Luffy watched in grim silence as Light began his slow, deliberate march down the central corridor of the Eternal Hell.
The heavy, crushing silence of the abyss was absolute. The legendary prisoners, who had just moments ago roared with bloodthirsty enthusiasm at the prospect of joining Blackbeard, were now completely mute. They had survived the most brutal waters of the New World. They had clashed with Admirals and Emperors. Their instincts for survival were sharper than razor blades.
And right now, every single one of those instincts was screaming that the man in the black coat was the physical embodiment of the Reaper.
He... wasn't going to let them out, right?
Then, what was his goal?
Light stopped in front of the first massive Seastone vault. The darkness inside seemed to physically cower away from him.
With a thought, the system panel materialized. These were not the common thugs of the upper levels. These were the worst monsters in history, erased from the world's memory for crimes of apocalyptic proportions.
[ Name: Catarina Devon — 'The Crescent Moon Hunter' ][ Bad: 850,000 ]
A tall, haggard woman with a long, witch-like nose and dark, hateful eyes stepped out of the shadows. She gripped the Seastone bars, her long nails scraping against the metal. She looked at Blackbeard's headless corpse lying in a pool of blood, then back to Light.
She was initially confused but given her experience, she read Light's eyes.
And understood.
"You think you're a god, boy?" Devon hissed, her voice dripping with venom and madness. She pressed her face against the bars, baring her jagged teeth in a gruesome smile. "The sea will swallow you whole, just like it did the rest of us. You're just a pretty face in a dark coat... it's a damn shame I won't get to peel it off and mount it on my wall."
Light's expression didn't change. He simply raised his index finger, pointing it directly at her forehead through the gaps in the bars.
"Mm, maybe in the next life." Light replied.
Flick.
An invisible pulse of Level 4 Internal Destruction Haki shot cleanly through the cage. Catarina Devon's eyes violently rolled back into her skull. She gasped once, her hands slipping from the bars, and collapsed dead against the cold stone, her heart entirely pulverized.
[ Target Eliminated. +85,000 KP. ]
"What the hell are you doing?!" a panicked voice screamed from the adjacent cell. "We're locked up! We're defenseless!"
Light stepped sideways, his boots clicking softly against the bedrock, stopping in front of the next vault.
[ Name: Avalo Pizarro — 'The Corrupt King' ][ Bad: 920,000 ]
A massive man with feline features and heavy, rusted horns attached to his head backed away from the bars, his eyes wide with sheer, unadulterated terror. He had ruled a kingdom in the North Blue with absolute, sadistic cruelty, slaughtering his own subjects for sport before being overthrown by a rebellion and locked away.
"Nya! Y-You can't do this!" Pizarro stammered, his regal arrogance completely crumbling in the face of unavoidable death. "I am a King! I am royalty! You can't just slaughter me like livestock in a cage! Listen to me, Reaper! I have treasures hidden in the North! Mountains of gold! I can give you wealth! I can give you armies!"
"A king of corpses," Light murmured, entirely unmoved by the frantic bribery. He raised his finger again, his dark eyes devoid of pity. "Keep your treasure."
Flick.
Pizarro clutched his massive chest, a choked gasp escaping his lips. He fell heavily to his knees, his rusted horns scraping against the bedrock before he toppled over, dead.
[ Target Eliminated. +92,000 KP. ]
The realization set in across the cell block.
It wasn't release.
It was extermination.
"Topupupupu..."
A drunken, slurred laugh echoed from the third cell.
[ Name: Vasco Shot — 'The Heavy Drinker' ][ Bad: 880,000 ]
A colossal man wearing a massive jester's hat leaned heavily against the back wall of his vault. His massive, bulbous nose twitched. He didn't even bother coming to the bars. He just stared at Light with dull, bloodshot eyes. He had burned entire towns to the ground simply because they didn't brew enough alcohol to satiate his monstrous thirst.
"What a bore," Vasco Shot slurred, spitting a wad of bloody phlegm onto the floor. He knew his time was up. He raised an imaginary jug to his lips, taking a long, pathetic swig of nothing. "Dying in a cage without a single drop of liquor to numb the cold. Send me to Hell with a drink, Reaper. I'm parched."
"You've had enough," Light replied.
Flick.
Vasco Shot's massive body slumped forward, the jester's hat falling from his head.
[ Target Eliminated. +88,000 KP. ]
Screams of apocalyptic terror erupted from the remaining cages. The worst criminals in human history, men and women who had laughed at the concept of justice and mocked Marine Admirals, began to weep, curse, and beg as the man in the black coat systematically walked down the endless corridor.
Luffy watched the massacre in grim, uncomfortable silence. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. He hated the coldness of it. To Luffy, a fight was a clash of wills, a battle for freedom and dreams. This wasn't a fight. It was the emotionless slaughter of defenseless men in cages. It went against everything the rubber boy believed in.
But Luffy didn't intervene. He bit his lip and forced himself to watch. He had made a deal. Light had not broken his word even once, and Luffy wasn't going to break his promise now.
Light stopped in front of a heavily shadowed cell near the middle of the block.
[ Name: Crocodile ][ Bad: 612,000 ]
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A/N: Wanna see Crocodile in Marineford?