Chapter 124: [123] Devil's Fruits Hunt

Chapter 124: [123] Devil's Fruits Hunt[2700 Words]

Silence.

This was the title of what was happening in Marineford Square right now. No, not just in Marineford but all around the world, where Den Den Mushi was broadcasting the events of the war.

In the four seas, there were few Den Den Mushi linked to the ones broadcasting the war, as this luxury was possessed only by a select few, such as rulers of kingdoms and prominent figures in the underworld, or retired Navy soldiers. They all stared at the live broadcast with their mouths agape.

In the Grand Line, many residents from various islands had gathered to watch the war since its beginning; they were all rendered speechless upon hearing Whitebeard's last words.

As for the New World, this sea, dominated by the Yonko, heralded an approaching era of chaos that would reap both the living and the dead. After Whitebeard's death, this fate became inevitable.

Back at Marineford.

He's dead. Ace-the world, with all its noise and chaos, suddenly quieted. The sea ceased its whispering, and the cannons stopped firing. The only sound that could be heard was the wind carrying with it the scent of blood and sorrow. Everything came to a standstill.

Whitebeard... is dead too.

An oppressive silence engulfed Marineford. The sounds of battle gradually hushed, as if even war respected death. The Navy flags, which had been flying fiercely moments ago, now drooped as if in mourning.

On the battlefield, the members of Whitebeard's crew stood in silence. Their eyes were filled with disbelief; no words were spoken. How could words express the loss of two of their most important members? How could they continue sailing without Pops? What was their fate? These questions weighed heavily on them.

It was unknown who started crying, but soon others from Whitebeard's pirates followed suit; Marco, along with the rest of the surviving commanders, cried hysterically.

"Zehahaha! Those were great dying words... and you're still standing, Pops! Zehahaha!" Teach laughed wickedly and rose from the ground, glaring at Ren with malice. Ren had stepped back from Whitebeard's corpse with Mikita and Nami, creating distance between himself and the Blackbeard crew.

When Teach saw this, he let out a sigh of relief and then looked greedily at Whitebeard's corpse.

"Whitebeard... even in death, you still cause trouble...!" Sengoku gritted his teeth with worry and anger. He wanted to tear apart Whitebeard's corpse at that moment; he knew that Withebeard's last words would cause many problems for them in the future.

"I'm too old for this nonsense... let the new generation deal with it... sigh..." Sengoku sighed. After a moment of weakness, he glared at Blackbeard and added, "But I still have to deal with you first!"

Back to Blackbeard, he laughed loudly and then shouted, drawing the attention of everyone on the battlefield, including Akainu and Kizaru, who had fought alongside Ren earlier, and Aokiji, who was still on the execution platform with Sengoku.

"Let's start the show that will shock the world! Zehahaha!" Teach laughed and gestured to his crew, quickly pulling out Shiryu, who covered Whitebeard's corpse with a black cloth. Sёarᴄh the NôvelFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"W-What does he intend to do?" One of the Marines was confused by Teach's actions.

"This bastard is desecrating Pops' body!" Marco screamed with a weary expression on his tear-streaked face.

Ren looked at Teach as if he were looking at a clown. He held Nami and Mikita around the waist and pulled them close to him; the girls said nothing and enjoyed his embrace in an intimate moment, creating a strange contrast in the bloody battlefield.

Under the watchful eyes of Sengoku, Garp, Tsuru, and various Navy figures, along with different warlords and hundreds of millions of inhabitants of the sea world, Teach entered the black cloth and concealed his body.

Seconds passed slowly, turning into tens of seconds, and soon a minute or more had passed.

Nothing happened; people were still waiting to see what would occur, but Teach remained silent, and nothing changed on the battlefield.

"E-eh... it should be here... w-what's happening..." Teach's confused voice was heard, even though he hadn't emerged from the black covering yet.

"Captain Teach, is everything alright?" Shiryu looked at him with a strange expression. Teach had told him earlier that he would show him a miracle and shock the world, but why did he feel that something was wrong?

"T-this is impossible! What's happening here?!!" Teach screamed hysterically, realizing at that moment that he had embarrassed himself in front of hundreds of millions of people. "What is he doing? Is he a clown?" one of the Marines said disdainfully.

"Arara... I was expecting something serious." Aokiji said with his usual cold expression.

"Hmph, I'll burn this clown right away!" Akainu sneered coldly.

"Very scary~ everything today has been very scary...~"

"Tch!" Akainu ignored Kizaru's bored tone as he pretended to be afraid.

In the meantime, it wasn't just the Marines mocking Teach and finding his actions strange; hundreds of millions of people were baffled by the actions of this pirate.

