One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

A large, bearded giant staggered out of the crowd and came before Loki, offering him an item.

Loki took it with a grin, then froze.

"Huh? What's this? A human skeleton?"

The giants surrounding them were also stunned, and they all turned their gazes toward them.

Many giants had already issued displeased rebukes, and a noisy murmur arose from one after another.

"Hey! You bastard, it's fine if you don't offer a gift or cheer, no one will say anything, but why did you bring up this unlucky stuff? You don't actually think this human skeleton is a treasure, do you?"

"Are human skeletons black? This is the first time I've ever seen black skeletons."

"Wait, who is this guy? I've never seen him before. Hey! Who's on guard duty today? Didn't anyone know a stranger came to the village?"

The bearded giant froze, then looked up, revealing a face with sunken eyes, high cheekbones, and an extremely weak appearance. He roared, "Hey, you bastards, there's a limit to jokes! Don't you recognize me? I'm the one in charge of guarding today!"

"You? Don't be ridiculous. Jason is in charge of guarding today, not you, you old hag." A giant sneered. At the same time, guards stepped out from the crowd, carrying chains, to grab the bearded giant.

The bearded giant looked left and right, and realizing that the expressions on the faces of these familiar faces didn't seem like jokes, he suddenly became anxious. Pointing to his face and patting his thick beard, he exclaimed, "I am Jason! How could you not recognize me? Am I dreaming? Halding! It's me, Jason!"

Halding was stunned. He stared intently at Jason's face for a long time before his eyes widened and he exclaimed, "It really is you, Jason! You... how did you become like this? You look like you've been drained dry."

Jason realized that something was wrong with his body when he heard Halding's exclamation.

He looked at his hands and saw not the giant arms that were once thicker than a hundred-year-old tree, but a pair of withered, emaciated skeletal hands, nothing but skin and bones.

His once strong and full chest had become thin and bony, and the leather armor that had been tight on his body was now loose and baggy, like a large, drafty tent.

"How...how did I become like this?"

Jason felt a surge of panic, but when he saw Loki casually toss the black skeleton to the ground, he became excited, rushed over, grabbed the skeleton, and presented it to Loki with both hands, saying in a trembling voice, "My king, I didn't lie to you, this really is a treasure, it must have fallen from an erupting volcano."

"Oh? Really?" Loki showed little interest and was somewhat reluctant to engage.

Seeing this, Jason placed the black skeleton on the ground, gritted his loose teeth, took out an incredibly heavy giant axe from behind his back, and under the suspicious gazes of the crowd, gripped the axe, panting heavily, shouted, and swung it down fiercely, the axe striking the human skeleton on the ground.

The giants heard a loud bang as Jason's broad, sharp axe blade shattered into countless cracks and exploded, leaving only a bare axe handle.

On the ground, the pitch-black human skeleton, not only was it not severed by Jason's slash, but it also remained completely intact, as black as ink.

The giants gasped in astonishment.

"My God, what kind of skeleton is this? Human? Are you kidding me? Are human bones this hard? I think it's the skeleton of a demon god."

Hearing the gasps of the crowd, Jason smiled with delight, picked up the black skeleton again, carefully wiped away the dust, and handed it to Loki.

"My king, see, I told you this was a treasure! I've tested it, and this skeleton is incredibly hard. Whether it's soaked in lava, smashed with a giant axe, or broken with force, it won't suffer the slightest damage. If used as a weapon, it would be an indestructible peerless weapon, most suitable for King Loki, the strongest warrior of Elbaf."

Loki's eyes lit up, showing interest. Just as he was about to take the skeleton for a closer look, he heard Dorry snort, "That's because you're not strong enough, Jason. Look at you, all skin and bones. What are you doing lately? You've gotten yourself into this state."

As he spoke, he strode forward, snatched the black skeleton from Jason's hand, tossed it into the air, then drew his greatsword from behind his back. With a flick of his wrist, black aura enveloped the greatsword, and with a loud shout, he swung it wildly.

"Sunsaw!"

With a deafening "clang!", an even louder explosion rang out. The black skeleton, which had been thrown into the air, was cleaved by Dongli's greatsword and sent flying thousands of meters into the air before crashing down.

"It's Leader Dongli! Such power, much stronger than that Jason guy."

"Chief Dongli is right, Jason's strength is too weak to prove anything..."

The noisy discussion stopped abruptly after the black skeleton fell back to the ground.

