"Now then, as payment for rescuing you, you're all members of the Rocks Pirates. If anyone objects, you can challenge our captain. Beat him, and you're free to leave."
Hades glanced around, joking.
He was met with a sea of eye rolls. What kind of joke was that? How could any of them beat Rocks?
Even Blazer, the "King of Hell," had no such thought.
Black, the Fleet Admiral who had once captured him, had been beaten to death.
Blazer knew his own limits.
In a contest of pure strength, he could never compare to Rocks D. Zebek, even though they were both rulers of the seas.
His extraordinary record had largely come down to his Undead Legion.
Most of the Undead Legion had been made from corpses. The stronger the corpse, the stronger the undead it became.
The bodies of those powerful fighters had already been tempered by Haki.
In his era, he had been the seas' only ruler.
After his fall, four great pirates rose to that level. Rocks defeated and recruited them one by one. He could never have done that without overwhelming strength.
And what was so bad about joining the Rocks Pirates? For an old man like him, freedom was already a fine outcome.
Blazer had survived his way to the top. His ambitions were not that fierce.
He even looked forward to joining the Rocks Pirates.
He had heard the name of that younger man, Rocks D. Zebek, more than once in this hell.
"Let's go. We'll recover on the fourth level first."
With that, Hades leaped. He rose through the hole and entered the fifth level, Freezing Hell.
Impel Down's storeroom was on the fourth level. It held enough supplies for the prisoners to regain some of their strength.
Kosa followed close behind.