"Tell me everything about the New World, everything about Rocks, and everything about that Sacrificial Ritual."
Yas's voice, so cold it held not a trace of feeling, echoed slowly across the deathly silent deck.
His right hand rested lightly on the head of the Zoan Bison-Bison Fruit user. In his palm, a wisp of black lightning, darker than the abyss and quieter than death, hissed like a living venomous snake flicking its tongue.
The burly man, over three meters tall, whose muscles could smash through walls after he transformed, now trembled violently like a baby gripped by the throat, unable to muster even the thought of resistance.
His eyes were fixed on the wisp of black lightning in Yas's palm. Reflected in his pupils was boundless despair, a hundred times more terrifying than the tortures in the deepest reaches of hell.
He had just seen it with his own eyes.
He had seen with his own eyes how Bloodjaw Carlos, whose bounty was nearly a hundred million, had been reduced to charcoal beneath this Black Lightning.
He had seen with his own eyes how "Iron Whip" Garseron, a Rocks officer infamous throughout the New World, had been completely erased from this world along with his massive flagship beneath the shroud of this Black Lightning!
And now, this power of divine punishment that represented ultimate destruction hung over his head.
"I... I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
The bison user's mental defenses collapsed completely in an instant. Tears and snot streamed down his face, and his voice grew shrill with extreme terror, even carrying a hint of sobbing.
"Please! Don't use that thing! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
He did not want to die.
Still less did he want to end up like Garseron, utterly "erased" without leaving even a trace of his existence!
Yet the curve of Yas's lips did not change in the slightest.
It was pure cruelty, devoid of any emotion.
"Too late."
Yas uttered the words flatly.
"I gave you a chance, but your companions died too quickly."
"Now, I've changed my mind." A flicker of excitement and anticipation at mastering a new power flashed through Yas's ice-blue eyes. "Rather than listen to your nonsense, which might be mixed with lies, I'd prefer to..."
"'See' for myself."
The instant his words fell, the fingers of Yas's right hand tightened sharply on the man's head!
Bzzzt!
That fine wisp of black lightning became like a living drill, instantly piercing the bison user's scalp, ignoring his hard skull, and boring straight into his brain!
"Aaaaaaargh!"
A scream so shrill it no longer sounded human erupted from the bison user's mouth!
It was not physical pain.
It was something far more terrifying: the ultimate agony from the deepest reaches of the soul, of being forcibly torn apart and brutally scoured!
Under the horrified gazes of all the surrounding prisoners and Marine soldiers, the bison user's body convulsed wildly as though electrocuted. His eyes bulged, bloodshot. What flowed from his seven orifices was no longer blood, but wisps of black smoke that signified his life force being stripped away!
"This... is this... Soul Search?!"
Adjutant Brannew clamped a hand tightly over his mouth, barely keeping himself from crying out.
His body trembled violently beyond his control, his face paler than a dead man's.
Watching Yas, whose eyes were slightly closed as though he were reading some information, his expression utterly unruffled, he felt his entire worldview overturned in that instant.
This was no longer torture for information.
These were the methods of a devil!
This was a forbidden art by which gods extracted memories directly from mortal souls!
Just how many unknown, terrifying abilities did this Captain Yas they followed still conceal?
Hum.
Several seconds later, only when the bison user's body stopped convulsing completely and became a desiccated corpse, an empty husk whose soul had long since been drained dry, did Yas slowly release his hand.
The desiccated corpse fell to its knees with a thud, then crumbled into black powder across the deck like a weathered sand sculpture.
"So that's how it is."
Yas opened his eyes, a gleam of understanding flashing in their icy blue depths.
Through his brutal reading of that ability user's soul memories, he had gained a clearer, more fully formed understanding of this era, the New World, and the Rocks Pirates.
The New World truly was a paradise for monsters.
There was no law here, no order. The only rule was that the strong preyed on the weak. If your fists were not strong enough, even breathing was a luxury beyond reach.
And Rocks D. Zebek was the most terrifying monster standing at the very pinnacle of this dark law.
His ambition was not merely as simple as becoming "King of the World."
The true purpose of the "Sacrificial Ritual" being held on Hachinosu was far more insane and terrifying than the Marine leadership imagined-they intended to use the souls and fruit essences of over a hundred ability users as sacrifices to forcibly awaken an "Ancient Weapon" that lay dormant in the river of history!
And in the fragments of memory extracted through Soul Search, this weapon had only one vague codename-"God"!
"God?" Yas rolled the word over, his lips curling into an even colder smile. "Interesting. A bunch of 'Celestial Dragons' who call themselves gods, and a bunch of pirates trying to resurrect a 'god.'"
"This world really is lively."
Aside from this core intelligence, Yas had obtained another piece of information that was even more valuable to him at present.
The forces of the Rocks Pirates were not a monolithic whole.
Besides core officers such as Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Big Mom, and Kaido, who were powerful and showed faint signs of striking out on their own, there were also many lower-ranking officers like "Iron Whip" Garseron.
They operated independently, responsible for plundering wealth and capturing sacrifices for Rocks.
And among them, one man's name appeared most frequently in the bison user's memories.
He was a man known throughout the world for his extreme greed and cruelty.
The captain of the Rocks Pirates' Tenth Division, with a bounty of a hundred and fifty million Beli-"Captain" John!
This man's obsession with treasure had reached a pathological degree. The fleet under his command was one of the largest and most heavily armed in the Rocks Pirates, and its sole task was to plunder wealth enough to rival nations for Rocks.
And according to the memory fragments, an important supply and treasure base for "Captain" John's fleet lay not far from this very route!
"Brannew."
Yas slowly turned, his gaze falling on the adjutant who had long since been scared out of his wits.
"Yes! Captain Yas!" Brannew jolted and abruptly straightened, his voice slightly distorted by nervousness.
Yas paid no attention to his loss of composure, merely issuing a new order in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Pass the order. Full speed ahead."
"Our next target is 'Captain' John's treasure vault-Midas Island."
"Midas Island?" Brannew froze for a moment. He seemed to have seen that name in the Marines' classified files. It was an island said to be covered in gold, with terrifyingly powerful defenses, known as "Captain" John's most impregnable vault.
"Captain Yas, do you mean... we're going to destroy it?" Brannew asked cautiously.
At that, Yas gave him a look as though he were an idiot.
"Destroy it?"
Yas shook his head, his lips spreading into a smile filled with greed and possessiveness that made everyone's scalp prickle.
"No."
"I'm merely going to take back what belongs to me."
"From this moment on, all of Captain John's treasure is mine." Yas's voice was not loud, but it held an imperiousness that none of them dared question.
He paused, his cold gaze sweeping over the other captive ability users on the deck, and added a sentence in a tone as though stating a fact, instantly plunging those prisoners into endless despair.
"As for you..."
"Will you become new fuel for my ship, or new sacrifices for that Sacrificial Ritual? Choose for yourselves."
Before you continue