Hades wore a faint smile as he flew after his brothers and sisters.
It lasted less than a minute.
The moment the sound of violent combat carried through the storm ahead, his expression snapped cold. Hades surged forward, wings hammering the air, panic creeping into his chest.
Then he saw it.
Quetzalcoatl, the Seven Star Demon Sword in its beast form, was locked in a brutal fight with a handsome man clad in ornate, gleaming knight armor.
"I knew the Navy was unreliable," the knight said with a lazy disdain. His gaze slid over the colossal flying serpent with open interest. "That sword of yours is impressive. Why not come with me instead?"
His lips curved.
"Word Spirit, Determination."
The moment the words left his mouth, Quetzalcoatl's body stiffened as if a command had been carved into reality itself. The enormous serpent froze midair and dropped straight down like dead weight, plummeting toward the sea.
"Uncle Seven!"
Kanna roared, instantly shifting into a massive frost dragon. She exhaled a lance of icy breath that crashed toward the knight like a storm of spears.
The knight did not even flinch.
"Little girl, you can hit me all you want," he said lightly. "You still won't interrupt my ability."
"Word Spirit Shield."
A huge transparent barrier formed in front of him in an instant. Kanna's frost breath smashed into it and exploded outward, ice shards and white mist scattering everywhere.
Below, Quetzalcoatl hit the water and reverted to its true form, the Seven Star Demon Sword.
A giant red dragon dove and caught it.
Osiris did not hesitate. He plunged the Seven Star Demon Sword into the seawater and stirred hard, washing it clean as if scrubbing away poison.
Sea water could shut down most Devil Fruit abilities, but this was a sword, not a fruit user. It could be soaked, rinsed, and dragged through the ocean without losing its nature.
Osiris yanked it out, then blasted it with scorching dragon breath, drying it in seconds.
Sure enough, the strange binding effect was gone.
The Seven Star Demon Sword spread its wings again, becoming a flying blade. Furious, Seven, the sword spirit within, lashed out.
Four towering arcs of sword energy tore through the air and slammed toward the knight.
If Brook were here, Seven thought savagely, this smug pretty boy would already be dead.
The knight raised a hand as if brushing away dust.
"Word Spirit, Break."
The sword energies shattered in midair, torn apart by a force that felt like language itself had become law.
Then the knight's fingers curled, aiming past the blade and toward a fleeing silhouette.
His target was the parrot.
"Word Spirit, Space Solidification."
Uju froze in the sky, locked in place without falling, as if the air around him had become iron.
"Die!"
Osiris surged forward, half dragon and burning with rage, the Seven Star Demon Sword in his grip as he slashed toward the knight.
"Just a little longer."
The knight did not retreat. He turned his head and spoke again, voice cool and sharp.
"Word Spirits, retreat."
A force struck Osiris like a hammer. His charge was forcibly pushed back, his body sliding away through the air as if reality itself rejected his advance.
Behind the knight, another man hovered, gentle looking, polite, and very nervous.
"Lord Michael," he said carefully, "I'm leaving first. You don't need to bring me into a fight. I'm only here for teleportation, and I'd rather not stay."
He was Shila, a Quasi God's Knight and the user of the Teleport Fruit, a specialist who existed to move people, not trade blows.
Michael's head turned with unnatural sharpness, his eyes narrowing like a hawk's.
"Are you worried I can't beat them," Michael asked, "or are you worried I can't protect you?"
"No, no!" Shila hurriedly waved his hands. "Don't misunderstand, Lord Michael. I'm only afraid I'll hold you back and ruin your performance."
Michael snorted.
"One minute," he said arrogantly. "That's all I need. Then we go back."
He turned to face the three youths again, as if they were nothing more than restless pets.
Kanna shifted into her half dragon form and dove in. Osiris came from the other side, sword flashing, trying to cut space free and rescue Uju.
Michael's mouth curled.
"You don't know your limits."
"Word Spirit, Infinite Vacuum."
A spherical area nearly fifty meters wide collapsed into emptiness around him. Air vanished.
