Facing the simultaneous, questioning gazes of the three, Crocodile gave a curt nod.
"I can manage it," he stated, his tone flat and unconcerned. "But if you happen to lose your grip halfway up, well… consider yourselves out of luck."
He glanced upward at the immense Red Line, its summit completely swallowed by the clouds above.
"After all," he added with a faint sigh, "nobody actually knows how damn tall this continent really is."
Even Crocodile himself sounded slightly uncertain.
"Then we're counting on you, Crocodile!"
Rojen chuckled, slapping Crocodile firmly on the shoulder.
The group steered their small boat until it bumped securely against the base of the Red Line. Crocodile stepped onto the reddish rock and placed his right hand against the cliff face.
In an instant, sand and dust surged outward, swirling and knitting together until they took the shape of a bizarre, cylinder-like creature made entirely of shifting sand.
"Get on," Crocodile instructed them simply.
The others exchanged glances, clearly hesitant. The sandy beast looked highly unstable.
"If you don't trust me," Crocodile said with a familiar smirk, "then I'll go first."
He casually swung himself onto the sand creature's back, gripping one of the jagged spikes protruding from its surface to steady himself.
"Come on," Rojen urged, reassuring Jason and Trens, "trust him."
The hesitation was understandable; the construct Crocodile had summoned looked utterly absurd. It had a smooth, bald sphere for a head, no limbs, a cylindrical body, and a small, shallow depression on its back just big enough for a rider. Other than that, it had no discernible features.
It looked like something that had just crawled off a child's crude crayon drawing, a crude, ridiculous, and frankly weird life form.
The three finally climbed aboard, one after another. Under Crocodile's control, thick strands of sand shot out like ropes, wrapping around their waists and securing them firmly in place.
"This thing moves fast," Crocodile warned flatly. "Hold on tight, or you'll be flung right off."
As he spoke, Jason nervously tapped one of the sandy ropes, testing its surprising strength.
And then,
"Whoosh!"
The strange, cylindrical sand creature violently launched itself forward, rocketing straight up along the red cliff face.
A powerful, crushing pressure slammed into the three of them, nearly flattening them backward. Their faces twisted as their stomachs plummeted.
Jason, in particular, was caught completely off balance, his body jolting violently. He nearly flew off the creature's back, his face turning sheet white with terror.
"Crocodile, you son of a, !"
He managed to curse only after realizing he was still safely strapped in.
But before he could even finish the insult, the sand beast burst forward again, suddenly doubling its speed, cutting his words off mid-sentence.
Wind roared past Rojen's ears with a sharp sōu sōu sound, and the colossal landscape on either side blurred into streaking lines of red and brown. Everything seemed to distort from the sheer velocity.
Rojen felt his face pale, the speed was absolutely insane.
He'd driven cars in his previous life, but this was exponentially worse. He estimated that Crocodile's sand beast was already traveling over 210 kilometers per hour, and it was still accelerating relentlessly.
Within seconds, the speed had climbed past 300.
This wasn't climbing, it was a drag race up a vertical cliff face!
The unstable sand surface beneath them vibrated and jerked wildly, causing their bodies to shake and rattle. Rojen felt his stomach lurch, the motion sickness hitting hard.
He gritted his teeth, his face darkened with strain. He didn't even dare to open his mouth, the wind pressure was so intense it would probably blast right down his throat. Even keeping his eyes open was a painful struggle against the gale.
"Damn it, Crocodile is actually drag racing up the mountain!"
"This is terrifying, but somehow... amazing!"
He swore out loud, a terrifying mix of fear and adrenaline coursing through him.
Behind him, Jason and Trens were utterly pale.
At this velocity, their hearts were pounding wildly from the physical strain and pure terror. Their first experience of such extreme, vertical speed made them desperately want to vomit, but they kept their mouths tightly sealed.
Because they knew if they opened them for a second, their vomit would be shredded by the wind and plastered right back into their own faces.
That was a level of grossness no one wanted to experience!
"Sōu! Sōu! Sōu!"
The wind screamed like knives, slicing at their faces until their skin burned with pain. But they couldn't open their mouths, nor could they yell at Crocodile to slow down. The utter helplessness of the situation was driving them crazy.
And yet, somehow, deep beneath the terror of the insane speed, a pure rush of exhilaration began to surface!
At the front, Crocodile sat relaxed, a faint, cruel smile playing on his lips as he leisurely puffed on his cigar. The smoke he exhaled was instantly shredded and scattered by the furious wind, but his expression never changed, calm, steady, and completely unaffected by the speed.
In truth, with his level of control, he could easily have formed a protective barrier of sand to shield the others from the force of the gale. But his wicked sense of humor wouldn't allow him to resist the temptation.
And the result? It was absolutely satisfying.
Watching the three of them flailing, wanting to punch him but unable to move, wanting to curse him but unable to open their mouths, it filled Crocodile's heart with pure, wicked delight.
"Ha! I just love that look, when you want to kill me but you can't do a damn thing!" he thought smugly.
The feeling of speed was utterly wild, like a monster truck tearing up a vertical track. The roaring wind screamed past their ears as the four of them continued their high-speed ascent up the impossible wall of the Red Line.
Up close, the Red Line wasn't a perfectly vertical wall after all, it was a massive, slanted mountain, rising at a steep but changing angle. From the sea, it looked almost perpendicular, close to 87 degrees, but the higher they went, the more the slope began to noticeably ease.
After about fifteen minutes, the sand beast's speed finally started to drop. By now, the slope had grown noticeably gentler.
Sweat beaded on Crocodile's forehead, maintaining such a precise, high-speed climb for this long was physically and mentally exhausting.
"Almost there…" he muttered through gritted teeth.
And just then, the others could finally see it too, the vast sprawl of buildings that stretched across the top of the cliffs.
That was Marineford, the Marine Headquarters! They had managed to reach a perfect, unmonitored entry point, right in the central zone, bypassing the fortress gates, the cannon platforms, and the heavily guarded outer perimeter.
"Brilliant work, Crocodile! We actually made it!"
Trens instantly forgot all the suffering of the climb and shouted in pure, giddy excitement. They had truly done the impossible, They had scaled the Red Line and reached Marine Headquarters, a feat so insane that no one in the world would have ever believed it possible!
"Don't celebrate yet," Crocodile growled through clenched teeth. "We're not done yet!"
"Come on, Crocodile! You've got this!" Rojen yelled in encouragement.
"Damn it! You try doing this yourself!" Crocodile roared back. "Your old man's about to pass out!"
Sweat poured down his face as he bellowed again, "But screw it, let's finish this! Full speed ahead!"
At his command, the sand beast shrieked and roared upward once more, accelerating madly toward the summit.
They were only about ten kilometers away from the Marineford plateau now. In the blink of an eye, they surged higher, the speed climbing again.
But after barely thirty seconds, Crocodile's jaw locked tight. His whole body began to tremble violently. He was reaching his absolute physical limit.
"I… can't… hold it!"
The four words squeezed out between his teeth made Jason and Trens turn instantly pale.
"Hey! Hey, Crocodile, hang in there!" "Just a little more! Just a little more!"
They shouted desperately.
And then, Crocodile let out a final, furious roar.
"RAAAHH!"
The sand beast beneath them exploded apart, scattering into countless grains that vanished instantly into the wind.
All three of their hearts clenched in terrifying realization as they looked down, Below them was a vast, bottomless sea, stretching endlessly into the dizzying blue depths.
"Damn it, just how many meters high is this thing?!"
(End Of This Chapter)
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