[Boom!]
The sharp blade of sand, almost three meters long, grew even larger as it was released. It tore through the storm and finally exploded with force.
It left a horrible scar hundreds of meters long and several meters deep on Hachioji City.
"I found it..." Crocodile's gaze fell on a point of light inside the crack. The Infinity Castle was too dazzling in the darkness underground.
In the next instant, it turned into a sand cloud again and disappeared into the storm.
Inside Infinity Castle.
Muzan and Gus had stopped fighting due to the sudden violent shaking.
"What's going on?" Muzan frowned and looked dissatisfiedly at Nakime, who showed a panicked expression.
"My Lord... there is a sandstorm outside, and the... the earth above us... is opening..." Nakime was trying to explain the situation outside Infinity Castle.
[Crack!]
At this moment, a strange cracking sound echoed above their heads. Everyone looked up and was shocked to see that the Infinity Castle was full of cracks.
Immediately, yellow sand began to fall through the cracks. As the cracks grew larger, more and more sand flowed out.
"So it's him…"
Seeing this scene, Gus immediately understood what was happening. However, the loss of his right arm filled him with helplessness. He knew that from now on he could only work behind the scenes.
"Nakime, get all this sand out of here!" Muzan, seeing that the sand did not stop accumulating, felt a chill run through his body. Instinctively, he knew that he couldn't leave this unresolved.
"Yes!" Nakime, following the order, quickly strummed his biwa. Immediately, in the places where the sand fell, sliding doors appeared out of nowhere.
Some doors led to distant towns, others to deep forests. But something strange happened. Just as the sand was about to pass through the doors, it seemed to gain consciousness and detoured, avoiding the doors.
At the same time, the sand began to expand rapidly, blocking the doors completely.
"This…" Nakime, Muzan and the other demons were stunned. Suddenly, Kokushibo shouted: "This isn't normal sand, it's some kind of special ability!"
At the same time, the sand began to float and rotate in the air. In the blink of an eye, the entire Infinity Castle was filled with sand.
"Kuahahahaha!" At this moment, wanton laughter resounded.
"It's your people!" Muzan immediately realized that it must be some monster sent by the World Government and rushed towards Gus with the intention of devouring him. So he could get all the memories of him and find out who controlled the arena.
But a dense mass of sand gathered in front of Gus, blocking the way to Muzan.
"Hmph, it's just a pile of sand!"
Muzan gave a cold smile, and his right arm transformed into a whip covered with thorns. With a violent sweep, he attempted to disperse the sand.
[Bang!]
The sand exploded, but the whip remained trapped in the mass of sand, failing to completely disperse it.
The sand began to take human shape at a visible speed. A three meter tall giant emerged.
"You are the Demon King?" Crocodile, with an arrogant expression and a cigarette in his mouth, looked at Muzan. Then he grabbed Muzan by the neck and lifted him to his level, with a look of contempt. "So weak~"
"You…!" Muzan was furious. "Let me go!" With his left hand he tried to break the bones of the giant's hand, while with the thorns on his back and legs he furiously hit Crocodile.
[Bang! Bang! Bang!]
But as he attacked, Muzan's expression became stiff. He couldn't believe what he saw.
Every part of the giant he hit turned into sand, even his head and chest. And he showed no signs of pain. Not only that, the damaged parts were soon filled with more sand, recovering instantly.
"You! Who...are you!" Muzan, furious, noted that Crocodile's strength was overwhelming. Even with his strength he couldn't break him grip on his neck.
Meanwhile, Kokushibo, Doma, and other members of the Twelve Kizuki, along with Nakime, were attacked by an increasingly intense sandstorm. They had no choice but to use powerful techniques to repel the sand and wind around them.
But Muzan had no time to worry about them. "Ahhhh!"
"Let me go, you damn bastard!" Muzan could no longer contain himself and shouted in fury. Immediately, an extremely powerful and terrifying force field burst out from his body. It was an almost substantial shock wave, which shattered Crocodile's body and the ground.
