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"Shiryu, Did you finish what you needed to do? I can't wait any longer."
"My captain fought the World's Strongest Man, Whitebeard, to a draw... As his crewmate, I can't drag the crew down!" Shiryu nodded forcefully. He had already killed the man he had dreamed of killing.
"In that case, come with me to the New World. A place like that is where you belong." After speaking, Arthur finally turned his head and cast a faint glance over the whole of Eternal Hell.
The words Shiryu had so casually revealed sent a shockwave of horror through the pirates of Eternal Hell.
"WHAT?? ARTHUR FOUGHT WHITEBEARD TO A DRAW?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??" Byrnndi World could hardly believe his own ears.
"The World's Strongest Man... Whitebeard??" They were all reeling from the shock, unable to process the information.
The World's Strongest Man—what did that even mean? Only those who had truly rampaged across the seas could understand the weight of that title.
Pirates, the World Government, the Marines, various nations, and countless hidden masters—the sea was overflowing with powerful individuals, so many that it was enough to make one's skin crawl.
For Whitebeard to be universally recognized as the strongest, and for Arthur to be able to fight him to a standstill... what did 'that' mean?
It meant that he already stood at the absolute pinnacle of the world.
Arthur was oblivious to their thoughts.
His indifferent gaze swept across Eternal Hell, his eyes meeting those of every prisoner, including the ones he had personally defeated—the Corrupt King Avalo Pizarro, the Crescent Moon Hunter Catarina Devon—and the one who had refused him, Byrnndi World.
He even glanced into the shadows, at the colossal behemoth nearly a thousand feet tall, its head shaped like a chestnut.
"Do you want to get out of here?" Arthur's voice was cold and detached. "If you want out, then submit to me. Follow me to the New World and fight for supremacy. If you don't want out... well, you're going to die here anyway, so let me be the one to end you."
"ARTHUR! HE JUST SAID... you fought Whitebeard, and it was a draw?? Is that true or not?? ANSWER ME!!" Byrnndi World's eyes were bloodshot as he roared in disbelief.
As a former powerhouse of the New World, World had clashed with Whitebeard countless times. The memory of that monster's unrivaled, terrifying power was still fresh in his mind.
He had barely escaped with his life from their numerous encounters. If Whitebeard hadn't been too lazy to kill him, Byrnndi World would have been feeding the fish at the bottom of the sea long ago.
Now, hearing what Shiryu said, he simply couldn't believe it. Beyond the shock, his mind was blank.
"World... and what gives you the right to demand answers from me? Hm?" Arthur tilted his head back, looking down on him with utter pride.
If Byrnndi World had accepted his offer back then, he wouldn't have fallen to such a pathetic state.
The fame of the "World Destroyer" might have resounded across the seas once more.
"ANSWER ME!!" World's body trembled, his spirit seemingly crushed.
"Captain Arthur killed one of Whitebeard's sons, then fought Whitebeard head-on at Alasolan Island in the New World. It was broadcast live to the entire world. Almost everyone saw it with their own eyes. It's impossible for it to be fake!" Seeing that Arthur couldn't be bothered to answer, but seemed intent on recruiting, Shiryu took over the conversation.
"Byrnndi World, for a man as powerful as the Captain to ask for your submission... there is no shame in it."
Even with Shiryu's confirmation, World still found it hard to believe. He slumped to the ground, utterly dejected.
"Barararara... I rampaged across the seas for twenty years and never once dared to face Whitebeard's full might. The power of that monster is truly despair-inducing. And you, Arthur, so young—yet you fought him to a draw?"
He let out a miserable laugh, his words filled with a sense of loss, the feeling of a hero past his prime.
There was a time when World was at the height of his glory. As the World Destroyer, the power of his More-More Cannon struck fear into the hearts of countless pirates.
But, at his most glorious moment, he was betrayed by his own subordinates, instigated by the World Government's direct intelligence agency, and then frozen in the great underwater prison.
Now, to learn that this newcomer, Arthur, had fought his old rival—the man standing at the pinnacle of the world—to a draw...
The successive blows suddenly left him exhausted, body and soul...
"It seems that refusing you back then was the wrong decision. Now... submission doesn't seem so bad! Captain Arthur, I am Byrnndi World, user of the More-More Fruit. It is an honor to be in your service."
The tyrannical desire to destroy everything and the ambition to conquer the seas completely vanished from World's eyes. He willingly bowed his head to Arthur.
"Excellent."
Seeing a man like World bow his head to him, Arthur clapped his hands and laughed. He nodded, and the lightning at his fingertips quickly condensed into a razor-sharp lightning sword. With a flick of his finger, he shattered the chains that all the prisoners loathed.
"OI! ARTHUR, YOU BRAT! YOU WANT US TO SUBMIT?? ARE YOU JOKING?? WHEN WE WERE RULING THE SEAS, YOU WERE STILL SUCKLING ON YOUR MOTHER'S TEAT!"
"YOU WANT US TO SUBMIT... TO FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS?? YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST KILL US!"
"BASTARD, LET US OUT!!"
Seeing World freed, Eternal Hell erupted into chaos again. This damn Impel Down... it had imprisoned all their dreams and ambitions.
Not everyone on the sea was pragmatic enough to recognize the reality of their situation. Even as prisoners, they failed to understand their own place.
"Shiryu! Shot! Kill these worthless pieces of trash," Arthur sneered. He couldn't even be bothered to speak to such garbage.
"KILL!"
Hearing the words that excited him most, the suppressed desire for slaughter surged within Shiryu again. He licked his lips, a bloodthirsty smile spreading across his face.
"YOU DARE!!"
"DAMN KID, YOU THINK YOU CAN SCARE US??"
Angry roars echoed continuously. The prisoners who had been defeated by Arthur before, however, remained silent, watching quietly from the sidelines.
"Clang, clang!"
Shiryu picked up a piece of the broken chain and wrapped it around his hand. He then walked through the large hole Arthur had made in the cell door and into another prisoner's cell.
A slow smile spread across his face. Shiryu's method of killing was simple: He wrapped the iron chain around the necks of the clueless prisoners and tightened it bit by bit, letting them slowly suffocate to death, all while the smile on his face grew wider.
This bloodthirsty grin... it only appeared when he was killing. This was a man truly born to kill—very evil, yet very pure. His purpose was incredibly simple.
Compared to Shiryu, Vasco Shot's method of killing was a bit cruder. He simply walked over and snapped their heads off, one by one.
In an instant, of the dozen or so prisoners in Impel Down's sixth level, Eternal Hell, more than half were killed on the spot.
The only ones left alive were the Crescent Moon Hunter Catarina Devon, the Corrupt King Avalo Pizarro, the giant in the super-sized cell hiding in the shadows, over six hundred feet tall, and the short old man who used to taunt Arthur when he was first imprisoned.
"Hey, Naguri... you're almost fifty years old. Do you really want to stay in this hellhole for the rest of your life? Why not follow Arthur and march into the New World again!"
Perhaps because he, a member of the older generation, had joined the Thunder God Pirates, Byrnndi World couldn't quite let go of his pride.
He desperately needed to pull someone from his own era down with him.
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