Lola's bare feet were unsteady as she stumbled through the brush. Her exposed calves were covered in scars, and having not eaten for two days, she felt completely drained. Only pure willpower kept her moving.
In the past, she could have leaped ten meters into a tree without breaking a sweat. Now, every time she fell, she saw the kind smiles of her father and mother. She remembered Grandma Misong giving her that strange fruit she had found. It had tasted awful, but it had given her a sudden burst of energy. The moment she ate it, a name had echoed in her mind: the Undead Fruit.
"Wuwu—"
Tears blurred Lola's vision. The weight of her grief and her failing body pushed her to the brink. "Papa, Mama... I miss you so much. Grandma Misong... I'm so sorry. I'm the reason you're gone. Someone like me... it would be better if I just died!"
"Found her! The brat is over here!"
Shouts erupted from the trees, followed by the heavy thud of footsteps rushing toward her. Lola panicked and tried to run, but a pebble whistled through the air and struck her shoulder. She lost her balance and tumbled face-first into a mud pit.
"Don't kill her! If we can't sell her, the whole village starves!" someone yelled as figures surrounded her from all directions.
Lola lifted her head, mud dripping down her face. Beneath her matted hair, her ears were yellow and black fur, but otherwise, she looked human. She was a hybrid—a descendant of a human and a member of the Mink Tribe.
"It's a hybrid!" a villager shouted in delight. "We're rich! Some buyers have special tastes for hybrids. She'll sell for a fortune!"
"Please... let me go," Lola sobbed, her eyes wide with terror.
Bang!
A wooden club slammed into the back of her head, and the world went black.
"Clean her up and get her to Baloses Island tonight," the leader said with a sinister grin.
The villagers rinsed the mud off her, revealing a delicate, tender face. When Lola finally woke up, they were already tying her hands.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"To Baloses Island! If the price is right, you're going to save all three hundred people in this village. Don't blame us, brat. Blame yourself for showing up when we needed the money."
"What about Grandma Misong? What did you do to her?"
The man gave her a cruel smile. "That old hag? She tried to defy the whole village. She wanted to die for you, so we gave her what she wanted."
Lola's heart stopped. Her eyes went wide as the tears began to flow again.
Mama was dead. Papa was dead. And now Grandma Misong was dead. Everyone who had ever been kind to her was gone. Why? Why couldn't they just live in peace? Why were some people born to be slaves?
Confusion and guilt swirled in her chest until they hardened into a single, burning point of hatred directed at the laughing man in front of her. A flame of revenge ignited in her eyes.
Die. All of you... just die!
"Ahhhh!"
A roar ripped from her throat as Lola looked up at the full moon. Faint electrical arcs began to crackle across her skin. The genes deep within her body connected with the moonlight, her cells surging with sudden, violent life. Her heart thumped like a heavy industrial pump, forcing energy into her limbs.
Her eyes turned blood-red. Her fangs grew sharp, and her dark hair turned snow-white in an instant, growing wildly down her back. Her body stretched, her muscles filling out until she looked like a young woman.
Electro sparked around her like angry snakes.
With a loud snap, the ropes binding her shattered. Lola lunged forward, grabbing the leader's face with one hand and slamming him into the dirt with a bone-crushing thud.
The other villagers froze. How had the little girl turned into a white-haired monster?
Lola didn't give them time to think. She dropped to all fours and shot forward like a leopard. She was a white blur, weaving through the crowd at terrifying speeds.
Necks were snapped. Chests were pierced. Some villagers fell to the ground charred and twitching from her electrical discharge. By the time Lola stopped, only twenty people were left standing.
The white-haired Lola stood among the bodies, her red eyes glowing. Her hands were stained red, and silver hair cascaded to her waist. She exuded a chilling, violent aura that made the survivors' skin crawl. They wanted to run, but their legs felt like lead. To their terrified eyes, even the moon behind her seemed to be dripping with blood.
"Run! Run away!" someone finally screamed.
But Lola was in a berserk state. She lunged into the remaining crowd, unleashing a killing move she had learned in the arenas: Chaotic Blades!
The world seemed to lose its color. Black lines intersected as she tore through the crowd, blood spraying into the night air.
Suddenly, her animal instincts screamed. She felt an unprecedented danger nearby. Lola instinctively leaped several meters back, baring her teeth and hissing at a man who had suddenly appeared in the clearing.
"Sulong?"
Kaido looked down at the small creature, a flicker of realization in his eyes. "Looks like she's gone completely berserk."
Kaido crooked a finger at her. "Come on, little one. Let me see what you've got."
Provoked, Lola lunged. Driven by nothing but hatred, she threw herself at him with another Chaotic Blades attack. But no matter how fast she moved or how hard she struck, her sharp finger-blades couldn't even scratch Kaido's skin.
Her own nails began to snap off against his body. Blood streamed from her fingertips, but in her frenzied state, she felt no pain. She just kept hitting him, over and over.
"A monotonous, boring trick," Kaido grunted, losing patience.
He flicked his wrist, catching Lola right between the eyes with his thumb and middle finger. The impact sounded like a hammer hitting a wall. Lola was sent flying tens of meters away, tumbling through the dirt until she finally came to a stop.