In that instant, Kanna and Osiris lost lift. Their wings had nothing to push against. Worse, their lungs found nothing to breathe.
Their bodies dropped, choking, eyes widening.
Michael moved like a predator.
He seized one of them, then used pure inertia to slam them together. Bone and scale collided with a sickening impact. Blood sprayed across Kanna's face and Osiris' chest.
"Weak," Michael said, voice almost bored. "Far too weak."
"Word Spirit, Determination."
For half a minute, he battered them in the vacuum, striking like a cruel teacher correcting a lesson with violence. Then, finally, he released the vacuum and kicked both of them down toward the sea.
Shila, caught in the edge of it, nearly suffocated too. He trembled, eyes wide. Michael had not spared him a second thought.
"How dare you!"
A black blur ripped through the storm and slammed into Michael's back with terrifying speed.
Two devil horns crackled with red lightning.
The impact made Michael shriek.
At the same time, Shila's eyes widened in sudden terror. His body dropped, control breaking. And the space binding on Uju shattered. The parrot jerked free and shot away in panic.
Shila stared at the scene, expression blank, then vanished midair, teleporting away without a word. No one knew where he went.
Kanna and Osiris forced themselves upright at the last second, beating their wings hard enough to avoid crashing into the sea. They hovered, shaking, blood spilling from countless wounds, their half dragon forms soaked in red.
Mythical beasts healed fast.
Without that recovery, those blows would have ended the fight right there.
They flew to Hades' side.
Osiris stared at his brother's fists, at the red lightning crawling over the demon horns and knuckles.
His eyes widened.
"Big brother… you can coat Conqueror's Haki now!"
Hades barely heard him.
His gaze swept over Kanna's injuries, the blood on her face, the bruises marking her cheeks.
"Are you two alright," he asked, voice tight.
The fury inside him was no longer contained.
Osiris getting beaten was one thing. He was stubborn and built like a fortress.
But Kanna?
Never.
Kanna stared at Michael, expression grim.
"We're fine. But his Devil Fruit is terrifying. He's hard to deal with."
Michael's face twisted with rage, killing intent boiling out of him. He looked offended, not threatened, as if the act of being struck was an insult to his existence.
Hades' hands clenched. His breath came out sharp.
"Then today… we'll learn what a Knight of God really is."
He didn't order a retreat.
He didn't drag them away.
He chose revenge.
"Fine," Kanna said, voice cold with hatred. "We kill him before the Navy catches up."
Osiris' eyes narrowed, anger burning.
"We're not running like dogs."
Michael roared, ripping off his golden cloak and flinging it away like dead weight. His rapier slid from its sheath, the blade flashing under stormlight.
"Trash," he snarled. "You should've fled. Now I'll torture you to death!"
His voice rose, carrying a frightening authority.
"The Word Spirit awakens. God says, let there be wind."
A violent hurricane erupted around them, ripping at wings and scales, twisting their flight paths and making steady movement nearly impossible.
Michael laughed, eyes bright with fanatic pride.
"The Word Spirit awakens. God says, let there be thunder."
Three pillars of lightning speared down from the sky, striking toward the siblings. The storm threw them off balance, forcing them to coat their bodies in Armament to endure.
Michael's grin widened into madness.
"This is God's power. I am the strongest Knight of God chosen by Lord Imu!"
He lifted his rapier like a preacher raising a holy symbol.
"The Word Spirit awakens. God says, let there be fire."
Flames poured across the sky, swallowing the battlefield. The hurricane fed the fire, the fire rode the wind, and in an instant the entire airspace became a burning sea.
Hades, Kanna, and Osiris were engulfed.
-------------
"Sissy, die!"
A sharp, delicate shout cut through the storm.
Shana came diving in, standing on the back of a giant dragon. Beside her, a man raised a sniper cannon and fired a special round without hesitation.
The shell detonated right in front of Michael.
A swarm of seastone shrapnel burst outward, a nightmare cluster bomb for any Devil Fruit user.
For a split second, Shana thought she had won.
Then her heart dropped.
The seastone fragments stopped in midair, suspended in front of Michael as if an invisible wall had caught them. They did not touch him. They did not even graze him.
