Descend upon the Holy Land!

Mornings in Foosha Village were always noisy.

Bang!

Luffy was sent flying by an iron-clad water pipe. He bounced across the grass twice like a ball before finally getting caught in a tree branch.

"Too slow, Luffy!"

Ace lowered the pipe and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

His gaze was now as sharp as a blade.

Ever since watching Kahn fight that so-called Marine hero grandpa yesterday, an emotion called anxiety had taken root deep in his heart.

The gap was too great.

So great that it was despairing.

Nearby, Sabo was doing one-finger push-ups, sweat dripping from the tip of his nose into the dirt.

"Where's that monster?"

Sabo asked between breaths.

"He flew off ages ago."

Ace glanced up at the sky.

A massive hole had been torn through the clouds, the trace left behind by Kahn's charge.

At this time every day, that guy would head above the stratosphere to play at being a plant, calling it photosynthesis.

"Must be nice..."

Luffy fell from the tree, his face full of envy.

"I want to fly too."

Ace curled his lip.

"Stop dreaming. Get up and train, or you won't get lunch."

The three brothers resumed their self-torturous training.

Meanwhile, more than ten thousand meters above the ground...

Kahn was not, as usual, hovering in the stratosphere and sleeping.

The air currents around him shrieked madly, forming a white shock cone.

Golden energy flowed over his body, resisting the intense heat generated by his extreme speed.

His destination was clear.

The Red Line.

More precisely, Mary Geoise, the place known as the Residence of the Gods.

When Garp answered that call yesterday, he had not bothered to hide it from Kahn.

Fisher Tiger.

That mad Fish-Man who had climbed the Red Line with his bare hands.

In the original story, he might have accomplished that great feat, but his ending had not been good.

He had been betrayed by humans and bled to death, even refusing a human blood transfusion.

Someone that unyielding deserved a far less humiliating death.

Kahn had set his sights on him.

Not because of his combat power. Kahn had plenty of that himself.

What Kahn wanted was the name of the Sun Pirates.

And Fisher Tiger's irreplaceable prestige on Fish-Man Island.

If he intended to overturn this world in the future, then the strength of Fish-Man Island had to be in his hands.

Besides.

The Nika Fruit, which called itself the Sun God, was still developing inside Luffy's stomach.

As the true son of the Sun, how could he not have a Sun Legion of his own?

"Still too slow."

Kahn muttered inwardly.

Though he had already broken the sound barrier, he was still unimaginably far from his ideal speed of light.

The sea beneath him rushed backward.

About twenty minutes later.

A red cliff appeared at the edge of his vision.

That was the Red Line.

Like a scar forcibly cinched around the planet.

Above that red cliff, thick smoke billowed and flames soared into the sky.

The alarms could even be heard up in the clouds.

Kahn adjusted his posture.

His Bio-Force Field erupted violently. He drew a golden arc through the sky and dove toward the source of the chaos.

At the edge of the cliffs of Mary Geoise.

This was hell.

And also the only path to freedom.

Countless ragged slaves cried and ran.

Some wore chains, while others bore the nauseating brand of the Celestial Dragon's Hoof.

Fire spread through the elegant white buildings.

A group of people in white suits and masks moved through the crowd.

The CP Organization.

The Celestial Dragons' watchdogs.

They showed no mercy. Every thrust of their Finger Pistols took another living life.

"Don't get bogged down! Run!"

A rough roar exploded from the rear of the crowd.

Fisher Tiger.

The red-skinned sea bream Fish-Man was covered in blood.

He held two stolen heavy firearms, while three frail human children were strapped to his back.

A bone-deep sword wound crossed his chest, left there when he had covered Boa Hancock and her sisters' retreat.

"Damned Fish-Man!"

Several CP0 agents had already surrounded him.

The leader wore a patterned mask and held a rapier.

"How dare you defile the residence of the gods."

"Did you think you could leave here alive?"

Fisher Tiger panted heavily.

His stamina had already been exhausted.

He had climbed up from the sea floor, set fires, and fought.

He had reached his limit.

But he could not fall.

There were still hundreds of slaves behind him who had not yet managed to jump from the cliff.

"Gods?"

Fisher Tiger spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, his eyes fierce.

"Things that raise their own kind as livestock dare call themselves gods?"

"I might die."

"But before I do, I'll pull every last tooth from you lapdogs!"

Fisher Tiger roared, threw aside his empty firearms, and charged forward with his callused fists swinging.

Fish-Man Karate!

The moisture in the air compressed beneath his force, transforming into a powerful shockwave.