Even Dongli's eyes widened.

"Is it really that hard?" He looked at the unharmed skeleton on the ground, feeling a sense of shock.

“I told you, we can’t destroy it no matter what, but you didn’t believe me.” Jason looked at the dumbfounded giants and felt extremely pleased, even forgetting about the abnormality in his body.

Dongli, stroking his beard, was somewhat skeptical and wanted to call Brogy along to test the hardness of the black skeleton with their combined attack, Overlord.

However, Loki walked over at this moment, waved his hand and said, "Chief Donley, let me give it a try."

"Please make yourself at home." Dongli nodded and stepped aside.

Loki looked at the skeleton on the ground, waved his hand, and a giant phantom more than twenty meters tall appeared behind him. It was the soul of his father, the former giant king Odin.

Odin's soul entered Loki's body as he moved. The next moment, Loki's short, stout, and fair body swelled up like an inflating balloon, instantly transforming into a 25-meter-tall, bearded giant. Soul energy extended from his hand, condensing into a double-bladed axe.

Loki gripped his giant axe with both hands, roared, and bolts of black and red lightning appeared on his massive body, coiling around the axe as he slashed wildly down at the skeletons on the ground.

"Entangle! Sunsaw!"

"Get out of the way!" Dorry's eyes twitched, and he unleashed a weakened version of the Great Sweep, sending the giant standing in front of Loki flying.

The next instant, a world-shattering slash erupted from the giant axe in Loki's hand, cleaving the ground thousands of meters in front of him in two. The narrow crack stretched all the way to the coast, splitting the entire village of Elbaf in two.

"Hmm? Something's not right! Father!"

Just as the giants were marveling at Loki's power, Loki suddenly let out an incredulous exclamation.

"What happened?" Donley and Brogy looked over immediately and saw that the giant axe in Loki's hand suddenly shattered, turning into a black phantom torrent that broke off from his body and drilled into the crack in front of him, its target being the black skeleton that had fallen into the depths of the crack.

That phantom was the soul of the Giant King.

As Odin's soul was extracted from Loki, his towering and majestic body quickly reverted to its original short and stout form.

He stared furiously at the black skeleton deep within the crack.

"What kind of evil thing is this? It actually stole my father's soul from my hands!"

Chapter 835 Flesh and Blood Resurgence

"Shanks, Prince Loki is going to challenge King Odin today and vie for the throne. Everyone's going to watch, aren't you going to go and see?"

At the entrance to Elbaf village, in a tavern by the coast, a five-meter-tall, snotty-nosed giant child stood in front of an eight-meter-high bar, looking at a red-haired man sitting on a seven-meter-high stool, constantly chugging alcohol, and asked curiously.

The red-haired man, his body wrapped in many white bandages, held a wine glass in front of him, pouring one glass after another into his mouth. The murky wine flowed down the corners of his mouth, wetting his clothes and the bandages on his chest.

He remained silent, neither answering the giant child's question nor turning to look; he simply drank his wine in silence.

Shanks' eyes were vacant, his face unshaven, his hair disheveled, and he reeked of alcohol. His sword, Griffin, lay carelessly on the floor in front of the bar, its scabbard piled high with disgusting vomit.

"Are you really not going? I heard that Prince Loki can release the spirits of Elbaf, and he's a giant magician." The giant child was still unwilling to give up and wanted to drag Shanks along to watch Prince Loki's coronation battle.

The adults said that the battle for the new and old thrones would be fierce, and they were worried that the onlookers would be caught in the crossfire and suffer unnecessary casualties. Therefore, the giants under the age of sixty were not allowed to watch the battle, which made the giant children very eager to watch.

That's why this little giant, who's not even twenty years old yet, would set his sights on Shanks.

Because Shanks is a distinguished guest of Elbaf, he is one of the very few humans who can directly gain the friendship of the entire giant race. Even the King of the Titans would give him great respect and frequently invite him to the palace.

Previously, the leaders of Dorry and Brogy had extended a warm invitation to Shanks to attend the ceremony, but Shanks declined.

He'd been drinking in this bar for days and nights. He'd drink when he was awake, sleep when he was drunk, drinking until he was completely out of it, until he vomited everywhere.

If he weren't Shanks, he probably would have been thrown out by the giant owner of the tavern long ago.

Seeing that Shanks ignored everything he said, the giant boy walked out of the tavern dejectedly.

