With one simple gesture—
Lucian Thorn shattered the suffocating silence that had gripped the forest clearing.
That breathless stillness… broke!
He still didn't turn around.
Mask on his face. His gaze fixed on Rocks.
His perfectly upright back—left for Figarland Garling to witness.
It was arrogance.
It was composure.
A voice echoed from behind the mask.
Flat. Cold.
Yet it drilled cleanly into the ears of every person present.
"Rocks."
Rocks' pupils shrank violently!
He knows my name?!
"I'll handle the pursuers."
Lucian's voice held not a hint of emotion—he spoke as if it were a trivial matter.
'Who is he?!'
Rocks' alarm and wariness skyrocketed. He stared hard at the back of this mysterious man, brain working overtime to recall any powerhouse that matched what he saw.
Nothing!
Not a single match!
And before he could make sense of it, the next line floated over.
"After you get your wife and child to safety, don't forget to come back."
"After all, your crew is still waiting."
BOOM!!!
He not only knew his name—
He knew about his wife and child!
He knew that his crew hadn't yet escaped the island!
He even—trusted that he wouldn't abandon them to run?!
At that moment, Rocks stood frozen.
His bloodshot eyes locked onto the mysterious figure ahead, unblinking.
His mind went blank.
Questions crashed through his head in waves.
'Who is this guy?'
'Why does he know all this?'
'Why is he helping me?!'
But beneath all those wild thoughts, something else surged out from deep within—
A blazing, surging fire.
He was understood. He was trusted.
He—Rocks D. Xebec—king of the seas, whose name made infants stop crying and Celestial Dragons tremble…
This masked man was giving him something precious:
A moment.
A moment to set aside his burdens and fulfill his duty as a husband and a father.
But more than that—this man trusted him.
He believed Rocks would come back.
Believed that once his family was safe, he would not flee like a coward but return as the tyrant of the seas to storm back into this hellish battlefield!
This was more than help.
This… was recognition.
And then—he burst out laughing!
"Ku... hahahaha…!"
A deep, repressed laugh rolled from his throat.
"Kuahahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!!"
In the next moment, wild laughter exploded through the woods, echoing across the sky!
From afar, Garling scowled deeply upon hearing it.
What he hated most were these filthy creatures making such obnoxious noise right before death.
But what truly irked him—
That laugh was fearless.
It was… arrogant?
For the first time, a trace of unease crept into Garling's heart.
"You think I'm some kind of coward?"
Rocks no longer asked who the man was. He no longer asked why.
It didn't matter.
The instincts of a true sea emperor led him to one simple conclusion.
He clenched his teeth and forced out two words:
"Brother!!"
The instant the word landed—Garling's eyes twisted.
Brother?!
Some filthy, cloaked nobody—some pirate scum—dared to call someone brother in front of him, the noblest bloodline of the Celestial Dragons?!
It was a direct insult to his divine lineage!
Rage surged from Garling's heart.
But Rocks didn't even look at him.
His eyes remained locked on the back of the man shielding him from everything.
"You just hold them off for me!"
"Just a while!"
Rocks' voice rang out again—this time with an unshakable trust.
"I'll be back soon!"
"And when I do—watch how I crush these bastards one by one!!"
That was his promise to Lucian.
He believed this "brother" could stand alone against the entire God Knight regiment.
Before the words even finished—
Rocks moved.
No hesitation.
He clutched his wife and child tightly, and his leg muscles exploded with power!
Whoosh!
He became a blur of afterimages.
The ground beneath him cracked.
He launched away—in the opposite direction of the battlefield!
And this time, his speed was several times faster than when he was fleeing before.
Because now—he had nothing left to fear.
He entrusted his back, his family, his entire future…
To a man who had spoken only three sentences.
His presence faded rapidly into the distant forest.
Wind howled in the trees.
The battlefield, once on the verge of detonation, suddenly felt… empty.
The wide forest clearing was left with only Lucian—
Standing alone.
And opposite him—
Figarland Garling.
With a squad of terrifying, uniformed, human-shaped monsters behind him.
Hunter and prey…
Had become—
Standoff.
Only when Rocks' presence vanished completely from the range of Haki—
Did Lucian move.
He turned around.
Slowly—even lazily.
But this seemingly casual motion brought down a pressure like Mount Fuji on Garling's shoulders!
It wasn't just a man turning.
It was like an ancient beast, asleep for eons, finally opening its eyes.
At last—
Lucian fully faced Figarland Garling.
For the first time, he looked him in the eye.
Behind a mask devoid of pattern or expression, Lucian's gaze met Garling's—eyes full of burning fury and innate arrogance.
Buzz!
The air froze over in that instant!
Invisible pressure clashed wildly between them, sweeping up leaves and dust into a small vortex.
The monsters behind Garling had no consciousness, but even they were paralyzed by instinctive fear.
Garling could feel it—
This masked man had no energy waves, no aura…
But was more dangerous than any enemy they'd ever faced.
Strong.
This masked man was absurdly strong.
Garling's handsome, proud face was now stripped of any mockery.
What replaced it was ice-cold scrutiny—
And the seething rage ignited by one word:
"Brother."
He stared hard at the blank white mask, trying to pierce into the soul behind it.
But he saw… nothing.
Lucian's eyes were like a black hole—devouring every probe, every ounce of pressure—and returning nothing but void.
The feeling made Garling indescribably irritated.
He—a supreme-blooded Celestial Dragon, Commander of the God Knights—was used to being revered, to being looked at with awe.
But now—this unknown insect—
Was looking at him as if he were already dead?
Unforgivable.
Garling took a step forward.
He was going to strike personally!
Lifting his chin with haughty defiance, he prepared to speak—
As Commander of the God Knights, of the Figarland Family, he would now pass judgment upon this blasphemer of divine blood.