This scene surprised Crocodile, who, not far away, was reconstituting himself from the sand, still holding Gus.
"Is this the Haoshoku Haki-like skill mentioned in the reports?"
"Yes, if they were ordinary people or common soldiers, they would probably have fallen unconscious…" Gus said gravely.
"It's just that the range is a bit small. It seems that the main effect of this move is physical destruction. The mental impact should just be a side effect."
"Kuahahahaha, this is quite interesting~" Crocodile threw Gus into the air, and a gust of wind and sand held him in the air.
Crocodile then transformed back into sand and, in an instant, appeared behind Muzan. His right hand went towards Muzan's neck once more.
Muzan's face changed drastically, and he tried to dodge, but the speed difference between the two of them was too great.
"Let me see, how many times can you use that trick just now, or are you going to use a different trick this time?" Crocodile leaned towards Muzan. As he spoke, a dense cloud of smoke spread over Muzan's face.
At that moment, Muzan's eyes reflected fear...
He was scared.
Run!
He had to find a way to escape!
With that thought, Muzan made a quick decision and cut his own neck with his sharp whip, abandoning his head. Using his knowledge of the Infinity Castle he began to run as he quickly regenerated a new head.
"Sables ~"
In the next instant, a sand tornado emerged from nowhere, launching Muzan into the air, and Crocodile began to slowly walk towards him.
"Don't leave so quickly. I heard that, apart from sunlight, nothing can kill you. I'm very interested in that. You'll need to accompany me for some experiments..."
As soon as Crocodile finished speaking, the speed of the sand tornado increased drastically and the gravel within it even condensed into sharp blades of sand.
"Aaaaahhhh!"
In an instant, Muzan was torn into pieces.
When the tornado dispersed, most of the flesh and blood fell to the ground under Crocodile's deliberate control.
While Crocodile waited for Muzan to regenerate, small baby hands and eyes emerged from the larger pieces of meat, trying to escape.
Crocodile was puzzled for a moment and then burst into laughter.
"Kuahahahaha!"
"Kibutsuji Muzan, you have really pushed your regenerative ability to the limit. In that, I must admit that you are a strong opponent."
After saying that he stopped laughing and his gaze turned cold as he said: "But without my permission, you won't go anywhere."
The sand in the Infinity Castle stirred even more, and pieces of Muzan's flesh were dragged back before Crocodile.
With no other option, Muzan composed himself, assuming his human form again.
At this moment, Muzan had an extremely gloomy expression. "Okay, I give up. What do you plan to do with me?"
"What those people want to do with you has nothing to do with me. Now I just want to see where the limits of your self-healing ability are~"
...
Other Worlds Strategic Committee Command Center
"Crocodile has captured Kibutsuji Muzan and Nakime. He is returning to Gus and Horobi. However, he eliminated the Twelve Kizuki on the grounds that they were too much trouble. They were excellent experimental materials!" Fernandez sighed, already imagining Dean Fritz's complaints.
"What we have to keep in mind is that Crocodile caused a big ruckus this time. Look at this! These are the latest newspapers collected by our agents." A vice president pointed to several newspaper pages on the table, visibly annoyed.
"As we said before, the location of the origin of the 'super sandstorm' in Aokigahara will be thoroughly investigated by the Japanese government."
"Let's leave that matter to Cipher Pol, they are the professionals. Our only requirement is that we not be discovered in these two months." Fernandez said nonchalantly.
Although Crocodile's actions seemed chaotic, he had also proven the depth and capabilities of the Japanese government and this world.
Clearly, they had no means to resist a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, or rather, they did not understand the concept of this type of devastating power.
Just like what was reported in these newspapers, it was completely regarded as a natural disaster.
Actually this is quite strange.
Muzan and the Twelve Kizuki possessed supernatural abilities. However, they had kept the secret so well that most of the population considered them legends, and not even the Japanese government seemed aware of them.
This other world, although it had a large population, good technological level, and interesting resources, lacked high-level combat forces. That was his greatest weakness.
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