Everything happened too suddenly.
"I couldn't even see what happened..."
"How could this be!!!"
The officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates stared blankly at Hody Jones' severed head as it fell from midair.
The sheer shock of the scene momentarily made them forget to attack Maude.
With his back to them, Maude sheathed his blade and looked down at the Energy Steroids in his palm.
He vaguely remembered that, in the original timeline, this feeble fish-man behind him had used these very pills to enhance his strength—enough to exchange blows with Straw Hat Luffy after two years of training.
If nothing else, the defensive power granted by the Energy Steroids was downright monstrous.
But the price was a shortened lifespan…
With a flick of his mind, Maude sent a ripple of shadow energy from his palm, wrapping the Energy Steroids in darkness and storing them inside his Shadow Casket.
There were two doctors in his crew. He could have them study the composition of these pills.
If they could eliminate or significantly reduce the life-draining side effects…
Then this drug would be an unparalleled weapon for dominance.
After securing the Energy Steroids, Maude glanced at the stunned Neptune before shifting his gaze to the three prince brothers lying in pools of blood.
"..."
After a moment of silence, Maude turned and looked at the remaining officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates.
It was then that they finally snapped back to reality.
Terrified of sharing Hody Jones' fate, they wasted no time. Each of them frantically stuffed a handful of Energy Steroids into their mouths.
Maude did not stop them. Instead, he quietly observed, wanting to witness the effects of the drug firsthand.
"Yes! We ate the pills before he could strike!"
The officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates naively believed that Maude had failed to stop them in time—or that he was completely ignorant of the Energy Steroids' effects.
Either way, as long as they consumed the pills, they had confidence in fighting any opponent.
Gulp—
Within mere seconds.
Their bodies began to change—muscles bulging rapidly, their physiques growing significantly more massive.
"Hahaha! I can feel the power surging through me!"
"I've never taken this many at once! It feels like I have unlimited strength!"
"This sensation… it's beyond words…"
They were both shocked and elated.
Never before had they swallowed so many Energy Steroids at once, and they were astonished at how overwhelmingly potent the effects were. It gave them an intoxicating sense of invincibility.
"With this kind of strength, we can accomplish anything!"
"Attack! Kill that human!!!"
Their skyrocketing power boosted their confidence to absurd levels.
With bloodshot eyes, they glared at Maude like ravenous beasts.
The fear he had instilled in them moments ago was now completely gone.
"Their aura has indeed grown stronger."
Maude eyed the grotesquely enlarged fish-man officers and placed a hand on his sword hilt, muttering to himself, "But even at this level… you're still just small fry."
Before his words had even faded, Maude unsheathed his sword and moved like lightning. A streak of blade light flashed past the officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates.
"Huh?!"
Just as they were about to move, their bodies suddenly froze in place.
Their eyes still reflected the lingering afterimage of Maude's slash.
"So fast…"
Then, pain erupted from their bodies.
Splurt!
A massive spray of blood burst from their wounds.
"How could this be?!"
"Even after consuming so many Energy Steroids… we still can't see his attacks?!"
The remaining officers, who had yet to act, were utterly dumbfounded as they stared at the blood gushing from their bodies.
At this moment, they finally understood the despairing gap between their strength and Maude's.
Thud—!
Still in disbelief, they collapsed one after another into their own blood.
Maude resheathed his sword and turned to look at the still-breathing officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates, speaking indifferently:
"It seems you have some serious misconceptions about the word 'strength.'"
"D-Damn it…"
They lay in the blood-soaked wreckage, filled with hate and unwillingness to accept their defeat.
Under normal circumstances, Maude's strikes would have instantly killed them.
But the effects of the Energy Steroids prolonged their miserable existence.
Maude spared them no further attention. As he walked toward Neptune, he sent his shadow clones to finish off the fish-men who had been knocked unconscious by his Conqueror's Haki.
These fish-men weren't even worthy of being recorded in his Hunter's Notebook, but Maude had no intention of letting them live.
The kind of mercy shown in the original story—such as imprisoning them—was, in Maude's eyes, pure nonsense.
Some threats needed to be eliminated decisively.
If you're going to kill, then kill. There was nothing to deliberate.
