Chapter 97: Reverse Mountain

"I-Is it just my imagination, or are you bigger than before?" Asked Freyja lightly while rubbing her neck as she slowly stood up and looked at Diddy, who was now only a few feet shorter than Grand.

"Hehe, so you noticed as well, Freyja. I've definitely grown since last time, but it's of no surprise; I'm still a growing boy. Don't forget, I'm only 15." Replied Diddy with a feral grin, displaying his deadly sharp teeth that were capable of tearing through iron like it was flesh.

"Ho, that's quite the transformation, Captain; I'm surprised such a species like yours exists." Said Sebas with a soft smile while observing Diddy, though there was a dense layer of psionic energy surrounding Sebas like a forcefield.

Snapping my head towards Sebas, although I couldn't see it, I could sense something was enveloping him, which was meant to protect him. Besides, even though I couldn't see it, It was easy to perceive the wind being forced out of the way long before reaching his body. Staring at Sebas, I calmly walked forward and stopped just outside his ethereal forcefield before placing my hand on the barrier that felt both soft and hard.

"You should know, Sebas, this wouldn't even be enough to stop me normally, let alone when I'm like this." Said Diddy with a grin as he clutched the invisible force field, digging his claws into it, causing the sound of glass breaking to be heard throughout the ship.

"Hoho, I know, Captain, but that wasn't meant to keep you away from me; it was merely meant to slow you down to where I could properly retaliate. Unlike Freyja, I'm quite an old man with a feeble body; a light slap from you would be enough to turn me into an unrecognizable corpse." Replied Sebas with a light chuckle as he calmly watched Diddy break through his forcefield, his sharp nails inching closer to him.

Just when my nails were about to reach him, my body was suddenly forced to a halt as I felt an ethereal force cover my body, trapping me in what seemed to be an invisible cage; however, before I could respond, I was whisked high into the night sky. By the time I had broken free from the ethereal cage, I was hundreds of meters into the sky, and my ship below me was like a tiny dot in the seemingly endless ocean; it also allowed me the chance to truly appreciate the sheer size of the redline, though I could care less about those things right now.

Grinning, I positioned my feet toward the sky and kicked the air, causing a small explosion as I propelled myself to my ship. While nearing my boat, I sensed a large ethereal wall appear right before me, though since it spontaneously appeared, I wasn't given enough time to react; I didn't need to; it didn't matter how many of them Sebas manifested. I'd simply smash right through them.

At least that was my thought, but to my surprise, instead of breaking through the forcefield like it was glass, I smashed into it, and it stretched with me similar to rubber, slowing me down for tens of meters until I eventually came to a halt, before it shot me back towards the sky like a slingshot.

'Hehe, seems like Sebas hasn't been slouching around; he's improved tremendously since when I first fought me.' Mused Diddy with a feral grin as he regained his bearings and looked back toward the ship, though he was actually eyeing the invisible wall.

"Though it's still far from enough." Muttered Diddy as he once again kicked the air, though compared to before, his figure turned into a blur as he speedily neared his ship, reaching the invisible wall in a near instant.

Despite the invisible wall seemingly having the properties of rubber, there was still a limit to how much it could stretch, so when I smashed into it this time, I stretched it to its limit before it snapped almost immediately. Sebas must've saw predicted that, as I crashed into several more invisible rubber-like walls, but just like what happened to the first one, I broke through them all, though they did succeed in slowing me down before I finally landed back on the ship.

"Hehe, did a better than job, Freyja, I'll give yo-" Said Diddy with a savage-like grin as he stared at Sebas, though before he could finish, he suddenly hardened his body, just in time for a long bolt of compressed psionic energy to hit him in the stomach, causing him to slid back until he hit the railing.

"E-Excuse my rudeness, Captain; I-I should've allowed you to finish talking, b-but against you, I've got to use e-every opportunity available." Remarked Sebas in slight exhaustion as he dropped his right arm and sat in the helm, seemingly having used a substantial amount of strength in that last attack.

