Relatives

After that battle, one Admiral, four Vice Admirals, and several CP0 agents were still alive.

But even the survivors were as good as finished. They had lost years of their lives.

The weaker ones had less resistance to the Power of Death because their Haki was weaker, while the stronger ones had been Jaeger's primary targets.

The Marine Admiral reportedly aged drastically after the battle. His physical condition deteriorated so rapidly that he could not maintain his strength, and he retired within two years.

Two years later, he died of heart failure. For a top-tier fighter, it was almost unimaginable. Even in old age, such people possessed vitality far beyond that of ordinary people.

Life Return could spread damage across other parts of the body, but the heart was far more difficult to deal with. The brain was even more vulnerable.

Besides, Life Return was no cure-all. Under the relentless erosion of the Power of Death, the body's decline could not be reversed.

Worse, their potential had been exhausted, leaving no hope of recovery.

That was how terrifying the Death-Death Fruit's power was.

The Death-Death Fruit corroded everything, plundering life and bringing death in its purest form.

Everything was constantly in motion. Even inanimate things had a lifespan.

Matter was made of molecules, and molecules were always moving.

That was how Hades had understood it in his previous life.

In this world, the equivalent was the Voice of All Things.

Everything had its own breath.

The fine tiles beneath him steadily corroded under the Power of Death, losing the qualities that made them useful.

Hard things softened and grew brittle. Flexible things turned rigid. Living things were consumed.

Once the corrosion went far enough, they broke down into dust and ash before the Power of Death wiped even that away.

But the Power of Death soon stopped spreading. It remained within a fixed area, then slowly drew inward as Hades gradually brought it under control and returned it to his body.

He clenched his fist and took a moment to feel the immense power within him.

Hades knew the Death-Death Fruit's abilities well. It had been his father's power, and he had watched his father use it many times.

Unlike those who happened to eat a Devil Fruit, he was not left utterly baffled by his new ability.

Within a short time, Hades could already use it in simple ways.

The Power of Death flowed through him, slowly radiating outward and circling his body.

Hades found it fascinating to have this new power inside him. A single fruit had granted him an ability.

Even after truly arriving in this world and experiencing it for himself, he still found it incredible.

The flowing Power of Death did not affect his clothes. That intrigued him: he could control the Death-Death Fruit's power throughout the small area around his body.

To Hades, it was already a domain, albeit a tiny one.

The gray mist vanished. The tiles beneath Hades had dulled, and they crumbled to powder when he stepped on them.

A little longer, and not even powder would have remained. The Power of Death would have erased it completely.

"Your father left these notes. They contain what he learned about developing the Death-Death Fruit, along with his experience in Haki and Body Techniques. They should help you."

Bane approached with a box, took out a small notebook, and handed it to Hades. Jaeger had left it behind, never imagining that it would contain exactly what Hades needed, much less that his son would inherit his power.

Perhaps fate had chosen this path. Hades had ultimately set out on the same road as his father.

Hades had not needed the notebook before, but from now on, it would be important to him.

Beyond the notes on developing the Death-Death Fruit, Hades had yet to awaken Armament Haki.

As for Observation Haki, he had awakened it at birth. He could sense emotions, and his Observation Haki covered an enormous area.

As he grew stronger, its range would keep expanding. Everything within it appeared in his mind, as though he had a bird's-eye view.

His Conqueror's Haki had erupted when his father's death shook him at the age of four. By now, he could control it with ease.

In the Rocks Pirates, no teacher would carefully show you how to train. You had to fight and work things out for yourself.

The advantage was that you could encounter advanced powers. Without knowing they existed, you might never awaken them in your lifetime.

The Rocks Pirates provided that opportunity, giving countless self-taught fighters a path upward. That was why most of the seas' greatest future pirates would come from their ranks.

Rocks was proud and supremely confident. He never hid what he knew, nor did he worry that someone might learn from him and surpass him. That was the kind of man he was, and it was why he had built the Rocks Pirates into a force feared across the seas.

Hades accepted the notebook and looked beyond the hall. "Uncle, help me collect more Devil Fruits."

"What for, Hades?" Bane was puzzled. Hades had already eaten a Devil Fruit. Why collect so many more?

"Are you planning to build up your followers?"

The Kronos Kingdom certainly had the means. It had both money and influence, and it had dealings with the underground trade in the New World's Underworld.

"I'll come back eventually and expand my Tartarus Family. There still aren't enough of us. I'll build a force of my own, but apart from blood relatives and a select few others, I won't trust anyone."

Hades spoke calmly.

In both his previous life and this one, the only people he could truly trust were his family.

He carried over a lifelong ambition from his previous life: to expand his own bloodline.

Titan and Zoro counted too. They were retainers, and thus family to him.

But blood relatives were the ones he could trust most.

His experiences across two lives had made him especially attached to family.

There were still more than fifty years before the story's events began. He had plenty of time to expand the Family.

Bane froze, not quite understanding what Hades meant.

It took him a while to catch on. He had never expected Hades to make such plans, and inwardly, he applauded him.

How could he refuse a request like that?

The elders wanted nothing more than to see the Family grow.

With Hades's bloodline, there would surely be many exceptional descendants.

Besides, Hades was right: the Tartarus Family had too few members. Even counting all its branches, it had only a little over sixty.

Every one of them was capable, but such small numbers were not good for the Family's future.

If there had been more Family members, the World Government would not have been able to stir up rebellion in the Kronos Kingdom so easily.

It had shown Bane that the Tartarus Family's rule, though stable, was not unassailable.

He wondered whether he should urge the other Family members to have more children. After all, he was the head of the Tartarus Family until Hades returned.

Nothing had happened yet, but Bane had already begun preparing for the worst.

The more Family members there were, the better their chances of survival.

He knew all too well what the World Government was capable of.