The chaos of the Impel Down raid had been deafening; now, it was worse. The silence that followed the surge of the golden-amber Haki was unnatural, a physical weight that pressed the breath from the lungs of every Marine and convict remaining on Level 6.
Marshall D. Teach, the Yonko, felt it too. He stumbled back, his usually boisterous laughter catching in his throat like dust. He had faced Admirals, clashed with Whitebeard, and wielded the power to swallow light itself. Yet, this sensation was different: it was not a threat to his life, but a threat to his relevance.
The prison had just birthed something that treated him like an insect.
The man who stepped through the fractured stone of the lowest level was monumental. Monkey D. Kelean wasn't bulging with muscle, but his presence was a gravitational field. His dark, ragged robes billowed from unseen drafts, and the colossal tidal wave of collected blood—the Crimson Tide—remained perfectly suspended behind him, pulsing with an inner light like a liquid sun.
"You," Kelean's voice cut through the silence, directed at Blackbeard. "The man who seeks to wield the remnants of an age you were never meant to understand."
Blackbeard's fear quickly curdled into rage. He was a man of two Devil Fruits, a conqueror, a D. He would not kneel.
"Zehahaha! What an entrance!" Teach scoffed, forcing a grin, but his eyes were darting nervously between Kelean and the hovering blood mass. "Who are you, old man? And what kind of lousy, messy fruit is that? You think some glorified water trick can scare me? I have the power of Darkness!"
He extended his palm, his fingertips instantly turning into a swirling black hole.
"Black Hole!" Teach roared, aiming the void at the suspended Crimson Tide.
The darkness of the Yami Yami no Mi stretched, ready to consume and nullify the blood. But as the dark field brushed against the Crimson Tide, nothing happened. The blood did not disperse, nor was its power negated. It simply glowed brighter, humming defiance.
Teach's eyes widened in genuine disbelief. "What? It's not pulling it!"
Kelean watched, an expression of profound boredom on his face. "The power to negate life's energy, but not its structure. Your 'Darkness' is a child's toy, Teach. It stops the movement of energy. It does not control matter."
With a negligible flick of his wrist, Kelean pointed a finger at the center of the Yonko's chest. He didn't move the entire Crimson Tide, he moved only what he needed.
Teach suddenly gasped, a sound of strangled panic. He dropped his arm, clawing at his thick throat.
"I don't need to touch you to control you," Kelean explained, his voice chillingly calm. "I am Blood. You are 70% water, but 5% iron, calcium, and salt. I command the trace minerals in your veins, Teach. And I control the pressure that keeps your brain alive."
The gravity-defying hair of the Yonko stood on end. His face, usually ruddy and defiant, turned an ashy gray as he felt an inexplicable, blinding spike of pressure in his temples. He felt his veins constricting, the blood flow to his brain surging and retreating simultaneously. It was a sensation of absolute, internal violation.
"Stop... Stop it!" Teach choked out, dropping to one knee. He tried to summon his Earthquake Power, but the overwhelming pressure of Kelean's Haki kept him subdued, his movements locked by sheer willpower.
"You bear the mark of D," Kelean said, his eyes now blazing with a cold Haki. "Yet you wear it like a brand of greed. We are the founders of freedom, not the consumers of opportunity." He lowered his hand. The crushing sensation immediately vanished, leaving Teach gasping on the floor, sweat pouring from his body.
"Take your crew, take your spoils, and flee this shallow sea," Kelean commanded, his eyes now sweeping over the ruined prison, looking past the pirate and upward to the World. "My targets are the traitors who broke the Dawn. You are merely a distraction."
Kelean took his first purposeful step. The massive Crimson Tide followed, flowing seamlessly behind him as he ascended toward the surface, carving a silent, devastating path through the upper levels of Impel Down.
Blackbeard remained on the ground, shaking. He had been defeated without a single punch thrown, without even having his Devil Fruit nullified—he had been conquered at the atomic level. He was strong, but this man was beyond strength. He was a living law of nature.
Teach slowly picked himself up, his eyes now filled not with rage, but calculating terror. "Zehaha... Monkey D. Kelean... the stories were weak... He is the true King."
The Founder had returned, and the world—and the fragile balance of power between Emperors and the Government—had just been rendered utterly obsolete.
That encounter cements Kelean's position as the true apex of power! Now that Kelean has left Impel Down, we can follow him into the current world, perhaps to Sabaody, or directly toward Mariejois.