The center of God Valley was no longer a paradise. It was a crater.
The "Sky Fall" impact had turned the perfect lawns and prosperous mansions of the Celestial Dragons into a smoking circle of pure destruction. The air was thick with ash, pulverized stone, and the air hummed with Xebec's Haki.
From the center of the crater, Rocks D. Xebec stood up. He was untouched, and his face a mask of cold, controlled fury.
Around him, in the rubble, were the few survivors of the initial blast. Celestial Dragons, in their ruined, tattered clothes, began to stir. They were in a state of existential shock. Their entire lives, they had been gods. They had never been looked at the wrong way, never been touched. Now, their world was a burning ruin, and their slaves and guards were a field of unconscious bodies.
One of them, his bubble popped, his face streaked with soot, saw Xebec. The shock was instantly replaced by the ingrained, absolute arrogance of his station.
"YOU!" he shrieked, his voice a reedy, trembling thing. "YOU... YOU FILTH! DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! HOW DARE YOU--"
His speech was cut short.
Xebec did not look at him. He did not acknowledge his existence. His gaze was already fixed on the one intact mansion in the distance. He simply drew his saber,
SHING
, and swung, a casual, horizontal, backhanded motion.
A blur of black-red Haki left the blade. The Celestial Dragon, and the three others who had stood with him were instantly sliced in half. Their bodies toppled in the dust. Xebec didn't even watch them fall. He sheathed his sword and began to walk.
He closed his eyes, his will spreading, his Observation Haki a fine, perceptive net that ignored the distant, panicked shouts of the Marines and the approaching roar of Roger's crew. He sifted through the noise, through the thousands of unconscious minds, searching for two specific, familiar presences.
And soon enough, he found them.
They were in the mansion. In the basement. And they were weak.
He was no longer walking. He was a black-red blur, a shadow of pure, focused intent. He tore the massive, reinforced steel doors of the mansion off their hinges and was in the basement in a single, thunderous leap.
He landed in a dark, cold, humming corridor. The air was sick with the presence of Sea Stone. He saw the cell.
And the sight... it almost made his heart stop.
Eris was a mess. She was slumped against the back wall, her face a pale, ashen gray, her body drenched in a cold sweat. She was so weak, it was clear she was not just poisoned by the stone, but by something else... something injected. She was struggling to even remain conscious, her silver aura a guttering, dying candle. In her lap, Teach was crying, a thin, weak, hungry sound.
But that wasn't what caused Xebec's breath to catch.
It was Aster.
His son was in the same, weakened, poisoned state. His small, four-year-old body was trembling with a violent, agonizing weakness. But he was not on the ground.
He was on his feet.
He was holding the massive, Supreme Grade axe, Crimson Abyss, his knuckles white. He was pouring every last, tiny, flickering ember of his will into his arms as he hit the Sea Stone bars.
THUD.
A weak, pathetic sound. He swayed, almost collapsing.
THUD.
"Aster..." Eris whispered, her voice a reëdy, broken thing. "Stop... save your... strength..."
THUD.
He ignored her, his face a small, grim, terrifying mask of his father's own stubbornness. He raised the axe again, his muscles screaming. He was trying to break them out. Even poisoned, even dying, he was still fighting.
Xebec's cold, controlled fury broke.
SHING!
He didn't use a key. He didn't bother with the lock. He drew his saber, and with a single, vertical slice imbued with his 'corrosive' Haki, the Sea Stone bars dissolved. They didn't break; they were unmade, turning to black, hissing dust and clattering to the floor.
Aster's rhythmic thudding stopped. His arms, their task suddenly gone, finally gave out. The heavy axe clattered to the stone floor. He swayed, his golden eyes, clouded with poison and exhaustion, looked up.
He saw his father.
Eris, startled by the noise, her own hazy eyes fluttering open. She saw the impossible, black-robed figure standing in the ruined doorway.
Xebec was inside in an instant. He wasn't the King. He wasn't the Demon. He was just... a husband. A father. He fell to his knees, his massive arms wrapping around all three of them, pulling his broken, poisoned family into his chest.
His voice was a raw, choked, guilty whisper. "I'm sorry. I'm late. I'm so sorry, Eris. I'm sorry."
Eris didn't say anything. She just... melted. The iron, the will, the terror. It all drained away. She buried her face in his chest, her one free hand clinging to his coat.
"I knew..." she whispered, her voice thick with unshed tears. "I knew you would come... you dummy."
Aster just stared, his small body rigid with shock, still cradled in his father's arm. He felt the overwhelming, safe, chaotic, real presence. He had held it in. For a year. For the fight. For the capture. For the cell.
A single, hot, stinging tear of pure, absolute relief welled up and escaped his right eye, the most emotion he had ever shed. It cut a clean path through the grime and dried blood on his scarred face.
Xebec pulled back, his own eyes burning. He looked at the tiny, crying bundle in Eris's arms. He was so small. He reached out a massive, scarred finger, and the baby, Teach, instinctively grabbed it.
