Elbow, Come Inside

"Gulp."

The sound of someone swallowing echoed out.

Teach, Shot, and Devon watched the scene with their eyelids twitching wildly.

In the span of barely a dozen seconds, two former Seven Warlords—Jinbe the Knight of the Sea and Crocodile the Desert King—along with Magellan, Impel Down's warden, had been utterly and decisively defeated by Bullet.

It had all happened far too quickly.

So quickly that the people present had yet to recover from the instant the brawl erupted.

Only Shiryu remained utterly calm.

As though anything Bullet did was only natural.

Simply because Bullet had defeated him.

If he weren't this powerful, he wouldn't be worth becoming the blade in his hand.

That was what Shiryu thought.

As for Straw Hat Luffy's combat strength, everyone simply ignored it.

Bullet, however, did not think it was anything remarkable.

His Observation Haki was incredibly powerful.

Before the battle had even begun, he had noticed that Crocodile and Jinbe were merely putting on a strong front.

Perhaps before arriving here,

they had already fought Magellan fiercely.

Those imprisoned in Infinite Hell understood the terror of the Venom-Venom Fruit better than anyone.

Once struck by Magellan's deadly poison, anyone without sufficiently strong vitality or a specialized antidote would never last long.

However,

even if Magellan and the other two had not been injured and were still in perfect condition, Bullet was absolutely confident he could defeat all three.

The current Crocodile had challenged Whitebeard in his early years and returned after suffering a crushing defeat.

He had even gained a horizontal scar across his entire face because of it.

That led to more than twenty years of decline and decadence.

His Haki had long regressed to the point where his Armament Haki had completely vanished, while his Observation Haki was pitifully weak.

Though he still bore the title of Seven Warlord and possessed a Logia Devil Fruit, Bullet considered it all nothing more than a bluff.

It was only enough to scare rookie pirates who had just entered the seas.

If Crocodile had truly possessed any strength, he would not have been defeated by Straw Hat Luffy.

Below Red Lotus Hell.

When the Venom Demon controlled by Magellan came crashing down with a howl and he awoke from the dizzying agony,

he saw a vast crowd of densely packed prisoners staring at him in astonishment.

"Look! Who's this? Isn't this Impel Down's king of hell, the great Warden Magellan?"

"Wahahahaha! Look at that pathetic state he's in. I'd bet he was knocked down by Bullet."

"That bastard Bullet actually sealed off the exit leading outside! Damn it! Opportunities to escape from prison like this only come once in a lifetime!"

As he looked at the Infinite Hell prisoners, each wearing mocking expressions and bursting into laughter,

Magellan forcibly held up his body, which was on the verge of collapse.

Dark-red poisonous mist rapidly drifted from the over-ten-meter-tall dark-red Venom Demon, gathering into a massive skull.

His gaze was incomparably cold as he swung a gigantic venomous hand without hesitation at the several hundred prisoners surrounding him.

At that moment,

Magellan had already resolved to die.

With Impel Down suffering such a catastrophe, he, as warden, could never escape blame.

If Straw Hat Luffy and Buggy the Clown had merely released the prisoners from the upper levels, it would have been one thing.

Those people were not particularly dangerous.

Even if they were lucky enough to escape Impel Down,

they would not pose much of a threat to the outside world.

But Blackbeard's reckless meddling had caused even the most dangerous Infinite Hell to fall.

Even a terrifying monster like Douglas Barrett had escaped.

Patrick Redfield had probably also taken advantage of the chaos to flee outside, hadn't he?

Magellan still remembered

the enormous force mobilized when those two had been imprisoned here. It had nearly matched half the scale of the coming battle at Marineford.

The Red Count had exhausted himself after fighting Commander-in-Chief Kong for ten days and ten nights, then been defeated and captured by Vice Admiral Garp.

Douglas Barrett, meanwhile, had been surrounded by a Buster Call from Marine Headquarters during a battle with a great pirate somewhere in the New World.

And Sengoku and Garp had led that Buster Call.

If monstrous great pirates like them were released into the New World today, aside from lacking their own territory and forces,

their individual combat power was already no weaker than that of the New World's current Four Emperors.

Thus,

it was not hard to imagine the bloody storms they would stir up in the outside world!

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku... I'm sorry. I... failed your expectations. I can only... atone with my death!!"

Through the dark-red venom, Magellan saw the prisoners before him launching all manner of attacks at him with savage grins. A ferocious expression twisted onto his face as he roared and charged into the crowd.

"Venom Demon! Hell's Judgment!!"

"Shiryu, you all go out first and take down the warships outside."

After knocking out Crocodile, who had been bound in golden threads, Bullet gave instructions to the idle Shiryu.

Shiryu said nothing. Carrying the long blade Raiu, he silently headed toward the first level above the sea.

At that moment,

the Armament Haki covering the walls was withdrawn by Bullet.

The passage leading upward was revealed once more.

Seeing Shiryu leave, Shot and Devon hesitated over whether to follow him.

They cautiously looked toward Bullet.

After seeing Bullet nod, the two immediately jogged after Shiryu.

Compared to remaining by Bullet's side, Shot and Devon would rather go outside and slaughter Marines.

Unlike the still-unformed Teach, Bullet was now a genuine admiral-level powerhouse.

After watching them leave,

the only people lying on the ground were Buggy and the others unconscious beside the wall, along with Crocodile and Jinbe, whom Bullet had knocked out.

Teach's lips moved as he wondered whether he should say something.

Being alone in the same room as a demon like Bullet placed far too much pressure on him.

Seeing the uneasy Blackbeard, Bullet grabbed the unconscious Luffy in one large hand. With a curl of his finger, the ground rapidly rose up and formed a Dark Room.

"Come in. I have something for you to do."

As he watched Bullet's towering back disappear through the pitch-black doorway, Teach's throat involuntarily bobbed.

He muttered a few inaudible words under his breath, but still obediently followed Bullet into the Dark Room.

"Clack, clack."

The walls of the Dark Room shifted, then sealed together without a single gap.

The room was pitch-black.

But soon, purple light flickered on, faintly illuminating the interior.

The room was not large. At some point, a stone platform had risen from the floor in the center.

Luffy's body had been placed on the stone platform by Bullet.

He turned around and looked at the uneasy Teach.

"I need you to take the Devil Fruit power from Straw Hat Luffy without letting him die."