The world twisted.
Marcus blinked, trying to orient himself, but something was wrong.
Wait. What just happened?
Did I just get transported somewhere else? Again?
He tried to look around, but his body wouldn't respond. He couldn't move his head, lift his arms, or even twitch a finger.
What is going on?
Then he moved.
But it wasn't him doing the moving. It was like being a passenger in someone else's body, watching through their eyes but having zero control over what they did.
"How is it?" The voice came from his own mouth. It was a woman's voice.
Before Marcus could process what was happening, a man burst through the door.
"Your Majesty!" The man was breathing hard, clearly agitated. "They're demanding we hand over one hundred thousand of our young men and women within ten days. If we refuse, they say they'll destroy the kingdom."
"Absolutely not!"
Marcus could feel her rage building inside. The emotion was so intense it was almost suffocating.
"But Your Majesty, our army is nothing compared to them. We have ten thousand soldiers, and they crushed us with a single person. Just one! If we go to war, they'll wipe us out completely. If we simply hand over the hundred thousand, we could even join them."
The man's face showed a hint of excitement.
The Queen noticed this. "Al, what is that expression? Are you suggesting we betray our own people?"
The man named Al hesitated, then sighed deeply. "Your Majesty, we don't have a choice. They're too powerful. If we agree to join them, we can obtain this technology they speak of. And it's only a hundred thousand people, they won't be killed, just sent to work in the mines. It's a fair trade for survival."
Marcus felt the Queen's fury intensify, but Al kept talking.
"We have ten million citizens in this kingdom. What are a hundred thousand lives compared to ten million? As the ruler of this nation, shouldn't you think about the majority?"
"Look at it from another perspective, Your Majesty. If we gain access to their technology, we'll be better equipped to protect our people in the future. A temporary compromise now gives us hope for tomorrow. We just need to endure for a little while..."
"Have you forgotten the promise we made?"
That single sentence shut Al up completely. His expression went blank, then cold.
"I'm only facing reality," he said flatly. "If you can't make this decision, then perhaps it's time for you to abdicate, Your Majesty."
The scene cut off abruptly.
When Marcus' vision cleared again, the Queen was staring down at her hands. The Shichiseiken was gripped in her fingers, its blade stained with fresh blood.
The sword clattered to the floor.
A wave of nausea surged up from her stomach, so intense that Marcus felt like he was about to vomit even though this wasn't really his body.
"Why... why did it come to this?"
The vision jumped forward again.
This time, the Queen stood in a street, the Shichiseiken still in her hand. All around her, people stared with anger. Someone threw a rock. Then another. Soon, the air filled with curses and stones raining down on her.
Then the killing started.
Blood sprayed across her vision as the sword moved. Screams and wails echoed in her ears, hundreds of voices crying out in agony.
---
The Queen jolted awake in her bed, gasping for air.
Marcus felt her looking down at her hands. They were covered in blood, so much blood that it had turned them almost black. Her stomach convulsed, and that terrible nauseous feeling returned.
"Al... I did what you said. But was it really the right choice?"
The scene shifted once more.
A figure completely encased in mechanical armor stood before the throne. Through the armor's visor, Marcus could barely make out human features.
"You're asking us to provide another five hundred thousand people? Even children? That's impossible! Over the years, you've already taken more than a million from our kingdom!"
"We're not asking." The man's voice was cold. "Five hundred thousand. That's not a request, it's a notification. If you fail to deliver, annihilation is the only thing waiting for you."
He turned and left without another word.
The Queen stood alone in the empty throne room, staring at nothing.
A million people. All young and able-bodied. Even for a kingdom of ten million, losing a million of the workforce was catastrophic. The fields lay untilled. The workshops stood empty. People were already starving in the streets.
And now they wanted five hundred thousand more.
The same impossible choice: five hundred thousand lives, or the remaining nine million. Which was more important?
But giving in once meant endless compromises.
The rage built and built and built.
In her dreams, she swung the Shichiseiken again and again, cutting down countless people. With so many able-bodied citizens gone, the Kingdom of Asuka began to collapse in on itself.
The problems multiplied without end. Fields turned to wasteland without farmers to work them. Thousands starved to death in their homes, too weak to even cry for help.
Then, winter came. More people froze or starved in the streets, dying so quietly that nobody even noticed until spring came and revealed the corpses.
In just one year, the once-mighty kingdom of ten million had dwindled to only six million. And the numbers kept dropping.
