One punch, and the sky seemed to collapse. The earth shattered, and the world was turned upside down.
Once the dust settled and the tremors faded, the women, who had buried their heads against the sand like frightened ostriches, finally dared to raise their eyes.
As far as the eye could see, the desert plain before the city gates was cracked open in massive, jagged canyons. Thick dust filled the sky, blocking out the sun. The vanguard of the rebel army was staggering, falling to their knees in absolute terror, or trapped between deep fissures. Although the rebel army was said to number over 300,000 across the country, only tens of thousands of their strongest fighters had actually formed the vanguard to attack the capital.
And Darian had stopped them all in three seconds.
"It's over... you blocked them all?"
Vivi stared wide-eyed at the apocalyptic devastation before her, completely incredulous. Just moments ago, she was certain that a bloody, devastating war was inevitable.
She was starting to have serious doubts about her worldview. The biggest, most meticulously planned crisis their country had ever faced in its history had been resolved by an arrogant, masked wanted criminal whose primary hobby seemed to be seducing the women on his ship.
Crocodile's brilliant schemes and machinations, the bloody sacrifices of their nation—all of it rendered utterly meaningless in the face of absolute, overwhelming power!
Vivi recalled Darian's behavior over the past few days. Although he seemed to work out diligently every morning, he always gave off a lazy, nonchalant aura, as if nothing in the world truly mattered. Moreover, he was incredibly lecherous; he shamelessly flirted with every woman on the ship and had highly ambiguous, loud relationships with the navigator and the chef.
But this same man had defeated Crocodile yesterday, forcing the invincible Warlord to flee in disarray. And today, he had single-handedly held off tens of thousands of desperate rebel soldiers without shedding a single drop of blood.
Vivi might have looked down on Darian's scandalous private life, but seeing the earth crumbling before her eyes and thousands of soldiers lying in the sand weeping in surrender, Vivi felt extremely guilty for judging him so harshly.
Darian, meanwhile, was not entirely satisfied with his own destructive power. He thought of Whitebeard, who could literally overturn entire islands and shatter the ocean with one casual punch. He still had a long way to go.
Seeing Vivi's deeply relieved expression, Darian immediately shattered her naive illusions.
"It's over for now, Princess, but this is just the beginning," Darian said, shrinking back down from his Giant form, his body steaming. "These rebels revolted because they couldn't survive the drought. I can stop them from fighting, but I can't feed them. The most difficult thing is still waiting for you to handle: leadership."
Darian adjusted his mask. "Moreover, Crocodile, the mastermind behind this rebellion, has not yet been caught. He's still out there."
Upon hearing this, Vivi, having accepted Darian's harsh lessons from earlier, nodded solemnly. She naturally understood what Darian meant and fell silent, her face hardening with resolve.
"I will try my best to be a true ruler," Vivi said quietly.
Seeing that Vivi had finally relaxed but then immediately frowned with worry again, Nami punched Darian's arm. "Idiot! Can't you say things more tactfully? She just saved her country!"
Darian was unfazed by Nami's anger and replied smoothly, "It's all the same, Navigator. The rebel leader is among those men in the sand. Vivi needs to make a choice right now on how to appease them before they find their courage again."
Perhaps the rebels were genuinely terrified by Darian's god-like display of power, or perhaps it was the sudden, miraculous drizzle of rain falling from the sky. Combined with the fact that the rebel leader, Koza, was Vivi's childhood friend, the tense standoff was brought to a peaceful, temporary halt.
Of course, the undercover Baroque Works agents who had infiltrated the rebel ranks tried to cause trouble and incite violence to keep the plan moving, but their desperate ploys were quickly found out.
The primary reason Vivi's attempts to stop the march earlier had been ineffective was because of these hidden instigators. While Vivi was bravely walking out to talk to Koza amidst the broken terrain, several hidden agents raised their rifles, intending to shoot Koza and blame it on the Royal Army to restart the war.
But with Darian standing guard, they failed miserably. A few quick, precise bolts of lightning fried the assassins where they stood.
After some tense discussion and the exposure of the assassins, the rebels identified over a hundred embedded members of Baroque Works hiding within their ranks. This was easy to verify; many members of the syndicate had the organization's special tattoos hidden on their arms or bodies.
After confirming the situation was stable with Vivi and Koza, Darian flew directly over the city walls toward the royal castle.
The situation at the South Gate had naturally been discovered by the Royal Army and the high-ranking members of Baroque Works who had infiltrated the palace.
Fortunately, Darian arrived just in time. Otherwise, Vivi's father, King Cobra, would have been killed by Mr. 2, the Okama who had stolen his face.
In the original timeline, Mr. 2, Bon Clay, was portrayed as an eccentric but deeply loyal character who formed an extraordinary, sacrificial friendship with Luffy and the Straw Hats. But that didn't stop Darian from killing him on sight. Darian had no attachment to the man, and Mr. 2 had just ordered the execution of an innocent king.
The Clone-Clone Fruit—an incredibly versatile Paramecia Devil Fruit that allowed the user to perfectly mimic the appearance and voice of anyone they touched—was a prize Darian desperately wanted.
After frying Mr. 2 with a massive electrical discharge, Darian finally managed to successfully extract a Devil Fruit. With the help of the Nefertari family's ancient, inherited technology regarding the "Devil's Cycle," Darian infused a nearby apple with the dying agent's blood, capturing the Clone-Clone Fruit perfectly.
