The wind howled.
Smoke billowed.
The sea churned.
Everything about the scene screamed the same message—
Cocoyasi Village was about to face disaster.
Krieg's fleet had already reached the harbor.
The villagers stood gathered at the port, weapons clutched tightly in their hands.
Genzo stood at the very front.
He drew in a deep breath, forced himself to stay calm, and shouted at the top of his lungs,
"The pirates are here! Grab your weapons and get ready to fight!"
His booming voice carried through the crowd.
One after another, the villagers raised what they held in their hands.
Their weapons were pitifully crude.
Wooden clubs.
Steel pipes.
Kitchen knives.
Things like that.
But behind them was their home.
And for that reason alone—
they would not retreat.
At that same moment, the Krieg Pirates landed at the harbor.
"Hahahaha! Kill them all!"
Krieg leapt down from a ship as tall as a house, raising his golden shield high overhead, his face twisted into a savage, monstrous grin.
"KILL!"
At Krieg's order, the entire pirate crew roared like beasts and swarmed off the ships.
Every pirate wore a murderous look, like demons crawling out of hell itself.
They wanted to feel it for themselves—
the thrill of cutting flesh, of seeing blood spill, of bathing in slaughter.
Only killing—
only violence—
could briefly drive away the nightmare Kairos had burned into their minds.
"Protect the village!"
Genzo roared and charged first, steel pipe raised high.
The stronger villagers followed close behind, surging forward as one.
Villagers and pirates—
were about to collide.
From the hills near the harbor, two small figures came rushing out.
It was Nami and Nojiko.
The distant cries of battle had left both girls pale with fear.
"T-they've started fighting…"
Hidden inside a patch of bushes, Nami's little face had gone white, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Not long after the cannon shot landed, the whole village had erupted into motion, with countless villagers rushing out into the streets.
Nami and Nojiko had followed them to see what was happening.
They had never expected to witness something this brutal.
Nojiko stared blankly at the harbor.
In her mind, the memories of pirates destroying her village came flooding back once more.
Overwhelming fear slammed into her.
Her blood rushed to her head.
Her scalp tingled.
Even her vision began to blur.
And right then, Nami suddenly cried out.
"Nojiko—look! It's Bell-mère!!"
Almost on instinct, Nojiko followed the direction of Nami's finger.
And froze.
Bell-mère came charging out from behind the crowd with a cigarette between her lips and an old flintlock pistol in her hand.
She moved with unstoppable momentum.
"Damn pirates! I used to be a Marine!"
With a furious shout, she opened fire at once. Her short pink hair whipped in the wind, and for a moment she looked every inch the hardened female soldier.
Bell-mère had once been a Marine.
The instant she heard the first cannon blast, she understood what it meant.
She had abandoned the pots and pans in her kitchen and rushed from the house with her gun in hand.
Bang!
Flames burst from the muzzle.
A tall pirate took the shot in the shoulder and stumbled backward several steps as blood poured out.
"Damn it. This woman's packing a gun."
The tall pirate's eyes turned vicious as he reached for the pistol at his waist, ready to shoot Bell-mère dead.
"I'll handle this."
Krieg raised a hand to stop him.
Then he turned toward Bell-mère, his eyes glowing with beast-like bloodlust. He slowly licked his lips with a scarlet tongue.
"Pirates—go to hell!"
Bell-mère cursed through clenched teeth and fired again, utterly unafraid of the pirates' vicious stares.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bright flashes flared in quick succession.
Krieg simply stepped forward and raised his golden shield.
The bullets struck it with showers of sparks—
but didn't even leave a dent.
"Woman," Krieg said with a savage grin, advancing one step at a time, "there are levels to people."
He could have rushed forward behind that shield and reached Bell-mère instantly.
But he chose not to.
He wanted her to feel the kind of fear that soaked into the bone.
The same kind Kairos had made him feel.
The other pirates stood back, snickering as they watched, deliberately clearing a path for Krieg.
Click.
Bell-mère pulled the trigger again—
but this time the flintlock only coughed up a strand of black smoke, and the barrel visibly warped from the heat.
Her expression darkened.
The gun had overheated.
If she fired again, it might explode in her hand.
Without hesitation, she threw the pistol aside and prepared to rush Krieg head-on.
Krieg's eyes flashed.
He saw through her intent instantly.