"NOOOOOO!! Where is the Devil Fruit?!" Teach screamed with all his might as he emerged from the black covering. His eyes were red and bloodshot, his body trembling, and he felt waves of anger, shame, and embarrassment crashing over him as he noticed the strange looks from the pirates and Marines, some of whom looked at him with... disdain?

"What the hell is going on here..." Shiryu puffed out a cloud of smoke from his cigarette as he observed Teach's state, beginning to question the wisdom of following such a captain.

The rest of the newly formed crew shared Shiryu's thoughts, but it was still too early to judge their captain.

At this moment, Teach didn't notice that Ren was smiling coldly while stifling his laughter. Nami looked at him and whispered, "Captain, you did something, didn't you?" Nami knew him well; when her boyfriend had that expression, it meant he had done something bad to someone and made them suffer.

Mikita looked at Ren in confusion. She too had laughed at Blackbeard's antics, but Nami and Ren's conversation drew her attention.

"Rhaha...you'll find out soon enough... this man really embarrassed himself." Ren smiled, then released the girls' waists and looked at Teach, who was still confused, and then ordered

Nami and Mikita.

"We've done enough in this war... Our next goal is to capture as many Devil Fruit users as possible. They must be alive so I can kill them myself."

"Understood, Captain!"

"Aye Aye!"

The two girls smiled and then disappeared from their spot.

*Whoosh!*

*Bang!*

*Boom!*

*Bang!*

This sudden movement from Ren's crew caught the attention of everyone on the battlefield. The moment Nami cut down a group of pirates, it seemed as if the battlefield had come alive again, and people began killing each other like crazy once more.

The Navy's artillery resumed bombarding the pirates, turning them into pieces once again, while Navy soldiers attacked with unmatched ferocity.

They were in high spirits now; Whitebeard was dead, and Ace had been executed, along with

many of Whitebeard's commanders.

This was undoubtedly a major victory for the Marines!

On the other side... the pirates were completely the opposite; they fled the battlefield like headless chickens. Without a captain to give them orders and unify them, they became easy prey despite the fierce resistance.

Marco looked weakly at his comrades being ruthlessly slaughtered by the Marines. He gritted his teeth, suppressed his sorrow and tears, and shouted, "Follow me, comrades! Pops wished for us to leave here alive, so I'll make sure as many of us as possible do just that!"

"Captain Marco!"

"Long live Captain Marco!"

"Prepare the ships, and let's escape!"

The desperate pirates shouted joyfully; Marco's words brought them hope-the hope they thought they had lost forever. They didn't hesitate for a moment to allow Marco to lead them.

....

Meanwhile, back to Teach and his crew.

"Hellhound!"

Akainu attacked Teach without wasting any time, launching a punch infused with molten magma aimed at Teach with the intent of incinerating him.

"Don't think you'll escape easily after what you did in Impel Down!" Akainu shouted as he

struck with his fist, but he narrowed his eyes when he saw the magma vanish into a black vortex conjured by Teach.

In reality, Teach was extremely confused; he was lost, saddened, and angry. The plan had been going smoothly-what had changed?

Wasn't he supposed to gain Whitebeard's power and amaze the world? Make the world fear his name and tremble at its mention?

"I can't accept this!!" Teach shouted, countering Akainu's scorching magma with his dark powers while suppressing the sadness and unwillingness in his heart.

"You scoundrels, attack with me and let's get out of here!" he yelled at his crew, who quickly

heeded his words and clashed with Akainu. Even though the latter faced Teach and many dangerous escaped prisoners from Level Six, he did not back down.

"I can't let you do as you please... you fearsome pirates..." At that moment, Kizaru's dull voice

echoed in the ears of Teach and his crew. He attacked and supported Akainu, leading to another fierce battle, but it was clear that Blackbeard's pirates were not in a good position.

...

"Fall back, comrades! Focus on escaping!" A middle-aged man with a slender but tall body, standing at three meters tall. He had short black hair styled like a ponytail.

His name was Jason, one of the allied commanders under Whitebeard's fleet. Jason currently

bore an expression of worry and sadness while fighting for his life to ensure as many of his

men escaped as possible.

"Kill the pirates! Don't let anyone escape!"

A rear admiral shouted and advanced toward Jason, brandishing his sword at his neck to sever

it from his body, but a strange scene shocked the rear admiral. His sword stopped just a few centimeters from Jason's neck! It looked as if his sword was stuck in the air!

"I ate a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, the Air Pockets Fruit (Kuu Kuu No Mi), which allows me

to create air pockets that render this kind of regular attack ineffective against me!" Jason

shouted angrily before launching a counterattack.

"Air Explosion!"

At the same time as his shout, a pressure wave erupted from an air pocket created in front of

the stunned rear admiral's head!

