If you want to read more about my works or just to support me then here is my patreon:
( If you want to read 5–10 chapters ahead, support me on Patreon ):
Patreon.com/Doflamingo4
_______________________________________________________________________________
Akai knew it. No time left for words, no space for wit. The clock was ticking, a phantom pressure in his skull, each second a grain of sand in an hourglass about to empty. His body was battered, ribs screaming from Kurokaz's blows, and the system's timer burned in the back of his head like a brand, a curse counting down to his ruin.
He clenched his fists, the split skin on his knuckles stretching taut over bone, the stinging of the air against raw nerves only fueling the desperate fire in his gut. His lips curled away from his teeth in a raw snarl, a primal expression of a man pushed beyond the brink of exhaustion into the realm of pure, unadulterated survival.
"Alright then… no more jokes."
The levity that usually served as his armor had stripped away, leaving only the jagged edges of a cornered animal.
He launched forward first—a burst of desperate motion, his fist cutting through the thick, bloodied air like a blade. Every fiber of his quadriceps protested, the muscles frayed and screaming, but he forced the explosion of speed anyway. The air in Level 6 felt heavy, saturated with the metallic tang of copper and the stench of ancient sweat, resisting his movement like water.
The impact struck Basha across the jaw with a solid thwack, a sound that should have signaled a turning point. It was the sound of leather meeting granite. But the beast, now fully embraced by his Zoan transformation, barely flinched, his head just jerking slightly to the side. The kinetic energy of Akai's strike, which would have shattered the skull of a lesser man, seemed to be absorbed into the thick, matted fur and the unnaturally dense musculature of the Bloodhound's neck.
Instead,
Basha grinned, a horrific sight with his fangs glistening wet and red in the torchlight. The light flickered off the ivory points, casting elongated, distorted reflections against the damp prison floor. His body twitched with pent-up energy, his powerful shoulders hunching low like a predator coiling to pounce. The transformation had warped him into something that defied the natural order, a chimera of human malice and lupine ferocity.
"Die, you brat…"
the words grated out, half-growl, half-speech, vibrating with a frequency that seemed to rattle the very marrow in Akai's bones.
The Bloodhound swung with terrifying, unexpected speed for something his size. Akai barely had time to bring his arms up in a cross-block. The blow was a hammer strike, sending a shockwave rattling through his bones, vibrating his teeth, forcing him to skid back a step on the slick stone. The soles of his boots struggled for purchase on the grime-coated floor, the friction generating a heat he could feel through the worn leather. He tried countering immediately, a sharp jab to the beast's midsection, aiming for the soft tissue beneath the ribs, but Basha was no less powerful than Kurokaz had been—in fact, he was worse, faster, more feral.
Hus reflexes were tuned to a predatory frequency, allowing him to shift his weight and tank the blow with a dismissive grunt.
Crack!
Another punch landed, this time a brutal hook that connected solidly with Akai's already bruised ribs. White-hot, searing pain lanced through him, the breath ripped from his lungs in a choked gasp. It felt as though a molten iron bar had been driven into his side, snapping the fragile harmony of his breathing. He staggered, one hand clutching his screaming side, feeling the wetness of his own blood beginning to soak through his tattered clothes, only for Basha to follow up with a backhanded, clawed swipe that raked across his face. The claws were like razors, effortlessly parting skin and muscle, leaving trails of fire across his cheek.
Akai stumbled, his head snapping to the side, teeth rattling, his boots scraping for purchase against the blood-slicked stone. The world tilted on its axis, the flickering torches becoming streaks of chaotic orange against the oppressive gloom of the dungeon.
"Shit—!"
But Basha didn't stop. The beast pressed forward mercilessly, a whirlwind of bestial fury. He was a force of nature, a localized hurricane of meat and malice. Claws sliced through the air with audible whooshes, the sound of the atmosphere being torn asunder. Fists hammered down with inhuman, ground-shaking strength, each impact sending tremors through the floorboards of the world. Each strike came faster, harder, more unpredictable.
