Chapter 142 Encounter at Sea

Half a month later, in the waters of Alabasta.

A pirate ship flying the bat skull flag of the Thriller Bark Pirates was slowly sailing toward Alabasta.

This ship was currently the flagship of Gecko Moria. However, far from possessing the majestic grandeur of his original Thriller Bark, it was riddled with holes and battered into shambles, looking as though it had just endured a battle akin to a violent storm.

And indeed, that was precisely the case.

"That lunatic..."

Absalom, currently moonlighting as the shipwright, looked at the huge hole freshly left on the deck not long ago and said with some depression:

"Didn't we just 'borrow' a ship from him?"

"To think he chased us all the way to Alabasta!"

Perona did not chime in with her companion's somewhat shameless remark this time, for she knew that Lord Moria hadn't merely borrowed a ship from the fellow.

That unlucky pirate crew had kindly rescued the distressed Moria and his company from the sea, only to be met with Moria's immediate betrayal on the spot.

Aside from the captain, who managed to escape alone, the entire pirate crew had their shadows stripped away by Moria, turning them into prisoners hiding under the deck where they could never see the light of day. The pirate ship itself was also usurped by Moria to serve as his own flagship.

It could well be described as total annihilation.

Unexpectedly, however, that solitary, pretty-boy captain did not slink away in defeat to live a cowardly life. Instead, like a mad dog, he kept biting at Moria's heels and refused to let go.

"He must find it hard to let go of his cherished companions, right?"

Perona muttered to herself with a hint of emotional resonance, then reached out to gently stroke the pet horse standing beside her:

"Right, Falulu?"

The pure white horse, which did not have a single speck of stray color on its entire body, shuddered at those words, and an expression of human-like panic actually flickered across its equine face.

It immediately gave a flattering whinnying sound in response to its master's question, lowered its head, and affectionately netted against Perona's cheek, finally managing to please the high-maintenance Ghost Princess.

This white horse named Falulu was the former captain's mount, just as exquisitely handsome as its pretty-boy master.

However, compared to this one-in-a-million steed, Perona, with her eccentric aesthetic tastes, actually preferred her original zombie bear pet.

Yet since that zombie bear had sunk to the bottom of the sea along with Thriller Bark, a heartbroken Perona had no choice but to use a few tricks to train this white horse into her own pet, treating it as a substitute for the zombie bear to comfort herself.

Naturally, Moria was in no mood to watch Perona train her useless horse; he was simply pricked by Perona's casual remark about "not being able to let go of his companions," causing his brow to furrow deeply.

"Not being able to let go of his companions?"

Moria's eyes inexplicably turned a bloody crimson, and his massive body trembled uncontrollably:

"He is nothing more than an upstart junior who knows nothing of the immensity of heaven and earth!"

"As long as they are living companions, they will die!"

"If they don't die by my hands this time, they will die by someone else's next time! What qualifications do those without strength have to possess companions?!"

[...]

Faced with Moria's sudden burst of temper, even the carefree Perona did not dare to answer back.

And the pet horse that Perona had only recently finished training was so terrified that it trembled violently, trying its utmost to hide its bulky body behind petite Perona.

After a long silence, the nameless fire in Moria's heart finally subsided a fraction.

Moria's gaze locked tightly onto the mast destroyed by the aftermath of battle, and reason in his brain regained the upper hand:

Although he verbally dismissed that pretty boy as a junior who "knew nothing of the heights of heaven and earth," Moria had indeed remembered this young enemy whose name had yet to truly resound across the seas:

The fencing genius, Cavendish of the White Horse, known as the Pirate Prince.

He was born in the Rommel Kingdom of the New World, and since childhood had been a locally renowned handsome man and great genius. For various reasons, he became a pirate and then ventured into the first half of the Grand Line.

However, this young pirate with boundless potential had barely begun making his way through the first half of the Grand Line before he most unfortunately encountered Moria, a Warlord of the Sea who devoured people without spitting out their bones.

Yet, although this fledgling pirate captain repeatedly suffered defeat at Moria's hands, he grew more battle-hardened with every loss and braver with every fight.

In merely half a month, that pomade-slicked Cavendish had grown to the point where he could retreat unscathed right in front of Moria.

From easily suppressing his opponent to gradually falling into a situation where he was almost evenly matched with that young man, the decadent middle-aged Moria abruptly felt what a mid-life crisis was like, half-trance-like, as he seemed to already foresee the lonely scene of his own former wave dying on the beach.

