Aria's Pov
If hell had a thermostat, Level Four had broken it.
The moment my foot hit the iron floor, I was assaulted by heat so thick it felt like Satan had decided to french-kiss my lungs. Fire roared from cracks in the metal, air shimmered with smoke, and the walls pulsed like something alive. My clothes were half-melted, my hair was a frizzed halo of regret, and sweat glued my shirt to in places I didn't even want to think about.
"It's like Satan's armpit in here," I croaked, wiping at my forehead and only succeeding in smearing more sweat across it. "Who designed this level, a sadist with a flamethrower fetish?"
Bon Clay was already flapping his scarf at me, his makeup running. "Darling, if we die, at least we'll die fabulous!"
Buggy's red nose glistened like a cherry in an oven. "This is all your fault, Straw Hat!" he screeched, shaking a fist at Luffy, whose only response was to jog faster.
"It's not that bad," Luffy said cheerfully, already drenched in sweat. "Ace is close! I can feel it!"
I blinked. "Feel it? Babe, all I can feel is my organs roasting."
Mr. 3 fanned himself with a slab of wax, which immediately softened and bent. "Even my genius can't survive this heat!"
Bon and I clutched each other dramatically, fanning our faces and wailing like tragic theatre stars. "Goodbye, my dear companion!" Bon sobbed.
"Tell the world I was hot till the end!" I gasped.
Luffy ignored us, stomping ahead.
Then came the sound , thunderous footsteps, metallic clanks echoing down the corridor. The heat didn't just burn now, it breathed.
"Uh," I said, peering ahead. "Anyone else hearing the Jurassic Park soundtrack right now?"
The Blugori came in like a nightmare on steroids — towering jailer beasts, chains rattling, weapons dripping with who-knows-what.
I, being the picture of calm intelligence, stepped forward and blurted, "We're with the thermal inspection team! Way too hot down here, by the way, you'll need to pay us a fine. How about just letting us through?
The nearest Blugori roared so loud my soul briefly left my body.
Bon screamed, "I don't think that's going to work here, darling!"
"No shit!" I yelled back, ducking as the creature swung a club the size of a small car.
Luffy charged in instantly, rubber limbs snapping through the heat haze. Bon and I scrambled for cover while Mr. 3 threw up a wax shield. Buggy yelled, "Defend me, peasants!" then tripped over.
A wave of boiling blood burst from a pit nearby and Mr. 3's shield started to melt.
"Wax has a melting point?!" I screeched.
"Everything does!" he cried back.
I grabbed a chunk of molten debris and, because panic makes me stupid, hurled it at the nearest Blugori. It smacked the beast in the face and actually staggered it. "Ha!" I shouted. "That counts as an assist!"
Luffy finished the fight by flattening the last one into the ground with a smoking fist.
We dove behind the wreckage, panting, the air shimmering around us. Bon fanned me with a ripped wanted poster. My hair literally smoked.
"I look like a rotisserie chicken," I muttered.
"You look delicious, darling," Bon said dramatically.
I snorted. "That's the problem."
Somewhere above, a voice shouted Ace's name. Luffy's head snapped up.
"Ace!" he yelled, bolting toward the sound.
"Wait—plot armor doesn't extend to me!" I hollered, sprinting after him anyway. Bon clacked after me on his heels, wailing.
The temperature climbed from "hell" to "industrial oven." My lungs were shriveling. I was mentally drafting a will when the air changed — heavy, thick, wrong.
Then he appeared.
Magellan.
A mountain of a man dripping in violet poison, eyes dead calm, steam rolling off his body. Every step he took sizzled.
"Oh, great," I muttered. "Toxic Masculinity incarnate."
He looked at me. No expression. Just the faint sound of venom hissing.
"Do you ever smile?" I added weakly.
"Only when prisoners stop breathing," he said.
Cool. Love that for me.
Luffy charged with a roar, stretching forward with a punch that cracked the ground. Poison splattered, burning holes through the floor. Steam exploded everywhere.
Bon and I ducked behind rubble as purple gas hissed past.
"Go Luffy! Punch the toxic gas man!" I shouted.
"Don't touch him!" Mr. 3 shrieked. "His whole body is poison!"
"That's true. Then punch smarter!" I yelled back.
The air became chaos. Every hit from Luffy turned into a new eruption of steam, each one closer to melting my skin. The smell of acid and sweat made me gag.
Luffy's fists were covered in poison now, his veins darkening. Magellan's voice rumbled like thunder. "You can't win, Straw Hat. Every second, your body fills with venom."
Luffy only grinned through the pain. "I'll save Ace! No matter what!"
He charged again.
The floor cracked. Purple rain fell.
I was screaming, Bon was screaming, Mr. 3 was uselessly trying to hold up a wax wall that was melting like cheap ice cream.
"Maybe punch less poison!" I shrieked. "That's just a thought!"
But Luffy didn't stop. He couldn't.
Until he finally did — falling to one knee, then another, foam bubbling from his mouth.
The smell of burning flesh hit.
It wasn't funny anymore.
For once, I couldn't find a joke.
Bon grabbed my arm, his mascara streaking down his face. "We have to go! He can't fight this!"
I stared at Luffy, shaking, trying to think of anything I could do. My fruit couldn't save him — not through poison, not through sea-stone walls.
Then I remembered.
"He's not going to die. We just need to get to level five" I whispered.
Bon's grip tightened. "Well if we don't move, we'll die!"
Mr. 3 and Buggy took that as their cue to run. "Every clown for himself!" Buggy cried, sprinting away.
Coward. I envied him.
Magellan raised his arms, poison flooding the room like a living shadow.
The world turned violet.
I don't remember falling, only the sting. My vision blurred; the air itself burned.
I crawled toward Luffy's collapsed body, each breath scraping my throat raw.
Magellan loomed above, voice calm, cruel. "Anyone who helps him dies the same."
"Already dying," I rasped.
A guard swung a stun rod into my ribs. White pain exploded, and I hit the floor.
Bon's scream echoed somewhere distant — high, broken, fading.
The poison crept up my arm, burning through cloth and skin alike. I couldn't tell if I was crying or melting.
"All this," I murmured, "for a man with freckles…"
Luffy's face blurred. The heat faded.
Darkness swallowed me.
Cold.
Biting, bone-deep cold.
My eyes cracked open to frost. Ice on stone. Chains on my wrists.
Level Five — the Freezing Hell.
I shivered so hard my teeth clattered.
"Note to self," I muttered weakly, breath fogging the air. "Next time, bring a coat. Or common sense."