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Chapter 461: A Father's Cruel Lesson
A loud rumble from Luffy's stomach shattered the dead silence of the scorched woodland. He lay sprawled on his back in a crater, muttering about wanting a hundred cuts of meat on the bone.
Ace lacked the energy to even curse at him. He stabbed his scorching iron pipe into the dirt, leaning heavily against it just to keep himself from collapsing. Nearby, Sabo slumped against a charred tree stump, taking greedy, ragged gulps of the acrid, ash-filled air.
The corpses of over a hundred Chimera Ants lay scattered across the clearing. For three ten-year-old kids, a battle record like this was enough to brag about for a lifetime back in the East Blue. But this wasn't the East Blue. This was the Dark Continent—a slaughterhouse designed for the rapid propagation of apex predators.
Suddenly, the wind died. It wasn't a natural stillness; the air itself felt smothered by something unimaginably heavy. Even the faint rustling of the leaves vanished completely.
Ace was the first to realize something was wrong. Having experienced life-and-death battles in Teyvat, his instincts for danger far surpassed a normal person's. But he didn't even have time to turn his head. An indescribable, sickening chill shot straight up his spine and exploded in his skull.
Thud. Ace's knees gave out, sending him crashing heavily into the ash-covered dirt. He tried to stand, but the muscles in his thighs were spasming uncontrollably.
Sabo's situation was even worse. He had already overdrawn his Anemo energy, and now his lungs felt like they had been filled with molten lead. Every breath he took brought a tearing agony.
Luffy sat up from the crater. He hadn't been completely crushed by the pressure like his older brothers, but the usual carefree grin had completely vanished from his face. His Rubber-human physique granted him the raw instincts of a wild beast, and right now, every hair on his body was standing on end.
He stared into the pitch-black depths of the forest. It was completely devoid of light. There was only a thick, suffocating malice reeking of fresh blood, sweeping toward them like a tidal wave.
This wasn't Haki. Haki was a manifestation of willpower; no matter how strong it was, there was always room to resist. But the invisible weight enveloping them now was pure, unadulterated killing intent.
This was Neferpitou's Nen Pressure. The aura of a Royal Guard was so dense and physical that it warped the very light around them.
A purplish-black miasma began to permeate the woods. Under the crushing weight of this Nen Pressure, the surviving Chimera Ants scattered around them simply burst into puddles of gore. They couldn't even withstand the sheer aura of their superior.
"Run…" Ace bit the tip of his tongue, using the sharp pain to forcefully seize a sliver of control over his body. He squeezed the word through clenched teeth, his voice so hoarse he barely recognized it himself.
Sabo desperately tried to gather the last dregs of his Anemo energy to manifest his Wings of Gliding. But the moment a faint cyan light flickered to life behind him, it was mercilessly crushed by the purplish-black aura. It was pointless. In the face of absolute biological suppression, elemental power was nothing but a fragile toy.
Footsteps echoed softly. They were light and graceful, like a cat strolling across a wooden floor.
A slender figure leapt down from the dark canopy, landing lightly on a boulder just three meters away from Luffy. Silver-white curly hair. Fluffy cat ears perked atop her head. A long, slender tail swishing leisurely behind her.
It was Neferpitou.
She crouched on the rock, resting her chin in her hands as her ruby-red, slitted pupils studied the three brats on the ground.
"Meow~ What interesting little apples."
Pitou's voice was sweet, tinged with an innocent, childlike curiosity. But paired with the suffocating purplish-black Nen enveloping the area, that innocence was more terrifying than a demon. She tilted her head, her gaze lingering on Luffy.
"That delicious smell from earlier… it was coming from you, wasn't it?" Pitou licked her lips. "There isn't much meat on you, but if I suck out your brain, the King will definitely love it."
Luffy didn't back down. He gritted his teeth, his legs slowly bending beneath him as he pushed the power of the Gum-Gum Fruit to its absolute limit.
"I won't let you... eat me!"
With a furious roar, Luffy launched himself off the ground like a coiled spring, shooting straight toward Pitou. His right fist stretched back through the air, howling with wind pressure as he aimed a devastating punch right at her face. It was the fastest strike he could currently throw.
Pitou didn't even change her posture. She simply raised a single index finger.
Thud. Luffy's fist slammed into her slender finger with a dull thud. There was no shockwave, no explosion. It felt like punching a solid mountain of iron. A massive recoil shot instantly back up his arm.
Crack. The bones in Luffy's right arm shattered with a sickening crunch, bending backward at a grotesque angle.
"Ahhh—" Luffy screamed, collapsing to the ground and rolling in agony.