Neptune looked at the fallen New Fish-Man Pirates before shifting his gaze to his three sons, lying in blood.
Without warning, he burst into tears.
His grief poured out uncontrollably, his tears flowing like a broken dam.
The agony that gripped his soul stripped him of all royal composure, reducing him to a wailing father.
"You're crying too soon."
Maude arrived beside Fukaboshi. Without even checking by hand, he used Observation Haki to sense the faint breath still lingering within the prince's body.
"They're not dead yet. If treated quickly, they might survive."
"R-Really?!"
Neptune's sobs abruptly halted. He looked at Maude with newfound hope, but in the next moment, he suddenly struggled and shouted, his face contorted:
"Let me go! I need to save them!!!"
"Do you know medicine?"
Maude glanced at Neptune and asked calmly.
Neptune instantly froze.
"..."
Maude sighed inwardly and then expanded his Observation Haki to scan the entire Ryugu Palace.
The number of detectable life signs was pitifully low.
This meant that most of the soldiers were already dead.
Only a few, like the prince brothers, had survived—likely thanks to their resilient bodies preventing an instant kill.
Having grasped the situation, Maude wasted no time. Activating his Phase Shift ability, he disappeared from Neptune's sight.
By swapping places with a shadow, Maude instantly returned to the plaza.
At this moment—
Smoothie's battle had already concluded.
The Sweet Commander of the Big Mom Pirates had ultimately fallen to the Maude Pirates, her body brimming with unspent fury.
"Captain."
"Boss."
Seeing Maude return, his crew greeted him one after another.
Maude gave them a slight nod before glancing at the unconscious Smoothie.
"Watch her. Make sure she doesn't die."
After issuing his orders, Maude looked toward Law and Philo.
"Law, Philo, come with me."
"Got it."
They responded in unison.
With that, Maude led Law and Philo toward Ryugu Palace, unshackling Shirahoshi along the way.
Freed at last, Shirahoshi followed closely behind Maude. But upon arriving at Ryugu Palace, she was greeted by the sight of her three brothers, covered in blood, and the corpses littering the floor.
She froze in place.
Fear, worry, sorrow…
A flood of emotions crashed over her, overwhelming her mind in an instant.
The sheer mental shock pushed her to the brink of collapse.
"Shirahoshi!"
Seeing Shirahoshi's reaction, Neptune struggled once more.
But before the Shadow Rope, all resistance was futile.
Maude glanced at the emotionally overwhelmed Shirahoshi and, without hesitation, unleashed his Conqueror's Haki, rendering her unconscious.
Her eyes lost focus as her massive body collapsed to the side.
With a swift movement, Maude stepped forward, effortlessly catching Shirahoshi before gently laying her down on the ground.
"You bastard! How dare you use Conqueror's Haki on Shirahoshi?!"
Neptune thrashed about in anger, hurling curses at Maude.
Ignoring Neptune's outburst, Maude instead released the Shadow Rope binding him.
Now freed from its restraints, Neptune immediately regained his mobility.
Maude expected Neptune to lash out at him in a fit of rage.
Yet, to his surprise, Neptune did not attack. Instead, he suppressed his fury, first ensuring Shirahoshi's safety before checking on his three sons.
Slightly intrigued, Maude stepped up beside Neptune.
Instinctively, Neptune shielded Shirahoshi, as if fearing that Maude would snatch her away.
"I thought you'd attack me the moment you were freed," Maude remarked, shifting his gaze to the unconscious Shirahoshi.
Neptune's face tensed as he spoke in a low voice, "If I had the strength to bring you down, I wouldn't hesitate!"
"That so?"
Maude withdrew his gaze from Shirahoshi and instead looked at the lifeless bodies of the soldiers sprawled across the ground.
Their deaths were, in no small part, his responsibility.
Strictly speaking, the turmoil on Fish-Man Island had been set into motion by his own actions.
"My apologies. Because of me, these soldiers lost their lives."
"..."
Neptune looked at Maude in astonishment.
With his experience, he could tell that Maude's apology wasn't just empty words—it was sincere.