Shana did not waste a single breath.
She turned and ran.
Michael's eyes gleamed with amusement as the seastone fell harmlessly into the sea.
"Hah! You think I wouldn't guard against something that could hit Kukulkan?"
His gaze locked onto the fleeing girl.
"Word Spirit, Air Cannon."
A transparent shockwave screamed toward Shana's back.
The man beside her moved instantly, throwing himself in front of her to block it.
The blast hit him.
He exploded.
And in the next moment, he turned into a leaf that fluttered down like trash.
"Uncle Hiruba is gone! Father, save me!"
Shana's stamina was nearly empty, but she forced it out anyway. She summoned Brook again.
This leaf Brook managed to block the air cannon, barely holding the line.
Michael's face darkened the moment he saw that familiar figure.
"I get angry just looking at this face."
More than half the God's Knights had died because of Brook and Rocks. Michael had never forgotten it.
Rocks' Dark Dark Fruit had restrained his power, stopping him from getting the results he wanted. If he were facing Brook in a proper fight, he believed the Word Spirit Fruit would show its true terror.
But the real Brook?
Michael sneered inwardly.
He was probably bones on the moon by now.
Eight years with no food or water, no plants, no life. Even the Mori Mori Fruit user who bragged about surviving years without eating could not last in a dead world like that.
"So if I can't kill the real Brook," Michael laughed, voice full of malice, "then I'll kill the fake one and his children instead! Hahaha!"
"Word Spirit, Accelerate!"
His body blurred forward, closing the distance instantly. He leveled his rapier at leaf Brook and thrust with a loud snap of air.
"Don't hurt Daddy!"
Shana forced the dragon beneath her to roll. She and Brook dropped together toward the sea, and the dragon turned back into a special leaf mid fall.
Michael's grin widened.
"Run. Keep running."
He chased, eyes cruel and hungry.
At that moment, Hades, Kanna, and Osiris tore out of the flames, injured but alive, diving down like meteors to rescue their sister.
Inside Uju's castle, the rest of the Second Generation of Hell stopped fleeing. One after another, they emerged, faces grim.
Hera transformed into a phoenix of blue flames and shot toward Shana.
The others stood on the floating clouds created by Marco, launching attacks toward Michael, especially Jesus and Ben Beckman, whose shots carried seastone bullets.
Kuzan slammed his hands down, freezing the sea into a massive glacier.
Several of them could not fly. Jet boots would not save them against a monster like this. They needed ground.
Michael looked at the group gathering in front of him and laughed, delighted.
"Good. Then none of you escape."
His killing intent surged.
"I will never allow you to hurt my family!"
Hades dove first.
"Devil's Hellfire Fist!"
Dark flames wrapped his right fist. Red lightning crawled over it like living hate. He struck like a cannonball, rings of compressed air bursting in his wake.
"Frost Dragon Fang Strike!"
Kanna followed, fists turning into icy cones coated in Armament. She was bleeding, bruised, trembling with rage, and she still attacked without hesitation.
"Superconducting Wave Lightning Cannon!"
Osiris shifted into a sky dragon. Dazzling energy condensed in both mouths, then fired at Michael like twin lances.
"Roaring Flames!" Anubis' three headed hellhound unleashed a wave of fire.
"Corrosive Ghost Claw!" Moria's decaying aura surged, his hand forming into a ghostly claw that raked toward Michael.
Attacks flooded the sky.
Even Michael's smile tightened.
He could not take this head on.
"The Word Spirit awakens. God says, I am nothingness."
Michael grinned.
And every single attack passed straight through him.
Flames, ice, lightning, fists, blades, corruption, all of it pierced empty air as if his body had become a hole in the world.
The battlefield froze in disbelief.
What kind of Devil Fruit was this?
"You can't get away."
Michael slipped through the barrage and continued his chase toward Shana and leaf Brook. His hatred for Brook was absolute. Fake or not, he would crush that face.
"Yohoho!"
Leaf Brook retreated, trying to block him, but after only two exchanges, Michael's rapier flashed.
