Chapter 301: Another Kill
The sudden, unexpected development made "Junko" whip her head around to face the main battlefield.
A moment ago, the five subordinates she had been assigned—the Five Elders—were being single-handedly suppressed by that one remnant. But thanks to their practiced coordination and superior numbers, the situation had been under her control.
She never expected that in the brief moment she had turned her will to her own failing vessel, one of her subordinates would be completely and utterly killed.
On the other side of the field, Shiki's eyes widened, a visible flame seeming to ignite within them. The Conqueror's Haki crackling around his twin swords intensified.
"What did you do?!" Veins bulged on Shiki's forehead and arms as he erupted with power, knocking back the trident that had been lunging at him.
He lunged forward, his Haki-coated blades slicing in a perfect arc, aiming straight for "Junko's" neck.
As if sensing the attack, "Junko" turned her head, her expressionless, cold eyes glancing at Shiki.
An invisible, malevolent power spread from her feet, forming a black pentagram. Black-red Haki lightning flared. A path of black arrows formed beneath her, carrying her away, streaking toward the main battlefield.
She didn't give Shiki or the others a second glance, as if they were beneath her notice.
Shiki's swords sliced through empty air with a sharp whoosh. He looked at "Junko's" rapidly retreating back, her disdainful expression replaying in his mind. He was so angry he almost laughed.
But he had no time for that. He spun around, looking for Ochoku.
The next second, he saw Ochoku coughing up blood as he used the last of his strength to throw Ace to safety. Having done this, he turned to meet Shiki's eyes.
"Don't come over! Cut off my head! Then take Ace and get out of here!!"
Ochoku coughed up another mouthful of blood. He looked down at the black magic circle that was now swallowing both him and Byndi World, his face turning ashen.
Shiki froze. His gaze dropped to the circle, and his pupils contracted, his grip on his swords tightening. He recognized it instantly—it was the same magic that had "flipped" the prisoners, turning them into demons.
Shiki's expression hardened. He raised Oto and Kogarashi.
"Hey! Ochoku-senpai! Are you okay?!" Ace, having tumbled to the ground, scrambled up and ran toward him, his face frantic. "Hang on! I'll stop the bleeding!"
"You fool! Stop!" Ochoku spat out a blood clot, crimson seeping from the cracks in his heavy armor. He unleashed his own Haki, trying to reverse the "corruption" spreading through his mind and body. But it was useless. He could only slightly slow it down. He was still sinking, being dragged down.
Seeing it was hopeless, Ochoku looked at Shiki with resigned eyes. "Shiki. Do it. My strength is not so different from yours. If I am 'turned' and enhanced, even you will be in mortal danger."
"No!" Ace's face paled.
"Stop ordering me around!" Shiki sneered, but he unleashed his own Conqueror's Haki without reservation, coating his swords and slamming them into the magic circle.
"BOOM!"
Black-red lightning exploded, shaking the ruins of Mary Geoise. Shiki hovered in the air, his jaw clenched. "A mere Devil Fruit ability... how can it compare to the Haki I've honed in a thousand battles?!"
He knew any strange phenomenon in this world could be blamed on a Devil Fruit, and that Haki was the counter to all of them. This should be no exception.
Under his full-powered assault, the magic circle's power weakened, and the sinking slowed... but only slightly. Even Shiki's Haki could not completely break the "domination" that the King of the World, Imu, had prepared.
"Impossible!" Shiki's face was a mask of disbelief. There was only one reason Haki would fail: the power difference was too great. He hadn't experienced this since he was young.
"Not even Roger, if he came back to life with an awakened fruit, could do this!" Shiki didn't understand. He was at the pinnacle of human strength. He could accept a special case like Louis being slightly stronger, but how could someone this much stronger exist?
"Hang on, Ochoku-senpai! We'll get you out!" Ace yelled, adding his own Haki to the assault.
Ochoku looked at the two of them, struggling desperately, his pale face filled with a complex emotion. Finally, a weary, fond smile touched his lips. "You two... idiots..."
