May 3, 1504, Age of the Sea Circle
Meanwhile, several days away from the place where the pirate crews of Shanks and Blackbeard had finished clashing after nearly three full days of fighting, Orion was sailing calmly toward his next destination while speaking with Robin through the Den Den Mushi.
"It's good to know everything is fine over there. I understand you're training hard, but don't push yourself too far," Orion said with a gentle smile, somewhat concerned about Robin's physical condition, since although she sounded cheerful, there was also clear fatigue in her voice.
"Don't worry, Orion, I know my limits well. I promise I won't be reckless and break myself trying to move faster than what my body can handle," Robin replied with determination, trying to ease his concern.
It had already been almost half a year since Robin had left together with Kalifa and Alfa to train under Stussy's guidance and work within the spy organization that Orion had placed under her command. During this period, Robin's abilities had grown explosively, to the point that if Orion were to meet her right now, he would be deeply impressed by her progress.
Not only had she improved her combat abilities, but she had also learned all kinds of new espionage and administrative skills. When combined with her vast academic knowledge, it could be said without a doubt that Nico Robin was one of the most versatile individuals within Orion's forces.
"Alright, I trust your words, but remember you can call me at any time if you need me—I'll travel to your side instantly if necessary."
Orion had a special use of his Space Gate that allowed him to travel directly to Robin's position, although this anchoring point of his spatial ability was limited to a single use, so Robin would only rely on it as a last resort.
"Don't worry, I haven't been doing anything dangerous!" Robin replied, trying to sound more energetic, and then, lowering her voice slightly, she added,
"Orion… I miss you…"
"I miss you too. How about I come visit you at Stussy's base in the Underworld?"
"Ah, no! Don't worry about me—focus on your own matters and I'll do the same. The next time we meet, I'll make you proud of me!"
Robin didn't want Orion to worry about her more than necessary, and although she missed him every day, she also enjoyed the feeling of progressing rapidly without him being there to see it. She wanted to return to him gloriously in the future and become his right hand, someone he would always need by his side.
Robin's goal was quite simple, but for her it was the perfect motivation to work hard every day, and so far it had yielded great results, as evidenced by the remarkable progress she had made in her abilities.
Finally, Orion concluded his conversation with Robin and said goodbye, once again focusing on his current journey.
According to the information he had received from Stussy and her spies, the two individuals he had come to the North Blue to find were located on a rather peculiar island, toward which he was currently heading.
This island was essentially a massive slave market, where most of the high-level slaves of the North Blue ended up, later to be sold to all kinds of influential figures. Monet and her sister Sugar were imprisoned on that island, and Orion was heading there to recruit them before Doflamingo could do so.
At the moment, he was still several days away from reaching the island in question, although everything seemed to indicate that he would have to delay a bit longer, since a new island had just appeared on the horizon, accompanied by a new system notification.
*Ding*
*A new Dungeon is available. Do you wish to enter Dungeon mode? Yes/No*
Orion looked at the notification that had just appeared, then activated his Prism Eyes and observed the island in the distance, noticing columns of smoke rising into the sky from its surface.
Without hesitation, he made a decision. Accepting the Dungeon, he leapt from the ship and headed toward the island using Geppo, though not before instructing Mitsu to protect the ship until his return and leaving Shesha behind to assist her.
As he advanced through the air toward the island, Orion read the information displayed on the system screen regarding the current Dungeon.
*Dungeon: City Under Siege.
Description: The city of Opla is under attack by a group of dangerous pirates. Without external assistance, the fate of Opla's innocent inhabitants is absolute extermination at the hands of their invaders.
Objectives:
- Save the Named Character Linaria
- Save the inhabitants of Opla
- Eliminate the attacking pirates
- Eliminate the pirate "Dirty" Andrei
- Eliminate the pirate "Hurricane" Alexandru
- Eliminate the pirate "Bomberman" Stefan *
Unlike missions, which had specific objectives that needed to be completed to succeed, Dungeons were far more flexible in that regard, and completing at least one objective was enough to obtain a reward.