Leaf Brook's eyes went white.
He turned back into a leaf and drifted down.
"No!"
Shana's scream tore out of her throat. She glared at Michael through tears, her teeth clenched so hard they shook.
"You dare break my dad. My dad will beat you to death!"
Michael laughed, delighted by her despair.
"Do you want to know where Brook is imprisoned? Forget it. I'll just kill you instead. Go to hell and find him."
His eyes narrowed.
"He's already dead."
"My father won't die!"
Shana shouted it.
Hades shouted it.
Kanna and Osiris shouted it too.
Their voices overlapped like a vow, hatred burning so hot it shook their bodies.
Michael sneered, lifting his rapier.
"Pathetic little brats. Still drinking milk? Brook is dead. Dead, I'm telling you. Hahaha!"
He threw his head back and laughed into the storm, convinced he could erase all of them in one sweep.
Then his laughter faltered.
A chill crawled up his spine.
Shana's eyes widened. Tears still clung to her lashes, but her gaze snapped past Michael, staring behind him as if she'd seen a ghost.
"Dad… is it really you?"
Michael's smile twitched.
He felt it too.
That pressure.
That cold.
That presence.
He swallowed, neck stiffening. Slowly, painfully slowly, he turned his head, as if something had grabbed his bones and forced them to move.
A pair of dark blue eyes stared into his soul.
When?
How?
Why did this feel so familiar?
"What are you talking about?"
Michael tried to speak, voice suddenly hoarse. "Calling me daddy? I don't have any pirate bastards like you…"
His words died as the cold deepened.
Then a voice, low and shaking with fury, cut through everything.
"What did you just say?"
Brook's teeth were clenched so hard they ground. He stared at the man who turned his head in that unnatural arc, then at Kanna's bruised face, at Hades and Osiris burned and bleeding, at Shana sobbing like her heart had been torn out.
In that instant, Brook felt rage he had never known.
Not even in God Valley.
Not even against Imu.
An icy, ghostly claw seized Michael's face.
Endless Underworld energy and hell energy poured out, freezing him in an instant. The cold did not simply touch skin, it swallowed thought.
Michael's eyes widened in terror.
"Why… can't I move… my mind is frozen…"
His mouth moved, but no words came. Dark blue spread across his eyes. Cracks spiderwebbed across his face.
Then came a simple sound.
"Bang."
Michael's head shattered into ice chips and exploded.
At the same time, something inside Brook seemed to trip a switch. A dazzling red light burst from Michael's body, thick with destruction, as if a sealed calamity had been triggered.
Brook's expression did not change.
"Freeze."
A dark blue force smothered the red light instantly, crushing it back into silence. Michael's headless body was kicked apart, pieces scattering like broken dolls.
Brook exhaled a stream of white mist, eyes filled with murderous hatred.
"Still trying to trick me, Imu?"
The same trick would not work on him twice.
And perhaps Imu had never intended for Brook to gain the Word Spirit Fruit.
Before Brook could even reveal his true Death God form, a small figure slammed into his chest.
"Dad! It's really you!"
Shana cried loudly, clutching him as if she would never let go again.
For a moment, some of the others still thought this was another summon.
Then they saw the truth.
No summon could have erased a Knight of God like that.
Their father had returned.
Hades' eyes reddened. His lips trembled. He fought to hold the tears back and failed.
Brook was back.
They had found him.
Kanna flew in next, wrapped her arms around Brook's waist, and broke down completely.
"Father… it's really you. You're finally back."
Hera followed, grabbing Brook's arm, crying as if the years of fear and rage were pouring out all at once.
One by one, the daughters clung to him.
The sons stood there with red eyes, fists clenched, faces stiff with pride and pain, not knowing where to put their hands.
They had grown up.
They could not cling like children.
But their eyes said everything.
Moria, Beckman, and the others, Brook's students, trembled where they stood. Their throats tightened. Their vision blurred.
They did not rush in.
They simply remained there, silent, staring at the man who had returned and feeling, for the first time in years, something they had almost forgotten.
Safety.
Home.
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