At this moment, however, the Five Elders had failed to realize a critical point:
If not for the Holy Land Guard Corps—commanded by Kong—acting as bait and drawing all the pirates of the First Division into Red Port…
And if Sakazuki, a top-tier powerhouse, hadn't forcibly stalled the First Division's advance…
Then even the unbelievably destructive impact of the Exploding Rock would never have produced such an absurd result in a single strike.
After all, the existence of Observation Haki made this type of trap nearly useless against strong fighters—
and the Dark Matter Pirates had no shortage of strong fighters.
If the battle between Sakazuki and Esdeath hadn't unintentionally interfered with the Observation Haki of many individuals, most of the elite combatants should have been able to escape with their lives.
Let us rewind time by just a few minutes.
At the instant the Exploding Rock activated, Katakuri—who had been monitoring the frontline situation—suddenly felt his expression shift dramatically.
His legs transformed into compressed mochi with powerful elasticity, launching him toward the pirate ship of the Second Division that was closest to Red Port.
The former Big Mom Pirates stationed there were already prepared, ready to march toward Red Port the moment Boros issued the order.
The overwhelming performance of the First Division had fired up the Second Division's pirates.
They wished they could go back to the start of the battle and take the First Division's place—
maybe they would have had the honor of being the first to storm Mary Geoise!
Among them were Katakuri's younger siblings.
As core members of the Charlotte Family, Big Mom's children naturally formed the backbone of the Second Division.
On this ship alone—the one closest to Red Port—three of Katakuri's younger brothers were present.
"Big Brother Katakuri! Are you going to lead us personally to attack the World Government?"
Charlotte Kadanz shouted excitedly.
He, Conte, and Cavallet are among the rare Charlotte siblings who have never eaten a Devil Fruit.
All three were highly skilled in Armament Haki and martial arts, each possessing incredibly strong physiques.
Thus, they were assigned to the vanguard assault team.
Although their mother had already declared Katakuri a traitor to the Charlotte Family, Kadanz and the others still preferred to stand with their elder brother.
But Katakuri obviously had no time to respond.
The moment his feet touched the deck, a gigantic mushroom cloud erupted over Red Port.
A world-shaking shockwave and a typhoon-like blast of wind followed instantly.
"Flowing Mochi: Barrier!"
Mochi surged endlessly from Katakuri's body, forming two massive hands that clapped together in front of the ship.
Before the blast wind reached them, he had already created an incredibly thick mochi wall.
Boom!
Almost the instant the barrier formed, the shockwave slammed into it, violently battering the mochi shield in front of the ship.
Fortunately, this rapidly arriving—and rapidly fading—blast of wind didn't manage to destroy the ship.
In fact, it even shoved it backward, away from the coast.
The mochi barrier, incredibly resilient, was dented inward with enormous force—
but it never showed the slightest sign of breaking.
Seeing this, the pirates—finally recovering from the terror of the explosion—let out sighs of relief.
On the open sea, the most terrifying things were never sea monsters, but natural disasters like storms and tsunamis.
The blast wave from Red Port's explosion couldn't compare to a true storm in duration,
but its instantaneous power was even greater.
However, just as everyone on the ship relaxed, Katakuri's expression remained tense.
Within the future-sensing perception of his Observation Haki, the real challenge was only about to begin.
"Mochi Octopus!"
Scalding-hot mochi burst from the palms of Katakuri's outstretched hands. In midair, the mochi split apart, forming tentacle-like strands that drove deep into the seabed beneath the pirate ship, anchoring it firmly in place.
A second earlier, the pirates on the ship hadn't even realized what was happening—
but the towering wall of water sweeping in from Red Port made every face instantly turn pale.
The Second Division members were all seasoned veterans. With just a glance at the height of the water wall and the speed at which it was approaching, they could already gauge its destructive power.
Even the most slow-witted among them now understood why Katakuri had suddenly rushed over.
He had clearly come for this exact moment.
Boom!
Before Katakuri's younger brothers could even sigh about how dependable their big brother still was, the tsunami pushed ahead by the massive explosion came crashing down upon the Cosmic Dark Matter Pirates' grand fleet.
Within moments, over a hundred ships of the First Division were swallowed by the sea.
No matter how the pirates tried to save themselves, they were powerless before the "heavenly wrath" of the ocean.
Even the ship Katakuri currently stood on—as part of the Second Division—was nearly dragged into the depths along with everyone aboard simply because it was too close to Red Port.
Fortunately, the mochi tentacles anchoring the ship were strong enough to hold it in place from beginning to end.
Even so, quite a few unlucky pirates were swept away by the tsunami—but since none of them were members of the Charlotte family, Katakuri, who only cared about his relatives, paid their deaths no mind.
"Gulp… what the hell happened over at Red Port…?"
Cavalette—tall and strong like his brother Kadanz—couldn't help swallowing hard.
Even though none of them were Devil Fruit users, getting caught in a tsunami of that scale would skin them alive even if it didn't kill them outright.
"Katakuri-nii… are we still supposed to keep attacking? Maybe we should wait…?"
Staring at the enormous mushroom cloud rising over Red Port, Charlotte Conte—who looked almost identical to his two brothers—spoke with clear unease in his voice.
They were not inexperienced rookies. They had all just brushed past death a moment ago.
If their distant position still put them at risk of being wiped out, then imagining what Red Port itself looked like was easy—
a living hell.
The entire First Division, which had launched a full-scale assault, might very well have been completely annihilated.
Under these circumstances, if the Second Division marched into Red Port now, who could say whether the World Government had another one of those super-bombs ready to blow the place sky-high again?
Kadanz and Cavalette repeatedly nodded beside him, their three bearded faces filled with lingering fear.
The three brothers had been thoroughly terrified by the World Government's madness.
Everyone knew: no matter how tough their bodies were or how strong their Armament Haki was, they could never survive an explosion that had nearly obliterated half of Red Port.
Even monsters on the level of Beasts Kaido or their mother might not survive something like that!
"…We wait for now."
Staring at Red Port—of which an enormous chunk of the coastline looked as if something had gnawed it away, nearly the entire shore having vanished—Katakuri's expression grew increasingly grim. He couldn't help but feel a faint regret.
If he had known the battle would be this dangerous—dangerous enough that even someone like Lady Esdeath, a top-tier powerhouse capable of contending with Mama herself, would fail—then no matter what, he would have found a way to move his younger siblings into the Third or even Fourth Division.
He had originally believed that with over a hundred thousand New World pirates in the First Division, they could take Mariejois by sheer numbers if needed. But now, it was clear he had underestimated both the World Government's strength and its resolve.
Just the fall of Red Port's outer perimeter had forced the Government to resort to such a brutal method—destroying not only their own desperate defenders but also the invading pirates, along with nearly half of Red Port itself.
And once they took Red Port, what would be waiting for them?
°°°
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