Over the years, Redfield had poured everything into sharpening his strength, never wasting time on politics or administration.
"Hmph. And you haven't changed at all."
Redfield's lips curled into a proud smile. In raw combat ability, he now edged past Newgate and had taken half a step beyond Shiki.
Charlotte Linlin, who had long since decided not to have more children, was keeping pace with him under Brook's brutal training regimen, her monstrous talent fully unleashed.
Newgate, on the other hand, had grown lazy, spending too much time training youngsters. Shiki's hunger for control kept dragging him into endless wars and conquests, scattering his focus.
"Brat, you're getting a little full of yourself."
The bald Five Elder, Ethanbaron, snorted, eyes sweeping over the "little devils" in front of him as if he were already looking at corpses.
"Jihahahah! Five Elders, I'm going to carve a few sword marks into you as souvenirs!"
Shiki drew his twin blades, grinning fiercely. Today, he wanted to witness firsthand just how strong the World Government's so-called ultimate force really was.
"Gurarara. I will send at least one of you old men to the bottom of the sea."
Newgate, with his crescent white moustache, was only thirty six and in his absolute prime, but he already liked to call himself "this old man," and insisted that the youngsters call him "Dad."
"Well now… what delicious souls."
Charlotte Linlin hefted the Emperor Blade Napoleon, the aura pouring off her no less terrifying than Redfield's, perhaps even heavier. Over thirty and still maintaining a slender figure, she slipped the ten pure gold rings from her fingers.
The homies wrapped around them, turning the rings into a gleaming necklace hanging at her throat. Linlin only took the rings off when she was really going to train or fight.
"Brother Brook, leave these four to us."
Redfield, Linlin, Newgate, and Shiki all locked their gazes on the Five Elders, fighting spirit blazing.
They had been waiting for this war.
"Worororo….. a Knight of God at admiral level, huh? I'll kill one today and see for myself."
Kaido, King of Beasts, roared as his body shifted into his half dragon form, a huge black iron club, Hachisaijie, resting on his shoulder. The lunatic even intended to raise it to the level of a Supreme Grade weapon through battle and Haki alone.
"Haha! Enma and Ame no Habakiri are thirsty too!"
Yamata no Orochi's eight dragon heads roared in the distance while Kozuki Oden laughed boldly, both swords at his waist already more than halfway tempered into black blades. It was only a matter of time before they became Supreme Grade swords.
"Go for it, Lord Oden! Lord Oden is the coolest!"
Behind Oden, the three Mink wives and maids, cheered at the top of their lungs.
"Haha! Today is the day my name shakes the world!"
Oden fixed his eyes on one of the God Knights, his gaze burning. Today, he would claim the title of ine of the Hell Kings of the Hell Pirates, stepping into the highest officer seat alongside the earlier monsters.
"Hey, hey! You two brats trying to hog all the good opponents?"
The Snake Queen, Shakky, spread her blood red bat wings with languid grace. The vampire, having awakened her Conqueror's Haki, now had strength on par with a Captain of a division.
"Hahaha, then I will not complain. Killing a few CP0s sounds entertaining enough."
Stussy laughed sweetly, blonde hair flowing, red lips curved into a seductive smile. Just that laugh was enough to send officers below rear admiral into a daze.
When she sang with the power of the Mythical Zoan Siren Fruit, even an admiral level warrior could be dragged into unconsciousness.
The Hell Pirates were overflowing with monsters.
Sniper Hiruba, by shooting Fleet Admiral Kukulkan from absurd range and sniping down multiple Celestial Dragons and four vice admirals, had firmly established himself as the world's number one sniper, the God of Snipers, with a bounty of 1.3 billion Berries.
Over the past eight years, Tom, Crocus, and "ship breaker" Fisher Tiger had each earned fearsome reputations of their own.
Even the perpetually slacking Yellow Flash, Borsalino, had become famous. But this lazy man's bounty at age twenty was only 580 million, still far below monsters like Kaido.
··
"Yohoho! Looks like everyone cannot wait any longer." Brook smiled faintly. "If Imu had not shown up, you four old fossils of the World Government… weren't you worried you might all die here?"
He could feel how eager his crew was for battle, but Brook's vigilance never left the unseen old monster behind the scenes.
At this point, even four of the Five Elders were no longer enough to threaten the Hell Pirates.
"Hmph. Aside from you, do you really think they are any match for us?"
Ethanbaron sneered. In his eyes, Imu would personally decide Brook's fate. They merely had to kill the four fully grown Kings and cut off the Hell Pirates' fangs.
