As Rose's life force completely dissipated from her massive body, the light in her three open eyes completely dimmed.
Her colossal body, comparable to a large Sea King, was rapidly shrinking like a deflated balloon.
Rorschach's body shrank, returning to human form. Looking down, he saw Rose's four spider legs, which had been plunged deep into the earth, rapidly retracting and shrinking, revealing four bottomless flesh holes.
Zephyr leaped down from Rose's head, sprinting towards the basin, shouting, "Don't just stand there! Without Rose's control, this giant monster seems to want to dive into the sea! Hurry and save people!"
Zephyr was right.
As Rose died, the island beneath their feet was rumbling and trembling. Billions of tons of seawater were pouring in from one end of the gradually tilting island, roaring and surging over the land, submerging everything in its path.
But trying to save everyone on the island was a pipe dream.
Because besides the few hundred Marine soldiers brought by their two warships, tens of thousands of ordinary people, controlled by Rose's mental abilities, lived on this island, as well as the vast, dark expanse of human-faced spiders covering the ground below.
However, Rorschach's face showed no panic, because his Observation Haki had already sensed a familiar presence rapidly approaching.
Nevertheless, he flashed away, rushing towards the coast where the Kirin Go was located.
In the basin, the unconscious Hibari and Law, along with the other Marine soldiers, had gradually woken up, but most of the island's original inhabitants were still asleep.
The town outside the basin was already submerged by large amounts of seawater.
Rorschach, flying in the air, saw many people being swept away by the seawater and sinking into the deep sea. He quickly manipulated the air, forming chains of air currents that descended, binding the people locked by his Observation Haki, and pulling them out of the roaring seawater.
The reef cluster ahead—no, it should be the tips of giant spider legs, thousands of meters long—had the Kirin Go and Zephyr's warship stuck among its crisscrossing barbed thorns. They were falling into the deep sea along with the moving spider legs, forcing Rorschach to once again split his power, hooking the two large ships and dragging them towards his direction.
Looking at the roaring water curtain surging high into the sky ahead, Rorschach's face couldn't help but change slightly, and he blurted out, "Uncle Kuzan! If you don't act soon, we'll probably meet in the Marineford Martyrs' Cemetery!"
As his words fell, a surging ultra-low temperature cold current, like a polar ice storm, swept in from the Calm Belt sea. Wherever it passed, the roaring seawater rapidly froze, turning into thick ice.
The ice spread rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it froze the entire sea within hundreds of kilometers, turning it into an icy, mist-shrouded glacial land.
The island spider, which was attempting to submerge, halted its movements. Its struggling giant spider legs were encased in thick ice, and even the large amount of seawater that had poured into the island's towns was frozen.
The world seemed to have been paused. The violent tremors on the island vanished, all sounds disappeared, leaving only wisps of rising ice mist.
Looking at this magnificent scene, Rorschach finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Seeing a lean figure composed of converging ice shards on the ground not far away, a smile couldn't help but appear on Rorschach's face.
"Uncle Kuzan! Good thing you arrived in time, otherwise, we might have all been buried at sea."
"With your abilities, you wouldn't die in a disaster of this magnitude."
Kuzan walked into the frozen town, looking at Rorschach, who was slowly flying down from the sky, dragging over a thousand people tethered by air chains.
"There are still tens of thousands of people on the island. You saved everyone."
Rorschach smiled and stepped forward, giving Kuzan a strong hug. "Long time no see, Uncle Kuzan."
Rorschach's enthusiasm made Kuzan a bit uncomfortable. He scratched his head, "Arara, can you find some clothes to wear? Being naked like that will disgrace the Marines."
"Cough, cough!"
Rorschach's face flushed with embarrassment.
His clothes had already disintegrated during the previous battle.
While the Hulk-style shorts issued by Marine Headquarters could withstand his human-beast transformation, they couldn't accommodate the sixty-meter Kirin form.
However, even though he wore nothing, the layer of shimmering electricity, the misty airflow, and the deep blue Armament Haki covering his body could completely serve as a full-body suit. Most people wouldn't be able to see through it.
Only powerful Observation Haki users like Kuzan and Zephyr could easily see through it.
Seeing Rorschach's embarrassment, Kuzan rarely smiled, then asked about the situation on the island.
Rorschach briefly explained the situation, pointing towards the island, "Teacher Zephyr is over there, Hibari and the others are too. You go first, I'll go change."
Kuzan nodded and walked through the frozen town, looking at the people lying scattered everywhere.
At this moment, the happy smiles that had always been on their faces had vanished, replaced by various other emotions.
