York stared blankly at the golden Den Den Mushi that had just been frantically slammed shut on the other end.
"Does Ochoku really... need to be that afraid?" York asked, raising an eyebrow.
Shakky, standing beside York amidst the carnage of the auction house, let out a cold, venomous laugh.
"When he secretly allied with the World Government to ambush me back then, he was certainly a lot bolder!"
Hearing the lingering bitterness in her voice, York reached out and pulled Shakky into his embrace.
"Don't worry," York said softly, his voice echoing with absolute certainty. "I will personally help you get your revenge. Whether Ochoku stays locked up on Hachinosu Island or tries to hide at the bottom of the sea, I will find him."
Hearing her lover's vow, Shakky smiled, wrapping her arms around York and resting her head against his chest. "I believe you."
Around them, the luxurious human auction house was in absolute ruins. Fragmented remains and various bodily fluids were splattered across the velvet seating. Crimson blood flowed in countless small streams down the stone stairs. Yet, standing on the blood-soaked auction block, York and Shakky embraced tenderly, completely unfazed by the gore.
Kaido, wiping brain matter off his spiked club, watched this romantic scene unfold and suddenly felt incredibly queasy.
Disgusting, Kaido thought, rolling his eyes.
Deciding he'd rather swim in lava than watch his Captain be romantic, Kaido decisively led his subordinates into the back holding areas of the auction house. First, he would slaughter the remaining guards. Second, he would blow the explosive collars off the enslaved people held captive in the cages.
These freed slaves might not all be willing to join a pirate crew, but Kaido knew he might be able to recruit some fierce fighters from the bunch. After all, being captured and sold didn't necessarily mean a person was weak.
'As York always says,' Kaido grinned to himself, 'even top-tier monsters end up on the auction block sometimes.'
While Kaido rampaged through Grove 1, Dragon led Ivankov, Ginny, Kuma, and a massive detachment of recruits to raid the various human trafficking rings and black markets across the archipelago.
Their primary goal was to rescue the innocent; their secondary goal was the absolute annihilation of the traffickers.
Ivankov and Ginny had no psychological burden whatsoever when it came to killing slavers. They slaughtered them ruthlessly. Only young Kuma still possessed a bleeding heart, using his Paw-Paw Fruit to merely repel the guards, thinking a harsh lesson would suffice.
Fortunately, Ivankov and Ginny followed right behind him, permanently finishing off any trafficker Kuma spared. Not a single slaver escaped the purge.
Naturally, the great chaos enveloping Sabaody was immediately noticed by the Marine base stationed at Grove 66.
But their reaction mirrored the Drum Kingdom.
The Base Vice Admiral ordered all available Marine soldiers to form a heavy defensive perimeter strictly at the border of Groves 1 to 29. As long as the Crimson Harvest Pirates did not cross that line into the civilian or governmental sectors, the Marines were ordered not to engage.
Although the rank-and-file soldiers felt deeply humiliated, no one dared disobey. Facing a 4.5 Billion Berry monster without an Admiral was suicide.
The chaos and slaughter on Groves 1 through 29 raged on.
However, the 1,600 newly recruited members of the Crimson Harvest were, after all, somewhat stretched thin against the entrenched local gangs and rival pirate crews spanning twenty-nine distinct islands.
After their initial blitzkrieg was blunted, the recruits' morale gradually began to wane. Outside of the battlefields personally led by Kaido and Dragon, the Crimson Harvest forces actually began to lose ground.
Soon, a blood-soaked recruit ran frantically up to York, who had just stepped out of the ruined auction house.
"Captain York! Our advance on Grove 13 has been completely blocked!"
"Who is the opponent?" York asked calmly.
"It's this year's top Supernova! Magha the Great Serpent!"
"Hmm? A Supernova?" York raised an eyebrow, genuinely intrigued.
Thanks to his past life's knowledge, York was very interested in the phenomenon of 'Supernovas'—rookies who managed to accumulate a bounty of over 100 million Berries within their first year of sailing. Even ignoring the future 'Worst Generation' like Luffy, Law, or Kid, any pirate who reached that benchmark possessed immense strength and growth potential.
Now that he had coincidentally bumped into one, there was no reason to let him go.
"Take me to him."
Led by the messenger, York quickly arrived at Grove 13. The plaza was littered with the battered, groaning bodies of his recruits.
Sitting like a king atop a collapsed architectural pillar was the Supernova: Magha the Great Serpent.
He was a massive young man, roughly York's age, but standing nearly five meters tall. He possessed a robust, well-proportioned physique and was purely human, showing no distinct racial characteristics.
Seeing York approach, Magha's eyes flashed with a piercing, arrogant gleam.
"So, you're the Lord of Corruption?!" Magha sneered, leaping down from the pillar.
He scrutinized York from head to toe. York was only about two meters tall, his muscles hidden beneath a tailored coat. Most annoyingly, York was significantly more handsome than him.
"You're too young!" Magha let out a mocking laugh. "A guy my age actually holds the world's highest bounty? Bullshit! I don't buy it!"
Faced with Magha's skepticism, York didn't bother arguing. He simply bent down and picked up a standard, discarded katana from the grass.
"It's been a long time since I used a blade," York mused, testing the weight of the sword. "I've been relying on my fists and my Devil Fruit so much lately, I almost forgot that my swordsmanship is actually quite formidable."
York looked up at the towering Supernova. He raised his free hand and beckoned him forward.
"Come on. If you can survive one move from me, I'll spare your life. If you can survive three moves... I'll let you and your crew leave this island alive."
"HUH?!" Magha let out a roar of absolute fury, deeply insulted. "Who the hell do you think you are?! You think I can't last three moves against a pretty boy?!"
