On Hachinosu Island, in the 20,000-square-meter courtyard of Charlotte Linlin's home.
Carlo, clutching his heavenly dragon halberd, stood in a standoff with Charlotte Linlin.
By a stone table in the distance, over a dozen snot-nosed children were dancing with excitement, shouting, "Go Mama!"
Carlo looked at the empty-handed Charlotte Linlin and raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you going to use a weapon, Linlin?"
Charlotte Linlin tilted her fair chin and smiled proudly: "Mamamama, to deal with you, there's no need for Napoleon to come out."
"Is that so? Well, if you accidentally get hurt, don't blame me!"
As soon as the words fell, Carlo, unable to contain himself, chose to strike directly!
He stomped his foot, and his whole body shot out like an arrow from a bow, charging toward Charlotte Linlin.
Twirling the heavenly dragon halberd in his hand, he unleashed a powerful explosive slash!
"If you can do it... then come at me!"
With intense confidence, Charlotte Linlin threw her fair right fist directly at the blade of the heavenly dragon halberd as it slashed down!
Fist and halberd collided, and an explosion erupted, letting out a piercing metallic bang!
"Boom!!"
The ground beneath Charlotte Linlin's feet cracked several inches deep.
Meanwhile, Carlo let out a muffled groan and was sent flying backward, halberd and all!
"Again!"
While still in mid-air, Carlo let out a loud shout as his body expanded and grew taller like a balloon being inflated.
A pair of shimmering golden wings suddenly unfurled behind his back. With a flap, they shot out dozens, even hundreds, of sharp feathers aimed at various points on Charlotte Linlin's body.
At the same time, his figure nimbly swerved in the sky, turning back to fly at her. The heavenly dragon halberd struck out again, slashing toward the left side of Charlotte Linlin's body.
After just one collision, Carlo realized that his current physical strength was vastly inferior to the Charlotte Linlin before him. Without any hesitation, he directly utilized his Mythical Zoan transformation.
"Wow! It's an angel! A golden angel!"
"Uncle Carlo is so cool!"
Outside the field, Katakuri and the other Little Brats watched the transformation with glowing eyes, screaming in excitement.
"Mamamama, you're quite self-aware, Carlo, transforming so quickly."
Charlotte Linlin ignored the sky full of feathers shooting toward her, letting the blade-sharp plumage strike her body.
In Carlo's contracting pupils, those feathers—which were sharp enough to easily pierce steel—all bounced off or shattered the moment they hit Charlotte Linlin's body!
He saw it clearly.
The sharp tips of the feathers only pierced the clothes Charlotte Linlin was wearing; they didn't even break her fair skin.
"Is this the Iron Balloon? This innate defense... isn't it a bit too exaggerated?"
Amidst a loud bang, Carlo collided with Charlotte Linlin once again.
He wielded the sixty-plus-ton heavenly dragon halberd in his hands like a storm.
Everywhere it passed, the air rippled, and a wild wind howled through the courtyard, creating a terrifying momentum.
But Charlotte Linlin met it all with her bare hands!
The continuous sound of clanging metal rang out incessantly.
Carlo felt as if he were striking iron.
Charlotte Linlin's fists, feet, and every part of her body were unbelievably hard!
Even the heavenly dragon halberd, swung with all his might, could not break her defense.
At most, it left a few white marks.
This defense was many times stronger than Kaido's.
They called it the Iron Balloon.
But in reality, Charlotte Linlin's defense was many times harder than steel.
One had to know that ordinary steel would be as fragile as mud before Carlo, even without using the heavenly dragon halberd.
The basic technique of cutting steel was not even worth mentioning for an expert of his level.
"Could it be a nine-star Physique?"
This thought, which filled Carlo with envy, surfaced in his mind.
In terms of surface defense alone, Charlotte Linlin's Iron Balloon was top-tier even in the entire pirate world.
In the manga, only the defense shown by the giant boar on Egghead Island, Saint V. Nusjuro, could compare to hers.
Carlo remembered that the thing this special constitution feared most should be... piercing damage, right?
Like Law's Shock Wille.
Thinking of this, Carlo backed away a few steps and looked at Charlotte Linlin.
"Watch out, Linlin! I'm going to get serious now!"
"Getting serious? Mamamama, come then, Mama will wait and see."
Charlotte Linlin still wore a calm smile, completely unconcerned about the clothes Carlo had torn.
Carlo's grip on the heavenly dragon halberd tightened.
