Crack!
In a single instant, the entire sea was swallowed by an overwhelming cold that seemed to come from the Land of the Dead itself. It was not an ordinary chill. It was a cold capable of freezing thoughts, emotions, even the very essence of the soul. The vast ocean turned into a silent world of ice.
"What is happening? How did the sea suddenly freeze?"
The villagers who had been desperately rowing their fishing boats to catch up with the pirate ship froze in shock. The waves beneath them hardened into solid ice before their eyes.
"This is terrifying… What kind of power can freeze the sea like this?"
Their hands trembled. Some of them tried to abandon their frozen boats and walk toward the pirate ship that now stood still on the frozen ocean. But the moment they tried to move, fear crept into their hearts.
They could not move.
"What… what is going on? Why can't I move?"
"Me too. My body feels frozen. I cannot even move my fingers."
"My mouth feels stiff. Help…"
One by one, the villagers realized that they had completely lost control of their bodies. Then something even worse happened.
They could no longer express their thoughts.
Silence filled the frozen sea.
Everyone stared forward blankly. The faint light inside their eyes began to fade as if their souls themselves were being dragged away. One after another, their souls appeared in human form and knelt in terror before the lonely and frigid Soul Emperor standing on the pirate ship.
The space around them was no longer the ocean.
It had turned into a decaying and rotten underworld.
This was one of the awakened abilities of the Yellow Springs Fruit. The entire area had been pulled into the Nine Nether Yellow Springs. The cold of the Yellow Springs did not only freeze bodies, it froze souls.
In truth, the sea itself had not frozen.
Instead, everything here had been dragged into the world of the dead and forced to exist in its true form within the Yellow Springs.
"Little Labu…"
Brook stretched out his trembling hand and gently touched the small and confused soul in front of him. The death aura surrounding her could not be reversed. The moment he felt it clearly, his heart twisted in unbearable pain.
The little soul slowly raised her head. When she saw Brook, she immediately knelt down in fear.
To every soul trapped in this place, Brook had become something beyond comprehension. Something they could not speak of, could not resist, and could only fear.
"Little Labu!"
That single action shattered the final hope in Brook's heart.
The little girl who once called him father was gone forever. Even after dragging this entire area into the Yellow Springs, he still could not defy the laws of the world and bring her back.
He had completely lost her.
Cold despair swallowed the last warmth in his heart.
I truly am a failure…
Brook slowly stood up and looked at the dim sky of the Yellow Springs. Broken souls wandered everywhere, crying in confusion and pain.
As a companion, he had watched his crew die and could not save them.
As someone who made a promise, he had failed Laboon and left him waiting for decades.
As a pirate who had returned to the sea, he once again watched his companions get defeated by powerful enemies while he stood there helpless.
And now, as a father, he had watched his beloved child die and become a lost soul trapped forever in the Yellow Springs.
"You want my body… my thoughts?"
Brook felt the strange soul hidden inside the Yellow Springs Fruit begin to whisper to him again. This time, he did not resist.
Then take it. Everything I have left has already lost its meaning.
A dark and strange aura slowly seeped out of Brook's body. The black energy wrapped around him layer by layer until it formed a cocoon that completely sealed him inside.
"Hehehe…"
A cold and eerie voice echoed throughout the Yellow Springs.
"The power of the Yellow Springs Fruit finally belongs to me…"
After countless years of searching and waiting, after observing the hearts of many fruit users, this powerful Devil Fruit had finally been completely seized.
Puff!
A sharp sword tip suddenly pierced through the black cocoon and tore it open.
"You deserve to die!"
A skeleton covered in black curse patterns stepped out slowly.
"You died too quickly before. That was far too easy for you."
Brook held his cane sword in one hand. Blue cold flames flickered around his body while his skull tilted slightly downward.
"My desire is revenge. Revenge."
His empty eye sockets suddenly lifted and stared at the trembling soul of the female pirate.
Crimson ghost flames burst out violently.
"I will make you suffer in the Yellow Springs forever. You will not be able to live. You will not be able to die."
Whoosh!
The cold of the Yellow Springs roared and gathered around him. In the sky, the energy condensed into a gigantic skeletal ghost king wearing a cold blue crown and holding a massive scythe. A tattered blue robe covered in dark curse marks draped over its body.
"Jie… jie… jie…"
The ghost king let out a sinister laugh as the scythe swung down again and again.
Each strike tore the female pirate's soul apart, only for it to be forcefully restored and torn apart once more.
"Ahhh!"
The pain was beyond anything the physical world could produce. It was a torment that existed only on the level of the soul.
"I was wrong! Please forgive me! I was wrong!"
Her screams echoed endlessly in the Yellow Springs. The other souls that had been dragged into this world trembled in terror and knelt on the rotten ground, not daring to move.
"Wrong? No. You are not wrong."
Brook's cursed skull showed a twisted smile.
"You simply deserve this."
The scythe continued to fall.
"Yohohohoho… This feeling… it feels so good. So good!"
As one desire was satisfied, another desire appeared immediately.
The power of a Devil Fruit came from human desire. The stronger the desire to become powerful, the stronger the ability would become.
Belief could awaken power.
But so could hatred.
And at this moment, what had awakened inside Brook was no longer hope.
It was pure desire.
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