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At the same moment, No. 8 withdrew his somewhat shocked gaze. Holding his sword in one hand, he swung it in a single slash.
"Blackwater Skill - River Styx Enters the Underworld!"
From the void ahead suddenly came the sound of hua-la-la, like flowing water.
Immediately afterward, all the jailers seemed to see a river rushing toward them. In the blink of an eye, they were swallowed by that black torrent, thrown into complete chaos by the violent current.
"This blade is called Blackwater. Its lineage… spans a thousand years…" No. 8's deep voice sounded as if he were reminiscing about the past.
"Let's go." Rojen ruthlessly interrupted the old man's nostalgia and stepped forward.
The two quickly passed through the Fifth Level. In this relatively small prison, nothing could stop their advance. In the blink of an eye, the two had already reached the Second Level.
"Fire Style - Great Fireball Technique!"
"Water Style - Great Waterfall Technique!"
Rojen rapidly formed hand seals, releasing ninjutsu one after another with effortless ease. All the jailers who tried to stop them were completely engulfed and lost their lives. But what shocked No. 8 even more were the enormous figures roaring behind them, the Prison Beasts.
Their eyes were also filled with strange ripple-like patterns, clearly showing that they had been controlled by the young man walking ahead.
As they continued forward, the number of Prison Beasts kept increasing. Gradually, they formed an entire force behind them. In fact, Rojen and No. 8 barely needed to act anymore; the beasts alone were enough to sweep away everything in their path.
Their advance caused the prisoners on both sides of the corridors to burst into excited screams.
"Ahahaha! Someone's breaking out again!!"
"They're going to succeed, they're really going to succeed! Amazing!"
"The Marines are in trouble now, big trouble!"
The pirates and criminals imprisoned here no longer had any hope of being rescued themselves, but that didn't stop them from cheering wildly.
In the blink of an eye, the two had arrived at the First Level of Impel Down.
"Once we pass through here, we'll reach the exit."
Excitement flashed in No. 8's eyes.
He had been imprisoned for who knew how many years. His once-black hair had already turned gray. And now, at last… he could leave!
Had the world changed completely during all these years?
Were his wife and children still alive?
Rojen nodded and continued forward.
Along the way, they hadn't encountered any truly formidable opponents. The man named Robert, whom they had encountered when entering earlier, had not appeared. Ironically, Robert was exactly the person Rojen had planned to deal with using his possession ability.
According to Rojen's rough estimation, this man called Robert, the big radish-headed fellow, probably possessed strength no less than that of Sengoku or Garp.
Yet even when the two reached the gate of the First Level and could already see the light of the outside world, he still hadn't appeared.
This made Rojen feel puzzled, though he also breathed a sigh of relief. No. 8 also found the situation strange and frowned as he pondered it.
What the two of them didn't know was that inside the Warden's office of Impel Down, on an enormous bed, Robert was snoring thunderously, sleeping soundly, while everyone else around him was in a panic.
"Hurry and wake him up! Rojen is about to escape!"
"Ahhhh! I'm going crazy! Why was this guy assigned as the warden?!"
"It's over! It's over! Warden Robert won't wake up! Notify Marine Headquarters and have them figure something out!"
At the back of the group stood a young man with a cold expression, silently watching everything unfold.
"Magellan! Magellan! Go inform Headquarters and have them send someone! Stop standing there in a daze!"
The shout snapped Magellan out of his thoughts. Slightly slow to react, he turned around and hurried off.
Meanwhile, Rojen and No. 8 had already stepped out of the gates of Impel Down.
Instinctively, they raised their hands to shield their eyes from the sunlight above. Only after about ten seconds did they finally adjust.
"We're out!" No. 8 shouted excitedly.
Ahead of them was the endless sea. Waves surged forward layer after layer, raising towering swells dozens of meters high that slammed into the elevated platform, producing thunderous roars.
"The smell of sunlight… the smell of the sea."
A smile appeared on Rojen's face. Looking down at the ocean ahead, a trace of nostalgia surfaced in his eyes.
"It feels like a long time has passed. I wonder… are my companions still doing well?"
He raised his head and gazed at the azure sky, the corners of his mouth curling upward.
"This time, once I leave… I'll never come back again."
Looking down at the Marine warships rising and falling with the waves below, Rojen's gaze grew deep.
"Marines… long time no see."
"Rojen, let's go! As long as we get out of here, we'll be free! Hahaha!"
No. 8 laughed loudly, stepping forward before suddenly leaping toward the warships below.
"The moment we stepped out of the gate, we were already free."
Rojen replied calmly as he also jumped down.
On the Marine warship, the Marines in standard uniforms were lazily sunbathing. They were a specialized unit responsible for escorting pirates delivered by Marines from Headquarters. Most of the time they simply waited here, and it was rare for them to have anything to do, making their days quite relaxed.
But at that moment, a Marine who was squinting under the sunlight suddenly noticed two streaks of light falling from the sky through the narrow slit of his eyes.
The next instant, his eyes widened.
"That's… two people!?"
Boom!
The two figures rapidly grew larger before crashing heavily onto the warship. Though their bodies weren't particularly large, the force of the impact made the entire ship shake violently.
The Marines on board were thrown off balance, rolling across the deck in confusion.
"What just happened?"
"Marines, we need to trouble you with something."
Standing on the deck, Rojen's face was cold and indifferent.
"Huh?"
The Marines got up, staring at them in bewilderment.
"Sail the ship."
The moment those words were spoken, No. 8 swung his blade.
In the terrified eyes of the Marines on the ship, that single slash split the surface of the sea, extending forward for nearly a thousand meters before stopping.
Within the deep ocean, a bottomless fissure had appeared.
And that terrifying scene had been created by that old man.
Where exactly had these two monsters come from?
"T-They came out of Impel Down!!"
Suddenly, a Marine recognized the clothing on No. 8 and screamed in horror.
One minute later, the warship started moving, speeding away across the sea.
At Marine Headquarters, Sengoku was frowning as he flipped through stacks of intelligence reports from the New World.
"Brru-brru-brru!"
The Den Den Mushi suddenly rang. Sengoku reached out and picked it up.
"Speak."
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Something terrible has happened!!"
A panicked voice came from the other side of the Den Den Mushi.
"Calm down. What happened?" Sengoku asked steadily.
"R-Rojen escaped!"
The trembling voice sounded on the verge of tears, and Sengoku felt as if he had just been struck by lightning.
"What did you say?"
Four years ago, the great pirate Gol D. Rojen, who had stormed Marine Headquarters and the Holy Land of the Celestial Dragons and carried a bounty of 880 million Berries, and he had escaped!
This shocking news spread across the entire Marine base in an instant.
The first chain reaction it triggered was immediate,
The three Admirals of Marine Headquarters were all dispatched.
"Pursue him! Whether we capture him or not, we cannot stop!"
"That man must never be allowed to roam free again."
"He… is far too dangerous."
(End Of This Chapter)