After a simple display of force to intimidate her, Domino finally quieted down, shrinking her neck in fear. Throughout the entire process, Sadi remained silent, merely staring at Leo with an indescribable look in her eyes.
Leo knew exactly what she was thinking, but the reality was, he was the one in charge here. Sadi would only ever be his little 'M'.
Since the vast majority of the guards were concentrated on the third level, Leo's group proceeded unhindered to Impel Down's Level 4: Blazing Hell. Leo employed the same method as before: aside from sparing a handful of Devil Fruit users, he executed all the other prisoners. The deeper they went, the greater the sins and the more vicious the inmates became. There was simply no reason to keep them alive.
Level 5: Freezing Hell. The most unique of the first five levels. Due to the extreme低温 (low temperatures), Den Den Mushis couldn't survive here, so there were no surveillance facilities. Similarly, in such a harsh environment, the scantily clad prisoners were lucky to be alive at all; they had no capacity to cause trouble.
The moment Leo stepped in, a wave of freezing air assaulted him.
"Wide-Area— Hmm?!"
Just as Leo was about to unleash lightning to exterminate the prisoners not wearing Seastone shackles, his Observation Haki suddenly picked up on several familiar auras.
"Leo! It's really you!!"
"Bastard! Where's Luffy?!"
"Let me out! I'll kill you!!"
"Give us back our captain!!"
Angry shouts came from nearby. Leo turned to look. The cells next to them were filled with familiar faces. Aside from Zoro, Usopp, and the rest of the Straw Hat crew, all the other captured Supernovas were there too. Zoro and the others gripped the bars tightly, roaring their lungs out. They refused to believe Kid and Law's claims. They refused to believe Luffy was dead. Luffy was the grandson of the Marine Hero Garp! How could he possibly be dead?! Seeing Leo again, they naturally demanded answers.
"How noisy." Ignoring their questions, Leo simply called down divine punishment. Savage lightning fell from the ceiling, striking the Straw Hats and the other prisoners with precise accuracy. Bodies were charred and , black smoke rising from them.
"Killer! KILLER!!"
"Leo, you bastard! We never did anything to you!"
Watching Killer, who had been caught in the crossfire and died horribly, Kid was furious, his eyes nearly bursting from their sockets. The Straw Hats had offended Leo, so their deaths were their own fault. But what had Killer done wrong?!
Leo couldn't be bothered to explain. He gave Law a meaningful glance, then turned and left with the four women. With Pure Gold in his possession, the Ope Ope Fruit was unnecessary; no point wasting a blank fruit on it. Behind them, Kid's furious roars echoed.
After leaving the Freezing Hell, Leo headed directly down to Impel Down's Level 6: Eternal Hell. He completely bypassed the Newkama Land in Level 5.5. He had no desire to see anything that would scar his retinas and leave psychological shadows. In his opinion, becoming a okama was already the most severe punishment imaginable.
Proceeding unhindered, Leo and the four women successfully reached Eternal Hell. The outside world only knew of Impel Down's five levels, unaware that the sixth level, Eternal Hell, was where the truly significant prisoners were kept. Any name spoken here was famous across the seas, a fearsome existence who had once dominated a region. Their crimes were too numerous to record.
The moment Leo and the women stepped into Eternal Hell, dozens of pairs of ghostly,幽绿 (phosphorescent green) eyes locked onto them in unison.
"Hmm?! Isn't that Sadi and Domino?!"
"HAHAHAHAHA! You two got captured too?!"
"Kid, what's your name?! What's happening outside?!"
"HAHAHAHA! Kid, let me out right now!!"
The scum and vicious brutes imprisoned here grew restless at the sight of Leo's group. Compared to the other levels, Eternal Hell was darker and more monotonous, grinding away at their sanity day after day. Years of confinement brought them nothing but endless loneliness and emptiness.
"How interesting, truly interesting~" Several powerful pirates with恐怖实力 (fearsome strength) had their minds racing upon seeing Sadi and Domino tied up. While they didn't recognize Leo, the fact that he had captured the Head Guard and Chief Guard and made it this far meant Impel Down was in chaos, perhaps even Magellan had been defeated. For them, this was the perfect chance to escape.
"HAHAHAHA... Blood, the smell of blood. Kid, don't tell me you killed everyone upstairs? Meow?!!" In one cell, a man with a vicious face and two horns growing from his head sniffed the air vigorously, excitement gleaming in his eyes. For someone who had killed countless people, even after all these years, he could never forget that familiar scent.
"Pizarro, shut your mouth!" Sadi glared at him, sharply rebuking him. This idiot had no idea who he was dealing with!