Thinking about the explosive Bomb-Bomb Fruit, the versatile Wax-Wax Fruit, and the lethal Dice-Dice Fruit that he had carelessly lost over the past few days because he lacked this method, Darian felt a deep pang of heartache. Mastering the technique to harvest Devil Fruits was simply too important for his future empire.
The bloody coup that Baroque Works had named "Utopia" was finally resolved with the help of Darian's overwhelming power, but the mastermind, Crocodile, was still at large, which remained a massive, looming hidden danger.
To make matters worse, a massive, time-delayed bomb that Crocodile had buried deep within the capital's central clock tower was discovered by Robin's sprouted eyes.
Darian had assumed that by defeating Crocodile early in the desert, there would be no bomb plot. He didn't expect that the paranoid Warlord had already prepared the fail-safe days in advance.
When Darian saw the sheer size of the bomb hidden in the clock tower—packed with enough explosives to level the entire city square—he was genuinely startled.
Darian himself wasn't afraid of explosions thanks to his Outer Path durability, but if the bomb detonated in the city center, he couldn't save Nami, Vivi, and the hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the blast radius.
Darian grabbed the massive bomb, flew it high into the stratosphere using his Iron Sand Wings, and let it detonate harmlessly in the clouds.
Crocodile's ruthless, calculated cruelty was deeply etched into Darian's mind. If they met again, Darian was determined to kill the Warlord permanently.
What Darian didn't know was that Crocodile was currently lying unconscious in a secret underground bunker, recovering from the horrific internal damage caused by the vibration punch. He wouldn't wake up until long after the battle was over.
Perhaps the parched land had longed for rain, or perhaps the massive kinetic force of Darian's punch had disturbed the regional atmospheric pressure, or perhaps it was the concussive explosion of Crocodile's massive bomb in the sky seeding the clouds.
Whatever the cause, in Alabasta, the capital city that hadn't seen a drop of moisture for three long years, it rained heavily for an entire day, and the rest of the drought-stricken country soon followed.
Although Alabasta was a desert nation, its massive inland river systems and abundant oases made it a very prosperous, fertile nation under normal conditions. It was only after Crocodile had arrived and used "Dance Powder" to manipulate the weather that the severe, country-wide drought began.
The rain poured down, washing away the blood and the sand, and the people wept and danced in the streets, celebrating its miraculous return.
Later that evening, inside the luxurious royal palace, plates of exquisite, delicious dishes were served one after another in a grand feast of gratitude.
While enjoying the lavish food that only high royalty could typically afford, Darian chatted amicably with King Cobra about matters concerning the country's recovery.
After talking with the old, weary King, Darian felt that the political structure of this world was really quite strange.
The entire Alabasta royal family had dwindled down to just Vivi and Cobra; the so-called "nobility" of the nation seemed largely limited to fiercely loyal royal guards like Pell and Chaka. Therefore, deep-rooted, systemic corruption didn't truly exist in the upper echelons of this country. This genuine care for the citizens had led to the Nefertari family being incredibly prestigious and beloved.
When news spread that Crocodile, the false "Hero," and his syndicate were the true instigators of the drought and the rebellion, the civil war was quickly, peacefully quelled throughout the entire country. The rebels dropped their weapons and embraced the Royal Army.
This made Darian think that the ordinary people in this world were incredibly simple and honest; as long as you gave them the truth, food, and water, they wouldn't rebel.
After all, even horrific, slave-owning beings like the Celestial Dragons hadn't been overthrown by a mass global uprising yet.
The old King, Cobra, was incredibly hospitable and deeply grateful. He treated Darian and his crew to the finest wines and the most decadent foods the palace had to offer. Before long, Darian was quite tipsy. Exhausted from the intense physical and mental strain of the day's battles, he returned to his assigned guest room to rest, falling asleep the moment his head hit the silk pillows.
However, just as he was drifting off into a deep, alcohol-laced sleep, slightly intoxicated, Darian vaguely heard someone softly calling his name.
Then, he felt a sudden, familiar sense of intense warmth and comfort.
It was incredibly hot, damp, and soft, completely enveloping his lower half. Something incredibly smooth and slightly tentative swept across his sensitive flesh.
Darian's groggy consciousness gradually returned to normal. The intense, unmistakable stimulation from his lower body made him realize that someone was eagerly servicing him in the dark.
He looked up slightly, his vision blurry. Darian naturally assumed it was Nami coming to reward him for a job well done. Just as he reached out to press his hand affectionately against the back of her head, intending to pull her up and kiss her as a way of repaying her... he froze.
In the faint moonlight filtering through the palace windows, he saw a wisp of light blue hair.
It wasn't Nami. It was Vivi's still somewhat immature, incredibly beautiful face.
Seeing Princess Vivi's innocent face bobbing in his lap, Darian felt his mind go completely blank with shock.
Vivi appeared to everyone as an elegant, dignified, and utterly pure princess. She embodied the image of an innocent, selfless white lotus who cared only for her people.
But... how could a Princess do such a thing?! Darian thought wildly, his heart hammering against his ribs.
Looking down at her face—which was a captivating mixture of a deep, burning blush, intense shyness, and absolute, royal determination—Darian covered his own face with his hand, utterly speechless.
"Vivi..." Darian breathed, his voice thick with shock and arousal. "What... what are you doing?"
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