The Change Beneath the Sea

Seeing the death-defying look in Rochi's eyes, Withered Bone inexplicably felt a chill run through his heart. His original intention of taking Rochi alive was completely replaced by an overwhelming sense of danger.

If a monster like this were allowed to live, he would overturn the entire World Government sooner or later!

He could not be left alive! Even if they brought back a corpse, it would be enough as long as they could extract the secrets within his body!

Killing intent surged in Withered Bone's eyes as top-tier Haki, sharp as steel needles and black as ink, instantly gathered at the tip of his right finger.

"Die!! Finger Pistol: Secret Art—Void Heartbreaker!!!"

"Screech—!!!"

There were no flashy effects, only the scalp-numbing sound of flesh being torn apart.

Rochi's charging body suddenly froze in place.

Withered Bone's finger, wrapped in Ryou, was like the sharpest steel spear as it brutally pierced through Rochi's heart with unbelievable violence!

Great sprays of scorching blood burst from Rochi's back like fountains!

Time seemed to stop flowing in that second.

Rochi lowered his head and blankly looked at the bloody hand that had pierced through his chest and emerged from his back.

"Squelch!"

Withered Bone cruelly curled his lips and violently yanked his arm back.

Accompanied by a nauseating tearing sound.

A heart that was still beating violently and dripping blood was forcibly ripped from Rochi's chest by Withered Bone!

"Navy Colonel!!!"

"No—!!!"

Behind him, Major Lace and over a thousand soldiers witnessed that nightmare-like scene and let out heart-wrenching, nearly despairing cries.

Rochi's pupils rapidly dilated, and life drained from him like the receding tide.

He raised his head toward the sky flashing with lightning and rumbling with thunder. His battered body finally lost all strength.

With a splash.

Rochi fell straight backward along the smooth bluestone edge of the dock, plunging heavily into the boundless black, freezing, turbulent sea below, where he was swallowed by the massive waves in the blink of an eye.

Standing in the torrential rain, Withered Bone disgustedly shook the heart still twitching with nerve spasms in his hand, his face full of scorn and contempt.

"What an overestimation of yourself. A mere Navy Colonel, and you dared dream of defying fate?"

He casually tossed the heart to the ground like trash.

Withered Bone's cold gaze suddenly swept across the sea as he roared at the agents aboard the warships.

"Even in death, don't think you'll die so easily!"

"Immediately issue a salvage order! Seal off this entire sea area! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, you will retrieve that old man's corpse for me! The Illusion-Illusion Fruit crystal must not be lost!"

The moment those words fell.

The G-8 branch Marines, who had been consumed by grief and could barely stand, instantly froze.

The man was dead.

Even his heart had been cruelly ripped out!

Yet these high-and-mighty World Government dogs still refused to let it go. They even wanted to fish their commander's corpse from the sea and continue desecrating it?!

Their final line had been utterly trampled to pieces!

"You animals..."

The bald veteran trembled as he crawled out of the mud, his eyes so red they seemed ready to drip blood.

Once, they had been cowardly, life-loving military thugs; once, Rochi had tormented them until they wished they were dead.

But the moment Rochi used his life to shield them, the last trace of blood and courage belonging to men and soldiers was finally ignited completely!

"The commander's final order was not to fire..."

A captain with a face full of stubble raised his musket. Tears mixed with rainwater and fell from his face. "Forgive me, Navy Colonel. This is the first time, and also the last time, that I will disobey your orders."

"Brothers—!!!"

The captain turned around and let out a grief-stricken roar that shook the heavens. "The commander is dead! Are we going to stand here and watch his corpse be devoured by these wild dogs?!"

"Never—!!!"

More than a thousand Marines, whether veteran soldiers from Headquarters or new recruits from the branch, cast aside all their fear and the so-called majesty of the World Government at that moment.

They raised their muskets and primed their heavy cannons. Like a pack of crazed wolves driven into a corner, they aimed unwaveringly at Withered Bone and the agent fleet ahead!

"To hell with the World Government! Die!!!"

"Bang bang bang bang bang—!!!"

The dense hail of bullets became a metal storm, pouring toward the agents with the fury of a thousand men.

"A pack of ants that don't know their place."

Watching the Marines dare to open fire on him.

The muscles on Withered Bone's face twitched violently. It was the extreme rage of supreme authority that could not be profaned being challenged!

"Rebellious Marines only pollute the air if they are allowed to live!"

Withered Bone slowly raised his bloodstained right hand. His voice was as cold as if it came from a glacier that had existed for ten thousand years as he gave the most brutal slaughter order.

"Since they want to die alongside that brat, grant them their wish."

"Full main-gun bombardment! All agents, land ashore!"

"I want this branch wiped clean! Not a blade of grass left standing! Not a single survivor!!!"

"Boom—!!!"

Rows of heavy cannons aboard the warships erupted with blinding muzzle flashes.

Destructive shells rained down like hail upon the G-8 branch fortress and docks. Flames shot into the sky, illuminating the night as brightly as day.

The agents turned into black afterimages of slaughter and charged into the Marine formation.