---
In the grand ballroom, the nobles and ministers laughed and danced, enjoying all the conveniences that the advanced technology provided. Some of them even had access to life-extension treatments, ensuring they'd live comfortably for decades while their people suffered.
The Queen sat on her throne, looking dignified and splendid in her royal garments.
Outside the palace walls, the common people wore rags barely sufficient to cover their bodies. Their faces were hollow.
"Mother, I'm hungry."
"Shh. If you fall asleep, you won't feel it anymore."
"Okay..."
The Queen walked through her own kingdom, wrapped in a cloak that hid her identity. Everywhere she looked, she saw widows clinging to each other.
In the fields, an old woman stood hunched over, watching the sunset. Tears rolled down her face.
By a well, a thin young wife struggled to turn the pulley. She was so malnourished that she didn't even notice when the bucket slipped from her grip and fell back down the well shaft.
She sighed helplessly, bit her lip, and kept turning the crank.
Near a mouse hole, an eight-year-old boy with a missing tooth crouched on the ground, watching intently.
Squeak squeak.
With a sudden pounce, he caught the mouse that darted out.
His dusty face lit up with joy. "We have meat! Mom, we can eat meat today!"
"Good boy."
"Brother, you're amazing!"
"Mom, when's Father coming home?"
That's when the soldiers kicked down the door. They grabbed the eight-year-old boy, dragging him toward the street.
The frail woman fought desperately, throwing herself at the soldiers, but one of them kicked her hard in the stomach. She coughed up blood but still clung to his pant leg with her last strength. "He's... he's just a child... please..."
The soldier answered with another kick that knocked her unconscious.
Then the soldiers set fire to the house.
The flames consumed the entire village, spreading from building to building until nothing remained but ash and smoke.
Only one survivor, a toddler thrown down a well by his mother in a desperate attempt to save him. But the world showed no mercy even to that child. He was beaten to death by palace guards in a narrow alley months later, caught stealing scraps of food.
Inside the royal palace, the nobles indulged in every luxury that technology could provide.
On her throne, the Queen raised a crystal goblet filled with wine. The liquid swirled and caught the light.
It looked like blood.
---
"The count of five hundred thousand checks out. This year, you'll need to provide one million."
The man in the mechanical suit spoke flatly.
"One million?! Do you have any idea what it took to get those five hundred thousand—"
"I don't care. This isn't a negotiation. You accept, or you face the consequences."
The Queen's protest died in her throat.
"Here's the technology you requested last time."
He tossed a rolled blueprint onto the throne room floor and turned to leave without another word.
The Queen collapsed onto her throne, staring at the discarded papers. Her hands were shaking.
One million people. Or five million.
She clenched her fists so hard her nails drew blood from her palms. Then, slowly, her hands loosened.
"At least... it'll be enough so the ones who remain can eat."
But when she unrolled the blueprint and saw what technology they'd demanded in exchange for those lives, her blood ran cold.
Dance Powder.
A green powder that could make rain fall from clear skies. But the capital region of the Asuka Kingdom already had mild weather and abundant rainfall. The nobles in the palace were fat and well-fed. They had no need for this.
Which meant...
The throne room stood empty.
---
Far from the capital, in a distant town, the Queen walked the streets wrapped in a concealing cloak.
Desolation. Emptiness. The town was dying.
From inside the houses, countless hollow eyes watched her pass. People too weak to stand.
A rat poked its head out from between two buildings, sniffing the air.
A skeletal figure lunged from the shadows and caught it. For a moment, joy flickered across his starved face. Then more people emerged from the houses. A dozen gaunt figures, moving like zombies, their eyes fixed on the rat.
No... fixed on the cloaked stranger standing in the middle of the street.
Blood soaked into the dusty ground. The town disappeared from existence.
Purple flames flickered along the Shichiseiken.
---
In another town, a group of emaciated women argued bitterly in the street.
"My child has more meat on him. Your two are thin as sticks, you're getting the better deal here!"
They were trading. Their own children. To eat.
Purple-black flames consumed the town, burning everything to ash.
Beneath her cloak, the Queen's expression was empty. She gripped the Shichiseiken as violet fire danced along its edge.
The sword itself was changing, warping under the weight of all that rage and despair.
---
"Next time, you'll need to provide two million."
"No... that's impossible. We can't give you any more. There's nothing left."
"I'm not negotiating," the man said, looking down at her like she was an insect. "Of course, as the Queen of this dying kingdom, if you chose to become my personal slave, I wouldn't mind reducing the quota by five hundred thousand. Well? Want to think it over?"
Before she could respond, the pampered nobles of the royal court answered for her.
