Lingling's colossal sword was knocked aside, her eyes flashing with a trace of surprise. "Ma~ma~ma~ma! Interesting! Your Haki isn't bad at all!"
Ritter shook out his wrist and sneered. "If you're sick, don't pretend to be normal."
His pupils tightened sharply. Defeating Charlotte Linlin had nearly become his obsession. Against Uncle Rayleigh and even Whitebeard, he hadn't fought with his full desperation. But Big Mom was different.
To Ritter, she was special.
The battlefield swirled with blood mist, endlessly feeding his strength. In this state, Ritter was the undisputed strongest across the seas.
"Fog God Style Dragon's Maw!"
The Black Tide greatsword swung, dragging blood mist into writhing shapes. Dozens of monstrous dragon shadows surged forth from every direction, snapping their jaws at Charlotte Linlin.
"What the hell is this?!" Linlin roared, her Conqueror's Haki bursting forth, trying to disperse the threads of blood. But the mist-dragons latched onto her skin, biting down with relentless fury.
"Useless," Ritter's voice cut like ice.
Linlin suddenly hissed in pain. The blood-dragons had pierced her skin and were drinking her very life force.
"Damn you!" she roared, thrusting a massive hand toward Ritter's face. Her oppressive aura flared, trying to seize hold of his lifespan and rip it away.
But Ritter only tilted his head. "Sorry…"
His body melted into mist, intangible. Her ability had nothing to grip. The blood-dragons tightened all at once.
"What?!" Linlin's eyes widened. Her powers useless?
Ritter's figure reformed at her back. The same position, the same angle, his Black Tide greatsword driving toward her heart. "Didn't you explode before, old lady?"
"Chhhk!"
The sword pierced her back. Blood welled up but was instantly swallowed by the mist and absorbed into Ritter's power.
Linlin whirled with fury, sweeping her massive blade. But Ritter was already gone, leaving only a whisper behind.
"It's over. So easy… Welcome to your nightmare."
Ritter rammed the Black Tide into the ground.
"Fog God Style Final Scene: Blood Prison Scroll!"
Blood mist erupted like a tidal wave, engulfing Linlin whole.
Her vision warped. The last thing she heard was Ritter's voice, low and demonic.
"Now it's my turn."
The moment this technique unfolded, the balance of power shifted. Her famed "iron balloon" defenses meant nothing here. This art had been crafted for her.
Ritter's control was precise, his ferocity acknowledged by Whitebeard himself, his dominance undeniable. Against someone like Charlotte Linlin so unpredictable, so monstrous this nightmare fit her perfectly.
The instant Linlin bled, she had already lost her final hope of victory. Because Ritter knew her better than anyone.
She found herself standing in a grand banquet hall. Above, crimson eyes glared from the heavens. A long table overflowed with delicate desserts: cream cakes, chocolate fountains, caramel puddings… the air so sweet it suffocated.
"Ma~ma~ma~ma!" Linlin laughed, snatching a cake and shoving it into her mouth. But sweetness turned rancid on her tongue, the cream curdled into putrid blood.
"Urgh!" She gagged, spitting it out. The entire feast had rotted into piles of carrion and spoiled flesh.
"Delicious, isn't it, Linlin?" A childlike voice rang out.
Linlin spun. Sister Carmel, young and serene, stood nearby, a beating heart cupped in her hands.
"This is your favorite treat." Carmel smiled gently, offering it to her. "Eat, and you'll gain strength."
Linlin's eyes shrank. With a furious roar, she slashed down. "Get away! You're not her!"
The nun's body dissolved like smoke. Then the walls bled. From every corner, pale little hands clawed through the scarlet flood, seizing Linlin's ankles.
"Mother… why did you abandon us?"
Ritter sat upon a throne woven from mist, sipping strength as if through countless straws. Every move cost him nothing. Against Big Mom, he no longer cared about restraint.
The scene shifted again. Linlin staggered into the ruins of Totto Land. Blood-red warriors rampaged through the wreckage. Her cherished dream the land of sweets, her grand utopia crumbled piece by piece.
The sky was dark crimson. Candy houses lay in charred ruins. Her children sprawled across the ground. Katakuri's chest was impaled by his own mochi. Smoothie's sword skewered Cracker. Perospero's syrup congealed into clotted gore.
"No… this can't be!" Linlin stumbled back, Napoleon clattering from her grasp.
"Mother, you're finally here." Brûlée crawled from the shadows, her mirror shattered, half her body scorched. "We've been waiting. Stay with us."
"Silence!" Linlin smashed her with a single punch, her head shattering. But more children rose from the rubble, bloodied, weeping.
"Why didn't you protect us?"
Her Conqueror's Haki thundered, but it could not disperse the bloody phantoms. Even her iron defenses could not resist them forever. For each shallow wound, the mist seeped deeper into her flesh.
Unlike Whitebeard, Linlin lacked clarity of mind in battle. And this nightmare was Ritter's masterpiece, crafted just for her.
Her ears rang with shrill laughter her own, from youth mocking her present weakness.
The blood moon twisted. Linlin was back at the Elbaf orphanage. Only now, it was a wasteland. The air reeked of cloying sweetness that strangled the lungs.
Her stomach knotted violently, hands tearing at her insides.
"Hunger… so hungry…"
"No! I am Big Mom!" She screamed, her voice cracking. "I can't…"
But the hunger was real.
Children's laughter drifted from afar. Linlin looked up. A little girl herself, once ran toward Sister Carmel, cradling a bright red strawberry cake.
"Sister! Look, I found cake!"
Carmel smiled and accepted it. Then
"Smash!"
The cake splattered across the ground, cream streaking the girl's face.
"Useless," Carmel's voice chilled like steel. "You can't even protect a cake. What good are you?"
Linlin's adult eyes shook violently.
"No… no, that's not true… Carmel was kind, she she cared for me…"
But the blood mist had pried open every buried memory.
"Really, Charlotte Linlin?" Ritter's voice echoed through the crimson haze.
She remembered the missing children of the orphanage. She remembered the fear on Carmel's face whenever she raged. She remembered that snowbound night her frenzy, the taste of blood at her lips.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Linlin collapsed, nails digging bloody furrows into her scalp. Hunger and memory ripped her sanity apart.
That night she devoured Carmel. That night she gained the Soru Soru no Mi.
And now, every lie she clung to shattered like glass.
Ritter whispered in the fog. "Let me strike at what you fear most."
For Linlin, it was always the same. Her utopia. Her nun. Her children. Her fragile dream.
And Ritter would show her all of it until nothing remained.
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