Chapter 8: The Throne of Ash
The New World was a graveyard.
The seas did not calm. They frothed and raged as if mourning something ancient, something irreplaceable. Islands vanished beneath the waves. Great beasts of the deep surfaced only to vanish again, disturbed by the tremors rippling through reality itself.
The death of Edward Newgate was not merely a man's passing.
It was the death of an era.
And in its place, the Ruin King reigned.
---
Marineford, once the symbol of absolute power, was a ruin. Its proud towers shattered, battlements reduced to smoldering debris. Blood mixed with rain, forming rivers that carried corpses into the churning sea. Storm clouds devoured the sky, blotting out the sun, leaving only flashes of lightning to mark the fallen.
Upon the highest ruin stood Mihawk.
Yoru rested upon the stone like a black fang plunged into the heart of the world.
The air around him rippled with ruinous power — the crimson haze of his Ruins Domain bleeding into the storm itself. Each pulse a heartbeat, each surge another fracture in the balance of the seas.
Above him:
[Shock Points: 7100]
[Conquest Events Active: 4]
A storm wreathed him in lightless fire, his cloak torn but his gaze unbroken. The world bent to his will, and though none spoke it aloud, the truth was clear.
A new sovereign had been born.
A god made of storm and silence.
---
Ace still knelt, blood matting his hair to his brow, his broken body trembling under the weight of defeat.
"You… bastard," he spat, crimson staining the cracked stone.
Mihawk's gaze fell upon him like an executioner's axe.
"I spared you," he said, voice a low, cold murmur, "so you could witness what comes next."
A wave struck the ruined harbor, sending yet more wreckage tumbling into the sea.
Ace's fingers twitched, the last embers of his will refusing to die. But even the fire of a D. was a flicker against the night that Mihawk had unleashed.
"You'll regret it," Ace growled.
Mihawk's lips twitched — a cold, amused curve.
"Then entertain me."
Without another word, he turned from the broken son of Roger and stepped down into the ruin.
Behind him, the wind howled like a thousand dying kings.
---
Totto Land
Big Mom's rage was a hurricane.
Her homies shrieked and fled as walls crumbled and lightning fell like knives from the heavens.
"MAMA!" shrieked Charlotte Perospero as another homie exploded into ash.
"I TOLD YOU! FIND HIM!" she roared, her voice a physical thing, cracking the floor and rattling bones.
Prometheus burned brighter, Hera crackled in panic, and Napoleon trembled.
"Mama, the ships — we need to prepare for war!"
Her eyes burned holes through the storm.
"Everything burns! Everything DIES! This world is MINE!"
A thousand shadows fled.
But none dared speak the truth.
The world was no longer hers.
It belonged to ruin.
---
Onigashima
Kaido grinned, Kanabo across his shoulders, storm winds roaring through the open halls.
The calamities gathered, their faces a mix of excitement and unease.
"Linlin's lost her mind," Queen muttered.
"Good," Kaido growled, "it's about damn time the world cracked open."
He lifted a jug and drank deep.
"Send out the Oniwabanshu. Gather the numbers. Wano stays shut, but our fangs go hunting."
A terrible, manic gleam shone in his eyes.
"I want the Ruin King. Alive."
King frowned. "You mean to ally—?"
Kaido's laughter was thunder.
"ALLY? No. I want to kill him myself."
Lightning split the sky.
---
Red Force
Rain battered the deck as Shanks stood at the prow, Gryphon resting across his shoulders.
Benn Beckman approached, cigarette clinging to his lips.
"The seas are losing their mind."
Shanks didn't reply.
Beckman exhaled smoke. "We sail for Laugh Tale, Captain? Or away from him?"
Shanks closed his eyes, feeling the storm writhe like a beast.
"It won't matter," he murmured. "There's nowhere left to run."
The crew watched as the horizon bled.
---
Impel Down
In the deepest pit, Blackbeard laughed.
Bodies littered the floor around him — guards, prisoners, traitors alike.
"Zehahaha… I warned them. Told 'em the old world was dead."
His fingers curled around the newly stolen power at his fingertips. Darkness clung to his skin like living tar.
"Now… it's my turn."
A rumble shook the prison.
Blackbeard's grin widened.
"No kings left… just monsters."
---
Mary Geoise
The Holy Land trembled as ancient doors opened for the first time in centuries.
The Five Elders knelt before the Empty Throne.
"She's awake," one rasped, voice like rusted metal.
A presence filled the room — unseen, oppressive, ancient as the Void Century.
A single figure stepped from the dark.
Imu.
Her eyes were voids.
"She will ruin it all," the presence murmured.
"Should we strike?" an Elder asked.
Imu's gaze turned toward the storm-shrouded horizon.
"No," she whispered, the word like a dying breath.
"Let them bleed."
---
Back at Marineford
The storm's fury worsened.
Mihawk strode through the corpse-city, the rain hissing against his skin. Ghostly wails clung to the shattered walls, the dying dreams of a world undone.
The last survivors — nameless marines, battered pirates, desperate fools — fled at his approach.
He did not care.
Each step claimed territory. Each breath shifted the storm.
His domain expanded.
[Shock Points: 7600]
The system pulsed.
[New Title Acquired: Sea's Tyrant]
[World Event Progression: 28%]
A whisper against his ear.
"Your throne waits."
He reached the central square — the shattered remains of Sengoku's command platform.
Yoru cleaved a path through debris as he climbed its corpse.
Thunder boomed.
And there, atop a throne of ash and broken banners, Mihawk sat.
The storm bowed.
And the New World screamed.
---
On Sabaody
The supernovas watched the heavens.
"Did you feel that?" Basil Hawkins muttered, casting bones.
The result was constant death.
"It's him," Law murmured, gaze distant.
"Everything's about to change."
Kid grinned, metal swirling around him.
"Good. I was getting bored."
---
Under the sea
Deep beneath the surface, ancient titans stirred.
The Sea Kings sang songs of old prophecies.
Of ruin.
Of a king not of this world.
---
Back in Marineford
From the ruin came a single challenger.
Admiral Kizaru.
His form shimmered in the rain, light bending around him.
"You've made quite the mess," he drawled, voice lazy but eyes sharp.
Mihawk opened his crimson gaze.
"Do you intend to stop me?"
Kizaru shrugged.
"Does it matter?"
The storm growled.
And in the silence before the clash, the world seemed to shudder.
Then —
Light met Ruin.
Kizaru moved, a beam of death. Mihawk's blade rose.
The impact sundered the clouds, splitting the storm itself.
Shockwaves obliterated what remained of Marineford.
---
[Shock Points: 9000]
Kizaru skidded back, blood on his lips.
"That… hurt."
Mihawk stood, unscathed.
"Leave," he said.
Kizaru hesitated — then vanished into light.
He had seen enough.
Even the Navy's strongest couldn't halt the inevitable.
---
And so, as dawn broke on a bleeding world —
Kaido roared.
Big Mom shrieked.
Shanks sailed.
Blackbeard plotted.
And Mihawk, the Ruin King, sat upon his Throne of Ash, Yoru gleaming in his grasp.
The storm screamed his name.