It was only a matter of seconds, and already the scene had changed.
The air was thick with the stench of blood. Over a hundred corpses lay dead in all sorts of ways, severed arms and broken limbs scattered across the ground, thick blood soaking the earth.
Dozens of blood-red swords floated suspended in the air, their tips pointing toward the samurai, like the threat of death itself.
Humans, more or less, all fear death.
Especially when faced with one-sided slaughter.
The samurai who had just been shouting about killing and seizing women all froze in place, their steps halted. They stared in fear at those blood-stained water swords, trembling and unable to move forward.
A thousand men were held back by just two.
Every samurai felt unbearably humiliated, yet not a single one dared to take even half a step forward.
"So weak..."
Toki didn't turn back to look at Rosse's expression, but standing closest, aside from her own inner discomfort at the blood, weakness was the only thing she felt.
Even she thought these people were too weak. She didn't even dare imagine what kind of picture they must be in Rosse's eyes.
Most likely, no stronger than ants.
Taking a deep breath, Toki forced down her disgust at the blood and took the initiative to lift her foot, intending to walk forward.
Since Rosse wanted to see her perform, then today she would put on a show for everyone.
With her earlier experience, she felt she understood Rosse a bit better now.
Since he had set the stage for her this time, then he was surely going to leave some people alive to watch.
A performance without an audience outside to sing its praises isn't a good performance.
Seeing Toki approach, the samurai all unconsciously stepped back in unison.
But before they could retreat further, they saw Toki step onto empty air twenty centimeters above the ground, as though she were walking on solid earth, rising into the air.
With her heel pressing down, an overwhelming wave of Conqueror's Haki swept forth from her direction straight at the samurai.
BOOM!
Every samurai instantly felt dizzy and faint, their bodies unable to move at all, not even to run.
'Escape! Escape quickly!'
Under this irresistible tyrannical pressure, every samurai's mind became completely unified. Running away became their single shared thought.
"So this is what it feels like to intimidate others with Conqueror's Haki... We were like them before too...", Toki silently watched, recalling Rosse's very first appearance.
Just like her now. Equally helpless, equally finding even standing up to be a struggle.
'Ugly? Maybe.'
But facing Rosse's godlike might, how many could possibly avoid looking ugly?
Numbers, in this moment, had completely lost all meaning.
Toki sighed softly and once more stepped forward.
This was her first time walking through the air, but with every step, there was no obstruction, no sense of drifting.
It was as though every step landed firmly, as though walking through the sky was exactly how it should be.
And with each step she took forward, the blood swords advanced as well.
Any enemy in their path could only watch helplessly as the swords reached them, easily slicing their bodies apart.
With each advance, the blood coating the swords grew thicker.
The weak cannot imagine the world of the strong.
Toki had heard this said many times before, but she had always been unconvinced.
She had seen Kozuki Oden split mountains with two swords, seen Whitebeard shatter islands, and also seen Roger slice apart the sea with a single swing.
In her eyes, that was what strength was.
But today, all of that had been overturned.
There was no grand spectacle, yet the shock to Toki was beyond anything she had ever felt.
This time was different from before.
She was no longer a bystander, no longer someone just dragged along. It was as though she was personally experiencing half the feeling of being strong.
She didn't know what level these attacks were at, but the more she adapted to Rosse's rhythm, or rather, the more Rosse adapted to her rhythm, the more she felt like a true powerhouse.
A light wave of her hand, and a water blade flew out.
A step forward, and the blood swords followed.
Her gaze swept to another side, and enemies in that direction exploded into pieces.
She seemed like a puppet on strings, yet also the one who felt the most firsthand.
'So this... Is the world of the strong.'
Or rather, this was the strong man's path Rosse was showing her. Rosse's own path.
BOOM!
Toki stopped walking, lifting her head quietly to look ahead.
From when she first began to move to when she stopped now, she had only taken ninety-one steps.
And she wasn't stopping because of any obstacle.
It was simply because, there were no enemies left.
For the first time, Toki turned her head. Though it was the middle of the night, the seawater veil around her seemed to magnify her senses a thousandfold.
Even with Rosse a hundred meters away, with a blood-soaked path of corpses between them, Toki could clearly see his expression. Down to the pores on his face.
Most terrifying of all, across that hundred meters, she could see with perfect clarity the slight lift of Rosse's lip, the playful glint in his eye.
It was an emotion called amusement.
She saw it too clearly.
And it was like time itself had stopped. Even if it had only flashed for a moment, she could still easily catch it.
"What is this? Is this the world you see?", Toki felt it utterly absurd, yet in her heart a huge question rose.
If even with Rosse's help she could perceive so clearly, then how slow, how precise must the world look in Rosse's eyes, or in Kozuki Oden's?
Then the question was: With such clarity, how oblivious, how dull must one be not to notice anything unusual?
Back at the Kozuki estate, when she returned from Rosse to face Oden, had her acting really been that convincing?
So convincing that Oden never suspected for even a second, but believed she had truly betrayed of her own will?
Why?
In front of Rosse, she was like a lamb. Any tiny glance could be caught and read by him.
But in front of Oden, no matter how she acted, he believed she was whatever she seemed to be.
Even when she did things that harmed him, he still truly believed she had chosen it willingly.
That wasn't trust, that was foolishness.
And well, she herself had been one of those fools.
Toki silently lowered her head, looking over the samurai lying across the ground. Suddenly she felt her earlier thoughts had been far too naive.
Her plan of using Ringo as the price to unite Wano. Yes, it would probably work.
But even if Wano united, then what?
Five million, no, four million ants united, could they really defeat a divine dragon?
Impossible.
The end would only ever be the divine dragon lazily flicking its tail, reducing four million ants to ashes in an instant.
It seemed she had done something truly useless.
And the most discouraging thing was. It was the enemy who had to demonstrate it to her firsthand before she finally realized.
Now, only one thing remained uncertain.
With Rosse's strength, could he kill all of Wano before exhaustion set in?
Once they reached Ringo, that would be proven.
Even a million ants would cost a dragon some effort to kill them all... Toki consoled herself with a faint sliver of hope.
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