Huh?! Pizarro was taken aback, then burst into mocking laughter. "Heh~ Sadi, you can't even save yourself. What right do you have to bark orders at me now?!"
"You still think you're the Head Guard?"
"Hey, kid! Let me out! I'll help you kill everyone here!!"
Hearing this, Leo stopped walking and gave Pizarro a calm look. Good. He wasn't wearing Seastone shackles. In the original story, Pizarro obtained the Shima Shima no Mi (Island-Island Fruit) after escaping Impel Down, likely found for him by Blackbeard. In that case...
"Die."
Deep in the prison, within two adjacent solitary cells, two pairs of crimson eyes snapped open.
The next second.
Terrifying lightning descended from above, striking the unprepared Pizarro.
"AGH!!"
Pizarro instantly collapsed, his massive body convulsing uncontrollably.
"As expected of an Eternal Hell inmate. Still not dead." Leo let out a sound of surprise, then pressed his palm downward slightly.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Finishing the job was his specialty! As Pizarro writhed on the ground in agony, several more bolts of lightning struck his head.
The next second, Eternal Hell fell completely silent. The criminals who had been chattering incessantly moments ago stared as if they'd seen a ghost. They gulped, released the bars, and quickly retreated to the corners of their cells, not daring to utter another word. Among the prisoners, Pizarro's strength was mid-tier or above. If this man could kill Pizarro so casually, then those of them who were weaker than Pizarro... Fear. They were truly afraid.
While terrified of Leo, they were also puzzled. When had such a figure appeared on the seas?
In an instant, including the two top figures, the entire Eternal Hell was intensely curious about Leo's identity.
All except for one.
"As expected of the man who dares to kidnap Celestial Dragons. Your methods are indeed ruthless." From a cell not far from Leo, a somewhat低沉 (deep and subdued) voice slowly sounded from the darkness.
Hmm?! Leo's gaze shifted towards the speaker. The prisoner inside had a wide jaw, a burly build, and a sinister smile on his face.
"Impel Down's former Head Jailer, Shiryu of the Rain," Leo stated his identity flatly.
Shiryu was momentarily stunned, then the corner of his mouth curled up. "Leo, if you release me, I can join your cr—"
"Die."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Before Shiryu could finish, guided by Leo's precise Observation Haki, silver lightning bolts thicker than the previous ones, like ravenous leviathans, instantly engulfed Shiryu. After a single, piercing scream, another corpse was added to Eternal Hell.
The entire level was deathly still. A silence so profound you could hear a pin drop!
Every criminal, including the likes of Douglas Bullet and the 'Red Count', had their pupils constricted to pinpricks, staring at the scene in utter disbelief. They could understand Leo killing Pizarro; the man had a foul mouth and deserved it. But Shiryu?! He hadn't said anything offensive! And he was killed too?! Did Leo kill so arbitrarily?
With Shiryu's gruesome death, not a single soul in Eternal Hell dared to speak.
"They were too noisy." Satisfied with the quiet, Leo nodded.
Hearing this, the近百名 (nearly one hundred) criminals felt their brows relax slightly. So that was the reason. Good thing they had...
"Die!"
However, before they could fully relax, lightning illuminated the entire Eternal Hell. The agonized wails of countless prisoners being struck by thunderbolts echoed in every corner of the hell. Aside from a certain 'Blue Gorilla' and the 'Red Count', every non-Devil Fruit user was bathed in a silver sea of rampaging lightning. One renowned pirate after another fell, their deaths gruesome. Leo felt not an ounce of pity for them. For every one he killed, the seas became a little safer. Releasing any one of these individuals would spell disaster for an entire region.
Slowly, the lightning subsided, and the screams faded. Domino and Sadi were utterly terrified, standing frozen in place with dazed expressions. Madman. Leo is a complete and utter madman!!
Leo, however, nodded in satisfaction. Up to this point, nearly ninety-nine percent of the thousands of prisoners held in Impel Down were dead. Across all six hells, less than a hundred criminals remained alive. It didn't sound like many, but it was still a significant number. After all, these were nearly a hundred Devil Fruit users.
As the lightning faded, the survivors let out long sighs of relief. Even though the attack wasn't aimed at them, they felt as if they had just walked through the gates of the underworld! The survivors all curled up in their corners, lowering their heads to avoid Leo's gaze.
Ignoring them, Leo walked straight to a specific solitary cell. Inside was a massive block of ice, and frozen within it was a tall figure wearing a hat with broken horns. This was one of Leo's targets: the man known as 'World Destroyer', the user of the Moa Moa no Mi (Multiply-Multiply Fruit),邦迪·瓦尔多 (Bandy "World Destroyer" Waldo). The Moa Moa Fruit, also known as the Multiply Fruit, allowed the user to multiply the speed, size, and weight of themselves or any object they touched by up to one hundred times.
