After that arrogant declaration, Aiden vanished from the bow of the Storm Reaper.
"Boom!!"
The next second, he appeared right above Silver Axe's head.
"What?!"
Silver Axe jerked his head up.
Too fast!
That speed was faster than his Observation Haki could follow. It was almost like teleportation.
Aiden hung upside down in midair. His twin swords, wrapped in black and red Haki lightning, slashed straight down at Silver Axe!
"You cocky brat! Don't think so highly of yourself!!"
Silver Axe had once sailed under Rocks. Even though he was shocked, he reacted fast.
Silver Axe shouted. Armament Haki instantly coated his giant axe. The blade cut through the air as he swung upward to meet the attack!
"Clang!!!"
The clash of metal rang across the sea.
A shockwave exploded outward from the two of them. The deck of the flagship beneath Silver Axe's feet shattered, sending wooden splinters flying into the air. The impact forced the massive warship to sink heavily, pushing the surrounding waves dozens of meters high into a circular wall of water.
Silver Axe felt the force drive down through his axe like a bolt of lightning wrapped in steel.
Aiden had no foothold in the air, yet his strength still pressed down hard. Silver Axe's knees bent under the weight, and his stance began to sink.
"Not bad strength,"
Aiden spoke from above. His twin swords still pressed down on the giant axe.
"Hiss—"
A blade flashed in from the side.
Ochoku appeared out of nowhere. His heavy body shot forward, and the flexible sword in his hand struck out like a snake, aiming straight for Aiden's lower back.
"Die!!"
Ochoku sneered.
His flexible sword bent and snapped unpredictably. The tip vibrated rapidly, making it hard to tell where the strike would land. It was also coated in Armament Haki, preventing Aiden from dodging through elementalization.
Silver Axe held Aiden in place from the front while Ochoku struck from the side.
However.
Right as the sword tip was about to pierce Aiden's body, Aiden moved.
Aiden's left hand quickly turned Kogarashi. He swung it backhand at an angle no ordinary swordsman could reach.
"Clang!"
The blade struck precisely at the weak point of the twisting flexible sword.
Ochoku's wrist went numb. The parry knocked his thrust aside, making it graze Aiden's clothes and pierce empty air.
"What?!"
Ochoku stiffened.
"You read the path of my blade?! That's impossible! I clearly saw the future where you dodged to the left!!"
Ochoku had survived under Rocks and trusted his Observation Haki. His ability to "see the future" had been tempered through countless life-and-death battles.
"Nothing is impossible,"
Using the momentum, Aiden flipped through the air and landed firmly on top of the flagship's mast. His twin swords hung by his sides, and a red spark of Observation Haki flickered for an instant.
"You did see the future."
"But the future I see goes further than yours."
It was Future Sight.
In that clash of Observation Haki, the "future" Ochoku saw was only the path Aiden allowed him to see.
Lightning flashed at Aiden's feet, and he attacked again.
"Boom!!"
Lightning burst from his twin swords.
His body turned into a streak of light, darting back and forth between Silver Axe and Ochoku.
"Clang clang clang clang clang!!"
A rapid flurry of metal clashes merged into one continuous sound.
Silver Axe was forced on the defensive. He kept his axe close, blocking one strike after another, but each hit numbed his arms. Aiden's attack speed was too fast. On top of that, every strike carried electricity, leaving Silver Axe's grip heavier with each block.
In just three seconds.
"Slash! Slash!"
Two spurts of blood appeared.
Silver Axe's guard broke. Two charred cuts appeared on his chest and shoulder. His kimono tore, and the bleeding was immediately cauterized by the heat.
"Damn it! Ochoku, help me pin him down!!"
Silver Axe shouted and backed away, barely managing to open up some distance under the cover of his giant axe.
"Shut up! I know what to do!"
From behind and to the side, Ochoku's massive body charged in again.
The flexible sword in his hand shook wildly, splitting into overlapping feints and covering all of Aiden's possible escape routes.
