Chapter 166: Annihilation?
Albedo, Esdeath, and the others had walked up to the vicinity of the Red Force as if they were taking a leisurely stroll.
The ice beneath their boots crunched rhythmically, a stark contrast to the chaotic screams and explosions that had filled the air moments before.
They moved with the terrifying calmness of predators who knew the hunt was already over, and they were merely here to clean up the scraps.
Just then, another figure leaped high off the ship's rail.
He moved with a desperate, frantic energy, his silhouette stark against the grey, snow-filled sky. It was Limejuice. He held his weapon tightly, his teeth clenched so hard his gums bled, propelling himself into a suicidal charge meant to buy even a single second for his crewmates.
"Seriously, one after another."
Albedo looked at the figure leaping down, her golden eyes narrowing slightly behind her helmet. Her tone was filled with the annoyance of a superior being dealing with persistent ants. It wasn't anger; it was the boredom of a god swatting away flies.
"It's clearly a meaningless waste of time, yet they keep throwing themselves forward. Truly laughably foolish. Do they not understand the concept of a power gap?"
"What does a brainless idiot woman like you know?"
Esdeath scoffed coldly, crossing her arms over her chest. Yet, her sharp, ice-blue gaze toward the descending figure held a trace of morbid admiration.
"As I said before, this is a warrior who possesses the 'Spirit of Comradeship'. I increasingly appreciate their reckless madness. It is the struggle of the weak against the strong that makes the trample so satisfying."
She paused, her lips curling into a cruel smile.
"Unfortunately... as an enemy, granting him a quick, painless death is the greatest respect I can offer."
She didn't even make a move herself. She didn't draw her rapier, nor did she summon her ice. She merely spoke a name softly toward the side, into the empty air where snow flurries danced.
"Akame."
"Yes, General Esdeath."
A cold voice, void of any fluctuation or emotion, seemingly appearing out of thin air, rang out right beside Limejuice's landing spot!
The space distorted slightly. Akame, who had been following behind Esdeath moments ago like a silent shadow, had vanished from her original position without anyone noticing. She had completely concealed her presence, erasing her breathing, her killing intent, and even the sound of her heartbeat.
She appeared directly in Limejuice's path!
"Damn it! Don't underestimate me, bastard!"
Limejuice's heart sank instantly as he realized the danger!
His pupils constricted to pinpoints. His Observation Haki was thrown into chaos. He was frantically scanning for the three monsters—Esdeath, Albedo, and Ulquiorra—his senses tuned to their overwhelming power.
How could he have anticipated that the woman who had been trailing behind them... the one with the least presence... could interfere with his Observation Haki to such a degree? It was as if she didn't exist until the very moment she chose to strike. She had slipped through the cracks of his perception like a phantom.
By the time he heard the voice, it was already too late!
The girl with the long black hair and red eyes was already within his guard.
He wanted to struggle. He tried to twist his body in mid-air, to swing his electric baton, to do anything to buy his comrades even a fraction of a second more time!
Move! Move, damn it!
But Akame's blade was faster than his thoughts.
Her swordsmanship was the assassin style that Akame had honed through countless trials in the Empire's darkest corners! It was a technique refined for efficiency, stripped of all vanity and honor.
There were no flashy moves, no shouting of technique names, or earth-shattering aura. There was only an extremely restrained cold gleam—a single line of silver cutting through the grey world.
"Pfft!"
The sound was soft, almost gentle, like paper tearing.
The blade of the Demon Sword [Murasame], tempered with the world's most malicious curses, merely grazed the skin at his waist. It was a shallow cut, one that any seasoned pirate in the New World would normally ignore.
But this was no ordinary steel.
One cut, certain death!
The ancient curse activated the moment the blade tasted blood. The curse poison spread rapidly from the wound!
Black, intricate markings, like tribal tattoos of death, erupted from the scratch. They snaked up his torso and down his legs with terrifying speed, turning his veins black and his skin grey.
