"We're done here," Argentus told the boat, patting her rail affectionately.
He moved to the anchor and began pulling it up. The heavy iron came up coated in wet sand and seaweed, and for a moment Sylvia bobbed aimlessly in the violent waters, vulnerable.
But Argentus was already moving to grab the tiller while checking his compass mounted near the wheel.
He shoved the tiller hard to starboard, putting his back into the motion.
Sylvia's bow swung around smoothly, pointing due South.
The wind—which had been blowing from the east—caught the sail at a perfect angle, snapping the canvas taut.
The sloop surged forward immediately, cutting a clean white wake through the dark water, leaving the singing island and its mysteries behind.
Days Later
For three days, Sylvia made excellent progress south.
The wind was favorable. The weather held. Argentus spent his time alternating between maintaining the boat, training with Regulus to get used to its weight and balance, and occasionally catching fish for meals.
It was peaceful. Almost meditative.
Which is why he noticed immediately when something changed.
The wind died.
Not gradually. It simply vanished.
The sails of Sylvia went slack instantly, hanging like dead weight from the mast. The canvas that had been billowing and full moments before now drooped limply, completely motionless.
Argentus frowned, looking at the water around his boat.
There were no ripples. No currents.
Just perfectly flat, glassy water stretching to the horizon in every direction—like sailing on a mirror, or perhaps on solid ice.
The silence was unnatural. The kind of quiet that made you want to whisper because normal voices felt too loud.
He didn't know it yet—had never heard the term before—but he had just entered the edge of the Calm Belt.
The nest of the Sea Kings. The dead zone for sailing ships. The barrier that separated the world's oceans from the Grand Line.
But Sylvia wasn't the only vessel trapped in this supernatural stillness.
Argentus looked toward the southern horizon and saw silhouettes.
Two massive ships, drifting perhaps half a mile away.
As Sylvia coasted closer on residual momentum, the details became clearer.
One ship had white sails emblazoned with the blue seagull emblem of the World Government. A Marine warship.
The other flew a ragged black flag bearing a white skull and crossbones. A pirate galleon.
They were drifting side-by-side, so close their hulls were almost touching. Heavy gangplanks had been extended between them, creating a bridge.
And strangest of all—there was no cannon fire. No shouting.
Just a comfortable, eerie silence punctuated by occasional laughter and the clink of glasses.
"That's new," Argentus muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing. "Since when do cats and dogs have tea parties?"
He secured Sylvia's rudder with a rope—not that the boat was going anywhere without wind, but better safe than sorry—and stripped off his coat, leaving it folded neatly on the cabin roof.
He strapped Regulus tightly to his back using multiple layers of oilcloth bindings, ensuring the legendary weapon was completely protected and wouldn't shift during swimming.
Then he slipped silently over the rail with barely a sound.
Splosh.
He entered the water like a ghost, creating almost no splash. The surface tension barely broke.
He swam deep immediately, passing well under the keels of both massive ships.
He surfaced in the shadow of the Marine warship's rudder, hidden from view. Using the barnacles and iron fittings as handholds, he began to climb with practiced silence.
His wet boots found purchase on wooden planks without making a sound. His breathing was controlled and shallow.
He reached the deck railing and carefully peered over the edge.
The sight that greeted him made his lip curl in immediate disgust.
On the main deck of the Marine ship, several tables had been set up for a party.
Marines and pirates were mingling. Not fighting. Not even maintaining professional distance.
They were drinking together. Laughing together.
Crates clearly marked with Marine insignia—rifles, ammunition, gunpowder—were being openly exchanged for chests overflowing with stolen gold coins and jewelry that could only have come from pirate raids.
In the center of it all, a fat Marine officer with a greasy mustache and the rank insignia of a Colonel was laughing uproariously, clinking a wine glass with a scarred pirate captain wearing a tricorn hat.
"A pleasure doing business, Captain Vane," the Marine chortled, his face flushed with wine. "The Headquarters will think these weapons were lost at sea during a storm. Such a shame, really. Bureaucratic error, you understand."
