Night, like overturned ink, silently permeated the Goa Kingdom.
At every dirty intersection bordering High Town and Styx, figures of Royal Guards appeared.
They wore brand-new uniforms, held spears and muskets, and their faces were devoid of any expression.
They silently set up blockade after blockade, their movements uniform and precise, like a group of soulless marionettes.
No warning.
No notification.
Only a cold, invisible wall suddenly rose in the darkness.
Only entry, no exit... The residents of Styx soon discovered something was wrong.
There was no water source in the garbage mountain, no stable food supply; everything relied on exchanges with High Town.
A mother holding her sick child wanted to go to town to get some clean medicine but was blocked by a guard's cold spear.
"Go back."
The guard's voice carried no emotion.
"Please, officer, my child has a fever, I just need a little medicine..."
"I said, go back."
The tip of the spear almost touched her throat.
The mother recoiled in fear, her arms trembling as she held her child, tears carving two furrows on her grimy face.
At another exit, several young people, starving, tried to force their way through the checkpoint.
"Why won't you let us out! We're going to starve to death!"
What greeted them were mercilessly falling clubs.
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Dull thuds, mixed with the crisp sound of breaking bones and piercing screams, echoed far into the oppressive night.
Blood stained the dirty ground.
Those who tried to resist were tossed back into the garbage heap like broken sacks.
Panic began to spread like a plague through the garbage mountain.
"We can't get out! All the roads are blocked!"
"The guards are beating people! They're going to kill us!"
"Why? What do the nobles want to do?!"
Desperate cries and angry questions rose and fell within the massive garbage mountain, but they were isolated into another world by High Town's thick walls...
Meanwhile.
In a clearing on Mt. Colubo, a bonfire burned brightly.
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy sat around it, excitedly counting their "spoils of war" for the day.
A small bag of Berries.
This was the bounty they had just received from the Marine after jointly taking down a small pirate stronghold.
"Hehehe! Another haul!"
Luffy clutched the money bag, grinning so widely that drool almost escaped his mouth.
"One step closer to the next dungeon!"
"Don't get too excited, Luffy."
Ace leaned against a tree trunk, wiping his steel pipe, though a slight smile he couldn't suppress also tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Boss White Night is really too stingy; he doesn't give any discounts."
"It's fine, we'll just go catch a few more pirates tomorrow, right!"
Luffy waved his hand dismissively, then turned his gaze to Sabo.
"Right, Sabo!"
Sabo smiled gently and nodded.
The Wings of Wind he had exchanged from White Night lay beside him; in the moonlight, the wings emitted a faint blue glow.
Every time he saw it, Sabo could feel the freedom of breaking free from constraints and soaring through the sky.
This feeling was too wonderful.
He believed that as long as they kept trying, one day they would truly be able to go anywhere they wanted with their own strength.
However, just then.
A series of hurried and panicked footsteps, mixed with painful gasps, broke the tranquility of the forest.
"Help... help me..."
A bruised and battered youth stumbled out of the woods, collapsing beside the bonfire.
It was a familiar face who lived in the garbage mountain and occasionally played with them.
"Hey! What happened to you?!"
Ace was the first to rush over and help the youth up.
The youth was covered in bloodstains and bruises, one leg twisted at an unnatural angle, and his face was filled with extreme terror.
"Can't... can't get out..."
The youth clutched Ace's arm tightly, his fingernails white from the effort, his voice sharp with fear.
"The garbage mountain... all the exits... are blocked by guards!"
"They won't let anyone out!"
"Ah Hai and the others... they just wanted to go out to find something to eat... and they were... they were beaten to death!"
"The guards are killing people! They're killing people!"
The youth cried incoherently, laying out the bloody horrors happening outside before the three brothers.
The laughter and joy by the bonfire abruptly ceased.
Luffy's smile froze on his face.
Ace's hand, holding the youth, clenched tightly.
And Sabo, the moment he heard the words "blockade" and "guards," his body uncontrollably stiffened.
He remembered a proposal he had once seen in his father's study.
A terrible thought, like lightning, struck his mind.
No!
It can't be!
Sabo suddenly stood up and rushed towards the cliff edge like a madman.
He pulled a high-powered telescope from his Huai and tremblingly raised it to his eyes.
The lens focused on the direction of High Town.
Then, he saw it.
He saw the High Town walls, densely packed with armed guards, as if facing a formidable enemy.
He saw, under the cover of night, team after team of personnel quietly transporting huge black oil barrels to the various entrances of the garbage mountain.
Sabo had seen those oil barrels in books.
They were used to hold napalm!
A bone-chilling coldness instantly shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head!
His blood, at this moment, was almost frozen.
"Sabo? What did you see?"
Ace's voice came from behind him, carrying an ominous premonition.
Luffy also followed, and seeing Sabo's pale face, he asked in confusion:
"Why are they moving so many black barrels? Is it for a party?"
A party?
Sabo lowered the telescope, his body trembling uncontrollably.
That was... a feast of death, held with fire and lives.
He slowly turned around, looking at his two brothers who were still clueless, his lips trembling, every word squeezed out as if from between his teeth.
"They..."
"They want to burn this place... burn the entire garbage mountain..."
"All of it."
As his words fell.
The world became silent.
Only the crackling sound of the bonfire burning was exceptionally harsh.
Luffy's innocence and confusion on his face gradually faded, replaced by a strange and cold bewilderment.
Burn it?
Burn everyone?
Why?
Ace's fists were already engulfed in uncontrollable flames.
Crimson flames leaped wildly between his fingers, reflecting his eyes filled with rage and murderous intent.
"Those... scumbags!"
After a brief, deadly silence.
Boom!!!
An extremely suppressed rage erupted from Ace's body!
Violent flames shot into the sky, transforming into a scorching pillar of fire that burned the night sky dark red!
The surrounding trees instantly withered and charred under this terrifying heatwave!
"Ace!"
Sabo exclaimed.
Luffy was also stunned; he had never seen Ace unleash such terrifying flames.
This wasn't a sparring match, not a fight.
This was pure, all-consuming anger!
Ace let out a beast-like roar to the sky, his chest heaving violently.
His face, which always carried a hint of rebelliousness, now only showed ferocity.
And Luffy, he looked towards the direction of High Town in the distance, at the scattered lights emanating from there.
In his world, bad guys were pirates, were mountain bandits.
He couldn't understand why those people in beautiful clothes, living in beautiful houses, would do things a hundred times more cruel than pirates.
In his eyes, which were always as clear as the sea, for the first time, there appeared a bone-chilling anger.
Sabo watched his two brothers' reactions, his heart feeling as if it was being fiercely squeezed by an invisible hand, making it impossible to breathe from the pain.
The so-called nobles.
The so-called bloodline.
The so-called glory.
At this moment, all his illusions about that world, all the last remaining traces of connection, were burned to ashes by the flames that were about to engulf the world, leaving nothing behind.
Only deep-seated hatred remained.
Hatred for that class, hatred for that world, hatred for his noble status... absolute hatred!
Suddenly.
Sabo spun around abruptly, his azure eyes burning with a more resolute will than Ace's flames.
He looked at Ace and Luffy, and in a terrifyingly calm voice he had never used before, he said, word by word:
"We must stop them."
"Ace, Luffy."