"I must become stronger!!"

Moria gritted his teeth and silently chanted the two words 'grow stronger' in his heart, yet the first thought that flashed through his mind remained the habitual thinking he had cultivated over years of holing up in the Florian Triangle:

"I want to gather more and stronger shadows to create an invincible zombie legion!"

"Lord Moria!"

The warning voice of the ship's lookout suddenly echoed across the vessel:

"An unidentified pirate ship has appeared ahead!"

This lookout was not a new recruit Moria had gathered in recent days, but rather a new zombie he had replenished from the merchant ships and pirate ships encountered along the way.

Ever since many years ago, Moria had been unwilling to use living people as subordinates.

Therefore, aboard that massive Thriller Bark, apart from Moria, there were only three living people: Perona, Absalom, and Hogback.

"Are there new prey?"

Moria gazed at the distant pirate ship, which was gradually coming into view and flying an unfamiliar, dazzling golden-sword banner, and burst into a wicked, weird cackle:

"It seems Dr. Hogback will have to work overtime..."

However, his laughter had not lasted long before it abruptly stiffened on his face.

For from atop the pirate ship he regarded as prey, a black dot suddenly leaped forth. That black dot vaulted high into the air and streaked across the sky like lightning with ghostly speed.

The black dot grew larger and larger, and Moria gradually discerned that this unidentified flying object was actually a young knight clad in armor and wielding a greatsword.

The knight's greatsword radiated a dazzling brilliance, burning with a mixed fire of gold and crimson. In appearance, it was the absolute antithesis of Moria's plump vampire aesthetic.

Moria's expression immediately turned solemn, because the long-distance Moonwalk demonstrated by this knight alone proved that his strength was extraordinary—he was definitely not the kind of passing merchant traveler that Moria could casually manipulate.

"Slash!"

While the knight's figure was still suspended in mid-air, the flaming greatsword in his hand had already descended.

A broad slash of sword qi formed and condensed beneath the edge of the heavy sword, and the searing flames blending into the sword qi warped and twisted the surrounding air.

Like a white rainbow piercing the sun or a blue dragon plunging into the sea, this golden stream of light fell from the horizon, striking Moria's flagship like a falling star.

Ever since following Moria, Absalom and Perona had always bullied passersby on their home turf using zombies, and their only head-on battles were the recent skirmishes with Cavendish of the White Horse.

Seeing this flying slash of staggering might, Moria's two sole combatants were struck numb in their limbs and left with blank minds.

Fortunately, Moria was, after all, an old captain who had seen stormy seas; the moment the sword qi condensed into shape, he instantly executed a countermeasure:

"Doppelman!"

The shadow beneath his feet abruptly twisted and warped, strangely rising into the air from the ground and ultimately transforming into a standing, solid black shadow.

The black shadow stood faithfully in front of Moria, unyieldingly meeting that fierce sword qi.

The golden-red sword qi collided with the pitch-black phantom, eerie in that it produced no sound whatsoever.

Yet that incomparably sharp sword qi nearly cleaved the black shadow in half at the waist, and the strange flames erupting from the sword qi scorched the shadow until it became illusory and distorted.

Moria's pupils constricted, and alarm bells rang wildly in his heart:

Although "Doppelman" was actually just a formless black shadow, under the influence of Moria's Devil Fruit ability, it had become incomparably sturdy, and ordinary physical combat experts could not scratch it in the slightest even with painstaking effort.

Yet now, a sword qi casually swung by the enemy could ravage it to this extent; the opponent's formidable strength was self-evident.

"Who are you?!"

Moria immediately assumed the posture of a victim, his expression too tense to dare make a rash move: "Why attack me?!"

The knight merely descended heavily from the sky, fearlessly barging alone onto Moria's flagship, and said in a ringing voice:

"This sea route does not allow pirates to pass. It is as simple as that."

"If you want to keep your life, you must first withstand the test of this sword of justice."

"What?!"

Moria was laughed to anger by the other party's arrogant tone:

"Not letting pirates pass? This is the Grand Line!"

"Do you think this ocean belongs to your family?"

"Correct."

The knight nodded in earnest:

"This ocean does belong to my family."

"I am Gaius, Lord of Rain Dinaries. You have broken into our Alabasta maritime defense identification zone."