The Last Base

"Father was dead." Sabre, the eldest prince, sighed. Belinda, the second prince, said nothing, and Laimer, the third prince, was silent as well. As princes, they hadn't been particularly close to Brady. They'd felt more awe than affection toward him. Still, they felt a little melancholy, a little wistful.

"What do we do now?" Belinda turned to Sabre and asked. He was undoubtedly more experienced with this sort of thing than they were.

"Don't worry. Kaido must have killed Father because of his ability," Sabre said, sounding somewhat relieved. "Things will go on as before. We'll need some time to recover and stabilize the situation at home. We'll also have to deal with the rampaging beasts and monsters. But without our powerful military force, we may have to abandon the towns on the outskirts."

"Why not just join Kaido? With someone as powerful as him, it'd be easy to deal with the monsters and keep the kingdom safe," Laimer said. He'd always enjoyed fighting and yearned for strength. As the one in charge of the army, he loved war, and seeing Kaido's power couldn't help but make him long for the same.

But it was obvious that Sabre and Belinda didn't agree, and they never would. After spending so many years in positions of power, how could they submit to someone else—especially a pirate?

Laimer said nothing more. It had only been an idea. After all, the three of them were on the same side, unlike Kaido, whom they didn't know.

"So they're over there? Then let's take care of them." In the shadows, Teach chuckled softly, leaning against the wall and panting a little. He held a bloodstained longsword in his hand. He'd replaced his previous one, which he'd thrown away; after cutting down so many people, even its steel blade had become badly nicked.

At the same time, his Observation Haki kept track of the fighting in the royal city. Just as he'd predicted, King Brady had died at Kaido's hands. But Teach hadn't expected Garp and Roger to show up on the island too. Now there was a three-sided battle underway, though the Roger Pirates were unilaterally beating down Garp and Kaido.

Garp's suit was torn, and he looked a little disheveled. He'd also suffered some injuries, but they were only superficial and posed no threat to his life. His strength was formidable, and he only grew more ferocious as the battle went on. Even so, against so many members of the Roger Pirates, he was still at a disadvantage.

The nobles who controlled the breeding facilities in the city raised human pets in secret alongside their animal pets. The nobles and the royal family lived high above the people, and their contact with ordinary citizens was limited. They wanted to avoid being seen with the public and having the awful secret of their human-pet breeding exposed. If the truth came out, they'd offend not only the commoners of the Kate Kingdom, but the entire world.

Teach had mercilessly slaughtered everyone involved in breeding human pets at those facilities. Now he was heading into the wilderness beyond the royal city to find the hidden facilities. Some were in dense forests, some underground, and others looked like ordinary breeding facilities on the surface while secretly raising human pets.

On the way, Teach hadn't expected to encounter the kingdom's three princes—the people who held power in the country, and the last seeds of its evil. If he didn't eliminate them, that evil would take root again. Teach knew very well that when you pulled up weeds, you had to remove the roots.

They'd sent most of their guards away, leaving only a little over three hundred by their side. They weren't worried about whether the guards could protect them. After witnessing the power of those monsters, they knew that no number of guards would be any use.

"Who's there?" Laimer, the strongest of them, sensed something amiss. He knew the faint smell of blood all too well. He turned and shouted—but there was no one there. When he turned back, he saw a masked man in front of him. Squelch! With his back to Laimer, Teach had already driven his blade through the hearts of the eldest prince, Sabre, and the second prince, Belinda.

Sabre was just an ordinary man. Belinda had some strength and had trained a little, but the gap between them and Teach was like the difference between worlds. They died instantly when he assassinated them, their eyes wide and their expressions full of resentment, unable to rest in peace.

"Damn it! Who are you? How dare you kill them?" Laimer roared, tears spilling from his eyes. They might not have been close to their father, but the three brothers had spent their lives together and knew one another well. They'd even had a tacit understanding. Though they competed, they'd never taken it too far. When he'd learned about Sabre and Belinda's dealings, he hadn't interfered. The three of them had been comrades. He hadn't expected his two brothers to die right in front of him.

Laimer's body changed. In the blink of an eye, he became a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex, an apex dinosaur whose strength was on a par with that of a Tyrannosaurus. It was a little smaller, but had an even more terrifying bite. Overcome by rage, he had nearly lost his reason, completely ignoring—or forgetting—Teach's terrifying strength. He opened his jaws and lunged at Teach.

Teach leaped into the air, dodging the attack. With powerful Armament Haki coating his body, he spun around and landed a heavy punch on the Tyrannosaurus Rex's head. Laimer couldn't withstand the blow. His massive body crashed to the ground, and he passed out, dazed.

In just a few seconds, two of the three princes were dead, and the last was unconscious, his fate unknown. Only then did the guards react. Most had no intention of fighting Teach. With their leaders dead, they trembled in fear, and weapons slipped from their hands and clattered to the ground. A few, however, remained loyal and wanted to avenge the princes.

"You killed the prince! We can't let you leave here alive!" one of them shouted, charging at Teach. People were always confident in themselves, and with so many of them, they believed they could handle Teach, who they thought was merely an assassin.

But Teach quickly showed them they were wrong. He was no one an ordinary person could fight. He was almost numb to it all. As he killed, his expression didn't change in the slightest. Terror made them want to flee. "Run! Get the others!"

"This kingdom is done for." Teach easily cut down the guards who charged him. The rest fled in panic, while some simply gave up resisting. But Teach showed no mercy. He'd changed his appearance, but not his clothes. He didn't want too many people to remember his face, and he'd already killed so many that a few more made no difference.