Blood—Akai's blood—began to spray in fine, crimson arcs across the chaotic battlefield, painting the grey stones in a macabre Jackson Pollock of violence.
Akai's vision began to tunnel. He saw the world through a narrowing aperture of pain. He saw the flexing of Basha's deltoids, the way the beast's pupils remained fixed on his throat, and the spray of saliva from the monster's snapping jaws.
BOOM!
A clawed swipe meant for his throat missed and instead split the stone wall behind him,sending shards flying. The debris hissed through the air like shrapnel, slicing into Akai's arms as he ducked, the sound of the stone shattering like a cannon blast.
CRACK!
A powerful knee drove up into his chest,the impact so brutal it nearly folded him in half, forcing the air from his lungs with a sickening grunt. He felt his sternum groan under the pressure, the sheer mass of the beast threatening to collapse his thoracic cavity.
The prisoners around them, even those locked in their own mortal struggles, stopped mid-slaughter, staring wide-eyed as the Bloodhound's unrelenting fury tore through the level.
The general chaos seemed to dim, their blood-soaked screams momentarily drowned out by the monstrous power of this single, enraged beast. The air itself seemed to grow cold, sucked into the vacuum of Basha's rage.
Akai was exhausted—his body screamed in protest from the aftermath of the Kurokaz fight, every muscle fiber burning, and now he was being forced into this brutal, one-sided pounding. His breaths grew ragged, sawing in and out of his bruised chest with a wet, whistling sound.
Each inhale felt like swallowing broken glass. His arms trembled from the effort of blocking, the bones feeling brittle, as if one more strike would turn them to dust. His knuckles were split open anew, bleeding freely, the blood dripping from his fingertips to join the pooling mess on the floor. And still, he tried to hold on, tried to find an opening, tried to fight back against the tide of violence. His mind raced, searching for a weakness, a lapse in the beast's form, but Basha was a storm, and you cannot reason with the rain.
But Basha wasn't done. The beast's eyes glowed with a hellish crimson light as he gathered himself for a final, decisive charge, his claws dripping with blood not his own. The muscles in his legs coiled, the floor beneath him cracking under the sheer tension of his stance. With one final, earth-shaking roar that seemed to vibrate the very foundations of Level 6, a sound that originated from the darkest pits of his transformed soul, he swung his entire weight into a massive, obliterating fist—
—and Akai was sent flying.
The impact was devastating, a concussive force that lifted him clean off his feet. It wasn't just a punch; it was a physical rejection from the earth. His body tore through the air, a ragdoll against the backdrop of chaos, the wind rushing past his ears in a deafening roar. He saw the ceiling of Level 6, the weeping saltstone and the rusted iron grates, spinning away from him. Before SMASH!—he hit the far wall with bone-shattering, unforgiving force.
The sound of his body hitting the stone was sickeningly dull, a thud that resonated through the entire chamber.
And then something impossible happened.
The ancient, reinforced wall behind him, built to withstand the unrest of the world's most dangerous men and the erosion of centuries, cracked under the impact, a web of fractures spreading out from the point of contact like lightning. The cracks raced across the surface, spider-webbing with a high-pitched screech of protesting masonry. Then, with a deep, groaning shudder, a entire section of it collapsed inward. Dust and shattered stone poured around him in a roaring cascade, the sound like rolling thunder. The debris choked the air, creating a grey veil that obscured the carnage of the prison. But instead of just a pile of rubble, the collapse revealed something vast and strange hidden behind the prison's facade.
A hidden bridge.
The prisoners froze completely, their bloodlust replaced by sheer astonishment, eyes widening in collective disbelief. The weapons held to throats remained there, forgotten. The fires of the riot flickered lower as if intimidated by the revelation. Even Basha staggered back a step, a low, confused growl rumbling in his chest, disbelief etched across his savage, bestial features. His predatory instinct, usually so sure, was baffled by the sudden appearance of a path that shouldn't exist.