Aiden did not look back. He shifted his body slightly to the side without turning.
He twisted in midair and slipped straight through the gaps in the dense net of swords.
"Too slow,"
Aiden spoke beside him.
Before Ochoku could change his move, Aiden swung Kogarashi backhand and slashed across Ochoku's stomach.
"Spurt!!"
Kogarashi cut through Ochoku's Haki and dug into his stomach. Blood sprayed from the wound as the impact bent his heavy body backward.
"Ahhhhh!!"
Ochoku screamed. He was thrown backward and smashed hard into the flagship's cabin, sending wood splinters flying.
Silver Axe's grip tightened when he saw this.
He never expected that even with the two of them working together, they would still be pushed back by this young Marine right on their own ship.
However, he didn't have time to think.
Aiden appeared in front of Silver Axe again. He crossed his twin swords for another simple, head-on clash.
This time, Silver Axe could no longer hold on. His giant axe nearly flew out of his hands. The impact lifted his feet off the ground and pushed him sliding back dozens of meters. He smashed right through the stern railing and almost fell into the sea.
At the same time, violent electricity pierced through the deck and detonated the ammunition depot at the bottom of the hold.
After the force of their battle and the ammunition explosion, the warship beneath their feet finally gave way. With a groan from the keel, the ship collapsed completely!
The giant hull broke into pieces, turning into countless burning fragments floating on the sea.
Among the flying wood and flames, three figures leaped into the air at the same time.
Aiden hovered in the air in his lightning form. He glanced at the sinking wreckage below and frowned slightly.
While he wasn't afraid of fighting in the air thanks to the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, if those two old men fell into the water, they would definitely scramble for a foothold. If they ended up dragging the nearby Storm Reaper into the mess, it would be troublesome.
Besides, since he had already set up a combat arena, it would be a waste not to move the battle over to those "spectators" and gain some Sin Points along the way.
"Fighting over the sea is too annoying... Let's move this down into the cage I prepared for you!"
In midair, Aiden's figure vanished instantly amid a crackle of electricity.
When he reappeared, he was already right above Ochoku's head.
Aiden raised his right leg high. Lightning quickly compressed around his heel, and he brought it down hard on Ochoku's heavy body.
"Oh no!!"
Ochoku's face tightened as he hung in the air with nowhere to push off. He was forced to raise his flexible sword to block.
"Bang!!!"
The heavy impact sent ripples through the surrounding air.
Ochoku felt like he had been hit head-on by a charging beast. The bones in his arms cracked. His body flew back uncontrollably and crashed hard into the lightning cage on the edge of Hachinosu.
"Zzzt!!!"
The lightning net snapped into him at once.
"Arghhh!!"
Even with Armament Haki protecting him, Ochoku's skin charred black the moment he touched the grid. Smoke rose from him as he screamed and fell toward the island covered in black smoke.
Nearby, Silver Axe clenched his axe.
He seized the moment when Aiden's previous attack lost its momentum. Shouting, his muscles bulged. His giant axe swept toward Aiden's back with enough force to split the deck.
"Die!!"
However.
Aiden didn't even look back.
He swung Oto backhand, catching the giant axe precisely in its path.
"Clang!!!"
Sparks flew.
Using the recoil, Aiden spun in the air and swung Kogarashi with his left hand.
"You go down too."
Silver Axe had no time to swing his axe again. He hastily raised the wide flat of his axe across his chest to block the strike.
A cross-shaped lightning slash slammed heavily against the face of the axe.
"Ugh..."
Silver Axe grunted. Though he blocked the edge of the attack, he couldn't deflect the impact. The force flipped his huge body away, making him follow in Ochoku's footsteps. He crashed into the lightning cage, then plummeted down heavily onto the giant skull plaza in the center of Hachinosu, covered in electric arcs.
"Boom!!"
"Boom!!"
The ground shook violently. Two giant craters, dozens of meters wide, formed one after another. Dust filled the air as countless buildings collapsed from the tremors.
