"Report! A small remnant of the Wano Country has joined forces with the Minks of Zou and met with the Straw Hat brothers. We suspect they are... discussing strategies to deal with us."
Inside the grand hall of Arderay's castle, the main headquarters of the Immortal Pirates, Ivalis presented his report to Alucard before the gathered core executives.
"What do you mean 'suspect'? It's an absolute certainty," Fallon interjected, his eyes narrowing as he turned a fanatical gaze toward Alucard. "Captain, let me lead the charge. I'll raze Zou to the ground and permanently liquidate the last remaining trash who dare defy us."
"Would you allow this old man to speak with young Ace first? He doesn't harbor any major grievances against Alucard, and I truly wish to prevent him from muddling himself in these troubled waters," Jinbe proposed, rubbing his head with a look of hesitation.
"Huh? Jinbe, you still dare show mercy to our enemies? Watch your step, or I might just purge you as a traitor!" Fallon barked, thoroughly displeased by Jinbe's words.
"This old man simply wishes to avoid needless slaughter. Do not baselessly pin the label of 'treason' on me," Jinbe fired back, entirely unfazed.
As the executives beneath the dais began to bicker relentlessly, Alucard finally spoke up, cutting through the noise. "What is there to argue about over such a trivial matter?"
The room instantly fell silent. Alucard casually waved his hand. "Every one of you may act according to your own judgment. Dismissed."
Jinbe bowed deeply and made a swift departure, while Fallon, refusing to be outdone, quickly gave chase.
Yet, everyone in the room knew that Jinbe would undoubtedly reach the destination first; a natural biological advantage of the Fish-Man race at sea.
With the rest of the crew dispersing, the world was already stabilizing under a new order. The only ones foolish enough to resist the Immortal were a handful of greenhorn pirates who had yet to grasp the sheer, insurmountable disparity in power.
Among them, the Straw Hat brothers were naturally the most prominent figureheads.
However, Alucard had absolutely no intention of personally dealing with them. They simply weren't worth his time.
If they actually managed to fight their way to his feet, he would deal with them then.
Right now, Alucard was focused on practicing the second sub-ability of Schrödinger's Cat: The Stray Cat.
His primary motivation? He was looking for some entertainment.
It had been nearly thirty years since he arrived in this world. He had gone from enjoying absolute chaotic hedonism in the beginning to settling into the quiet stability of the present. Alucard had never cared about conquering the world, nor had he anticipated that things would escalate to this grand of a scale.
But if things remained this stagnant, it would be no different from the boring, monotonous routine of his past life. Therefore, he needed to thoroughly develop theStray Cat.
His previous journey to that low-power world inhabited by the woman named "Esdeath" had left a rather sour taste in his mouth. Though that woman had managed to provide a fleeting spark of surprise, he had quickly lost all interest in that universe.
Furthermore, he still lacked precise control over exactly which world he would manifest in next.
The vast river of space-time ebbed and flowed before Alucard's eyes, causing his physical form to gradually blur until he faded entirely out of this reality.
To any outside observer, Alucard's body simply grew translucent before vanishing into thin air, leaving no trace of the temporal streams shifting around him.
Boom!
The exact instant Alucard materialized in the new universe via Stray Cat, a violent detonation ruptured the air right beside his ears.
The powerful shockwave of the blast whipped past from behind, causing his dark hair and grand mantle to billow wildly, snapping loudly in the rushing wind.
Alucard scanned his surroundings. It appeared to be a coastal harbor or a shipyard pier. Compared to the One Piece world or the realm of that woman Esdeath, this place exuded a distinct contemporary, industrialized aura. The level of technology here far surpassed the standard of his previous world.
Currently, however, the harbor was engulfed in a raging inferno, and the fires were rapidly intensifying by the second.
Screeech—!
A sharp, resonant cry echoed through the night sky. Alucard looked up to find a giant avian creature entirely composed of roaring flames, its sheer volume easily matching the size of a multi-story building. Judging by its blazing form, the localized fires and explosions were undoubtedly its handiwork.
But it wasn't the creature's destructive power that caught Alucard's eye—it was its fundamental nature.
"A Familiar."
The two words slipped effortlessly past Alucard's lips. Indeed, it was a Familiar, the ultimate evolved state of a vampire's thrall or magical servant.
A vampire's helper, an extension of their will.
Though the caliber of this fiery bird was only comparable to the level of his own familiars when he had first awakened his power, there was no mistaking it: the person orchestrating this creature was a vampire.
"It seems I've stumbled into a rather amusing world this time."
With a sinister smile dancing on his face, Alucard walked casually toward the epicenter of the blazing warzone.
At the heart of the battlefield, two men were locked in a deadly exchange of blows.
The man controlling the flaming bird looked to be around forty years old. The pronounced fangs protruding from his lips and his blood-crimson irises clearly gave away his identity as a vampire.
Yet, at this moment, he was thoroughly exhausted, his face heavily etched with panic and desperation.
Standing opposite him was a blond, middle-aged man in his thirties. His left eye had been replaced with a cybernetic optical implant, and his right hand firmly gripped a massive mechanical battleaxe that had clearly been enhanced through advanced technological modifications.
"Astarte!" the blond man barked loudly.
In response to his shout, a young blue-haired girl who looked no older than fifteen materialized from the shadows behind him. Her delicate features resembled that of a porcelain doll. She wore nothing but a short cloak that barely brushed past her knees, leaving little to the imagination regarding what lay underneath.
The girl known as Astarte spoke with a completely hollow, expressionless voice, "Order received. Executing immediately. Rododaktylos (Rose-colored Fingertips)."
The moment her voice fell, a massive, translucent ectoplasmic arm erupted from her back, its size easily rivaling that of a Giant. The spiritual limb reached into the sky and clamped down on the fiery bird's torso. After a brief, crushing struggle lasting only a few seconds, it reduced the Familiar into a cloud of shimmering powder.
Once the fiery Familiar was crushed, instead of returning to its vampire master's body as it normally would, its essence was entirely absorbed by the spiritual arm.
"Your Familiar is gone. It's over for you, vampire."
The middle-aged man, dressed in priestly attire, brought his massive axe down in a ferocious arc. The blade carved a massive, gaping wound across the vampire's chest, terminating his life instantly.
Turning back to the blue-haired girl, the blonde man grinned with immense satisfaction. "As expected of an Elder Model high-tier vampire. That gave you quite the bounty of energy, didn't it, Astarte?"
This entire sequence of events fell directly into the eyes of a beautiful, black-haired young girl wielding a mechanical spear, who had just rushed onto the scene.
But in the very next second, a voice dripping with absolute displeasure echoed from the shadows of a nearby warehouse.
"A high-tier vampire? Ridiculous. Shouldn't that pathetic thing just now be considered the lowest of the low-class trash?"