The grin on his face widened as he twisted his wrist and hurled the shield straight at her.
Boom!
A heavy impact exploded across the battlefield.
Every villager froze.
Bell-mère coughed up a mouthful of blood as she was sent flying backward.
The golden shield had smashed directly into her stomach.
"Bell-mère!"
Genzo abandoned the pirate in front of him and sprinted toward her without hesitation.
"BELL-MÈRE!!!"
Nami and Nojiko cried out at the same time.
For an instant, it felt as if lightning had struck them both.
A thousand emotions exploded inside their chests.
Nami shot to her feet, ready to throw herself toward Bell-mère no matter what.
"Wait—look!"
Nojiko grabbed her by the arm.
Her finger trembled as she pointed toward the battlefield.
There, the pirates charging forward still had their weapons raised high, vicious grins stretched across their faces, looking as savage and terrifying as ever.
But they went no farther.
They had stopped in place.
Like machines that had suddenly jammed.
The pirates who had been shouting still had their mouths wide open.
Even the spit flying from their lips could still be seen.
It was as though time itself had frozen.
But Nojiko quickly realized that wasn't what had happened at all.
A thin line of blood had appeared across every pirate's throat.
Fwoosh!!
Blood erupted in an instant.
More than a hundred pirate heads fell to the ground.
Their bodies remained standing for a moment longer, spraying blood into the air like grotesque human fountains.
"Th-they're all dead?"
The villagers who had been about to clash with the pirates stood rooted to the spot.
But instead of relief, what rushed through them was a deeper chill than before.
More than a hundred powerful pirates—
killed in a single instant.
How terrifying must the person who did that be?
It was beyond anything the villagers could comprehend.
"Uh…"
Krieg, who had just knocked Bell-mère flat with a single attack and displayed his monstrous strength without restraint, suddenly went rigid.
A strange, beast-like noise escaped his throat.
He had realized something.
The cruelty vanished from his face.
All that remained—
was fear carved into the marrow.
"AAAAAHHHHH! He's here! He's here again!!"
Don Krieg, the dreaded pirate whose name echoed across East Blue, screamed like a beaten dog.
He stumbled backward frantically, fell to the ground, scrambled up again, and ran toward the ships at the shoreline with both hands and feet flailing.
He wanted to escape.
He wanted to leave this place immediately.
"Bell-mère, are you alright?!"
Genzo finally reached her side and quickly helped her to her feet, panic written all over his face.
"It's… just a scratch. I'm not that fragile."
Bell-mère braced herself against his arm and forced herself upright.
A stabbing pain radiated through her abdomen.
But she had no time to care about that.
He's here?
Her brows knitted tightly together as she tried to understand what Krieg meant.
Who exactly was this "he"?
Bell-mère looked around.
There was no one.
At the harbor, it was only pirates and villagers.
Bang!
Suddenly, the fleeing Krieg slammed headfirst into something.
He looked up—
and found himself staring into a pair of eyes redder than blood.
Those eyes were fixed on him.
Cold.
Piercing.
Krieg's mind went blank.
In those crimson pupils, he seemed to see mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
"Where…"
A cold voice sounded right beside his ear.
"…do you think you're running?"
Terror.
Nothing but terror remained.
"AAAAAHHH! Get away from me! Get away!"
Krieg flailed his arms wildly as if he'd just seen a ghost, then spun around and ran again with the fastest speed of his life.
He was crying.
Tears and snot streamed down his face and dripped across his golden armor, making the sight utterly disgusting.
"Is that really Krieg?"
The villagers stared in disbelief at the sight of the panicked pirate fleeing like a stray dog.
This was supposed to be the infamous Don Krieg?
The terrifying pirate of East Blue?
Right now, he looked nothing like that.
All because of the man standing on the shore.
He had a powerful physique, long black hair hanging loosely around his shoulders—
and eyes as red as fresh blood.
It was Kairos.
"When did he get here?"
Genzo stared at Kairos in shock, his face full of disbelief.
It was as if Kairos had only just appeared—
and yet somehow, it also felt like he had been standing there the entire time.
There was something profoundly eerie about him.
Like a terrifying assassin who had been hiding patiently in the shadows all along.
Genzo swallowed hard and couldn't help stealing another glance at him.
And at that very moment—
Kairos moved.
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