“The slaves have escaped!!”
“Those are my slaves! Guards! Go catch them and bring them back!!”
Amid the burning Mariejois, large numbers of slaves were gathering in the same direction.
As fellow slaves, there were bonds of feeling between them. After obtaining the keys, they began rescuing one another. When all the slaves in Mariejois were brought together, they formed something like an army of slaves.
Among them were quite a few who possessed real strength. Though the life of slavery had left them weakened, once they picked up weapons, the anger and resentment in their hearts transformed into newfound power.
Whether guards or agents, the main forces were busy helping the Celestial Dragons retreat to safety. For a time, no one was able to stop the slaves’ actions.
Even when the Celestial Dragons ordered them to capture the slaves, these agents did not dare to act.
If they drew the slaves’ attention, if some slave who had already abandoned all hope only wanted to drag a Celestial Dragon down to hell with them…
Regardless of whether they succeeded, even if a single Celestial Dragon was injured, these guards could not bear the responsibility of it.
Covering the Celestial Dragons’ retreat was the only correct course of action right now.
“Move, hurry!!”
“Don’t just stand there, run! Someone’s causing chaos in the Holy Land, we can finally escape this hell!!”
Crying, cheering—under the rainy night, countless people who had regained their freedom fled in the direction indicated by the Fish-Men, gradually converging at the edge of the Red Line.
“Don’t push! Everyone can leave here alive! This is the only way out, if you damage these two Bondolas, we’ll all die here!”
Through both fists and words, a fragile order was established amid the escape.
So far, things had gone relatively smoothly. Though there had been minor clashes, none had escalated into a true crisis.
“They’re really calm. In their eyes, what actually counts as a serious matter?”
Although many members of the Knights of God were outside helping Garling search for the child, some remained in Mariejois. Yet up to now, Nereus had not sensed any sign of them making a move.
As for the Five Elders and Imu, in their eyes, this seemingly didn’t even qualify as an issue.
“A mere pirate. Even if you have managed to fight your way up to Mariejois, so what? The main forces of the World Nobles would never be mobilized over such a trivial matter.”
A pale-faced man, roughly the same height as Nereus, stepped out from Mariejois.
His long black hair, drenched by the rain, hung in strands over his face. His eyes were filled with disdain, and a scar, apparently left by an explosion, marked his left cheek.
“The master doesn’t show his face, yet the lapdog jumps out on his own. You really are a good dog, Marine.”
“Hmph, such arrogance, Nereus. You’re just a mere pirate, what right do you have to judge the Marines, who represent justice?
Slaughtering Marines, attacking merchant caravans, destroying World Government facilities; your crimes are too numerous to list.
In the name of Fleet Admiral Salazar, I hereby sentence you to death!”
Boom!
Rumble!
Thunder crashed, but even more piercing than the thunder was the explosive sound of a fist being thrown.
Salazar, who had been standing still a moment ago, burst forward. The hard surface of the Red Line beneath his feet caved in under the powerful recoil, leaving a massive depression.
The wind pressure from his punch blew apart the curtain of rain, but what arrived even faster than the wind was the other side’s fist.
Bang!
His fist came to an abrupt halt several meters away from Nereus. An invisible barrier had already blocked the attack.
The Red Line beneath Nereus’s feet seemed unable to withstand the force of that punch, showing signs of collapse and forming a massive crater.
“A dog that bites doesn’t bark. You, a dog who only knows how to bark, is really trash just like I expected.”
There’s a saying in another world: A battle between Shinigami is a battle of spiritual pressure. When one’s spiritual pressure reaches a certain level, everything the opponent does is nothing more than flashy tricks.
On this sea, the battles of top-tier powerhouses were gradually evolving into clashes of Conqueror’s Haki.
Without Conqueror’s Haki, one stood inherently inferior. If the level of one’s Conqueror’s Haki was insufficient, one couldn’t even break the opponent’s defenses. Until the opponent’s Conqueror’s Haki was exhausted, it was as if they possessed an invincible golden body of Buddha.
Salazar’s fist could not break through Nereus’s Conqueror’s Haki barrier. That meant he didn’t even have a chance to take Nereus’s first life.
“No, it’s just that speaking to you like this is much better.”
Due to the depression in the ground, Salazar was now in a position of looking down from above. In his view, pirates were not worthy of speaking to him as equals.
“Is that so? I hope you can maintain that same attitude before you die.”
Seeing that Salazar actually cared about such things, Nereus casually shook his wrist.
On this night of torrential rain, this was his home ground. The surface of the Red Line had been relatively flat before, leaving little standing water.
But Salazar’s blow had created a deep crater that now began to collect rainwater. For Nereus, this was actually a good thing.
