Dressrosa.
This former affiliated kingdom of the World Government has become somewhat ruined today.
The brilliant sunflower fields that once encircled the entire city are now scorched earth, showing no sign of life.
The city, once filled with love and passion, is now in decay, with traces of bombardments and bullet marks everywhere. Looking around, one sees nothing but ruins and broken walls, with hardly any intact buildings.
The citizens living in this city are thin and sallow, their spirits low.
Despite this, the nation is still currently undergoing unrest.
"Hahahaha! Charge! My boys!"
A group of pirates stormed into the country.
The burly pirate captain laughed heartily, swinging his great sword and unleashing a flying slash—lacking in power—that directly cleaved a building ahead into two.
"Let's conquer this country! I'll play king for a bit!"
"Follow the captain and charge!!"
The rowdy pirates were all immensely excited, shouting and howling as they followed their captain into the city.
The citizens living in this city seemed accustomed to this. Although fear showed on their faces, their bodies expertly began fleeing in all directions.
Soon, the advancing pirates encountered the King's Army.
These soldiers of the King's Army were dusty and battered, looking somewhat numb.
Fortunately, they were led by a very powerful man.
"Charge with me!!"
Kyros, the guardian of Dressrosa, brandished his longsword and shot forward.
"Get out of this country, pirates!"
Kyros leaped into the air, covering his longsword with pitch-black Haki, and brought it down on the burly pirate captain like a thunderbolt from heaven.
"Hahahaha! Kyros! I've heard your name! How many pirates who invaded this country have you killed in this past year!"
The pirate captain laughed loudly, his great sword also covered in Haki, meeting the strike head-on.
"But I'm no trash mob!"
Boom!!
A thin, black lightning bolt flashed for an instant. The turbulent air blast blew away all the dust on the street, and the surrounding buildings began to crumble from the shockwave.
"Ugh!!"
Kyros staggered back two steps, his hands gripping the longsword trembling slightly.
The strength of this pirate before him was truly extraordinary, not on the same level as the pirates who had previously invaded Dressrosa!
But.
"Don't think you can run rampant in this country!"
Kyros lunged forward again.
The pirate captain gritted his teeth slightly.
This guardian of Dressrosa is indeed not to be underestimated!
However.
"Hahahaha! What good is your struggle!"
The pirate captain parried Kyros's attacks while laughing loudly. "This country's fate was sealed long ago!"
"Hahahaha! In the half of the world ruled by Lord Roa chaos and freedom are the main themes! Pirates are the rulers of this sea!"
"..."
Kyros ignored him, only gritting his teeth and attacking relentlessly.
He actually carried many old wounds on his body.
In this past year, he had barely stopped fighting, constantly accumulating new injuries before the old ones could heal.
Now, facing this powerful pirate, his old wounds began to split open, and his already tattered clothes became soaked with fresh blood.
"Hahahaha! It seems your condition is not so good!"
A burst of ecstatic delight flashed in the pirate captain's eyes.
Sure enough, after years of continuous fighting, this guy couldn't possibly maintain his peak condition!
I've won!!
The pirate captain laughed, leaning forward, tightening his grip with both hands, and swinging his great sword even more wildly.
But just at this moment.
Two figures instantly shot out from a nearby alley.
King Riku, the King of Dressrosa, his hair already graying, charged forward, swinging his longsword with all his might.
Beside him was his younger daughter, Princess Viola.
She was a stunning woman, her features possessing a wild allure. She wore a fitted dancing dress that perfectly showcased her fiery figure.
"Hot Iron Tear - White Whale!"
Viola made circles with her index fingers and thumbs and placed them before her eyes. In the next instant, her eyes brimmed with hot tears.
The scorching tears poured out of her eyes, passed through the circles formed by her fingers, and instantly expanded into two gigantic whales!
They radiated blistering heat and shone with a metallic sheen.
The two great whales charged like locomotives, thundering toward the back of the pirate captain.
"What?"
The pirate captain turned around in surprise.
More experts?
However, he was indeed a strong man. He instantly swung his great sword backward.
