"If I'd known this would happen, I never would've come..."
Anderson Hood stared through the window at the heavy black clouds, the island beyond the lake now reduced to a mass of raw flesh, while the dying screams of countless pirates echoed through the air.
For the first time, he deeply regretted the choice he had made earlier.
He should have turned the ship around the moment he had the chance. Had he done so, he never would have ended up in this mess.
The council of Kings had only just begun.
A few minutes earlier, Nast, who was presiding over the meeting, had managed to raise only two topics. The first was how they should respond to the navy's growing strength.
Nast explained that although the Blood Reverend had destroyed the ironclad Pritz, the technology behind it was already fully developed. More ships like it would soon be launched.
Compared to ordinary sailing vessels, such warships belonged to an entirely different age. The pirates would have no hope of resisting them.
They would be crushed, forced to surrender territory bit by bit until they were eventually driven from the Five Seas altogether.
Nast had long dreamed of establishing an empire for the pirates, and he refused to accept such an outcome. That was why he had summoned the other Kings to hear their opinions.
Unfortunately, none of them seemed particularly concerned.
Anderson and "the Cruel One," each attending on behalf of their respective captains, merely said they would report the matter in full upon returning.
Nast remained composed. He showed no anger at their indifference and simply moved on to the second topic:
Whether Alexander Gascoigne should be recognized as a new King of the Seas.
That subject interested Anderson far more.
But before he could study the reactions of the other Kings, chaos suddenly erupted across the island.
The moment Nast removed the wards sealing the room, Anderson looked out the window and found himself staring into a scene from hell.
The wind screamed as crimson waves surged and churned.
Towering trees of flesh and blood rose across the island, their tentacles thrashing wildly as they reveled in a carnival of gore and despair. They bloomed like roses of worship, offering praise to some deranged and monstrous existence.
Above them, dense black clouds gathered and twisted into a distorted vortex.
Deep within it, something vast, crude, frenzied, and chaotic seemed to be slowly awakening.
That presence...
That horrifying, twisted presence...
Anderson felt as though something hidden deep within the swirling clouds was watching him.
At the same time, his own desires began to surge. They pressed against his thoughts, subtly warping his mind and urging him to cast aside all restraint and indulge every wicked impulse.
No!
Don't look!
His instincts screamed in warning.
He immediately lowered his head, refusing to glance upward again.
Something terrible was about to descend!
"Someone, come here."
At the center of the captain's quarters, Nast, the King of the Five Seas, called out as he surveyed the scene outside.
"Count, there's trouble on the island."
His first mate, "Viscount of Fear" Bird Mustang, appeared in the doorway immediately. He bowed and continued, "The Admiral of Blood has summoned something dangerous. We're handling it."
Trouble?
He made it sound like a minor inconvenience.
From the way things looked, the entire island was on the verge of being wiped out!
These people were unbelievable, Anderson thought. Even now, they still insisted on observing every last formality.
At that moment, Nast abruptly rose from his chair.
The King of the Five Seas took a single step, and the laws of space seemed to bend around him, carrying him directly to the window.
A faint red light flickered within his dark eyes as he silently studied the scene outside, sensing the invisible laws woven throughout the air.
Whoosh!
A moment later, he thrust out one hand, seized the empty air, and slowly pulled.
Space around the Black Emperor began to distort.
As light and shadow flickered chaotically, an unseen force dragged a figure through the barrier of space and pulled him into view above the lake.
Boom!
Just as the twisted figure was about to be drawn within Nast's reach, a garish blood-red radiance erupted from its body, violently breaking free from the invisible force.
Nast was forced to release his grip, leaving the figure suspended above the Black Emperor.
The person he had dragged through space was Shanks, a demigod of the Rose School of Thought.
His body had become so grotesquely distorted that it was barely recognizable. Countless vines extended from him, responding to the trees of flesh below as they writhed endlessly in unison.
So he was behind all of this?
Anderson watched silently.
As expected of the King of the Five Seas. He found the culprit almost immediately, then simply reached out and dragged him here.
"The Rose School of Thought?" Nast said. "You people have grown remarkably bold."
A trace of displeasure crossed his stern face when he saw his target escape. He gave a cold snort.
Whoosh!
Invisible laws spread outward in an instant, sweeping across the entire island.
Every tree of flesh and blood hunting for fresh prey froze on the spot.
Shanks stiffened in midair as well. Every vine growing from his body went rigid.
But the effect lasted for only a fraction of a second.
Shanks quickly recovered. His face twisted as he let out a deranged laugh at the black, three-masted ship below.
"King of the Five Seas, I have received the Mother Tree's blessing! Your power is useless against me!"
The black clouds had grown even denser, swallowing most of the sky.
Shanks remained suspended in the air, every tentacle on his body moving in rhythm with the trees of flesh and blood below. Their movements faintly resonated with the clouds overhead.
"All hands, heed my command."
Nast's voice was not loud, yet it instantly reached every corner of the Black Emperor.
"Open fire."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A strange force swept across the ship.
Unaffected by the madness filling the air, the sailors rushed to the cannons at Nast's command and fired shell after shell, each carrying tremendous power.
The instant the shells left their barrels, they accelerated.
Their trajectories curved and twisted through the air, scattering across the entire island. Every shot struck its target, crashing into a tree of flesh and blood and blasting it apart.
A casual attack from the King of the Five Seas had caused astonishing devastation!
"Cough... Cough..."
Only half of Shanks's body remained suspended in the air.
Nast had deliberately sent two shells directly at him.
Trapped by the invisible laws, Shanks had been unable to transform into a vengeful spirit and was forced to endure the full force of the attack.
Even with his body nearly destroyed, his face remained filled with indescribable devotion.
"Praise the Mother Tree!"
The old man's voice rang with fanatic reverence.
He reached into his robes and pulled out a long, blackened finger.
Without the slightest hesitation, he raised it and plunged it violently into his own eye socket!
Splat!
The strike carried such force that the slender finger pierced through his skull, its tip emerging from the back of his head.
After committing that nearly self-destructive act, he raised his voice and chanted with rapturous devotion:
"Chaotic offspring of the loving Mother Tree, convergence of all curses and corruption born of indulgence, sower of chaos and mutation, great Godspawn, Suah!"
The black clouds overhead churned violently.
Then a massive black arm reached out from within them and seized Shanks!