"Quite a lively scene..."
"On this battlefield of God Valley!!!"
Bringing Keek to the mountain peak, Orin stood at the highest point, overlooking the land stained by the flames of war.
"From here, you'll go with Kuma and the others, old man~"
After a brief silence, Orin spoke to Keek beside him.
"These are the top monsters of the seas. One careless move and you'll die instantly. I really don't know how you managed to survive until now..."
Orin's words hit Keek right in the heart, making him glare furiously.
"Hey!!!"
But he couldn't deny it. Orin was speaking the truth. With the war escalating beyond his control, Keek had no choice but to unwillingly let Orin send him away.
Before leaving, Orin smiled and waved him off.
"Just wait at home for the news. I will never lose!!!"
Unconsciously, perhaps even Keek himself hadn't realized it—his heart, which once firmly believed Rocks would be the strongest monster in the world and become king of the world, had already begun to shift.
Now, he wanted to see with his own eyes Orin achieving that goal.
He smiled at Orin, looking genuinely cheerful and passionate.
"Of course! You're my grandson, Keek's grandson. Isn't it only natural that you'll be the strongest in the world!!!"
...
At this moment, on the battlefield of God Valley,
the battle had roughly split into several categories:
Garp and Roger versus Rocks.
Garling versus Newgate.
The other cadres of the Rocks Pirates, countless Marine officers, the God Knights, and the rest of the Roger Pirates were engaged in a massive chaotic melee.
"Linlin, what's with those injuries on your body?"
Swinging a spiked club to send a Marine grunt flying, the young Kaido looked curiously at Charlotte Linlin's terrifying wounds.
"It's nothing, just a little accident..."
She had originally intended to find a powerful Devil Fruit for Kaido.
But now that plan had fallen through, and she didn't intend to tell Kaido.
After all, at this moment, Orin meant far more to her than her talented Kaido.
Everyone was either killing for treasure or settling old grudges. No one noticed that a certain figure had yet to appear on the main battlefield.
Boom——!!!
A terrifying roar erupted, shaking the earth. The shockwave blew the collars of countless powerhouses into the air.
Roger and Garp were blasted back simultaneously by a ferocious strike, crashing into giant trees and mountains before finally coming to a stop.
They looked rather battered.
But Rocks himself didn't come out unscathed. After all, Roger and Garp—two peak-level powerhouses without Devil Fruits—exuded an overwhelming pressure that even he couldn't completely suppress.
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, that ever-arrogant, fearless face now carried deep fury as he scanned his surroundings.
The members of the Rocks Pirates were practically all slacking off—and one guy had even disappeared completely!
"Can someone tell me? Where the hell did Orin go!!!"
Rocks was livid.
He had crossed paths with Orin before and knew that this guy was no weaker than he himself had been in his youth. His Devil Fruit ability was troublesome even for Rocks, who was supposed to be a "natural enemy of Devil Fruit users."
If Orin had been willing to help him, what would Garp and Roger matter?
The entire world would tremble beneath the hands of the two of them—monsters above monsters!!!
Yet every time Rocks had sincerely tried to win him over, even laying bare his ambitions, reaching out a hand with laughter—
"Come, Orin, let's take this world together!!!"
—Orin had always remained indifferent, at most perfunctory.
And now, at the critical moment of battle, Orin was nowhere to be seen!!!
But in truth, Orin had already appeared, slowly making his way toward the main battlefield from afar.
The first ones he encountered were a group of strangely dressed Celestial Dragons who didn't look like pigs. Though they wore bubble helmets, their auras were anything but weak.
Some wore white suits, others armor, fighting pirates with ease.
They were the God Knights—a nearly immortal group.
Orin had never undergone their ceremony, so naturally he didn't possess any so-called immortality. Not that he cared.
Wasn't his Warp-Warp teleportation recovery more than enough?
Looking at the arrogant knights, slaughtering pirate grunts with disdain and fearlessly clashing with pirate cadres, Orin barely paid them any attention.
In today's God's Knights, aside from Garling, none were worth a glance in his eyes.
"Hey!!! You there, you must be a high-ranking officer of the Rocks Pirates!!!"
Orin couldn't be bothered with them, but arrogance always bred trouble. As low-ranking knights, they didn't know his true identity—only that he was a cadre of the Rocks Pirates.
Relying on their supposed immortality, they taunted him with arrogance.
"Hm?"
Orin didn't even turn his head—only his eyes shifted to glance at him.
But that tiny action was enough to enrage the Celestial Dragon knight.
"I am a Celestial Dragon from the Figarland family!!!"
He glared at Orin, raising his hand as a slash hurtled forward!
"Figarland?"
...
Orin finally showed a flicker of interest at that word. Before the slash could even reach him, his body vanished.
Before the red-haired Celestial Dragon could react, a massive hand wreathed in black-and-crimson lightning materialized from the void and clamped onto his throat.
"From your family? You hold no weight with me at all!!!"
Boom—
A wave of force exploded outward. A punch too fast for the naked eye to follow sent the knight clutching his stomach, collapsing to the ground.
As long as they were alive, he could kill them!
The sudden surge of Conqueror's Haki Infusion drew countless eyes. Orin's figure slowly revealed itself on the battlefield, tightening countless throats.
He… had just attacked a Celestial Dragon?
Garling and the Marines looked grim, while the pirates erupted in cheers.
Captain John, blade in one hand and liquor bottle in the other, staggered up with a smug grin, coming to Orin's side.
"Took him out in one hit, huh, Orin… Be honest, did you just sneak off to find treasure?"
He assumed Orin had gone treasure hunting, ready to chat casually and probe for the location of the spoils.
But Orin only stood there silently, expression unreadable. On his suddenly materialized black gloves, a terrifying storm of Conqueror's Haki thunder condensed.
His answer came not in words, but in the black muzzle aimed his way, scarlet light gleaming in indifferent eyes.
"Did you… misunderstand something?"
"Who gave you the illusion—"
"That approaching me doesn't mean death?"