Chapter 6: Crown of Fire
The dead did not scream.
Not here.
Not anymore.
Marineford was a corpse.
A city built by kings and warlords, devoured by storm and ruin. Its shattered bones jutted from the earth like broken teeth, a necropolis dressed in ash and blood.
I stood at its heart, a silhouette carved from shadow and storm, Yoru humming with hungering violence at my side. The blood-red haze of my Ruins Domain lingered, a crimson womb birthing a new epoch.
Above me, the sky was no longer sky.
It was a wound.
A colossal tear in reality's fabric, weeping streaks of black lightning and blood-colored rain. The world itself recoiled in horror.
And so it should.
The Age of Order had ended.
Mine was beginning.
[Shock Points: 4530]
[Worldbreaker Title Active]
The Marines had broken.
Ranks scattered, the last of their brave, their foolish, their faithful drowned in terror. I watched them run — men who once held dominion over seas now reduced to vermin scurrying from a predator they could neither name nor understand.
Good.
Let them carry the story. Let them whisper in the alleys of dying cities, in the cracks of crumbling kingdoms. Let my legend rot their courage from within.
I turned.
Whitebeard still stood.
Somehow.
His body was a ruin — half a dozen mortal wounds, blood running in rivulets down the cracked monument of his flesh. His bisento drooped, its haft scorched, the edge chipped.
But his eyes… his eyes burned.
He was already dead, though he refused to fall.
A good corpse should know when it's beaten.
"You…" he rasped, his voice a ruined thing. "What… are you…?"
I stepped forward.
Each movement peeled another layer of light from the world.
"I am the end."
Yoru rose.
And Whitebeard roared.
One final charge.
One final earthquake.
The earth split, the seas boiled.
And the storm, my storm, swallowed it whole.
His power, legendary, apocalyptic — met mine.
And broke.
His quaking world cracked beneath my feet, his final blow arrested in my palm. I felt the bones of his wrist shatter like brittle driftwood.
His eyes widened.
Not in pain.
Not even in shock.
In understanding.
"You were never meant for this world…"
I smiled.
"And yet, here I am."
One stroke.
Yoru found his throat.
Whitebeard's head fell, severed clean, his titanic corpse following after, shaking the earth one last time.
[+1000 Shock Points!]
[Shock Points: 5530]
[System Notice: Mythic Title Pending]
The storm howled its approval.
I raised Whitebeard's head by the hair, holding it high for all the dying world to see.
Sengoku wept.
Garp turned his back.
The pirates screamed.
I let the head fall.
A new king had risen.
---
The survivors were few.
Buggy crawled from beneath a collapsed wall, bloodied and broken. He looked up at me, face half melted, eyes ruined.
I left him.
Let the jesters carry the old world's stories.
Doflamingo, mad laughter cracked and fraying, tried to slither away.
A flick of Yoru.
A headless corpse.
Crocodile never made it off the ice.
Boa Hancock, her beauty stained with soot and blood, knelt in the ruins. Her pride had shattered. She did not even raise her head.
I passed her.
No need to stain my blade on a fading candle.
And Ace…
The boy knelt where the platform had stood.
Alive.
Broken.
A thread of hope for this rotten world.
I let him live.
A better horror than death.
Let him speak my name.
Let him build the shrine of my legacy.
---
Atop the highest surviving spire of Marineford, I stood.
The corpse city lay in ruin, stormclouds writhing like a living maw above me.
And there — a voice.
[System Notice: Mythic Title Unlocked — Crownless King]
[Effect: All factions hostile to user. Conquest events initiated. Ruins Domain upgraded permanently.]
[New Ability: Monarch's Edict — Speak a command. The weak will obey. The strong will kneel.]
I exhaled.
The storm split.
A single, monstrous bolt of abyssal lightning struck my frame, setting the heavens ablaze.
The crown was not forged of gold.
It was made of fire.
And it was mine.
---
The world shuddered.
At the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, celestial dragons choked on their silk and privilege.
At Enies Lobby, gates cracked, seas rose.
In the New World, monsters stirred, old gods awoke.
Kaido felt it.
Big Mom felt it.
Shanks stared into the horizon, his hand trembling.
And Blackbeard, somewhere in the dark, laughed.
"He's here."
The world's final tyrant.
The Ruin King.
---
"Let it be known," I spoke, my voice carried by storm and death to every corner of the seas.
"The old age is dead. Your kings are dust. Your gods are carrion. I am the new law. I am the storm you worship, the blade you'll curse, and the grave you'll find. This world belongs to ruin."
And the storm roared..
---
Author's Note:
There it is — Mihawk, crowned in fire. World shattered. Age ended.