But these CP0 agents were clearly no cannon fodder.

The masked leader flashed away, easily dodging Fisher Tiger's attack.

His rapier shot forward like a venomous serpent, piercing straight toward Fisher Tiger's heart.

"Too slow, big guy."

The masked man's voice was filled with mockery.

Fisher Tiger's pupils contracted.

He could not dodge.

The children were still on his back. He could not dodge either.

At that critical moment.

The sky suddenly darkened.

Then.

A suffocating heat wave descended from above.

Without a word.

Two crimson laser beams, like God's judgment, pierced straight through the masked man's body.

Sizzle—!

He did not even have time to scream.

That CP0 elite, along with his sword, was instantly vaporized into two charred halves.

The remaining agents froze.

Fisher Tiger was stunned as well.

Everyone instinctively looked up.

A figure hovered in midair.

With the blinding Sun behind him, no one could make out his face.

They could only see his fluttering black hair and his red-glowing eyes, still radiating residual heat.

Kahn slowly descended.

His toes touched the ground, yet it felt as though he had stepped on everyone's hearts.

The surrounding temperature instantly rose several degrees.

Even the blazing flames around him seemed to dim in his presence.

"This is CP0?"

Kahn glanced at the smoking corpse on the ground, disappointment filling his voice.

"You can't even die from one glare. How do you have the nerve to call yourselves the strongest shield?"

Only then did the remaining three CP0 agents react.

Their hands shook around their weapons from overwhelming terror.

What had just happened?

Heat Vision?

A Devil Fruit user?

"Who are you?!"

One of the agents shouted, trying to sound fierce despite his fear.

"You dare kill agents of the World Government? That's a capital offense!"

Kahn turned his head.

There was no emotion in those golden pupils, as though he were looking at weeds by the roadside.

"A capital offense?"

"Then go ask the King of Hell whether he dares take me in."

The moment he finished speaking.

Kahn vanished.

When he reappeared, he was already standing before the agent who had spoken.

One hand.

Just one hand, casually pressing against the man's mask.

"Too loud."

Bang!

The agent's head burst like a watermelon.

There was no spray of blood and flesh.

The instant Kahn touched him, the heat had already carbonized everything.

The other two agents broke down.

They turned and fled, using Shave from the Navy Six Powers, moving so fast that afterimages trailed behind them.

But in Kahn's eyes, they were no different from crawling snails.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

Two more beams of Heat Vision shot out.

Precise and efficient.

The fleeing figures had both their legs severed and rolled screaming off the cliff.

The whole process took less than five seconds.

A situation that had originally been certain death was instantly reversed.

The scene fell completely silent.

Only the crackling of flames consuming wood could be heard.

The slaves who had not managed to escape widened their eyes, covering their mouths and not daring to make a sound.

They had no idea whether this youth who had descended from the sky was a god or a demon.

Kahn turned around and looked at Fisher Tiger.

This legendary Fish-Man hero was even taller and more powerfully built than he had seemed in the anime.

His red skin was covered in wounds, and those round eyes were filled with vigilance.

"Human?"

Fisher Tiger shielded the child on his back behind him and assumed a defensive stance.

Although Kahn had saved him.

In Fisher Tiger's eyes, humans could not be trusted.

Especially humans with such terrifying power.

"Relax, big red fish."

Kahn kept both hands in his pockets, looking utterly casual.

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be grilled fish."

Fisher Tiger gritted his teeth.

He knew the other man was telling the truth.

That kind of power was simply beyond anything he could resist.

"What do you want?"

Fisher Tiger asked in a low voice.

"Slaves? Money? Or do you want to turn me in for a bounty?"

Kahn laughed.

His laugh was wildly arrogant.

"I'm not interested in worthless paper like money."

"As for slaves..."

Kahn swept his gaze over the pitiful wretches around them, trembling with fear.

"What would I want those things for? To be dead weight?"

He walked up to Fisher Tiger.

There was a huge difference in their heights, yet in terms of presence, Kahn was looking down on him completely.

"I came for you, Fisher Tiger."

"For me?" Fisher Tiger frowned.

"I heard you wanted to form a pirate crew?"

Kahn did not beat around the bush.

"I've even thought of a name for you. How about the Sun Pirates?"

Fisher Tiger froze.

That name was exactly what he had imagined in his heart.

It was not only meant to cover the shameful Celestial Dragon's Hoof mark, but also to bring true sunlight to Fish-Man Island.

"How did you know..."

"Don't worry about how I knew."