As he spoke, the shining form of Uranus began to move, the King of Heaven announcing its attack on the Hell Pirates' massive fleet, intent on wiping them out.
On the Pluton battleship, operators and Vegapunk's autonomous robots started moving in unison, systems roaring to life. All batteries turned toward Uranus.
Brook accepted the request of his officers without hesitation: the Four Hell Kings would each take on an Elder.
He himself would remain aboard the Pluton battleship.
His target was Uranus.
Standing at the bow, Seven Star Demon Sword in hand and a massive scroll strapped to his back, Brook personally commanded the clash between Pluton and the Uranus.
The flying fleet and all affiliated pirate crews scattered into formation, diving toward the World Government's forces. Their enemies included the elite agents of CP0 through CP9, as well as the "recruited pirates" who had agreed to serve under the World Government's banner.
World Destroyer Byrnndi World and Chinjao took the lead, charging straight at the so called recruited pirates and butchering those who had chosen to kneel. Other allied crews locked onto CP ships, their cannons already blazing.
Brook's expression stayed tight.
Was the World Government underestimating the Hell Pirates?
Was Imu really unafraid that Brook would crush all of their remaining assets here and now?
This old undying thing had not shown himself even once.
What else was he hiding?
Brook's gaze lifted once more to Uranus.
As long as he could bring down that monster, Imu, no matter how strong, would still be just a living being.
Compared to the threat of Uranus, even Imu's existence did not feel as suffocating.
"Imu… I want to see exactly how you plan to kill me today."
Brook gave a cold order. The scientists and gunnery operators aboard the Pluton battleship had no need to conserve their ammunition. They would unleash everything against Uranus.
He stepped onto the Seven Star Demon Sword, his figure vanishing into the sky, weaving between Uranus' devastating bombardments again and again.
The Uranus fully exploited its absurd maneuverability, refusing to give Brook a chance to close in. Its beams and blasts rained down on the Hell Pirates' ships again and again.
Pluton, unable to catch up, roared in fury. Its counterattack obliterated entire World Government fleets in a heartbeat.
Both ancient weapons began erasing lives on an impossible scale.
In just over ten minutes, thousands upon thousands of pirates, Marine officers, and CP agents were reduced to ash under their attacks.
The casualties rose so quickly that even Brook and the Four Elders felt their hearts clench.
This was war on the level of gods.
And every second it continued, both sides watched their hard built forces vanish like smoke.
-------------
New World, God Valley Sea, southeastern quadrant.
The war raging across these waters had torn the sky itself apart. Storms howled, the heavens churned, and the sea went mad. Quetzalcoatl coiled through the clouds, summoning a roaring tempest, while the golden ship rode along thunderclouds stained black with smoke.
The dense thunderheads completely devoured the sunlight. The entire sea sank into darkness, lit only by blinding flashes of lightning and the cataclysmic explosions from the clash of two ancient weapons.
Redfield, incarnated as a thunder god, commanded the lightning. Charlotte Linlin, seized full control of the thunderclouds. Together, they became the masters of the weather in this doomed sea.
Even Chinjao, whose Conqueror Haki had awakened, was shaking as he watched this end of the world battle, sweat pouring down his back and his pupils trembling.
"Have the Devil Fruits of all four Hell Kings awakened?!"
Chinjao stared at the thunder tearing open the sky, at the ocean being ripped apart, at the air itself distorting and cracking. Sea water was pulled upward and twisted into water lions tens of meters tall that roared past his head.
The pressure was so overwhelming that even he had to flee the main battlefield where the Four Kings clashed with the Four Elders.
Redfield's Thunder Fruit, Newgate's Tremor Tremor Fruit, Shiki's Float Float Fruit, and the Soul Soul Fruit of Linlin, all together had turned this entire sea into a nightmare.
"Five Hundred Million Volt Thunder Emperor!"
Redfield's body fully turned into living lightning, and then into molten thunder magma. He devoured the bolts raging across the sky and condensed them into a colossal giant of lightning clad in crackling armor, a spear of thunder in its hand as he fought Ethanbaron, the bald Five Elder.
Every strike came with sky splitting thunder, illuminating the pitch black world. Figarland's samurai robes were shredded. His entire body was sheathed in jet black Armament, and even the Shodai Kitetsu in his hand gleamed a sinister black.
"Not bad, boy! How many years has it been since that Thunder Fruit awakened?"
