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Chapter 176 - Chapter 176: An Unbending Moria, A Dirty Play by Ozz

Just as Ozz had expected, the moment he hinted at recruiting him, Gecko Moria's eyes went bloodshot and his face twisted with rage.

"Are you kidding me. I crossed blades with Kaido. How could I ever bow to anyone."

Losing his entire crew to Kaido was the wound of Moria's life. Even so, he had no thought of kneeling. He had holed up at home and, by what others would call a dumb method, kept stockpiling strength.

A man like that had more thorn in him than most of the future Warlords combined.

Fury broke the dam. Shadows boiled off Moria's body. His expression snapped into that manic, all-in look, and sheets of darkness turned into corpses and then into a skyful of bats.

"Oh. That is a big net," Ozz said, looking up at the chittering cloud that moved like real bats. He gave a helpless little smile. "Perfect timing. I have been poking at a tiny breakthrough in my Devil Fruit awakening."

Arms folded, Mihawk watched from the side. Ozz's unhurried air told him everything. He treated the bat storm like a summer drizzle and simply raised his hand.

Inwardly, he sifted through what he knew about awakening.

Zoans awaken into steam and smoke, then spike in life force and defense, a straight shot of beastly reinforcement.

Paramecias awaken by homogeneizing the environment or imposing their property upon it.

He wanted to push the Teleportation Fruit toward true spatial manipulation, but he could not become a man of space. He had not eaten the Chop-Chop Fruit. He could not blink his body away while leaving his head behind. He would need another route.

Suppose it were a Space Fruit. What would it do.

Ozz opened his palm and focused on a single invisible point at its center.

"God: Planetary Devastation."

The unseen point floated free of his hand. The space around it began to contract, or rather, the surrounding space was teleported toward a single singularity. It was not gravity. It was space migrating toward a center until the fabric threatened to tear.

Sweat beaded Ozz's brow.

In theory the move worked. In practice the stamina drain was monstrous. It chewed through him faster than Teleportation: Recovery when he was gravely wounded.

Under that spatial collapse, the bats that were nothing but shadow had no path to flee. Even the space they occupied was squeezed into a dot.

"What the hell is that," Moria breathed. The black sphere rose and its intake widened. Every instinct in him screamed.

Touch that little ball and you die.

He backed away.

Ozz, for his part, had never meant to kill him. He would not have talked this long otherwise. He crooked a finger and the orb drifted back into his palm.

He studied it, stroking his chin.

Compressed space rendered into a sphere. Whatever was inside had to be dense beyond belief. It even felt a little like one of Kuma's compressed air bubbles.

He lobbed it far out to sea.

When the space unraveled, mass and distance came roaring free. The ocean jumped into a thousand-meter-wide crater, then heaved. Fortunately Ozz had thrown it far enough. Otherwise the tsunami alone would have swamped their ship.

"Spectacular," he murmured.

First try, excellent result.

He could use it like a mushroom cloud from now on. A few of those might rival Imu's island eraser. Ozz was pleased. Moria's skull only rang.

Power like that.

It was more awe-inspiring than the dragon from back then.

Was today the day he died.

He knew the gulf between himself and the apex monsters that roamed the sea. Still, as a man of the sea, he would not live on his knees.

Dying on his feet might be better.

"All right, Black Emperor. Enough games. My life is right here. Take it."

Moria roared.

Ozz took one last look at the distant disaster gouged into the sea, then glanced back at Moria's all-or-nothing glare and shrugged.

"What is the hurry. Try it."

"My shadow is right here. Come cut it."

He wanted to grind some of the edges off Moria, so he was in no rush to end it.

Blood pounded in Moria's head. Pride and temper had always been his weak joints. Ozz's tone lit the fuse.

"If you wanted to anger me, you succeeded."

"Black Emperor."

The death wish receded under the surge. At the very least, he would make Ozz bleed before he fell. He wanted to see the man flustered. That would be enough.

"Gigantification: Shadow Horn Spear."

He pulled every scrap of shadow he could tear off his zombies and packed it into himself. A colossal horn of darkness swelled into being and aimed straight at Ozz.

"Die."

"Oh my. Where did this adorable little girl come from."

A smile touched Ozz's mouth just before the spear hit, as if he had been waiting for Moria's heart to crack. He opened his hand. A tiny body hugging a plush bear appeared there.

Silence.

The massive horn froze in midair. The pupils in Moria's eyes pinholed.

"Perona."

Cradled in Ozz's arm was a sleeping girl clutching Kumacy.

There was no denying it. This was a despicable move.

Downright underhanded.

But Ozz saw no other way. Moria feared nothing in the world, except for the people at his side. Only this would cut through his reflex to crash himself to pieces. Only then could they talk.

And it was a bluff. If it had not worked, he would have put the little one back where she was.

"Seems it worked. Using a child as leverage though, I really am drifting into villain territory," he muttered. With an army of villains under him and a habit of tempting members of the so-called main cast, Ozz had been wandering that road without noticing.

"This kind of thing does not suit me. Here, you take the kid, Hawk," he said.

He snapped his fingers. The sleeping Perona dropped into Mihawk's arms. The swordsman jolted, nearly fumbled her, then caught her by reflex.

"Why am I doing this," Mihawk barked.

A straight-edged swordsman like him had no taste for threatening a father with a child.

"What does it matter. I have a feeling you and this kid are oddly fated," Ozz said lightly.

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