Akai's body lay broken and limp at the foot of this newfound passage. He looked like a discarded marionette, his limbs twisted at unnatural angles. His head lolled back against a chunk of rubble, blood streaking in vivid lines down his face, masking his features in a mask of red. His chest was heaving with shallow, painful breaths, each one a victory against the encroaching unconsciousness. With trembling, weakening hands, he pushed himself upright, his vision swimming, blurring at the edges, fighting to focus on the impossible geometry before him. The world was a kaleidoscope of grey dust and blue light.
And then…
he saw it.
The bridge stretched out into a void of impenetrable blackness that seemed to have no end. It wasn't just a lack of light; it was a hungry, sentient dark that swallowed the very concept of distance. A thick, black mist rolled across its surface like living, breathing smoke, undulating with a slow, rhythmic pulse. The stone of the bridge itself was carved with strange, swirling, ancient patterns that glowed with a faint, ethereal blue light, symbols twisting and moving like the whispers of forgotten gods. They weren't just carvings; they were alive, shifting and rearranging themselves in a silent, cosmic dance. Massive, cold iron chains hung from the darkness above, swaying slowly, rhythmically, though there was no wind, their lengths vanishing into the shadows high overhead. They groaned with a metallic sorrow, a sound that felt like it was being played on the strings of the universe.
Every inch of the bridge seemed to hum with a deep, unsettling energy—a palpable, ominous power that felt ancient and wrong, like it wasn't built for mortals to ever walk upon. It felt like a transgression against reality itself.
Akai's lips parted, a strangled, breathy sound escaping them.
"What… the hell is this place?"
His voice was a mere rasp, a fragment of a thought lost in the vastness of the discovery. The energy from the bridge washed over him, smelling of ozone and old, dry earth, a scent that didn't belong in the damp depths of Impel Down.
But he had no time to process it, no time to wonder.
WHAM!
A monstrous, final blow from Basha smashed into his back, the claws tearing into his flesh with a finality that brooked no argument. Basha had recovered from his shock, replaced it with a desperate need to finish the kill before the mystery of the bridge could interfere. The force launched his broken body forward, sending him soaring through the entrance and onto the beginning of the strange bridge. His blood sprayed into the air in a dark mist, illuminated by the eerie blue glow of the floor, before his body tumbled violently, end over end, into the waiting abyss below. The transition from the solid floor of the prison to the ethereal surface of the bridge was a blur of motion and agony.
The last thing he heard wasn't Basha's triumphant growl or the prisoners' shocked
gasps—
It was the cold, merciless ding of the system. A sound that was sharper than any blade, more final than any executioner's axe.
[Quest Failed.]
Punishment Pending:To Be Executed in 72 Hours.
The words hovered in his mind's eye, glowing with a clinical, detached cruelty. The timer had stopped, but the consequence had arrived.
His body kept falling, spinning deeper into the unknown, the chilling blackness and the glowing blue symbols rising up to swallow him whole. The wind of his descent whistled past him, but it wasn't the wind of the world above; it was a cold, stagnant air that tasted of silence. His eyelids grew impossibly heavy, the weight of his injuries finally dragging his consciousness down into the depths. His mind was fading, the sharp edges of the pain receding into a numb, accepting silence. The chaotic sounds of the riot, the roars of the beast, the clashing of steel—all of it faded into a distant, muffled hum.
"Ah… fuck…"
he whispered, the words a ghost on his lips, a final, weary protest against a fate he couldn't control, before the darkness rushed up and claimed him completely.
The blue symbols were the last things he saw, their light flickering like dying stars as he plunged further into the gut of the abyss.
And Akai vanished into the void.
The bridge remained, silent and glowing, a secret path carved into the heart of the world, waiting for the next soul to fall. Behind him, the breach in the wall of Level 6 stood like an open wound, the prisoners and the beast staring into the dark, unable to follow, unable to comprehend the nature of the abyss that had just consumed their prey. The mist on the bridge continued its slow, serpentine crawl, indifferent to the broken man it had just received.
[End of Chapter 13. ]
To Be Continued...
If you want to read more about my works or just to support me then here is my patreon:
( If you want to read 5–10 chapters ahead, support me on Patreon ):
Patreon.com/Doflamingo4