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He transformed into lightning—energy crackling through the atmosphere as he shot into the clouds, racing toward the great underwater prison.
He had sent Shiryu and Jessica away because he needed to be alone. Without attachments weighing on his conscience, he could act without restraint, without hesitation.
He was not heading to the city of Spring Queen first. His primary objective was Impel Down.
If Redfield refused his offer, the Vampire Fruit was meaningless. If he accepted... well, he could always retrieve it later.
Once Arthur set his sights on prey, their fate was sealed. Unless they knew in advance and fled to the ends of the earth, death was their only companion.
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He knew the route to Impel Down by heart.
Above the clouds, he did not even need to navigate. He simply flew straight ahead, a streak of violet purpose cutting through the sky.
Marineford, Enies Lobby, Impel Down—the three great fortresses formed a triangle, a network of mutual support. The distances between them were short.
Arthur's speed was astonishing. Within minutes, he had returned to his old stomping grounds.
He refused to give the warden or his guards a single second to execute Redfield. The moment he positioned himself over the prison, he descended, intending to reach the Eternal Hell as swiftly as possible.
Purple lightning flickered across his skin as an invisible electromagnetic field bent the light around him. His body gradually faded from view, vanishing completely.
Even as he landed, however, the prison—its surveillance capabilities enhanced a thousandfold—had already detected his arrival.
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Impel Down, Level One, the monitoring room.
Hannyabal stood at his station, a man two or three times the size of a normal person, with a face of astonishing ugliness and a hat styled after an Egyptian pharaoh. He was enjoying his newfound power, having ascended to the position of Warden twenty years ahead of schedule, when he saw it during a routine inspection.
A flicker of purple lightning. Gone in an instant, yet enough to trigger recognition.
The nightmarish figure he had not forgotten in five long years...
'Thunder Emperor Arthur...' Hannyabal's eyes went wide, a scream catching in his throat.
He would never forget. Five years ago, this man had released the monsters from Eternal Hell and, in the process, inadvertently elevated him to Warden. This same man had forced him to his knees, made him beg for Magellan's life.
His cowardly nature instantly resurfaced. His body began trembling uncontrollably.
'He is back. Is he here to take Red the Aloof?'
A storm of conflicting emotions—fear, resolve, terror—raged within him. He was a coward, yes. Yet he was also, in his own way, a man of conviction.
He made his decision.
"Did you see anything just now?" he asked, forcing his voice to remain calm as he casually addressed the guards in the monitoring room.
"Report, Warden! All clear! Nothing to report!" one of the guards replied with a crisp salute.
Their eyes were not as sharp as his. Hannyabal may have been a coward, but he was not weak.
"Very good. Carry on."
He adopted the air of a proper Warden, swaggering out of the room with perfect composure. The moment he stepped out of sight, his calm expression shattered, replaced by pure, unadulterated terror.
'I cannot let Magellan know the Thunder Emperor is here. If I do, he will die.'
He paced back and forth, his face pale, his mind racing. Then an idea struck him.
Magellan, at this very moment, was still in the bathroom. The side effects of his Venom-Venom Fruit forced him to spend ten hours a day on the toilet.
Hannyabal strode toward the lavatory and, with his own body, blocked the door to the stall Magellan was occupying.
His mind became a whirlwind of torment. His duty, his conviction, the lives of Magellan and his men... in the end, he chose the latter.
'If I try to stop him, Magellan and the others will die. Justice... or my comrades. Please, forgive my selfishness,' he muttered repeatedly, trying to soothe his own conscience.
No one would ever know that in that moment, Hannyabal—for the sake of every soul in Impel Down—had abandoned the justice he had sworn to uphold, just as he had abandoned his own dignity five years ago.
"Knock, knock!"
A sound came from behind the door. Magellan had finished and found his exit blocked.
"Deputy Warden," Hannyabal said, his voice a parody of caring concern. "Take the day off. You have earned it. Just... relax in there for a while."
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Arthur walked at a leisurely pace, descending from level to level without pause. He knew the layout of Impel Down like the back of his hand.
'This Hannyabal... he is an interesting one.'
His Observation Haki blanketed the entire prison. He was aware of Hannyabal's every move, and a faint smile touched his lips. Five years had not been enough to make him forget such a memorable character.
He respected men like Hannyabal, men like Zoro—people who would insult you to your face, then secretly sacrifice something precious to solve a problem you could not solve yourself. And you would never know who had helped you or what they had lost.
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The Eternal Hell.
The Vice Admirals who had been assigned to guard Redfield had been recalled to Marineford long ago. Only a few small-fry remained.
Arthur reached the sixth level without a sound. Through the bars of empty cells, he saw him—in the very deepest part of the prison, a figure bound in so many chains he resembled a man made of iron.
It was Redfield.
He was a mess, a shadow of his former self. Yet even from this distance, Arthur could feel the embers of his pride still burning.
"How ugly you have become, Redfield..." a voice echoed through the silent, eternal darkness.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The guards at his cell were instantly knocked unconscious by a wave of Conqueror's Haki.
Arthur's figure slowly emerged from the shadows, light radiating from his body and illuminating the prison's depths.
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