When he entered the basin deep within the island, the scene he witnessed startled even the well-traveled Kuzan.
In the town square within the basin, Marine soldiers with pale faces lay scattered, their bodies severed, their upper halves floating in mid-air, while their lower halves remained on the ground.
Law, holding a long sword in his hand, continuously grabbed with his right hand from a distance. Immediately, black-haired spiders, curled into balls, were pulled out from the severed bodies of the soldiers and dropped onto the ground beside his feet.
In just a moment, a pile of fist-sized black-haired spiders accumulated beside him.
These soldiers were all subordinates brought by Zephyr.
Hibari stood beside Law, her face pale, strongly suppressing the nausea rising within her.
If Law hadn't told her earlier that she didn't have these spiders in her stomach, Hibari probably would have been throwing up uncontrollably.
"What is this?" Kuzan approached, his face full of surprise.
"Admiral Aokiji!"
Seeing Kuzan appear, the soldiers who had been treated by Law's Op-Op Fruit ability immediately straightened up.
"Law said that their bodies were parasitized by these spiders. Although these spiders seem to be dead, leaving such disgusting things in their stomachs, no one knows if they'll get sick, so we performed surgery on them early."
Hibari ran to Kuzan, looking around in confusion, "Uncle Kuzan, where's Big Brother Rorschach? Why don't I see him?"
Kuzan was about to answer when he saw Rorschach flying from behind him, landing in front of Hibari.
Seeing Rorschach appear, Hibari breathed a sigh of relief, patting her chest with lingering fear, "Big Brother Rorschach, you're finally here. What happened here? Everyone's bodies were parasitized by those spiders, even Law's. It seems only I don't have them."
Rorschach glanced at the soldiers bending over and retching, then at Hibari, whose face wasn't looking too good. He decided not to tell her what had happened earlier.
Sometimes, being kept in the dark was a good thing.
He reached out and stroked Hibari's head, asking with a smile, "How do you feel now?"
Hibari tilted her head, confused, "What do you mean, how do I feel?"
"I mean what happened before, do you not remember anything at all?" Rorschach raised an eyebrow.
"What happened before." Hibari scratched her head and blinked, recalling. "Hmm, I think I had a dream. I dreamed of my mother."
Upon receiving Hibari's answer, Rorschach asked the other Marine soldiers. Their answers were basically the same as Hibari's; they all felt like they had a vague dream.
They didn't have much impression of what happened in the dream.
Rorschach didn't know if this situation was good or bad. In any case, he should contact Headquarters first. Sengoku and the others there were probably anxious.
In a courtyard nearby, Zephyr sat dejectedly on the cracked steps in front of a house, holding a baby bottle. His eyes were vacant as he looked at two melted white spider silks, one large and one small, on the ground not far away, and the unfamiliar woman and baby wrapped within them.
After a long, long time, he let out a deep sigh, bent down, and picked up the sleeping infant from the ground.
What was lost, after all, could never return...
Somewhere in the Grand Line.
Five or six islands of varying sizes floated in the air, over ten thousand meters above the sea.
There were no white clouds supporting the islands from below, and some were even enveloped in large amounts of seawater.
That seawater and the floating islands formed a single entity, not falling from beneath the islands. If one got closer, they could even see fish swimming in the seawater.
Everything appeared incredibly miraculous.
The central floating island was particularly massive, with a diameter exceeding ten kilometers. Under the moonlight, it cast a huge shadow, covering hundreds of kilometers, onto the sea below.
Through the silver light spilling from the sky, one could occasionally discern colossal beast shadows on the island, appearing in mountain ranges, valleys, or by lakes, emitting fierce and tyrannical beastly auras.
Amidst these beasts hidden in the darkness, a mountain peak several thousand meters high rose from the ground, standing in the very center of the island. Its summit was dotted with lights, revealing a vast palace complex. Faint sounds of clamor and revelry echoed from within, causing the colossal creatures in the darkness to crane their necks and look, yet no beast dared to approach.
Clang!
Clang!
The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed in the dim corridor.
Accompanied by a heavy creak, the thick iron door at the end of the corridor was pushed open, revealing a vast space behind it.
It was a laboratory filled with countless glass test tubes of all sizes. Various colorful liquids reflected a hazy glow under the light.
In the center of the laboratory, a man in a white lab coat was bent over a large workbench, busily working, completely oblivious to the iron door being pushed open behind him, or the clanging sounds of someone stepping on the floor.
"Indigo! How much longer will your experiment take? I'm getting impatient!"
