Instantly, Black Knight Castle erupted into chaos. Pirates scrambled, grabbing weapons and rushing towards the main hall, leveling dozens of steel rifles and muskets directly at Bege and his small group. More pirates swarmed in from other parts of the castle, quickly filling the large space.
"Captain Demon Dragon," Treade sneered, looking down arrogantly from his slightly elevated position, his face thick with mockery, "I have over a thousand loyal crewmen under my command, all armed with the finest weapons money can buy. Are you still so keen on inviting me to join your crew?"
Bege glanced dismissively at the sea of hostile pirates surrounding them. "Is this rabble what you rely on?" His voice was utterly indifferent. "Weaklings should simply scatter!"
Without further warning, Bege unleashed a ferocious wave of Conqueror's Haki. A tangible, blood-red aura surged outwards from him like an unstoppable tidal wave, washing over everyone in the hall.
Behind Treade, the eyes of over a thousand pirates rolled back into their heads simultaneously. A wave of heavy thuds followed – thump, thump, thump – as they collapsed to the ground en masse, instantly unconscious.
Bege looked scornfully at the visibly terrified Treade. "Now," Bege drawled, a mocking smirk on his face, "your 'reliance' is gone."
"Conqueror's Haki! You… you possess Conqueror's Haki?!" Treade stammered, his face draining of color in panic. Several of his officers standing behind him also crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Only the most elite members of his crew remained standing, clearly shaken to their core by the display of absolute power.
"Now," Bege repeated calmly, his gaze steady on Treade, "you should make your choice."
Treade visibly fought to regain his composure. His massive muscles began to tremble, radiating waves of palpable power. They swelled instantly, doubling in size, each fiber seeming to pulse with terrifying, contained strength – the activation of his Muscle-Muscle Fruit.
Raw fury and intense killing intent blazed in Treade's eyes. "I've fought tooth and nail across the New World for over a decade!" he roared, his voice booming. "I've survived thousands of battles just to carve out my place here! And you waltz in and expect me to submit to you?! In your dreams!"
Treade hefted his ridiculously oversized sword – a massive blade literally as large as a door panel. His already enormous arms bulged even further, veins popping like thick ropes, transforming into monstrous appendages of pure, corded muscle.
He took a single, powerful step forward, shattering the solid stone floor beneath his feet, and charged towards Bege at incredible speed, swinging his giant blade in a furious attack.
"Muscle~ Steel Slash!"
A massive wave of compressed sword pressure erupted from the giant blade, sweeping horizontally towards Bege and his officers.
Bege and his men instantly flickered out of the way using Soru. The sword wave flew past them, slicing cleanly through the thick castle wall behind them as if it were tofu. It continued outwards, cutting through several distant buildings in the town below, sending wreckage flying high into the air. The surfaces cleaved by the attack were noted to be unnervingly smooth and clean. The slash had even gouged a deep scar into the nigh-impregnable outer fortress wall. The sheer destructive power was truly astonishing.
His first attack missing, Treade immediately launched another, targeting Bege directly with a second terrifying slash, sending another huge wave of sword pressure flying.
This time, Moria moved to intercept. His massive form stepped directly into the path of the attack. Coating his giant scissors in gleaming black Armament Haki, he braced himself and met the ridiculous sword wave head-on.
The sheer force behind Treade's Steel Slash was incredible, blasting Moria's colossal body backward, sending him crashing clean out of the hall. Bege and the others quickly dodged aside again as the residual energy of the slash tore through the space where Moria had stood.
Moria slammed onto the ground outside, sliding backward uncontrollably, each heavy step pulverizing the stone pavement. Unfortunately for Treade's crew, the courtyard was still littered with hundreds of unconscious pirates. Several unlucky souls were instantly crushed into bloody paste beneath Moria's immense feet. He finally skidded to a halt after smashing through the walls of several smaller buildings, having successfully blocked Treade's powerful attack.
"Tsk tsk tsk, that guy's raw power is pretty ridiculous," Riki commented from beside Bege, watching the aftermath with a hint of wry amusement.
Just then, Moria let out a furious, echoing roar from the wreckage outside. An enormous, shadowy figure began to emerge, easily dwarfing even Moria's usual large size. The giant figure strode rapidly back towards the devastated hall.
He had gone straight into his Shadows Asgard form – specifically, the maximum power configuration that sacrificed all speed for overwhelming strength. As the colossal Moria ran back, his giant feet unfortunately trampled and killed quite a few more of the unconscious pirates littering the courtyard.
"Uh oh, Moria's really pissed off now," Bege observed calmly, watching the gigantic form approach. "This room's about to be completely demolished. Best we get clear." He knew Moria in this state was incredibly dangerous; even Bege himself wouldn't want to face one of those punches directly.
Inside the hall, Treade and his remaining officers stared, utterly shocked and terrified, at Moria's monstrous, towering form.