“Fish-Man Karate • Secret Art • Demon Brick Fist!”
Like a phantom, with a seemingly ordinary straight punch, Nereus appeared directly in front of Salazar and, without the slightest concealment, drove a fist straight toward his chest.
Boom!
Faced with a pirate’s declaration of war, Salazar did not dodge. He threw a punch of his own to meet it head-on. A shockwave erupted outward from the two of them, instantly clearing the surrounding curtain of rain.
Crack… crack… rumble…
Amid the thunder, nearby buildings collapsed in succession under the force of the shockwaves.
Nereus had been waiting. As long as no powerful figure intervened to stop the slaves’ escape, he would not act.
Salazar had been waiting as well. He was waiting for the nearby Celestial Dragons to fully evacuate. If they hadn’t withdrawn, he would not have dared to fight at full strength.
Mariejois had never been a good battlefield for the Marines.
Pirates might not care about the lives of the Celestial Dragons, but the Marines had to. Even the shockwaves of the battle had to be kept within a controlled range.
That was why Salazar only appeared now, when most of the Celestial Dragons had already retreated.
When fighting an enemy like Nereus, holding back was no different from suicide.
“Fish-Man Jujutsu • Earth-Style Wall!”
The shockwaves even reached the Bondolas in the distance. Seeing the blast of air approaching, Big Pan quickly grabbed the ground with both hands. With the power of the Swim-Swim Fruit, the earth was like water in his grasp.
He reshaped the land, and a tidal wave of soil solidified into a sturdy wall.
Yet even though it was only shockwaves from far away, the wall was still on the verge of collapse.
“Don’t be afraid! Boss is dealing with the enemy! Boss will definitely win!”
“Move faster! Get out of here!”
The people at the lift sped up their movements, and Nereus did the same.
Although he had taken Salazar’s punch, Salazar did not feel at ease. This was his first time fighting Nereus.
He knew Nereus was strong, but the strength of that attack had still exceeded his expectations.
“Already can’t handle it? My attack has only just begun.”
Thump!
Thump!
Salazar heard a powerful heartbeat. The source was his own heart.
“Inner Secret Art • Blood Explosion.”
A crimson glint flashed in Nereus’s eyes. Salazar could even feel the flow of his blood accelerating at that very moment.
Pinnacle Armament Haki could achieve internal destruction. Conqueror’s Haki coating shattered external defenses in the most violent manner.
Compared to a body tempered countless times, the inside was always more fragile. Thus, in the evolution of combat, internal destruction had become the ultimate objective.
Fish-Man Karate’s water-based attacks could accomplish something similar.
Likewise, control over blood meant that once an opponent made physical contact with Nereus, they would inevitably be affected.
The blood flowing through his body has now instead become a weapon in Nereus’s hands.
Boom!
A muffled sound rang out, and Salazar’s body stiffened. Sensing his body’s condition, he could confirm that his heart had been crushed.
No matter how Nereus had done it, the result had been achieved.
“Far too weak. A trash like you can become Fleet Admiral? The Marines are becoming more and more disappointing.
You should bring out your trump card now.”
Anyone with admiral-level strength should at least be able to use Haki to resist his control over blood, rather than being instantly killed like this. In Nereus’s view, Salazar’s Haki level was utterly unqualified.
Unless even the Marine Fleet Admiral position was decided through connections, Salazar definitely had some other ability.
“Why can I become Fleet Admiral?”
Though his face was pale, Salazar’s voice remained steady and full of vigor. At the same time, the aura of the living around him was slowly fading, as if he had fallen into a contradictory state.
“My father was once the Fleet Admiral. He died in battle against pirates. My grandfather was also a Marine, he too died at the hands of pirates.
As their descendant, isn’t it only natural that I become Fleet Admiral?”
At this moment, there was no vitality left in Salazar’s eyes. Yet through Observation Haki, Nereus could sense that the fatal wound he had inflicted earlier had already vanished.
“I see. So your whole family was weak. Too bad your grandfather wasn’t a Fleet Admiral. If he had been, your speech would’ve been even more amusing.”
“A sharp-tongued pirate… The seas say you cannot be killed. Then let me see just who is truly the undying one here…”
A chill spilled from the corner of Salazar’s mouth. The surrounding raindrops crystallized into ice under its influence.
The ground beneath his feet began to freeze as well. Frost spread rapidly across the earth, extending toward Nereus.
“You can kill the living, but how will you deal with the dead?”
The aura of the living completely dissipated. At this moment, Salazar had truly become a corpse.
And that death itself was his Devil Fruit ability.
Human-Human Fruit • Mythical Zoan • Model: Undead.
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