But their efforts were in vain. As their Haki was consumed, the sinking resumed. The black magic was now up to Ochoku's chest. He could feel the unknown power rewriting his mind, his very self-being "flipped."
"It's enough, you two," he sighed, his eyes blurring. "Do it. I don't want... to hurt you."
"..."
Shiki pulled one sword back, his expression unreadable. "It's a damn shame. I hadn't even gotten to share this world with you."
As Ochoku smiled and Ace pleaded, Shiki raised Kogarashi. He was not an indecisive man. He had tried, and he had failed.
Ochoku, facing the blade, looked serene. He turned to Ace. "Ace. You're Roger's son, aren't you?"
"..." Ace fell silent, then nodded.
"I guessed," Ochoku said, his voice weak. "When you said Garp raised you." He held out a bloody hand, and Ace grabbed it. "Ace... you don't have to carry Roger's sins. You inherited nothing from him. You don't need to inherit his crimes. Live free. Make your own life... amazing."
The blade swept down, carving Ochoku's final smile into Ace's mind forever.
"..."
Shiki, his breathing heavy, turned to the silent Byndi World. "Need a hand?"
Byndi looked at the rampaging, mindless demons in the distance. He nodded. He was a great pirate; he would not be twisted into a tool.
Shiki's blade fell again.
As its intended targets died, the black magic circle faded, leaving two warm bodies on the ground.
Shiki lit a cigar, staring at Ochoku's corpse in silence. After a long moment, he used his power on a nearby concrete slab and turned to Ace.
"Ace. Take Ochoku and get out of here. I'll follow soon."
"Where are you going?" Ace asked, his eyes blank.
Shiki turned, his golden hair and kimono whipping in the smoky wind. "Just a small errand. I'll be right back."
His gaze fell on the raging battlefield in the distance, his eyes glinting with a cold light. He was temporarily abandoning his plan to recruit Bullet and the Red Count. Right now, he had something more important to do.
The battle was tearing the continent apart. Freezing slashes and Haki-infused blows flew everywhere. The shockwaves alone pulverized the ruins, blasting them to the horizon. The very ground, harder than bedrock, had been sheared down several meters.
"Swoosh—"
Louis burst from a cloud of debris, sent flying backward. His golden armor was cracked, his white feathers ruffled.
"Dead remnant!!"
Nusjuro, in his half-man, half-skeletal-horse form, galloped across the airborne rubble, becoming a white blur as he chased Louis down. The Shodai Kitetsu in his hand crackled with black-red Haki and a chilling, netherworld cold. His swordsmanship was, without a doubt, at the absolute peak.
At the same time, Marcus Mars, in his hybrid form, dove through the debris, his beak open and glowing with fire.
Below, the other two giants (Hōki and Warcury) were moving, but Marcus Mars was faster. He unleashed a pillar of fire, clearing a path. Nusjuro used this path, his speed reaching its absolute limit, and appeared instantly before Louis, his blade flashing in an iai strike.
At the same moment, Warcury, in his beast form, leaped up, his Haki-coated tusks aiming for Louis's back.
Louis, seeing the pincer attack, simply flared his wings. A burst of flame propelled him upward. The Shodai Kitetsu and the giant tusks missed him, crashing into each other with a thunderous impact.
"Damn it!" Nusjuro and Warcury roared.
Louis, now hovering above Marcus Mars, spun his spear, preparing to end him.
"!!!"
Marcus, sensing death, met the attack, his own Haki-coated talons aiming for Louis's head.
Just then, a colossal arm, even larger than the Sandwyrm, shot from the rubble, its claws crackling with Haki, trying to grab all of them.
A brilliant slash from an unknown source shot out, deflecting the giant arm, which crashed harmlessly into the Red Line.
In that instant, Louis's spear, glowing with a strange light, punched through Marcus's claws, broke his Haki, and impaled his head.
A max-level burst of Conqueror's Haki and life energy was unleashed, destroying him from the inside out.
Marcus Mars didn't even have time to feel the pain. His life flame, which had been restored by Imu, was snuffed out for good.
His body, which should have been immortal, cracked. A strange light and Haki flared from within, and then he disintegrated into dust.
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