Chapter 1006: Perhaps I Am a Madman

Chapter 1006: Chapter 1006: Perhaps I Am a Madman

"Am I seriously facing an opponent as terrifying as Germa 66 in my very first clash? Well, I suppose it’s a lot better than going toe-to-toe with the main force of the Big Mom Pirates! But still... this is Germa 66 we’re talking about! The legendary Army of Evil!"

Standing on the bow of the Gran Tesoro, Buggy paced back and forth, muttering endlessly to himself. Draped in his signature plush captain’s coat and sporting his bicorne hat, he peered through a spyglass, his expression fraught with nervous agitation as he scanned the approaching line of giant snail ships that loomed over the water like seafaring fortresses.

Standing beside him, Gild Tesoro cast a thoroughly exasperated look at Buggy. "It is a mere Germa," Tesoro said, his voice dripping with cool arrogance. "In my domain, I do not tolerate their insolence."

Ever since Buggy joined the Seven Warlords Alliance, the two had engaged in mutual business ventures. Tesoro frequently hired the pirate mercenaries under Buggy’s command to handle the messy, under-the-table business of plundering and assassinating his rivals. Furthermore, Tesoro only ever cared about profit and never looked down on Buggy’s eccentricities, making their collaboration highly lucrative and smooth.

Buggy blinked, quickly wiping the panic from his face to assume an air of supreme arrogance. "O-Of course! I have utmost faith in your strength, Tesoro-sama! But even if I stood alone, Germa 66 would be nothing more than a minor nuisance before the great Captain Buggy!"

As he boasted, Buggy subtly glanced down at the solid gold deck beneath his feet, a flash of pure greed glinting in his eyes.

"Indeed. As a Warlord of the Sea recognized by the World Government, your exceptional strength goes without saying, Buggy-sama," Tesoro replied smoothly. Over their two years of partnership, Tesoro had long since seen through Buggy’s facade, yet he chose not to expose him, content to let the clown ramble.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, a relentless barrage of cannon fire erupted in the distance. The horizon flashed with blinding light as a hail of cannonballs tore through the sky, slamming into the open sea and raining down directly upon the Gran Tesoro. Colossal geysers of water erupted violently all around them.

Over a dozen 24-pound and 32-pound cannonballs scored direct hits on the hull of the Gran Tesoro. The impact caused the city-sized megaship to shudder, unleashing roaring plumes of fire and thick, billowing black smoke.

The violent tremor caused Buggy to stumble, nearly throwing him off the bow. A cold sweat broke out across his back as he clung desperately to the railing.

"G-Germa’s artillery is... is nothing to write home about!" Buggy stammered, wiping the sweat from his forehead as his voice trembled.

Looking down at the hull of the Gran Tesoro, several pitch-black cannonballs had embedded themselves deep into the port and starboard bow. Webbing fractures spread across the gilded framework, sending chunks of solid gold tumbling into the depths of the ocean.

By now, the twenty-odd pirate ships carrying Buggy’s mercenaries had fully engaged the Germa 66 fleet, trading heavy volleys as both sides ruthlessly poured ordnance into one another.

However, from the very onset of the exchange, the mercenary fleet was utterly suppressed. The giant snail ships proved themselves to be terrifying mobile fortresses. Boasting overwhelming firepower and impenetrable armor plating, the Germa fleet sustained nothing more than superficial scratches after ten minutes of intense trading. In contrast, they had already sunk one mercenary ship and left several others heavily damaged.

Had the massive Gran Tesoro not acted as a literal meat shield, absorbing nearly half of Germa’s concentrated fire, the mercenary fleet would have suffered far more catastrophic losses.

Unfortunately, the Gran Tesoro was fundamentally designed as an entertainment city, not a frontline warship. Although it was outfitted with three hundred cannons of 24-pound caliber and higher, distributing them across a hull spanning over ten thousand meters rendered their defensive fire a mere drop in the bucket. For now, they could only passively endure the onslaught of Germa 66.

Whew—Boom!

A concentrated energy blast streaked out from one of Germa’s fortress ships, boring a crater over a meter deep straight into the bow and blasting a shower of golden fragments into the air.

"Gold!" Buggy yelped. Diving behind a reinforced parapet, he swiftly snatched several fragments of shattered gold from the deck, stuffing them into his coat with lightning speed before instantly resuming an air of casual indifference.

"Germa’s technology is indeed fascinating," Tesoro murmured. Feeling the structural vibrations of his ship, a sharp, murderous glint flashed through his eyes.

