The illusion of absolute security is a fragile pane of glass. For eight hundred years, the World Government had maintained that glass through the sheer, overwhelming terror of the Marine Admirals. The Celestial Dragons were untouchable. It was a law of physics as irrefutable as gravity or the rising sun.
When Saint Valerius's severed head hit the filthy cobblestones of Grove 1, that glass didn't just shatter. It disintegrated.
The silence that had gripped the plaza was snapped by a singular, blood-curdling shriek from a slave merchant realizing that the blood pooling around the Rear Admiral's boots belonged to a god.
"SEAL THE EXITS!" Captain Haas roared, his voice tearing through the humid, mangrove-scented air. He drew his combat knife, the matte-black steel glinting in the afternoon sun. "NO ONE WEARING A COLLAR KEY LEAVES THIS GROVE ALIVE!"
"YES, CAPTAIN!"
The five loyalist veterans who had followed Light from the South Blue fanned out like starving wolves unleashed upon a flock of panicked, bloated sheep. They were no longer Marines. The pristine white coats they wore were nothing but a mockery of the institution they were currently dismantling. They were the executioners of Light Yagami.
Grove 1 descended into absolute, unadulterated anarchy.
It was a slaughter. The merchants, kidnappers, and bounty hunters of Sabaody were accustomed to preying on the weak. They were accustomed to bribing the local garrison. They were completely and utterly unprepared for a fanatical, highly trained military kill squad.
In the absolute epicenter of the hurricane of violence, Rear Admiral Light Yagami walked with a slow, measured, almost leisurely stride.
He had sheathed his pitch-black saber. He did not need Level 5 Weapon Arts for the insects frantically buzzing around the plaza.
A massive, heavily scarred bounty hunter, terrified out of his mind and acting on blind panic, charged through the thick black powder smoke toward Light. He raised a heavy, bloodstained battleaxe high above his head. "Out of my way, you rogue freak!"
Light didn't stop walking. He didn't even turn his head to look at the man. His dark, sterile eyes remained fixed straight ahead on the towering, opulent facade of the Human Auction House.
Light simply raised his left hand, his thumb and forefinger pinched together, and flicked his fingers outward.
Repel: Thrust.
It was not a wide, indiscriminate wave of gravity. Light had learned the true, terrifying precision of his Force Authority. It was a razor-thin, hyper-focused kinetic vector, compressed into the shape of a lance.
It hit the bounty hunter directly in the center of his sternum. The man didn't just fly backward; the kinetic transfer was absolute. His ribcage instantly caved inward with a sickening, wet crunch. He was launched horizontally through the air at the speed of a cannonball, his body slamming into a thick, mossy mangrove root with such force that his spine folded completely in half around the wood. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Light's eyes were focused entirely on the blue, translucent interface hovering in his peripheral vision. The numbers were scrolling at a blinding pace.
[ Target Neutralized. Bad Karma Assessed: 14,000. ][ Transferring to Host... ]
[ Target Neutralized. Bad Karma Assessed: 22,500. ][ Transferring to Host... ]
This is the true harvest, Light thought, stepping smoothly over the twitching body of a slaver whose throat had just been opened by one of Haas's men. The pirate crews of the South Blue were merely a garden. This archipelago is an industrial slaughterhouse. I will bleed it dry.
Jewelry Bonney trailed several paces behind him, her boots splashing in the growing puddles of crimson. Her hands were trembling. She had seen violence. But she had never seen anything like this. She saw Light casually pinch his fingers together in the empty air, and fifty feet away, a sniper perched on a balcony suddenly dropped his rifle, grasping at his own throat. The sniper choked to death in seconds, his windpipe effortlessly crushed by an invisible, spatial vise.
Light wasn't fighting. He had already cleaned Saboady in the two weeks, the criminal groves he had left earlier, he would clean them today. He would need to be fast.
"Captain Haas!" Light called out, his voice cutting through the din of screams and clashing steel.
Haas severed the hamstrings of a fleeing kidnapper, kicking the man to the cobblestone before snapping to attention. His uniform was splattered with red.
"Major!" Haas replied, using Light's old title out of sheer reverence. "The plaza is nearly secure! The surviving slaves have been unchained and directed to flee toward the commercial groves! But the Auction House manager—a man named Disco—and the elite guard captains retreated inside the main building!"
"Secure the perimeter," Light said mildly, his polished boots crunching on the broken glass of the auction house's front steps. "Do not let a single merchant escape into the mangrove roots. I will handle the management."
"Sir! With your permission, I request to breach the lower vaults!" Haas shouted over the noise. "The syndicates keep their heavy contraband beneath the stage. If we are to wage war against the World Government, we need their resources!"