Before long, the place had become a sea of corpses. Bodies lay everywhere. Teach didn't spare those who had surrendered, and he never would. These guards were trusted retainers of the royal family. They knew the secrets of the royals and nobles, and some had even taken part in their crimes. So Teach wouldn't let them go.

Teach left, while the third prince, Laimer, remained of uncertain fate. Whether he survived was up to him. The prince hadn't been involved in breeding human pets. Though Teach had struck with all his strength, Laimer's Ancient Species Dragon-Dragon Fruit gave him tremendous vitality, so there was a good chance he'd survive.

Mobius had gone to the other breeding facilities. He was strong enough to deal with them. Teach destroyed each facility and killed everyone inside, leaving only the human pets who were still being raised there.

There were still hundreds of human pets being raised in these facilities, all children under ten. There were some in the city as well, but Teach didn't do anything about them. He left them where they were.

Teach and Mobius met at a massive facility. A boy stood beside Mobius, a little younger than he was. He wore clothes and could stand upright, but his cold eyes made him look like a snake.

Mobius looked helpless under Teach's gaze. "I had no choice. He wanted to come with me. I found him in a breeding facility the second prince had built specifically for this purpose. After I killed everyone there, I discovered him. The second prince had raised him alongside snakes, but someone had also been training him specifically in how to kill and walk upright."

"Suit yourself. Take him along if you like." Teach didn't pay it much mind. Seeing the familiar aura about the boy and the poisonous snake on him, he couldn't help thinking of the assassins they'd encountered outside that abandoned breeding facility. The boy must have been trained in a similar way, though not to be a human pet, but an assassin.

"Mm. I found out he didn't have a name, so I gave him one. His name is Wos." Mobius smiled. Wos followed close behind him, as if he had no feelings at all. He didn't speak, but Teach keenly noticed a glimmer in Wos's eyes when Mobius called his name.

"All right, this is the last place. Let's go in." Teach spoke and went straight into the breeding facility. Mobius followed close behind.

Teach's Observation Haki already covered the entire facility. There were some guards inside, while the rest were a few people who specialized in raising pets. Raising pets didn't require many people, and the guards had been sent to keep an eye on the workers.

Inside the facility, a young man in a white coat watched an adorable child and smiled, though a shadow crossed his eyes. The guards watched him from key corners of the facility. This place bred foxes, and the adorable child lived among a group of white foxes. His eyes shone brightly, and he was as alert as a fox.

The young man watched the child happily and nimbly leap around the play structures built for the children, surrounded by a group of little white foxes.

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound. He turned and saw two masked men and a boy who had somehow broken in. The guards and the others who worked there with him were all lying in pools of blood. He was just an ordinary man. The sight terrified him so badly that his legs went weak, and he didn't dare say a word.

The man who seemed to be in charge gave him a cold look, then glanced at the child still playing nearby. The slaughter all around him hadn't disturbed his fun at all. He only looked a little curious.

When the young man saw the man looking at the child, a chill ran through him. Seeing the corpses nearby, he assumed the man was going to kill the child. A surge of strength welled up in him, and he somehow overcame his fear. He hurried over to the child and gathered him in his arms. Tears streamed down his face. "Please don't hurt him. Spare his life—he's only a child. If you have to kill someone, kill me instead!" he shouted.

Teach slowly walked toward them. The man clutched the child tightly in his arms, his back turned to Teach. Holding his longsword, Teach approached at a steady pace. His footsteps rang out as he drew closer. Then the man felt a sharp pain in his back. Teach held the sword with its point pressed against him.

The man felt as if this was the last moment of his life. Tears streamed down his face as he looked up at the child's pure eyes, as though trying to etch them into his mind forever.

Teach didn't strike. Instead, he lowered his sword. He could feel the man's sincere affection for the child who'd been raised there. The man was willing to give his own life to protect him.

Mobius said nothing. He'd also sensed how the man felt about the child, and suspected there was more to the story.

The man had already prepared himself to die, but a long time passed and the person behind him still didn't strike. Instead, he felt the sword being withdrawn. In that instant, he went from expecting death to being given life. He couldn't help but sigh in relief, then turned to face Teach and the others, still holding the child tightly in his arms.

"Tell me. What's your relationship? What's the story behind all this?" When the man didn't speak, Teach asked directly.

Seeing that Teach didn't seem hostile, the man stroked the child's head and smiled tenderly. Then he began to tell his story. "My name is Clarence, and I'm a doctor. This child is my son. I named him Krell. He's a clever boy."

"Nine years ago, Krell disappeared. He was only two at the time. I was frantic with worry and searched everywhere in the royal city, but it was as if he'd vanished into thin air. Even after I asked the guards to search, the answer they gave me was that a wild beast had eaten him." As he spoke, Clarence clenched his teeth and fell into his memories.

"I couldn't accept it. I'd heard that same answer several times before. Every year in this kingdom, more than a dozen children under three mysteriously disappeared, only for people to claim they'd been eaten by wild beasts. In this kingdom of pets, such things were considered normal. People were always being killed by rampaging beasts. In a royal city of hundreds of thousands, a few dozen families couldn't change anything. Gradually, everyone got used to that explanation."

"But I didn't believe it. I sensed that something was wrong, so I began secretly watching the nobles and the guards. Once, I even saw a guard kidnap a young child with my own eyes."