A/N: Shoutout to my Patreon bro @Pavel for joining!! I literally gasped when I saw lol! HAPPY+1 { Read 30 chapters ahead at patreon.com/Glivaria }
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[ LEVEL 2 — THE WILD BEAST HELL ]
High above the boiling blood, the air in Level 2 was cold, stale, and completely silent.
Light Yagami walked slowly down the central corridor. His pristine black boots made no sound against the stone.
He didn't need to look into every cage. His Level 3 Observation Haki washed over the prison blocks like a radar, easily picking up the heavy, suffocating weight of the human souls trapped behind the bars. It was actually quite relaxing. Out on the open seas, the world was full of frustrating gray areas. But down here? In the deepest pit of the World Government? It was beautifully, satisfyingly black and white.
He walked past a massive, reinforced cell holding twenty vicious, heavily scarred pirates. The glowing red numbers hovering above their heads were blinding.
"Hey..." one of the pirates whispered, pressing his face against the iron. "He's not a guard. Is he here to—"
Light didn't stop walking. He didn't turn his head. He simply raised his left hand, pointing his index finger lazily toward the cell block as he strolled past.
Flick.
An invisible pulse of Advanced Armament shot through the air, bypassing the iron entirely.
Inside the cell, the twenty pirates simultaneously grasped their chests. There were no screams. There was no struggle. Their hearts simply ruptured in absolute unison. They collapsed onto the cold stone in a heap of lifeless meat.
[ Multiple Targets Eliminated. +114,000 KP. ]
Light lowered his hand, a genuine, dark smile touching his lips.
I need more, Light thought to himself, feeling the familiar hum of his Life Force. The upcoming war at Marineford is going to be a complete bloodbath. Whitebeard, the Admirals, the Warlords... if I want to stand above them and actually impose my justice on this rotting world, my current Haki won't cut it. I need to reach the absolute peak.
He stopped at the next cell. He raised his finger, ready to reap another harvest.
But he paused.
He looked through the bars. Sitting in the corner was a ragged, shivering man with missing fingernails. Light's eyes narrowed slightly as the system panel materialized.
[ Name: Jin ][ Green: 4,500 | Bad: 1,200 ]
A Revolutionary. Or maybe just a civilian who said the wrong thing to a passing Marine Captain. Either way, his Bad Karma was practically non-existent. He was innocent.
Light lowered his hand. He stared at the shivering man for a long moment. He wasn't a hero. He wasn't here to lead a grand rebellion or hold anyone's hand to the surface. But leaving a relatively good person to rot in a cage didn't sit right with his brand of justice either.
Light drew his pitch-black saber an inch from its scabbard.
With a casual, lightning-fast flick of his wrist, a tiny, compressed arc of Haki severed the massive iron lock on the cell door. The heavy metal clattered loudly to the stone floor. The door slowly creaked open.
Jin flinched, looking up in sheer disbelief.
"Door's open," Light muttered, already turning his back and walking away. "What you do now is your problem. Try not to die on your way up."
He continued down the corridor. Whenever he found a filthy soul, he flicked his wrist, and they died instantly. Whenever he found someone with a clean aura, he casually sliced their lock, leaving the cage wide open. He didn't wait for their thanks, and he didn't offer to guide them.
He wouldn't pause his steps to become a saviour.
Because he wasn't.
Suddenly, Light stopped in his tracks.
Far beneath his feet, the thick stone floor vibrated. He could feel the massive, surging spikes of spiritual energy echoing up the descent shafts. Straw Hat was burning his stamina, pushing deeper into the heat of Level 4.
But Light felt something else.
A new aura. It was moving slowly, but it was massive. It was a dense, suffocating, utterly toxic presence that seemed to actively corrode the very air around it. It was descending from the upper administration levels, bypassing the chaos entirely, moving directly to intercept the Straw Hats.
"The Warden," Light murmured.
He smirked, leaning against the cold stone wall for a brief second.
Perfect, Light thought, listening to the distant rumble from the levels below. Let the rubber idiot keep the Warden busy. I've got a lot of trash left to take out, and I don't want any interruptions.
He pushed off the wall, raising his finger toward the next row of cages.
"Judgment," he whispered, and the quiet slaughter resumed.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
[ LEVEL 4 — THE BLAZING HELL ]
"The stairs are right there!" Bon Clay shouted, pointing toward a massive, heavy iron door at the end of the final bridge. "Level 5 is just beyond that!"
Luffy deactivated his Gear Second, his chest heaving slightly as he sprinted. The heat was beginning to take a serious toll on his stamina, but the exit was in sight.
"We're almost there, Ace," Luffy gritted his teeth.
Zoro suddenly stopped running. He planted his boots firmly onto the iron grate, his hand violently gripping the hilt of Wado Ichimonji. His lone eye widened in pure, instinctual alarm.
"Luffy! Stop!" Zoro roared.
Sanji skidded to a halt beside him, the hair on the back of the cook's neck standing straight up. His Observation Haki wasn't as refined as Zoro's or Light's, but he didn't need it to feel the sudden, overwhelming dread that had just flooded the cavern.
The boiling of the blood lake seemed to quiet down. The screaming of the prisoners faded into terrified, absolute silence.
From the shadows of the massive iron door at the end of the bridge, a thick, heavy fog began to roll out.
It wasn't smoke from the fires. It was a deep, sickly purple gas. It hissed as it touched the iron bridge, instantly corroding the thick metal. The stone walls around the doorway began to bubble and melt like cheap plastic.
"What... what is that smell?" Buggy gagged, clutching his throat as the acrid scent of sulfur and concentrated acid hit his nose.
"Get back!" Mr. 3 shrieked, scrambling backward on his hands and knees. "It's poison! It's pure, weaponized poison!"
Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed from the purple fog.
A colossal figure stepped onto the bridge. He was massive—easily twice the height of an average man. He wore a dark, imposing warden's uniform, completely unbothered by the blistering heat. Demonic bat wings extended from his back, and a pair of curved horns protruded from his head.
Thick, purple sludge dripped constantly from his mouth, his chin, and his hands. Wherever the venom touched the bridge, it hissed, eating completely through the iron.
Warden Magellan looked down at the tiny pirates standing before him. His eyes were cold, entirely devoid of mercy.
"You have made a profound mess of my prison, rats," Magellan spoke. His voice was deep, guttural, and laced with a terrifying, bubbling echo.
Luffy didn't step back. He stood his ground, staring up at the giant.
"Move," Luffy ordered, his voice devoid of fear. "I'm going down to Level 6."
Magellan's eyes narrowed. The purple sludge on his shoulders began to violently bubble and expand, rising into the air behind him like a living, breathing entity.
"You are going nowhere, Monkey D. Luffy," Magellan declared.
Three massive, terrifying heads formed from the purple venom behind the Warden, shaping themselves into the likeness of a colossal, three-headed dragon. The poison hissed, dripping onto the floor, melting the bridge in real time.
"You are going to die right here."
Poison Dragon: Hydra.
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A/N: The one missing from the scene was Magellan! Is it GG now??