Chapter 72: The Thriller Bark (Part 5)
"Moria-sama…" Perona couldn't help but whisper.
"I know you're used to saying 'sama,' but try not to from now on, okay?" Kurumi preemptively warned her future little sister.
"That's right. So are you going to start calling me Lord Eric now?" Eric said, arms crossed proudly.
"No need to call this guy anything with 'lord' in it," Kurumi exposed him mercilessly.
"What's wrong with calling me that…" Eric sulked in the corner, drawing circles on the floor.
"Hurry up and place Sindri in her coffin and find a proper place to bury her."
"Yes, ma'am, Lady Kurumi!" Eric saluted with mock seriousness. "But are we really going to bury her? If we beat Moria, we're going to take over Thriller Bark. We can't keep a graveyard on board, right?"
"What would we need such a big ship for? Don't we already have the Eternal Dreadnought?"
"This island-ship could serve as a mobile base. And since it lacks a magnetic field, Log Poses can't record it—no one would be able to find it."
"Still, a ship this size would need a huge crew to operate properly."
"…Well, we'll just let it float in the Florian Triangle. But we'd need someone to watch over it... This is where the downside of having too few crew really shows."
Perona hesitantly spoke up, "Um… Moria-sama hasn't lost yet, right?"
"Still holding out hope? Let's head to the hall and see for ourselves." Eric said as he placed Sindri's body in a coffin and shut the lid. "Let's go check how the fight is going."
—Rewind time just a little—
"Don't get cocky, brat!" Moria snarled at Esdeath. "Bats Swarm!"
Once again, his shadow morphed into a horde of bats that charged at her.
"You really only have one trick, don't you?" Esdeath sneered, her long rapier slashing down each bat with pinpoint precision. Her elegant swordplay even made Chiron nod in admiration. The bats didn't even get close.
"I'll make you regret those words! Brat! Shadow Box!"
The bats merged into towering black walls closing in on Esdeath from all sides, trying to trap her.
[Shave]
Having learned it from Eric , the battle-hardened Esdeath used the technique for the first time in combat.
"This move drains more stamina than regular movement, but it is faster. So the explosive burst comes from momentum?" she had once asked Eric when learning the technique.
"Take this, brat!"
Moria deliberately left a gap in the wall—baiting her into escaping that way. He was already waiting at that spot, ready to strike. But Esdeath, who lived for combat, saw through the trap. Trusting her strength, she charged in anyway.
Two curved blades came down at her head, but Esdeath redirected them effortlessly with a flick of her rapier. At that moment, Moria's chest was wide open—perfect for a counter.
"Doppelman!"
Esdeath's sword pierced only a shadow—Moria had swapped places with his clone.
"Keh heh heh!"
As she passed through the shadow, Moria returned to his original position. He slashed at the nearby candles on the chandelier, causing them to fall and stretch Esdeath's shadow wide.
"You can't run now!"
He reached to grab her shadow—only for a sword to fly through the air and pin his hand to the wall.
In that moment, Esdeath leapt back and froze the fallen candles.
"You lack skill, but at least you have tactics. I'll admit you're not a complete idiot."
"...!"
Moria's bulging eyes twitched as veins popped on his forehead.
"Too easily angered in battle... always reckless..."
"Shut up! I'll cut you to pieces!"
Furious, Moria ripped the sword from the wall using brute strength. Blood spurted from the wound.
"With all that blood loss, you'll die soon enough."
It was unclear whether Esdeath genuinely cared or just wanted the fight to last longer.
"For real pirates, even death isn't a threat," Moria growled, quoting one of his few famous lines.
"You may continue sailing forward, but you're doomed. You're no match for the New World. Even if you're strong now, you'll lose it all. Do you know why?"
As he spoke, Moria's gaze became unhinged.
"Hmm?"
The trio watching from the side exchanged uneasy glances. What was wrong with him?
"I learned this from experience. I lost every powerful, loyal crew member I had in the New World… Companions? When you're alive, you lose them. But if they're dead—if they're zombies—they can't be lost! Even if purified, they can be reused! They're infinite soldiers!"
"I'll lead an army of the dead and take the Pirate King's throne!"
As he spoke, black tendrils shot out from his feet, latching onto zombies in the forest, toys in the rooms, and paintings in the halls.
'Come, shadows of Thriller Bark—become my strength! Shadow Asgard!'
Elsewhere, pirates hiding in the shadows of the woods saw the black streams rush past.
"What's that?!"
"It's coming from the castle!"
"Something must've happened at Moria's place!"
"Who's coming with me to check it out?"
"Counter me in!"
"Me too! Maybe we can reclaim our shadows!"
A crowd of pirates began marching toward the castle.
...
"So that's it. When we started fighting, I could already sense your heart was dead. No fighting spirit, no desire—just revenge. So it's true... Your crew died in the New World."
Esdeath struck straight to the core of Moria's trauma, rubbing salt into his wounds.
At that moment, Eric arrived at the hall entrance with Kurumi and Perona. But they had already overheard Moria's entire speech in the hallway.
'Moria-sama…'
Perona could only mutter in her heart as she clamped a hand over her mouth upon seeing Moria covered in blood.
"You'll regret this, brat!"
Moria dragged out every last syllable in his furious roar.
Black tendrils continued feeding him shadows. His body swelled like a fluid, rippling with power, growing larger and larger.
"One hundred… Two hundred… Three hundred…"
Moria announced the number of shadows absorbed, as if counting aloud for show.
His arms and hands grew massive—Boom! The floor cracked under the weight.
His feet and calves thickened—Crack! The ground buckled under his expanding mass.
"Five hundred… Six hundred… Seven hundred!"
Esdeath did nothing to stop the absorption. The others just watched as Moria grew.
Eventually, his gargantuan frame shattered the hall's walls and roof, allowing even the pirates outside to see his transformation.
"!!"
They stood frozen, mouths agape.
"Keh heh heh!"
Moria's voice had changed—deeper, heavier.
"Eight hundred!"
(END CHAPTER)
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