Chapter 740: The Informed Moria
As he spoke, Moria's terrifying three-masted ship had already docked at the shore.
A large gangplank was laid down on the beach, and Moria's towering figure stepped onto it, walking down from the ship. Behind him followed his subordinate, Absalom—the lion-headed invisible fruit user.
"Hehihihihi!" As he walked down the ship, Moria let out his signature eerie laugh, addressing Crocodile, who sat on a rock by the shore draped in a coat: "Sand Crocodile, we meet again! How about it? Never expected this, did you?"
Crockodile tilted his chin up and said, "Moonlight Moria... you really did come riding the moonlight! But I'm puzzled—weren't you supposed to be dead, you bastard?"
Reiju, Robin, and the others also stared at Moria. Everyone still remembered that after the Battle of New Edd War, the World Government had indeed listed Moria among the casualties in the newspapers. In fact, he was the only Warlord of the Sea on that death list. Along with the report, the World Government had conveniently stripped Moria of his Warlord title...
But now, Moria was standing right before them in one piece—well, not exactly in one piece. His massive belly was wrapped in thick bandages.
As soon as Crocodile brought this up, Moria's face twisted with rage, and he couldn't help but touch the wound on his abdomen—a painful memory left by Doflamingo.
Just like a person who has lost their shadow, even if sunlight has melted half their body, as long as the shadow remains intact, they can instantly recover. Moria, as a Shadow-Shadow Fruit user, was indeed not so easy to kill. Doflamingo had indeed pierced through Moria's body, but before that, sensing danger, Moria had already transferred a portion of his shadow in advance, hiding it in the shadow of a nearby rock. After Doflamingo left, that portion of the shadow returned, instantly replenishing Moria's physical state and granting him new vitality, bringing the dying Moria back to life.
However, because the strings that pierced his body at the time carried Haki, Moria's real body was still injured. Doflamingo, in a hurry to leave, hadn't fully confirmed Moria's death, which allowed him to scrape by. Otherwise, if he had died before the shadow returned, the Shadow-Shadow Fruit's power would have dissipated instantly, and he would have been truly dead.
For the past few months, he had been hiding to recover, which is why the bandages were still wrapped around his abdomen.
Every time he recalled this experience, Moria couldn't contain his fury, gritting his teeth and saying, "I won't die, so someone else has to die!"
Although Moria didn't know why the World Government had ordered Doflamingo to kill him, it didn't matter. He knew who the culprit was, so he spoke up: "Where's your captain, Black Dragon Ian? I'm here to seek cooperation. This new Emperor will definitely be interested in the information I've brought!"
"Cooperation?" Crocodile laughed exaggeratedly and said, "Moria, I always thought you'd just hide in the misty sea playing with your zombies alone. I never thought you'd want to cooperate with someone one day!"
"Hmph! What's wrong with that?" Moria glared at him. "The seas aren't what they used to be. You, Crocodile, have joined the Dragon Hunter Pirates. Jinbe has boarded the Straw Hat Pirates' ship. Among the former Warlords, only Hawk-Eye and the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock still hold the title, but the World Government and the Marines can't order them around anymore. The newly joined Clown Buggy is just a guy looking for treasure and money. The World Government only has Edward Weevil and the Pacifista Bartholomew Kuma to use. The entire Warlord system is already a hollow shell. Under these circumstances, I have to find a way to protect myself too!"
"So, you want to become an ally of the Dragon Hunter Pirates?" Crocodile asked.
"That's right!" Moria laughed again with his "hehihihihi" and said, "Crocodile, you should know who defeated me when I first entered the New World, right?"
"It was Kaido!" Crocodile nodded.
"Exactly!" Moria gritted his teeth. "That bastard... that demon! He killed all my companions back then. I'll remember that grudge for the rest of my life. So later, I accepted the World Government's invitation and became a Warlord, using the privileges to gather strength in the misty sea of the Devil's Triangle..."
At this point, Crocodile grew impatient and tapped the rock he was sitting on with his hook hand, saying, "Moria, I'm not interested in hearing about your past experiences. Get to the point!"
"Hmph, your personality is as annoying as ever!" Moria snorted unhappily.
"Right back at you!" Crocodile retorted.
Still, swallowing his irritation, Moria spoke up: "I've fought the Beast Pirates and survived, so no one knows them better than I do. I have information on Kaido's Three Calamities and even a way to kill Kaido. If the Dragon Hunter Pirates cooperate with me, I'll provide all this intel!"
"..." Crocodile stared at Moria like he was an idiot and said, "Information on the Three Calamities as a condition for cooperation? Are you out of your mind?"
