Grand Line, Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
The afternoon sunlight was warm and lazy, and the sea breeze blew across this island that symbolized world justice.
This was the Holy Land of the Marines and a forbidden zone for countless pirates.
In the residential town behind the fortress, all was peaceful.
The streets were clean and tidy, white sheets fluttered on clotheslines, and the chants of soldiers training could be heard in the distance, but here, the laughter of children was more prominent.
"Little White! Run! Go get the ball back!"
A little girl of about five or six, wearing a floral dress, threw the leather ball in her hand with all her might.
The girl had short blonde hair and two shallow dimples when she smiled, looking as cute as a doll in a shop window.
She was the daughter of a Marine officer; in this town protected by layers of security, war and death seemed far away from her.
"Woof! Woof woof!"
A small, snow-white dog scurried out happily, its four short legs moving rapidly.
The ball rolled into a dark little alley.
The dog chased the ball into the alley.
The alley was very quiet, with only the faint noise from the distant street reaching it.
The dog bit the ball, preparing to turn back and claim credit from its little master.
Suddenly, its nose twitched a few times.
A strange fragrance.
It was the smell of meat, but more fragrant than any meat it had ever eaten, carrying an irresistible temptation that pierced straight to the brain.
The dog let go of the ball in its mouth.
Following the scent, it looked toward the shadows in the corner of the wall.
There, a piece of purple meat lay quietly.
The meat was still pulsing slightly, covered in eerie vascular patterns, but in the dog's eyes, it was simply the most delicious feast in the world.
It cautiously approached and stuck out its tongue to take a lick.
Delicious!
Indescribably delicious!
The dog could no longer control its instinct, opened its mouth, and swallowed the piece of purple meat in one gulp.
"Little White? Little White, why aren't you coming out yet?"
At the entrance of the alley, the little girl poked her head in and called out somewhat anxiously.
She took small steps into the alley and saw the dog with its back to her.
"Little White, it's time to go home and eat. Mama made something tasty... Little White?"
The little girl suddenly stopped in her tracks.
She felt something was wrong.
Little White's body was trembling.
Trembling violently.
"Wu... Roar..."
The originally crisp barking had turned into a low, hoarse growl, as if its vocal cords were being torn apart.
Crack!
The sickening sound of bone snapping rang out.
The little girl's eyes widened in horror.
She saw Little White's originally snow-white fur suddenly burst open, revealing the bright red muscle underneath.
Its body was expanding.
Like a balloon being blown up, its spine bulged and pierced through the skin, turning into a row of sharp bone spurs.
Its originally short limbs instantly elongated and thickened, its claws becoming as sharp as razors, digging deep into the concrete ground.
"Li... Little White?"
The little girl took a step back in fear, the cloth doll she was holding dropping to the ground.
The monster slowly turned its head.
It was no longer the head of a dog.
The massive mouth split to the ears, white fangs interlocking and jutting out, saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth, sizzling into white smoke as it corroded the ground.
The originally pitch-black pupils were now filled with a violent blood-red, devoid of any reason, containing only an endless desire to kill.
It stared at the little girl who used to feed it and bathe it.
In the mind of this monster, only one thought remained.
Hungry.
Eat meat.
"Roar!!!"
The monster let out a deafening roar, the sound waves echoing in the narrow alley, causing the wall plaster to crumble and fall.
The next second.
The monster's hind legs kicked off hard.
Boom!
The ground cracked.
A massive black shadow, carrying a stench of wind, pounced toward the little girl standing frozen in place.
"Ah!!!"
A scream pierced the afternoon silence of Marineford.
A foul wind hit her face.
It was a stench mixed with the smell of rotting sewers and the metallic rust of raw meat.
The little girl could even see the shreds of meat hanging between the monster's teeth, and her own face, distorted by fear, was reflected in those bloodshot eyeballs.
She wanted to run, but her legs felt as heavy as lead; she could only watch helplessly as that bloody maw bit toward her throat.
"I'm dead..."
That was the final thought in her mind.
Just at this critical moment.
The air suddenly became viscous, as if some heavy object had forced its way into this space.
The expected intense pain did not come.
"Wu—?!"
A confused and pained whimper exploded in her ears.
The little girl opened her eyes tremblingly.
That giant mouth, large enough to crush her head, stopped less than two centimeters from the tip of her nose.
A hand.
A large hand covered in strange red patterns, with skin of a bronze hue, firmly gripped the monster's throat.
Veins bulged on the back of that hand, and the fingers, like hydraulic pincers, sank deep into the muscles of the monster's neck.
The monster's limbs clawed frantically in the air, its sharp claws scraping harsh sparks against the concrete, yet it could not break free in the slightest.
"So noisy."
A low, hoarse voice sounded, like two rough whetstones rubbing against each other.
Then came a surge of irresistible, immense force.
Boom!
That mutated monster, with a body comparable to an adult bull, was actually swung up by that single hand and smashed violently into the adjacent brick wall like a ragdoll.
The brick wall collapsed instantly, and dust rose everywhere.
The little girl stared blankly at the man who had suddenly appeared.
He was very tall, shirtless, with red tattoos that looked like some ancient totems covering his bronze skin.
He wore a pair of worn-out black trousers and a broken metal chain hung around his neck; his entire being radiated a violent aura from the primordial wilderness.
Abel cracked his neck, making a series of crisp snapping sounds.
He didn't even spare a glance at the little girl on the ground, his dull, indifferent gray eyes staring fixedly at the monster struggling in the ruins.
"Is this the 'work' that traitor came up with?"
Abel's lips curled into a cruel sneer, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt.
"Low-quality, ugly, and completely devoid of aesthetics."
"Roar!!!"
In the ruins, the mutated monster stood up unsteadily.
Half of its head had been smashed flat, and black blood flowed from its eye socket, but it seemed unable to feel pain.
Instead, because of the injury, the ferocity of some virus within its body was triggered.
The bone spurs on its back surged again, its already hideous body expanding another size, and muscle fibers squirmed under its skin like living things.
Swoosh!
The monster turned into an afterimage, its speed more than twice as fast as before.
It bared its sharp claws and went straight for Abel's heart.
"A bit interesting. It can actually evolve."
Abel stood in place, neither dodging nor avoiding.
Just as the claws were about to touch his chest.
Buzz—
The space in front of him suddenly rippled with black waves, as if a stone had been thrown into a calm water surface.
Abel reached his right hand into the void and pulled hard.
A massive blade, entirely pitch-black, ruggedly shaped, and covered in serrations, was forcibly dragged out of the void by him.
Puchi!
A black light flashed.
The monster's movement came to an abrupt halt.
It still maintained its pouncing posture, suspended in mid-air.
A second later.
A neat bloodline extended from its forehead all the way down to its crotch.
Huala!
The monster's massive body split in two, and bloody water mixed with black internal organs instantly sprayed out, dyeing the entire alley the color of hell.
The two halves of the corpse smashed heavily onto the ground, still twitching slightly.
Abel casually wiped the black blood off the giant blade, his eyes filled with boredom.
"Too weak."
He turned around, his gaze finally falling on the little girl cowering and trembling in the corner.
The little girl was stared at by those eyes devoid of any emotion, so scared she forgot to breathe, large tears falling one after another.
"Hey, brat."
Abel took a step forward, his massive shadow looming over the girl.
"Where is this place?"