NOVEL NEXT Chapter 65: The Mythical Beast of Legend
"They… They hollowed out the entire base of the island and built an underground facility?!"
As they passed through the massive steel doors, Jinbei released his Observation Haki—but was immediately overwhelmed.
He couldn't sense the full extent of the base at all.
Its sheer size was unfathomable.
Ahead of them, the hazmat-suited guards delivered the unconscious children into a colossal chamber.
Inside, a gentle-looking green-haired woman carefully examined each child while clutching a thick notebook, scribbling down data as she went.
Elsewhere in the room, another group of over a hundred children scrambled and fought fiercely over piles of strangely colored candy.
Jinbei and Law immediately connected the dots:
This candy had to be the source of the children's mutations.
And now, the true villain behind this horrific facility… had finally revealed a finger.
Roya disabled the cloaking distortion of his Observation Haki, cleared his throat, and appeared in front of the green-haired woman.
Jinbei and Law didn't hesitate—they struck in unison. One punch, one slash, and the entire hazmat squad was annihilated in seconds.
The green-haired woman gasped, stunned by Roya's sudden appearance.
"T-That—who are you people?! Guards! Intruders! We have—!"
She seemed soft and fragile on the surface, but in an instant, a frigid aura exploded from her arms—ice forming rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, her arms were coated in thick frost, transforming into gigantic blades of ice, which she then cross-slashed toward Roya.
Her voice—once sweet—morphed into a hysterical, manic shriek:
"You think you can destroy the Young Master's great work?!"
"DIE, TRASH!!"
But Roya didn't dodge. He stood still and let her ice-blade arms strike his body directly.
For a moment, time froze—the entire room felt suspended in stillness.
Then—a single crack appeared on the icy blades.
In the next second, they shattered into a shower of frozen shards.
And along with them—her arms vanished.
She let out a piercing scream, desperately summoning more frost to form an icy barrier around her as a last defense.
Simultaneously, a tornado of blizzards erupted at Roya's feet, attempting to consume him whole.
But Roya simply stomped down.
A violent shockwave rippled out from the point of contact, precisely striking each energy node sustaining the blizzard vortex.
The snowstorm instantly lost its form and collapsed into silence.
Roya calmly raised his hand and fired a razor-sharp Rankyaku blade.
It pierced straight through the woman's icy shield, skewering her chest and lifting her off her feet—then continued into the wall behind her.
The lingering chill of her powers froze the air-blade into a 3-meter-long ice lance, pinning her body against the wall.
With a clatter, a Den Den Mushi fell from her clothes.
Doflamingo's voice crackled anxiously from it:
"Monet?! What's happening over there?!"
Monet's lips moved—but no sound came out.
She tried again. Still nothing.
Realizing she could no longer speak, Monet finally gave up.
But a gentle, almost blissful smile formed at the corners of her mouth.
"Young Master… was worried about me."
That final sweet thought was forever sealed into her consciousness.
---
Back on his ship, Doflamingo stared blankly at the pink Den Den Mushi frozen in a wide-eyed grimace.
He buried his face in both hands and let out a low, muffled sigh.
Then came a sound—part shriek, part laugh—too wild to name.
"Full speed ahead! Punk Hazard—NOW!!"
---
As Monet's icy lance melted and her body crumpled to the ground, Jinbei and Law began carefully moving the children onto beds, laying them down more comfortably.
The moment they witnessed Monet's death, the children—who had moments before fought over candy—snapped into a frenzy.
But this time, they didn't lose control.
Instead, they focused their rage on Roya, launching themselves at him all at once.
Roya was prepared.
With a calm breath, he expanded his Observation Haki domain, pushing deep into the children's minds.
Within seconds, every child fell into the deepest of slumbers.
But Roya knew full well: this was only a temporary solution.
The children had developed a severe dependency on the toxins within the candy.
If they didn't receive their regular dose, they would spiral into violent rampages.
But if they did continue taking it, their bodies would undergo further irreversible mutations, ultimately turning them into mindless giants.
Even someone as powerful as Roya couldn't undo the damage the toxin had already inflicted.
Until he could formulate a proper antidote, all he could do was keep them in deep sleep, free from withdrawal, and free from pain.
Once all the children were stable, the trio exited the room.
Roya turned and made a fist gesture—the room's steel door twisted inward, warping into a tangled mess of metal that no one could open again.
Just then, an overwhelming presence surged out from the depths of the base.
The sheer force of it radiated an impossible hardness—a defense that seemed utterly impenetrable.
Jinbei's face went pale.
"No… could that be Kaido?!"
A single, thunderous footstep answered him.
But the source of the noise was still far down the corridor—yet already, a hurricane-force wind howled through the hallway.
With it came a nauseating stench, so vile and overpowering that Jinbei and Law nearly collapsed where they stood.
They quickly held their breath, struggling not to vomit.
Their minds screamed in terror:
"That smell… only carnivorous beasts that feed on humans reek like this!"
"What the hell kind of monster is coming?!"
Suddenly, a massive head emerged from the shadows of the corridor—
Fanged jaws. Twisting horns.
Golden slit eyes, gleaming with pure, monstrous malice.
The creature's head filled the entire corridor, leaving no room to pass.
Black scales shimmered with an oily sheen, overlapping perfectly like armor.
The unbearable pressure of its presence—the sensation that nothing could harm it—poured from those scales.
"A dragon…?!"
"A creature of legend—of myths…"
Jinbei's thoughts spiraled as his voice failed him.
He stared, speechless, as the beast from fairy tales—a living dragon—stood before them, real and breathing.
PS: Access advance (100+) chapters at