Night fell.
Drifting along the sea route toward the Ilisia Kingdom, Alucard found himself reminiscing for the first time in a long while about the solo journey he had undertaken before the founding of his pirate crew.
Long before he met Wolf, he had navigated the waters alone on that vessel crafted by Tom, the world's greatest shipwright.
Following the recent betrayal, Alucard felt a sudden sense of surrealism. When did he gather so many people under his banner? When had things escalated to such a grand scale?
Having established his crew for so long, he realized he lacked the self-awareness of a captain; not once had he truly identified with the title or the responsibilities it entailed.
The veterans who had followed him since the beginning, those who had returned just two days prior, had even urged him to invest more of his heart into the crew. They warned him that without his attention, such rebellions would surely happen again.
On the surface, Alucard had dismissed the trouble, adopting a mindset of "rebel if you wish, I'll simply crush you." But in the deepest recesses of his heart, something had begun to shift.
After all, he was a transmigrator. He was the forty-year-old Alucard, not the original version who had endured four hundred years of wind and rain, a hellish childhood, the betrayal of a lover, and the turning of a nation.
Drifting on the vast ocean, Alucard took a soft breath. His eyes, which had been closed in a light slumber, suddenly snapped open. He looked up at the night sky and declared, "No... I am simply me!"
BOOM!!!
In that instant, it was as if Alucard had shattered a primordial boundary. An inexhaustible power of the Vampire King erupted from his body, coalescing into a pillar of crimson light that surged into the heavens.
In a world previously shrouded in darkness, this red pillar pierced the sky, carving a massive hole through the clouds and emitting a roar like the end of days.
This was entirely different from the clash between Shanks and Whitebeard, which merely split the clouds. This crimson pillar was like the descent of a demon, making the very sea—no, the entire Grand Line, tremble in its wake.
"What... what is that?"
In the waters surrounding the Sabaody Archipelago, the island closest to Marine Headquarters, every member of the Golden Hair Pirates stared at the rising pillar of light in awe.
But it wasn't just them. From Marine Headquarters to the other Yonko crews, and countless souls living across the world, everyone witnessed this unfathomable spectacle.
In the night sky, the clouds were dyed a vivid blood-red. The groans of hellish ghouls seemed to echo in the ears of the living, striking terror into their hearts.
"The Poison Sea Snakes... even stronger than Sea Kings... they're terrified..."
Aboard the Kuja ship, Hancock looked down at the two massive serpents flanking the bow. They were currently cowering beneath the waves, paralyzed with fear.
Having a blood-link with Alucard, Hancock sensed the source of this power more clearly than anyone else. She placed a hand against her crimson lips and whispered, "Master..."
In Alucard's sector of the sea, the blood pillar remained for a long time, relentlessly punching through the atmosphere as if trying to reach the stars themselves.
"I am who I am. I do not need others to dictate my thoughts."
Alucard repeated this mantra internally, completely unaware that the sheer magnitude of his power was already attracting scores of curious onlookers.
This was the first half of the Grand Line, the number of pirates here was five, perhaps even ten times that of the New World! Without the immediate threat of a Yonko, they were far more reckless.
At this moment, Alucard had achieved a breakthrough not just in strength, but in his very state of mind, ascending to the true "Alucard" level.
Simultaneously, the voice of the Undying, Unkillable System resonated in his mind:
[Critical threshold surpassed. Level fully matured.]
[Vampire LV-MAX Evolution: True Ancestor Vampire LV1]
[Acquired Ability Growth:]
[1. True Ancestor Familiar: True Ancestor Baskerville LV1 (A monster whose jaws can prop up the heavens and the earth; a servant of True Ancestor Alucard.)]
[2. True Ancestor Familiar: Jormungandr LV1 (An entity long enough to encircle half the world, head to tail, symbolizing eternal power. It can trigger cataclysmic waves; its venom easily slays Giants, though the blood of the True Ancestor serves as the antidote.)]
[3. Soul of the River Styx LV1 (The "River" is divided into two: the River of Death and the Styx. The physical bodies of enemies slain by Alucard reside in the River of Death, while their souls dwell in the Styx. This ability allows the True Ancestor to temporarily pull souls into the River of Death, granting the undead army 100% of their original capabilities.)]
If a Vampire of Alucard's former status was a legend, then a True Ancestor was the legend within legends. From the King of Vampires to the Progenitor of Vampires, Alucard's transformation was not born of surviving a thousand battles, but of a total fundamental shift in his soul.
Yes. I am me. I am simply Alucard. I am a monster.
It was true from the beginning, it was true now, and it would be true for all eternity.
Having been stuck at the "Vampire King" rank for years, the moment Alucard internalized this truth, he finally broke the limit and evolved into the True Ancestor.
Though he was only LV1, his ceiling for growth had vanished.
As the pillar of light representing the True Ancestor's power faded, many curious ships began to converge on his location.
Alucard's nose twitched as he looked up. "Blood is approaching... Hmph, no matter."
"I shall save the first use of this power for you, Dragon."
Alucard chuckled softly, steering his ship away.
It was a common quirk among the powerful; when obtaining a new strength or reaching a breakthrough, they sought a worthy opponent to test it against. Like a man acquiring a legendary blade, he would wish for his first opponent to be a master swordsman, not some common peasant.
It was a matter of principle.
Having obtained the power of the True Ancestor, Alucard naturally wanted to use it immediately, but he wanted his first target to be an opponent whose capability matched the gift, not a group of nameless, small-time pirates.
When those pirates finally arrived at the scene only to find nothing and leave in disappointment, they had no idea that it was their very weakness that had saved their lives.