But a short while later, he came running back, shouting excitedly. He ran up to Shanks, who was already drunk and fast asleep on the bar, and yelled, "Shanks, Shanks! More outsiders have come to our village. Are they people you know? Their ship looks just like yours, and they even have dragon heads on the bow!"

Seeing that Shanks still ignored him, the giant child's excitement faded considerably, and he muttered as he walked outside.

"If you don't want to go, fine, I'll go see it myself. I saw giants on their ship too, giants I've never seen before. Are there giants elsewhere? I even saw a bear, a talking bear. I heard Sister Kelly say it was some kind of navy..."

"Navy?" Shanks, who was in a deep sleep, suddenly opened his bloodshot eyes, and his Observation Haki suddenly spread out, sweeping across Elbaf in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, he gritted his teeth, his face contorted in agony, and he vanished from the high stool in an instant, along with the Griffin longsword on the ground.

"You G5! How dare you show your face in front of me! You're asking for death!"

At the port of Elbaf Island, the Kirin approached from afar, slowly slowing down.

"No matter who you are, stop immediately and turn around and get away! Otherwise, don't blame us for taking action."

On the port, even during the grand change of the throne, more than a dozen giant warriors who remained steadfast raised their swords and grabbed several massive cannons, comparable to coastal defense guns of a naval base, aiming them at the Kirin.

On the Kirin, Palmer looked at Elbaf, a place he had always dreamed of visiting, took a deep breath, stepped out, stood at the bow, and shouted, "Don't be nervous, Elbaf giant brothers, we are not bad people. We are the Navy of the G5 branch. You should know Oimo and Kashi, right? They are currently serving in our G5 branch as Rear Admirals."

"I don't care what kind of navy you are, get out of here immediately!"

The giants guarding the area roared in impatience.

Under normal circumstances, they might have considered letting the Kirin into port to inform them. But right now, a war for the throne is taking place in the village. At such a critical moment, not to mention the Navy, which they've never really been fond of, even the pirate crews affiliated with the Red-Haired Pirates would have to undergo strict checks if they wanted to come over.

Seeing the dozen or so giants in the harbor already loading cannonballs, Pamel became anxious, but didn't know how to explain himself to get permission to land on the island.

"No need, Parmel, turn around. I'll go take a look by myself." Hibari had already anticipated this, so he wasn't surprised.

Giants are inherently xenophobic and have little affection for the Navy. Moreover, the Navy's intelligence in the New World already revealed that the Red-Haired Pirates are in close ties with the giants of Elbaf.

So Hibari took a huge risk by coming here. If Shanks or Itachi were on this island, they would be in danger.

However, Lark had no choice but to come, because she truly felt an extremely familiar sense of warmth here—it was Rorschach's presence.

This feeling wasn't perceived through Observation Haki, but rather was countless and indescribable, much like the telepathic connection Bepo had previously described.

As Lark spoke, his body rapidly faded away, disappearing from Pamel and Bepo's sight, as if merging into the air.

She activated the Cloud-Cloud Fruit's reflective camouflage ability, transforming herself into a transparent cloud. She took off from the slowly turning Kirin and flew from the high sky towards the depths of Elbaf Island, towards the direction from which a familiar feeling emanated.

"Oh no! There's murderous intent!"

Suddenly, sensing that the lark had flown away, Bepo's white fur bristled and he screamed in alarm.

At the same moment, a shockwave exploded beneath the feet of the Kirin standing beside him, blasting a large hole in the deck of the Kirin. The small body shot out like a cannonball and rushed towards Yun Que.

"Mom! Watch out!"

Qilin roared, gripping Eagle Eye's black sword Night, and slashed at the void above Yun Que's head.

"You damned bastards, how dare you come up to me like this! Die!"

"Gods, beware!"

Shanks appeared in the air above Hibari as if by teleportation, his longsword crackling with terrifying Conqueror's Haki, and he slashed down with a single strike.

With a "whoosh," a scarlet light burst forth from the Qilin that soared into the sky. Its small body was cleaved in two by the Overlord Blade Light, and blood gushed down from the sky like a waterfall. Its life or death was unknown in an instant!

"Kirin!" Hibari's eyes widened in horror, and his body rapidly expanded, transforming into the form of a fire goddess, unleashing a torrent of furious flames at Shanks.

However, she was facing Shanks.

With a single slash, the flames that surged toward Shanks like a tsunami were sliced ​​in two, the terrifying blade pointing directly at Hibari's face.

"Heat Breath!"