Golden light erupted across the battlefield, brilliant and blinding.
Those bathed in the pale radiance had nowhere to hide. Warmth soaked into their bodies like sunlight after a long winter. It felt gentle. Comforting.
The ragged refugees stared at their own hands in disbelief.
Pain was fading.
Sword wounds and bullet holes closed before their eyes. Torn flesh knit itself together. Bruises lightened. Blood dried and disappeared.
Their bodies, weakened by dehydration and starvation, began to recover. Strength they had almost forgotten returned quietly to scarred limbs.
When they finally came back to their senses, they looked up together.
Upon the high wall, a golden figure walked slowly forward.
Gratitude flickered in their eyes.
On the wall itself, more than a dozen agents and soldiers of the Jacob Kingdom stood frozen, stunned and confused. After confirming that they themselves were unharmed, their expressions darkened.
"Damn it. He's playing with us."
"Kill him!"
Swords flashed as soldiers charged in fury, determined to make the boy who had humiliated them bleed.
The agents hesitated.
Unlike ordinary soldiers, they felt it instinctively. The youthful face before them concealed something far more dangerous. A Mythical Zoan, perhaps. Something rare.
They raised their guard to its highest level, intending to let the soldiers test him first.
Unfortunately for them, their superior had the same thought.
From dozens of meters away came Joseph's cold command.
"You. Move. Make the one interfering with the World Government pay."
Joseph knew soldiers alone could not probe a threat that stirred such danger in his instincts. Only trained agents might reveal something useful.
The dozen agents froze.
Bitterness tightened their throats. They wanted to ask why he did not go himself.
But they thought of their families.
They swallowed the words and rushed forward, blades slicing toward Louis.
For an instant, steel reflected distorted faces. Rage. Fear. Desperation.
Then everything stopped.
The blades slipped from their fingers and clattered against stone.
The life force that had entered their bodies began to flicker.
Deep within them, billions of dormant bacteria and fungi awakened. Balance shattered. What should have coexisted now multiplied without restraint.
Their faces twisted in agony.
Bodies locked rigid. Screams tore through the battlefield, sharp enough to drown out cannon fire.
Dozens of meters away, behind his mask, Joseph's expression hardened. As expected.
Devil Fruit powers were unpredictable. One careless move could mean death.
Before his eyes, the agents and soldiers began to change.
Their skin darkened to a sickly blue-black. It sagged, then split. Flesh rotted with terrifying speed. Their bodies swelled grotesquely, abdomens rupturing open like gaping maws. Darkened entrails spilled outward, writhing as though alive.
The horror was not that they transformed.
It was that they did not die.
They remained upright, rigid, screaming.
Everyone who witnessed it felt their stomachs turn. Some staggered backward. Some trembled uncontrollably.
Louis walked forward slowly, spear dragging across stone.
Bathed in morning light, he looked almost sacred.
Where he passed beneath the wall, the earth transformed. Grass burst from the soil. Vines climbed broken stone. Flowers bloomed in seconds, filling the air with fragrance.
Vitality flourished beside decay.
"All things will wither," Louis murmured softly. "Only life endures."
Behind him, corruption festered. Around him, life thrived.
The contrast was almost unbearable.
The golden light surrounding him made him seem like a divine messenger descending into a field of hell.
Then he vanished.
Where he had stood, only a section of the wall collapsed inward.
Before the falling debris struck the ground, Louis had already appeared before Joseph.
He raised his spear.
At its tip, a blazing disk of fire spun into existence, shaped like a miniature sun.
Heat slammed forward. Joseph's clothes blackened instantly. The sense of lethal danger constricted his pupils.
He almost activated Iron Body by instinct.
But Observation Haki screamed at him.
Instead, he reacted.
"Paper Art."
Unable to fully evade, Joseph bent his body unnaturally, folding like a sheet of paper as air currents shifted around him. The spear grazed his throat.
Cloth burned away. Flesh charred.
Pain lanced through him. Teeth clenched. He tore off the flaming remains of his suit and ripped away the warped mask that obstructed his vision.
"Finger Pistol."
Armament Haki coated his fingers as he thrust toward the blond youth.
Louis tilted his head slightly.
The attack tore through strands of golden hair, missing by a breath.
His Observation Haki expanded.
Joseph's body became transparent in his perception. Muscle contractions. Blood flow. Micro-movements in bone and tendon. Every intention revealed before it manifested.
In another world, such awareness might be called the Transparent Realm.
Under this perception, Louis could read not only motion, but capability.
Like this.
"Solar Burst."
With one arm, he vibrated the spear, then thrust forward at lightning speed. Another blazing sphere ignited at its tip.
A beam of compressed flame and shockwave erupted outward, golden and blinding.
Joseph's expression changed instantly. He crossed his arms, coating his entire body in Armament Haki.
The sun detonated.
Flames engulfed the wall. Stone within dozens of meters glowed red, nearly melting under the heat.
Louis lifted his hand and summoned a violent gust, sweeping smoke aside. Wings beating low, he flew close to the ground straight into the inferno.
As he advanced, the finely crafted spear scraped against molten rock, sparks cascading. A smooth trench nearly a foot deep carved itself through stone.
Joseph's body was severely burned, charred almost beyond recognition.
Louis gave him no time.
He lifted the spear.
Scorching fragments of rock burst upward like fireworks. With a clean upward arc, the spear cut through the air.
The blade carved deep into Joseph's blackened body, splitting flesh to the bone.
Then, with brutal precision, Louis struck him sideways and sent him flying across the battlefield.