Memory Deletion

"You forced my hand—Shadow Asgard!"

Moria, his mouth full of blood as he rolled helplessly across the ground, let out a furious roar. Countless zombie shadows immediately flew into his body.

Moria’s body rapidly swelled. Before long, he had transformed into a bizarre, gorilla-like figure, supporting himself on the ground with two massive arms. Veins bulged all over his body, his eyes rolled white, and he pounded the ground violently.

Amid the thunderous crashes, Ulti and Page One easily dodged Moria’s attacks. Ulti could not help mocking him. "Is this your trump card? A move you can’t even control—who are you planning to use it against?"

"What a useless half-baked fool. No wonder Lord Kaido wiped out all your companions."

Moria was nearly unconscious by then. However, upon hearing Ulti’s mockery, the words "wiped out all your companions" seemed to provoke him. With a wild roar, he forcibly regained his senses despite the interference of over a thousand shadows within Shadow Asgard. His previously sluggish speed suddenly surged, and with a violent swing of his arm, he struck Ulti head-on.

"I’ll kill you!"

Ulti had never expected that her sharp tongue would completely enrage Moria. Moria in his Shadow Asgard state had many flaws: poor control, slow speed, inflexible movements, and a tendency to vomit up shadows when attacked. But his attack power and raw physical strength were genuinely terrifying.

The instant Ulti took the blow, she spat out a torrent of blood. Several bones broke with cracking sounds. Then Moria slammed her into the ground with one palm, making her look like a monkey pinned beneath the palm of the Tathagata Buddha.

"Big Sis! Bastard, let her go!" Page One was instantly horrified. He lunged forward, transformed into a Spinosaurus, and bit down on Moria’s arm.

Yet Moria, utterly berserk, endured the agony of nearly having a chunk of flesh torn from his arm. He raised his other hand and smashed Page One down hard, not caring in the slightest even as the flesh on his arm was ripped away. Then, like a crazed gorilla, he hammered the ground with both arms, beating Ulti and Page One until they vomited blood and their bones shattered.

Yota covered his face. "Damn it! You managed to throw away such a huge advantage? Ulti, did you awaken some kind of reverse protagonist aura?"

It was no wonder Yota said that. In truth, Gecko Moria’s Shadow Asgard was not a complete technique at all. If Ulti had not run her mouth, she could have simply stayed out of the way and waited for Gecko Moria to exhaust all his stamina and mental energy.

Even if Ulti did not want to win that way and wanted to defeat Gecko Moria head-on, it would not have been difficult. Though Gecko Moria seemed to have gained tremendous strength, his control had greatly declined, making him far less threatening.

But Ulti had first gotten carried away, then provoked Gecko Moria into a sudden burst of power, and been knocked out in one hit. In the end, she had even dragged her little brother into becoming a living target when he tried to save her. It was practically a perfect reenactment of the classic battle between a villainous boss and a protagonist—except the protagonist was her opponent, not her.

Still, they had to be saved. Just as Yota was about to move, Charlotte Pudding spoke with confidence. "Lord Yota, leave this guy to me."

Without waiting for Yota to respond, she rushed forward. If they delayed any longer, Ulti and Page One would really be beaten to death.

Her Mangekyo Sharingan spun. Charlotte Pudding abruptly raised her head and glanced at the nearly crazed Gecko Moria. The arm Gecko Moria had raised suddenly trembled, and a dazed expression appeared on his face.

"Huh? What’s going on?"

Moria blanked out for a moment, but Charlotte Pudding had no intention of standing around. She immediately dragged Ulti and Page One out.

The move she had just used was her Mangekyo Eye Technique—Memory Deletion.

Memory Deletion was like the rumor that a fish only had seven seconds of memory. It could erase varying lengths of memory from anyone Charlotte Pudding looked at.

The amount of memory erased depended on Charlotte Pudding’s Chakra, ocular power, and her opponent’s resistance. This move appeared quite similar to Charlotte Pudding’s Memory Fruit ability, and was even less flexible than the Memory Fruit.

Yet the truly terrifying part of this technique was that as long as Charlotte Pudding could see someone, she could make them fall victim to it without even needing to meet their eyes!

After being hit, anyone below the level of the Four Emperors or Three Admirals would lose a certain amount of memory. Even if it was only a few seconds, that was a fatal opening in battle.

Imagine that you were just about to punch your opponent’s head off when you suddenly lost several seconds of memory. Your memories would then stop at the moment when you had just thrown a kick, and naturally, you would be confused by the current situation.

Merely freezing up for a moment would be the least of it. When memories and body movements failed to align, your techniques could become distorted. You might even apply the wrong force and strain your own muscles and bones—that was when things got truly disastrous.

Compared to the more support-oriented Memory Fruit ability, this Memory Deletion technique of the Mangekyo Sharingan was practically a divine skill in combat.

Especially since Gecko Moria had just used Shadow Asgard. After Charlotte Pudding erased several seconds of his memories, he first froze for a moment. Then the power of countless shadows interfered with him, leaving his mind in a muddle. With a retch, he vomited out a huge number of shadows.

"Urgh…" Having vomited out nearly half his shadows, Gecko Moria’s body shrank by half. Only then did he seem to realize something was wrong. Although he had no idea what had just happened, he instinctively covered his mouth to keep himself from vomiting out the remaining shadows.

Then Charlotte Pudding looked at him again…

"Blegh!" He vomited out every last shadow. Gecko Moria felt utterly exhausted, yet he could not understand it. He had only just begun fighting Page One and Ulti—so why did he already feel as though his strength had run dry, with wounds all over his body?

Then he raised his head and stared blankly at the gigantic skeleton that appeared behind Charlotte Pudding. Seeing the skeleton about to slap him down, he instinctively tried to dodge, only for his mind to suddenly go blank.

"Huh? Where did those two dinosaur brats go? How did…"

Smack! Susanoo struck Moria squarely across the face. Blood covered his head as he collapsed face-first onto the ground, his eyes rolling white. He had been completely knocked unconscious.