One Piece: A Warlord's Path-Chapter 706: Bivins Kingdom - The War of National Extinction (7)

Squish—!

The searing golden trident plunged directly into Razalo’s chest. The high temperature of the metal instantly vaporized the splattering blood, pinning the Church of the Night’s Ace Dark Arbiter firmly to the floorboards.

"Gah—!"

Razalo coughed up a huge amount of blood, his eyes bulging as the expression of agony froze upon his face. With his heart pierced, the light of life quickly faded from his eyes. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

A few seconds after his death, a faint, invisible ripple emerged. It circled above a crate of pomeloes before diving into one of them.

Immediately, arabesque spiral patterns began to surface on the fruit’s skin. The entire pomelo transformed, its color shifting to an ivory, a yellowish-white, completely distinct from any normal fruit.

Schlick—

Enel yanked out the golden trident and turned to ask, "Did we recover it?"

"It appeared!"

The moment the Soft-Soft Fruit manifested, Mina, who had been watching from across the room, hurried forward and picked up the reborn Devil Fruit.

"Truly miraculous. This is the first time I’ve seen this method used to recover a Devil Fruit," Lucien remarked in surprise.

"Keep it safe. Even if no one eats it, a Devil Fruit makes for an excellent collector’s item." Aeridar produced a sandalwood box, placed the Soft-Soft Fruit inside, and secured it with a steel lock.

"I’m certainly not eating it. Now, if it were Mondos Bank’s Hard-Hard Fruit, I might consider it," Lucien said with a dismissive shrug and a look of pure disdain.

For a man, "Hard" was definitely preferable to "Soft."

In truth, everyone suspected that Razalo hadn’t known the specific nature of the Soft-Soft Fruit’s power before he ate it. Had he known from the start, he likely wouldn’t have touched it.

As it turned out, their suspicions were correct.

Five years ago, a wealthy benefactor of the Goddess of the Night had gifted two unidentified Devil Fruits to the Church. The upper echelons were delighted, and over a dozen high-ranking members vied for the power. Among them were Mondos Bank and Razalo.

At the time, Mondos Bank had recently fled after a defeat in the Clifford Kingdom but remained one of the Church’s strongest Heresy Executioners. Razalo had just been promoted to Vice Commander of the Dark Tribunal. Both were rising stars within the organization.

However, because the Church of the Night had lost its copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, they couldn’t identify the fruits’ types or abilities. With over ten candidates competing for only two fruits, the leadership organized a "Heresy Hunt" competition.

Each participant chose a mission to hunt or assassinate a specific heretic. The two individuals who returned to headquarters the fastest would win. The first-place winner would get the first pick, leaving the runner-up with the remaining fruit.

The winners were Bank and Razalo, with Bank taking first place and Razalo second.

Razalo had been bitter; Bank had only beaten him back to headquarters by a single hour. When it came time to choose, Bank chose first and ended up with the Hard-Hard Fruit and its hardening abilities. Razalo was left with the Soft-Soft Fruit, the power of softening.

One hard, one soft. To any observer, the disparity in the quality of these powers was obvious.

The "softening" ability was something very few men would ever willingly choose. It was a source of deep shame for Razalo, fueling a long-standing grudge against Bank.

Now, however, that grudge had reached its end with Razalo’s death.

It was clear that Razalo was no weakling; in terms of raw power, he was a notch above Cavendish, though a step behind Hakuba. His misfortune lay in encountering Enel, whose speed and elemental power perfectly countered him. Against someone of Enel’s lightning-fast caliber, those weaker than him are simply crushed.

...

As the day passed, news of the Grand Flying Fleet’s resurgence spread across the globe. Those who had survived since the era of Roger were reminded of the terrifying fleet that once blotted out the sun, and a collective shiver ran down their spines.

The Marines and the World Government knew all too well that the destruction of Shiki the Golden Lion’s fleet years ago was largely due to an act of God and Shiki’s own hubris.

Now, a younger, more formidable figure had emerged to rebuild that sky-faring armada. Was the world to fall back into the era of fear under a Grand Flying Fleet?

Although this new fleet was currently small, only a dozen or so ships, no one dared underestimate them. With the ability to strike and retreat at will, they could launch a raid on Marine Headquarters or even the Holy Land of Mariejois, leaving the authorities with a massive headache.

The Chris Pirates’ high-profile mobilization, exposing their sky fleet and their army of fearless "monsters," was clearly a prelude to something major. After all, the Church of the Night wasn’t significant enough to warrant such an overwhelming display of force.

Most global powers reached a consensus: this operation was a "demonstration."

It wasn’t hard to guess why. After Whitebeard’s death and before Blackbeard’s ascension, the prevailing opinion in the New World was that Aeridar would take the seat of the Yonko. Many pirates had even flocked to join the Chris Pirates for that very reason.

However, without any conflict, Blackbeard became a Yonko instead. While the major powers knew that Marshall D. Teach and "Golden Ring" Aeridar had made a deal, resulting in the Chris Pirates voluntarily stepping back, the general public did not.

To opportunists, hotheads, and those harboring delusions of grandeur, it seemed impossible that anyone would turn down the temptation of becoming a Yonko. They assumed the Chris Pirates’ strength was a facade and that they were internally weak.

Consequently, since Blackbeard’s rise, there had been a steady stream of defections from Aeridar’s subordinates. Countless fools had attempted to challenge him, only to be eliminated by Backan or Abel before they ever saw Aeridar’s face.

Worse, some stayed within the crew while conspiring with outsiders to overthrow the Chris Pirates and seize the Clifford Kingdom. Had it not been for Millie’s peerless intelligence network, these rebellions might have caused real damage before being suppressed.

Though these incidents were minor, they were a nuisance that drained the crew’s energy.

Therefore, whether it was the other Yonko, the Revolutionary Army, Germa 66, the Emperors of the Underworld, or the Marines... none wished to provoke this slumbering giant now that it had finally bared its teeth.