"Be erased."
As Yas's utterly emotionless voice fell, like a god pronouncing judgment.
The "God's Cage," woven from countless arcs of black lightning and covering a thousand-meter radius, contracted with a thunderous crash!
Crackle-!
Time seemed to lose all meaning at that moment.
Under the thoroughly numb, vacant gazes of the five hundred naval soldiers aboard the Leviathan.
A horrific sight unfolded, one they would remember for the rest of their lives, one that would even jolt them awake from their dreams at midnight.
The tens of thousands of venomous snake phantoms dancing through the sky, formed from "Iron Whip" Garseron's Haki and Devil Fruit power, could not even let out a cry as they touched the contracting net of black lightning.
Like snow and ice scorched by the blazing sun, they silently melted away layer by layer, vaporizing until they returned to nothingness.
But that was only the beginning.
After erasing every snake phantom, that net of death continued to contract toward its center, its momentum undiminished and its advance unstoppable.
It cinched viciously around the enormous, terrifying warship named the Ghost Ship!
"No... no! What is this power?!"
Garseron let out the last roar of his life, and his most anguished, most defiant one.
He watched helplessly as the flagship that had accompanied him for over a decade, built from the branches of the sturdiest Treasure Tree Adam mixed with special alloys.
Proved as fragile as tofu before that fine, seemingly unremarkable net of black lightning.
From the gunwales to the deck, then to the masts.
Every part touched by the black arcs was broken down and erased at a speed visible to the naked eye, reduced to the most basic particles and scattered into the air.
He could clearly hear his loyal subordinates inside the cabins, who followed in the footsteps of those venomous snake phantoms the instant the Black Lightning touched them, without even having time to scream.
Fear!
Endless, bone-deep fear washed over Garseron's reason like an icy tide, drowning it completely.
He wanted to flee!
He pushed his speed to its limit, trying to escape this hell before the net of death closed completely!
But the speed he took such pride in seemed so laughable and slow before the contracting Black Lightning.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Finally, amid a scream filled with despair and defiance.
The enormous net of black lightning closed completely!
It enveloped Garseron himself, his Devil Fruit weapon that had already transformed into the Snake Whip, and the entire enormous Ghost Ship!
Then...
Boom-!!!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a pure... black sphere over a thousand meters in diameter, seemingly capable of swallowing all light, quietly formed above the sea.
Then, like a punctured soap bubble, the black sphere silently collapsed inward and vanished into nothingness.
Finally, it disappeared.
The wind scattered the last wisp of black dust.
Calm returned to the sea.
As though nothing had ever happened.
That enormous Ghost Ship, that officer of the Rocks Pirates with a bounty of 130 million Beli, and the hundreds of elite pirates aboard his ship.
Just like that... they were utterly erased from this world, without a single trace.
"Gulp."
On the Leviathan's bridge, that familiar sound of someone struggling to swallow rang out again.
But this time, no one found it funny.
Because everyone's throat felt as though an invisible hand had clamped tightly around it, dry enough to hurt.
They looked at the empty stretch of sea on the Surveillance Den Den Mushi's screen, where only a few wisps of black smoke drifted.
Then they looked at the white-clad figure still standing quietly on another sinking wreck, as though he had merely swatted a fly.
Their brains had completely given up thinking.
Reverence?
Fear?
Worship?
No.
Those emotions were no longer enough to describe what they felt at that moment.
It was the most primal... trembling, rising from the deepest reaches of a mortal's soul after witnessing a god display his world-destroying might!
"The... bombardment... cancel it..."
Brannew's lips trembled as he gave the order in a voice like someone talking in his sleep.
What kind of joke was that?
Offer a god a salute with cannon fire?
That would not be praise. It would be sacrilege against divine might!
Their pitiful cannons were not even fit to tickle a god before that black lightning capable of reducing all things to nothingness!
"All... all hands..."
Brannew drew a deep breath, trying to make his voice sound less shaky.
Speaking into the Communication Den Den Mushi, he gave a new order in an almost reverent, chanting tone.
"Maintain silence."
"We shall... quietly... welcome our... god... home!"
Above the sea, Yas slowly unclenched his tightly closed fist.
Looking at the empty stretch of sea in the distance, he furrowed his brow almost imperceptibly again.
"I still couldn't control it perfectly."
He shook his head, still somewhat dissatisfied with the result.
"Black Lightning: God's Cage" was a wide-area clearing technique he had created by combining Black Lightning's erasure properties, Armament Haki's restraining ability, and Observation Haki's precise targeting.
It had enough power, but its consumption was equally immense.
That attack had drained over seventy percent of the chakra and Haki in his body.
Moreover, his original goal had only been to erase Garseron along with his weapon.
But because his control over his power was not precise enough, he had accidentally erased the entire ship.
"That wasted quite a bit of time."
Yas glanced at the Razor, which had already sunk completely beneath the sea, then flickered like a phantom onto the Leviathan's deck.
"Captain!"
"Captain Yas!"
The instant he appeared, every naval soldier standing by on deck, including the captives just rescued from the enemy ship, dropped to one knee in unison!
They lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at Yas, their eyes filled with fervor and reverence.
"Welcome back in triumph, Captain Yas!"
Bullet and Brannew led the shout, their voices filled with heartfelt excitement and pride.
Yas paid no attention to any of it.
He walked straight toward the rescued captives, whose expressions were still somewhat numb.
His Mantra told him that these people were not all innocent civilians.
Mixed among them were several people whose auras, though weak, were still fundamentally those of pirates.
After their defeat by the Bloodjaw Pirate Crew, they had been taken as spoils because they possessed Devil Fruit powers.
"Separate them."
Yas pointed at the captives whose auras were different and spoke flatly.
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers immediately stepped forward and dragged out those trembling, terrified ability users.
"Captain Yas, how should we deal with these people?" Brannew asked respectfully.
According to naval regulations, although these people were pirates, they were captives and should therefore be escorted back to headquarters for trial by a military court.
But Brannew knew that aboard Captain Yas's ship, the only rule was Captain Yas's own will.
Yas did not answer. He merely walked up to the one who appeared strongest among them, the user of the Zoan-type Bison-Bison Fruit.
He looked at the burly man trembling constantly in fear, his ice-blue eyes devoid of emotion.
He slowly raised his right hand. In his palm, a thin arc of black lightning, enough to make Brannew and the others tremble in their very souls, began dancing once again.
He gently placed his hand on the bison user's head.
His icy voice slowly rang out across the deathly silent deck.
"You're lucky. Your companions died too quickly, and I didn't have time to ask what I wanted to know."
"Now it's your turn."
The corners of Yas's mouth curled into a cruel smile. In the eyes of every captive, that smile was more terrifying than a demon from the deepest reaches of hell.
"Tell me everything about the New World, everything about Rocks, and everything about that Sacrificial Ritual."
"Or..."
The black arc in Yas's palm suddenly flared, and the bison user's hair instantly turned to drifting ash.
"Let me personally search your soul... and dig it all out, little by little."
Before you continue