Ethanbaron's entire frame was wrapped in external Armament, calmly warding off every bolt Redfield hurled at him. The Shodai Kitetsu coiled with rings of blood red Haki.
"To kill you, I gave everything I had to become stronger!"
Redfield's voice was ice cold. Lightning veined out in every direction, and his figure vanished into the web of thunder. In the next instant, he appeared behind Figarland, driving the thunder spear forward with all the hatred and Haki he could muster.
Steel rang as Ethanbaron blocked with the Kitetsu. In the same heartbeat, Redfield's body seemed to split into countless silhouettes, flashing into every angle around the bald elder through the lightning grid and unleashing a storm of thrusts like torrential rain.
"Haha! You're still green. Do you think awakening your Devil Fruit is enough to defeat us? Making your mind keep up with your ability is only the first step.
"Everyone believes that Logia and disaster type Fruits are the strongest. But Devil Fruits are born from human desire. Every power is just another form of what humans wish to become.
"The abilities desired most strongly by the more intelligent races are what rise to the top. Desire itself is the highest class of Devil Fruit power."
Ethanbaron laughed wildly. A deeper force erupted from his body. As long as human desire existed, he would never die.
He still had not revealed the name of his Fruit, but his combat power had doubled in an instant. His counterattack smashed through Redfield's ferocious thunder offensive and began to force the Redfield back.
Thunder was one of the forces humans feared and revered most, so countless people dreamed of wielding that destructive power. That was why the Thunder Fruit stood among the apex Logias.
The Gum Gum Fruit had never been recorded in any Devil Fruit encyclopedia. Its final form, Nika, existed only in ancient texts.
The name of the Sun God Nika had long since been erased from history by the World Government, but as long as there were people who wished and prayed, the idea of Nika could never truly vanish.
Everything on the world of One Piece seemed to be born from human wishes. Devil Fruits were no exception. Not even Brook or Vegapunk could fully explain the principle behind them.
Devil Fruits were possible evolutions of collective desire. Every single Fruit was the shape taken by the wishes of countless people.
Because those wishes distorted nature, they were rejected by the sea, the mother of all things. That was why seawater became the natural enemy of Devil Fruit users.
Those who carried this "curse" were beings empowered by the expectations of countless intelligent races. At the same time, every "person" dreamed that one day they might gain this power and become godlike themselves.
··
With the Four Elders unleashing their true strength, the situation flipped. The Four Hell Kings were suddenly being pushed back.
Charlotte Linlin, felt her blood run cold as she realized the blond Elder Peter had somehow gained her power.
"Hahaha! Your ability is my ability."
Peter laughed, using the power of the Soul Soul Fruit to infuse his own soul into the lightning and clash directly with Linlin's soul infused thunder, the two energies canceling each other out in the sky.
"What kind of ability is that? Copy Fruit? But we've never even met before!"
Linlin could not understand how he had her power. Was it some imitation type Fruit? Copy? Duplicate?
"Hmph. How can such a low tier ability compare to my Devil Fruit? My power comes from the desires of all intelligent races."
Peter snorted. His body turned into a solid, steel like black form, and he charged straight into Linlin's face, engaging her in close combat.
The whole world thought Devil Fruits were the most powerful force. But few realized that the body itself contained the strongest power of all.
Haki was the self made strength that all intelligent races could attain, even without Devil Fruits. It was the crystallization of the desire to advance and fight on. It was the will of living things.
The sea, Mother Nature, never rejected Haki. Instead, Haki had become the absolute power that could oppose Devil Fruits.
Fists and blades crashed. The two erupted into the fiercest kind of physical battle. Peter had not expected Charlotte Linlin's raw physical strength to be so monstrous that she could trade blows with him on equal footing.
"No… why can't I use the Float Float Fruit?!"
Shiki the Golden Lion kicked off the air with moon steps, shouting in anger and disbelief. After crossing blades with the long haired Elder for a while, he suddenly realized his Float Float powers were becoming harder and harder to call upon, until they vanished completely.
"Ha. Boy, you can't use your Devil Fruit anymore. Are you ready to die?"
The long haired Five Elder, Mars, looked at Shiki with a flash of pride in his eyes.
The five of them held the most twisted, terrifying Devil Fruits, born from the deepest desires of mankind. They did not just gain undying bodies alongside human desire itself, they could also manifest all manner of powers that humanity secretly yearned for.
Not far away, Newgate took a heavy blow as well. Figarland, an Elder, shrugged off the overwhelming destructive power of the Tremor Tremor Fruit and charged into a head on brawl with Newgate, laughing like a madman.
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