The pirate ship on the opposite side—massive beyond ordinary standards—was now no smaller than the custom-made battleships used by Vice Admirals of the Marine Headquarters.
Standing before such a behemoth, it was impossible not to feel dwarfed by its sheer size.
"It's enormous…" Bright's eyes widened in disbelief.
He quickly collected himself and turned to Carl, speaking with urgency.
"Colonel Carl! The pirates on the other side belong to the Smashing Pirates!"
"Smashing Pirates?" Carl touched his chin, searching his memory for any recognition of the name.
"That's right! Their captain is Crusher Whitehead Morgan, with a bounty of 100 million berries!"
Bright swallowed hard before continuing, "They've destroyed multiple islands, and thousands of civilians have died at their hands!"
"Huh?" Carl narrowed his eyes, his tone turning cold.
A silent but chilling killing intent radiated from his body.
"Then why hasn't Marine dealt with him yet?"
"They tried," Bright said nervously. "The Marines of three different branch bases attempted a joint operation to capture him, but all their warships were sunk by Whitehead's abilities."
"He's a Devil Fruit user—a terrifying one. Intelligence suggests he can magnify objects at will."
"The islands he destroyed? They were wiped out by his gigantic artillery bombardments."
Carl exhaled lightly, his expression unreadable.
"Ah… so it was branch Marines."
It made sense now.
Aside from those bases garrisoned by powerful Vice Admirals, most branches lacked the firepower to handle pirates of this caliber.
Judging from what he'd seen, Whitehead's strength was comparable to some of the current generation's Supernovas.
For an average Vice Admiral? A headache.
For an Admiral? Target practice.
Carl had seen firsthand how easily someone like Kizaru toyed with Supernovas, treating them like little more than minor distractions.
The gap between a Vice Admiral and an Admiral in the Marines was simply too vast.
"Forget it," Carl said, his gaze sharpening. "Since we've encountered them, let's erase them."
A crimson gleam flickered in his pupils, and his figure exploded forward like a bullet.
For all his laid-back tendencies, he was still a Marine.
Ignoring pirate atrocities was one thing.
But slaughtering civilians?
That crossed the line.
"Boss! That Marine's coming straight at us!" a pirate hollered in alarm.
"I can see that!" Whitehead bellowed, gripping the hilt of his massive cutlass.
"Heh… So this fool thinks he can take us alone?"
Carl descended like a meteor onto the enemy ship's deck.
His Shigure gleamed in the air, its edge flashing toward Whitehead's throat.
"FIRE!" one of the pirates yelled.
Whitehead reacted instantly. His cutlass suddenly expanded, growing to three times its original size as he swung to meet Carl's strike.
CLANG!
A deafening metallic ring echoed.
A second later—SNAP!
Whitehead's massive blade was sliced clean in half.
"What?!" His pupils contracted in shock.
Carl's sword continued downward, poised to end the fight in a single stroke.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The pirates opened fire.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Sparks erupted as bullets bounced off Carl's body.
He didn't even flinch.
He hadn't even used Haki.
The sheer toughness of his body made gunfire useless.
"W-What the hell?!" Whitehead's eyes were wild with disbelief. "This… this can't be real!"
There was no way someone could simply tank bullets with bare flesh!
Unless…
"You're a Devil Fruit user too?!" Whitehead stammered, thinking he had uncovered the secret.
Carl let out a small chuckle.
"How limited your worldview is…"
There were plenty of monsters out there who could shrug off bullets without needing a Devil Fruit.
From Whitebeard's inhuman endurance… to Garp's insane physical strength… to Kaido, whose body was like living iron.
"Whatever," Carl said, his voice flat. "This is getting boring. Let's finish it."
Whitehead's face contorted with rage.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN UNDERESTIMATE ME?!"
His body swelled.
In mere moments, he towered over Carl, his entire form ballooning into a massive giant-like state.
The pirate ship groaned under his weight, sinking lower into the sea.
"HAHAHA! TINY INSECT!"
Whitehead's colossal fist crashed downward.
BOOM!
A huge crater formed in the deck, splintering the wood.
"HAHA! THIS IS—"
"What was that?"
A voice, cold and unimpressed, sounded right by his ear.
"WHAT?!"
Whitehead snapped his head sideways.
Carl stood unscathed, calmly floating beside him in midair.
His right hand gripped the hilt of Withered Wood, a terrifying killing intent coiling around it.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Whitehead roared in fury. He slammed his palms together, trying to crush Carl between them.
SHINK!
A soundless slash cut through the air.
A blade light—thin as a whisper but sharp enough to slice the sky itself—passed through Whitehead's gigantic hands.
And his neck.
Carl sheathed his blade.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
SCHLICK!
Whitehead's head soared into the sky, blood fountaining from the stump.
His massive body froze before rapidly shrinking.
By the time it hit the deck with a thud, he was just a normal-sized corpse.
A deathly silence fell over the pirate crew.
A pirate shakily muttered, "…The captain… is dead?"
"The invincible Captain Whitehead… actually lost?"
Then—
"RUN!"
"THE CAPTAIN'S DEAD! ABANDON SHIP!"
Panic.
Some pirates threw themselves into the sea. Others froze in fear.
But escape was impossible.
Carl sighed, stepping into the air once more.
He raised Shigure, coating it in a dense, blackened aura—Haki roaring like liquid lightning across the blade.
SWING.
A single, devastating slash tore through the pirate ship.
Not just in half.
It exploded.
The combined force of his advanced Haki and his internal destruction technique reduced the entire ship to splinters.
Carl landed lightly back on his warship.
The Marine soldiers aboard were frozen, their mouths agape.
From the moment Carl leaped into battle to his return, not even ten minutes had passed.
And in that span—
He decapitated a 100 million bounty pirate.
And annihilated an entire pirate ship.
"C-Colonel Carl… you're back…" Bright stammered.
Carl exhaled, stretching as he settled back into his deck chair.
"Mm. Keep sailing."
"YES, SIR!"
This time, their obedience wasn't because of Kizaru.
It was because they had just witnessed absolute power.
JOIN MY PATREON TO READ ADVANCE 50+ CHAPTERS
patreon.com/Kora_1