A few kilometers away from the battlefield ruined by gravity and lightning.
"Bzzz—zzzt—"
The eyelids of the Video Den Den Mushi drooped. Its shell was hot after being pushed too hard for too long. A signal recorder nearby kept spitting out paper tape, covered with readings from the battle that had just ended.
The CP0 agent codenamed Raven took a special coolant from his coat and carefully sprayed it on the Den Den Mushi's back. The poor little creature made a comfortable sound, and Raven finally breathed out in relief.
"Is the recording... finished?" Raven's voice was raspy.
Beside him, the man codenamed Owl remained in a half-kneeling position. He held high-powered binoculars to his face as if they were stuck there. He stared without moving at the distant dust cloud that was slowly settling.
After a long time, Owl slowly lowered the binoculars.
His eyes were red from staring for too long, and fear showed in them.
"It's over."
Owl confirmed, "The other side fell. Aiden won."
With that confirmed, Raven quickly drew a heavy line in his notebook. The tip of his pen tore the paper because he used too much force.
"The battle is decided. Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral Aiden is confirmed to have defeated the mysterious guard of the Black Steel Empire," Raven repeated in a low voice while writing quickly.
"However, Rear Admiral Aiden's actions are very strange..."
Owl raised the binoculars again and adjusted the focus. He frowned. "What is he doing?"
"What's wrong?" Raven leaned in.
Owl handed the binoculars to Raven. Through the special lenses, the scene kilometers away was clearly visible.
Aiden did not give the enemy a finishing blow as they expected. He did not even make sure the enemy could not fight back later. Instead, the young Marine was crouching beside the man, seemingly giving him emergency treatment.
A moment later, Aiden took out a bottle of wine and lightly placed it by the man's hand. Then he stood up, brushed the dust off his clothes, and turned to leave.
This scene made the two CP0 agents go silent.
The wind whistled in their ears, but it could not take away how absurd the scene felt.
CP0 served directly under the World Nobles. Their creed was simple: eliminate and obey. In their logic, drawing a sword against someone meant a fight to the death. Even the Marines, who claimed to represent justice, would not treat a threat of this level after a battle. It made no sense to them.
"What is he doing?" Raven's voice was full of disbelief. He frowned hard. "Healing the enemy? And leaving wine? Has he lost his mind? Does he even know he is on a purge mission?"
"This is not the Absolute Justice followed by the Marines. He shouldn't show such warmth to an enemy who blocked the government's will."
Raven took a deep breath and picked up his pen again. In the personality assessment column of his notebook, he irritably crossed out what he had previously written.
The pen tip tore through the paper as he replaced it with a new record: Lacks the coldness and political sense needed for a government weapon.
"The Five Elders were right to be concerned."
Raven closed the notebook. His tone became extremely cold. "Aiden is not bound by rules. He does not fear power, and he doesn't even care about his position."
"If he isn't stopped—" Owl took over, his voice showing a hint of wariness, "he will become another Garp in the Marines. No, he's even more dangerous than Garp. Garp at least has family and comrades who can hold him back. But this Aiden... I see no fear or respect in his eyes."
"High-risk. Uncontrollable."
Raven stamped a mark at the bottom of the page. He closed the notebook and looked at his partner. "No matter what he thinks, since he won, he must deal with his primary target. Keep watching him."
Owl took a deep breath and pressed his eyes against the binoculars again. His fingers skillfully turned the knob, bringing the battlefield back into view.
By now, Aiden had disappeared from the edge of the ruined crater.
Only the guard of the Black Steel Empire remained, lying among the rubble. His chest rose and fell weakly but steadily. He was clearly no longer in danger of dying.
"He's not there anymore. It looks like he left."
Owl wasn't surprised. He turned the knob to adjust the focus and direction. The lens moved quickly along the straight path from the battlefield to Starburg.
"He's moving fast enough. I guess he's in a hurry to—"
Owl muttered, trying to catch the blue lightning rushing across the land.
However.
The lens swept across the rocky wasteland. It passed over the dead trees buried in the sand.
There was nothing.
"Huh?"
Owl made a confused sound. His fingers quickly turned the focus knob back and forth. "That's strange..."
"What's the matter?" Raven asked without looking up while packing the scattered cables.
"I lost him," Owl said with a frown, his tone full of annoyance. "The wind and sand are too heavy, and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's speed is ridiculous. He disappeared in the blink of an eye."
"You must be slacking on your training," Raven mocked. "You lost a target moving in a straight line."
