The deafening roar of cannon fire instantly drowned out the sound of the waves.
The landing craft shook violently. With a loud bang, it slammed into the coast of Ohara.
Cold seawater mixed with the burning air from the exploding shells splashed onto Aiden's face, carrying the smell of gunpowder and charred flesh.
What lay before Aiden was a sea of fire.
The cold orders had already reached the ears of every soldier through the Den Den Mushi.
It wasn't just them. On the horizon, the warships of Kuzan, Strawberry, Momonga, and Yamakaji were also lowering several landing craft. They swarmed this peaceful island from all directions at the same time.
"Carry out the orders! Drive all civilians to the evacuation ship on the west coast! No professors are allowed on board!" Commander Dal was the first to draw his sword and rush forward.
Aiden and a terrified Rosinante were pushed along with the landing force.
The moment they stepped onto the shore, the scene before them was complete chaos.
The Marines were like a pack of hungry wolves. They slammed their rifle butts into the backs of civilians, driving them in one direction.
"Move! Don't slow down!"
"No luggage! Move!"
A mother screamed as she shielded her child with her body. A Marine soldier hesitated for a moment, but his face remained cold as he kicked her. "Move! Do you want to die?"
Fire swallowed the houses. The fleeing, screaming civilians looked like cattle being driven away.
Suddenly,
"Bang!"
A sharp gunshot rang out.
Aiden quickly turned his head.
Not far away, an old man dressed like a professor was trying to run out of line and back toward the Tree of Knowledge. He was crying out, "My books... my history..."
A CP agent in a black suit stood there expressionlessly. He raised his pistol and aimed at the old man's back.
The old man slowly collapsed. The books in his arms scattered across the ground, stained with blood.
Aiden froze where he stood.
He watched the CP agent coldly put away his gun. Then he looked at the Marine soldiers around him, who were still driving the civilians forward with brute force.
He saw the word "Justice" on the backs of those soldiers' capes. In the light of the flames, that word looked unbearably clear and harsh.
"Damn it!" Aiden's throat moved.
"...Is this what justice is?"
Aiden had thought he was already numb. He had been in the world of pirates for over two years, and his hands were already stained with blood.
He had thought his soul from the modern world had been tempered into iron by this cruel world.
But when he saw the hellish scene before him, a violent wave of nausea rose from his stomach.
"Aiden! Why are you standing there?!"
Commander Dal noticed his hesitation. He turned back and roared, "Follow orders! Move!"
Aiden's hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. The veins on the back of his hand stood out, but the sword felt as heavy as a mountain.
He could be ruthless toward pirates because they were criminals.
But the people in front of him... were unarmed civilians. Professors.
Inside him, the values from his modern soul were like heavy chains, locking him in place.
At the exact moment his inner struggle reached its limit, his talent [Voice of All Things]picked up the overwhelming flood of negative emotions covering the island.
Vrrr...!
Aiden suddenly covered his ears. His face turned pale. He "heard" it.
He heard the desperate cries of a child searching for their mother in the flames.
He heard the scream of a professor as their knowledge was erased at the moment of death.
He heard the groaning of the wooden beams as the fire consumed the buildings.
He heard the land, the rocks, and the trees of the entire island... all of them were "crying."
"Stop... stop!... Stop screaming!..."
With a thud, Aiden dropped to one knee. His mind was on the verge of collapsing under the flood of negative voices. Cold sweat instantly soaked through his standard Marine uniform.
"Aiden! Aiden! What's wrong?!"
Seeing the pain on Aiden's face, Rosinante instinctively rushed over to help him up.
He only heard Aiden force out a few words through the pain: "...It's too loud... make it stop..."
"Loud?!" Rosinante froze. Then he realized what was happening and assumed Aiden had been overwhelmed by the cannon fire and the screams.
Without thinking, he activated his Fruit ability, which he still couldn't control well. An invisible barrier instantly spread out and surrounded both of them.
In a split second, all the cannon fire and screaming from the outside world vanished.
The world fell into dead silence.
But Rosinante saw that Aiden did not get better. Instead, he started trembling violently. His face was white as paper.
Just as Aiden was about to be crushed by the endless wailing, just as his mind was on the verge of breaking,
A voice forced its way in and drowned out all the others.
That voice did not belong to any human being. It was ancient, as if countless pages were being turned at once. One could sense in it the weariness of more than a thousand years.
"...Can you hear me, 'Listener'?..."
Aiden seized onto this lifeline in the mental storm. "...Who? Who are you?"
"...I have lived for too long, so long that I have forgotten my own name... People now usually call me the 'Tree of Knowledge'."
"...It's you?" Aiden suddenly looked up. His gaze pierced through the fire and smoke toward the giant tree in the center of the island, which had already begun to burn.
"Why can you talk to me?" Aiden realized the overwhelming wailing in his head had been blocked out.
"...Because of your talent," the tree's voice said with a trace of weariness. "It allows you to hear the voices of all things... but it also forces you to bear pain you were never meant to carry."
"...I am using my will to protect your mind for a short time."
"Why are you helping me?" Aiden was full of confusion. "I'm also a Marine! I'm one of the people destroying this place!"
"I felt the struggle deep in your soul... You do not belong to this destruction," the Tree of Knowledge replied.
"...I have been rooted in Ohara for five thousand years. I have witnessed history, and I have protected history..."
"Now, all of this is facing complete destruction... please... save them."
[Ding! Special will detected...]
[Triggered Side Quest: The Sorrowful Wish of the Tree of Knowledge]
[Objective: Do your best to save the professors of Ohara.]
[Reward: Unknown]
One hour earlier, in the forest on the other side of Ohara.
A little girl with black hair was running through the woods as fast as she could. She wore a worn-out dress. Her fair skin was stained with dirt. Her large eyes were full of tears, but she bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying.
Her mind was in complete chaos.
The warning from the giant Saul and the news of her mother's return were crashing together inside her small head.
She ran against the crowd. The island's residents were dragging their families toward the port, but she was the only one sprinting at full speed in the opposite direction.
The "Tree of Knowledge." Only that place was her true home.
At the next intersection, she passed a woman in a coat who looked panicked.
The woman was running toward the coast.
After some time, the little girl finally reached the library of the Tree of Knowledge.
Unlike the panic outside, it was as quiet here as always.
The professors were immersed in the vast sea of books, completely unaware of the destruction about to fall on them. The only sound in the air was the rustling of turning pages.
The little girl's arrival shattered the peace.
"Professor!!"
Professor Clover, who was organizing documents, was startled. He turned around and saw Robin covered in dirt.
"Robin? What happened? Why are you so panicked?"
"Professor!" Robin rushed over and grabbed Professor Clover's robe. She was so anxious she was on the verge of tears. "My mother... did my mother just come here?!"
"Olvia?" Professor Clover's aged face filled with shock. "Robin, you..."
Before the professor could answer, Robin tugged on his robe again and cried out, "The Marines... the Marines are coming! Saul said..."
"What did you say?!" Professor Clover finally understood. He grabbed Robin by the shoulders, realizing how serious the situation was. He was just about to order an evacuation,
"Bang!!"
The massive wooden door of the library was blown open by a tremendous force.
Through the dust, a group of agents in black suits walked in.
The man leading them pushed up his sunglasses and coldly looked at the panicked professors.
"By order of the World Government," the lead agent said in an icy voice, "the Tree of Knowledge Library is to be sealed immediately!"