Teach Panicked

"Douglas Barrett!!"

Teach's lips trembled as he forced those words out of his throat.

Right now, his expression resembled that of a woman caught in bed by her husband.

It was full of fear and unease.

Teach could not understand why a devil like Barrett had broken free so quickly.

And from the looks of it, the man had clearly set his sights on him!

This was bad!

Very, very bad!

Teach panicked.

Of everyone present, no one understood better than him just how terrifying the monster below was.

More than twenty years ago, when he had still been an apprentice aboard Whitebeard's ship,

he had fought Roger's crew many times under Whitebeard's leadership.

Back then, Teach's opponents had been Shanks and Buggy, fellow apprentice crewmen aboard Roger's ship.

Yet Douglas Barrett, a man only a few years older than him,

had possessed combat power as monstrous as Dark King Rayleigh, the Pirate King's right-hand man!

But compared to Barrett's strength, what truly terrified Teach was his personality.

This genuine monster was practically a born battle fanatic.

Once he began fighting, Barrett would grow more frenzied with every battle, until he fell into an extremely bloodthirsty state and entered that devilish form—his whole body blue-green, unable to distinguish friend from foe!

Once Barrett went berserk, even Rayleigh could do nothing to him for a while.

"Blackbeard Teach, heh heh, you have something on you that interests me."

Below, Barrett wore a smile as he studied the sweat-drenched Teach with great interest.

He gripped a Jailer Beast in each hand, bent his legs slightly, and tensed the tough tendons in his calves before exerting force.

BOOM!!

The earth rumbled. The ground beneath his feet cracked apart inch by inch, erupting with a burst of white air.

Barrett's massive body shot upward like a cannonball with a thunderous roar!

With a single crouching leap, he jumped directly from Impel Down's fifth floor, Freezing Hell, to the Scorching Hell level where Teach and the others stood.

As Barrett soared skyward like a cannonball, he casually hurled the Jailer Beasts in his hands toward Teach.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Two bursts of white air exploded, and the air let out shrill blasts.

That was the deadly scream of objects breaking the sound barrier!

Teach's scalp tingled, and the overwhelming terror left him standing frozen in place.

"Teach!" sniper Van Augur could not help shouting.

Almost on instinct, he raised his gun and fired at Barrett, who was still in midair!

He did not know Barrett, so he did not feel much fear toward him.

Bang!

The long gun shook, and the bullet had already reached Barrett's temple!

Clack!

Just one centimeter from Barrett's temple, two carrot-thick fingers lightly caught it.

At the same time,

the other members of the Blackbeard Pirates reacted no slowly.

Champion Burgess bent his arm and dropped his elbow, launching an elbow strike at the Jailer Beast hurtling toward him like a cannonball.

"Unsinkable Ship: Tone Cable Style!"

Burgess's eyes gleamed with excitement for battle.

He had great confidence in his own strength.

A moment ago, Burgess's face had still been brimming with confidence.

The next second, disbelief appeared on it.

BOOM!

The Minorhinoceros whose head Barrett had crushed slammed into Burgess's arm, instantly knocking back the elbow strike he had thrown.

Its heavy body crashed down onto Burgess's face.

A horrifying force like a meteor impact bore down like a landslide and tsunami, crushing his body into the ground.

The earth shook, trembled, and roared!

Chunks of rock flew up. Burgess screamed as the Minorhinoceros smashed him through the thick floor, sending him plummeting toward Freezing Hell.

"Burgess!"

Only then did Teach snap out of his trance-like memories.

Seeing Burgess sent flying, his fate unknown, Teach's face twisted.

Looking at Barrett, who had landed with a crash and was staring down at him from above, he demanded hoarsely,

"Douglas Barrett! We have no grudge against each other. What are you doing?"

As he spoke, he pulled and tore at the empty air before him with both hands.

Massive amounts of black currents poured out from between his hands, quickly filling a large area.

The Minoceros that had come crashing toward him slammed straight into the darkness in front of Teach.

A bizarre scene unfolded.

When the charging zebra's body touched the darkness, there was no violent collision.

Instead, it silently merged into it. Its body rapidly vanished, swallowed by the surging black currents as though it had entered another space, disappearing without a trace!

"Dark Vortex!"

Seeing the Jailer Beast he had thrown vanish into thin air, Barrett's eyes lit up.

He did not answer Teach's question, merely chuckling.

"Heh heh, so this is the Logia Dark-Dark Fruit? An interesting ability."

Under Teach's wary gaze, Barrett calmly strode closer.

Tap, tap, tap.

His heavy footsteps made dull sounds against the floor.

Barrett's powerful, muscular body, covered in burn scars, radiated an intense pressure.

To Blackbeard's crew, what approached them did not seem like a person.

It was like a mountain slowly collapsing upon them.

Unlike Teach's original crew members, Van Augur, Doc Q, Lafitte, and the others,

Avalo Pizarro, Crescent Moon Hunter Devon, and the rest, who had spent over a decade together in Infinite Hell, still had some impression of Barrett.

This monster, with his powerful and terrifying aura, was one of the few people all prisoners acknowledged as the strongest, even in Infinite Hell, where powerful figures gathered like clouds.

Among those strongest few were legendary powerhouses from the old era, Red the Aloof Patrick Redfield and World Destroyer Bondi Waldo!

And the notorious Devil's Heir Douglas Barrett was even more fearsome than those two.

After all, not only was he a monster, he was also an absolute madman.

Therefore, knowing just how terrifying Barrett was, Pizarro, Vasco Shot, and Catarina Devon immediately took several silent steps back, putting some distance between themselves and the approaching Barrett.

At this moment, the few of them were already beginning to regret joining the Blackbeard Pirates.

Seeing Teach and the others on guard, Barrett's lips curled slightly before he spoke words that made Teach's expression change drastically.

"Marshall D. Teach, after causing such a stir in Impel Down, are you heading to Marineford next to wait for a chance to seize Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit?"

Boom!

Teach's pupils instantly dilated. His heart jolted violently, and his mind went blank as though struck by thunder!

"You?!"

He raised a finger at Barrett, who stood right before him. His mouth hung half-open, and for a moment, he was too shocked to know what to say.

How could he know?

How could Barrett know his greatest secret?

Other than Burgess, Van Augur, Doc Q, Lafitte, and the other old crew members, no one else knew this secret.

Even Shiryu, Pizarro, and the others who had only just joined, Teach had not yet rushed to tell them his entire plan.

He was worried that Impel Down had ears everywhere and the news might leak, so he had planned to explain everything after they got out.

Thus, Barrett's sudden words instantly shattered Teach's composure, leaving him somewhat dazed.

But that daze lasted only a little over ten seconds before fading.

In its place, intense killing intent continuously surged within him!

Teach's eyes gradually filled with bloodshot veins. He stared fixedly at Barrett before him, while wisps of black currents slowly seeped from his body.

"I don't know where you got that information."

"But before my plan succeeds, this secret absolutely cannot be leaked!"

A teasing look appeared in Barrett's eyes. "So?"

Teach swept out one hand and boldly launched the first attack!

"So, whether you're the Devil's Heir or the devil himself, you must die!!"

"Dark Water!!"