Light paused. He looked back at Haas. He read the burning, fanatical loyalty in the Captain's eyes. He also read his yearning for power to stand by his side. Haas had already jumped ships. He had slaughtered his own Base Commander. He had watched Light butcher a god. Haas knew the Admiral was coming, yet he stood firm.
"Take the squad, Captain," Light permitted, a ghost of a chilling smile touching his lips. "Take whatever you need to evolve. You are no longer Marines. It is time you armed yourselves like demons."
Both of them knew what's to be done. There was no need for words.
⬛ ⬛ ⬛
[ THE VAULT OF SINS ]
The interior of the Human Auction House was a lavish, velvet-lined theater of cruelty. Cages lined the back walls, filled with the lingering stench of fear and unwashed bodies.
Captain Haas kicked open the heavy iron door leading to the subterranean levels. Behind him stood the five elite veterans of the South Blue, the core of Light's new inquisition.
There was Corro, a grizzled, massive man with a scar running through his left eye. Tarro, his opposite, a thin, quiet, and blindingly fast swordsman. Then there were the brothers: Finn and Kael, the youngest of the squad, hot-headed and desperate to prove their worth to the Smiling Reaper. Finally, there was Elara. She was the only woman in the vanguard, a cold, calculating sniper and infiltrator who never wasted a bullet.
They were the only ones who followed Light.
"Move," Haas barked, leading them down the spiraling stone staircase. "Clear the corridors. We find the vault, we secure the capital, and we rendezvous with the Major before Marineford drops an Admiral on our heads."
The subterranean corridors were dark, lit only by flickering torches. They encountered pockets of resistance—elite Auction House guards who had fled the plaza. But they were terrified, disorganized, and facing six killers who had completely unshackled their morality. Tarro's blade flashed in the dim light, taking throats with silent efficiency. Corro simply tackled men into the stone walls, breaking their skulls.
At the end of the deepest corridor, they found it. A massive, circular vault door made of solid seastone and iron, locked down by a complex, multi-tiered dial system.
Four heavily armed guards stood in front of it, raising flintlocks.
"Covering fire!" Finn yelled.
Before the guards could pull their triggers, Elara stepped smoothly out from behind Corro's massive frame. She raised a pair of customized, long-barreled revolvers. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Four shots, four perfect headshots. The guards dropped dead instantly.
Elara blew the smoke from the barrels, her face completely impassive. "Amateurs."
"Good work, Elara. Crack the dial," Haas ordered, stepping over the bodies.
Elara knelt by the heavy vault door. She pulled a set of finely tuned lockpicking tools and a stethoscope from her tactical belt. Pressing the earpiece against the cold iron, she began to rapidly spin the dials, listening for the microscopic clicks of the tumblers. She had been the primary infiltrator for the South Blue pirate raids; a merchant's vault was child's play.
Two minutes later, there was a heavy, echoing CLUNK.
Corro and the brothers grabbed the iron wheel, groaning with exertion as they pulled the massive door open.
The vault was staggering. Stacks of Beli notes, piled ten feet high, sat on wooden pallets. There were chests of gold bullion, stolen artifacts, and crates of finely crafted weaponry.
But Haas ignored the money. The Smiling Reaper didn't care about Beli.
Haas's eyes locked onto a pedestal in the absolute center of the vault. Resting on a velvet cushion was an ornate, gold-lined lockbox made of heavy mahogany. It was sealed with a World Government crest.
"The Celestial Tribute," Haas whispered.
He drew his combat knife and violently pried the lockbox open, snapping the hinges.
Inside the velvet-lined box lay five bizarre, swirling fruits. They pulsed with an unnatural, almost sickening aura. One was shaped like a twisted melon, completely covered in strange, spiral patterns. The others resembled mutated apples, bananas, and a jagged gourd, all bearing the signature swirling designs of Devil Fruits.
"Devil Fruits," Kael breathed, his eyes wide. "They must have been holding them for the Celestial Dragons... toys for them to feed to their slaves for entertainment."
Haas stared at the fruits. He remembered Light's words in the plaza. Take whatever you need to evolve. It is time you armed yourselves like demons.
"We cannot follow a God if we remain mere men," Haas said, his voice dropping into a heavy, solemn resonance. He reached into the box and picked up the spiral-patterned melon. He didn't know what it was. It didn't matter. "The Admiral is coming. The New World is waiting. If we want to stand at his side, it is time to forsake our humanity... " Haas stared at the zealots at his side.
"FOR OUR GOD!" Haas barked and startled his companions.
"WILL YOU BECOME DEVILS WITH ME?! SOLDIERS?! " they watched him shout with blood red eyes.
Of course, there was no need to think. As if a single mind, they thumped their chest and tore out a scream.
"DEVOTION!!!"