"A real tragedy," the pirate captain—Vane—grinned, flashing several gold teeth. "But you know how dangerous the East Blue can be. Lucky for us, we just happened to find them floating out here."
Both men erupted in laughter at their own joke.
Argentus crouched low behind a stack of supply crates, water still dripping silently from his nose onto the wooden deck.
His Observation Haki was expanded just enough to track positions without being obvious—he didn't want to alert anyone capable of sensing it.
"Smart move picking this spot for the exchange, Colonel Nezumi," Vane chuckled, swirling wine in his glass. "No patrol ships dare come this close to the edge of the Calm Belt. They're all too terrified of drifting off course and getting stranded."
The Marine—Nezumi—smirked, twisting his ridiculous mouse-like whiskers between two fingers.
"Exactly," Nezumi agreed. "The Calm Belt makes the perfect shield for our little... arrangement. Dead water tells no tales, and no wind means no witnesses sailing by. As long as we stay just on the edge where we can still escape if needed..."
He made a dismissive gesture.
"We're completely safe."
Argentus frowned in the shadows.
Calm Belt?
The name was unfamiliar. He'd never heard it mentioned anywhere.
His curiosity was piqued.
And when Argentus wanted answers, he had a very direct method of getting them.
"So," Argentus said clearly, his voice ringing out in the quiet air and cutting through the revelry like a knife. "What type of shield is it?"
He vaulted smoothly over the crates, landing casually in the center of the deck right between the two captains.
Every head turned to stare at him in shock.
He slowly reached over his shoulder and began unwrapping the oilcloth bindings, revealing the jet-black, gold-inlaid shaft of Regulus inch by inch.
"I'm not from around here," Argentus said, a feral grin spreading across his face.
"Why don't you explain what this 'Calm Belt' is? Every detail."
He spun Regulus once, the black blade humming ominously.
"And be quick about it. I have a schedule to keep."
The deck erupted into chaos.
"Who is this brat?!" Colonel Nezumi shrieked, his voice cracking. He dropped his wine glass, which shattered on the deck. "Marines! Seize him immediately!"
"All hands!" Captain Vane roared, his face purpling with rage. "Cut him down! Don't let him escape!"
Thirty men a mixed mob of uniformed Marine soldiers and ragged pirate charged at once from all directions.
Argentus didn't move his feet.
He simply spun Regulus.
HUMMM.
Argentus swept it in a wide, horizontal arc at waist height, putting just a fraction of his strength into the blow.
The sheer weight of the legendary weapon, combined with his monstrous physical power, turned the spear into an unstoppable battering ram.
CRACK. CRUNCH. SNAP.
Five swords shattered on impact with Regulus's shaft, the steel breaking like cheap tin. Three rifles were bent completely in half, folding into useless U-shapes. Two clubs exploded into splinters.
The men holding these weapons were launched backward as their feet leaving the deck entirely, bodies ragdolling through the air before crashing into the railing or tumbling directly over the side into the silent sea.
Argentus stepped forward calmly through the carnage.
He reversed his grip on Regulus and drove the butt of the spear forward slamming it into Captain Vane's gut.
WHAM.
All the air left the pirate's lungs in an explosive wheeze. His eyes bulged. He doubled over completely, his face turning purple.
In the same fluid motion, Argentus brought the black blade down in a controlled arc, stopping it just millimeters from Colonel Nezumi's nose.
So close the Marine could see his own terrified reflection in the perfectly smooth metal.
Nezumi froze completely. He went cross-eyed trying to focus on the blade. Sweat began pouring down his face in rivers.
"I asked a question," Argentus said, his voice perfectly calm but carrying an undercurrent that promised terrible violence. "What is the Calm Belt? And what makes it dangerous?"
"I-It's the dead zone!" Nezumi stammered immediately, words tumbling out in a rush. "It sandwiches the Grand Line on both sides! There's no wind, it never blows here! No currents! Sailing ships can't move at all once they drift in!"
His voice was climbing in pitch with panic.
"Ships get stuck and die of thirst! It's a graveyard!"
