"Magellan," Shin Kawa said, his voice cold as steel. "You overestimate yourself. Without your poison, you're nothing."
Magellan smirked, purple vapor coiling around his massive frame like living smoke. "Unfortunately for you, my poison's very much alive. And you—are already dead! Poison Channel!"
With a roar, the venom on Magellan's body surged outward, spreading across the floor like a tide of liquid death.
Shin's expression didn't falter.
Ding!Character Card: [Elder Chiyo] Activated.Possession uses: –1.
As the system notification chimed, Shin's fingers moved in a blur. He vaulted backward over ten meters, narrowly avoiding the creeping wave of poison that devoured everything in its path.
The toxin halted inches from his boots, bubbling and hissing as it filled the corridor. Within seconds, the entire space between them was sealed by a shimmering, deadly wall of gas.
Magellan chuckled darkly. "Let's see how long you can keep dodging… Poison Pufferfish!"
His jaws opened wide, and a volley of dark purple spheres spewed forth—venomous orbs that sizzled through the mist like comets, heading straight for Shin.
"Persistent bastard," Shin muttered, narrowing his eyes. He knew he couldn't stay on the defensive. If even one of those spheres reached him, the explosion would fill the area with corrosive gas.
He brought his hands together.
"Secret White Technique—Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu!"
Thin chakra threads shot from his ten fingers, and with them came ten gleaming figures cloaked in white. Each puppet bore a distinct weapon—a spear, a blade, a fan, a drill. The air thrummed with mechanical hums as they came to life.
"The ancestor of all puppeteers… Monzaemon's legacy," Shin whispered.
The puppets launched forward. Their movements were blinding, precise.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
In a series of detonations, the poisonous orbs collided with the puppets' strikes and burst midair, flooding the area with noxious gas—but the puppets didn't falter. They weren't flesh and blood; they danced through the smoke unscathed, blades glinting like shards of moonlight.
Magellan's grin faded. "Hmph. So you've got some tricks, after all. Then try surviving this—Venom Dragon Summon!"
From his body erupted three enormous serpents formed entirely of swirling poison, each the size of a ship's mast. They reared up, roaring, their eyes burning with violet light.
The dragons lunged.
Shin didn't back down. His fingers flashed through another pattern of seals.
"Let's see whose creations are stronger—your dragons or my puppets!" he shouted. "Puppet Art: Three Treasures Suction!"
Three of his puppets aligned, one leaping atop the others' shoulders. Their hands extended outward in perfect synchronization.
A violent vortex exploded from their palms.
WHOOOOSH!
The spinning cyclone roared through the corridor, devouring the air itself. The poisonous dragons were sucked into its heart, their forms writhing as the tornado compressed them into a dense sphere of gas—then hurled it straight back toward Magellan.
The warden's eyes widened for the first time. His own venom, condensed and weaponized, shot toward him with terrifying speed.
Though his body was immune to his poison, the sight alone was enough to chill his blood.
"You insolent—!"
The redirected cloud exploded behind him, shattering the walls with a blast that shook the entire floor. The air filled with burning heat and purple flame.
Shin didn't waste a second. His chakra threads pulsed, commanding all ten puppets to charge forward, weapons gleaming.
"Now!"
The puppets surged like an army of death, cutting through the haze toward Magellan's towering figure.
Meanwhile, deep below in Level Six: Eternal Hell—
The air was still. The silence here was suffocating.
Domino stood before a massive black iron gate, clutching a key slick with sweat. Even her confident demeanor couldn't hide the tremor in her hands.
The atmosphere on this floor was unlike anything above it. The walls were thick with gloom; every cell on either side of the corridor radiated a pressure that felt almost… alive.
Everyone imprisoned here was beyond redemption. Monsters the World Government had erased from history—murderers, pirates, and warlords whose very names had been stricken from record.
Just standing here made Domino's stomach twist.
From within the shadows of a nearby cell came a calm, low voice.
"Domino… something terrible's happened upstairs, hasn't it?"
The voice belonged to a man who stepped from the darkness—tall, broad-shouldered, with a bloodstained coat hanging open to reveal scars carved deep across his chest. His eyes glimmered like a predator's in the half-light.
Shiryu of the Rain.Once the most feared swordsman in Impel Prison—now a prisoner himself.
Domino drew in a slow breath. "Shiryu… we need you."
He smiled faintly, almost amused. "That tone tells me the battle above isn't going well. Who could possibly be pushing our beloved Warden Magellan this far?"
"An inmate from Red Lotus Hell," Domino said gravely. "He's… not normal. He's defeated Chief Saludes, the Sphinx, Warden Satie, and even Deputy Warden Hannibal. Now, Magellan himself is fighting him on the Fourth Floor."
Shiryu's grin widened, sharp as his blade once was. "Heh. Interesting. I never thought I'd live to see the day someone broke this far in."
A voice echoed from the neighboring cell—a sharp, mocking woman's tone.
"My, my. Someone's actually threatening the Warden? How delightful."
Domino's expression hardened. "Katherine D. Mave. Stay silent. You're lucky to even be alive down here."
Katherine laughed softly from the darkness. "Oh, don't worry about me. You'd better worry about yourself—if that monster wins, your precious prison's going to crumble."
Domino clenched her fists.
Before she could respond, Shiryu stepped forward, his eyes gleaming. "Enough talk. You know why you're here. Open the door."
The shadows seemed to deepen around him.
Domino hesitated—then raised the trembling key.
The lock turned with a metallic click.
And as the gates of Eternal Hell creaked open, a chill swept through the entire level… as if even the prison itself feared what had just been unleashed.