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Chapter 233: The Peak Returns, The Golden Lion's Declaration of Revenge
The sea of clouds churned as golden sunlight pierced the firmament, bathing the wild figure in light.
Shiki stood barefoot on the cold, hard marble floor.
His toes gripped the ground. That long-lost, tangible sensation made every pore on his body tremble.
Twenty years.
For twenty long years, he had floated in the sky like a cripple, supporting his body with two swords. Every step he took, the phantom pain from his severed limbs reminded him of the humiliation of that year.
But now, everything had changed.
Shiki slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward, and clenched it abruptly.
Voom!
A muffled boom resonated in the air.
A majestic life force surged within him. It was the power he had obtained in that strange world called a "Dungeon," after fusing with the cells of that white monster.
Organs that had been failing were beating anew. Withered muscles filled out once more. Even his graying temples had been dyed golden again.
"Indigo."
Shiki's voice was low, yet it betrayed an uncontrollable excitement.
"I'm listening, Boss! I'm listening!"
Indigo scrambled up from the ground, the greasepaint on his face smeared from fright. He gestured wildly with his hands. "Your body... this is simply a miracle! What exactly were those cells? If we could research them..."
"Research?"
Shiki turned around. In that instant, Indigo's voice cut off abruptly.
He saw Shiki's eyes.
Those eyes, once filled with ambition and madness, had now turned a blood-red crimson.
Deep within those crimson pupils, three black tomoe spun madly, finally merging into a single, complex black pattern.
The Mangekyo Sharingan!
Just being gazed upon by these eyes made Indigo feel as if the surrounding air had solidified. An invisible pressure made it almost impossible for him to breathe.
"This kind of power doesn't need research. It only needs... to be dominated."
Shiki grinned, revealing his trademark ferocious smile.
He turned his head sharply to look outside the palace at the massive island floating in the air.
It was the Breeding Island, specifically used to cultivate the "IQ" mutated beasts. It held thousands of violent monsters enhanced by drugs.
It was the "trump card" he had originally prepared to destroy the East Blue.
"Watch, Indigo."
Shiki's right eye suddenly widened, ocular power surging wildly.
"Does the current me still need those beasts that only know how to bite randomly?"
Ocular Jutsu: Ame no Ohabari!
There was no warning.
No drawing of a blade, no swing of a sword. He didn't even move a finger.
The distant floating island, over two kilometers in diameter, suddenly developed a thin line down its center.
The next second.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
The entire island, along with the thousands of roaring mutated beasts upon it, was instantly sliced cleanly in half by an invisible force!
The cut was smooth as a mirror, as if sliced by the blade of a god.
Immediately after, Shiki's left eye turned.
Ocular Jutsu: Amenotokotachi!
The two halves of the island, which were beginning to fall, suddenly seemed to lose the constraints of gravity—or rather, they were captured by some terrifying gravitational force.
Billions of tons of rock, soil, and forest were crushed, shattered, and collapsed inward in the air.
In just the span of two breaths.
That massive island was compressed into an infinitely dense black sphere of stone, suspended ten thousand meters high, blocking out the sun.
"Gulp..."
Indigo knelt on the ground, swallowing a mouthful of saliva with difficulty.
His worldview had collapsed.
What was this?
The Float-Float Fruit? No, the Float-Float Fruit could only control objects it had touched, and it absolutely could not achieve this degree of instant compression and cutting!
This was a divine miracle!
"Jihahahaha! Jihahahaha!"
Shiki laughed at the sky, his laughter shattering the surrounding clouds.
He felt it.
These eyes, combined with the Float-Float Fruit, and added to this body that had returned to its peak—no, surpassed it.
Pirate King? Strongest Man?
The current him was the true Uncrowned King of this sea!
"Boss... then our next plan is?"
Indigo asked tremblingly, "Do we still attack the East Blue as originally planned?"
"East Blue?"
Shiki ceased his laughter. The red glow in his eyes faded, returning to normal.
He pulled a cigar from his robe and bit down on it, though he didn't light it.
"What's the point of destroying a backwater place like that? What would it prove? That I, the Golden Lion, only know how to bully the weak?"
He walked to the edge of the great hall, hands clasped behind his back, his gaze piercing through layers of clouds toward the distant South.
In that direction lay Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
It was also the place where he had severed his legs and suffered humiliation twenty years ago.
"Open your mind."
Shiki spat out a bit of cigar leaf, his eyes turning incredibly cold.
Relying on a few mutated beasts to cause destruction was like a child playing in the mud.
Indigo's eyes lit up. The Boss was indeed the Boss.
"Garp..."
"Sengoku..."
I, Shiki, have never been weaker than anyone in my life.
Shiki muttered these two names, grinding his teeth.
Twenty years ago, those two bastards had teamed up to throw him into Impel Down.
In that dark, sunless prison, he had been forced to cut off his own legs to buy his freedom.
This humiliation gnawed at his heart day and night.
I almost killed that guy Garp once in the Dungeon. Too bad that brat Dragon ruined it.
Shiki sneered.
My ranking in this Dungeon run was higher than yours.
The rain has stopped, the sky has cleared, and the Golden Lion feels like he's back in the game.
"He also got stronger in the Dungeon... something about a 'Sage Body'?"
"So what!"
Shiki swept his arm, his great coat flapping loudly.
"I now have these eyes, and this body!"
Before the next Dungeon opens, I'll play around with you two first.
"Old farts, prepare to face your nightmare."
"Go to Marineford."
"I'm going to pay my old friends a visit."
"And incidentally, tell this ocean..."
"The Golden Lion has returned!"
"Indigo!"
Shiki roared.
"Here! Boss!"
"Pass the order! All fleets assemble!"
Shiki turned around, the wildfire of ambition burning in his eyes, threatening to ignite the very sky.
═════ To Be Continued ═════
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