"Is that it?" Argentus raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious. "Just no wind? That sounds peaceful, not dangerous. Why would experienced sailors be 'terrified' of calm water?"
"You idiot!" Captain Vane wheezed from the floor where he was still clutching his stomach. "It's not the wind that kills you!"
He struggled to his knees, gasping.
"It's the nest! The Calm Belt is the breeding ground for the Sea Kings! The monsters that live here... they aren't like the small fry you find in the East Blue!"
"They eat battleships for snacks! Creatures so big they can swallow islands! That's why no one crosses the Calm Belt—it's suicide!"
"No wind," Argentus mused, looking out at the perfectly glassy, black water surrounding the ships. "And giant monsters that eat battleships."
"Sounds like a bad neighborhood."
He turned his attention back to the trembling men at his feet, pressing the flat of Regulus gently against Colonel Nezumi's cheek.
"So," Argentus said, his voice dropping to a conversational tone that was somehow more terrifying than shouting. "If drifting straight South gets me either stranded or eaten by monsters... how exactly do I get into the Grand Line?"
He leaned in slightly.
"And don't tell me I can't. I'm not interested in 'impossible.'"
"R-Reverse Mountain!" Nezumi squealed immediately, his eyes darting between the spear and the silent ocean. "You have to go to the Red Line! The currents don't flow into the Grand Line directly!"
"They merge! All four Blues—East, West, North, South—the currents from all of them meet at Reverse Mountain and flow up it!"
Argentus blinked, certain he'd misheard.
"I'm sorry... did you say the water flows up the mountain?"
"Yes!" Captain Vane chimed in desperately, eager to be helpful and not get stabbed. "There's a canal! A channel cut into the Red Line continent itself! The currents from all four Blues converge there and shoot straight up to the peak!"
He gestured wildly with his hands, trying to illustrate.
"It's the only way for a sailing ship to enter the Grand Line! You have to ride the current up the mountain and then drop down into Paradise on the other side!"
Argentus pulled Regulus back slowly, resting the shaft on his shoulder.
"A mountain where water flows uphill," he said, almost laughing. "Now that sounds like a ride worth taking."
RUMBLE.
The vibration started as a barely perceptible tremor in the deck.
Then it grew.
The wine glasses on the table began rattling. Then shaking violently. Then shattering, crystal exploding into fragments.
The water between the two ships began to move for the first time since Argentus had entered the Calm Belt—but not in a natural way.
"We... we were too loud," Nezumi whispered, all color draining from his face until he looked like a corpse. "Oh god. We woke it up."
"Well, thanks for the lesson," Argentus said cheerfully, already backing toward the railing. "Very educational. I'd love to stay and chat, but it looks like your 'perfect shield' is waking up."
He reached the rail and prepared to dive.
SPLAAAAAASH!
The ocean exploded upward in a geyser of water that climbed fifty meters into the air.
Rising from the depths emerging from the darkness was a Sea King.
But not like the one Argentus had caught and eaten days ago.
Not even close.
This thing had scales the color of dried blood—dark crimson, almost black in the dim light. Its head was shaped like a hammerhead shark's, but twisted, mutated, with three horizontal rows of eyes running across the width of its skull.
It was massive.
Easily fifty times the size of the Sea King Argentus had killed for dinner. Maybe more. The creature's body kept rising, and rising, and rising, until it towered over both ships like a mountain growing from the sea.
Argentus, still standing on the Marine ship's railing, looked up.
And up.
And up.
The creature was so tall he had to crane his neck back until it hurt just to see where it ended.
"Okay," Argentus admitted, gripping Regulus tighter. "I'll concede the point. That one might be a bit too big to grill."
(END OF CHAPTER)
"Can't wait to see what happens in the next episode of Drag.....chapter of One Piece: World domination?
You don't have to wait! I have already released advance chapters on Patreon.
Link: patreon.com/xxSUPxx
Special thanks to all my EPIC members and,
MYTH: Dutchviking
MYTH: Robert Hernandez
MYTH: Philip Sl*tz
MYTH: Typgamer456