"Is that really okay?"
Ace asked. The question came out of nowhere, almost disjointed.
"Hmm? Do you have some kind of burden on your mind?"
With his terrifying Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) and keen insight, Whitebeard instantly understood what he meant between the lines.
"I… I'm the posthumous son of the Pirate King, Roger! I'm someone who shouldn't exist in this world. Even though my father is already dead, he's still reviled by hundreds of millions. The world believes it was my father who started the Great Pirate Era, that he's the source of all sin…
If I join you, I'm afraid I'll bring unimaginable disaster down on you all!"
Ace gritted his teeth and finally spoke his identity aloud.
Then he looked just like a student waiting nervously for a teacher's punishment, tense and uneasy.
He had carried this identity for a long time. Don't be fooled by how bold and carefree he acted on the surface, rampaging through the New World without scruples. The truth of who he was had always pressed on his heart like a mountain.
There was no doubt: once this identity was exposed, the Marines would spare no effort to execute him. The number of people dragged down with him would be incalculable.
On top of that, plenty of great pirates would come for him, trying every possible method to pry out the whereabouts of ONE PIECE.
So all this time, Ace had never gotten too close to the members of the Spade Pirates. In fact, he kept a certain distance from them.
"Gurara! So you're his son, huh. No wonder when I first laid eyes on you, you looked a bit familiar. That's why I didn't go all-out to kill you back then. Seems I really am fated with you, Ace!"
"But so what? All of us are children of the sea. No matter what your background is, you have the right to live freely on these waters. You don't need to hold anything back!
Come, Ace, become my son! With me here, you can gallop across this ocean as you please, without worrying about a thing!"
Whitebeard stood up and reached a hand out to Ace.
"Old man!"
Ace's eyes instantly filled with tears. He couldn't hold them back any longer and dropped to his knees, completely accepting Whitebeard as his father.
Having grown up with no father and no mother, he had very little resistance to something like fatherly love.
Ace's vision blurred with hot tears. He couldn't hold back at all as he knelt down and fully acknowledged Whitebeard.
Having had no parents since he was small, he had almost no defense against this thing called a father's love.
"Gurararara, Ace, don't cry. We men don't shed tears over something this small. Come on, let's go start a banquet! Have a drink!"
Whitebeard pulled him up and the two of them walked out together.
However, near the still-unrepaired hole Ace had crashed through earlier, a burly man with a rough exterior, several missing teeth, and a body covered in thick hair was lying in the sun, basking comfortably as if he'd drifted off to sleep.
Marshall D. Teach.
"Zehahahaha! Seems I just heard one hell of a shocking secret…"
Only after Whitebeard and Ace had left did he open his eyes, a sinister glint flashing through them. Then he put his honest, oafish look back on, stretched lazily, and continued "sleeping."
In the highest-floor room of the VIP building at the center of Whole Cake Island, Creed was stroking his chin, pondering the top-tier ability that had just finished its cooldown:
Dragon God Mode.
At this point, Dragon God Mode's restrictions had been lifted. He could now use it normally. What's more, it started out as an SSSS-class ability, with an awakening percentage of 1%!
In other words, with Creed's current strength, he could only unleash 1% of Dragon God Mode's power.
This was an ability that surpassed even his Supreme Sword Intent. Judging from the name alone, it was clearly a god-tier power.
"Didn't expect I'd be able to extract such a heaven-defying ability from Falkor. But it is a bit strange that this ability didn't even require an extraction card to pull out!
Still… what does this have to do with Thunder God Mode?"
Thinking of that other mode-type ability, Creed couldn't help getting curious.
Very quickly, he simply stopped overthinking it and lightly activated Dragon God Mode.
"Roooaar!"
A dragon's roar suddenly rang out. A mysterious aura surged from his body and instantly shook the entire VIP building.
A divine dragon's phantom appeared above Creed's head. At the same time, pitch-black Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) erupted over his body, and under his control it formed dragon-scale patterns across his skin.
With a turn of his thoughts, a layer of faint blue lightning crackled over the black dragon scales, covering them with yet another layer—an armor of thunder and lightning.
"Mm? I get it now."
As information flooded his mind, Creed suddenly understood.
Dragon God Mode and Thunder God Mode were quite different. Dragon God Mode clearly had a far broader range of things it could control than Thunder God Mode.
As his mind raced with information, Creed came to a realization.
Compared to Thunder God Mode, Dragon God Mode had a much wider range of controllable powers.
Thunder God Mode could only control lightning. Dragon God Mode, however, not only commanded lightning, but could also integrate Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), and even weave Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) into skills like Dragon God Roar and Dragon Might.
As for Dragon God Breath, the power produced by that fusion was even more terrifying.
(If you want to read more explosive, exhilarating novels, head over to Faloo.)
"In that case, my offensive power can be raised to a whole new level again!"
As he gradually digested all the information related to Dragon God Mode, the countless possibilities he imagined made Creed extremely excited.
Originally, he still had some misgivings about Kaido's monstrously abnormal defense. For a time, he hadn't found any good way to break through it, unless he used the abilities of his Rinnegan.
Now that he had Dragon God Mode, he suddenly had several more ways to crack Kaido's defense.
...…(Author's note: asking for flowers)...…
Once that thought came to him, Creed felt an urge to go challenge Kaido immediately.
"I'll wait until the situation stabilizes a bit, then find some time to fully comprehend this Dragon God Mode and control it freely."
He felt that there was still greater potential hidden within Dragon God Mode, far beyond what he currently saw on the surface.
The fact that his vital energy had taken shape as an Eastern dragon was what gave Creed this idea.
Falkor was clearly in the form of a Western dragon, yet after he extracted its ability, it had transformed into an Eastern dragon for him.
The secret behind this left Creed deeply astonished.
In the legends of China, the divine dragon doesn't just command lightning; it can also control wind, fire, and rain, possessing immensely vast divine powers.
"This is a huge harvest. Looks like the time for me to unify the New World is going to move up a good bit again!"
Creed clenched his fists tightly and dispersed Dragon God Mode.
After all, this was Big Mom's turf. Even that brief activation of Dragon God Mode had already caused a considerable disturbance.
"Captain!"
Sure enough, Redfield immediately came to knock on the door and ask what had happened.
That dragon's might just now had been far too terrifying. Living in the next room over, for a moment he'd felt as though he was being crushed by SSSS-class Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki), shaking his very spirit.
Fortunately, that overwhelming dragon aura had been withdrawn quickly.
Since it didn't feel like Creed's usual presence, Redfield had come to knock and check on things.
It wasn't just him who'd been alarmed. Everyone else had sensed it, including Big Mom and Shiki. All of them possessed top-tier Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki), and they were extremely wary of such an unknown, overwhelming aura.
Creed had no choice but to open the door and explain that he was testing out a new ability. Only then did everyone finally relax a little.
Because the Marines' movements had been so great lately, their intelligence network had already reported that the Marine's target was very likely this alliance itself, leaving everyone on edge like startled birds.
Big Mom, in particular—having destroyed two Marine bases—was stubbornly convinced that this Marine operation was absolutely aimed at her. So the moment she sensed that unfamiliar, supreme aura, she and the others immediately assumed an enemy had arrived.
After everyone dispersed, Creed thought for a moment, then left the room, taking Falkor and Ain along.
"Creed-nii, where are we going?"
Ain was both delighted and curious. It was rare for Creed to take the initiative to invite her along like this; her heart had already begun pounding wildly in her chest.
She even felt that Falkor was a bit in the way, even though Falkor was also a female creature…
(End of Chapter)
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