Departure, Subjugating the 500 Million Beli Pirate Crew

But Rochi's body did not tremble and retreat like those around him. Instead, he involuntarily took half a step forward, raised his head, and stared fixedly at Red Dog on the platform.

His blood boiled, his muscles quivered, and the One-Tomoe Sharingan deep in his eye sockets showed faint signs of spinning.

It was not fear. It was an instinctive desire, born of extreme excitement, to tear apart and devour that supreme power!

"Hmm?"

Red Dog, standing on the platform, furrowed his brow ever so slightly.

As a top-ranking admiral, how could he fail to notice the gaze from below?

Among the new recruits trembling like quails, the youth in a private's uniform, whose eyes burned with the madness of a starving wolf from hell, stood out like a torch in the night.

"That utterly undisguised killing intent and ambition..."

Red Dog looked at Rochi, a cruel smirk curling across his lips. Even the ember on his cigar seemed to flare brighter.

But he did not expose him. Instead, he withdrew his gaze and issued his first bone-chilling military order to the three hundred men below.

"Listen up, soldiers under my command!"

"The Navy is a weapon that exists to completely erase evil from the seas!"

"This time, we march into the New World! Our target is the Mad Axe Pirates, with a bounty as high as 500 million Beli, along with his subordinate grand fleet of as many as four thousand men!"

At the words "500 million bounty" and "four-thousand-man fleet," gasps immediately swept through the formation below.

For new recruits freshly enlisted from the Four Seas, even 50 million was already an unattainable myth.

500 million?! That was practically a walking natural disaster!

But Red Dog's next words shattered their last illusions.

"Under me, there is no retreat and no mercy!"

"Anyone who takes even half a step back on the battlefield, or shows mercy to pirates, I do not mind personally sending them to hell!"

"All hands, board the ship! Depart for the New World!"

"Yes, sir!!!"

Whether willing or despairing, all the recruits could only roar their response at the top of their lungs.

The massive headquarters warship belched thick black smoke and slowly sailed out through the Gates of Justice amid deafening whistles.

Rochi stood alone, leaning against the railing at the edge of the deck.

He paid no attention to the fellow recruits around him who were writing their wills or clutching their heads and weeping.

Feeling the violent sea wind of the New World rushing toward him, the scarlet tomoe within his dark, unfathomable eyes finally could no longer restrain themselves and began spinning wildly!

"A bounty of 500 million Beli, plus a grand fleet of four thousand men..."

"How much experience can that get me?"

"New World... I, Rochi, have arrived!"

Several days later.

New World.

Upon the turbulent black sea.

A colossal headquarters warship flying an enormous seagull flag sped through the waves like a sword tearing through the ocean.

"Reporting to Admiral Sakazuki!"

From the observation post atop the towering mast, the scout raised his telescope. His voice was hoarse and cracked with extreme fury and excitement.

"Target location confirmed ten nautical miles ahead! The coastline of the Saintingburg Kingdom has entered visual range!"

"The Mad Axe Pirates, with a bounty as high as 500 million Beli, and their numerous subordinate grand fleets are currently anchored and assembled in the capital's harbor!"

At the foremost deck of the warship stood a burly man dressed in a burgundy suit and draped in a coat of justice.

Red Dog Sakazuki slowly exhaled a thick, pungent cloud of cigar smoke. Not a trace of human emotion stirred on his face, cold and hard as iron.

"The Saintingburg Kingdom?" Red Dog asked coldly.

"Yes, Admiral! But..." The scout clenched his teeth, his eyes bloodshot. "Through the telescope, the entire capital is already engulfed in towering flames! They are slaughtering the city!"

The view suddenly zoomed in.

At that moment, the Saintingburg Kingdom's once-prosperous royal capital had long become a living hell.

Magnificent buildings had been blasted apart. The streets were strewn with mutilated corpses of civilians and royal guards, while blood gathered into streams and dyed the pure white stone roads a deep crimson.

"Hahahaha! Cry! Scream! The more miserable you are, the more excited I get!"

At the highest point of the palace ruins.

A terrifying giant over six meters tall, carrying a massive double-bladed axe dripping with blood, threw back his head and laughed wildly.

He was the nightmare of these waters, Mad Axe, with a bounty of 500 million Beli!

By his enormous fan-like feet rolled a severed head, its eyes still wide open in death—it belonged to the king who had once stood above all others in this nation!

As for the queen and princess, who had once lived in pampered luxury, their silk finery had now been torn into strips.

Their eyes were full of despair, their bodies covered in bruises, as several vicious pirate officers pinned them into the mud and violated them at will.

"Please... spare my daughter..." the queen wailed tearfully.

"Spare her? We're pirates!"

A brutish officer laughed wildly and slapped the queen sharply across the face. "On the Grand Line, weakness is the original sin!"

Mad Axe impatiently rested the giant axe on his shoulder, his rough voice shaking dust loose from the ruins.

"Enough! Stop playing around! Hurry up and load all the gold looted from the royal treasury onto the ships!"

"This royal family is poor as dirt. We've squeezed out nearly all the profit, so get ready to withdraw!"

Thousands of subordinate pirates erupted in greedy cheers, carrying bags upon bags of gold, silver, and treasure as they swarmed toward the harbor like a plague of locusts.

However!

Just as they thought they had struck it rich and were preparing to board their ships and set sail.

For some reason, the previously clear sky suddenly darkened.

A suffocating, terrifying heat wave engulfed the entire harbor without warning!

"C-Captain... look at the sky! What is that?!"

A pirate pointed into the air, trembling all over, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.

Mad Axe abruptly raised his head, and his once-arrogant pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints!

Ten nautical miles away! The warship had not even reached shore yet!

But on that distant horizon, the right half of Red Dog Sakazuki's body had already completely transformed into surging dark-red magma, radiating the pungent stench of sulfur!

"There is no need for mercy or survivors when dealing with irredeemable trash like pirates."

Red Dog's eyes widened as an overwhelming killing intent, enough to incinerate all things, surged into the sky!

"In the name of absolute justice—"

"Meteor Volcano!!!"

BOOM—!!!