Generally, the rewards obtained in Dungeons were lower than those from system-issued missions, although that depended on the difficulty of the Dungeon itself. For instance, during his visit to Wano, Orion had participated in a Dungeon with objectives that bordered on the impossible—such as eliminating Kaido—and had he succeeded, the rewards would have matched that level of difficulty.
On the other hand, the type of Dungeon he was about to undertake now was of a much lower level, although Orion suspected there would still be some powerful enemies, since the system had listed three specific pirates as targets.
Finally, the presence of a specific Named Character he needed to save led Orion to believe that she was likely the primary reason behind the sudden appearance of this Dungeon.
In truth, Orion's deductions were quite accurate, because in the original timeline, Shanks and his crew would have arrived at this island to prevent a tragedy. However, due to the butterfly effect caused by Orion's actions, Shanks had been delayed fighting Blackbeard, which meant the people of this island had been condemned to die at the hands of the invading pirates.
Fortunately for them, Orion was in the area, and although he would have acted to help them even without the Dungeon's appearance, it was still beneficial that the system was willing to reward him for it.
Orion knew very well that the system was not an inert entity, but rather one aligned with his personal desires, which was why the missions and Dungeons it issued were always things he consciously or unconsciously wanted to accomplish, even if he couldn't control their appearance at will.
Moving at full speed, Orion reached the island in just a few minutes, where he was met with a scene he had witnessed countless times since reincarnating into this world: pirates destroying everything in their path.
The first time Orion had encountered the cruelty of this world had been when a small band of pirates attacked Pacific Town, forcing him to take up the wooden sword he had trained with for only a few years to defend his loved ones.
Since then, he had encountered the same scenario on multiple occasions—during the siege of Doll's City, during his journey home after escaping Guanhao, and generally at least once every time he set out to sea on one of his adventures.
It had become so common that Orion had already "grown accustomed" to it. Usually, he tried to help as many people as possible and eliminate the pirates wreaking havoc across the world, although in many other instances, he could only bury the victims after finding villages already destroyed, recruiting the survivors by offering them a new beginning in his kingdom.
Orion was well aware that this was a chaotic world, and that at that very moment, countless people were suffering at the hands of pirates and other criminals in various corners of the planet. That was why he had overcome his initial prejudice against the Marines, understanding that without this corrupt organization, far more people would suffer tragedies every day.
In any case, now that he had come face to face with a pirate siege against a defenseless town, there was only one way this situation could end—and that was with the complete annihilation of his enemies.
Frowning, Orion extended his Observation Haki to its maximum range, identifying the locations of his enemies nearby. Then he used Soru, closing the distance at high speed as he drew his cutlass from his inventory and unleashed a powerful attack.
"Kamusari!"
A group of pirates who had been gleefully burning down the village's houses collapsed to the ground, decapitated. Without even realizing what had happened, they died, their faces still frozen in expressions of enjoyment, smiling as they destroyed what belonged to others.
Orion scanned the surroundings for survivors, but unfortunately, this area of the village had already been completely devastated, with no inhabitants left alive. Still, it was a small relief to him that the number of innocent deaths in this zone was low, suggesting that many had managed to escape before the pirates could reach them.
Without wasting a second, he continued rushing deeper into the city, eliminating any pirate he encountered with a single strike and rescuing the wounded or captured inhabitants. Time was not on his side to handle things more delicately, so he simply threw them into his Pocket Dimension to keep them safe. There would be time later to speak with them once all the pirates had been dealt with.
Meanwhile, in the center of the city, most of the inhabitants had barricaded themselves inside a small fort, utterly terrified as they waited for the reinforcements they had requested from the Marines to arrive in time to save them.
"Mom, I'm scared," Linaria said with teary eyes, clinging tightly to her mother, who was staring out from a window at the pirates looting homes and slaughtering the unfortunate ones who had failed to reach the fort in time.