At this time, there were still thousands of pirates left on Hachinosu.
They were already trapped on the island in extreme panic by the lightning cage that had fallen from the sky. Seeing two figures fall from the sky sent them into panic.
Before they could even react, the battlefield shifted to the center of the island.
"Cough..."
In the dust, Silver Axe pushed off the rubble covering him and climbed up. His once fancy kimono was burned and torn, revealing hard muscles covered with char marks from Aiden's slashes.
On the other side, Ochoku wasn't doing any better. His neatly combed slicked-back hair was now burned and standing up, and his whole body gave off black smoke.
"Zzzt..."
A flash of blue lightning struck down from the sky, landing on top of the skull statue in the middle of the plaza and turning into Aiden.
Aiden stood on the skull statue, twin swords resting at his sides with faint arcs on their edges.
"You're tougher than I expected,"
Aiden said. "That voltage didn't finish you. I'll use more next time."
"Don't get too full of yourself, brat!!"
Silver Axe shouted, stomped heavily on the ground, and charged at Aiden like a cannonball.
The battle broke out again.
And this time, it was inside this sealed arena.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Every clash of blades stirred up visible shockwaves.
Every clash of Haki caused the surrounding buildings to crack and collapse.
"Ahhh!!"
"Help! Don't come here!!"
The pirates with nowhere to run suffered the consequences.
Running outward meant death against the lightning cage; hiding inward meant getting caught in the crossfire of three fighters.
A stray lightning slash swept past and burned through hundreds of pirates. A building that Silver Axe smashed into when pushed back completely buried an unlucky group underneath.
Hachinosu turned into a battlefield where pirates died by the hundreds.
Aiden ignored all of this.
In fact, he intentionally steered the direction of his attacks, ensuring the battle's fallout covered as many crowded pirate areas as possible.
In his mind, the system's Sin Point notifications kept ringing.
"Damn it..."
After dozens of exchanges, Silver Axe and Ochoku grew more uneasy.
This young man's strength was hard to accept.
He was fast, strong, skilled with a sword, and his Devil Fruit covered every gap.
"Ochoku! Stop holding back!!"
Silver Axe shouted. He gave up on fighting cleanly and rushed into close combat.
He abandoned most of his defense, letting Aiden's blade leave bloody cuts on him, just to jam Aiden's attack angles with his body coated in Armament Haki and restrict his movement.
He was using his own body to hold Aiden in place.
Ochoku immediately understood.
Ochoku moved around the battlefield, his flexible sword stabbing from blind angles toward Aiden's eyes, throat, and ribs with every strike.
Moreover, a green poison coated his sword. It carried a sickly sweet smell of blood.
"So this is how Rocks' old crew fights?"
Aiden tilted his head to dodge Ochoku's thrust at his eye, and backhanded a slash into Silver Axe's shoulder.
"Clang!"
The blade cut deep into flesh but was blocked by Silver Axe's bone.
Instead of retreating, Silver Axe threw aside his giant axe and grabbed Aiden's sword arm with both Haki-coated hands.
The strong Haki locked onto his solid form, cutting off Aiden's chance to escape through elementalization.
"Got you!!"
"Swish!"
Ochoku's flexible sword shot toward Aiden's ribs.
"You think you can hurt me with this?"
Aiden had already seen all of this clearly with his Observation Haki.
"Clang!!!"
Metal rang out.
Ochoku's flexible sword, wrapped in poison and Haki, hit Aiden right in the ribs. However, it only sent sparks flying and couldn't even break the skin.
"What?!" Ochoku froze. "This toughness..."
"Get lost!"
Aiden sent a flying kick wrapped in lightning straight into Ochoku's stomach, knocking him away. At the same time, electricity erupted from his body, shocking Silver Axe, who was refusing to let go. Silver Axe spasmed and was forced to release his grip and step back.
"How disgusting..."
Aiden frowned slightly.
"You two really are hard to shake off."
"What? Are you out of tricks?"