"Hehe, wonderful! I knew I didn't pick you for no reason, Sebas! You're the only one besides Freyja who's ever been able to harm me when transformed!" Yelled Diddy with a feral grin as he approached Sebas, while his abdomen, where he was hit, was slightly bleeding, staining his majestic and lustrous silver fur.

"Hoho, w-well, I've been working quite hard, Captain." Replied Sebas with a chuckle as he fearlessly stared into Diddy's bright red beastly eyes.

"Heh, I might like you better than Freyja; unlike her, you're not scared despite facing an insurmountable opponent." Commented Diddy with a smirk as he turned around and grasped Freyja's arm, her elongated nails nearly slicing him.

"Tch, don't put it like that, Diddy; I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid that you'll suddenly decide to kill me while in this mentally degraded state, robbing me of the chance to get my revenge; that's what I'm afraid of. There's a distinct difference between the two, and you know it. Don't go spreading false narratives." Stated Freyja with a frown as she opened her mouth and spat a ball of fire towards Diddy's face, though he entrapped it in lightning before grasping it, only to snuff it out of existence by clenching his fist.

"Come on, Freyja, you need to do better than this; you've gotten noticeably stronger since Karate Island, but it's nowhere near enough." Said Diddy, leaning closer to Freyja, though just like Sebas, she may have been fearful, but she wasn't afraid of Diddy as she looked into his.

Chuckling, I released my hold of Freyja's arm, causing her to back away while glaring at me, though she was smart enough not to attack me again. Ignoring those two, I glanced towards Sebas, Grand, and Trenza, who had been all silently watching everything unfold; smirking, I walked towards them, my large size towering over everyone except Grand, who was still bigger than me despite me being more than twice my size.

Approaching them, I glanced at each one of them, causing them to flinch when they met my eyes, though none displayed any signs of retreating, not like it would succeed anyway; once you're a part of the Frenzy pirates, the only way off was to die. Walking right past them, I headed towards my hammock and grabbed my bo-staff, which was leaning against the railing, before holstering it onto my back.

Turning around, I walked right past the three again; though I continued to ignore them, they were of no interest to me. Unlike Freyja and Sebas, they couldn't put up any fight, so I hardly saw any reason to even interact with them.

"Sebas, man the helm, you three, raise the sails; Freyja, burn any water that enters the ship; I don't need us sinking just outside of Paradise." Ordered Diddy as he looked at Sebas, then Trenza, Scar and Grand, and finally Freyja.

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Said the five simultaneously as they all nodded and quickly ran to their assigned posts while Diddy leaped to the top of the mast.

Looking ahead, I spotted a large river that had no end in sight with a powerful current, and as bizarre as it sounded, the water flowed up the massive mountain, defying one of the fundamental forces of the universe, gravity.

"So that's why they call it Reverse Mountain; hehe, it looks dangerous. I can't wait." Muttered Diddy with a smirk as he gazed upon the passageway to the Grand Line, the first obstacle they'll face on their pirate journey.

As we neared closer to Reverse Mountain, the already turbulent waters became even more aggressive with us sailing over large waves, only for us to fall back into the ocean to do it all over again; it was a repeating cycle that caused our ship to be quickly filled with seawater, though thanks to Freyja, she burnt the water before they seeped into our boat.

"Sebas steer left." Said Diddy calmly as he eyed numerous sharp, jagged rocks that would tear right through the ship in their path.

"I'm trying, Captain; the waves are too strong; we are at the ocean's mercy." Replied Sebas with a frown as he turned the helm left, but even so, the ship continued sailing straight.

Grunting, I leaped toward the front of the ship and dug my nails into the wooden stem before slapping the air to my right, causing the ship to take a hard left, narrowly missing the jagged rocks. Unfortunately, there was more than one set of protruding rocks, so I was forced to manually steer the ship through the turbulent ocean before we finally entered Reverse Mountain, our ship sailing across the powerful current as it took us to the top of the mountain.

"Heh, halfway done; now we just need to exit in one piece." Muttered Diddy with a grin as he glanced behind him, only to see Trenza, Scar, and Grand sprawled out on the ground.

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Elven Legacy (Chapter 185: Endless Horde) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 66: 24-Hour Long Session(R18)) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 107: Trenza's Anger!) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]