"Shut up. You couldn't track him either."
Owl cursed and put down the binoculars. He rubbed his aching eyes. To him, this was just a simple mistake.
"Whatever, forget it." Owl threw the heavy binoculars aside and sat on a rock. "The distance is so far and the wind is strong. Anyway, he has nowhere else to go except the palace."
Raven didn't disagree. He stood up and stretched his stiff neck. He looked at the towering palace in the distance, surrounded by black smoke and steel. His tone was certain. "True. Think about it. Why did he work so hard to defeat that guard? It was to clear the obstacle for his mission."
"Exactly." Owl nodded, taking it for granted. "Now that the obstacle is gone, he just needs to finish the mission. Friedrich might be a king, but he won't last a second against Aiden. We can finally take a break."
"Once he kills the king and the mission is done, we can go back and report."
Raven agreed and felt lucky that he could finally relax his tense nerves.
He took a cigar from his pocket and put it in his mouth. He tried to light it, but his lighter seemed to be out of fuel. It just made a clicking sound with a few sparks.
"Tch, what bad luck," Raven cursed. He tossed the empty lighter up and caught it. "After this mission, I want to apply for a vacation at the Sabaody Archipelago."
"I heard a new Human Auctioning House opened there with some good stock," Owl replied casually. "Bring me a more obedient slave next time. The last one broke too easily."
The wind kept blowing below the cliff.
Then the sound of the wind changed.
The sharp whistling sound was gone.
In its place was a very faint "hissing" sound, like electricity flowing through the air.
The air became dry and hot. Even the lighter Raven tossed in the air created a tiny spark of static electricity.
Owl was focusing on the palace, but suddenly, he felt a tingling sensation on the skin of his neck.
It was the feeling of hair standing up, like standing in an open field during a thunderstorm.
"Raven, do you feel like... there's a lot of static?" Owl asked instinctively.
"Maybe the charge from Aiden's last attack is still in the air. The weather on the Grand Line is always—"
Raven stopped mid-sentence.
A voice that didn't belong to either of them suddenly joined their conversation.
"You two... what are you waiting for here?"
It was a young, gentle voice.
It sounded right behind their heads.
There were no footsteps. No shift in the air. It was as if the speaker had been standing there the whole time, listening to them talk.
"Do you need my help?"
Raven and Owl stiffened. Their necks made a faint "crack" sound as they slowly turned their heads.
They looked over their shoulders.
First, they saw a well-tailored black casual coat.
Owl's pupils shrank instantly. He clearly remembered that during the battle earlier, this guy's clothes had been torn to shreds by gravity and lightning.
But now, the coat before him was brand new, without a single wrinkle.
This guy actually had time to change his clothes?!
Their gaze slowly moved up. Finally, it settled on that young face with a gentle smile.
"Clack."
The expensive cigar in Raven's mouth fell to the ground the moment he saw who it was.
The binoculars Owl was gripping tightly made a creaking sound from his intense trembling.
"Soru!"
Almost at the same time, their survival instincts kicked in.
Fear pushed the two figures faster than usual. The rocks beneath their feet shattered. Using that force, they launched themselves in opposite directions, opening a fifty-meter gap.
On the rock where they had just been standing, Aiden stood there quietly.
"You run pretty fast," Aiden said in a relaxed tone, as if greeting a neighbor. "But watching someone without permission isn't polite."
"Aiden!"
Owl stared at the figure, his voice turning sharp from tension.
"What... what do you want?! Your mission target is in the palace! Why aren't you executing Friedrich? Why did you come to this wasteland?!"
Aiden didn't answer. He just raised an eyebrow as if he had heard a funny joke.
Seeing Aiden's mocking expression, Owl, still slowed by fear, finally realized something. "No... how did you find us?!"
"Find you?"
A look of surprise appeared on Aiden's face, as if the question made no sense. "Sir, your memory seems quite poor."
Aiden leaned forward slightly, his calm eyes full of amusement. "Just now, when you were watching the most intently, didn't we make eye contact?"
"What...?" Owl froze.
Fragments of memory came together. A few minutes ago, during the heat of the battle, he indeed felt Aiden's gaze through the binoculars for a second. He had even complained to Raven about it.
But at the time, Raven mocked him, saying he was hallucinating because he was too nervous.
"It looks like you remember."
Aiden looked at Owl's shaken expression and chuckled. "Since you saw me then, I naturally saw you. I thought you were staying here specifically to wait for me."
Aiden shook his head, his tone full of regret. "So you really thought it was an illusion?"
