"How could anyone possibly help you at a time like this?"
Teach gave a derisive snort when he heard those words. "People who stubbornly cling to their ridiculous justice always have these unrealistic little fantasies, don't they?"
As if trying to strengthen the bond between his companions, he noticed Shiryu's disdain for Hannyabal and threw out the topic mockingly.
Shiryu, who had never liked Hannyabal to begin with, curled his lips. Their eyes met, and for a moment, the two seemed to understand each other.
"Is that so? A prayer, huh? I heard it. Since you're admirable enough, I'll grant it for you."
But what entered Blackbeard's ears was a voice saying the exact opposite—
And Shiryu, whose mouth had not opened at all.
In that instant, both of them felt their hair stand on end.
Who?!
"That voice! It actually wasn't predicted?!"
Redfield's expression changed, and he moved at once. The others did not possess his sharp Observation Haki, so their reactions were half a beat slower.
And it was precisely that half-beat difference that allowed a tyrannical burst of light to suddenly erupt on Impel Down's Level 3.
Thunderflame Greatblade: Ashen End!
The "blade," which had at some unknown point turned gaseous and seeped into this place, transformed in the next instant into superheated, high-energy plasma.
Along with that light, casual answer, it slashed through in a flash.
The first one to face the strike was Shiryu, who was still carrying Hannyabal.
All he could do was raise his sword to block. The Haki-coated blade was incomparably sturdy, yet the already formless blade simply flowed around Raiu's edge.
In the span of an instant, before he could even react, it sliced through both the Armament Haki covering his body and Shiryu himself, cutting him in half!
Conqueror's Haki Infusion + Armament Haki Coating + Heavenly Might!
After the triple-enhanced plasma blade swept through the corpse, it rapidly expanded, becoming a colossal blade that cleaved onward.
Boom—!
Whether it was the building or anything else, everything melted into magma-like fluid under the extreme heat.
From a wider view, the entirety of Level 3 seemed to have been split open by a single slash.
The ground shattered. Rubble tumbled down. With the landing point torn apart, the excessively heavy giant Sanjuan Wolf fell straight to the level below.
Immediately after that came Pizarro, screaming as he was forced out of his Island-Island Fruit assimilation state.
Even though he had used advanced Armament Haki to defend himself in time, his entire body was almost burned into charcoal.
Yet before he could even scream twice, lightning arcs wandering wildly through the air exploded behind him. A bluish-purple blade pierced straight through his chest!
The thrust, reinforced by two types of Haki, cut through flesh as cleanly as a hot knife through butter, releasing intense heat that evaporated blood and meat completely!
Under Ren's precise control of the high-energy flow, Pizarro's life force was cleverly preserved.
At the same time, every possibility of Pizarro counterattacking was killed off, as if Ren were a butcher slaughtering livestock.
"Not bad physique. Leaving you with one breath makes things convenient too."
The culprit evaluated him in an indifferent tone, as casually as someone picking cabbages from a street stall.
Along with his voice came a leap of lightning. The black-haired, crimson-eyed man holding a blade vanished, then appeared in front of Vasco Shot.
His jade-white palm reached out, as though about to seize something.
Vasco Shot barely managed to react. As he stepped back, he opened his mouth and spat out scorching flames.
But the blazing explosion he released was torn apart in an instant by a violent wave of energy. In the next moment, fingers like steel clamped around Vasco Shot's throat.
"Your fire isn't hot enough. Try mine."
Ren opened his mouth and exhaled. Tyrannical, superheated energy, wrapped in two types of Haki, surged up to the tip of his throat.
Then it turned into a pure-white beam that roared out!
"Radiant Thunder: Roaring Might!"
Vasco Shot's head vanished inside the beam. Immediately afterward, the highly condensed beam continued onward without losing momentum and pierced through the sniper in the distance.
Van Augur's lower body remained standing in place, but his upper body, along with his beloved rifle, disappeared entirely.
Only now had roughly two seconds passed!
The destruction caused by the first slash had barely ended. It had transformed one-third of Level 3 into a molten lava zone.
Fortunately, it had not cut down all of Level 3. Some places had merely been reduced to rubble.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Teach, who had fallen along with the others but reacted in time, appeared.
He struggled up onto a pile of rubble, his whole body red like a boiled lobster.
As one of the people who had been half a beat slow to react just now, even though his reaction speed had been fast enough, and even though he had used both Haki and his Devil Fruit power, he had still nearly been severely wounded by that strike!
Fortunately, he had not been the first target.
Just as fortunate as him were Catarina, Byrnndi World, and Sanjuan Wolf.
The backlash of pain multiplied several times over surged up. As Teach could not suppress his scream, a deathly silence spread across the shattered ruins.
All the survivors were horrified by what had happened in the previous second.
Strong!
Terrifyingly strong!
Shiryu, Pizarro, and Vasco Shot, who were all prisoners of Infinite Hell at the same level as them—
They had not even had room to struggle or counterattack before dying within a span measured in seconds!
If they themselves had been the targets of those attacks, their outcomes likely would not have been much better.
But… who exactly was this?
Why would a monster of this level be here?!
At that moment, Jinbe, who had originally been prepared to carve a bloody path out, stood in his original position.
While catching Hannyabal, who had been thrown over, he revealed the newcomer's identity with a face full of shock and disbelief.