A powerful force, like a mountain torrent erupting, surged from within his body, causing his entire being to instantly become pitch black and shiny.
A massive amount of Armament Haki poured out like ink, turning Carlo into a black Vajra.
The Haki spread, coating the heavenly dragon halberd, making the black blade even darker and more heavy.
The halberd's blade pointed toward the sky.
"Zzzzt—"
Small bolts of black lightning crackled from the blade.
Seeing this, Charlotte Linlin's pupils shrank. The smile on her face gradually faded, and her expression became somewhat serious.
"Haki lightning... I didn't expect you to have trained your Armament Haki to this stage."
"Carlo, have you already mastered Internal Destruction?"
"Unfortunately, I haven't fully mastered it yet. This is just... a special effect of the weapon." Carlo grinned. His black-gold wings on his back flapped, carrying him into the sky as he slashed down at Charlotte Linlin with his halberd.
"Celestial Dragon Star Burst Slash!!"
The black lightning on the heavenly dragon halberd was Armament Haki compressed to the extreme.
Originally, Carlo, whose Armament Haki attribute was at the seven-star level, would have been unable to produce such an Internal Destruction-level effect.
But the heavenly dragon halberd's bonus and amplification of Haki allowed him to achieve this step.
In other words, with the halberd's bonus, he could exert eight-star level power with seven-star Armament Haki!
Seven-star was Emission.
Eight-star was Internal Destruction!
As the heavenly dragon halberd, flashing with black lightning, whistled down, Charlotte Linlin threw a punch again.
This time, a thick layer of black also appeared on her fist!
She had also used Armament Haki!
She remained standing in place to counter the attack.
With one punch, the air in the entire courtyard exploded with a roar!
"Ikoku!!"
The moment her fist collided head-on with Carlo's descending heavenly dragon halberd, Charlotte Linlin's expression shifted slightly.
She could clearly feel her Armament Haki being neutralized and canceled out as it clashed with Carlo's Haki-infused blade.
Then, a force far exceeding the previous one was transmitted to the surface of her fist.
But... "Still not enough!"
Charlotte Linlin exerted force with her fist, knocking the heavenly dragon halberd away again!
However, Carlo was not frustrated.
Because this wasn't actually his true ultimate move.
The Celestial Dragon Star Burst Slash was a move he had created by combining Garp's Fist Bone Meteorite.
The technique contained a slash similar to a shockwave.
It was somewhat similar to Rocks' sword techniques.
This kind of move was very effective against tanky opponents like Kaido.
But against an opponent as hard as Charlotte Linlin, it seemed a bit weak.
So... Carlo's figure shot upward with a whoosh, soaring over a hundred meters in an instant.
Then, upside down, clutching the heavenly dragon halberd, he lunged straight down at Charlotte Linlin!
Bolts of small black lightning spiraled around the central tip of the halberd, turning into a powerful piercing force.
"Celestial Dragon Star Piercing Thrust!!"
Below, Charlotte Linlin was about to punch Carlo as he charged down from the sky again.
But the moment she threw the punch, her face changed, and without hesitation, she retracted it and reached for the top of her head.
That Captain's hat fell into her hand.
"Napoleon!"
"Yes! Mama!"
An excited face appeared on the Captain's hat.
In the next instant, the hat expanded dozens of times, extending out into a terrifying, ten-meter-long greatsword. With a horrifying aura, it slashed toward Carlo in the sky.
"Ikoku!!"
The blade and the halberd's tip collided violently.
"Boom!!"
Haki lightning roared in the sky, and wild shockwaves swept in all directions, the massive commotion echoing throughout Hachinosu.
Carlo was sent flying back, only stopping after soaring over a hundred meters in the air.
And below, the ground beneath Charlotte Linlin's feet had sunk over ten meters deep.
A crater dozens of meters in diameter had been blasted out!
The courtyard was a mess, even the walls had collapsed from the tremors.
The dozen or so Little Brats crouched on the ground covering their ears, crying in fear.
Watching Carlo slowly descend, Charlotte Linlin retracted the Napoleon greatsword in her hand.
"Carlo, your strength is even greater than I expected. It seems my choice was indeed correct."
"Compared to you guys, I'm still far behind." Carlo put away the heavenly dragon halberd, keeping a humble attitude without getting overconfident.
Just then, a short man with a pointed nose, looking very much like Wong Cho-lam, walked in from outside, looking at Carlo with some hostility.
"Hey, kid, I've been looking for you for a long time. So you were here."
"Rocks is looking for you. He's at the Pirate Tavern."