"D-damn..."
Limejuice couldn't even finish his last word.
The strength instantly evaporated from his limbs. His heart, seized by the curse, stopped beating in a fraction of a second. His body stiffened abruptly in mid-air, the light in his eyes rapidly dimming, replaced by the hollow emptiness of a corpse.
He plummeted straight toward the cold ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Thud.
Another one!
The executive of the Red Hair Pirates lay motionless on the ice, the black markings covering his face, his expression frozen in a mask of shock.
"Hmph, although your sympathy for those insects disgusts me, since the trouble has been dealt with, I won't argue with a madwoman like you."
Albedo glanced at the corpse on the ground with utter indifference. She didn't even break stride. She raised her chin haughtily, her black wings fluttering slightly in the freezing wind.
"Quickly defeat the enemy. We have wasted enough time playing with these lower life forms. We must hurry back and apologize to the Supreme Lord Suzaku for keeping him waiting!"
And the Red Force, precisely utilizing the fleeting moment bought by Limejuice's life, accelerated sharply.
The wind howled, filling the sails that bore the jolly roger of the Emperor. The massive ship groaned as it pushed through the icy waters, beginning to rapidly sail away from this frozen death plain created by Esdeath!
"Limejuice...!"
Shanks stood at the stern rail, his hand gripping the wood so hard it splintered. He watched another comrade fall, seeing the black markings spread over Limejuice's body from the distance.
He could no longer suppress the fury and grief in his heart. The veins on his neck pulsed violently.
Ignoring the gushing blood from the deep, bone-visible wound on his waist—the reminder of his clash with the Ice Queen—he broke free from Hongō's restraint. His Conqueror's Haki flared up uncontrollably, cracking the railing around him as he tried to charge down again!
He couldn't leave them! Not like this!
"Captain!"
Hongō immediately rushed back. He threw his arms around Shanks' chest and clung to him tightly, his own face a mess of tears and snot.
He dug his heels into the deck, crying out hoarsely, "Don't act impulsively anymore! Captain, please!"
"Let go of me, Hongō!"
"No! Look at them! Everyone... everyone rushed out with the sole intention of letting you survive! Limejuice, Bonk Punch, Snake... they all stayed behind for you! Don't let their sacrifice be in vain!"
Hongō's scream tore through the wind, raw and filled with agony.
These words were like a bucket of ice water poured over Shanks's head, which was burning with rage.
The red light in his eyes flickered and dimmed. The tension in his muscles slowly seeped away, replaced by a crushing weight of exhaustion and sorrow.
He stopped moving.
Stiffly and silently, he stood at the stern. The wind whipped his red hair around his face, hiding his expression.
He watched the increasingly small, gradually blurring corpses of his comrades on the ice plain. He watched the white figures of the "monsters" standing over them. He watched, without saying a word.
That silent back view conveyed his sorrow more deeply than any heartbreaking cry. It was the silhouette of a man who had lost everything in a single day.
Only when Hongō saw that Shanks had finally calmed down did he dare to release him, slumping to the deck in exhaustion.
"Do you think... you can just escape like that?"
On the ice, Albedo looked at the gradually receding ship. Her sharp eyesight tracked the vessel through the snow. A cruel sneer surfaced on her beautiful, goddess-like face.
"Too naive. Did you really think fleeing was an option in front of the guardians of Nazarick?"
She slowly raised her fair hand. The air around her palm began to warp and twist.
A ball of pitch-black energy, dense to the extreme, began to form. It wasn't just darkness; it was a void. Gravity seemed to collapse around it.
A black energy sphere seemingly capable of swallowing all light and matter rapidly gathered in her palm!
"Behold my Advanced Magic!"
Albedo's voice rang out, clear and imperious.
"Whoosh...!"
She flicked her wrist.
That pitch-black light projectile tore through the air. It didn't fly; it erased the space it traveled through. It carried an aura of absolute destruction, leaving a trail of distorted vacuum in its wake.
