The ocean churned as if it wanted to swallow itself whole. Waves rose high colliding with thunderous force spraying salt and foam into the night air. Above the sky boiled with stormclouds, lightning clawing across their bellies each flash briefly illuminating the world below.
In the midst of this chaos a lone boat cut through the storm. At the bow stood a figure who seemed carved out of the tempest itself. His silver hair danced wildly in the gale, his baby blue eyes fixed on the fortress that towered in the distance.
Impel Down.
It loomed like a nightmare made with flesh. Black walls drenched in seawater jutted from the deep like the spine of some ancient beast. Torches flickered faintly along its walls struggling against the storm's fury, while the cries that leaked from its depths carried faintly across the sea.
Magnus's gaze did not shift. His chest rose and fell in calm rhythm his expression was unreadable though the storm seemed to bend toward him as if answering a call.
A deep clang shattered the night.
The alarm bells of Impel Down rang, their harsh toll echoing across the ocean. From the battlements, spotlights ignited and swept the waters until they locked onto the intruding vessel. Their beams pierced through the sheets of rain and fell upon the solitary figure at the bow.
An amplified voice bellowed from a Den Den Mushi. "Unidentified vessel! You are entering restricted waters! Turn back immediately or face annihilation!"
Magnus did not move. The rain lashed his face with the wind howling in his ears, yet he stood as still as stone, the only sound around him the quiet beat of the storm against his body.
From the fortress's flanks, Marine battleships stirred. Their hulls dark as night, slid into formation across the waters. Cannons swiveled all aimed toward the single vessel pressing forward without fear.
On the nearest deck Vice Admiral Onigumo stood at the railing, his coat plastered to his frame by the rain. His eyes sharp and unblinking tracked the figure advancing across the stormy waters.
"It is him," Onigumo muttered his voice low but certain.
The officers at his back stiffened. Some shifted uneasily exchanging wary glances, their confidence faltering against the weight of those words.
"Magnus," one finally whispered, his voice almost drowned by the storm.
Reports had called him a phantom, a rogue Marine-born who wielded Conqueror's Haki despite his age. A man who had already shaken East Blue with his presence alone.
To many those stories had been exaggerations but as Onigumo's hand tightened on his sword hilt, he knew this was no rumor. The pressure in the air, heavy and suffocating told him the truth.
Onigumo raised his voice the command cutting across the storm like a blade. "ALL BATTERIES, PREPARE TO FIRE! THIS IS NO ORDINARY INTRUDER!"
Marines scrambled hauling ropes, securing cannons, shouting over the crash of waves.
The storm raged, lightning split the sky and the walls of Impel Down loomed larger with every heartbeat and still, through the fleet of battleships, through the wall of fire and iron arrayed against him, Magnus walked forward.