After a long silence, Neptune said, "At the end of the day, the Ryugu Kingdom's suffering stems from our own lack of strength…"
As he spoke, he lowered his head, his eyes shadowed with regret.
"We were too weak to protect ourselves. We have no one to blame but ourselves."
His tone grew somber.
Maude tilted his head slightly, glancing at Neptune. "You're only realizing that now?"
From his perspective, the Ryugu Kingdom's defenses were laughably inadequate.
Despite having the advantage of the terrain, they couldn't even hold their own gates.
With such feeble military power, they dared to dream of gaining humanity's acknowledgment?
Not to mention the existence of the Celestial Dragons…
Neptune remained silent.
Maude thought about all he had done since arriving in this world—his relentless pursuit of strength.
It was all to carve out a place for himself and gain the power to protect those around him.
"Neptune, in this world where power speaks louder than words, emotions and ideals alone cannot protect anything. Pinning your hopes on others is the height of foolishness. Only strength is absolute."
Maude spoke with conviction.
"..."
Neptune stared at Maude, his expression complex.
Accepting Maude's words meant denying Queen Otohime's ideals.
But after all that had transpired, not just him, but the majority of his kingdom's people had lost faith in humanity.
If they had possessed the power to resist, things would never have come to this.
Neptune clenched his fists in silence.
Thanks to the combined efforts of Law and Philo, his three sons' lives were soon stabilized.
Yet their work was far from over.
Under Maude's direction, Law and Philo extended their aid to the heavily injured soldiers within Ryugu Palace.
Neptune watched everything unfold before him.
There was no point in debating who was to blame for this catastrophe.
What mattered most was that Fish-Man Island had survived this crisis.
Leaving the medical efforts to Law and Philo, Maude departed from the palace and returned to the plaza.
"The pirates on the island should have all fled by now."
His gaze swept over the corpses of pirates scattered across the ground before shifting toward Coral Hill's port town.
Through the live broadcast, his one-sided slaughter of over ten thousand pirates and the crushing defeat of Sweet Commander Smoothie had undoubtedly spread across all of Fish-Man Island.
If that wasn't enough to send the remaining pirates fleeing, then so be it. He had no qualms about exerting a little more effort to eliminate the last stragglers.
"Captain, we found this on Smoothie. Should we destroy it?"
Lafitte approached, holding a Den Den Mushi marked with the Big Mom insignia.
"Keep it. If we destroy it…"
Maude glanced at the snail and said calmly, "Then we won't be able to receive Big Mom's call."
"Hoho, understood."
Lafitte smirked and carefully stored the Den Den Mushi away.
With Smoothie dead and no reports being sent back, Big Mom would inevitably call to check in.
When that call would come, however, was uncertain.
"Captain, there's movement over there."
Lafitte suddenly detected something and pointed in a certain direction.
"Mm. I 'see' it."
Maude's eyes gleamed red as he turned his gaze in the same direction.
Through Observation Haki, the presence of dozens of distinct life signatures stood out as clearly as stars in the night sky.
"Lafitte, go deal with it. If they're pirates, kill them."
Maude withdrew his Observation Haki.
"Understood."
Lafitte nodded and headed toward the disturbance.
Before long, he arrived at a nearby street.
As soon as he set foot on the scene, a heavy thud met his ears.
Turning toward the sound, he saw an octopus Fish-Man collapse under the assault of a group of humans.
The Fish-Man's body was wrapped in blood-stained bandages. Judging by his condition, he had already sustained severe injuries before being knocked down.
Lafitte's eyes flickered with recognition as he took in the Fish-Man's face.
He had seen him before.
His gaze then shifted to the group of pirates who had just beaten the Fish-Man.
The leader was a burly man with a thick beard, exuding an aura of strength.
On his shoulder, he carried a young mermaid bound tightly like a bundle.
It wasn't just him—each of the pirates had a captive mermaid slung over their shoulders.
Lafitte swept his gaze across the scene, and his eyes instinctively stopped on a particular red-haired mermaid girl.
"Her again?!"
Upon recognizing her face, Lafitte's expression turned peculiar.
At the same time, in the plaza—
Maude looked at Arthur, who remained motionless atop a coral reef.
"Why are you still here?"
"..."
Arthur was momentarily at a loss for words.
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