Next Bonus, 100!!
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"Huh??"
"What the—"
Hody was stunned. King Neptune and his sons were safe, though they were covered in a cold sweat.
"Who's there?" Hody roared, looking up. Across the plaza, a human was floating in the air, blue arcs of electricity dancing between his fingertips.
"A human?"
"Hey! Who is that?"
"He looks... familiar. I've seen him somewhere before."
The plaza was in an uproar.
"Are you the royal family's reinforcements?" Hody sneered, his voice dripping with contempt. "You'd have a human save you?"
His words ignited the crowd's anger.
"So it's true! The Neptune family is in league with the humans!"
"They've betrayed the Fish-Man race!"
"TRAITORS!"
"OPEN FIRE! KILL HIM!"
A wave of fury swept through the crowd. Some of the Fish-Men opened fire. Others leaped into the air, their weapons raised, intent on cutting Jin down.
"RUN!" Madam Shyarly screamed from the ground, her voice raw, but no one paid her any attention.
Using the Kilo-Kilo Fruit to lighten his weight, Jin floated through the air, casually sidestepping the attacks.
He drifted to the center of the plaza and looked down at them all. "Alright. I'll give you one chance. What is 1000 minus 7?"
The Fish-Men just stared at him, confused.
"You don't even know that?" Jin sighed. "Fine. I'll give you another chance. You have until I finish my chant to get out of here."
"Hey, human! Don't get too cocky!"
"I'll kill you!"
Jin had no more words for them.
He began his incantation.
"Let them know suffering."
From his body, a series of iron chains shot out, wrapping around the perimeter of the plaza and forming a massive cage that trapped everyone inside.
Now they all realized that something was very wrong.
This human was strange.
A Devil Fruit user.
Hody's expression turned grim. He felt a prickle of danger.
"Take him out!" he roared, pulling a handful of pills from his pocket and stuffing them into his mouth.
A powerful force erupted from within him. His muscles bulged, his body swelling. The sudden surge of power gave him the illusion that he could crush the world beneath his feet. His eyes turned bloodshot, his teeth sharpened, and a savage aura radiated from him.
King Neptune's eyes widened. "The stolen 'Energy Steroids' from the Tamatebako... I always thought it was humans who took them. But it was you, Hody Jones!"
Hody shot him a sidelong glance. "So what? I'll kill him, then I'll kill you!"
With the power surging through him, his confidence was absolute. "Yabusame!" he roared, unleashing a barrage of water droplets with the force of arrows.
Jin didn't even look at them.
"Let their sins be weighed."
"Let their souls be scoured."
"LET THIS WORLD KNOW TRUE PAIN!"
Lightning crawled along the chains.
The forty-nine chains became forty-nine bolts of lightning, a cage of pure energy.
Hody leaped, his leg sweeping out in a powerful kick aimed at Jin.
But a bolt of lightning shot up from the cage and lashed out like a whip, striking him again and again.
"GAAAAAH!" he screamed, his skin splitting open. He crashed to the ground, a bloody, disheveled mess.
"HODY!" his men screamed, horrified.
Their powerful leader, Hody Jones... taken down so easily.
Who was this man?
"Hey... I think I remember now," someone said. "I saw him in a newspaper a human pirate brought. He's a king!"
"That's right! The king who defeated Whitebeard and wreaked havoc in Big Mom's territory!"
"What?? It's him??"
The news spread, and a wave of unease rippled through the crowd. People started to run for the exits.
"BY THUNDER, BE JUDGED!"
"BY HEAVEN, BE SCOURED!"
Most of Jin's body became elemental.
A terrifying aura filled the air.
Hody staggered to his feet and shoved another handful of pills into his mouth, his eyes filled with a crazed madness.
He could hear his own heart pounding, his body feel like it was about to be torn apart by the pain.
He screamed.
"The E.S. are too strong! Even a Fish-Man can't take that much! He'll die!" the horn shark Fish-Man, Dosun, cried out in shock.
The screaming stopped.
Hody looked like a demon crawled up from the depths of hell. His body was even more muscular, his eyes blazed red, and his black hair had turned white.
He clenched his fists, and the rock beneath them, strong enough to withstand the deep-sea pressure, crumbled to dust.
He looked up at the sky, at the god-like figure wreathed in lightning, and let out a bestial roar.
"You've got to be kidding me! I'm going to be the king of the New Fish-Men!"
Hody drew his Kirisame blade.
He stomped the ground, and it shattered.
He shot into the air, the blade of his sword glinting in the light.
Jin paid him no mind.
Hody Jones. The disgrace of all bosses. The pill-popping warrior.
No ideals, no experience, only hatred.
Let's see how you like a taste of real pain.
"LET YOUR SINS BE BURNED AWAY!"
An endless torrent of lightning erupted from Jin's body. From the chains that formed the cage, a curtain of electricity descended.
"AAAAAAAAAAH...!"
The screams were instantaneous.
Each arc of lightning was like a knife, piercing their bodies, tearing their flesh, leaving them all charred and bleeding.
Hody, Ikaros, and the other officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates were given special attention. Two chains pierced through their heads, and the lightning that coursed through them was so intense their skeletons were visible. Their flesh melted from their bones.
It was a slow, agonizing execution.
The ultimate pain.
They all screamed.
Madam Shyarly and King Neptune were untouched by the lightning, but their faces were ashen with terror.
It was an inferno.
A lightning inferno.
All across Fish-Man Island, those who had left the plaza looked on in horror, listening to the chorus of blood-curdling screams.
The sky was filled with lightning, the heavens roared with thunder, and the island trembled, as if the gods themselves had sent down their judgment.
Robin used her powers to cover Shirahoshi's eyes and ears, to spare her from the nightmares that would surely follow.
Prince Fukaboshi's heart trembled. So this was what Jin had meant by "dealing with it." To kill all who were unwilling to leave.
Aladine and the other members of the Sun Pirates were filled with a profound sense of dread.
"I... I hate you! I should have acted sooner!" Hody shrieked in agony. He could feel his flesh melting, his bones being destroyed, but he was still conscious.
He was terrified. He was breaking. He begged for death.
"Kill me..."
Jin ignored him.
Hody had never been oppressed by humans. He had oppressed his own kind. Such evil deserved no sympathy.
As for the others, Jin had given them three chances. They had refused to take them. They were stubborn, unyielding.
This group was the very heart of the radical, extremist, human-hating faction of Fish-Man Island.
By eliminating them, there would still be dissenting voices, but they would be a minority. The moderates would be in control.
If you can't solve the problem, then solve the people with the problem.
Of course, Jin would undoubtedly earn a bad reputation for this.
But who cared?
Besides, the scholars and nobles of the Ryugu Kingdom, and the surviving Fish-Men, out of fear and self-interest, would all spin the story in his favor.
Fifty to sixty thousand soul crystals.
A massive haul.
Jin raised his hand and opened the Munch-Munch space. Under the cover of the lightning, he harvested the souls within the cage.
In an instant, Gyoncorde Plaza fell silent.
The chains retracted. The lightning vanished.
Only Jin remained, floating in the air.
And the melted remains of flesh and bone, the sickening smell of burnt meat hanging in the air.
Madam Shyarly collapsed, muttering the word "demon."
Jin landed on the execution platform, undid the ropes, and said, "The gods have sent down their thunder to punish the wicked."
"You are free, King Neptune."
King Neptune trembled.
He regretted everything.
This young king... he was far more terrifying than Whitebeard.
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