Chapter 1050: The Death of a Yonko

Chapter 1050: Chapter 1050: The Death of a Yonko

"Ugh..."

Beside a shattered stone pillar, Br?lée groaned amidst the rubble. She blinked her eyes, dazed and unfocused, before bracing herself against the jagged, gravel-strewn ground to pull herself up.

The moment she looked up, her breath hitched. The Mirror World, her world, had been reduced to a scene of absolute devastation. There was hardly a patch of ground left untouched; mirrors on the walls, pillars, and ceilings alike had been pulverized into shimmering dust.

"You... you’ve got to be kidding me... My world... how did it come to this?"

Br?lée stared in hollow shock, unable to process the wreckage of her own domain.

Rumble—

A massive boulder plummeted from above, crashing into the earth nearby with a thunderous roar. The shockwave startled her out of her stupor.

"Is the battle over? Where is Mama?"

Realization set in, and a look of profound unease crossed her face. She had been unconscious for a while, yet the Mirror World was now deathly silent, so quiet that, were it not for the ruined landscape, one might think nothing had happened at all.

"Mama! Mama!"

Panic gripped her heart. She began to run, calling out to her mother as she sprinted deeper into the Mirror World. Her voice echoed fruitlessly against the empty expanse.

The Mirror World had expanded significantly, stretching all the way from Totto Land to the Clifford Kingdom, making her search an arduous task. She ran for what felt like an eternity, but outside of her own frantic cries, there was only oppressive, deafening silence.

Finally, within a labyrinth of uplifted stone plates and debris, she spotted a massive silhouette.

"Mama!"

Her face lit up with relief, and she hurried her pace, rushing toward the center of the wreckage.

But as she closed the final hundred meters, weaving through the jagged debris, her smile froze. The expression on her face shifted into one of sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

"M-Mama..."

A cold dread flooded her chest. She took two hesitant steps forward, her entire body trembling. She wanted to touch Charlotte Linlin, but her hand stalled in mid-air, paralyzed by terror.

Charlotte Linlin stood before her, her body charred black. Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. A gaping, jagged hole had been ripped through her chest, still oozing crimson. Even more terrifying, the woman whose "Iron Balloon" body had been impervious to conventional steel and bullets was now riddled with wounds of all sizes.

"..."

Br?lée had never, in her entire life, seen her invincible mother reduced to this. She whispered brokenly, "Mama... Mama..."

But Charlotte Linlin, her eyes locked in a permanent, hollow, furious stare, remained motionless. She offered no response. The trembling of Br?lée’s body intensified.

It was then that Br?lée noticed something at her feet: the bicorne hat, split by several deep tears. She slowly bent down, her fingers shaking as she retrieved the tattered accessory. Her voice was a terrified gasp. "Na... Napoleon?!"

"Prometheus?!"

She frantically scanned the surroundings. Aside from a flicker of rapidly fading flame some ten meters away, there was no sign of the others.

"And Zeus? Is he... gone?"

Despair threatened to consume her. She gripped the ruined hat, her lips turning pale as she muttered to herself, "Don’t tell me... have Mama’s three great Homies been killed?"

"And Mama? No... it can’t be! Mama wouldn’t... she wouldn’t!"

"Mama is an invincible existence!!!"

"Mama! Wake up! Please, Mama!"

Br?lée’s composure crumbled. She lunged forward, collapsing at Charlotte Linlin’s feet, sobbing with a heart-wrenching, piercing cry.

But no matter how loudly she wailed, no matter how desperately she begged, the grim, unchangeable reality remained...

Mama was dead.

In that moment, Br?lée felt as if the sky itself had collapsed upon her.

The Emperor of the Sea, the monstrous pirate who had dominated the Grand Line for decades, the one who even the Pirate King Roger had dared not confront head-on, the captain of the Big Mom Pirates, the ’Yonko’ Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin, was dead!

One could only imagine the horrific shockwaves this would send through the world.

The ambitious hopefuls eyeing the empty ’Yonko’ throne, the remaining three Emperors, the opportunists praying for chaos, the Revolutionary Army seeking to topple the World Government, and the reckless newcomers looking to stir the pot...

With two ’Yonko’ dead in just over two years, the vacuum of power would inevitably ignite a new, uncontrollable wave of piracy! It would be a cataclysmic upheaval that even the World Government and the Marines might fail to contain.

Of course, those future concerns were far from Br?lée’s mind. After wailing for over half an hour, she suddenly noticed something strange.

The battlefield. There’s one person missing.

"Where is that bastard, ’Golden Ring’ Aeridar?" Br?lée wiped the snot and tears from her face, staring blankly at her surroundings.

After all this time, how could she not find the damn man who fought her mother?

Could it be...

A sudden thought occurred to her. Did Mama take that man down with her before she passed?

"No! That can’t be right!"

Br?lée shook her head vigorously. She knew the bastard possessed flight, teleportation, and near-instant regeneration, he wasn’t the type to die so easily.

That means he’s still alive. He must be heavily wounded, lying somewhere, unable to move while he recovers!

Her eyes glinted with newfound resolve. If that’s true... do I have a chance to kill him? To avenge Mama... and perhaps even etch my name into history?!

A dark, vengeful smile crept onto her face. She scrambled to her feet, hastily wiping her face with her sleeve, and began to search the area with renewed vigor.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long. In a massive crater hundreds of meters away, she spotted a familiar figure. The slight rise and fall of his chest was proof enough. He was still alive.

The crater spanned over a hundred meters in diameter and reached a depth of dozens of meters. A cold sweat broke out on Br?lée’s brow; it was impossible to fathom the physical strength required to smash such a hole into the earth and survive. If it had been her, her own body would have been obliterated long before causing such destruction.

"Damn monster..."

Br?lée cursed under her breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she cautiously descended into the pit.

Crunch... crunch...

The gravel shifted under her feet. As she drew closer, her body began to shake again.

After twenty minutes of agonizing tension, she finally reached the murderer of her mother.

Br?lée peered down, and the blood drained from her face. Her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

The man lying before her, eyes closed in rest, had barely a scratch on him. Aside from his shredded clothing and a few dried smears of blood, he showed no signs of mortal injury.

"Wh-what... what kind of joke is this... How... how can he be uninjured?!"