The Terrifying Titan

Hades stood unharmed on the rooftop. Flying rubble and the shockwave bounced off the invisible barrier formed by his Haki Emission.

The sheer destruction of that single blow stunned everyone still alive, whether badly wounded or watching from afar.

Everyone except Hades stared in shock at Titan's demonlike figure.

Only then did they realize what kind of monster they faced.

The closer they had been to Titan, the worse their condition. Some were mangled beyond recognition.

Fear filled their hearts as they felt Titan's terrifying presence and undisguised killing intent.

Even those farther away who had no idea what had happened were shaken by the devastation he had caused.

They dared not approach, afraid of being caught in it themselves.

But it was not over. Titan turned, picked up his twin hammers, and began to walk.

Thud!

Thud!

His footsteps sounded heavy, accompanied by a gurgling noise.

Everyone watched his figure in terror.

As Titan walked, he swung his arms almost casually.

Each blow landed precisely on a fallen, wounded pirate or criminal.

On their heads, to be exact!

Every step meant another one or two heads crushed and burst beneath his hammers.

Blood and flesh turned to pulp, and brains spilled onto the ground.

Even pirates who prided themselves on their brutality felt sick at the sight. It was revolting.

"A devil!"

"A devil!"

To them, Titan was a devil, mercilessly finishing people off and taking life after life this way.

Titan did not feel sick. If anything, he was excited.

On Rusukaina Island, Titan and Hades usually went their separate ways except at night.

Preparing food was too much trouble. When Titan was hungry and could not wait, he often ate wild beasts raw.

Like a wild man, he needed only a sprinkle of seasoning.

With the Gluttonous Beast Fruit's power and formidable digestion, he felt no physical discomfort.

He enjoyed the satisfying fullness of a good meal and ordinarily would not use his power of devouring to refine food straight into energy.

Eating was human nature, and Titan had loved it from birth. The Gluttonous Beast Fruit had only strengthened his instinct to consume.

That was not something his power of devouring alone could replace.

Having eaten so many wild beasts raw, Titan was hardly affected by this sight.

"Run! Hurry!"

As Titan kept killing, fewer and fewer people in the area remained alive. Their turn would come soon.

"Move, damn it!"

Badly injured, they felt as though all the strength had been drained from their bodies.

They wanted to escape, to get out of Titan's grasp.

But even some at the edge who were still in good condition found they could not move.

An unseen pressure held their bodies fast.

Hades had said he would kill them all. He was not about to let anyone escape.

Hades could now direct his Conqueror's Haki at specific targets, using its crushing pressure to hamper their movements.

Titan seized the chance to speed up. He shifted his attention from the wounded who could barely move to the pirates who might still escape.

Working with Hades's Conqueror's Haki, he eliminated them one by one, leaving no chance for anyone to flee.

It was a slaughter. They had no power to resist.

Soon, only Hades and Titan remained standing in the area. Onlookers in the distance dared not approach.

No one dared come near now.

Hades watched it all in silence. The hellish scene caused him not the slightest discomfort.

"Let's go," Hades said calmly.

They had achieved their goal, so there was no reason to stay.

At Hades's words, Titan hammered the last person to death, then dragged his blood-red hammers away. Blood kept dripping from them.

He followed Hades into the distance.

Even after the two had gone, the place remained silent. No one dared approach.

Even the Cleaners, accustomed as they were to corpses, hesitated to step forward. Their arms trembled.

The sight was simply too revolting.

It had been a slaughter without any apparent reason. Many of the victims had merely been caught up in it and had never taken part.

Hades had marked out the area of the slaughter when he secretly released his Conqueror's Haki.

But were any of them innocent?

Kent Island was a hub of illicit trade, crawling with Underground Forces and pirates. There were hardly any good people on it.

Any ordinary civilians had either been killed or fled elsewhere long ago.

Even the women working in the Red-Light District might have killed before, and some were pirates themselves.

In Hades's eyes, there was hardly anyone on the island he could not kill.

Even the Marines, if they moved against the island, would spare few of its inhabitants.

In this world, almost no rules could restrain him except those he set for himself.

He would not attack genuine civilians.

Besides, reasons to kill were easy to find.

A long while passed before anyone dared slowly approach this "hell on earth."

"Those two really aren't afraid someone will come after them? After causing all this?"

He stared after the figures that had long since vanished, his voice still shaking.

Nearly two whole streets had been destroyed. Many of the properties belonged to Underground Forces, some backed by the Underworld Kings of the New World.

The other businesses operating on the island all had to pay taxes to its rulers.

Someone would have to pay for losses this great.

Some were already looking forward to seeing someone go after those two strangers.

But after seeing Titan's terrifying strength, others held out little hope.

Even the Underground Forces might not dare cross a monster like that. They did not know whether anyone on the island could take the pair on.

In the New World, the wise knew when to back down!

If those two were truly beyond their reach, they would have to accept the losses.

In the New World, strength always determined status, not business.

Four or five years earlier, the New World's Underworld had been rocked by a massive upheaval.

The King of Arms, an Underworld King who controlled the New World's largest source of weapons, had been assassinated.

The New World's entire arms trade fell into chaos. Countless factions fought to seize a larger share of the profits and the market.

Some even hoped to become the new King of Arms and a ruler of the Underworld.

Yet within a single month, a man named Victor rapidly expanded his power, easily taking over two-thirds of the former King of Arms's holdings.

Over the next month, Victor used his superior weapons to establish trade ties with factions throughout the New World, including the Rocks Pirates.

And he was not finished. In another month, several New World factions with a significant presence in the arms trade were destroyed or forced into submission.

Some of those factions had held their own territory for years, beyond even the former King of Arms's reach.

Victor swallowed them up and formally became the King of the Underworld, the uncrowned king of the arms trade.

A renowned Underworld King had been replaced just like that.

Victor's share of the New World's arms trade even surpassed that of the previous King of Arms.