Bellemere

The bloody night in Golden Sands City was like a massive bomb dropped into the bottom of a lake. What it stirred up was not only mud and sand, but raging waves across all of Alabasta.

In just one day, the name "Grayrock" Rain had spread to every oasis in this superpower.

In the underground black market, Baroque Works had directly offered the astronomical bounty of fifty million Beli for his assassination, marked in blood-red letters: "Dead or alive. Extremely dangerous." Meanwhile, the Alabasta royal family had been thoroughly enraged by this brutal vigilante execution that had bypassed the law and blasted the governor into a bloody mist in public.

The capital, Alubarna, issued its highest-level red wanted order overnight. The King's Army dispatched its elites in full force, swearing to bring this "heinous terrorist" who had run rampant across the desert to justice.

For a time, both the underworld and the authorities cast a vast net, closing in on the heart of the desert.

At noon, the blazing desert sun was like a gigantic furnace, baking the endless yellow sands until they were scorching hot.

Rain wore his black trench coat as he walked alone across the dunes toward the next city. The blazing sun and heat had no effect on him. On an incredibly subtle level, his legs assimilated with the sand and stone beneath his feet, making every step feel like gliding across level ground.

"So the underworld and the authorities are both after me? Their efficiency isn't bad."

Rain casually crushed a desert scorpion that had tried to attack him. There was not the slightest ripple in his dark eyes. He had expected the consequences of the Golden Sands City incident. This was exactly what he wanted: muddy the waters, then force the real big fish hiding in the shadows to reveal themselves.

Suddenly, Rain stopped.

There was no wind, yet the blazing sunlight overhead was suddenly blocked by a massive shadow.

"Caw—!"

A piercing, mournful eagle cry tore through the sky as something dove from a height of ten thousand meters with a terrifying speed beyond the sound barrier!

It was a gigantic peregrine falcon with a wingspan of over four meters. In midair, it smoothly transformed into a half-human, half-bird form, gripping two specially made machine guns in its hands, its gaze sharp as a blade.

The vice-captain of the Kingdom of Alabasta's royal guard, the man hailed as the "Kingdom's Strongest Warrior," the Zoan Bird-Bird Fruit Falcon Form user, Bellemere!

"I found you, heinous criminal!"

Bellemere abruptly stopped in midair less than fifty meters above Rain. With his fierce shout, more than a hundred fully armed King's Army elites instantly emerged from behind the previously empty dunes. Riding the desert's Super Spot-Billed Ducks and carrying rifles and cannons, they surrounded Rain on all sides without leaving a single gap.

"Not only did you brutally murder the governor of Golden Sands City, you also incited civilians to riot." Bellemere looked down at Rain from above, his voice barely restraining his fury. "In the name of the Alabasta royal family, drop your weapons and surrender immediately!"

Rain slowly raised his head and looked at Bellemere in the air, a faint mocking curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

"Surrender? To a bunch of blind fools who can't even figure out who their enemy is?"

"Arrogant criminal!" A cold gleam flashed in Bellemere's eyes. Without the slightest hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!"

The downward machine-gun fire wove into an impenetrable net of metal, instantly blanketing the dune where Rain stood. The yellow sand churned violently beneath the barrage.

Faced with the dense barrage, Rain did not move a single step.

A smooth, grayish-white layer of high-density Granite Armor instantly appeared over the surface of his body.

"Clang, clang, clang—!"

The piercing sounds of metal striking metal rang out continuously. The powerful machine-gun rounds only threw off a long trail of dazzling sparks when they hit Rain's Rock Armor before being mercilessly deflected. They could not even leave a white mark on it.

"What?!" Bellemere's pupils constricted sharply.

"Physical attacks don't work on me. Didn't you bother finding out something that basic before you came?"

Rain suddenly swept his right hand upward. The yellow sand on the ground was instantly forced apart as a thick pillar of rock burst from the earth, shooting straight toward Bellemere in the air.

"Flying Claw!"

Bellemere reacted quickly. He put away his machine guns, and his claws drew several fierce afterimages through the air, forcibly carving deep cracks into the stone pillar. He then used the force to glide backward, avoiding Rain's counterattack.

"All units, fire! Don't stop!" Bellemere shouted.

