Without a doubt, Lowett had fallen into an ambush!
But he could not understand why...
Creak, creak!
Amid the squelching of writhing flesh, Black Knight No. 1, the "Butler," transformed first. Under the terrified gazes of the town residents, its ribs split open one by one, extending into white bones that braced against the ground.
Silent Step!
The next second, the Black Knight leaped and vanished from sight. When it reappeared, it was already high in the air.
Screech... screech, screech, screech!
With its steel cat claws and the bone wings on its chest and back, the Black Knight became a steel grinder. The instant each cannonball showed any sign of dropping, it sliced them all apart.
Boom... rumble!
Massive fireworks exploded in the night sky, and the gale rocked the warship gently across the sea.
Using the force of the blast, the Black Knight landed nimbly. Its bony limbs interlocked like a spider's, anchoring it atop the smooth mast.
Lowett pressed five fingers against his cheek, forcing himself to think calmly. His voice was as cold as iron.
"The Undead Souls of Embyf Town are weeping, Vice Admiral Momonga!"
By his calculations, Momonga should not have remained in Loguetown.
The pirates led by "Hound" Morey were currently ravaging the waters near Orange Town, leaving devastation in their wake. Yet Momonga had abandoned the suffering civilians and chosen to stand by coldly?!
Once the pirates learned that Momonga had not come and that only ordinary soldiers had arrived, the pirate crews gathered near Orange Town would no longer have any reservations. Instead, they would be enraged at having been toyed with by the Marines.
By then, blood would truly flow like rivers.
That was why Lowett could not understand it. Why?
"Blood debts must be repaid in blood, Lowett. This is all your fault! If you had not spread those rumors, how could the tragedy of Embyf Town have happened?!"
"What a joke!"
"My fault? Then why would I do such a thing? Why would I become a pirate?!"
Lowett sneered.
"If you have the guts, go kill the Celestial Dragons! Kill the Gorosei!"
"You raise your butcher's blade against the weak, yet grovel before the strong. What grand and righteous justice!!"
Momonga fell silent for an instant, but he quickly raised his head again. His eyes were bloodshot as he roared.
"But you are hardly innocent either!!"
With that, he swung his sword hard.
"Fire!!!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!
Just as Lowett had guessed, Momonga alone would never have made a decision to let pirates massacre civilians.
Tonight's ambush was not Momonga's will, but... a direct order from the World Government!
Do not forget that "Lowett" had also offended a government official. Ever since that official had been humiliated and transferred back, he had kept his eyes on the East Blue.
Your enemy always understood you best.
Who benefited from Momonga leaving?
The pirates!
And so, he concluded that Lowett's actions must have carried a deeper purpose.
Lowett had deliberately used the safety of the civilians as an open scheme to force Momonga to leave Loguetown and suppress the pirates, while he himself took the opportunity to set out for the Grand Line.
The scheme was not especially clever. Any intelligent person could see through it. He had merely gone with the flow.
But as an "enemy," did he really need to choose between protecting civilians and annihilating Lowett?
And could he not persuade certain powerful figures to directly interfere with the Marines' choices?
Just consider how he had colluded with pirates yet still returned home in glory. The World Government had long since rotted from within.
All of this had led to a situation Lowett did not want to see, Momonga did not want to see, and no one wanted to see.
"Roar!!"
As the warship moved out from the town's cover, this barrage became even denser.
The two Black Knights, the "Butler" and the "Bodyguard," who had developed intelligence, communicated briefly through their souls. The Butler leaped left and sliced apart the cannonballs, while the Bodyguard raised its enlarged arm of flesh and swept right, smashing the cannonballs apart one after another.
Lowett stood between them, facing the exploding firelight without moving.
After a moment, he lowered his hand. The anger in his tone eased slightly, replaced by bone-deep frost.
"So there is no room to talk?"
"No room to talk!"
The one who answered him was not Momonga, but Smoker.
White Fist!
With an angry roar, Smoker's arm extended dozens of meters and smashed down toward Lowett.
Black sand collided with white smoke and exploded. Lowett cast him a cold glance.
"This kind of painful choice is the darkness we Marines bear!"
"So we absolutely cannot fail!!"
Otherwise, they would have no face to meet the people of East Blue, no face to keep speaking of justice and pirates with such conviction.
What they were doing was no different from piracy!
"I... understand."
Standing at the center of the battlefield amid flying cannon fire, enduring bombardment from both the warship and the Loguetown positions, Lowett slowly raised his palm... and aimed it toward the harbor.