Without Rochi's protection, these ordinary soldiers who did not even know Haki were as fragile as wheat stalks before the Cipher Pol Agents, falling in swathes into pools of blood.

Screams, explosions, and the sound of bones breaking echoed across the entire island.

In less than half an hour.

The G-8 Marine branch, which had once stood proudly on the Grand Line, had been completely reduced to burning ruins.

Over a thousand Marine corpses covered the docks. Their blood flowed like a burst riverbank, dyeing more than half the bay a mournful dark red.

Not a single survivor.

A true hell on earth.

At the same time.

That—

Freezing seawater poured frantically into Rochi's nose and mouth.

His chest cavity, robbed of its heart, was like a tattered sack leaking air. Icy seawater, mixed with salty bitterness and scarlet blood, surged wildly into it.

Above him, the once azure sea had been completely dyed a mournful dark red by flames and blood.

Even as he continued sinking into the deep sea, Rochi's increasingly faint hearing could still catch the deafening roar of heavy artillery above.

It was the sound of the G-8 branch being utterly destroyed.

It was the desperate screams of those branch Marines whom he had once treated as experience fodder, yet who had defied orders and fired in resistance for him at the very end.

Rochi could not breathe. He could not even move.

Withered Bone's Finger Pistol: Secret Art—Void Heartbreaker had not only removed his heart. Its brutal Haki had completely destroyed every inch of his meridians and life force.

Was I going to die here...?

Rochi floated face-up as he slowly sank.

His unfocused eyes stared fixedly at the sea above, reddened by cannon fire.

Overwhelming hatred and unwillingness gnawed at his fading soul like venomous snakes.

Fake! It was all fake!

Fifteen years of memories were a lie woven with his sister's life, and the Marines who supposedly represented justice were nothing more than killing machines the World Government used to whitewash peace and maintain its filthy power!

He hated it! He hated that he had not possessed greater strength! He hated that, from the very beginning, he had not slaughtered every one of those beasts wearing human skin!

Down he sank.

Fifty meters... one hundred meters... five hundred meters...

All surrounding light was completely devoured by the abyss. The terrifying pressure of the deep sea, enough to crush steel flat, began tearing at Rochi's battered body.

An ordinary person—even a pirate with a bounty exceeding a hundred million—would have long been dead beyond death after losing their heart and sinking into such depths.

And yet.

Just as Rochi's soul was about to fall completely into darkness, never to be reborn!

"Buzz—!"

An extremely faint azure glow, ancient, mysterious, and so immense it could not be described with words, suddenly lit up within Rochi's hollow chest cavity!

This strange force was like a pair of gentle hands, instantly pushing away the violent, freezing seawater around him.

A deep-blue bubble of absolute vacuum completely enveloped Rochi.

At the same time.

Within this deathly silent abyss of the deep sea, a bleak and hoarse murmur seemed to drift faintly into Rochi's ears, as though it had crossed through countless ages.

"How fascinating..."

"His heart has been completely removed, and the vitality of his body has already been extinguished, yet the burning obsession of his soul remains so solid, refusing to disperse?"

"What a pity... his own strength is simply too weak."

Along with that murmur, Rochi felt the endless darkness before his eyes shatter like a mirror.

When his consciousness became clear once more.

He found himself in a strange space without sky or boundaries!

All around him were ruins beneath pouring rain. The architectural style was ancient and grand, belonging to no country in the history of the present-day seas!

And upon his chest, where his heart had been ripped out, a mass of deep-blue seawater now circulated, forcibly sealing his fatal wound and preserving his last trace of spiritual illusion.

"Who's playing tricks?!"

Rochi found that he could actually speak again.

He suddenly raised his head, his eyes still filled with violent hostility even within this spiritual world, and stared fixedly into the depths of the rain curtain.

Even if his body and soul were destroyed, the defiance in his bones would never allow him to bow his head to anyone!

"Hehehe, what intense killing intent. What a violent soul."

The rain filling the sky gathered in midair, gradually outlining a blurry, enormous face that radiated endless sorrow and the weight of countless years.

The face formed from water droplets looked down at Rochi. A weary sense of relief colored its voice.

"But this is good as well. I have lain dormant in this freezing seabed for a full thousand years. Countless strong warriors' corpses and souls have sunk here, yet only the desperate desire for destruction within your heart best suits this merciless torrential rain filling the sky."

"Little one, I do not have much time left. This final shred of will is about to completely dissipate in this cursed deep sea."

"Now, only you are the sole suitable inheritor I have waited for in these thousand years."

The vast voice paused, then asked solemnly with a pressure that struck directly at the soul.

"Before I give this power to you, can you answer one question?"

"If... I gave you a chance to be reborn."

"With your talent, you should have had a bright future within the Marine system. You might even become an overlord ruling one side of the seas in the future."

"As long as you chose compromise, you could possess all the power, wealth, and influence anyone could desire in this world."

"Faced with such an irresistible behemoth, would you still foolishly choose to stand up as you did today, fight them to the bitter end, and resist all of this?"