely dumbfounded by what they saw. It was as if everyone had been hit with a pause button.
No more screams, no more trembling, no more fleeing. Even the cannons they called Garrison Cannons had stopped. They just stared blankly as the terrifying 'Black Mist' collapsed to the ground in two parts, the massive gap at the cut revealing the scene on the other side.
"God..."
"Has a deity finally descended to save us?"
One soldier didn't even notice his Steam Rifle falling to the ground as he gazed up at the tall figure surrounded by wind and sand under the blue sky. He slowly knelt down, tears streaming down his face, and raised his hands high, shouting.
"Lord Deity!!!"
"Lord Deity!!!"
The soldiers, who had endured years of high-pressure threats and life-threatening situations from the Kabane, found an outlet for their long-suppressed negative emotions. They followed the first soldier's lead, kneeling and shouting continuously, tears of excitement covering their faces.
"Huh, what are those guys yelling about?"
Crocodile glanced back at the noisy commotion with confusion but didn't dwell on it. He pursed his dry lips and sighed, "I should've brought some cigars, huh?"
At that moment, he noticed that the 'Black Smoke,' which had been cut in half, was rapidly recombining. Even the already tattered limbs and broken bodies at the edges of the cut were being reattached to the new body by the surrounding Kabane.
"Roar!!!"
Once the 'Black Smoke' had reformed, it let out an angry roar towards Crocodile in the sky. After suffering a heavy blow and feeling intense pain, it finally noticed the small cloud of yellow sand.
"Interesting thing. It's just a pile of flesh clumped together, but the surface strength is comparable to rock. It even has obvious eyes and a mouth."
"But it's still too weak. The bodies of the Giant Clan aren't this fragile..."
Crocodile's fur coat swayed in the strong wind, but his flat eyes were filled with curiosity.
"Judging by its reaction, it has pain and emotions. It's probably related to that thing called the core."
Meanwhile, the 'Black Smoke' 'stood' up and swung its massive arm, covered with corpses and Kabane, slamming it down towards Crocodile's location.
[Boom!]
Its strength was indeed impressive. A simple clap of its hand unleashed a surging air blast, which explained how it could easily demolish thick city walls.
However, no matter how great its strength was, without Haki or other supernatural energy, it was utterly meaningless against a Logia-type user capable of Elementalization.
Crocodile didn't even bother to dodge its attack, allowing it to shatter his body, only to reform from swirling sand in another location.
Witnessing this, the people on the city walls became even more convinced that he was a true deity.
The God of Sand! "It seems that to deal with this thing, I'll either have to exhaust all the Living Dead attached to it or target its core."
Thinking this, he immediately activated his Observation Haki, conducting a thorough "inspection" of the Black Smoke, sensing it from top to bottom.
As expected, deep within its head, he detected a source of energy with the most intense aura. However, this also led Crocodile to discover something intriguing.
"Such strong mental fluctuations, filled with fear, rage, and greed—all negative emotions."
The moment his Observation Haki's mental waves came into contact with the core of the Black Smoke, an image of an unfamiliar man flashed in his mind, seemingly a memory related to family.
"So this is its essence? A special power derived from the heart, just like Haki?"
The next moment.
As the Black Smoke tirelessly swung its massive hand toward him, Crocodile opened his right palm, summoning a rapidly spinning vortex of sand.
"Let's see what your core looks like."
"Sa—Burosu—" (Sandstorm)
The moment he released the sand vortex, it instantly expanded into a massive Sandstorm, shredding the incoming black hand into pieces before slamming into its "chest."
The Black Mist collided head-on with the Sandstorm! But the outcome was decided in an instant—the former's "body" was mercilessly torn apart by the surging winds and blade-like grains of sand.
Even the word "dismembered" could hardly describe the gruesome state of the Black Smoke.
Under this brutal "dissection," the surface of its head was forcibly peeled open, revealing a Kabane Living Dead with a heart and eyes glowing with an eerie blue light.
When Crocodile, now a swirling mass of sand, appeared before it, the creature revealed a terrifying, ferocious expression, letting out a furious roar.
A classic case of a cornered beast fighting for its life.
Because its "body tissues" were continuously blown apart and sliced by the Sandstorm, they couldn't regroup. At this moment, it was like a woman stripped of her clothes, helplessly at Crocodile's mercy.
"Ha—Ha—Ha—Ha—"
"Blue light, huh? You really went all out to show off your uniqueness. But that heart of yours, so different from the rest, must be quite valuable, right?"
Having already decided to join the World Government's army, Crocodile felt it would be polite to bring a gift along.
After all, he couldn't return empty-handed after being out for so many days. Otherwise, he'd probably be mocked by that bastard Bullet.
With this in mind.
He extended his right hand and grabbed the neck of the blue-glowing Kabane, forcibly tearing it away. Throughout this process, the latter frantically tried to claw, scratch, and bite him.
Unfortunately, all its efforts were in vain. Everything it touched turned into sand, and the former's immense grip strength made it impossible for the Kabane to break free.
[Clatter, clatter, clatter]
When the 'core' was removed, the 'Black Smoke' ceased to exist. Countless Kabane and remnants of corpses fell to the ground, a sight that made Crocodile frown.
His Devil Fruit ability had not yet awakened, so he couldn't turn the ground into desert. Otherwise, he could have sunk all these things into quicksand.
But he couldn't leave them untreated either.
The mining city behind him, in Crocodile's eyes, was also part of his welcoming gift. He couldn't let these things destroy it.
Thinking of this, he channeled more power into the ongoing Sandstorm, increasing its wind force and expanding its range. The Sandstorm swept all the Kabane into the air and pushed them in the opposite direction of Yatsushiro Station.
As for where this Kabane-laden sand tornado would 'go,' that was no longer his concern.