The more than one hundred King's Army soldiers around them opened fire at once, and the deafening roar of guns and cannons shook the air.

Rain stood at the center of smoke and warfire with his arms folded across his chest, letting shells explode around him. His gaze passed through the smoke toward the soldiers fighting desperately, then toward the falcon warrior in the sky, whose eyes were resolute and who was prepared to sacrifice himself at any time to protect his country.

If this had been the manga from his previous life, these people would all have been heroes worthy of respect.

But here, they were merely pitiful fools blinded by a hypocritical peace and used as weapons by others.

"You are loyal to this country, but unfortunately, your king and those fat, bloated officials do not deserve your loyalty."

Rain's voice was not loud, yet empowered by his Devil Fruit, it clearly overwhelmed the sound of gunfire across the battlefield.

"What do you know?! His Majesty Cobra is the most benevolent ruler in the world!" Bellemere roared furiously, diving down from above once more. His claws became deadly blades as they shot for Rain's throat. "I won't allow a butcher like you to insult our king!"

"Benevolent?" Rain watched Bellemere draw closer, and his eyes abruptly turned cold. "If benevolence cannot protect the people, then it is a vicious, slow-acting poison!"

"Rock Swamp!"

One second before Bellemere's claws could touch Rain's neck, Rain slammed both hands heavily onto the sand beneath his feet.

"Boom—!"

A vast, muffled tremor instantly swept across the dunes for hundreds of meters in every direction.

An utterly horrifying scene unfolded. The dry, loose yellow sand assimilated under Rain's Devil Fruit power. The bedrock below instantly softened and broke apart, mixing with the upper sand to become a thick, heavy, bottomless swamp of gray-black mud and rock.

"What is happening?! The ground is sinking!"

"Help! I can't pull my legs out!"

The King's Army elites who had been firing madly just moments ago instantly lost their balance. In terror, they discovered that the desert beneath their feet had turned into a gaping abyss that devoured people. The heavy mudslide quickly swallowed their calves and knees, and it continued sinking at a terrifying pace.

Even the Super Spot-Billed Ducks, which excelled at running through the desert, were trapped deep within it, letting out terrified quacks.

"Retreat!" Bellemere forcibly halted his dive in midair and shouted in shock and fury.

But to his despair, he discovered that the Rock Swamp's suction was astonishingly strong. The more the soldiers struggled, the faster they sank. In barely a dozen seconds, over a hundred elite King's Army soldiers had all been trapped waist-deep in the mire, completely losing their ability to fight.

If Rain snapped his fingers at that moment and hardened the mudslide into granite, Alabasta's hundred-plus finest soldiers would be crushed alive underground and turned into a pile of pulp.

Bellemere's entire body turned cold. He stared fixedly at the black-clad young man below, feeling an unprecedented sense of helplessness and despair.

He was prepared to make a desperate final gamble. Even if he had to self-destruct, he would secure a sliver of hope for his subordinates.

However, Rain did not snap his fingers.

He slowly withdrew his hands from the ground. The churning Rock Swamp instantly stopped sinking and remained at an appropriate depth, enough to trap every soldier firmly without fatally crushing their internal organs.

Rain turned around, his back facing Bellemere in the air and the despairing soldiers below, and walked straight into the depths of the desert.

"You... you're not killing them?" Bellemere froze. His voice even cracked from his extreme shock.

An "heinous butcher" who had blasted the governor into a bloody mist with brutal methods in Golden Sands City had chosen to... stop, even after gaining complete control over their lives?

Rain did not stop walking. His voice drifted coldly over on the dry desert wind.

"My hands are stained only with the blood of those who deserve to die. You may be blind, but at least you're competent soldiers."

Rain's figure gradually blurred amid the flying yellow sand.

"Save your strength, birdman. Rather than hunting me down, you should investigate that casino called Rain Dinners. When the real disaster descends upon this country, your 'benevolent' king will still need you to take the blade for him."

The wind and sand completely concealed Rain's retreating figure.

Bellemere hovered in the air, blankly staring in the direction Rain had vanished, then looking at his subordinates below, trapped but completely unharmed. It felt as though some heavy object had struck his heart hard.

"Who... exactly is he?"

Why would a terrorist spare the army pursuing him? And what did he mean when he mentioned "Rain Dinners" and "the real disaster" before leaving?