The sudden loud voice startled Indigo, who was fully engrossed in his experiment.
His body trembled, and the bundle of test tubes in his hand crashed to the floor with a smash. The liquid and broken glass shards splashed all over him.
Indigo let out a strange cry, turning around with a frustrated expression, pointing at the newcomer's nose and cursing.
"Are you sick! Why are you bothering me here in the middle of the night instead of having a banquet with your guests? You scared me to death! Look what you've done, my freshly prepared IQ medicine is all gone because of you!"
"Uh, sorry, sorry, my bad."
The burly man pointed at by Indigo showed an awkward smile, quickly putting the cigar in his mouth and gesturing towards the spilled liquid on the floor.
The liquid on the floor was immediately pulled up by an invisible force, falling into an empty glass test tube behind Indigo.
The man had long golden hair flowing down his back. The thick cigar in his mouth emitted wisps of smoke. A half-wheel-shaped ship's rudder was stuck on top of his head, making him look like a strangely styled rooster comb.
What was peculiar were his feet, which were actually two double-edged broadswords with their tips pointing downwards.
The metallic clanging sound heard earlier was caused by these two broadswords.
This golden-haired old man, with an awkward, somewhat lecherous smile, was the first person in history to successfully escape from Impel Down, the world's most secure prison.
He was known as the "Flying Pirate," captain of the Flying Pirates, a legendary great pirate who rivaled Roger and Whitebeard in the old era: Golden Lion Shiki.
Golden Lion casually picked up a glass test tube from a nearby cabinet and shook it, looking at the flowing purple liquid inside. He said faintly, "Indigo, how many years has it been?"
"Hmm? How many years has what been?" Indigo, who had turned back to busy himself with test tubes and potions, paused, his movements halting.
"Exhale."
A long stream of smoke, like a dragon, was exhaled from Golden Lion's mouth.
"How many years has it been since I left the sea?"
"You mean since you escaped from Impel Down, right? Seventeen years, I remember it clearly. Back then, I thought you were finished, just like Roger, and I was ready to pack up and leave."
Indigo said without lifting his head.
"Seventeen years, huh." Golden Lion put down the test tube, touched the ship's rudder on his head, and then looked at his legs made of two long swords. The corners of his mouth curled, revealing a complex expression. "I never thought it's been so long since I left the sea. Damn it, being on this broken island of Vermeil day and night, I almost forgot how old I am."
"When did you become so sentimental? That's not like the famous Golden Lion of the sea." Indigo held the test tube in his hand, shook it a few times, and chuckled, "Were you provoked by the guests outside? That's right, after all, that big guy who was once only half-competent in front of you has now become a sea overlord who dominates a region."
"Provoked?"
Golden Lion grinned, unable to help but laugh heartily.
"Gyahahahaha, Gyahahahaha!"
"Who do you think I am? I'm Golden Lion! Would I be provoked by an intern?"
He turned and left, stepping on his dual swords, leaving a remark.
"Hurry up, Indigo. I just feel that if you drag this on any longer, forget about the plan to destroy East Blue. Before the IQ medicine is even made, I'll probably go meet that bastard Roger first."
Golden Lion, having left the laboratory, was about to walk towards the noisy palace in the distance, but he suddenly stopped, his brow furrowing. He reached into his embrace and pulled out a white, square piece of paper.
A red glow appeared at one corner of the paper, like a firefly's tail, flickering in the dim corridor and gradually expanding, spreading across the entire white paper.
A clear flame ignited, and the white paper rapidly burned, turning into specks of ash, rising with a wisp of smoke into the air.
In just a few short seconds, the white paper, about half the size of a palm, held in Golden Lion's hand, burned away rapidly like a candle thrown into a fire.
Golden Lion squeezed his index finger and thumb, trying to pinch the last remaining small piece of the white paper, preventing the rapidly spreading red glow from engulfing it.
For this, a wisp of misty high-level Armament Haki even appeared on his fingers, covering the paper.
However, that tiny red glow completely ignored his actions, burning to its end on its own, turning the last corner he held between his fingers into black ash.
In the center of the dim corridor, Golden Lion looked down at the black ash in his hand, completely frozen, unmoving, like a statue.
Amidst the faintly dissipating smoke, Golden Lion saw a beautiful face, an elegant figure standing at the bow of the flying ship, turning back to look at him, revealing a charming smile.
Her skirt fluttered, her red lips were like fire, and the third eye on her brow could see through people's hearts, yet it always lingered on him inadvertently.
In Golden Lion's ear, it was as if he heard a long-lost call.
"Shiki..."
(End of Chapter)
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