It shot directly toward the stern of the Red Force!
"Don't even think about it!"
Shanks spotted the attack immediately! His instincts screamed at him that this black sphere would vaporize the ship instantly if it connected.
He didn't hesitate. Gripping his famous sword [Griffin] with his single arm, his figure flashed. He leaped up and stood directly on the stern railing, balancing precariously above the churning wake!
Facing the magic capable of leveling a small island, he swung his sword fiercely!
"Get lost!"
A terrifying, shocking slash of pure Haki, arriving after the projectile but moving faster, collided with the sphere. He cut with precision, slicing the magic structure itself!
The slash precisely split the black light projectile in two mid-air just as it was about to approach the ship!
"Boom!!!"
A violent explosion erupted at the stern. The split halves of the magic sphere detonated on either side of the ship, sending plumes of black fire into the sky.
The terrifying shockwave, like a giant hand, slammed into the back of the vessel. Instead of destroying it, the blast forcefully pushed the Red Force, making it sail even faster, skipping over the waves!
However, not a single trace of relief appeared on Shanks's face.
Just as expected!
The smoke from the explosion had not yet dispersed, but the pupils in his eyes, stained red with fury and grief, suddenly contracted!
Through the black smoke, he saw the sky turn white.
He saw hundreds and thousands of huge ice spikes composed of profound, unnaturally hard ice. They hovered in the air for a split second before launching.
Piercing through the smoke screen like dense heavy rain, they arrived in an instant!
It was Esdeath!
"Freeze to death!"
This was the true killing blow! A barrage that covered every inch of the ship, leaving no room to dodge.
Shanks took a deep breath. His lungs burned. His body screamed in protest. But he held nothing back. He frantically squeezed the remaining Haki from his depleted reserves, drawing from his very life force.
He swung his sword again toward the rain of ice spikes!
"Divine Avoidance...!"
The pressure of Conqueror's Haki swept out like a crimson tide! It unleashed a shockwave wrapped in crackling black-red lightning that expanded outward in a dome.
Crash! Crack! Shatter!
The Haki wave collided with the ice. It completely pulverized the second stage of the coordinated attack into dust mid-air! The sky was filled with a glittering fog of diamond dust as the ice spikes were disintegrated by the Emperor's will.
But before he could catch his breath...
Before he could retract his sword...
A dazzling, ominous pale green light flashed from Ulquiorra's direction.
It was silent at first. A gathering of energy so dense it dampened sound.
Ulquiorra Cifer stood on the ice, his hand pointed forward, his finger extended. The air around his fingertip warped into a singularity of green despair.
The beam fired. It instantly caught up to the ship, moving faster than sound, faster than thought.
And then... it engulfed the entire Red Force.
"Cero!"
"...BOOM!!!!!!"
A deafening crash, hundreds of times more terrifying than any previous explosion, shook heaven and earth!
The horizon turned green. A massive mushroom cloud of green spiritual energy rose into the sky, displacing the clouds and vaporizing the ocean surface.
The massive azure light column completely submerged the pirate ship, which carried the legend of an era, along with everyone on board. The silhouette of the ship was visible for one second within the light, and then it was gone.
The light dissipated slowly, leaving trails of green static in the air.
The sea surface was completely empty. There was no ship. No debris. Only the steaming, roiling ocean water rushing to fill the void.
"As expected of Lord Ulquiorra,"
Rem stood on the deck of the Pola in the distance, watching the sea surface slowly return to calm. She nodded, her expression serene, praising sincerely.
"The timing of the attack was truly flawless! He waited for the exact moment their defenses were down."
"Of course, it was also thanks to the feints by Lord Albedo and Lord Esdeath that this fatal opportunity was created."
Ram glanced at the two adults beside her, whose expressions were not very pleasant due to their attacks being blocked, and quickly and cleverly added a sentence!
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