Chapter 1172

Taking the lift up to the Sun World, Gaban lays out the threat for Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper, along with the New Giant Warrior Pirates: three knights aim to seize ten children as hostages bound for Mary Geoise, forcing Elbaf to submit as battle-slaves. Gunko's arrows steer the kids toward the Western Village port, Sommers has bound them in invisible thorns hard as steel so the giants cannot lift them away, and Killingham's living nightmares keep any rescuer busy. Reaching the surface, the group is struck speechless by rampaging MMAs and the burning Great Eirik. Kashii reports that the demonized Dorry and Brogy march to kill Jarul, that Ripley's team races to free the children, and that Road's little brother Bjorn is among the captives.

Road breaks off with Gerd and Goldberg to save his brother, while Brook quietly slips away from the captured Straw Hats, struck by an idea of his own. Refusing the giants' pleas to flee, Jarul raises a Den Den Mushi and speaks to all of Elbaf. He lays bare Harald's dream of peaceful coexistence and the government's betrayal fourteen years past, naming a demon, not Loki, as the killer, and revealing that Loki willingly shouldered the nation's hatred and took to sea. He then names three more demons now hunting the island, vows Elbaf will give up its culture to save the children yet never break its spirit, and proclaims open war on the government.

Jarul's broadcast publicly clears Loki of murdering Harald, though Zoro and Hajrudin privately feel the elder is being far kinder than Loki deserves. Rallied by the speech, the giants charge to meet the demonized co-captains as they reach the village, and Hajrudin, Stansen, and Zoro arrive to face them, with Hajrudin warning that anyone caught between two demons risks becoming one, prompting Zoro to declare he has a plan. The chapter is part of the Elbaf Arc, and its cover grants a request in which swans help themselves to the makeup of Bon Kurei.