Shiryu of the Rain

Thud!

The running Corrupt King Pizarro plunged headfirst to the ground.

Only then did his neck, twisted like a pretzel, snap apart, his head rolling like a ball to Shot and Devon's feet.

"Ahhh!"

Heavy Drinker Vasco Shot cried out in alarm, utter terror filling his eyes.

He had seen Pizarro's strength before.

During the chaotic slaughter in Infinite Hell, the few of them had quickly dealt with their own cellmates.

Pizarro was known as the Corrupt King.

Many years ago, on the seas of the New World, he had been a noble prince of a certain kingdom.

To satisfy his selfish desires, Pizarro had incited the kingdom into launching many wars, causing massacres that affected millions.

He himself possessed the strength of a Marine Headquarters vice admiral.

Yet even so, he had been unable to withstand a single slap from Bullet!

Only then did Shot and Devon truly understand.

Though they were all vicious criminals from Infinite Hell, the gap between people like them and Bullet or the Red Count was still as vast as heaven and earth.

The instant Pizarro was slapped to death by Bullet.

Without the slightest hesitation, there came two thuds. Shot and Devon, two world-class criminals, dropped straight to their knees and pressed their heads tightly against the ground.

Bullet, gripping Teach by the head, revealed himself and looked down at them indifferently.

Neither dared raise their heads. Their entire bodies trembled uncontrollably.

"Lord Bullet, I am willing to submit! I am willing to submit!" Shot blurted out in a trembling voice.

Beside him, Catarina Devon nodded frantically. "I... I am too! We are willing to submit to you!"

Bullet said nothing, and neither of them even dared breathe loudly.

"Where are the prisoners who escaped?"

Bullet did not respond to their pleas. He merely asked suddenly.

Among the prisoners of Infinite Hell around Teach, there were only Shot and the other two.

Yet at least five hundred people had left Infinite Hell one after another.

But Bullet had not seen any trace of them.

Even after activating his powerful Observation Haki, he could not find any trace of those prisoners.

Shot and Devon nervously raised their heads and both turned their gazes toward Teach.

Shot pointed at Teach. "My lord, he put all those prisoners into his ability space."

"Just like that Jailer Beast earlier, Blackbeard's ability space should be able to hold living things," Devon added.

Shot nodded repeatedly.

"And it must be quite large. Even that Battleship, Sanjuan Wolf, was put inside by him. However, Blackbeard said the oxygen in there is limited. Once it is used up, it takes time to replenish."

"Oh?" Bullet looked at Teach in his hand with surprise.

Wasn't this a portable space?

He had not expected the Dark-Dark Fruit to have such an ability.

It did share some of the spatial traits of the Fortress-Fortress Fruit.

Bullet glanced at Shiryu, who had neither made a move nor spoken, much less fled.

"Impel Down's deputy warden, Shiryu of the Rain. What? You want to trade blows with me?"

The corner of Bullet's mouth curled up.

From Shiryu, he sensed an incredibly pure desire to kill.

He had once possessed such intense bloodlust himself.

In fact, his had been even stronger than Shiryu's was now.

After Roger died, with no one left to challenge, his heart had been filled with boundless desire for slaughter.

He had completely run wild across the seas of the New World, losing himself and nearly becoming a mindless fighting puppet.

When he looked at Shiryu, Bullet felt as though he were seeing a kindred spirit.

Shiryu spat out the cigar clenched between his teeth and slowly drew the long blade [Raiu] from his waist.

"That's right."

"Originally, I wanted to follow Blackbeard into the outside world, challenge powerful opponents, and enjoy endless slaughter."

"But now, I have a better choice."

A strange red glow emerged in his eyes.

An eerie ghostly aura also rose from the crimson blade of Raiu.

In an instant, razor-sharp killing intent and sword light formed tangible wind blades that howled toward Bullet.

"Hehehe, that choice is a mistake."

Feeling that familiar bloodthirsty killing intent, Bullet's heart stirred slightly.

Although Shiryu was not strong enough to awaken an intense desire to fight within him.

That unrestrained, oceanlike killing intent still made him somewhat excited.

Boom!

Teach coughed up a mouthful of blood and was flung to the ground like garbage by Bullet, smashing out a crater.

Bullet glanced at Shot and Devon, who were still kneeling on the ground, and said coldly, "Watch him."

Shot and Devon froze.

Then delight appeared on their faces. They hurriedly stood up and grabbed Teach's arms from either side.

Pinned firmly by the two of them, Teach let out a weak groan.

He opened his eyes and glared furiously at Shot and Devon.

"You two bastards! Didn't you say you were joining my pirate crew? You betrayed me in the blink of an eye! Where did a pirate's honor go?!"

Shot and Devon exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes together.

Shot sniffed through his enormous rosacea nose, scooped up Pizarro's head from the ground—his eyes still open, no, his eyeballs were gone—and stuffed it straight into Teach's arms, drawing a string of furious curses from him.

"You're a pirate and you still talk about honor, Blackbeard? Is your brain really full of shit?"

"In the New World, strength is everything. Lord Bullet is powerful, and we have a better choice. Why should we hang ourselves from your rotten tree?"

"Besides, you have the nerve to lecture us about honor?"

Shot laughed. "You even sold out your old man Whitebeard, and you're still putting on this act. Aren't you ashamed?"

Teach's curses caught in his throat. His dark face flushed crimson, turning blackish red.

Beside him, Bullet's mountainlike, muscular body suddenly flickered and vanished into the air.

Crack!

A brilliant blade of light slashed through the air, leaving a crack dozens of meters long across the broad bridge.

But Bullet had already vanished from within the fissure.

When he reappeared, he was already behind Shiryu!

His speed was so fast that it even surpassed Shave of the Six Powers.

This was the speed Bullet had naturally gained after twenty years of harsh cultivation in prison, tempering this body to its limits.

His strength, speed, technique, and physical toughness were all flawless.

Boom!!

The air behind him exploded, bursting in every direction like flowing water.

Bullet swung his clenched right fist, like a colossal pillar piercing heaven and earth, blasting out layer after layer of white shockwaves.

That massive fist was like a meteor falling from the sky, carrying an indescribably terrifying force!

Whoosh!

Shiryu's combat instincts were clearly exceptional.

The moment his slash missed, he had already moved to evade.

Before Bullet's fist could descend, his body twisted and vanished from the spot.

Dozens of meters away, Shiryu had barely reappeared when, with blade-sharp eyes, he swung his long sword once more.

Slash!

The blood-red sword light cleaved through the air and cut toward Bullet's throat!