The wound on Silver Axe's shoulder stopped bleeding quickly thanks to his powerful physique. He breathed heavily, but he still smiled.
"Brat! Don't think you're invincible just because you killed Shiki!"
"You're still too green to face the two of us together!!"
Ochoku also let out a low laugh, the green poison on his flexible sword glistening.
"As soon as you show an opening... you're dead."
Looking at the two old men who thought they had the upper hand, Aiden gave them a mocking smile.
"Legends from your prime?"
Aiden raised his twin swords and crossed them over his chest.
"Stop flattering yourselves."
"You're just two relics who survived too long."
Bzzzt...
The lightning around Aiden's body suddenly grew brighter. Electricity ran through him, forcing his muscles to move even faster.
"Next... I'll be faster than before. Let's see if you can still keep up with my speed."
Before he finished speaking, Aiden vanished.
"Watch out!"
Ochoku's Observation Haki barely sensed the movement before Aiden appeared right in front of him.
Aiden kicked Ochoku in the face and sent him crashing through three buildings.
Before Silver Axe could react, Aiden appeared behind him. He slashed his twin swords in a flurry, leaving two deep, bone-exposing cross wounds on Silver Axe's back.
"Ahhhh!"
Silver Axe screamed and spun around to throw a punch, but he only hit scattered sparks.
Once Aiden increased his speed, their teamwork could no longer keep up. The two of them looked slow in front of him.
In just half a minute, dozens more wounds appeared on the two men. Blood stained the ground red.
"Huff... huff..."
Silver Axe knelt on one knee, leaning on his giant axe. His wounds stopped bleeding visibly, but he could feel his strength draining.
He glanced at Ochoku, who looked just as battered nearby. Then he looked at the lightning cage sealing off the sky and ground around them.
They couldn't win.
Aiden was too fast.
And they couldn't run away.
"Ochoku!" Silver Axe suddenly shouted, desperate. "Stop looking for tricks! Let's go all out against this kid!"
Ochoku was a ruthless man, and he instantly understood Silver Axe's plan.
Since they couldn't keep up with Aiden's speed and couldn't block his slashes, they would rely on the endurance and Haki they had built over decades. They would wear this young man down!
"I refuse to believe this kid's stamina can outlast the two of us combined while he keeps moving like this!"
Ochoku grinned and wiped the blood from his mouth. He forced his battered body to move again, burning through what strength he had left.
"Graaah!!"
Silver Axe also shouted. Ignoring his injuries, he coated his entire body in Armament Haki without holding back.
They gave up on finding a clean win and stopped trying to escape. If they could not outpace Aiden, they would drag the fight out and wear him down.
"You want to test your stamina against mine?"
Aiden watched the two old pirates force themselves back up.
"Interesting."
"Then let's see... who falls first!"
Aiden did not back down at all. The twin swords in his hands erupted with blinding lightning again. He turned into a bolt of lightning and charged directly into their Haki.
Boom!!!
An even fiercer clash broke out.
...
The sun rose, and the sun set.
The battle on Hachinosu, the "Pirate Paradise," raged from morning to dusk, and from night to dawn.
For three full days and nights.
The thunder over Hachinosu never stopped for a single second.
The tremors made all the Sea Kings in the surrounding waters flee completely.
The iconic giant skull rock had already been sliced in half on the first day. By the second day, all the buildings on the island had turned into ruins. By the third day, even the island's terrain had completely changed.
The old port was split open by deep trenches, and the high ground had collapsed into a wide field of broken stone and smoking cracks.
In the dust and lightning filling the sky, the three figures continued fighting without rest.
Blood dyed the scorched earth red, only to be instantly evaporated by the high heat.
Finally.
On the morning of the fourth day, sunlight broke through the smoke covering the island.
Rumble...
As the last clap of thunder faded.
The thunder that had lasted for three whole days and nights finally stopped.
Hachinosu's central square.
This place had completely turned into a giant crater. The once grand buildings were reduced to dust, and the ground showed a strange glassy shine from the extreme heat.
