Creed brought Redfield and Shiryu up to LV5 on the elevator.
Walking along the prison corridor, Shiryu glanced at the prisoners locked inside. His eyes gleamed with bloodlust, tongue licking across his lips with intoxication. "How nostalgic… that feeling of slaughtering them like pigs and dogs."
"Shiryu… Shiryu of the Rain!!"
Terrified and disbelieving voices cried out from the cells.
Hearing this, the other prisoners quickly turned their heads. When they saw him, fear and shock spread across their faces as if they had seen a demon. Their bodies trembled as they instinctively shrank back into the corners of their cells.
As the group walked past the circular prison hall, most prisoners reacted the same, pale faces etched with terror.
Only when Creed and the two left did the prisoners breathe heavily in relief, cold sweat soaking them in the freezing hell.
"His strength… terrifying. Why are they still here?"
"Were they caught?"
"He's wearing a prison uniform… looks like he was imprisoned under LV5."
"Then how did he get out? Could the new warden have released Shiryu and made him chief jailer again?"
At those words, the thought of Shiryu regaining his position made every prisoner's face pale further, their bodies trembling like leaves in the wind.
"N-no way… right?" someone muttered.
Inside one of the cells, a few elderly prisoners with strands of white hair stared in stunned silence. After a long while, one of them finally shuddered back to awareness, his deep eyes narrowing. His gaze fixed on a tall figure leaving in the distance—an old man of around sixty, exuding the aura of nobility. He muttered, "Red… Redfield, the so-called Red Count, Baroric Redfield."
Though it had only been a fleeting glimpse, he was certain. That was the Red Count himself, his idol.
A man who, at his peak, could battle equally against Whitebeard and Roger.
No wonder he had mysteriously disappeared from the seas. So it was because… he had been imprisoned in Impel Down.
…
Outside.
Snow fell endlessly from the sky, blanketing LV5's icy landscape in pure white. A world sealed in silver frost, breathtakingly beautiful—if not for the convicts huddled together on the ground, shivering, their bodies twisted against the cold.
"If crimson blood were to stain this pure snow… it would be beautiful beyond compare," Shiryu sneered, eyes glowing with bloodlust, laughter chilling.
"So this is the level above LV6, huh? Truly countless times better, like paradise on earth." Redfield marveled as he looked over LV5.
"Tired of staying down there?"
A voice echoed from afar. Approaching patrols—Sadi and four Jailer Beasts.
"Shiryu… Shiryu of the Rain!!"
Her face drained of color as she froze in terror, staring at him as if facing a natural disaster. Her body trembled violently.
She couldn't believe it. Creed… had released that murderous madman!!
"Warden, are you insane?!"
Shiryu was a bloodthirsty maniac, a killer who relished slaughter, massacring prisoners for amusement. And worse, she could never forget his madness back then—when he went on a killing spree from LV4 to LV5, rivers of blood flowing, severed limbs strewn everywhere, the wails of dying criminals echoing endlessly.
He had gone so insane, he even killed Impel Down guards.
In the end, only Magellan had managed to subdue him, and the World Government had sentenced him to eternal imprisonment in LV6.
But now… Warden Creed had released such a criminal. Unshackled, unchained.
"Are you betraying us?!" She glared at Creed, demanding an answer.
Magellan wasn't here. Neither was the deputy warden—they had gone with Magellan to Mariejois. She knew Shiryu's terrifying power. Even with the Jailer Beasts, they couldn't stop him.
Would Impel Down fall today?
"Creed, you actually let Shiryu out… you're finished, finished!"
At this moment, Hannibal appeared out of nowhere, snickering. "With this, if I capture Shiryu again, I'll become warden! Oops, did I say that out loud?"
But as he stepped closer, his eyes widened, nearly popping out of his skull. His tongue stumbled over his words.
"R-Red… Red Count Baroric Redfield!"
"You… you're crazy?!"
Hannibal's bravado vanished instantly, his entire body trembling as if his soul had been sucked out.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!]
[[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]