"It's you! Warlord of the Sea—Demon Ren!"
"It's you! The one who released us from Infinite Hell!"
Redfield, who had avoided the attack a step earlier, spoke almost at the same time, revealing Ren's position.
At the end of their gazes stood Ren, who had at some point appeared beside Magellan.
"Though we stand on different sides, someone like you is still not bad."
Ren ignored everyone else. His lowered eyes looked down at Magellan, who had passed out.
After thinking for a moment, he still did not casually kill the warden.
After all, he had answered Hannyabal's prayer—though he was no god.
"Zehahahaha! Now that really was one hell of an entrance, Ren!"
Blackbeard finally recovered from the pain of his injuries. He looked around and immediately understood the situation.
He could not help but grit his teeth and say, "Sengoku actually let you come here? Is he not planning to let you shine in front of the whole world? Or are you really that content to be the World Government's dog?"
"Teach, that kind of probing rhetoric is meaningless. I came here because I have my own purpose.
"Rather than wasting thought on those little schemes, why don't you think about how you're going to survive?"
Ren raised his eyes indifferently. With a grasp of his five fingers, the bluish-purple long blade reformed in his hand.
Only at that moment did the sound of corpses falling to the ground echo out, making the lawless great pirates present even more horrified.
Without waiting for Blackbeard to answer, Ren rested the bluish-purple blade on his shoulder and looked at the great pirates present with mocking eyes.
"Of course, not just him. The same goes for all of you."
With that one sentence, he fixed himself firmly in an enemy position.
To put it nicely, it was one man crooking his finger at a crowd and arrogantly telling them to come fight him.
But… it worked surprisingly well!
The fact that three companions of the same caliber, plus one sniper, had died instantly made the surviving few afraid to make any bold move.
Although Blackbeard had dared to question him just now, a stormy sea had already surged inside his heart.
As expected of someone who could clash with Kaido.
He had killed Pizarro and the others as swiftly and ruthlessly as slaughtering chickens. His strength was as absurd as his age, so exaggerated it was almost impossible to believe!
Blackbeard felt fear.
A fear he had only ever felt from Pops in the past!
The gap in strength was too great. So great that he could not even feel confident that his life was in his own hands.
If he had thought of himself as the fisherman picking up the profit before, then the one who had appeared now was an even more sinister and cunning fellow!
Yes.
Blackbeard realized that this was a premeditated trap!
He had thought he was the final winner, but in reality, behind that winner stood a dealer.
When the game ended, that dealer chose to act and clear the gambling table.
Otherwise, there was no way Ren's arrival could have been this perfectly timed.
Sengoku's side should never have allowed Ren to leave.
Too cunning. He was clearly the one who should have been standing in the position of the harvester!
"Murunfuffu, you released us, and now you want to kill us? What exactly is your goal?"
Even amid her nervousness, Catarina Devon still wore a full smile. "Don't tell me you just wanted to have a bit of fun?"
"Stop probing. His hostility is heavy, and I can't read his memories."
At that moment, Redfield suddenly interrupted Catarina's words.
It was useless. His extraordinary Observation Haki could read the powerful hostility within Ren's emotions.
Although he did not know why he could not probe Ren's memories, the emotion alone was enough to confirm that Ren was full of hostility.
"Red the Aloof?"
Ren glanced at the white-haired, white-bearded Redfield with slight curiosity.
He roughly remembered this man's story. A movie villain, and one whose talent in Observation Haki could be called unique.
However, that kind of probing ability was useless against him, since he had changed his biological state.
"I did not expect anyone to still know this old man's name."
Redfield spoke while silently moving closer to the others present.
No matter how powerful the legend of the past had been, right now he was merely an old man who had just left prison.
If there was anyone here who had not been targeted by Ren's hostility, it was probably Jinbe, who stood toward the enemy's rear flank.
At that moment, the Fish-Man finally recovered from his shock and noticed his own special situation.
He was not being targeted…
"Don't overthink it. Whitebeard and I have some entanglements. Not killing you counts as giving him face."
Without even turning his head, Ren said, "Of course, if you want to avenge Arlong, I don't mind sending you both on the road together.
"If you don't, then let me give you a piece of advice. Run as far away as you can."
Jinbe's expression changed slightly when he heard this. Then, without saying a word, he retreated again and again.
Indeed, there was the matter of Arlong between the two of them.
But after learning everything that had happened in Arlong Park through Hatchan, Jinbe did not believe he needed to avenge Arlong.
Human crimes against Fish-Men were indeed hateful.
But that was no reason to turn around and carry out the same measures against humans.
If they did that, Fish-Men would never have a chance to realize their dream of "living beneath the sun."
Holding the dying Hannyabal, he quickly withdrew.
At the same time, Level 3, which had almost become ruins, began to shake violently.
An incomparably massive head, carrying an expression of furious rage, smashed through the remaining ground.
Sanjuan Wolf.
A Paramecia-type Devil Fruit user of the Huge-Huge Fruit.
The most direct use of this ability was to become huge, crazily expanding the user's body size.
If it were an ordinary person, perhaps it would not be much.
But Wolf was a giant!
The effect displayed when a giant used the Huge-Huge Fruit—
Was this terrifying colossal creature, hundreds of meters long, standing on Level 4 while still able to smash through the ground with everything above his waist and appear on Level 3!
(End of Chapter)