Life Plunder and Haki

After several days at sea, the Black Night Pirates arrived at Night Island.

Night Island was the Black Night Pirates' territory.

Its unique geography and unusual magnetic field kept the sky shrouded in dark clouds. Sunlight broke through for only one month each year.

As a result, Night Island was dimly lit, allowing "Night Lady" Nyx to use her abilities to their fullest.

Besides, Night Island was an ordinary island without particularly abundant resources. With the Black Night Pirates stationed there, few pirates came to plunder it.

Even when the Black Night Pirates left, nothing much happened to Night Island as long as their flag flew over it.

Nyx was a Great Pirate with a formidable reputation in the New World. Few people would provoke the "Night Lady" lightly.

It was just an ordinary island. The powerful saw nothing worth taking, while the weaker ones dared not offend her.

From far out at sea, bright lights shone across the island against its dark backdrop.

As they drew closer, they saw that the whole island was ablaze with lights.

For Night Island's residents, nightlife never ended.

Business flourished as a result, drawing plenty of pirates. The adult entertainment trade was so popular that an entire street had been set aside for it.

Clearly, the island had developed quite well under his mother's protection.

Nyx had no interest in expanding her territory. It all belonged to the Rocks Pirates anyway, Night Island included.

"The Night Lady is back!"

The pirates patrolling the port spotted the Black Night Pirates' ship immediately.

Word soon spread across the island, and ships along their route moved aside to make way.

A berth at the port was reserved for the Black Night Pirates.

Hades was curious, too. In both his past life and this one, he had never seen a scene like this.

After all, he had stayed in the Kronos Kingdom since birth and had never had a chance to leave.

"Hades, this is just a stopover. Don't leave the ship. I'll take you all onward tonight. Plenty of people are watching us."

As the pirate ship slowly docked, Nyx swept her gaze over the port. She was certain other factions had planted people among the crowd.

"Understood, Mother." Hades paid it no mind. He practiced controlling the Power of Death, wrapping it around his body before compressing it at his fingertips.

Its destructive force was terrifying. It could easily corrode flesh and drain a person's life away.

With the manual his father had left him, Hades made rapid progress in developing the Death-Death Fruit. He had a clear direction now.

The manual laid everything out in detail. Following it would spare him many wrong turns.

But Hades had ideas of his own about how to develop this powerful Paramecia Devil Fruit.

For now, though, he had not developed his abilities enough to put them into practice.

Such devastating power came at a heavy cost in stamina. If his father, Jaeger, had possessed more stamina, he would not have lost.

With his monstrous physique and the Three Types of Haki, Jaeger had been one of the strongest men on the seas even without relying on the Death-Death Fruit.

In the end, his enemies had worn him down.

One Marine after another had chipped away at him until he died, slowly and relentlessly.

It was much like the way the Marines would one day capture "Devil's Heir" Douglas Bullet.

But Jaeger had refused to yield. He would not let the World Government and the Marines capture him. Imprisonment in Impel Down would have meant losing his freedom.

Worse, the World Government could have used him to threaten the Kronos Kingdom. There was no telling what horrors might follow.

If that happened, the Kronos Kingdom would be close to collapse. How could they not know what the World Government intended?

What was death? Life ebbing away. Life lost.

To Hades, death meant plunder—the taking of another's life.

Jaeger's Death Hunt could unleash a terrifying surge of the Power of Death and wipe out every living thing within a certain range.

Hades envisioned something different with Death Plunder. It might not match Death Hunt in raw power, but it could steal others' life force and feed it back into his own body.

He could then turn that life force into stamina and restore himself.

The principle was essentially the same, with the added step of feeding that stolen energy back to himself.

If he could manage that and replenish his stamina, he could keep fighting like a perpetual-motion machine.

Being outnumbered would become an advantage instead.

Even against a single enemy, the Power of Death could continuously draw life force from the surrounding environment.

Hades's experience told him that, having eaten the Death-Death Fruit, he was the master of death and held power over it.

That power might even extend to life and souls.

His father, Jaeger, had never explored that possibility—or perhaps had never thought of it.

For now, it was only an idea. Whether Hades could reach that level depended on how far he developed his powers.

The Devil Fruit still held vast untapped potential. Jaeger had taken the right path, but not a perfect one. He had pushed his destructive power to its limit at the expense of everything else.

That saved Hades time. He could devote his efforts to developing other aspects of the Death-Death Fruit.

Many people believed he would become a second Jaeger. Hades had no desire to hear that.

He had his own pride.

He was Tartarus Hades. There was only one of him!

He would surpass his father, Jaeger the "Grim Reaper," in every way.

And it would start with developing the Death-Death Fruit.

No one wanted to live in another person's shadow.

Hades had absolute confidence in himself.

He was not alone. His mother, his uncle Bane, and even his father Jaeger all believed he could surpass Jaeger.

Beyond his Devil Fruit, Hades trained his body. He wore weights and put himself through grueling Body Techniques practice every day. Little by little, his body grew stronger.

Hades had firmly committed the key to awakening Armament Haki to memory, but he needed fierce battles to draw out that power within him.

He could already feel the Haki inside him, and his physique was more than strong enough.

Once his Haki awakened, his strength would surge.

What kind of power was Haki?

It existed within people from birth.

As Hades understood it, the stronger a person's physique, the stronger their Haki.

Many monsters were born with exceptionally powerful Haki. The moment it awakened, its quality surpassed that of people who had trained theirs for years.

Strengthening the body improved the quality of Haki.

By the same token, once awakened, Haki could slowly temper the body on its own, making it stronger in every respect.

That was why some people saw their fighting strength soar the moment their Haki awakened.

As they trained their Haki and made it stronger, it tempered their bodies more effectively, pushing their physiques toward monstrous heights.

In this world, Haki was king!

That had never been wrong.

At a certain level, people could even use Haki to temper their bodies deliberately. It worked better and faster than the passive process.

Powerful Haki, in turn, strengthened the body and brought it closer to perfection.

It helped those born with weaker physiques close the gap with natural-born monsters.

It was like a special force, almost like internal energy, driving the body through a second stage of growth—or even evolution!

Not one of the truly elite monsters had weak Haki.

And before Hades reached the period when his body would grow rapidly, Haki would be his best way to increase his strength.

Hades was desperate to awaken Armament Haki. His body had long been strong enough!

Ananke was studying navigation and related subjects. Outside her regular training and combat practice, she wanted to become a Navigator so she could help Hades on their future voyages.

Joining the Rocks Pirates meant sailing the seas. In the New World's ever-changing climate, a Navigator would be invaluable.