CLANG!
A flash of silver light momentarily blinded the plaza.
York hadn't moved from his spot. He merely swung the borrowed katana casually through the air.
Yet, the rooftops of the massive buildings on both sides of the street were instantly and silently sliced clean off. The stone structures slid down the diagonal, frictionless cuts, crashing to the ground in a deafening roar of dust.
Magha froze. On his massive chest, a terrifying gash that nearly reached the bone suddenly bloomed open. Crimson blood sprayed onto the grass.
"You..." Magha staggered backward, clutching his chest.
"Are you going to complain that it was a sneak attack?" York asked, lowering the blade. "I swung my sword openly right in front of your face. If your reaction time is too slow to track it, am I to blame?"
Magha snapped his mouth shut. His massive palm trembled as he pressed it against his bleeding chest.
"It seems your physical endurance is decent," York smiled. "You didn't get bisected by my casual swing. As expected of a Supernova, you have some substance."
York's eyes darkened. "But you better be careful with the next strike. That was just a warm-up to regain my feel for the blade. Now, I am going to seriously try to cut you in half. If you can't block it and you die, don't blame me!"
York slid his foot back, gripping the hilt with both hands. His entire aura sharpened into something lethal.
Magha's pupils constricted to pinpricks. Terrified, he completely discarded his arrogance and instantly activated his trump card.
His robust body rapidly expanded. His jaw unhinged, his eyes turned into reptilian vertical slits, and thick, diamond-hard scales erupted across his skin.
Within seconds, a monstrous, prehistoric python—three meters thick and over forty meters long—towered over the plaza. The massive snake coiled its body around the ruined buildings, its colossal head looking down at York with solemn, venomous eyes.
"I see. The Hebi Hebi no Mi (Snake-Snake Fruit)," York said, pausing his stance. "Looking at your sheer size, you aren't just a standard Zoan. That's an Ancient Model, isn't it?"
"EXACTLY!!" Magha hissed, his voice vibrating through the massive snake's chest. "Snake-Snake Fruit! Ancient Zoan! Model: Titanoboa! This is my true power!"
"Not bad at all," York praised genuinely.
"Since you possess an Ancient Zoan, it would be a waste to kill you. Survive this, and you will stay here as my subordinate!"
York slowly raised the katana. He didn't coat it in Armament Haki. He didn't channel his awakened Sun God flames. It was just pure, fundamental, devastating swordsmanship.
With a single, explosive downward slash, a massive, compressed shockwave of air—a Flying Slash—tore through the plaza.
The giant Titanoboa desperately tried to slither out of the way, but it was far too slow. The slash cleaved directly into the python's armored chest, shattering the ancient scales.
Blood gushed like a geyser. The Titanoboa let out an agonizing, deafening shriek. The enormous snake head reared high into the sky before crashing down heavily into the ruins, its reptilian eyes rolling back as Magha instantly lost consciousness.
"CAPTAIN!!"
"Captain Magha!!"
The surviving members of the Great Serpent Pirates cried out in horror, surrounding their fallen captain. Some roared in anger, brandishing their weapons and charging blindly at York.
York had no interest in fighting small fry. He casually waved his hand to the Crimson Harvest recruits who had gathered behind him.
"Capture them all."
Before long, the Great Serpent Pirates were entirely defeated, bound in heavy chains, and absorbed as prisoners of the Crimson Harvest.
With the defeat of the strongest rival crew on the island, the remaining pockets of resistance completely collapsed. The other battlefields that had temporarily suppressed the Crimson Harvest recruits were quickly overrun as Kaido, Dragon, Shakky, and Stussy arrived to provide support.
The strength of those four monsters was simply something the rookies of Sabaody could not comprehend, let alone fight.
After a full day of absolute carnage, the great chaos of the Sabaody Archipelago concluded with the total victory of the Crimson Harvest Pirates.
Out on the perimeter, the Marines stood in their defensive formations, silently watching the inner groves turn from lush green to rivers of blood. The soldiers who had previously resented their Vice Admiral's cowardly orders now felt a profound, shivering sense of gratitude. If they had crossed that line, they would be corpses too.
Mangrove Grove 27.
This was the designated staging area where York had anchored the flagship.
As the sun set, the exhausted, blood-soaked recruits successively returned with their spoils of victory. Huge chests of gold, silver, plundered jewels, and stacks of Berries were dumped onto the grass, forming a literal mountain of wealth.
Similarly, the number of rival pirates captured and bound by the Crimson Harvest exceeded 3,000 men.
Anyone else on Groves 1 to 29—human traffickers, mafia bosses, and stubborn pirates who refused to yield—became fertilizer for the Yariman Mangroves.
However, the Crimson Harvest Pirates also experienced their first major reduction in numbers.
Of the original 1,600 recruits who had sailed from Mock Town, over 700 had been killed in action. Another 300 had suffered severe to light injuries. Because the fighting had been dispersed across twenty-nine separate islands, the recruits hadn't noticed the attrition rate until they formed up for the headcount.
Looking at the massive gaps in their ranks, the surviving pirates couldn't help but feel a lingering, icy fear.
So many died…
Fortunately, York's foresight proved flawless. The 49 world-class doctors he had extorted from the Drum Kingdom immediately set up triage tents. Combining their expertise with the few ship doctors already on the crew, the medical division worked miracles, providing ample and detailed treatment to the 300 injured survivors.
Seeing their wounded brothers saved from the brink of death, the surviving recruits' fear shifted. They no longer felt York was intentionally using them as cannon fodder. Instead, their loyalty solidified.
Looking at the body bags, the surviving veterans sneered.
"Worthless trash! If they didn't have the strength to survive the New World, they deserved to die here!"
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