Chapter 4: Ashes Beneath the Tide
The battlefield was silent.
Not in peace — in dread.
Smoke curled from shattered walls. Blood pooled in cracked earth. The scent of scorched flesh and burnt gunpowder clung to the air like a curse. Bodies lay scattered, some still twitching, others already cold.
Above it all, I stood.
Yoru rested against my shoulder, its obsidian edge gleaming in the flickering light of dying fires. The storm above had thickened, a crown of black clouds circling like vultures over a graveyard.
Eyes watched me from every corner.
Pirates.
Marines.
Even monsters like Whitebeard, Akainu, and Sengoku.
They all felt it now.
The balance was broken.
I wasn't Mihawk, the Warlord.
I was something else.
Something worse.
---
[Shock Points: 1950]
The blood-red numbers hung before my eyes, a malignant star against the chaos.
A pulse from the system throbbed in my mind.
[Next Threshold: 2500 — Reward Pending.]
Soon.
I lowered my blade.
The world seemed to exhale, fools mistaking it for mercy.
It wasn't.
---
A whisper reached my ears. A hoarse, broken thing.
"Demon…"
A surviving Marine. Young, barely a man. His hand gripped a shattered saber, his other arm bleeding freely. His face was ash-smeared, eyes wide with terror.
He should have run.
I moved without thought.
One step.
A blur.
Yoru sang through the air, the obsidian edge slicing cleanly. His head left his shoulders, eyes still wide as it tumbled to the ground.
[+50 Shock Points!]
The storm above rumbled, as if in approval.
I kept walking.
---
Subtle movements. Shifting glances.
Veteran pirates adjusted their grips on their weapons.
Some stepped back.
Others, Whitebeard's men, cursed under their breath. The bravest among them barred my path.
It amused me.
A man missing an eye raised a halberd. His voice trembled but didn't break.
"Stay back, demon. You won't touch Pops!"
Bravery.
I respected it.
Briefly.
Then I shattered his weapon with a casual swing and buried Yoru into his chest. His blood splattered my coat, hissing as it met the cursed steel.
He crumpled.
The others hesitated.
Good.
---
[+80 Shock Points!]
Another pulse.
Another step closer.
The execution platform loomed ahead, Ace still bound in chains of sea-stone. His face was drawn, eyes narrowed in fury and… recognition.
He'd realized it too.
I wasn't fighting for either side.
I was tearing down the board.
---
A presence surged to my left.
Doflamingo.
Laughing.
His strings twitched like spider legs, dancing through corpses and debris.
"You've outdone yourself, Hawk," he chuckled, eyes gleaming with delighted malice. "Chaos suits you."
I didn't answer.
Didn't need to.
He knew.
We both thrived in ruin, but while he played at madness, I was the storm itself.
He grinned wider.
"Where's your limit, I wonder?"
I sheathed Yoru.
His grin faltered.
Subtle. Ominous.
The move was deliberate.
Controlled.
I didn't need my blade for what came next.
---
A wave of killing intent rippled out.
An invisible pressure that cracked stone, crushed lesser men to their knees, and silenced even the bravest.
The world felt smaller.
The sky darker.
Even Whitebeard's crew flinched.
Akainu's magma hissed. Aokiji's frost receded. Kizaru's grin slipped.
Sengoku's jaw clenched.
They felt it.
The Calamity Blade was no longer a title.
It was prophecy.
I raised a single hand, palm open toward the heavens.
The storm answered.
Lightning forked from the clouds, a jagged vein of searing light that struck Yoru where it lay across my back.
The ground shook.
Air howled.
And when I drew the blade again, it gleamed with black lightning.
[New State: Bloodstorm Edge — Enhanced. Damage Amplification x3 for 3 minutes.]
---
"Enough."
Whitebeard's voice broke the tension.
A deep, thunderous growl, heavy with age and fury.
He stepped forward.
Earth cracked beneath his boots. The bisento rose in his hand.
"Face me, boy."
The inevitable clash.
The legend against the calamity.
I grinned.
"At last."
The world paused, as if holding its breath.
---
Then we charged.
---
His bisento came down like a mountain.
I met it, Yoru slicing upward, a screech of black lightning and white fury colliding.
The shockwave obliterated everything around us. Marines and pirates alike were thrown like ragdolls.
Debris rained from the sky.
Fire blossomed.
The ocean itself recoiled.
And for the first time, Whitebeard grunted in pain.
A line of blood traced his palm.
His eyes narrowed.
"You're no ordinary man."
I smiled coldly.
"I'm the end of them."
---
[+500 Shock Points!]
[Shock Points: 2580]
[Threshold Reached.]
The system's voice, deeper, more visceral than before.
[New Title Acquired: Cataclysm's Blade — Damage to all enemies increased by 20%. Fear effect intensified.]
[New Ability Unlocked: Ruin's Domain — Create a temporary battlefield where enemies' power is suppressed and terror magnified.]
Perfect.
I activated it.
The sky darkened unnaturally. A blood-red haze bled into the mist. The battlefield shifted. Even sound seemed strangled.
I heard the panicked gasps.
The whispered prayers.
The death rattles.
And then I moved.
Faster than before.
Stronger.
Whitebeard roared and swung.
I ducked, blade cleaving into his side.
Blood sprayed.
A god bleeding before men.
The war broke.
Pirates screamed.
Marines fled.
Even the Admirals faltered.
The storm was mine now.
---
Author's Note:
That was just a taste of what's coming.
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