Wano Country, Flower Capital.
"How is it? Any sign of him?"
Orrick sat in the seat of honor with a dark and stormy look on his face, while a line of subordinates knelt respectfully below.
At his question, one of the men lowered his head, shaking it.
"My apologies, Lord Orrick. We tracked the trail for dozens of li, but there's still no sign of Lord Lirisk."
Devil Fruits were not omnipotent, otherwise, why would Vivre Cards even exist?
The men before him each had their own tricks when it came to pursuit. Yet against an enemy skilled in counter-tracking, or worse, one who already knew the extent of their abilities, they could accomplish little. Tracking abilities like the Sniff-Sniff Fruit or the Glare-Glare Fruit were rare, after all.
Ka-cha!
Orrick's palm clenched unconsciously, crushing the armrest of his chair into splinters. His subordinates froze under his suffocating gaze, but he only pinched the bridge of his nose and waved them away.
"Keep searching. Don't return until you find him!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Relieved to be dismissed, they scrambled to their feet and hurried out of the room.
The scene was just in time for Kurozumi Orochi to walk in. Without a word, he sat himself down and gulped noisily from a cup of water.
"Looks like you came up empty as well, didn't you?"
"Ah, indeed," Orochi admitted with a weary sigh. "We did capture some resistance fighters by following the trail, but none of them had the slightest idea what happened in Oden City."
He licked his parched lips, unease flickering in his eyes.
"To be honest, I'm starting to suspect no one even fought him at all."
"But the signs of battle clearly show two combatants, do they not?" Orrick replied calmly, voice carrying an edge.
"Most likely, yes! But with that level of destruction, what else could anyone deduce?" Orochi shot back, then leaned forward. "Orrick, answer me honestly, could Lirisk have betrayed us?"
Lirisk was gone. The Vivre Card had been taken.
The rebels knew nothing.
It all pointed toward one unsettling conclusion.
Just as Rowen had once deduced, there was no one in the rebel forces strong enough, or desperate enough, to force Lirisk into a last-stand gamble.
He left with the Vivre Card. The answer…
It was troubling.
"If that's the case," Orochi pressed, his voice low, "then we'll need to reconsider everything. He knows… far too much."
Bang!
Orrick's body erupted with a crushing wave of Haoshoku Haki, filling the chamber with suffocating weight. His eyes gleamed with frost as he growled: "Are you suggesting he's turned traitor?"
"That's right!" Orochi didn't flinch, meeting his gaze head-on. "At this point, it's the only possibility left, isn't it?"
The air turned heavy. Silence, oppressive and stifling, hung between them, pressing down like a stormcloud about to burst.
Orrick's face remained like ice, but deep inside, he found himself with no words to refute.
Knock knock knock!
The tension shattered as the door reverberated.
Both men pulled back their auras simultaneously.
"Enter," Orrick commanded evenly.
A messenger stepped inside, bowing low.
"Lord Orrick, General Kurozumi, the frontlines have sent urgent reports. The Sea Queen has gathered hordes of Sea Kings to assault the Red Line. It appears she intends to smash through it."
"She's finally made her move!" Orrick muttered, though his brows furrowed. "Break through the Red Line? What does that even mean?"
"We don't know for certain," the soldier admitted nervously. "But over a hundred Sea Kings with hardened exoskeletons are taking turns striking at the massive crater left during the last war, when the 'World Destroyer' fired upon the Red Line. Already… they've carved through nearly a quarter of its depth."
"What?!"
Orrick and Orochi locked eyes, both reflecting the same look of raw disbelief.
"As expected of the Sea Queen," Orochi murmured with genuine awe. "To even conceive of something so outrageous, let alone attempt it… only she could."
The Red Line's hardness was legendary. Tunneling through it was no less difficult than storming the Holy Land itself.
Had it not been for such a monstrous gathering of Sea Kings, the thought would have been laughable.
"But what's the point of doing all this?"
He frowned, clearly puzzled.
"Sea Kings are everywhere, in the First Half, in the New World, and whole swarms of them infest the Calm Belt. Digging through the Red Line… what's the purpose?"
"Who knows?" Orrick gave a thin smile. "Maybe she just wants to give the old men in the Holy Land an afternoon they'll never forget."
He shook his head, but then his pupils suddenly contracted.
"Wait!"
"Repeat what you just said!"
"Ah… yes, sir!"
The messenger, startled, immediately replied, "We just received reports from the frontlines, Sea Kings have gathered and are ramming the Red Line, seemingly attempting to break through…"
"Not that part. The last thing you said!"
Kurozumi Orochi tilted his head, bewildered at Orrick's sudden intensity.
"Yes, sir!" The messenger swallowed and continued, "Over a hundred Sea Kings with hardened exoskeletons are taking turns striking at the massive crater left behind by the World Destroyer's bombardment. They've already dug through nearly a quarter of the Red Line."
"That's it!"
Orrick shot to his feet, face alight with excitement.
"I nearly forgot… that thing still exists."
"Her hatred for the Government truly isn't ordinary, she's trying to awaken it."
"W–what… what is it?"
Kurozumi Orochi felt like an utter fool. But what could he do? Compared to Kaido or the Celestial Dragon defector before him, he knew far less of these buried secrets.
Orrick sneered, baring his teeth.
"A beast so savage, so utterly monstrous, that its very existence would plunge the world into panic. The Government erased it from all records. You wouldn't recognize it by name… but put another way, you'll understand."
He drew out each word, watching Orochi lean in with rapt, trembling attention.
"Admiral Soryu was promoted directly to Rear Admiral after slaying one of its kind."
"The Hellisland Crab!!"
Orochi knew Rowen's past well, he couldn't help blurting the name out instantly.
But then…
"What's the point? The last Hellisland Crab ravaged the West Blue, and in the end, the Marines still crushed it. They even turned the island into a boot camp training ground!"
He frowned, still confused.
"Yes, those crabs are terrifying, immense strength, unbreakable shells, muscles like coiled steel springs. But compared to the colossal Sea Kings recorded in the annals of history, they fall short. What could it possibly achieve?"
"Heh. Exactly. That's what the Government wants you to believe."
Orrick's grin turned cold under Orochi's anxious stare.
"They want you to think it poses no threat at all. But what they don't want you to know… is that the one crushed in West Blue was only a juvenile. Barely a year old."
Gulp!
Orochi's knees almost gave out. His voice trembled.
"So… then…?"
"So what do you think? Did it spring out of a rock, or was it born from a mother?"
Orrick's lips curled higher. "In truth, every three centuries, a Hellisland Crab emerges. It's the birthing cycle of the mother. This has been happening, unchanged, since the dawn of time."
The difference between the juvenile and the mother's scale was obvious, too obvious. Using the defeated Hellisland Crab as reference, Orochi inhaled sharply, blood running cold.
"Where… where is it now?!"
A monster of such horror, yes, that would be reason enough for the Government to erase it from the world's memory.
"No one knows for certain. But countless signs suggest it lies in the middle of the Grand Line. Some of its limbs reach into the West Blue, others extend all the way toward the edges of the East Blue. A beast so vast it spans the seas themselves."
"And at its very center…"
Bang!
Orochi shot to his feet, eyes wide with terror. "The Red Line!!"
"Exactly!"
Orrick drew a deep breath, exhilarated.
"There's no time to waste on Lirisk anymore. If the Hellisland Crab's mother awakens, the World Government will be thrown into utter chaos."
"This is the opportunity the heavens themselves have given us!"
(End of This Chapter)
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