The tear-whales fired by Viola were instantly cut in half, and even King Riku, who had rushed up, was cleaved and sent flying.
But at the same time, Kyros had advanced to the pirate captain's side.
Just then.
"Did you think I wasn't guarding against you!"
The pirate captain launched a punch wrapped in formidable Armament Haki directly at Kyros.
But at this moment, Kyros displayed extraordinary agility. He took a backward step, narrowly avoiding the pirate captain's punch.
Such Observation Haki?
Then, under the pirate's horrified gaze, Kyros plunged his sword into his chest.
"Waaah!"
The scream of the just-now arrogant pirate captain announced the end of the battle.
Soon, the pirates were wiped out, and this sudden battle ended with the victory of the King's Army.
After cleaning up the aftermath, King Riku returned to the royal palace on the Royal Plateau with his daughter and son-in-law.
"You must be tired. Food is ready."
King Riku's elder daughter, Princess Scarlett, had prepared a feast for everyone—though it wasn't very sumptuous.
It consisted only of a few pieces of bread, some fish, and a small amount of vegetables.
"When will these days end?"
Stuffing a piece of bread into her mouth, Viola sighed. "The pirates are endless. We get attacked every now and then, and each attack causes considerable damage to this country... What will the future look like?"
The family sitting around the round table fell silent.
"In the end,"
Rebecca, the daughter of Kyros and Princess Scarlett, who had just turned fourteen, looked up. "It's all because of that lunatic, Roa isn't it!"
"Rebecca! Be quiet!"
Princess Scarlett immediately covered her daughter's mouth, scared stiff. "You can't speak ill of Lord Roa behind his back!"
Not just her, but Kyros and King Riku also broke out in a cold sweat.
Roa. In the year and more since his return to the sea, this name has become the source of terror on the ocean. Everyone felt genuine dread when they mentioned this name.
Viola lay on the table, saying with a lack of interest, "What's there to be afraid of? There are no servants in the palace anymore; it's just us, the family. Who's going to hear us?"
She said woodenly, "Is there anything wrong with what Rebecca said? It's all that Roa's fault!"
"He levies heavy taxes on every country, leaving all residents in this half of the world struggling on the brink of death. All countries either slowly face ruin or are forced into external plunder."
"He completely ignores pirates, allowing them to attack the nations under his rule, forcing more people into desperation and becoming pirates, making this half of the world infested with them."
"Finally, he allows his subordinate pirates to govern those countries that have lost their kings, yet he lets those pirates fight and scramble for ownership of the country, turning those once promising affiliated kingdoms into hells on earth!"
King Riku and Kyros both fell into silence.
The World's Most Free Sea of the past has been recreated.
And its scope covers half the world.
That Roa fellow is an absolute lunatic. He seems completely uninterested in rule or power.
He even distributed power to his subordinate pirates and has no intention of fully controlling the countries ruled by them.
They even had to seize Dressrosa back from a group of pirates.
Roa seems to only want to make this world more chaotic!
Where is this world heading?
King Riku raised his hands and rubbed his face.
He didn't know how long he could protect this country.
But he could only grit his teeth and continue fighting, couldn't he?
Will the World Government make a comeback? Can they win this struggle for world supremacy against Roa?
Dressrosa is just one example.
Now everyone in the world knows that the world on this side of the Red Line has become a living hell.
The lunatic named Roa is inflicting the most extreme malice on all the people living in the North Blue, West Blue, and New World.
All laughter and happiness have gone, leaving only pain and despair.
However, there are those who are ecstatic about this.
The pirates, who represent chaos, are flourishing in these three sea areas.
Of course, there is still hope even in this hell.
The entity known as the Revolutionary Army has been persistently resisting.
Although every time ends in a devastating defeat, they have never given up.
Therefore, because of their unwavering spirit, even though they suffer repeated losses, some people still place their hopes on them.
After all, in such a situation, it is truly remarkable that people can still bravely stand up!
But of course, the people living on this side of the Red Line place their greatest hope on the World Government.
They are the only power in the entire world capable of challenging the Pirate Alliance commanded by Roa.
Although the West Blue and North Blue were taken from them, they can only rely on them, right?
