Silence reigned for a few moments, but it was a silence heavier than mountains. Monkey D. Dragon, the world's most wanted man, stood before the young man who had just awakened from an eight-hundred-year slumber. The wind around Dragon swirled with unnatural violence, as if the atmosphere itself trembled at his presence.
"Your energy... it doesn't belong to this era," Dragon said in his raspy voice, his eyes never wavering from Rayle's hand, which still emitted threads of purple void. "I came to Egghead to save Vegapunk, but I didn't expect to find a ghost from the Void Century."
Rayle looked at Dragon with a chilling calmness. He felt no fear, only curiosity. "You carry the 'D' will in your veins... but it feels different from what I remember. The world I've awakened to reeks of a thick scent of oppression."
Before Dragon could respond, the Seraphim (S-Hawk) moved again. Despite losing half of his blade, his programming did not allow him to retreat. He lunged like lightning, using the ability of the "Swim-Swim Fruit" to emerge suddenly from beneath Rayle's feet, aiming a thrust with what remained of his sword.
"Get back!" Dragon shouted, raising his hand to release a compressed hurricane.
But Rayle didn't move.
"Void... Negation!" Rayle whispered.
At the moment the Seraphim's blade touched Rayle's body, there was no explosion, and no blood was shed. Instead, a small "black hole" formed around the point of contact. The sword, the Seraphim's mechanical arm, and even the surrounding air pressure were sucked into an absolute "nothingness." The Seraphim fell backward, his entire right side missing—not cut, but erased from existence.
Dragon's eyes widened. This isn't just a Devil Fruit... it's the antithesis of existence itself.
Suddenly, the entire island shook with a massive roar coming from the giant screens scattered across Egghead. Vegapunk's final broadcast began. The voice of the world's genius echoed in every corner of the Four Seas:
"To everyone who can hear me... the world we live in is going to sink! The truth is that the war that began 800 years ago never truly ended..."
Rayle stopped fighting. He looked at the massive screen showing Vegapunk's weary face. He felt a familiar sting. "Vegapunk... so you have completed 'Clopter's' work?" Rayle murmured an ancient name that no one had heard for centuries.
Dragon turned toward Rayle quickly: "Do you know where Vegapunk derived his science? Are you part of that past the World Government is trying to erase?"
Rayle closed his eyes for a moment, sensing the "Haki" across the island. He felt Luffy's (Nika) power moving toward the ships, and he felt a dark power approaching them with terrifying speed.
"Answers don't matter if the world drowns in silence again," Rayle said, looking toward the horizon. "There are five entities approaching... their energy isn't human. It's 'them', isn't it?"
Dragon tightened his grip, and black lightning (Conqueror's Haki) began to surround his body. "Yes... the Gorosei. They have descended to the earth themselves."
At that moment, the sky above them shattered. A black "meteor" of dark flame crashed in the center of the plaza, destroying everything around it. From the dust, a monstrous, massive figure emerged with giant horns and red eyes radiating ancient hatred. It was Saint Saturn in his full demonic form.
Saturn stopped and looked directly at Rayle, ignoring Dragon entirely.
"You..." Saturn roared with a voice that shook the earth. "How did you escape the eternal prison? 'Sinner Number 0'... you were not supposed to open your eyes until after this world perished!"
Rayle pulled his hand out of his pocket, and a thick purple aura began to rise from him, clashing with Saturn's black aura, causing reality itself to crack between them.
"Saturn..." Rayle said in a tone cold as ice. "You've grown old... and uglier than I remember. Where is your master? Where is 'Imu'?"
At the mention of the name "Imu," the entire island shook, and Dragon was stunned by the young man's boldness. But the suspense didn't end there...
From a distance, behind Saturn, a dark space-time portal opened, and a familiar laugh emerged—a laugh that made blood freeze in veins.
"Zehahahaha! What a beautiful mess! I didn't know Egghead was hiding a treasure more precious than Vegapunk himself!"
The Yonko "Teach" (Blackbeard) had arrived with his crew, looking at Rayle with greedy eyes, as if they had found the rarest Devil Fruit in history.