The dust settled.
Aiden stood in the center of the ruins. His coat had turned into rags. His muscular upper body was covered in crisscrossing scars, but under his abnormal physique, the edges of the wounds were visibly moving and healing.
His breathing was heavy, and his chest heaved violently. His twin swords were still dripping blood. Even for him, this battle had not been easy.
Opposite him.
The two pirates from the Rocks era were now swaying, barely keeping themselves standing. They were completely spent.
Thud!
Finally, Ochoku's exhausted body could no longer support his heavy frame. His knees gave out, and he crashed heavily into the rubble.
"Cough, cough... guh..."
He spat out large mouthfuls of black blood mixed with pieces of organs. His flashy robe had burned to ashes, exposing his body and the deep blade wounds across it. His strength was leaving him fast.
Right after, Silver Axe let out a reluctant grunt. The broken axe in his hand clattered to the ground, and his entire body slumped over.
"Huff... huff..."
Ochoku lay on his back and struggled to turn his head toward the young figure standing in the morning light. There was no fear on his face. Instead, he let out a dying, crazed laugh:
"Hahahahaha... cough, cough..."
"A loss... is a loss!"
"I've roamed the seas for decades. I've lived enough! Dying at the hands of a monster stronger than me... it's not shameful!"
Ochoku grinned through his bloodstained gold teeth, still carrying the ruthlessness of a pirate from the Rocks era.
"Do it, kid! Don't expect me to beg on my knees! I am... Ochoku!"
Bzzzt.
A blue arc of lightning flashed in the air.
Aiden crossed the ruins in a flash and appeared right in front of Ochoku.
Aiden looked down at him and gave a small nod.
"You're a pirate, but you still have some pride."
Slash!
The blade fell.
His head rolled into the rubble. It still wore that arrogant smile.
The ruler of Hachinosu had met his end.
Aiden flicked the blood off his sword, turned around, and looked at the ruins on the other side.
However.
Silver Axe on the other side looked entirely different.
Silver Axe no longer had his previous arrogance.
His dark kimono, printed with a double-bladed axe pattern, had been slashed to shreds. It barely covered him, exposing his scarred body underneath. His iconic X-shaped sunglasses had shattered long ago, and his fear was obvious.
Hearing Ochoku's words, Silver Axe froze in terror.
He didn't want to die!
He hadn't died in God Valley. He had barely survived into the Great Pirate Era, accepted the Government's pardon, and become one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. His ambitions had only just begun!
"W-Wait! Aiden!"
Silver Axe struggled to sit up and shouted.
"You can't kill me!"
"I'm not like that idiot Ochoku! I'm not a pirate anymore! I'm one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea! I'm protected by the World Government!"
"If you kill me, you won't be able to explain it to the World Government! You'll become a wanted criminal!"
Extreme fear made Silver Axe forget a simple fact. This man had already killed a Celestial Dragon. Technically, he should be locked up in Level 6 of Impel Down right now.
Aiden looked at Silver Axe, then at Ochoku's headless corpse in the distance, which kept its arrogance even in death.
Aiden's expression turned colder.
So this was Silver Axe in the face of death. Once he had nowhere left to run, all his pride collapsed.
"Explain?"
Aiden slowly raised his twin swords. The blades caught the sunlight.
"Do I need to explain killing one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea to anyone?"
Slash!!
He swung his swords down without any hesitation.
Silver Axe's head rolled in the morning light.
Two pirates from the Rocks era met their end here today.
The system's prompt sounded in his mind right on cue.
[Prisoner: "Pirate Leader" Ochoku]
[Overall Rating: SS7]
...
[Optional Rewards]: (9 options available)
[Prisoner: "Warlord of the Sea" Silver Axe - Fierce]
[Overall Rating: SS8]
...
[Optional Rewards]: (10 options available)
Aiden glanced over the system. He wasn't in a hurry to make his choices.
Instead, he slowly looked up. White lightning spread from Aiden as his perception expanded.
