Shadow's Asgard

The tower and mansion grounds of Thriller Bark stand in wrecked silence after Luffy's giant attack. Oars lies crushed into the rubble, his massive body folded under the impact while smoke rolls through the broken buildings. The watching victims and Straw Hats stare at the motionless giant, and one of them says, "... Even a zombie wouldn't be able to stand up again after that beating!!" Another finally dares to believe it: "Oz... He lost...!!! For sure this time...!!!" The shock spreads through the crowd of monsters and victims alike. "What's going to happen... to Thriller Bark...?" someone asks as everyone faces the ruined battlefield. The fight against Oars seems over, but the question hanging over the page is larger than the fallen giant: what will become of the island, of the zombies, and of the stolen shadows as dawn approaches?

The victory begins to settle in. Nami looks across the battlefield, exhausted and stunned, while Lola and the others take in the fact that Oars has truly fallen. A stitched creature says, "They really did it." Another mutters, "They're pretty impressive..." The zombies and victims who served Moria begin to panic in a different direction now: "What happened?" "Where's our master?" Perona, watching the wreckage, can only admit, "We really brought some unbelievable guys here...!!" The shadowless people erupt into cheers, led by Lola's huge shout. "They won!!!" she cries. "They really did it this time!!!" The relief is enormous because these people have been trapped in darkness for years, and for the first time the Straw Hats seem to have broken the power that kept them from walking under the sun.

The crowd's gratitude pours over the broken mansion. "Thank you! You guys are the best!!!" they shout. "You really are our Ray of Hope!!!" But before the celebration can become real, Luffy suddenly drops back to his normal size. People cry, "Ehhhhhh!?" "He shrunk!!!" and "Who are you!?" as the hulking Nightmare Luffy is replaced by the battered ordinary Luffy lying in the rubble with a weak "Uuu...!!" Nearby, Oars remains down but not completely destroyed. From inside the giant, Moria realizes what the blow has done. "It doesn't hurt... but I can't move...!!" he says, while the damaged spine and ruined body prevent Oars from standing. Oars lies helpless, and Moria asks in confusion, "Why did you shrink!?" The borrowed shadows are gone, and Luffy's time as Nightmare Luffy is over.

The Straw Hats and victims realize that Moria is still conscious. Someone looks toward the wreckage and says, "He's still conscious..." Chopper understands the medical horror of what they achieved: "The bones in his spine must be shattered, but we still couldn't destroy him. This ability makes a complete mockery of life...!!!" Another voice warns, "The sun." Across the battlefield, Zoro and Sanji sit battered and breathing hard, too wounded to rush in. Brook feels something strange in his own body and says, "... What is this feeling? I feel shivers down my spine...!!" Meanwhile, Usopp panics beside the fallen Luffy. "Hey, Luffy!!! Get your shadow back, quick!!!" he yells. The battle is not finished because the shadowless Straw Hats and victims are still seconds away from annihilation by morning light.

The survivors turn their urgency back toward the stolen shadows. "We don't have time to celebrate!! You guys are going to disappear!!!" someone shouts. "The shadows! That's right!! We need to hurry!" Lola screams, "Go wake Moria up and get our shadows back!!! The morning sun is almost up!!!" Before anyone can reach him, Moria rises out of the wreckage from atop Oars. "There's no need to wake me...!" he says, emerging conscious and furious. The crowd cries, "Moria!!!" The zombies, still loyal to him, rejoice: "Uoooh!! Master!!" and "Thank goodness you are unharmed!!!" Another insists, "There's no way that Lord Moria could lose!!!" In the middle of the ruins, Moria's survival turns the moment of victory back into dread.

Moria stands high on Oars's broken body and faces the crowd. A victim pleads, "Release all of our shadows!!" Another yells, "If you don't want to get beaten up by the Strawhats again," and someone else adds, "That's right! Give them back, you bastard!!" Moria answers with a laugh: "I... If you're awake, then that's perfect!! Now... Kishishi... This isn't some kids' fight...!!! A real pirate doesn't back down, even from death." Lola shouts, "How dare you try to use my shadow powers!!! Shut up!! Return our shadows!!!" Luffy, still battered, glares back and says, "That's because you got in the way of our voyage!!! Give our shadows back before the sun rises!!!" Moria turns his hatred on Luffy: "Strawhat... How dare you... You've made a mess of my Thriller Bark...!!!"

Moria threatens the Straw Hats with the lesson of the Grand Line. From the ruins, he declares, "If you continue your voyage, the only thing awaiting you is death... With your strength, the 'New World' is far out of your reach...!!! It looks like you've gathered some pretty good crew members." His smile splits wide as he asks, "But you're going to lose it all!!! Do you know why!?" The crowd begs Luffy to stop talking and focus on survival: "Hey!! Strawhat!! You don't have time to stand around and talk!! Look at the sky!! It's already this bright...!! Please, get our shadows back!!" But Moria answers his own question with the bitterness of experience. "There's no more time!!!" someone says, while Moria says, "I'll tell you, from my own experience. I gathered subordinates... famous and capable. Why did I lose them all...!?"

Moria's rage becomes a doctrine. He spreads his arms and shouts, "I lost my nakama because they were alive!!! If I start with zombies who are dead from the start, then I have nothing to lose!! Zombies are immortal!! Even if they are purified, I can replace them! It's an infinite army!!!" The crowd reacts with alarm: "!!?" Moria announces his ambition, "I will aim to become the Pirate King again with my army of the dead!! Be happy that your shadows will become part of it!!!" As he speaks, shadows begin crawling and streaming from across the island toward him. The ground around the Straw Hats and victims writhes with black shapes. One person cries, "Uwaah!! What's going on!?" Another shadow latches onto a body, and someone yells, "Wah!! It's sticking to me!!" Zoro turns sharply, sensing the new threat.

