As a mere spectator, Zoran watched the unfolding metamorphosis of this world with a faint, amused smile.
Siphoning his immense power, Bai Tza was aggressively reshaping the humans, the Fish-Men, and every other sentient race inhabiting this world. The moment they brushed against the tide, they drifted along an evolutionary track toward an entirely new species.
With Bai Tza, the Water Demon, serving as the biological blueprint, the transformed beings resembled a hybrid of merfolk and nagas, though their features were far less grotesque.
Zoran mused over the spectacle.
If this world were viewed as a video game, Bai Tza had essentially stepped into the role of the lead developer. Simply put, a massive system update had begun. This was a brave new world dominated by oceanic races, and the newly launched patch was titled New Atlantis.
His gaze swept past the churning surface, piercing the ocean depths to look down upon the submerged remains of Marineford.
Through the absolute violence of her tsunami, Bai Tza had forcibly dragged this entire landmass down into the abyss. The Marines and Pirates, who had just been locked in a bitter standoff across the plaza, initially sputtered and blew frantic bubbles, bracing themselves for a swift death by drowning or exhaustion. Yet, the grim reality they anticipated never came.
Bai Tza was far too terrifying.
To the inhabitants of this world, her existence was nothing short of a dimensional strike. In a reality defined by oceans, a being capable of controlling seawater on such an apocalyptic scale was an absolute, unanswerable force. Furthermore, she was currently in a severely weakened state, having only recently escaped the Netherworld. If her initial display was this overwhelming, one could easily foresee how the future would unfold.
Deep beneath the surface, within the very epicenter where the dark Demon Chi converged, the evolutionary process for the trapped Marines and Pirates was exceptionally rapid.
The moment their consciousness drifted in the crushing pressure of the deep sea, their anatomies began adapting to the marine environment.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku rubbed his eyes in utter bewilderment. He turned toward Vice Admiral Garp, staring in shock. "What... what happened to you?"
Before Garp could answer, Sengoku's vision was flooded by the sight of hundreds of Marine soldiers kicking clumsily through the water. He gasped in sheer disbelief:
"All of you... have you been possessed by Fish-Men?"
Instinctively sensing something fundamentally wrong, Sengoku swept his gaze across the seabed. To his astonishment, he realized his vision underwater was exceptionally sharp, far superior to what it had ever been on dry land.
Akainu, Aokiji... every notable Marine officer whose name he could recall had been drastically altered. Some sprouted sensory tentacles; others developed completely non-human organs; many had their legs fused entirely into powerful, sleek aquatic tails.
Every single person had been remolded.
Finally, Sengoku's searching eyes locked onto Whitebeard. Scanning the heavily mutated old titan in the distance, the Fleet Admiral was forced to accept reality. He looked down at himself.
As it turned out, he was in no better shape.
"That creature that suddenly appeared... she did something to us!" Sengoku concluded almost immediately.
Before he could process the thought any further, Bai Tza glided down into the deep sea, her elegant, serpentine form circling the assembled forces. She decelerated to a halt, hovering weightlessly within the ocean currents. Spreading her arms wide, her face was a mask of pure ecstasy.
"Citizens of New Atlantis, bow before your God!"
Bai Tza's voice sliced through the heavy water, booming like thunder in the ears of the newly mutated human race.
A profound silence blanketed the ocean floor.
Her voice seemed laced with an ancient, hypnotic magic, compelling them to instinctively stand at attention and look at one another. Whether it was voluntary or forced, whether they desired it or loathed it, the transformation was complete. Every living soul touched by the tide had been bound to Bai Tza's will. The physical mutations rippling through them were the permanent markers of the Water Demon's newly minted brood.
The Devil Fruit powers that once granted them supreme authority had completely withered away in the water. Even an individual as mighty as Whitebeard, who possessed the catastrophic Tremor-Tremor Fruit, felt his world-shaking abilities drift far beyond his reach.
As for those among them who wielded Haki, their Armament Haki could not even graze Bai Tza's presence, while their Observation Haki had proven utterly useless when the apocalyptic tsunami blanked out the horizon, leaving them with nowhere to run.
And their Conqueror's Haki? They were standing before Bai Tza, the Water Demon...
Ironically, the only discipline that suddenly retained any practical utility was basic physical martial arts. It quickly became glaringly obvious that the individuals with the strongest physical conditioning...
...swam a whole lot faster.
In a way, this could be considered a highly successful upset for pure physical brawlers.
A complex, unspeakable melancholy began to ferment through the cold currents. The Marines and Pirates, who had been fully prepared to slaughter one another just moments prior, were now perfectly quiet, standing as "close" as a single family.
In the blink of an eye, they had all been rewritten into the exact same species.
The future of this world no longer belonged to the surface. The very concepts of "Marines" and "Pirates" had been erased from existence; everyone was destined to become a creature of the deep. Under the absolute dominion of a primordial power, the petty grievances between individuals and factions suddenly felt entirely trivial.
Whether it was the young and defiant, like Ace, or the old guards of the era, like Sengoku and Whitebeard.
The new era truly had no ships to carry the remnants of the old world, because such things were no longer necessary.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away across disparate landmasses, this exact evolutionary overhaul was triggering every single second. Humans, Fish-Men, Giants, Minks...
The moment any member of these distinct races interacted with the seawater, they rapidly evolved toward the new species. This cosmic force was fundamentally distinct from the three powers they had known before; it was entirely irresistible, operating less like a curse and more like a profound blessing from a higher plane.
Through the water, the newly evolved populations received a distinct psychological calling, a subconscious beacon summoning them to travel toward the epicenter of the new world to grant an audience to their new deity.
Zoran could broadly discern the underlying motive behind Bai Tza's methods.
She wasn't doing this purely out of a simplistic desire to tyrannize mortals or play god by sculpting flesh. From the grander, cosmic vantage point available only to Demon Sorcerers, she was systematically rewriting the fundamental laws of this world.
Using the ocean as a conductive medium, every single infected, evolved citizen served as an extension of her own nervous system, a sensory tentacle. Once every race on this planet had completed the evolutionary cycle, her sovereign authority over this world would reach its absolute zenith.
At that point, she would completely and indisputably become its solitary master.
Reflecting on this, Zoran couldn't help but feel a touch of admiration.
She truly lived up to being the sister who managed to survive a full episode in their original history; even after centuries of being eroded by the harsh voids of the Netherworld, her innate cunning remained incredibly sharp. Unlike Shendu, who was fundamentally lazy and prone to arrogance, or Po Kong, who cared only for gorging herself while ignoring everything else, Bai Tza possessed an intense desire for systemic control.
She had accepted the gift Zoran prepared for her completely, securing it through her own unique, flawless methodology.
With Marineford acting as the anchor point, countless pilgrims from every corner of the globe were simultaneously steering their courses toward the sunken headquarters. They were coming to witness the sovereign of the new era.
Bai Tza's design would achieve total success very shortly; Zoran was entirely certain of it. There wasn't a single entity in this world capable of standing in her way.
Even the rumored King of the World wouldn't stand a chance.
Shifting his focus slightly, Zoran's attention was caught by a sudden, desperate shout echoing across the distance. He turned his eyes toward the source.
"Ace—! I'm here to save you!"
A boy wearing a straw hat had finally arrived, severely late to the party. Staring out at the completely vacant, endless expanse of empty ocean, he tumbled into a deep existential crisis.
Luffy scratched his head, entirely bewildered.
Where on earth did Marineford go?
————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]