"You hit me pretty hard just now, you muscle-bound freak!" the giant Moria bellowed, his voice distorted and booming as he looked down at Treade. "Now you take one of my punches!"
"Demon Iron Fist!"
Moria slammed his gigantic, pitch-black fist downwards towards Treade. The sheer speed of the descending fist created deafening sonic booms and generated hurricane-force wind pressure that instantly blasted all the remaining furniture, tables, terrified officers, and unconscious women clean out of the hall, sending them tumbling through the air like rag dolls.
Treade's face hardened with grim determination. His arms bulged further, massive veins popping like thick ropes beneath his skin. Terrifying power flowed through them. Under his precise control, the muscles across his entire body shifted and hardened, visibly forming a dense, layered suit of Muscle Armor. As the user of the Muscle-Muscle Fruit, he could manipulate every fiber of his body, storing power accumulated from training and even eating within his muscles, ready to be unleashed in combat. Every inch of his body now contained horrifying latent strength.
"Muscle~ Steel Force Barrage!" Treade roared, swinging his giant sword five times in a blindingly fast sequence. Five immense waves of sword energy erupted, powerful enough to momentarily slash through the intense wind pressure generated by Moria's fist, before slamming directly into the descending black iron appendage.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Demon Iron Fist smashed clean through all five sword waves, which exploded harmlessly against its surface. The fist continued its inexorable descent, slamming directly into the floor where Treade had stood just moments before. Instantly, the entire massive hall exploded outwards. An immense shockwave radiated in a devastating ring, annihilating everything in its path like a physical tidal wave, sending a colossal dust cloud rising into the night sky.
The ground for hundreds of meters around the building's epicenter collapsed and shattered. Many of the unconscious pirates strewn across the courtyard were unlucky enough to be crushed or impaled by the tons of flying debris.
Amidst the newly formed ruins, Treade's officers lay scattered, all heavily injured simply from being caught in the periphery of the shockwave from Moria's missed punch.
"We were just hit by the aftershock... and we're this badly injured?" the Black Knight Vice-Captain managed to gasp, clutching his chest and coughing up blood as he stared in horror at Moria's demonic giant form standing amidst the devastation. "This guy... he's an absolute monster!"
Watching from a safe distance, Riki looked slightly worried as he surveyed the flattened building and the utterly devastated surroundings. "Moria's Demon Iron Fist, in his maximum Shadows Asgard state, possessed enough power to potentially obliterate a small island... Did he accidentally kill Treade with the collateral damage?"
Bege took a slow drag from his cigar, his expression unreadable, though perhaps sharing a sliver of Riki's concern.
Within the wreckage, the giant Moria figure began to shudder. It expelled the dozens of shadows it had absorbed, which Moria quickly caught and re-absorbed into his normal body as the giant form dissipated. Panting heavily from the exertion, Moria looked down at his own fist – across the knuckles was a deep, gruesome gash, severe enough that the underlying bone was clearly visible. Treade's desperate barrage of sword waves had managed to wound him, even through the immense power of Shadows Asgard.
Suddenly, Moria's expression changed to one of surprise and alarm. A massively muscular figure burst violently from the rubble nearby, swinging his giant door-panel sword in a furious arc that sliced giant Moria cleanly in half!
"Got him!" Treade landed heavily nearby, panting for breath. Even though Moria's punch had missed him directly, the sheer destructive force of the impact and the resulting shockwave had still injured him significantly.
But in the next instant, a sound ripped through the air. Several sharp, black Shadow Horn Spears shot out from behind Treade, impaling him directly through the back. Blood sprayed from the wounds as the shadow spears pierced deep into his incredibly dense muscles.
Treade's face contorted in shock and pain. His back muscles bulged grotesquely, spasming as he somehow managed to forcibly eject the Shadow Horn Spears from his body through sheer muscular control.
The giant Moria form that Treade had just triumphantly bisected dissolved into harmless black shadows that simply sank back into the ground. From Treade's own shadow directly behind him, the real Moria emerged, completely unharmed, a sinister grin spreading across his face. His Shadow Warrior technique had allowed him to swap places with his shadow clone at the last second, completely avoiding the seemingly fatal blow.
Treade whirled around, staring warily at the smug Moria. Moria's face, however, was now incredibly dark, radiating palpable anger.
"Treade, don't be an ungrateful fool!" Moria snarled menacingly, his voice dripping with malice. "I deliberately missed with that last punch! If I hadn't pulled it, you'd be paste right now! If you're actually looking to die tonight, believe me, I will gladly oblige you!" Beneath his feet, Moria's shadow writhed and pulsed, forming dozens of sharp, menacing Shadow Horn Spears, ready to strike. He had indeed intentionally aimed his devastating punch at the ground beside Treade, fearing he might accidentally kill the valuable potential subordinate otherwise. But even having missed, he knew Treade would have been severely injured by the blast; yet the man was still standing, albeit wounded.