"ARGHHH!!"
A harrowing shriek tore through the firmament. Even Kuzan was visibly startled by the spectacle; for the legendary Golden Lion to let out such an ear-splitting, pitiful scream was nothing short of unbelievable.
Just what kind of hellish agony had this man endured to reduce a titan among men to such a pathetic state?
When Shiki had been marched into the living purgatory of Impel Down decades ago, he had remained utterly unflinching, calm as a mountain even as the heavens collapsed around him.
"What's the play?" Locke asked, glancing up toward Kenshin beside him.
Under normal circumstances, more allies meant better odds. Bringing a legendary heavyweight onto their side should have been an incredible asset, but this man seemed entirely unreliable.
Worse, judging by his current battered state, he was practically knocking on death's door. Even if they hauled him out of the fire, it was doubtful he could offer any meaningful combat value.
Kenshin held very little confidence in the Golden Lion.
Had Shiki known what Kenshin was thinking, he likely would have dropped dead from sheer rage. For a legendary grandmaster of the seas to be looked down upon by a pirate crew that had set sail barely two years ago was a humiliation beyond measure!
"Help! Somebody save me!" Shiki bellowed, discarding every shred of dignity.
His shameless shrieking only cemented Kenshin's tactical decision: rescuing this man was a waste of effort.
They shared zero camaraderie or history with him. Why go out of their way to save him when they needed every ounce of focus to contend with Im?
"Leave him be. Our sole priority right now is to hold Im at bay, contain the expansion of that black mist, and buy time until Drake arrives!" Kenshin declared decisively.
They were struggling to secure their own survival; they had no bandwidth to play savior to a stranger.
Outside, the dense black mist surged forward on a massive scale, smothering every horizon in suffocating darkness. Kenshin and the crew watched as the apocalyptic gloom rolled over them like a tidal wave, swallowing the Demon Warder whole in an instant.
"So you have finally arrived. Very well. The trash over there can be disposed of later. Once you are eliminated, I will slaughter the new Joy Boy, reclaim the fruit, and bring this world-shaking farce to its absolute end!"
Im's chilling, hollow voice echoed through the dark void. A sharp jolt of tension snapped across the minds of the Dragon Flag Pirates.
"Everyone, get into position!" Kenshin barked. Drawing out the true combat capabilities of the Demon Warder demanded that their wills align in seamless synchronization.
Even so, their combined output remained a far cry from the raw might Drake could unleash.
"Understood!"
The crew snapped into their stations. In Kenshin's grip, a long nodachi materialized—and mirrored in the mechanical hand of the Demon Warder, an immense, scaled-up greatblade took shape.
There was a crucial operational feature left unmentioned:
Though Kenshin and the crew could not bring out the ship's full potential, they were capable of achieving a state akin to the Unity of Man and Vessel. It was one of the divine boons Drake had unlocked after enduring immense agony in past trials.
Through the chassis of the Demon Warder, they could channel their personal techniques just as if they were fighting in their own bodies. The operational cost was drastically amplified, but with multiple crew members sharing the load, they held an immense strategic advantage.
They could openly rotate pilots through a brutal war of attrition without the enemy catching on.
"Thousandfold Thunder!"
Kenshin unleashed his power. Arcs of violent lightning crackled along his frame, and in a heartbeat, the surrounding black mist was blasted into nothingness.
The lightning continued to surge outward, expanding rapidly.
A massive, spherical barrier of pure electrical energy wrapped around the Demon Warder, holding the encroaching tide of dark mist at bay from every angle.
Simultaneously, the Demon Warder stepped firmly against empty air, vaulting upward into the sky. With a single sweeping horizontal slash, it cleaved the towering wall of black mist cleanly in two.
"Thunderous Impact!"
The colossal nodachi in the ship's grip gathered surging kinetic energy, its blade coated in crackling thunder that flickered like a swarm of ravenous serpents.
BOOM!
A radiant pillar of lightning erupted from the blade, striking the gargantuan shadowy visage square between the eyes.
The colossal face burst apart with a deafening concussive blast, disintegrating into scattered vapor.
With the local mist cleansed by the ship's lightning assault, visibility cleared across the immediate airspace.
Down on the floating landmass, Shiki caught sight of the breathtaking strike. His eyes snapped wide. Scrambling to his feet, tiered battlements of jagged stone erupted along his flanks.
"Get off me!"
Shiki roared, driving his power outward to shatter the surrounding stone barriers and blast them into the perimeter.
The swarming shadowy homunculi that had been tormenting him were instantly pulverized. Shifting his weight slightly, even with the twin sword-blades grafted to his shins shattered into splinters, his floating ability allowed him to drift without hindrance.
Looking up at the Demon Warder, a calculating glint flickered in his eyes. He had observed the vessel's maneuverability and raw firepower with his own eyes; this was a force worthy of an alliance.
He had no idea what that mechanical leviathan truly was, but in these seas, anything was possible.
"Hey! You lot up there! I propose we join forces!" Shiki pulled out two cigars, lighting them both in a single puff, his tone carrying an unmistakable edge of haughty pride.
In his mind, for a legendary titan of the seas like himself to lower his dignity and propose a coalition was a profound honor bestowed upon the other party.
There was no way anyone on this ocean would dare refuse him.
Anyone who knew his name would leap at the chance—
"Hey, Kenshin... is that guy an idiot?" Locke muttered after a beat of awkward silence.
He genuinely could not comprehend where Shiki was drawing this bottomless confidence from.
Wasn't this the exact same clown who had been screaming for his life like a slaughtered pig seconds ago? Had he forgotten his own humiliation that quickly?
A partnership could only be proposed between two parties of equivalent value. His legendary reputation was grand enough, but after the pathetic circus act he had just put on...
The entire crew of the Dragon Flag Pirates stared at Shiki through the viewing monitors as if looking at a lunatic. Did he honestly believe they hadn't seen him getting beaten within an inch of his life?
This "cooperation" sounded like an absolute joke.
"Well... I suppose his mind might still be somewhat intact... but an alliance is out of the question," Kenshin exhaled a weary sigh.
"Ignore him. We move!"
Casting Shiki from their minds, their focus locked back onto Im.
Across the churning sky, the colossal shadowy face was already coalescing once more. Kenshin led the crew into another surging assault, blanketing the firmament in a tempest of blinding thunderbolts.
Shiki's eyes bulged in utter disbelief as the Demon Warder soared into the stratosphere, vanishing from his sight in the blink of an eye.
The black mist rolled back in, completely cutting off his field of vision once more.
He was left standing entirely alone on the ruined island, his mind reeling in the cold wind, completely stunned by what had just occurred.
Had he... just been rejected?
The first time in his entire life he had ever condescended to offer someone an alliance, and he had been turned down flat on the spot?!
Even when dealing with Roger back in the day, he had never offered a partnership—he had demanded Roger's subjugation!
Yet today, a fledgling crew had dared to blow him off. This was utterly unforgivable!
Khehehe...
A chorus of eerie, mocking laughter echoed from the shadows. The small black figures materialized once again, surrounding him on all sides.
"What is that look on your faces, huh?!" Shiki snarled, noticing that the shadowy entities now wore distinct facial expressions—twisted sneers explicitly mocking his pathetic state.
Their smirks seemed to taunt him without words: A half-dead relic like you honestly expected someone to ally with you? Have you no shame?
"Damn you all!!" Shiki's golden hair flared with volcanic fury.
The colossal airborne island beneath his feet shuddered violently.
This time, the Golden Lion had been enraged to his absolute core.