*Boom!* The air exploded with enough force to blast the rear admiral's head into a pulp of

flesh and blood!

'An interesting ability...' Ren, who was hunting for Devil Fruit users like a mad hound, felt

greed fill his heart as he watched Jason kill the rear admiral with ease. He then made his move.

The battlefield was filled with screams, pain, and curses, along with clouds of dust from the heavy cannon fire. Such an environment was ideal for launching stealth and assassination attacks.

Returning to Jason, he saw that one of his men was about to fall into the hands of a Marine, and he was about to rush to help him, but...

His Observation Haki sent a warning! Jason's heart was racing! He wanted to respond to the approaching danger, but the problem was that he didn't know its source!

*Swish!*

*Splash!*

A thin line passed through Jason's neck; even the air pockets he hastily created to protect

himself could not withstand the overwhelming power of the sword that shattered these pockets and made the air howl!

With a low thud, Jason's head fell away from his body, and Ren appeared before Jason's crew,

who stared blankly at their captain's corpse...

'Ms. System, extract this Devil Fruit.'

At Ren's request, the fruit was extracted and transported to The Infinity Space. He looked

around and saw the other members of Jason's crew.

'Let's kill them and see if any of them have a Devil Fruit...' With this thought, Ren decided the

fate of these dozens of pirates and began to behead them one by one with a cold expression.

....

At the same time, a beautiful girl with orange hair was staring coldly at a man kneeling on his knees. He had numerous wounds on his body and looked exhausted and on the verge of death, but Nami didn't care. She took out a Den Den Mushi and contacted Ren, who quickly appeared

before her.

"Oh, a user of the Paper Fruit (Kami Kami no Mi), huh..." Ren spoke to the muscular man who

was struggling with his serious wounds. When he heard Ren's voice, he looked at him with pure anger and hatred, shouting, "You bastard! You Marine dog! You're going to die a miserable death! You'll die alone-"

"Cut it."

Ren spoke in a cold voice, then waved his sword and severed the pirate's head, extracting his

Devil Fruit. 'Paper... this ability reminds me of a certain female character with blue hair from a specific

work.' Ren drowned in his thoughts for a moment and quickly snapped out of it when he heard Mikita's voice: "Captain Ren I brought someone interesting." "Hmm?" Ren looked at Mikita, who had roughly pulled a beautiful woman and thrown her in

front of him. There were several holes in the woman's body; she tried to get up and resist, but she failed. She no longer had any strength left in her body. "According to what this woman says, she ate a Paramecia-type fruit called the Emotions Fruit

(Kimochi Kimochi no Mi). It gives the user the ability to influence the emotions of others, making it a powerful fruit in psychological battles... she almost got to me for a moment~" Mikita smiled and looked at the woman like a hunter eyeing its prey.

"Well done, Mikita." Ren patted her head and ruffled her blonde hair, making the girl nod like

a compliant cat in her master's arms.

"Do you really want to kill a beautiful girl like me..?" At that moment, the voice of the pirate

lying on the ground drew Ren's and the girls' attention. Nami and Mikita stared at her coldly, as if they wanted to tear her face apart.

But the pirate paid them no mind and looked at Ren with a look that would evoke pity in any man, then secretly activated her Devil Fruit powers to influence Ren's emotions. "Hmm... is this how your power works?" Ren's face turned to absolute coldness. He activated

his skill "Cold Heart" and stared at the pirate with no expression on his face; there were no emotions-neither anger nor joy-nothing at all, just a routine, mechanical sound. Nami and Mikita knew that this was one of their captain's skills, but they still felt uneasy

seeing Ren in this terrifying state. Fortunately, Ren drew his sword and severed the Woman's head, which bore a shocked and terrified expression, then deactivated his "Cold Heart" skill. "Are you girls okay?" He turned to them and was surprised to see them looking at him with

concern, unable to react when the girls hugged him.

He was at a loss for words, but all he could do was gently pat their heads and stroke their hair

with affection. "Okay okay, stay alert. We're still in the battlefield after all." They stepped out of his embrace and nodded, "Aye aye, Captain!" Not far away, Hancock watched this scene unfold from beginning to end. She had heard Mikita

talking about the abilities of that dead pirate and wanted to see what would happen next. She smiled arrogantly when she saw the pirate attack Ren with her powers, eagerly anticipating his submission and the sparing of the pirates' lives. After all, all men were like this-weak in the face of beauty and turning into disgusting fools when it came to women, or so she

thought.

But to her surprise, she saw Ren's cold expression, which sent chills down her spine even from

a distance. Then she watched as he ruthlessly severed the woman's head.

"This man is strange..." Hancock murmured softly, barely loud enough for herself to hear.

To be continued...

500 PS=Bonus chapter.