With a single slash, Creed cut off Blackbeard's fine head, plunging the sea within ten thousand li into dead silence.
High above, on the Ark Maxim, Ace dropped to his knees and kowtowed toward Creed.
"Creed… thank you!"
Creed had avenged Pops for him. In Ace's heart, aside from Pops, the most important place now belonged to Creed.
And it would go on to have an enormous impact on the rest of his life.
"Ace."
Luffy knelt on one knee and patted Ace's shoulder.
"Creed-nii…"
Ain gazed at that figure like a god descending to the world, her eyes soft as water.
"Ying ying ying!"
The little guy was the most excited of all, flying around in the air throwing punches and kicks. If Ain hadn't kept it in check, it would've flown down already to help its master.
After taking Blackbeard's head, Creed didn't leave right away. Instead, he took out a bag of fruit from his portable space.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before two strange Devil Fruits formed within that bag.
One was a pale fruit covered in trembling ripple-like patterns.
The other was pitch-black, overflowing with an evil, shadowy aura.
They were the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Creed didn't want these two fruits to fall into anyone else's hands, so he collected them first. As for who would eat them, he would study it slowly later.
This was also the advice Dragon had given Creed after the Totto Land great decisive battle.
Back then, Aegis's Devour Fruit had nearly ended up in the hands of the fleeing Marines.
If the Marines obtained a fruit of that level, they would quickly gain significant combat power, and that would affect Creed's upcoming plan to attack the Holy Land.
The best solution was to keep the fruit in his own grasp—or have someone on his side eat it.
Even if he couldn't find a suitable person, keeping it in his own hands was still a good method.
"The Marines…"
Looking at the Marine New Headquarters that had been shattered and sunk—only a few torn Marine flags still drifting on the sea—Creed let out a quiet sigh.
Then he left, and he didn't pursue Sengoku and the others.
He felt it wasn't necessary.
And he also wanted to leave the Marines with some strength, so they could suppress pirates in other seas.
After all, to ordinary civilians, the Marines who could hunt pirates were still the embodiment of justice.
Creed didn't want to overthrow the Celestial Dragons, only to then inherit a chaotic world.
Otherwise, today wouldn't have ended with him merely killing Blackbeard—given his ability, killing one or two Admirals would've been a casual matter!
"Let's go! We're heading back to Totto Land!"
After teleporting back onto the Ark Maxim, Creed said to Ain, turned the ship around, and began flying toward Totto Land.
"Creed-nii! You were so cool!"
Luffy rushed over at once, his face full of worship.
Zoro, Sanji, and the others also came over to bow and offer thanks. Without Creed, they would've died there long ago.
Ace stood as well, walked up to Creed, and said each word clearly:
"Creed, please let me join the Creed Pirates and become your subordinate."
"Oh? Sure."
Creed wasn't surprised. Ace was exactly that kind of person—someone who loved and hated boldly, even if sometimes he was so straightforward it could make people mad.
"Thank you, Creed."
Ace pressed his fist to his heart and bowed.
But Luffy wouldn't accept it.
"Ace! How can you join Creed-nii's pirate crew? If I beat Creed-nii in the future, then I'll have to beat you too! That's such a headache!"
His shouting made everyone on the ship laugh.
Creed laughed too, but he didn't think Luffy was joking.
Ever since the day he met Shanks and decided to become Pirate King, Luffy had probably already listed Creed as his number one target to surpass.
Creed had never been afraid of challenges either. He also wanted to see, years down the line, just how far this "child of the world" could grow—and whether he could bring Creed enough surprises.
"By the way, where are Nami and the others?"
Creed suddenly thought of something.
Today, only the men of the Straw Hat Pirates had shown up to fight—Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and the like. Nami, Usopp, and little Chopper weren't here, so it was likely Luffy and the others had ditched them and come to Marine Headquarters on their own.
"Huh? Creed-nii, you know Nami too?"
…
Luffy was shocked.
Since he'd started his pirate journey, he'd never really had contact with Creed. Nami and the others shouldn't have met Creed either.
"Hahaha, I've seen your bounty posters. Of course I know you. Your Straw Hat crew is pretty famous now."
Creed smiled and brushed it off with a reason.
"That bastard Luffy made me put sleeping medicine into their food. They probably aren't awake yet. Sigh… I actually drugged my precious fans of my cooking—how am I supposed to be a great chef after this?!"
Sanji cursed indignantly.
"Despicable curlybrow. I, Zoro, refuse to keep company with you! Tch!"
Zoro piled on from the side, making Sanji furious.
"You moss-head have no right to say that! You were the one who came up with the idea, you bastard!"
Even though both of them were badly injured, they were still like needle versus wheat, looking ready to fight.
"I'll treat you guys."
Creed stopped them.
If they fought again, their injuries would be hard to treat.
"Creed-dono, please let us join the Creed Pirates as well."
At that moment, Marco and the others also came over.
(End of Chapter)
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