The much-hoped-for World Government has remained inactive this past year, quietly building up its strength.
New World, above a certain patch of sky, the colossal Calamity City floats quietly.
Roa stands silently on the edge of this massive sky city.
After more than a year, Roa who is almost eighteen, has matured further.
The youthful tenderness has almost faded from his face, replaced by a sense of calm and composure. He is also a head taller than he was a year ago.
At this moment, Roa's eyes are filled with determination.
He stands with his legs slightly apart, knees bent and hips lowered. His hands are spread like claws and held at his waist, overlapped like a flower bud.
"Ka!"
Roa suddenly shouted.
"Me!"
A black spot suddenly appeared between his hands.
The black spot was constantly pulsating, appearing highly unstable.
Pitch-black lightning surged out from within this black spot.
"Ha!"
The size of the black spot rapidly inflated, becoming as large as Roa's fist in the blink of an eye.
At this point, the lightning bolts of Haki leaping from the black sphere were so dense that they dyed the surrounding sky pitch-black.
"Me!"
The leaping black lightning vanished in this instant, seemingly all retracting inside the black sphere.
In that moment, everything became still.
The wind went silent, and the clouds solidified.
"Ha!"
Roa roared the final word and pushed his hands forward.
A black beam of light roared out from between his hands, piercing the sky like a sword under the command of a god.
The white sea of clouds ahead was instantly cleaved open. The pitch-black beam traveled forward, penetrating everything it could, disappearing straight into the deepest part of the sky.
Finally, the black beam of light slowly dissipated, leaving only residual black lightning flickering in the sky.
Residual Haki lightning also surged on Roa's outstretched hands.
He retracted his hands, stood straight, and slowly exhaled.
"Is that really still Haki?"
Katakuri, who was standing behind him with his arms crossed, twitched his mouth.
"This is the result of my training!"
Roa raised his right hand. A black substance, like flowing water, surged from his hand, gathering into a small stream that moved around his palm.
"It's just,"
Roa suddenly clenched his fist. Black raindrops exploded, making sharp breaking-wind sounds in the air.
His tone carried a hint of annoyance. "I can't find that fellow Imu!"
"What the hell! That guy is such a mood killer! I finally finished my training, and now the enemy has vanished!"
Not long ago, when he went to the Red Line to find Imu to test the results of his training, he discovered that Mariejois had not been repaired. Imu, the World Government, and the remaining Celestial Dragons had all vanished without a trace.
"It seems they want to play hide-and-seek with us."
Katakuri smiled. "They've all submerged into the darkness. Now it's a matter of who shows a flaw first, isn't it?"
Roa sighed dejectedly.
Damn Dark Forest theory.
It's frustrating to have mastered a divine technique but not be able to find the enemy.
"I need to find a way to track down that guy's whereabouts."
Roa rubbed his chin.
Even if the trained him still couldn't defeat Imu, the dark aura of this world was gradually thickening. The next evolution should be quite close.
In other words, the final battle shouldn't be too far off.
But how can there be a decisive battle when he can't even find the person?
As the King of the World, you're hiding now? Imu, you are despicable!
Just then, Dylan rushed over.
"Boss! Something has happened."
"Oh?"
Roa turned his head. "Has the World Government launched an attack?"
"Not that."
Dylan shook his head, then said, "The people below discovered a Devil Fruit. They were planning to present it to you, but it was snatched away by a Government agent!"
"Oh?"
Roa raised an eyebrow.
The World Government has never stopped testing the Pirate Alliance.
There are countless World Government agents lurking in the North Blue, West Blue, and New World. Even Stussy isn't entirely clear on the full extent.
If Roa hadn't been completely indifferent to all the countries under his rule, the World Government would probably have sent people to cause disruption long ago.
"A Devil Fruit that would make a World Government agent risk exposure to steal it?"
Katakuri asked curiously. "What is it? A Mythical Zoan?"
"It's not a Mythical Zoan,"
Dylan said solemnly. "It's the Logia-type Yami Yami no Mi (Dark-Dark Fruit)!"
"Oho!"
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