"Ah… ah…"
"The entire fleet—those warships were sunk instantly!"
"It's him—'Butcher' Ren!!!"
"That monster who once stood beside Straw Hat Luffy as his vice-captain!"
"He helped kill Crocodile, wreaked havoc in the G-8 Base, and made a mockery of Naval command! His bounty rose to 200 million beli overnight!"
"He came out of blood and fire… what kind of creature is he now?"
The flagship trembled under the roar of chaos Marines stared wide-eyed at the burning horizon where the sea itself seemed overwhelmed—drowned in crimson light and hellish flame.
No one spoke.No one breathed.
Every face went pale, sweat freezing against skin despite the suffocating heat.
What advanced upon them wasn't a pirate, wasn't a man—it was a calamity given shape.
A dragon of living conflagration.
"Damn… damn it all!" Vice Admiral Stainless spat, voice shaking despite the iron grip he forced around his katana. His jaw locked, fury and dread tangled together as Ren—no longer human in form—broke through the sky with the crushing presence of a descending meteor.
The blazing dragon tore forward like reality itself was burning Blackened clouds parted, the ocean recoiled, and the fleet felt smaller, weaker, utterly mortal.
"Butcher Ren…" Stainless whispered, throat dry.
In the next heartbeat his expression hardened. He was a Vice Admiral—a pillar of the World Government, one of the defenders of order against chaos incarnate.
He could not cower.
Even if the enemy looked like the end of the world.
The records from Naval Headquarters echoed in Stainless's mind with merciless clarity:
Armor and Observation Haki mastery.
Exceptional swordsman.
G-8 escape with zero capture possibility.
Impossible to detain.
High-level threat classification.
Even Jonathan—strategic master of the G-8 Base—could not subdue Ren during that incident. Tens of thousands of marines, artillery, fortified walls… none of it mattered. The Straw Hats escaped, the fortress burned, and Headquarters suffered humiliation unlike any in recent decades.
Then the revised bounty posters arrived.
Straw Hat Luffy → 200 million
Butcher Ren → 200 million
Crewwide increases across the board
And that was before Ren awakened a mythical dragon.
Now the former vice-captain was something else—something beyond numbers, beyond command, beyond human classifications. There was no point comparing him to supernovas of 100 million. They were rookies playing at piracy.
This was a force of nature wearing a man's name.
"Vice Admiral Stainless," Ren's voice thundered from above, resonant and inhuman through the crackle of his scales and the roar of his flames, "you're right on time."
His massive wings unfurled, molten heat distorting the air.Stainless raised his blade, refusing to step back even as the deck beneath him blistered and warped.
"I speak with the authority of Naval Headquarters," Stainless declared, masking fear with command. "You, Vice-Captain of the Straw Hat Crew, are hereby condemned—your existence ends here."
Ren's burning eyes lowered with cold pity.
"You should have waited before giving your last words," he replied—not loud, but with the certainty of a verdict.
Then, almost casually:
"And I am no longer their vice-captain. I left the Straw Hats. Remember that when you're ash."
"What—!?"
Ren descended.
No words, no hesitation.
A dragon of wildfire fell upon the flagship.
The heavens cracked open.
"FWOOM—!!"
Flames detonated across the bow, metal screeched, and mast wood shattered under the raw pressure.Stainless barely lifted his blade in time, its edge catching the monstrous claws that came down like divine judgment.
"CLANG—!!"
The impact shook the sea.The ship lurched sideways, planks shredding, bolts ripping loose.
Stainless skidded back, boots carving deep trenches in the scorched deck. His arms trembled—not from weakness, but because no human blade was meant to withstand a dragon's strike.
Flames spilled outward, consuming railing and sail alike.
Within seconds the ship was burning alive.
"Huuu…! H-haa…!"Marines collapsed, choking on heat, vision swimming.Skin blistered simply from proximity.
"F-Fire suppression units—!"
"There's no putting that out! It's— it's not normal flame!"
"It's burning the iron!"
"Everyone into the sea! Move, move—!"
But the fire spread faster than panic, faster than escape.Warriors screamed as boots melted, uniforms ignited, air turned poison.Some leapt, others burned before they could.
Stainless roared over them—not in pity, but command:
"Hold formation! Aim! Bring him down!"
Gunners lifted weapons with shaking hands.Rocket crews braced.Sharpshooters aligned sights despite blurred eyelids and peeling skin.
"FIRE!!!"
Steel stormed the sky.
Bullets cracked—rockets screamed—shrapnel burst—
But before any reached Ren, they shattered against the inferno cloaking him.Lead became liquid, then vapor—gone before even falling.
Shells detonated uselessly, the dragon unscarred.
Instead, the concussive blasts only sent more men screaming into flame or sea.
"Wh-what is he…?""Nothing survives that—nothing!"
Still Stainless remained.
Even as his coat burned at the hem, his blade trembled in melted bindings, the steel softened by air alone—he stood.
Vice Admiral.Absolute line of defense.
Ren's tail swept once—columns of flame split the deck, incinerating cannon lines.
"Do you see it now?" Ren's voice was deeper, older, like a forgotten beast speaking through his throat. "I don't need to dodge. Your weapons are meaningless."
"Dragon or not," Stainless growled, haki coating his blade even as metal hissed, "justice doesn't crumble because one pirate gained wings."
Ren's eyes narrowed—and then he smiled.
The air stilled.
He vanished.
Not teleported—moved faster than flame could follow.
"—!"
Stainless reacted on instinct alone, haki screaming.His blade arced—
"CLANG—!!"
Too late.
Ren's claws raked across the deck where Stainless had been a heartbeat before—the bow split in two, flame erupting from the wound.
Wood and iron screamed.
Stainless reappeared across the broken mast, coughing smoke, uniform tattered.His sword arm bled where steel had nearly shattered.
"You shouldn't have said my end was here," Ren said, hovering above ruin, wings beating heat across the ocean. "It complicates farewell speeches."
Marines fell to knees behind him, eyes wide and empty.
They weren't soldiers anymore.They were witnesses—to extinction.
"Prepare seastone net launchers!""Aim for the wings!""Take that monster down!"
Dozens of shimmering nets shot upward—
Ren didn't move.
He didn't need to.
The nets dissolved in air, metal and stone alike collapsing into molten crimson that rained back like burning hail.
The seastone itself—incorruptible, legendary for nullifying devil fruit power—glowed red.
And dripped.
Even the world's strongest mineral bowed to dragonfire.
Silence broke what panic could not.
"What… kind of demon…"
"No." Stainless said, voice breaking but steadied with force. "Not demon."
He raised his sword, haki burning black, flame reflecting in steel.
"He is a man who abandoned humanity to gain power beyond it. That is why… he must be stopped."
Ren descended again—flames spiraling behind like comet tails.
"Then try."
Dragon and Vice Admiral collided.
Heaven roared.The sea recoiled.Ships burned.
And in that crushing moment of heat and steel, of will against inevitability, it became clear:
This was not a battle.
It was an erasure.
A rewriting of what belonged on the ocean.
When the sky cleared enough to see—
Half the fleet was ash.The flagship's bow no longer existed.Marines clung to charred planks amid boiling surf.
Ren hovered above, wings folding, embers drifting like quiet snow.
The dragon's voice came again, softer—not merciful, but final.
"You called me vice-captain," he said. "Don't do that again. I left the Straw Hats because the world isn't ready for dragons."
Stainless lifted his blade despite shaking limbs.
"And yet… we will face you still."
Ren nodded—almost respectfully.
"I expect you to."
Then the flames surged once more—and the horizon went red