Chapter 23: God's Knight (×) Speed Bump (√)
At this moment, Nereus was like a confluence point for flowing streams.
The area affected by his ability wasn't limited to where Whitebeard and Kaido were.
The entirety of God Valley, and even the nearby waters, were currently under the influence of Nereus's own ability.
Marines, pirates, Celestial Dragons, and slaves—all could see blood beginning to flow from the corpses bearing external wounds. Yet, those still alive were completely unaffected.
The blood gathering from across the entire island converged around Nereus, condensing into an eerie crimson sphere floating above his right hand.
As blood from all directions entered this zone, it was absorbed by the sphere in his hand. The blood entering it seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving no trace of where it went.
This was because Nereus was currently in an Awakened state. For Devil Fruit users, Awakening was a special stage.
Those who successfully Awakened could unleash even greater power from their fruits. Zoan users gained unparalleled recovery abilities, while Paramecia users could assimilate and affect their surrounding environment.
The Awakening of Logia users could even permanently alter the topography and climate of an area. And these were just the general phenomena; the Awakening of Mythical Zoans often came with unique, bizarre abilities.
Of course, Awakening also carried the risk of failure. The Jailer Beasts of Impel Down were glaring examples.
Although their recovery abilities remained powerful, making them nearly unkillable, their human rationality ceased to exist, reducing them to beasts that only followed orders.
For a successfully Awakened user like Nereus, not only were his abilities enhanced, but his range of influence also expanded significantly.
"Marines, pirates... Celestial Dragons... they're all the same trash."
Although his strength increased significantly in his Awakened state, Nereus's Observation Haki hadn't reached the exaggerated level of covering an entire island.
Enel could achieve that partly due to his own talent for Observation Haki (Mantra), but also by leveraging the ability of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
However, Nereus could still sense the immediate surroundings. Although these pirates hadn't come to save ordinary people—their goals were treasure, Shakky, or fame—
Their arrival had, to some extent, halted the Celestial Dragons' massacre game.
Ordinary Celestial Dragons were evacuating in emergencies, and the God's Knights were busy dealing with powerful pirates from all sides, which inadvertently gave the slaves more chances to survive.
But this didn't mean everyone would survive. After all, God Valley was now an isolated island on the sea, surrounded by war on all sides. There was no conventional escape route.
Moreover, while ordinary Celestial Dragons had indeed abandoned their game to flee, the members of the God's Knights had not.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A Celestial Dragon belonging to the God's Knights—wearing a large round hat, sporting light cyan hair, and draped in a cloak marked with the character for "God"—held a specially made rifle, firing indiscriminately at targets in her field of view.
"Did you think you could take this opportunity to escape? Whether you are natives of this place or pirates, no one is getting away!"
Regardless of age or gender, whether they were fleeing or begging, her shooting didn't pause for a second.
In a sense, Celestial Dragons were the most "egalitarian" group on the sea—they equally treated everyone who wasn't a Celestial Dragon as sub-human.
Even if they hid behind cover, her bullets, enhanced by Haki, pierced straight through. Ordinary rocks and trees couldn't stop her shots at all.
But just as she was about to continue firing, a hand crushed the barrel of her gun flat.
"When did he...?!"
She wasn't shocked that someone had crushed her gun barrel, but that she hadn't sensed the enemy's approach at all.
However, there was a vast difference between members of the God's Knights and ordinary Celestial Dragons. Those useless Celestial Dragons would only scream and demand protection from others.
Even at times like this, they would fail to grasp the situation and try to threaten opponents with their status.
But the members of the God's Knights possessed ample combat experience. Even if they clearly sensed the enemy's power, they wouldn't be paralyzed by fear.
Seeing the opponent still gripping the barrel, she pulled the trigger several times in succession, even though the barrel was severely deformed.
As the trigger was pulled, bullets were blocked inside the chamber. When the pressure built to a critical point, the entire gun exploded in her hands like a grenade.
"The infamous Vampire, actually saving a few strangers he doesn't even know."
"It's not your place to dictate what I do."
"Hmph. It doesn't matter. Those people can't escape this island anyway. But taking your head sounds like a decent prize.
Someone like you is qualified to become a collectible for the Manmeyer Family."
The Manmeyer Family was one of the Celestial Dragon houses. After Nereus arrived, the Manmeyer Celestial Dragon shifted her target.
As for why Nereus stopped her, there wasn't much reason. Although he never showed mercy to enemies, he wasn't cold enough to ignore people he could save with a casual wave of his hand within his range.
The Devil Fruits on the island were indeed what Nereus wanted, but he wasn't in a rush. Those fruits weren't going anywhere. Without knowing the specific type, few people would eat them directly.
As long as the fruits were still on the island—even if they fell into someone else's hands—Nereus was confident he could take them back. Besides, the God's Knights could still hold out for a while longer.
"Collectible? Perfect. You'll make a fine test subject yourself."
The gun exploding in her hand had no effect on either of them. Both their hands had already fully regenerated.
Based on their different sources of "immortality," sometimes defense was even a redundant action.
The Manmeyer Celestial Dragon raised her leg to kick Nereus. Nereus concentrated Armament Haki on his palm and reached out to crush her head.
Splat...
The gap in strength was obvious. Her head was crushed directly by Nereus. Blood splattered everywhere, and his hand was stained with unidentifiable matter.
Meanwhile, her kick failed to penetrate Nereus's Armament Haki armor.
Losing a head wasn't a major issue for a member of the God's Knights. The headless corpse quickly retreated to create distance, and the head Nereus had crushed began to regenerate.
However, just as her eyes finished regenerating, the Manmeyer Celestial Dragon realized she hadn't managed to create distance at all. Nereus was still right in front of her, repeating the exact same motion.
"Armament Haki attack to the head: regeneration took three seconds. Now, what will happen if I use Conqueror's Haki?"
This was Nereus's thought at the moment. As an enemy of the World Government, sooner or later he would have to deal with the God's Knights. But these official members had been granted immortality similar to the Five Elders.
Therefore, Nereus wanted to test how to kill them in the truest sense of the word.