Chapter 74: A Forged Blade and a Stolen Soul
Levi's gaze, shifting from the reforged blade to the creeping shadow on the wall, was like a spotlight switching targets. The focused intensity that had been on Gion and the sword now pinned the escaping Blackbeard in place.
Blackbeard's blood ran cold. He'd been so careful, using the cover of the shaft's light and the lingering shock, oozing through the shadows with his Dark-Dark Fruit powers. He'd felt the oppressive weight of Levi's Reiatsu lessen, assumed the Admiral was distracted with the woman and the broken sword. It was a fatal miscalculation.
"You," Levi said, the single word a death sentence.
He didn't gesture. He didn't summon a massive attack. He simply focused.
Reiatsu Manipulation: Soul Snare.
An invisible net of spiritual energy, finer than spider silk and stronger than seastone, coalesced around the patch of darkness that was Teach. It wasn't an attack on his body; it was a cage for his soul, specifically targeting the vibrant, greedy, thieving core of his spirit.
Blackbeard screamed. It was a sound of pure spiritual agony, completely different from physical pain. He felt something fundamental being gripped. His shadow-form flickered, destabilized. He was forced to solidify, crashing onto the stone floor of Level 5, writhing.
"Your ambition is a loud, greasy thing," Levi remarked, walking toward him, the newly reforged sword—now subtly shimmering with a cold, inner light—still in his hand. "It stains the air. But it has… vitality. A strong will. Useful."
The other escapees with Blackbeard—Shiryu, Catarina Devon, a few others—froze. Attacking now seemed suicidal. Running seemed impossible.
Levi stopped over Blackbeard. He looked down, not with hatred, but with the detachment of a collector selecting a specimen. "You wanted power. To steal it. A fitting end, then."
He raised the reforged sword. It wasn't Gion's Jinpira anymore. It was something new, a blade baptized in Levi's Reiatsu and the soul-fragments of Impel Down. It hummed with a silent, hungry frequency.
"This blade needs a spirit to complete it," Levi stated, as if explaining a craft process. "Not a willing one. A captured one. One of theft and dark ambition will do. It will give the edge a certain… bite."
He brought the sword point down, aiming not for Blackbeard's heart, but for the space above his heaving chest. The blade did not pierce flesh. It passed into Blackbeard's spiritual body, the soul-snare Levi had created guiding it unerringly to the core of Teach's being.
Soul Forging: Zanpakutō Imprint.
Blackbeard's screams reached a crescendo, then cut off abruptly. His body didn't die; it went limp, eyes rolling back, breathing shallow. He was empty. A hollow shell.
From the tip of the sword, a wisp of dark, tumultuous energy—like captured storm clouds and volcanic smoke—was drawn into the metal. The blade's shimmer solidified into a deep, venous black, with faint red cracks like cooling lava running through it. A faint, malicious pulse echoed from it once, then settled into a dormant hum.
Levi held it up, examining his work. A Zanpakutō, of a sort. Not born of a partnership, but forged from stolen spirit and reforged steel. A demon blade in truth.
He tossed it, hilt-first, to Gion. She caught it reflexively. As her fingers closed around the hilt, she gasped. She felt a surge of immense, cold power, and a distant, furious echo of a will that was not her own—trapped, raging, but bound irrevocably to the sword, and through the sword, to her command.
"It will listen," Levi said. "It has no choice. Its name… is 'Usurper.' Use it well."
Gion stared at the blade, feeling its terrifying potential and its enslaved spirit. It was a monstrous gift. A weapon of absolute justice, born from absolute predation.
The entire prison watched in petrified silence. They had seen a man's soul ripped out and sealed into a sword. The casual, horrific artistry of it was worse than any display of raw power.
Shanks, helping a weakened Rayleigh to his feet, watched with a face like stone. This went beyond piracy, beyond even the cruelty of the World Government. This was a violation of the soul itself. The "Black Crow" was not just a powerful Marine. He was something else entirely.
The Arrancar, still standing dumbly in the center of the shaft, suddenly twitched. It sensed the violent spiritual transaction, the concentration of power. Its head swiveled toward Levi, then toward the sword in Gion's hand. It took a step, its crude blade raising.
Levi finally turned his full attention back to the creature. "Ah. You. The firstborn of this place." He walked toward it, the fear of everyone else a palpable fog he moved through without notice.
The Arrancar hissed, a sound of grating bone and static. It lunged, its jagged sword a blur of black and white.
Levi didn't dodge. He caught the blade in his bare hand. There was no clang of metal. The crude spiritual energy of the attack splashed harmlessly against his palm, absorbed by his vastly superior Reiatsu.
"You are instinct. Hunger. Chaos," Levi said, his voice analytical. "You need a purpose. A master."
He placed his other hand on the Arrancar's bone mask. The creature froze, not in fear, but in a strange, compelled stillness.
Reiatsu Command: Hollow Bind.
Threads of his own Reiatsu, fine and countless, wormed into the Arrancar's form, not to destroy, but to network. To impose a base-level command structure over its chaotic spirit. He wasn't giving it orders yet. He was installing the leash.
"You will guard this place," Levi decreed, the words imbued with spiritual force that sank into the creature's core. "This shaft. This prison. You will allow no one to leave without my permission. Your hunger… will be for those who try."
He stepped back. The Arrancar shuddered, then straightened. Its single eye glowed with a faint, obedient red light. It turned, planting itself at the base of the shaft, a silent, monstrous sentinel. Its purpose was set.
Levi then looked up, through the shaft, to where the Red Hair Pirates were poised for flight, and to the other prisoners scattered on the upper levels, including Luffy's group.
"The show is over," his voice boomed, amplified by Reiatsu through every level. "The prison is sealed. Red-Hair, you have what you came for. Leave. Now. Any other who moves toward an exit will be dealt with by the guardian… or by me."
He looked directly at Luffy, Crocodile, Jinbe, the Supernovas. "As for you… Straw Hat. You have a war to get to, don't you? Your brother is waiting. I won't stop you. Not today. The path is clear above. Go. Run to your fate."
It was a dismissal, and a manipulation. Let Luffy go, let him be a chaos agent at Marineford. Let the Red Hair Pirates leave with Rayleigh, their mission technically accomplished, but now burdened with the horrific knowledge of what Levi could do. Let the other prisoners cower, their will broken.
He had quelled the riot, forged a terrible weapon, created and bound a new type of monster, and directed the remaining variables where he wanted them to go. Impel Down was no longer just a prison. It was his laboratory, his forge, and now, his garrison.
He turned to Gion, who stood holding the demon blade Usurper, her resolve reforged along with the steel. "Secure the perimeter with the remaining guards. The Warden and I have things to discuss."
He then glanced at Magellan, who was watching everything with a mixture of terror and awe. "Your prison has been upgraded, Warden. Let's talk about its new… security features."
The crisis was over. But in its wake, Levi had not just restored order. He had transformed the very nature of the hell he stood in. And he was just getting started.
(End of Chapter)
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