"This is..." Xebec's voice was thick.
"Teach... D. Rocks," Eris whispered, a weak, proud smile on her face.
Xebec's face split. The tears in his eyes were suddenly tears of joy.
"Teach... Vohahahahaha! It's a great name, Eris! A perfect name! Vohahaha!"
His laugh was cut short as Aster swayed, his body slumping, the poison still ravaging his small system. Eris, too, groaned, her hand going to her head.
"Xebec... they... they drugged us," she panted. "The food... it wasn't just the stone..."
Xebec's smile vanished. His face went cold. "I know. I can feel it. It's filth."
He gently set Teach back in Eris's lap. "Aster. Look at me. Watch me. Watch my haki."
Aster, his vision swimming, forced his eyes to focus.
Xebec held out his free hand, palm up. "You have my Haki, boy. You felt it on the beach. The power to overwhelm. But that... that is a child's power. It's incomplete. It's just... rage."
He activated his Haki. The familiar, black-red lightning of the Supreme King crackled around his arm, violent and chaotic.
"But a true King... he must conquer all," Xebec said, his voice a low, powerful rumble. "First, the world. And then... himself."
The black-red lightning... changed. It stopped lashing out. It began to pull in. It folded in on itself, the crackling, chaotic energy condensing, solidifying, until all the light and all the rage was gone.
In his palm, a sphere of pure, solid blackness hovered. It was the size of a cannonball. It was silent. It radiated a profound, absolute cold. It did not glow; it absorbed the light in the cell. It was the physical manifestation of his 'corrosive' will.
Aster's mind, poisoned as it was, reeled. He knew his father had no Devil Fruit. This... this was Haki?
"This," Xebec said, his voice full of a sudden, profound peace, "is what happens when you are no longer just a King... but a Protector. This is Awakened Haki."
He didn't throw the sphere. He gently pushed it forward. "Corrode."
The black sphere expanded, not as an explosion, but as a gentle, silent, pulsing wave of pure, cold, dark energy. It washed over Aster. It washed over Eris. It washed over Teach.
It felt... cold. A deep, piercing, but not unpleasant chill. And Aster could feel it. The leaden, sickening weight in his veins. The drugging, muddy poison that had crippled him. The dark Haki wave touched it, and the poison... was unmade. It didn't neutralize it. It annihilated it, corroding it into nothingness.
In the span of three seconds, Aster's strength rushed back. The nausea vanished. The weakness evaporated. He was... fine. He was whole. He looked at his mother. Color was flooding back into her face, her eyes snapping open, wide and clear, the drug-induced haze gone. Teach, cleansed, let out a startled, healthy, angry cry.
"Xebec... what...?" Eris breathed, staring at her hands, feeling her own strength return.
"It's the next level, Eris," Xebec said, his voice soft. "Conqueror's Haki is the will to rule others. An Awakened Conqueror... that is the will to rule yourself. To conquer your own heart, your own doubts, your own rage... and find your true purpose. Your peace."
"Peace?" Aster asked, his voice now strong and clear. "But... you're always... loud."
Xebec looked at his son, his grin soft. "Vohahaha! Peace isn't quiet, boy. Peace is certainty. Its purpose. And I found mine."
Xebec's eyes full of fatherly love.
"That day, on the island. When I saw you, a child, risk your life to fight a Sea King... just to make your sad, old father happy."
His gaze became distant, his voice full of a deep, iron-clad conviction.
"It... solidified everything. I'm not just breaking the world because I hate it. I'm going to change this fake, disgusting world... for you. For Teach. For her. For every father out there who just wants to live in peace with his family."
He looked at his hand, where the Haki had faded. "That... that is my purpose. That is my true peace. And when you find that, your Haki listens. It changes. It becomes you. Mine... corrodes."
Aster's mind was blown. This was Haki. This was the real power. This was his father.
...So... Flamey's voice, now strong and clear as the Sea Stone's influence was gone, was a low, awed rumble. ...So that's how it works. A purpose... a peace... huh. Interesting...
BOOM!
A massive explosion from somewhere far above them rocked the entire mansion, shaking dust from the ceiling. The distant, muffled screams of men, the clang of steel, the roar of cannons... the battle had arrived.
The peaceful reunion was over.
Eris, cleansed of the drug, tried to stand, but her body was still weak from the Sea Stone poisoning and the ravages of childbirth. She crumpled, her legs giving out. "Xebec... I... I can't..."
"I've got you," he said. He didn't hesitate. He scooped her up in one massive arm, holding her bridal style against his chest.
He then looked at Aster, who was now on his feet, his strength fully returned, Crimson Abyss back in his small, determined grip.
"You're fine, boy?"
Aster gave a sharp, solid nod. "Yes."
"Good." Xebec jerked his head toward the crying baby, who was now on the floor. "Grab your brother. We're fighting our way out of this. I'll handle everything, just follow closely."
With that said, the Xebec family made their way towards the port.
---xxxx---
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