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Pica had descended into his final state of madness. The stone executive's roar echoed across Dressrosa as he prepared to sacrifice everything—his life, his sanity, his very soul—to clear the path for his beloved young master. The massive stone golem that housed his consciousness continued to absorb earth and rock with terrifying hunger, his body swelling beyond comprehension until it towered ten thousand meters into the sky.
If his rampage wasn't stopped, the underground kingdom of the Tontatta would be crushed beneath millions of tons of stone and rubble.
"It's so hot..." Usopp gasped, feeling searing heat radiating from his shoulder. He glanced down in alarm to see Leo—the skeletal, tortured dwarf captain who had been barely clinging to life moments before—now blazing with an impossible radiance. Golden light poured from every inch of the tiny warrior's body, transforming his emaciated frame into something that seemed almost divine.
Could this be some hidden ability of the dwarf tribe? Usopp wondered, his sniper's mind racing even as his heart clenched with worry for his diminutive ally.
Leo's entire being absorbed the cosmic radiance until he became a miniature star perched on Usopp's shoulder. Without warning, the dwarf captain launched himself into the air, streaking toward the colossal Pica like a golden comet. As the leader of his people, he would fight to his final breath to protect what remained of his race.
In a realm beyond mortal comprehension, the dwarf Leo stood face-to-face with a being of pure light in an endless white void.
"My name is Ultraman Leo," the Giant of Light spoke, his voice resonating with the power of stars. "Ultraman is my race. It is no coincidence that we share the same name—this is destiny. Use my ring to transform and protect your home."
Ancient knowledge flooded Leo's consciousness—the secrets of transformation, the methods of channeling cosmic power, the terrible price that such strength demanded. The connection between them ran deeper than mere chance; their shared name was a bond forged across dimensions.
Back in the physical world, Leo raised his trembling arms toward the heavens. The ring on his finger—a golden band carved with the eyes of a lion—blazed with stellar fire. Drawing upon every ounce of his remaining life force, the dwarf captain threw back his head and roared the sacred name:
"Leo! Leo! ULTRAMAN LEO!"
Blinding radiance erupted from the tiny figure, forcing Usopp to yank down his goggles and shield his eyes. Through the overwhelming brilliance, he glimpsed the silhouette of something impossible—a red giant materializing within the heart of the light.
When the cosmic fire finally dimmed, Ultraman Leo stood revealed in all his glory. Though "only" sixty meters tall compared to Pica's monstrous form, the red giant radiated an aura of golden majesty that made him seem larger than mountains. Every line of his form spoke of controlled power, of a warrior born from the heart of a lion.
"Can... can dwarfs really become giants?" Usopp stammered, his worldview cracking like glass. Nothing in his adventures with the Straw Hats had prepared him for this sight. The red titan before him felt alien, otherworldly—a being that had no place in the natural order of the seas.
Outside the palace, the surviving dwarfs hugged each other and wept with joy as they witnessed their champion's transformation through the Sky Screen. The power of the Giant of Light was beyond their wildest dreams—to grant their smallest warrior such incredible size and strength.
Leo's voice resonated directly in Usopp's mind, bypassing the need for spoken words. "Thank you, Usoland, for helping me claim the power of Ultraman Leo. But know this—the Giant of Light's strength can only sustain me for three minutes. Let us fight together and protect Dressrosa completely."
Ultraman Leo? The first part was familiar from the Sky Screen's revelations, but Usopp pushed his questions aside. Whatever power Leo had tapped into, they needed to use every second of it before Zoro could arrive and steal their thunder.
"Then let's crack that stone shell first and drag Pica out of it!" Usopp called out, his sniper's instincts already calculating weak points in the massive golem.
Ultraman Leo nodded toward his human ally, then broke into a ground-shaking sprint. Each footstep left craters in the earth as the red giant charged toward his ten-thousand-meter opponent. To most warriors, such a size disparity would mean certain death. But for an Ultraman, monsters of this scale were exactly the kind of enemy they were designed to face.
Conserving his precious energy, Leo abandoned any thought of energy attacks. Instead, he let the fighting master's instincts guide him, preparing to tear his enemy apart with pure physical force.