"Hehihihihi!" Moria laughed loudly. "The world only knows that Kaido of the Beasts has three great calamities under him, but most people have only seen Jack the Drought, right? As for the other two, you might have heard their epithets, but how many truly know their identities and abilities?"
Crocodile and Reiju exchanged a glance. Moria's words made them realize that they indeed knew very little about the other two calamities.
"Alright, go ahead then!" Crocodile said. "Since the captain and first mate aren't here, I'm in charge. You need to at least show me some sincerity!"
"Fine. The situation with the Three Calamities might not be that big a secret, so I'll tell you!" Moria waved his hand without looking back and said, "Abs, come here!... Abs? Absalom!"
He called out a few times but got no response from Absalom. Turning around, he saw Absalom staring dreamily at the two beauties, Reiju and Robin...
Reiju had already noticed Absalom's lecherous gaze, and seeing him still making that face, she grew annoyed. She vanished from her spot and appeared beside Absalom in an instant, landing a whip kick on his face.
Absalom's teeth flew out of his mouth, and his entire body was sent flying, crashing into the sea surface, bouncing up and down like a skipping stone before landing in the distant water.
"..." The group was speechless as they watched this nameless character, who hadn't said a single word since appearing, get taken out. Only Reiju clapped her hands, walked back slowly, and high-fived the smiling Robin.
"What exactly are you trying to say?" Crocodile asked Moria.
"Wait... wait a moment, let's save that bastard first..." Moria wiped a cold sweat, thinking that everyone in the Dragon Hunter Pirates was tough. Such a beautiful woman had just taken out his executive with a single kick.
The zombies on Moria's ship would be done for as soon as they hit the water, so the only one who jumped into the sea to save Absalom was Hogback, who had stayed on the ship.
After Absalom was finally rescued, he was already unconscious. His sharp teeth had been shattered by Reiju's kick, and he lay motionless on the ground while Moria pointed at him.
"See this?" Moria pointed at Absalom. "Abs's modifications—his mouth and jaw are a lion's, and his skin has elephant hide. He's full of beastly power. I had Hogback modify him to eventually deal with the 'Beast Calamity' Kin of the Three Calamities!"
"You mean the Beast Calamity Kin... is a lion?" Robin asked Moria with a strange expression.
"Yes, a ferocious and powerful giant lion!" Moria said with lingering fear. "Of course, that's his transformed form. I don't know if it's the power of his Zoan fruit awakening or if his Devil Fruit is an ancient species, but that lion Kin indeed has a massive body far beyond ordinary Zoan users. When he transforms, he's even taller than Jack the Drought's mammoth form—a giant beast! That's definitely king-of-beasts-level power!"
"You modified this idiot..." Reiju pointed incredulously at the unconscious Absalom on the ground and asked Moria, "To fight a beast king? Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
Moria felt a bit awkward. Absalom wasn't just a pervert; his strength also fell far short of Moria's expectations. But since he had always been loyal, Moria kept him around as an executive.
So he couldn't help but defend himself: "Of course, he wouldn't fight the Beast Calamity Kin alone. In fact, to counter the Beast Pirates' many Zoan users, I also used many beasts in the zombies I created... They could all attack together..."
Indeed, among the many zombies Moria had created with his shadow power, there were plenty of bizarre beast zombies. After his defeat by Kaido, Moria had spent his time in the misty sea nursing his grudge, always treating the Beast Pirates as his imaginary enemy. Not only did he modify Absalom into a lion-man to counter the Beast Calamity Kin, but to deal with Kaido, his greatest foe, he had even specially obtained the corpse of the Demon Oars, injecting shadow power to revive it.
Because the Demon Oars had a body as massive as Kaido's, with similarly huge curved horns, and after becoming a zombie, it seemed to possess an undying body like Kaido's...
If nothing had gone wrong, when his power was sufficient, Moria might have challenged Kaido of the Beasts again, with the Demon Oars as his ultimate trump card against Kaido.
But unfortunately, the Straw Hat Pirates' appearance had destroyed all of Moria's hard work...
Every time he thought about it, Moria's heart ached as if it were being squeezed.
"Alright, let's set the Beast Calamity Kin aside for now. What about the Plague Calamity?" Crocodile asked.
"Mm, that's what I'm about to say!" Moria nodded, his expression turning serious. "That's right, Queen the Plague is indeed a woman, but many people might have it wrong. Although her epithet seems to rank second, she's actually the true leader of the Three Calamities!"
"Oh?" Crocodile asked curiously, "Why?"
"Besides being the Beast Pirates' strategist, there's another very important reason!" Moria looked up and pointed at the full moon in the sky. "Never fight Queen the Plague on a full moon night!"
"Because she's a warrior from Zou, a powerful and eerie... fox demon!!!"