His perception covered the entire island of Hachinosu.
Through his perception, he sensed quite a few surviving pirates trembling in fear at the island's edges, inside underground secret rooms, and within the cracks of the ruins.
These were pirates who originally belonged to Hachinosu, the ones who had slipped through the net in this war.
"Since I'm here, I shouldn't waste them."
Aiden showed no mercy to vicious pirates like these.
Bzzzt...
The thunderclouds that were about to fade gathered once again.
This time, there was no massive display of power. Countless tiny bolts of blue lightning shot down from the clouds.
They drilled into the ruins and pierced through the rock layers, seeking out every hidden pirate.
"Ahhhh!"
"Let me go!"
Short and hurried screams echoed from all over the island before complete silence returned.
In less than a minute.
Except for Aiden, there wasn't a single living person left on Hachinosu.
The place was completely cleared out.
With a thought, the lightning cage connecting the sky and ground around Hachinosu broke into countless flashes of light and vanished.
After finishing all this, Aiden finally felt a hint of exhaustion.
First, he took out a brand-new coat from the system's storage space and put it on. Then, he grabbed a relatively flat piece of rubble and sat down. He instinctively tried to take out a bottle of liquor from the system's storage space to take a drink, but a quick check showed his previous stock was already gone.
"Tch."
Aiden clicked his tongue in disappointment.
"Captain!"
Right then, Kane's excited shout came from the distance.
Jinbe, Issho, and Kane, carrying a giant medical box, rushed over the ruins.
When they saw the devastation all over the ground and the two headless corpses near Aiden, everyone stopped in place.
"Silver Axe... Ochoku..."
Jinbe looked at the two familiar figures and took a deep breath.
"These two were famous pirates from the Rocks era... I didn't expect them to fall here at the same time today."
"Stop being sentimental."
Aiden waved his hand and pointed at Ochoku's former lair.
"Kane, take some men and clean up the battlefield. That old man Ochoku occupied Hachinosu for so many years. He must have saved up a lot of treasures."
"Yes!"
At the mention of treasure, Kane immediately perked up. He immediately planned to lead the Marines to dig up the entire place.
"By the way, get someone to take care of these two bodies while you're at it."
Aiden added.
"They were pirates, but they were still famous names. Feeding them directly to the fish would look bad. Just find a random spot and bury them."
"Yes, I understand."
Kane nodded, and immediately turned back, running toward the Storm Reaper.
Aiden stood up and looked over the ruins that now belonged to him.
"Also, have people clear this place out. Fix up the port."
"Fix up the port?" Jinbe was taken aback. "Boss Aiden, are you planning to..."
"It would be a pity to throw away such a good piece of territory."
Aiden smiled. He didn't explain further and instead pulled out a silver Transponder Snail.
Puru puru puru...
The Transponder Snail rang a few times before connecting.
A woman's voice came from the other end.
"This is Tsuru."
"Aiden?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru's voice carried a hint of surprise. She knew Aiden too well. He never called without a reason and was usually too lazy to even give routine reports. He was actually calling on his own today?
"You should have reported to the G-5 Branch by now, right? Did you cause trouble again? Even though Gulliver has a bad reputation, he is still..."
"Vice Admiral Tsuru, I already took care of reporting to the G-5 Branch."
Aiden interrupted Tsuru's rambling. He sounded relaxed, but his words made Tsuru go silent.
"I called because I really do have some serious business to discuss with you."
"Serious business?" Vice Admiral Tsuru sounded a bit wary. "What do you want to do?"
Aiden sat on the highest point of the ruins, with the bodies of Silver Axe and Ochoku below him. He looked over the pirate paradise now under his control and smiled.
"I just feel that while the G-5 Branch is nice, it's a bit too crowded. It doesn't give me enough room to operate."
"So I wanted to ask Headquarters..."
Aiden paused, looking at the morning sun over the New World, then spoke into the receiver.
"Are you interested in building a new 'G-6 Branch' in the New World?"