"Don't worry, the Marines will be here soon, and those horrible pirates will be eliminated!" said Linaria's mother, Luna, unable to suppress the frustration and indignation rising within her.
In moments of crisis like these, a person's true nature was revealed; some wept in fear, others denied reality, and many clung desperately to the slim chance of being saved by the Marines.
As for Linaria's mother, she was a combative woman who had raised her daughter alone with great difficulty after her husband's death, and her personality made it so that, rather than fear, what she felt was indignation. If she had possessed enough power, she would have undoubtedly leapt onto the battlefield to eliminate as many pirates as she could, even if it meant dying in the process.
"Do you think Dad will protect us from heaven?" little Linaria continued, her eyes filled with both hope and tears.
Luna let out a soft sigh, thinking that her daughter was far too sweet and innocent for this world, but in the end she chose not to extinguish her hopes, and nodding firmly, she said,
"Of course! Just wait, a miracle will happen!"
Even she herself didn't believe those words, but for her daughter's sake she had to remain firm and maintain a positive attitude; it was every parent's duty to do their best for their children, and Luna had always been a good mother to Linaria.
Bang!
A heavy blow echoed loudly in the ears of the terrified inhabitants of Opla inside the fort, and the sturdy gate separating them from the barbaric pirates shook visibly
Linaria trembled in terror as well, curling into her mother's embrace while the pirates' shouts from the other side of the door rang out with increasing clarity.
"Break that door down already! I want to have some fun—those bastards didn't leave a single attractive woman out here!"
"That's because your standards are too high, I had a great time with those older ladies haha!"
"You bastard, don't compare me to you and your weird tastes!"
"Set those houses on fire! I like watching things burn!"
When the pirates had reached Opla's shores, the men had organized themselves to protect their families, who were evacuated first and sent into the fort. For that reason, all the women and children had managed to escape successfully and take refuge here while waiting for reinforcements, whereas the less fortunate had been the elderly and those with limited mobility, as well as the young men who had stayed behind to buy time and ensure the evacuation of the rest of the village.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The blows against the fort's main gate grew faster and stronger, and it was obvious to everyone taking refuge inside that the pirates would break through their last defenses in a matter of moments.
Clinging to their loved ones, the inhabitants of Opla prayed for a miracle, and perhaps the heavens took pity on them and chose to answer their prayers, because the pirates' assault on the fort's gates suddenly stopped, and their voices grew more distant.
Luna sensed that something strange was happening, and rising to her feet, she leaned further out the nearby window, looking down and witnessing a scene that made her breathing halt and her pulse quicken.
There, a lone man was dancing in the midst of the pirates like a god of death, harvesting the lives of his enemies without a shred of mercy. Linaria, who had been watching her mother closely, grew curious about what had captured her attention so completely, and she leaned out beside her just in time to see Orion unleash a powerful attack that would remain etched in her memory forever.
With her eyes shining, Linaria watched the pirates being slaughtered without feeling any revulsion at the brutality of the scene, because to her, these pirates were not human—they were demons who had come to torture her to death, and she could feel no sympathy for them.
Years ago, they had been attacked by another group of pirates, and Linaria still remembered the anguished screams of the women who had been mercilessly violated, as well as the flames of the houses set ablaze simply to instill fear in the townspeople and discourage resistance in future invasions.
Since that time, different pirate bands had attacked the village on several occasions, though never with as much violence as this one, where it seemed their luck had finally run out, having encountered a crew that had no intention whatsoever of leaving anyone alive.
While Linaria and Luna watched the scene from the height of the fort's window, Orion found himself surrounded by pirates, since he had had no choice but to create a large disturbance to divert their attention away from the inhabitants barricaded inside the fort.
Orion would have preferred to eliminate them in a more "orderly" fashion, but upon arriving, he had found that the citizens of Opla's last defenses were on the verge of collapse, leaving him no option but to throw himself into the midst of the enemy forces and begin a far more chaotic battle.