"Luffy!" Ace's eyes went completely red. He gripped his iron pipe with both hands, forcibly squeezing every drop of life force he had left. Crimson flames erupted from his body, tearing through the restraints of the Nen Pressure. "Get the hell away from him!"
Roaring, Ace charged at Pitou with absolute reckless abandon, swinging his burning pipe.
Sabo moved simultaneously. Gripping a broken bone blade he had snatched from the dirt, he used Ace's flames as cover to slice toward Pitou's neck from the flank. Even now, their teamwork was flawless.
Pitou let out a soft sigh. "Way too slow."
She vanished from the boulder. Ace's pipe smashed into the rock, his flames hitting nothing but empty air. Sabo's blade sliced through a fading afterimage.
An instant later, Pitou appeared directly behind Ace. She didn't even bother using her Nen; she simply drove her knee into the small of his back.
Bang. Ace flew forward like a kite with a snapped string, crashing through three large trees before finally tumbling to a halt. He coughed up a massive mouthful of blood, his flames entirely extinguished.
Sabo spun around, but a furry tail had already wrapped tightly around his throat. Pitou gave a gentle tug. Sabo was hoisted into the air, his legs kicking wildly as his face turned a bruised purple. Suffocation caused his vision to go black.
"The powers of wind and fire… what miraculous genetics," Pitou murmured, watching Sabo struggle. The fanatical gleam in her eyes deepened. "If I take you back for the Queen to dissect, she will definitely give birth to some wonderful soldiers."
She raised her right hand, her sharp claws gleaming, preparing to sever Sabo's limbs first.
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Meanwhile, on a high cliff several kilometers away from the clearing, three figures stood in perfect silence.
Ivankov's thick makeup was completely ruined by cold sweat. He leaned his massive head over the edge of the cliff, watching the one-sided massacre unfold below.
"Dragon-boy! We can't afford to wait any longer!" Ivankov stomped his feet in panic. "That catgirl's life energy is completely unreasonable! Little Luffy's arm is broken, Ace is critically injured, and Sabo is about to be strangled to death! If we don't step in now, they're really going to end up as snacks!"
Kuma closed his Bible. He didn't say a word, but he calmly removed his gloves, revealing the paw pads on his palms. If he wanted to, he could repel the three boys away from the catgirl in an instant.
Dragon remained standing at the very edge, his dark green cloak flapping wildly in the wind. His face, marked with its red square tattoo, remained entirely expressionless. His purple Rinnegan stared unblinkingly at the battlefield below. He could clearly see the terrifying flow of Nen radiating from Pitou. It was a power far beyond the lizard Squadron Leader they had faced earlier. This was the true caliber of a Royal Guard.
"Stand down," Dragon finally spoke, his voice so level it lacked even a single ripple of emotion.
Kuma's raised hand froze in mid-air.
Ivankov's eyes went wide with sheer disbelief. "Dragon-boy! Are you out of your mind?! That's your own flesh and blood down there! Are you really going to just stand here and watch him get eaten as a snack?!"
Dragon didn't turn around. A white aura was flowing extremely slowly around his body, proving he wasn't entirely indifferent. But still, he made no move to intervene.
"Blake took that one hundred million Beri," Dragon's voice drifted over the wind. "As long as they face true, absolute death, the Failsafe Mechanism will forcibly intervene. The system will safely transport them back to the tavern."
Ivankov still couldn't understand. "If there's a failsafe anyway, why not just step in and save them ourselves? What's the difference?"
"There is a difference." Dragon's gaze locked onto Luffy, who was currently struggling to stand back up. With one arm completely broken, Luffy was biting down on his other wrist, using his teeth to pull himself upright.
There was no fear in those eyes. Only unyielding defiance and burning anger.
"Flowers raised in a greenhouse can never survive on this sea," Dragon said, a cruel, calculating rationality coloring his tone. "Their potential is simply too high. Whether it's their Devil Fruit powers or the otherworldly abilities they bought from Blake, everything has been far too easy for them. Out in the East Blue, they've already developed the delusion that they are strong."
Dragon paused, the ripples in his Rinnegan shifting slightly. "That delusion will kill them sooner or later. Therefore, they need a lesson. A lesson called 'Despair'."
He watched coldly as Pitou raised her claws, aiming directly for Sabo's shoulder.
"Only by personally experiencing this kind of absolute, undeniable crushing defeat... Only by smelling the scent of their own blood while hovering on the edge of death... Only then will they truly understand what it means to be weak. And what it means to feel reverence."
Kuma understood Dragon's bitter intentions. The leader of the Revolutionary Army was using the most brutal method possible to force his own bloodline to grow up. Replacing his gloves, Kuma took a silent step back behind Dragon.
Biting his handkerchief, Ivankov watched the scene below with teary eyes. "But… this is just too cruel…"
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