"Deal! She's useless anyway."
The vision cut out.
When Marcus' sight returned, the palace throne room was painted in blood.
Severed limbs and bodies lay scattered across the floors. The tapestries were soaked crimson. The beautiful murals were splattered with gore.
The man who'd looked down on the Queen now knelt before her throne, begging for mercy.
Purple flames were his only answer.
Screams echoed from within the fire, not just the man's screams, but the wails of all the dead citizens whose lives had been traded away. Their voices merged into one endless howl of agony.
Blood.
Screaming.
Pain.
Despair.
Hatred.
All of it fused together into a single burning emotion.
Kill.
Only killing could end this. Only death could balance the scales.
Shrill, manic laughter rang through the palace halls.
That night, the Queen of Asuka vanished, along with every noble who'd lived in luxury while their people starved.
When the Queen appeared again, she was somewhere else.
A city of towering buildings and people dressed in fine clothing, walking streets paved with smooth stone. A civilization that had everything while her kingdom had nothing.
"Kill them all."
Soldiers surrounded her almost immediately. Explosions rocked the streets.
The vision jumped forward.
A different country. The slaughter began anew.
Nobody could stop the Queen now. She was beyond reason, and mercy.
"Kill them."
The nation's capital burned under violet flames.
This time, a massive robot emerged to confront her, six meter tall, bristling with weapons.
---
The vision faded.
But that overwhelming hatred didn't disappear. That endless resentment remained. The Shichiseiken radiated dark energy that seemed to corrupt the very air around it.
"Kill! Kill every last invader!"
The words came from Marcus' own mouth.
Then, suddenly, something pressed against his lips. Liquid poured into his mouth, and he drank instinctively.
Milk.
The violet light consuming his vision faded completely.
He blinked, disoriented, and looked down at the Shichiseiken still gripped in his hand. The sword pulsed with a blood-red glow.
He looked around.
Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Alvida, Bon Kurei, they were all there, and they all looked like they'd been through hell. Cuts, bruises, burns. Even their clothes were shredded.
"You're finally awake," Alvida said, collapsing to sit on the ground. She looked exhausted.
Marcus turned his head and saw Kira behind him, releasing her grip from around his neck. She must have been the one who'd fed him the milk.
"Looks like I caused you guys a lot of trouble."
The Straw Hats exchanged glances, then sighed in relief. One by one, they sank to the ground, too tired to even stay on their feet.
The only one still standing normally was Goliath. As an iron golem, he was hard to damage. As long as he had enough iron to work with, he could repair himself almost instantly.
"What happened?" Marcus asked.
Goliath didn't hide anything. He explained everything that had occurred while he was possessed.
Everyone had touched the image in the underground chamber and been pulled into a vision of the past, watching the Kingdom of Asuka's slow collapse from an outside perspective. But their visions had cut off early, right around the point where the Queen had been forced to trade away citizens for technology.
When they'd come back to reality, they'd found Marcus surrounded by a swirling aura of dark energy.
At first, he hadn't gone berserk. He'd simply picked up the Shichiseiken and walked out of the chamber in silence.
Then the cursed energy had exploded outward, completely engulfing him.
After that came the indiscriminate attacks.
The Straw Hats had reacted quickly, evacuating the nearby villagers and trying to subdue Marcus without killing him. The problem was that nobody had brought any milk to the island, so Kira had to fly back to the ship, grab some, and return as fast as possible.
During that time, the crew had to hold Marcus off.
And possessed-Marcus was terrifying.
Every swing of the sword sent out powerful flying slashes that could cut through stone. Weaker members like Chopper, Usopp, and Nami couldn't even get close, they'd be cut down before they got within five meters.
Even when someone managed to land a solid hit, it was useless. Marcus' natural regeneration combined with the cursed energy's healing meant that wounds closed almost instantly. Zoro had slashed open his chest, and the wound had sealed itself within seconds.
Because of that healing, Marcus had fought without any defense, attacking relentlessly. The Straw Hats had been forced entirely onto the defensive, unable to fight back seriously without risking killing him.
If Kira had taken any longer, fighters like Bon Kurei and Sanji probably would've been overwhelmed.
Worse, the cursed energy radiating from Marcus' body burned anyone who got too close. And touching it directly could make you fall under its influence.
The guys who'd previously been controlled by the Shichiseiken's power were seized by it once more the moment Marcus drew the blade, emerging from wherever they'd collapsed to fight alongside him.
That included Saga.
The Straw Hats had been thrown into complete chaos.