Swish~
A碧绿剑气 (sapphire green sword slash) flashed. The chains on the cell door were severed. Despite being frozen in ice for decades, Waldo wasn't dead, merely in hibernation.
Shwing!
An even sharper slash cut downward from above. With a crack, the massive ice block, along with Waldo inside, was cleanly split in two. Without the slightest effort, Leo successfully retrieved the Moa Moa Fruit.
Satisfied, he stored the fruit and moved to his final target. The prisoner in the last solitary cell watched Leo's approach, his face darkening, cold syllables forced through his gritted teeth.
"Leo!!!"
Douglas Bullet could see it clearly now; Leo had come here to kill. The rhythmic sound of Leo's footsteps was like a death knell; with each step, the time Bullet had left to live diminished. Bullet's face was so dark it seemed ink could drip from it. In his prime, he was confident he could defeat Leo. But now, bound by Seastone shackles, he couldn't exert his full strength. Damn it!!
Looking at Bullet's coal-black expression, Leo grinned. "Killing you like this might be a cheap victory, but I don't have time to waste here, 'Demon Heir,' Douglas Bullet!"
"Heh heh heh... Leo, save your breath. If you have the skill, come and take my life!!" Bullet's face was ferocious, showing not a trace of fear. The victor becomes king, the loser a bandit. He had lost, and he had nothing more to say. Of course, that was predicated on Leo actually having the ability to kill him.
Swish~
A single sword stroke split the cell door open, the chains clattering to the floor. A凶光 (murderous light) flashed in Bullet's eyes, a bloodthirsty gleam. He immediately charged at Leo. He was not one to wait for death; even with a sliver of a chance, he would fight with everything he had.
"Farewell, Bullet."
Leo instantly teleported behind Bullet. Using the Shichiseiken as a conduit, he simultaneously unleashed advanced Ryou and lightning power, driving the sword through Bullet's back and out his chest in one thrust!
Squelch!
Bullet's pupils dilated instantly, and he vomited a mouthful of blood uncontrollably. He could clearly feel three different forces running rampant inside his body, ruthlessly destroying his bodily functions. One of the forces was also吸食者 (sucking away) his blood.
"RAAAAAGH!!!" Bullet let out a deafening roar to the heavens, but it was useless. Under the horrified gazes of the onlookers, Bullet's body visibly withered at a rapid pace until it became a desiccated corpse.
Hiss~
Hiss~
The sound of people sucking in cold air echoed through the hell. This time, even the 'Red Count' could no longer remain calm.
Ignoring them, Leo directly retrieved the Goru Goru no Mi (Join-Join Fruit). After a careful check to ensure he hadn't missed anything, Leo immediately teleported away with the four women.
The moment Leo left, Eternal Hell exploded into an uproar.
Level 3: Starvation Hell.
By the time Leo returned here, the battle was over. Warden Magellan, all the senior staff, guards, and savage beasts—every last one of them—lay dead. Not a single survivor. The scene was a charnel house, bodies of men and beasts piled high like small mountains. Blood had converged into small streams, and various shades of red and white matter were splattered everywhere. The thick, pungent smell of blood in the air was nauseating. It could only be described as a gruesome sight.
"You did well. Is everyone alright?" Leo looked at Nami, Robin, Perona, Kalifa, and Tashigi with concern. They had fought a great battle.
"Just a few minor injuries. Nothing serious," Nami said dismissively, handing the Doku Doku no Mi (Venom-Venom Fruit) to Leo. The other women quickly assured him they were fine.
Satisfied, Leo nodded. "Let's go. We still need to get to Marine Headquarters. I'll treat your injuries on the way." Leo calculated the time. The battle between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates should have already begun. Now was the perfect time to arrive.
With that, Leo teleported the group out of Impel Down, summoned the Maxim, and set a course for Marine Headquarters.
After healing the women's injuries, they headed to the bath. Even with a battle ahead, they didn't want to be covered in the stench of blood.
Without delay, Leo imprinted the Slave Mark into the minds of Domino and Sadi, successfully recruiting them! Business first; he could 'train' them later!!
Once they were recruited, Leo sent them both to Amazon Lily.
[Congratulations, Host, on successfully recruiting crew member Domino. Ready to receive the reward?]
[Congratulations, Host, on successfully recruiting crew member Sadi. Ready to receive the reward?]
"Receive them now," Leo responded without hesitation.
[Congratulations, Host, on obtaining the reward: Zoan Type, Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Black Cat!]
[Congratulations, Host, on obtaining the reward: Conqueror's Haki Infusion!]
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T/N :
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