Chapter 1143

Saul catches up to the entranced children but is gored by unseen thorns the instant he reaches for Ylva. Ange radios the giants that the trance is herding the young ones along Branch Route 8, straight into the fire Loki lit, and the firefighting svarr that scrambles gets swatted from the sky by one of the conjured nightmares. Watching over a leisurely meal, the Knights gloat: Sommers reveals his Iba Iba no Mi spins the thorns so parents will be stabbed when they try to hold their own children, while the qilin power lets Killingham both sink victims into sleep and drag their dreams into the waking world, which is where the monsters came from. Gunko has aimed the children at the village's sea clouds, and the three shrug that fresh children can always be gathered should these burn.

Far below, Loki swears Hajrudin cannot stop him and again demands the last cuff struck off, but Luffy fells the weakened giant with a feeble swing, and Zoro reckons he had been bluffing all along just to find a quiet place to drop. Gerd starts treating wounds that will take months to close, noting that Loki cannot mend in the Underworld yet would be slain in the Sun World. Luffy is startled to find Loki's horns are no costume but real, a remnant of the ancient giant blood passed down from Harald, which dredges up Hajrudin's bitter memories of being mocked for weakness and mixed heritage. He hefts his axe to avenge his parents, but Loki halts him with a single question: does Hajrudin truly believe he slew their father deliberately?

The Devil Fruits of Sommers and Killingham come to light. Sommers wields the Iba Iba no Mi to spawn thorny vines, which he coiled around the sleeping children. As for Killingham, his Mythical Zoan is the Kirin model of the Ryu Ryu no Mi, letting his qilin form lull people into sleep and project their dreams, the cause of both the slumber and the nightmare attackers. Loki's blaze keeps creeping toward the spellbound children. Loki collapses from the injuries Gunko and Shamrock dealt him, and the New Giant Warrior Pirates tend to his wounds. He signals that the story of him killing Harald in cold, premeditated fashion is untrue.

The chapter recasts Loki from an assumed kinslayer into a figure of uncertainty, planting the question that fuels the following installments. Hajrudin's flashback to Harald naming both boys his sons deepens the brothers' broken past. The color-spread cover answers a reader request, and the chapter is part of the Elbaph Arc.