"Since even you law enforcers see civilians as nothing, what right do I have... to treat them as people?"
"Not good!"
Hearing those words, Momonga's eyes nearly split apart as he roared, "Stop him!!"
He was too far away. Even Geppo would not get him there in time from this position. Only Smoker could stop Lowett.
White Gale!!
Naturally, Smoker would not let Lowett do as he pleased. He planted himself at the very edge of the harbor, stretched both hands straight ahead, and vast clouds of smoke surged madly from his sleeves toward the sea.
But this time, the smoke did not disperse into mist. The moment it appeared, it formed tough walls that swept mightily toward Lowett.
An entire hundred-meter area was swallowed by smoke!
The Logia's advantage in attack range was plain to see!
"Troublesome..."
Lowett's thoughts remained clear as his mind raced.
The spell he was about to cast truly had no good way of dealing with such solidified "walls."
Necromancy was extremely lethal against the living, but that did not mean its destructive power could casually compare to the Elemental System.
"Still, I told you before. The flaw in that move is far too obvious."
A piercing sword cry rang out as a long blade with an indigo hilt was drawn from its white scabbard. One of the Fifty Skillful Grade Blades, its name was Shigure.
"I will never let you touch Colonel Smoker again! Never!"
Dressed more like the girl next door than a soldier, Tashigi stepped in front of Smoker with her sword raised.
Her lips were pale because she knew she could not possibly be Lowett's match. The most she could do was use her life to shield Smoker from an attack.
Yet her feet remained firmly planted because she knew Smoker had argued with Momonga over tonight's ambush. The two had even fought, and both were suffering deeply.
"Are you crazy? Get out of here!"
Smoker was shocked. He had never expected Tashigi to suddenly step forward.
"No! Even if it is only a little, I want to help you, Colonel..."
"Damn it! You..."
Before he could finish, Lowett's spell was ready.
"Crimson Soul Splitter Ash..."
"Taste the new spell I developed specifically for you, Smoker... I call it..."
"White Burial!"
White Burial, the white that buried the heavens!
Turning the sky white was the death most fitting for Smoker, the White Hunter.
Buzz!!
As his words fell, Smoker had no time to think. He slammed his shoulder into Tashigi and knocked her aside. When he turned back, surging energy immediately flooded into his body.
"Ah!!!"
"Colonel!!"
"Colonel Smoker!!"
Under countless stunned gazes, Smoker clenched his teeth. His face flushed red, veins bulging as he endured tremendous pain.
Yet he still turned his head, looking reassuringly at Tashigi, who had fallen to the ground, and forced out words through clenched teeth.
"Run... run..."
Then...
Boom!!
He scattered into white smoke that filled the sky!
Thick clumps of white ash erupted from his chest, carrying his limbs as they gradually blurred and broke apart. Like clouds of dry ice freshly released from a machine, they rapidly surged in every direction and spread across the streets.
After only a few breaths, all of Loguetown had been dyed white.
"Col... onel?"
Tashigi's pupils contracted as she called softly.
She seemed to hope this was Smoker's Elementalization, that he had evaded the attack through Elementalization.
But there was no answer.
Ash rained down from the sky. Every speck carried deathly stillness and piercing cold, so cold that her teeth trembled.
"Colonel!!!"
"Was I too late?"
Hearing Tashigi's heart-rending cry, Momonga's body trembled aboard the warship, allowing the target beneath his sword to seize the chance and slide back out of his attack range.
Drip... drip...
Lowett stopped with his back against the wall. Blood dripped from his fingertips onto the deck. The lingering chill of the underworld from casting the spell greedily devoured his vitality, causing his blood to smoke and rapidly blacken.
Then...
Squelch!!
A spray of blood burst along a line from Lowett's right chest to his lower left abdomen. The blade tore through his clothes, leaving a wound so deep that bone could be seen.
"Momonga!"
Steadying himself with the support of the Black Knight, Lowett stepped on his cane, which had been broken in two. His eyes were filled with gravity.
What a fast sword!
From over fifty meters away, he had actually arrived in an instant!
He had merely been too late to stop Lowett's first attack, and Smoker only needed to block that first attack.
That did not mean he would still be helpless against the second!
Thanks to reader ~Crazy Just Like This~ for the 2,000 reward! Thank you for the support!
The cold I caught two days ago dragged on until today, and I finally went to get medicine. After taking it, my head felt foggy and I spent the entire day dozing off. So helpless.
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