At first, he had taken down a large number of pirates with a wave of Conqueror's Haki, although he had been surprised to discover that nearly half of the crew had managed to remain standing after receiving the impact of his Haki, which indicated that the level of these individuals was not particularly low.
What Orion didn't know was that the crew he was facing right now was currently recognized as the most powerful in the North Blue, even above Doflamingo's, although that was partly because the future Warlord had not yet revealed the full extent of his strength, having no particular interest in being acknowledged as the strongest in this minor Blue.
After seeing that a large number of enemies were still standing even after being struck by his Conqueror's Haki, Orion held nothing back and began using his most powerful attacks. Even if these pirates truly were the strongest in the North Blue, he had confidence in his abilities and knew he could handle them.
"Thirty-Six Styles, Dimensional Slash!"
An attack infused with his spatial attribute tore across the battlefield, severing every pirate in its path until it finally crashed into a distant mountain and vanished without a trace.
If Orion had used his full current power, even that mountain would have been split in two by the attack, though doing so would have unnecessarily consumed a large portion of his mental energy. Just using his Dimensional Slash already required a significant amount of energy, and he had only deployed it to eliminate the large number of enemies still standing.
And just as he had planned, that single strike had wiped out a considerable portion of the opposing pirates.
"Who the hell is this bastard?!" shouted the captain of the pirate crew, known as "Dirty" Andrei.
"I don't know who he is, but we can't let him keep slaughtering our crew," said Alexandru, even as his neck began to spin and lift into the air.
"A Devil Fruit?" Orion murmured as he observed the pirate using the Guru Guru no Mi(Spin Spin Fruit) to take flight. Then, with a mere thought, he pulled a massive container from his inventory—one that was filled with… fruits.
Orion had been collecting all kinds of ordinary fruits and storing them in this container, and his objective was simple: to use them during battles against enemies who wielded Devil Fruits.
According to the information he possessed, after a Devil Fruit user died, their fruit would reappear somewhere in the world, allowing someone else to consume it, and everything seemed to indicate that Devil Fruits reincarnated into the nearest fruit— of the same base type—to the location of the user's death.
For that reason, Orion had been gathering as many different kinds of fruits as he could, storing them in his inventory—where they would remain in the exact state they had been in when stored—waiting for the right opportunity to test his luck.
Now he had encountered a Devil Fruit user, and if fortune favored him, he might obtain the Guru Guru no Mi after eliminating the pirate before him.
Orion was preparing to take down the pirate flying through the sky, but at that exact moment, the one known as "Bomberman" Stefan stuck a finger into his ear, pulled out a lump of earwax, and flicked it toward Orion at high speed.
BOOM!
A massive explosion shook the entire area, and the pirates smiled victoriously as they watched their mysterious enemy get engulfed in flames.
"Good thing you finally decided to act—you always avoid using your powers and make us do all the work, that's why we've been trying to break down a door for ten minutes!" complained Dirty Andrei, thinking that his nickname would suit Stefan better than himself.
"I can't help it, my ammunition is limited after all," Stefan replied indifferently.
"Can't you just spit bombs? How little saliva do you even have?!" Andrei continued complaining, though Stefan was no longer paying him any attention.
In truth, they could have broken down the fort's gate long ago if they had wanted to, but they had deliberately chosen not to, preferring to toy with the emotions of Opla's inhabitants in a sadistic manner. This pirate crew was quite eccentric, each member harboring questionable tastes, though they all shared a ruthless nature and a fondness for "playing" with their victims.
Unfortunately for them, this time they had made a grave mistake, because if they had taken the fort more quickly, they might have been able to use the innocent townspeople as hostages to avoid Orion's wrath. However, that was no longer an option, because the beast they had provoked was now about to sink its teeth into them.
"Two Devil Fruit users… no, three. Interesting—perhaps today is my lucky day," Orion said with an aggressive smile that sent chills down the spines of all the pirates present, as he stepped out from the flames of Stefan's massive explosion completely unscathed.