One Piece: Kaido's adopted son, starts with the Eight Gates Formation.

Three. Five. Eight. Thirteen.

Lynn counted them; there were thirteen tentacles in total, extending from all directions on the ground and surrounding him.

"You're the worm?" Lynn asked.

The tentacles stopped swaying.

The ground shook violently again—this time, the entire gray wasteland cracked open.

A gigantic body rose from the ground.

If I had to describe it in words—it's like a hybrid of an earthworm and an octopus magnified countless times. Its gray body is covered with dark green spots, each spot a closed eye. Its "head"—if it can be called a head—is a huge, round mouthpart, with layers upon layers of teeth rotating inwards.

Deep inside the mouthparts, something emitting a faint silver glow can be vaguely seen—

The right arm of King Ling.

"Found it." Lynn took a bite of her lollipop.

All the eyes of the worm, which had been "silent," opened simultaneously.

Hundreds of dark green eyes stared at Lynn.

There was no hostility, no murderous intent. Only one extremely primal, instinctive feeling—hunger.

It wanted to eat him.

"You can't eat me," Lynn said.

The worm has no language ability and cannot understand what it says.

It simply opened its mouthparts.

Hundreds of thousands of years of hunger erupted at this moment, and all the tentacles lunged at Lynn simultaneously—

Lynn held up one finger.

He tapped the nearest tentacle.

The tip of the tentacle stopped the moment it touched Lynn's finger.

It wasn't bounced away, nor was it frozen.

It was after the "annihilation" power of the tentacles collided with Lynn's "absolute present" that both became immobilized.

The power of "annihilation" can bring everything it encounters to an end.

But Lynn's story didn't "end."

He is "now".

"Now" will not end.

As long as this moment exists, "now" will always be "now".

The worm's tentacles became confused upon encountering this paradox. The remaining twelve tentacles hesitated, afraid to approach further.

The countless dark green eyes blinked a few times in unison—this was probably its way of expressing "confusion."

Lynn pushed aside the stopped tentacles and drifted closer to the worm's mouthparts.

All eyes were fixed on him, filled with a contradiction of hunger and confusion.

Lynn looked at the Spirit King's right arm, which was emitting a faint silver light deep inside the mouthparts, and took the lollipop out of his mouth.

"Open your mouth," he said to the worm.

The worm obviously couldn't understand.

Lynn tilted her head and tried a different approach.

His silvery-white pupils flickered—his omniscient eyes worked, reading the worm's most primitive "instinctive signals."

He then simulated a signal—an instinctive signal to "spit out what's in your mouth"—which was transmitted directly into the worm's core consciousness.

The worm's body twitched violently.

It didn't want to vomit. That silvery thing had been inside its stomach for hundreds of thousands of years; it had become part of its body. Vomiting it out would be like a person being asked to vomit out their stomach.

But the signal was too strong. So strong that its instincts couldn't resist it.

The worm's mouthparts begin to spasm as they contract and expand.

"Alright, alright, stop looking so pained." Lynn floated to the worm's mouthparts and flicked its "lips" with her finger. "I'll give you something else to eat after I spit it out."

He pulled a handful of lollipops from his pocket—all kinds of flavors—orange, grape, strawberry, cantaloupe—and threw them into the worm's mouthparts.

The worm's teeth crushed the lollipop, and the sweetness spread throughout its mouth (if you can call it a mouth).

Hundreds of eyes flashed simultaneously.

Then—the worm vomited.

A fist-sized, silvery object was ejected from deep within the mouthparts and slammed onto the gray ground.

The Spirit King's right arm—"The Right of Stagnation".

It rolled twice on the ground, making a crisp sound.

Lynn floated over and picked it up.

It feels cool to the touch.

Everything that touches it will "freeze"—but Lynn's hand will not be frozen.