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What an incredible swordsman! Zoro's name had become legendary across the seas through this single display. The strength he'd demonstrated five years in the future might actually approach Hawkeye Mihawk's level—he had a genuine chance of ascending to the throne of the world's greatest swordsman.
As the Asura phantom behind him dissolved, a massive chasm appeared where Zoro had stood. Everything in the Three-Sword Swordsman's path had been cleanly bisected. He methodically returned all three blades to their sheaths.
After the dust and debris settled, Zoro surveyed the area with his remaining eye. No trace of Diamante remained—the only evidence of the executive's existence was a famous sword broken cleanly in half on the ground.
Hebi no Ken had been trained to Black Blade status by Diamante and ranked among the Great Grade swords. Unfortunately, it had followed the wrong master and stood in Zoro's path, ultimately meeting destruction. This blade would be forgotten by history, though perhaps future sword catalogs might preserve its image.
"Dust to dust, Diamante," Zoro murmured to the empty air. "You were a worthy opponent, and your skill deserved recognition."
The man's terrifying killing intent began retracting. This concentrated murderous aura could control weaker opponents with nearly one hundred percent effectiveness—more useful than even Conqueror's Haki in many situations. Zoro had accumulated such immense bloodlust through countless battles, slaying island guardians until he'd lost count of the exact number.
"Who's there? Come out," Zoro commanded, sensing someone observing from the palace ruins. His hand moved instinctively to his sword hilt, ready for immediate combat.
His full-power attack had completely demolished the palace structure. He hadn't controlled the devastation well—the swordsman seemed to have forgotten something important that needed rescuing.
"My lord, my lord... please don't kill me, I'm very weak..." The voice emanating from the rubble was so faint that Zoro could barely identify it as female.
Following the sound's direction, Zoro located its source and began clearing away bricks and stones with his bare hands. When sunlight penetrated the debris, a dust-covered female dwarf figure appeared before him.
Zoro had completely suppressed his killing intent by this point. When he carefully lifted the Tontatta with his large hands, she cowered on the ground in terror.
"Why is there so much dust?" he wondered aloud, brushing debris from her tiny form.
The female dwarf found herself suspended in mid-air as the dust was cleared away. She possessed golden curly hair longer than her entire height, a pointed nose with red patches on her cheeks, and wore an elegant white princess dress. Her attire clearly indicated noble status.
"Don't eat me!" she pleaded desperately. "I'll work for you—please don't hurt me!"
The female dwarf remained terrified. Zoro's one-eyed appearance didn't suggest benevolence, and the surrounding destruction was so severe that she instinctively recognized this man as extraordinarily dangerous.
"You're Princess Mansherry, correct?"
"Sir, how do you know my name?"
Zoro explained everything—his encounter with the dwarf Leo, their subsequent planning, and his true identity as one of the good guys rather than a murderer.
Learning about her beloved's suffering over the years brought tears to Princess Mansherry's eyes. "Lord Zoro, let's find him immediately! I desperately want to see Leo—I have so much to tell him."
Zoro had been so absorbed in his duel with Diamante that he'd lost track of Usopp and Leo's location. Standing atop the palace ruins, he scanned the area carefully.
"Since that stone giant is still active, they're probably in that direction."
Pica, the Donquixote Family executive, continued manipulating his stone construct, proving that Usopp and the others weren't in mortal danger. However, when Princess Mansherry spotted the kilometer-tall stone colossus, she grew particularly worried about Leo's safety.
"Lord Zoro, we're so close! Let's help them defeat that Donquixote Family villain!"
After making this declaration, Princess Mansherry became overly excited. Though the distance appeared manageable to the naked eye, she quickly discovered the meaning of "the farthest distance in the world" once Zoro began moving.
Zoro wasn't merely someone with a poor sense of direction—he was legendarily terrible at navigation. Despite clearly heading toward the stone giant, he would inexplicably deviate onto different paths, never reaching his intended destination.
The twentieth time getting lost...
"Why is there another cliff? I clearly didn't take a wrong turn," Zoro muttered, stroking his chin with existential doubt. He'd been following Princess Mansherry's directions precisely but still couldn't rendezvous with Usopp and the others. This definitely wasn't his fault—something must be wrong with the navigation system. It was obviously the dwarf princess's error.
Princess Mansherry poked her head out from inside the man's shirt. She couldn't tolerate this any longer. Why would someone with such terrible directional sense exist in the world? She began pummeling her savior's chest with tiny fists.
"Lord Zoro, you have the worst sense of direction ever! I point out the path for you, but you turn when I say go straight and you go straight when I say turn—you're making me furious!"
Though the Tontatta were palm-sized, they possessed adult-level strength. After several punches from Princess Mansherry, Zoro felt genuinely uncomfortable. He quickly extracted her from his shirt and blamed the dwarf princess for the navigation errors.
"This is all because you're giving wrong directions. Otherwise, we would have arrived long ago."
"Don't blame others! This is obviously your fault, Lord Zoro!" Princess Mansherry protested indignantly. "You have no sense of direction but you blame someone else—shame on you!"
If Princess Mansherry hadn't possessed such a gentle nature, she would have cursed directly.
She truly couldn't comprehend it. Zoro could obviously destroy an entire palace with a single strike—even the seastone-reinforced secret chamber where Princess Mansherry had been imprisoned was demolished. It was unprecedented for any swordsman to destroy such an indestructible substance. Princess Mansherry greatly admired Zoro's strength, but it was unfortunate that such a powerful warrior suffered from such terrible directional sense.
Zoro continued demonstrating his legendary navigation problems, taking Princess Mansherry in circles around the King's Plateau, unable to provide timely support to his companions.
Having high-level combat power get lost was genuinely problematic for Usopp. When dealing with this type of heavily-defended monster, the sniper could only delay—he couldn't completely defeat Pica.
"Is Zoro going to get lost again? I can't keep running much longer!"
"Usopp, hold on! You can do this—don't give up here!"
The sniper couldn't fly or teleport, relying solely on his legs to maintain distance from the stone giant. The plant seeds Usopp fired from his Black Kabuto slingshot could only temporarily hinder the enemy's movements.
The thousand-meter stone colossus was covered in green vines—these tenacious plants could grow rapidly in stone when exposed to sunlight, causing considerable interference with Pica's mobility.
He could use the stone giant's hands to tear away the vegetation, but this required damaging the construct's appearance. However, this was only a temporary solution—within minutes, new ivy would sprout and root the stone giant in place, rendering it immobile.
The damage was minimal, but the humiliation was intense. Pica had never expected to be toyed with by a weakling like Usopp.