The world fell still, as if a tomb had swallowed every human heart.
Snow sheeted down from a leaden sky. Over Felsek Island the clouds rolled and knotted upon themselves, black masses heaving like storm-tossed seas.
Drip... drip...
Scalding blood slid from the Marine Vice Admiral's right fingertips, spotting the snow at his boots with thin red crescents.
The surrounding Celestial Dragons were statues—eyes bulging, mouths open, terror climbing their spines until their scalps tingled. The cold that rose from the ground felt deeper than any North Blue gale.
"What... what has he done...?"
"Figarland Babos... is dead."
"He really killed Figarland Babos?!"
"He's insane!"
"That Marine... he's finished!"
Horrified whispers pitched quickly into panicked screams. The young nobles could scarcely process what they had seen: a Celestial Dragon struck down on the open sea, under the very gaze of Saint Saturn of the Gorosei.
Snowflakes drifted across Saturn's flat-brimmed hat and black cloak. Leaning on his mottled cane, he didn't so much as glance at Babos's corpse. His sinister stare stayed on the blood-spattered Vice Admiral, while black arcs crackled from a magic circle at his feet.
"You've truly disappointed me, little brat Darren," he rasped, exhaling a foul, slow breath. "After enduring this long, why not endure a little longer?"
Genuine puzzlement ghosted through those ancient eyes.
"As I understand it, you once bore responsibility for this island. But you are no longer Supreme Commander of the North Blue. There is no reason to waste your strength, your future—your life—on vermin."
"Your power and talent have earned our respect, placing you far beyond mere ants."
"To be plain: you are not the same species as the slaves and rabble on this island."
Black fire coiled from his body like smoke, swallowing him by degrees. The pressure of it spread outward, thick and suffocating.
"And yet you'd defy overwhelming force for the sake of these insects? Is that truly wise?"
Darren's gaze stayed level. A laugh slid out of him, dry and contemptuous. He flicked the blood from his fingers, drew a gold-tipped cigar, and set it between his teeth in full view of Saturn and the gathered nobles.
"I don't care about 'insects.'"
"If I take the money, I do the job. That's the North Blue code—my code."
"As for your 'overwhelming force'..."
His eyes brightened with a feverish light; his grin turned feral.
"The more you preach it, the more I want to fight you right now."
Saturn stilled, taken aback for a heartbeat.
"But first—"
Darren's voice cut off as his figure blurred and vanished.
A mocking chuckle sounded from nearby.
So fast.
Saturn's pupils tightened as he whipped his head around.
"No... damn it—"
A Celestial Dragon elite in hunting livery shrieked. Darren already had him by the throat, one-handed, lifting him into the air. The man's legs kicked uselessly.
"Let—"
The Vice Admiral's knuckles shifted. Bone cracked.
Blood geysered; the head spun free, carving a red arc against the white sky.
A wild, exultant light flashed across Darren's blood-smeared face, as if he were tasting some power newly loosed. The young nobles, sheltered from true carnage all their lives, broke. They fled in a stumbling, crawling panic.
"He's lost his mind!"
"Is he going to kill us all?!"
"Run! Run!"
"That lunatic!"
The hunt was an afterthought now. If they didn't run, they would be the prey.
Screams, pounding boots, ragged breath tore across the snowfields.
"So that's your choice," Saturn said. "Vermin to the end."
Two Celestial Dragons had died under his nose, yet he did not blink. His old eyes narrowed; the scar beside one eye flushed slowly red.
"Clinging to foolish rules, chasing childish notions of will. It's meaningless."
"Is it?" Darren sneered, dropping the corpse. "Then why push me this far?"
"You dangled power and rank. You staged a hunt in the North Blue and forced me to escort you—made me watch your people butcher civilians I once swore to protect..."
"To blunt my edge, wear down my will, break my spirit. Isn't that the Gorosei's careful plan?"
"As a Marine," Saturn said flatly, "what use have you for will or spirit? A soldier's duty is simple—obey orders. Nothing more."
"What has no value must be destroyed."
His eyes narrowed to slits. An eerie red glow bloomed within them, like a demon's stare.
Evil Eye!
BOOM!
The blast came without warning. Darren's skull vanished in the roar—black smoke, gouting flame.
"You did this to yourself, Darren," Saturn said, shaking his head. The ability triggered in perfect silence; even top experts could not predict or armor against it in time. No one had ever withstood it.
"If you'd endured a little longer, you could have had everything you wanted."
"Is that so?"
The voice rolled out of the smoke, low and amused.
Saturn stopped, turned.
Darren stepped from the churning dark unmarked, features cool and sharp as if chiseled fresh.
"Convenient ability," he said. "At least it lights my cigar."
A sinister glint crossed Saturn's eyes.
The ultimate Indestructible Body...
"You were right about one thing," Darren said, drawing on the cigar and exhaling with a wolfish smile. "A man can endure a great many things."
"I thought I could. But you kept pushing—greedier, more arrogant, more entitled by the hour. So I reconsidered and chose a different path."
"Because the more I yielded, the more I saw the problem."
"My Conqueror's Haki was thinning, growing useless."
"Until just now—when I finally snapped and killed that repulsive Babos."
He spread his arms, meeting the highest authority of the World Government without a flicker of doubt.
His fist closed.
Zzzt. Zzzt. Zzzt.
Crimson-black lightning erupted from him, threading every inch of air with crackling webs. The sky lurched; a gale howled like Purgatory's breath. A vast, abyssal pressure broke over the island and rolled outward, tossing the snow into a screaming blizzard.
Darren threw his head back and laughed, thunder answering him.
"In that moment, I felt... the entire world fall silent."
Conqueror's Haki: +0.2!
To be continued...