The shadows Moria commands tear free from zombies all over Thriller Bark. They leap from bodies, portraits, creatures, and corpses with sharp sounds of "Pin!" and "Dokun!!" leaving their hosts collapsed and empty. Moria's eyes narrow as he commands, "Come to me, shadows of Thriller Bark...!!! Become my strength!!!" Across the island, his power gathers into a huge pull. The wide view shows Thriller Bark under the gaze of two enormous shadowed eyes as the technique takes shape: "Shadow's Asgard." The victims and zombies stare up in horror, mouths open, as the shadows stream toward their master. This is not a simple attack; Moria is recalling the stolen power of the entire island to concentrate it into his own body.

The effect spreads everywhere. A zombie collapses and someone cries, "His shadow is gone!!" Another body falls backward with "Bro!!" as its stolen shadow slips away. Nami realizes the scale of it: "Those shadows! He couldn't be!!" One by one, shadows streak over the ground toward Moria. "He's gathering all the shadows from around the island and collecting them into his own body!!" someone says. Moria sits like a dark, swelling mass atop the ruins while black streams pour into him. Luffy watches, remembering the hundred shadows that once filled his own body. Moria fixes his gaze on him and says, "Strawhat...!!" Luffy answers in thought, "The number of shadows you had... was it one hundred...!?"

Moria decides to exceed Luffy's borrowed power many times over. As shadows continue to rush into him, he counts them. "Then I will take 200..." The flow grows, and the numbers rise: "300..." "600..." "700..." His laughter swells with the transformation: "Kishi kishishishishi...!!!" Finally the page reveals the horrifying total. Moria towers over the battlefield, swollen into a grotesque giant body stuffed with black power, and declares, "1000...!!!" The Straw Hats and victims below are tiny before him. The difference between one hundred shadows in Luffy and one thousand in Moria is made brutally visible: he becomes a monstrous mass of strength and arrogance, believing sheer quantity will let him crush everyone before dawn.

The crowd recoils from Moria's new form. "Uwaaa ahh!!!" someone screams. "It can't be...!!" Another cries, "It's over...!! What the hell is that!?" Luffy, returned to his normal body, says quietly, "I'm back to normal." The morning sky is brightening: "It's pretty much dawn already!!" A victim understands the danger in Moria's size: "With a hundred shadows, Strawhat took care of Oz like he was nothing... Now Moria has ten times that amount!? Is the actual ability user's capacity that different!? We're done for!!!" But Luffy notices the strain in Moria. The swollen warlord grunts, "Oooh... Puh... ...!!!" and Luffy looks at him with a small reaction. Around them, panic spreads: "What's with this, now...!? This can't be!!!" "Strawhat's shadow is in there, too." "Run away! It's all over."

Moria's overloaded body surges upward and shakes the entire mansion. His roar, "Ooooooo oohh!!!" makes everyone flinch. Nami cries, "Hey, hey, hey!!!" while Sanji and Brook stare in alarm. Moria lifts himself and the ground he stands on, ripping the central structure and the landscape apart. From below, people scream, "Uwaaah!!" and "!!?" as the scale of the body becomes impossible to ignore. The page emphasizes the distance between the tiny fighters and Moria's towering, inflated mass. The power of a thousand shadows does not look controlled or elegant; it looks like a disaster swelling beyond its container, with Thriller Bark itself beginning to break under his movements.

Moria's huge body keeps tearing the island apart. He howls, "Oooohh!!!" while the victims scream, "The island is breaking up!!! The mast mansion is tilting!!!" The shadowless people abandon hope again: "We're really done for this time!!!" and "Run!!! Get back to the forest!!" The ruins shift and collapse as Moria rampages in place, too enormous and unstable for the battlefield. A panel of the brightening sky cuts through the chaos, showing that dawn is no longer distant. Someone is thrown backward with a cry of "Uwaaah!!!" The danger has become double: Moria may crush everyone, but even if he does not, the rising sun will erase anyone whose shadow remains stolen.

Sunlight begins leaking into Thriller Bark, and panic turns into survival instinct. "Gyaaah!! I'm disappearing!! My body is disappearing!!" one victim screams. Others shout orders: "Get in the shadows!!" "The morning sun is leaking through!!" "Use the shadows to get back to the forest!!" "Stay in the shadows of the buildings!!!" Lola's crew pleads, "Captain Lola!! What are you doing!? Quickly!!!" and "You guys get away." Lola refuses to run. When someone tells her, "You should run too, captain," she answers, "I... am responsible for this gamble." The shadowless victims see that the Straw Hats are also in danger: "They're not budging an inch...!! They've had their shadows taken, too...!!" Luffy and the Straw Hats stand their ground. "Our long-awaited 'Ray of Hope' is in a pinch," someone says, and another asks, "If they haven't given up on victory, they can't still think they can win, can they...!?"

Lola chooses to stay behind while forcing the others to save themselves. She tells her crew, "You guys run!! It is my duty as captain to remain here. Take good care of yourselves now..." They cry, "Uwaaah Captain Lola!!!" and try to warn her, "The sunlight is getting through there!! Quickly, into the shadows!!!" Lola answers with trembling resolve, "It's fine!!! This is what people mean by placing your hope on someone's shoulders!!!" The Straw Hats understand that Moria is losing control: "This is getting out of hand... He's totally out of control..." Robin says, "He's ruining himself with his rage and foolish pride... We'll leave the rest to you!!!" As Lola's crew runs, the battlefield clears. Luffy stands before Moria and says, "There's no more time, everyone!! I'm gonna get a little wild!!" Moria snarls, "All right, take care of it!!!" and Luffy answers, "Moria!!! If you want a nightmare, then I'll show you a good one. I have no intention of playing with you!!!"

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