The red giant reached the stone colossus and launched a devastating punch without any wasted motion. Pica's seemingly invincible rocky hide crumpled like paper before Ultraman's fist, the impact sending shockwaves through the monster's core.
Deep within the golem, the Armored Titan shuddered as he felt the devastating force ripple through his stone shell. For the first time since his transformation, genuine fear crept into his voice. "What in the seven hells is that thing? Could that red giant be another Human King in this world?"
Pica refused to yield, swinging his kilometer-long stone arms in massive haymakers designed to crush the smaller opponent. But he had gravely underestimated the power of Ultraman Leo.
The red giant caught both stone limbs in an iron grip, then executed a perfect joint lock that tore the arms from their sockets. Stone and rubble rained down as Ultraman continued his systematic demolition, his hands moving faster than the eye could follow as he carved through solid rock like it was soft clay.
"He's on the far right—right there!" Usopp shouted, his enhanced Observation Haki finally pinpointing the Armored Titan's location within the maze of stone.
Following his ally's guidance, Leo abandoned his X-ray vision and punched through the golem's defenses with brutal efficiency. His massive hand closed around the twenty-meter Armored Titan, dragging Pica from his hiding place like a child pulling a toy from a box.
Pica thrashed in the giant's grip, his voice cracking with desperation. "Be buried in the earth with me!"
The Ishi Ishi no Mi (Stone-Stone Fruit) unleashed its full demonic power, calling upon every grain of dirt and fragment of rock on the island. A tsunami of gray matter crashed over Ultraman Leo like a living avalanche, seeking to bury the red giant beneath tons of crushing weight.
But such earthen attacks were mere inconveniences to a being of cosmic power.
White energy coursed across Ultraman's form, heating the surrounding matter at the molecular level until the very stones began to glow. Pica's Devil Fruit abilities proved useless against such overwhelming force. With contemptuous ease, the red giant hurled the Armored Titan high into the sky.
In the white void of his consciousness, Leo stood beside his cosmic patron and together they shouted the name of ultimate technique:
"LEO FLYING KICK!"
Ultraman Leo launched himself skyward, his left foot wreathed in crimson energy that blazed like a dying star. In the face of such absolute power, all of Pica's struggles meant nothing.
"Young master... will definitely become the king of this world..." Pica whispered, his final words lost in the roar of approaching doom.
Terrifying red light consumed his vision as the flying kick connected. The instant Ultraman's foot touched the Armored Titan, the stored cosmic energy detonated with the fury of a supernova. Pica and his transformed body were vaporized in the explosion, their atoms scattered to the winds.
Ultraman Leo landed gracefully before Usopp, but immediately the red warning light on his chest began to flash. The three-minute time limit was approaching, and the power of the Giant of Light was already fading from his borrowed form.
The red giant dissolved back into pure radiance, the light contracting until it revealed the palm-sized figure of the dwarf captain. But even now, traces of cosmic energy continued to dance across Leo's tiny frame.
"Leo, are you okay?" Usopp rushed to his fallen ally, though his heart was already sinking with dread.
"Thank you, Usoland... I'm fine..." Leo began, but before he could finish, a piece of skin peeled away from his face and transformed into a mote of light that drifted away on the wind.
Usopp's blood turned to ice as he understood the true price of Ultraman Leo's power. More skin began to flake away from the dwarf's body, each fragment becoming starlight as it departed. The empty spaces left behind glowed with ethereal radiance, as if Leo was slowly becoming one with the cosmos itself.
The dying tontatta managed a weak smile, knowing his time was measured in heartbeats. "Although you lied to me about being Noland's descendant, you're still a hero to our people. But enough sentimental words—Ultraman Leo tells me that Princess Mansherry has been rescued, and I'm going to see her now. Goodbye, Usopp."
Leo's form began to unravel completely, transforming into a beam of pure white light that spiraled toward the heavens. Countless points of radiance marked his ascension like a trail of falling stars in reverse.
Usopp watched his friend's departure with tears streaming down his face, whispering into the empty air: "In the end, you saw right through me. Leo... you were the real hero here."
The exhausted sniper collapsed to his knees, finally overwhelmed by the mental strain of controlling his magical plants and the emotional weight of watching a true warrior sacrifice everything for his people. His body shook with grief and exhaustion as he stared at the spot where Leo had vanished.