The Germa Kingdom was a world-renowned scientific superpower. Though their artillery consisted of muzzle-loaders rather than modern breech-loaders, they utilized rifled barrels that granted them incredible range and accuracy, not to mention their sci-fi energy cannons. The sheer volume of their firepower was something even the Gran Tesoro could not withstand indefinitely.

In the next instant, the golden deck and the surrounding architecture directly behind the bow began to ripple like liquid. The molten gold surged upward, fusing together as it grew exponentially.

Within moments, a towering, majestic Golden Giant manifested atop the Gran Tesoro. Pink, glowing conduits coursed along its golden armor, pulsing with a steady flow of pure, concentrated energy.

"Germa! Bask once more in the power of a God!"

...

On the other side of the battlefield, the Chris Pirates were relying on their fifty new-model ironclad sailing warships to completely dominate the Big Mom Pirates’ fleet, despite the enemy outnumbering them nearly three to one.

Over a dozen tartes ships had already been sent to the ocean floor, while several capital ships and pirate vessels lay heavily compromised.

"Fuffuffuffuffu! It looks like my next flagship will have to be custom-ordered from your shipyards!" Donquixote Doflamingo cackled from his perch, squatting atop the mainmast of a black wolf-headed battleship.

Down on the deck below, Oliver sat cross-legged with his twin blades, Mikazuki Munechika and Nagamitsu, resting across his lap. His hands pressed lightly against the scabbards as he meditated with his eyes closed.

Seeing that Oliver remained silent, Doflamingo was not slighted in the least. He simply grinned wider. "As expected of a swordsman who has achieved the realm of a Grand Master. I truly cannot wait to see you challenge Hawkeye!"

The words had barely left his mouth when Doflamingo abruptly turned his head, looking toward the adjacent front.

"What’s this? That fellow Tesoro is already taking the field himself?!"

A thousand meters away, atop the golden megaship, a colossal golden colossus had risen. It was already raining devastating laser beams down upon the Germa 66 fleet.

"Moving quickly is for the best," Oliver replied flatly, his eyes remaining shut. "The faster we eradicate the Big Mom Pirates’ naval power, the sooner we can bring this war to an end."

"Fufuffuffufu! Aren’t we confident!" Doflamingo bared his teeth in a savage grin, mockingly inquiring, "Do you honestly possess that much faith that Aeridar can defeat Big Mom? That woman is a Yonko who has reigned supreme over the New World for decades!"

"The fact that you chose to show up answers your own question," Oliver said, finally opening his eyes to look calmly up at Doflamingo on the mast.

"Perhaps I am a madman, who knows! Fuffuffuffuffu~" Doflamingo threw his hands out, his smile growing increasingly vicious. "Speak of the devil, it seems we have a guest. Let me be the one to greet him."

A massive, djinn-like entity clad in armor was flying across the water. Its lower body consisted of a long, trailing plume of smoke that stretched all the way back to one of the capital ships within the Big Mom fleet.

"Damn it! What is that thing?!"

"It’s a Devil Fruit user! Stop it!"

"That’s Charlotte Daifuku’s ability!"

"Fire! Fire! Blow that monster to pieces!"

The decks of the Chris Pirates’ warships erupted into a flurry of shouted orders as the crews instantly trained their cannons on the approaching specter.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A dense volley of cannonballs cut through the smoke, completely blanketing the massive form of the genie.

"Genie Guillotine!" the entity roared. Swinging its massive halberd, it unleashed a ferocious diagonal slash through the air.

A terrifying gale of flying slash energy erupted. With a violent whoosh, the tempest swept through the oncoming projectiles, slicing every single cannonball cleanly in half and causing them to detonate harmlessly in mid-air.

Whoosh—

Surging through the billowing black smoke hanging over the water, the genie closed the distance in an instant, looming directly over the frontline of the Chris Pirates’ fleet.

"Genie-uine Rage Split!"

Locking its eyes onto the nearest black wolf-headed battleship, the genie hoisted its massive halberd high above its head and brought it down with crushing force.

Suddenly, countless transparent strings materialized above the warship. They wove together with blinding speed, forming a massive, intricate spiderweb that intercepted the lethal descent of the halberd.

Spider’s Web!

"I’ll be borrowing your mast! Break White!"

Doflamingo descended gracefully from the sky, landing lightly on the deck as he pressed a single hand against the battleship’s mainmast.

In an instant, the massive mast, constructed of solid oak and reinforced with outer iron plating, transmuted entirely into a colossal pillar of surging white thread. Composed of tens of thousands of razor-sharp, transparent white strings, it thrust violently upward, piercing straight toward the body of the genie.