Owl felt a chill run from his feet to the top of his head. Across a battlefield kilometers wide, while fighting someone that strong, he could still accurately catch a spy's gaze and lock onto their position?
What kind of Observation Haki was that?!
"Enough talk!"
Raven snapped back to reality. He quickly pulled out a badge of the World Nobles' authority. He held it high, trying to intimidate Aiden. "Since you know who we are, you should understand we are on official business! We belong to the highest level of the World Government and report directly to the Five Elders!"
Raven shouted, seemingly thinking that a louder voice meant more confidence. The golden badge reflected the stinging sunlight. "Rear Admiral, your actions are now a threat to your superiors! If you leave now, we can act like nothing happened. Otherwise—"
"Otherwise?" Aiden tilted his head, seeming curious.
"Otherwise, you are destroying your own future!" Raven stepped forward, his voice stern. "Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you have some strength. Before the World Government's power, one man means nothing! If you offend us, your career as a Marine is over. You might even be hunted by the entire—"
Zzzzt!
A blinding blue light flashed.
Raven's words stopped instantly, followed by a piercing scream. "AAAAHHH!!"
The Video Den Den Mushi he was protecting in his other hand, which had recorded the entire battle, exploded in a flash of fire without warning.
"My hand!!"
Raven shook his hand wildly, throwing the burning mess away.
But it was too late.
A sizzling sound came from his palm, and the smell of burnt meat filled the air.
Raven clutched his charred hand, sweating from the pain. The golden badge fell to the ground with a "clang."
Aiden stayed in the same spot, not even moving his feet. He slowly withdrew the electric spark dancing on his fingertip. The smile on his face turned into clear mockery.
"You can't handle this much?"
Aiden looked at Raven, who was gritting his teeth in pain, and then at the pale-faced Owl. He shook his head. "Waving a piece of junk around, making threats and acting important... This isn't being broadcast to the world. Aside from the three of us, there's no one here to see it."
Aiden's gaze turned cold, and a mocking curve appeared on his lips. "Even if I kill you both right now, who would know? Since no one knows, why are you acting like big shots?"
Owl and Raven looked at each other. Aiden had just stripped away the protection they relied on. The Five Elders were right. This guy was even harder to control than Garp.
He didn't care about the rules at all.
"Attack!!"
Ignoring the pain in his hand, Raven let out a desperate roar.
As CP0 elites, they were actually quite strong. In the Marines, they would be at least Vice Admiral level. Now that their lives were on the line, the two of them pushed their potential to the limit.
"Rokushiki Secret Technique: Rokuogan!"
Owl pressed his fists together, his muscles bulging. A powerful shockwave blasted toward Aiden.
"Rankyaku: Storm Cloud!"
Raven leaped high into the air. His legs became a blur, launching a storm of vacuum slashes to block all of Aiden's escape routes.
Their coordination was flawless after countless missions together.
"Too slow."
Aiden shook his head. A look of boredom flashed in his eyes.
His figure disappeared again.
It did not look like movement. It looked like he had skipped the distance entirely.
The next second.
The violent attacks hit nothing but the ground, shattering the rock and kicking up dust.
But neither Owl nor Raven felt relieved.
Because they felt it.
Aiden's hands had somehow been placed gently on their heads.
"You watched the show for so long. Skipping the ticket price has a cost."
Aiden's voice came from beside their ears.
"You—" Owl's pupils shrank. He tried to speak.
"In your next life, remember to buy a ticket."
BOOM!!!
Hundreds of millions of volts of high-voltage current erupted from Aiden's palms instantly.
There were no screams.
The lightning hit before they could make a sound.
The violent lightning swallowed their bodies instantly. Blue electric arcs exploded across the cliff.
Their Tekkai, strong enough to withstand cannon fire, was useless before hundreds of millions of volts.
A second later.
The lightning faded.
Aiden let go.
Two charred bodies fell to the ground and broke into pieces. The ashes drifted away with the wind, and the badge of authority turned to dust with them.
Sin Points +51,000
Sin Points +85,000
Aiden didn't even look at the system notifications in his vision. He waved his hand to close the screen. They were just two annoying flies. Aside from the points, they had no abilities worth his attention.
He took a handkerchief from his pocket, carefully wiped his hands, and then tossed the handkerchief over the cliff.
Only two small piles of ash remained to prove that anyone else had ever been there.
To Be Continued
---------------------------------
https://www.patreon.com/c/LIZBETH1242
40 chapters available in advance!