The former site of the orphanage.
The crumbling ruins shivered in the cold wind, and withered yellow weeds had grown to half a person’s height, almost completely burying that simple stone tablet.
Lucas knelt before the moss-covered tombstone, his knees sinking deep into the cold soil.
“Sister Eos, I have avenged you all.”
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
He solemnly kowtowed three times, his forehead striking the hard stone.
Slowly standing up, he took one last look at the tablet engraved with “Tomb of Eos.”
An invisible, majestic aura suddenly erupted from within him, knocking the mosquitoes flying in the air to the ground.
Eight years ago, the moment the sister fell before him, he awakened Conqueror’s Haki.
However, he had never been able to actively control this power; it only erupted passively when his emotions were extremely agitated.
Until today.
Until this moment, when his great revenge was fulfilled.
The knot that had been lodged in his heart for eight years was completely untied, and he could finally use it at will.
Lucas clenched his fist slightly, feeling the Haoshoku flowing through him as he pleased, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.
When he returned to the dilapidated wooden cabin, Gion had already left.
A small note was pinned to the table, bearing her graceful handwriting:
“I’m leaving.
Next time, I will definitely catch you.
When you come out of prison and have atoned for your sins, I will marry you.
Remember, before then, you are not allowed to be caught by any other Marine.”
Lucas picked up the note, looking at the slightly crooked last few words, and couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Silly girl.”
He sighed self-deprecatingly, crumpled the note into a ball, and tossed it into the wastebasket nearby.
On this sea, there is no such thing as fully atoning for one’s sins.
The blood on one’s hands, the people killed, the hatred carved into one’s bones—which of these can be washed away by serving time in prison?
Besides, he had never intended to atone for any sins.
He slept on the bed that still held the faint, sweet scent of the young woman, and when he woke up, it was already evening.
Lucas stretched his limbs, his bones popping with a series of crisp cracks.
He went to the seaside to complete his ten thousand sword swings as usual, and then hunted a wild boar in the forest for dinner.
After eating his fill and returning to peak condition, he picked up his katana and walked towards the Flying Group’s stronghold under the Moonlight.
To cut weeds, one must remove the roots.
This was the truth he had learned after eight years of struggling in the underworld, paid for with countless lives.
He didn’t want to get stabbed in the back by some remnant of the Flying Group one day.
Roberts’s greatest arrogance in his life was his firm belief that his own strength was the strongest defense in the Country of Wild.
Therefore, in the General’s Mansion, besides himself, there wasn’t even a single servant.
He returned to the stronghold to rest every night; that magnificent General’s Mansion was nothing more than an empty shell for show.
It was precisely this stupid decision that allowed the core members of the Flying Group to remain unscathed during the battle earlier that day.
Now, their time of death had arrived.
When Lucas’s figure appeared at the entrance of the Flying Group’s stronghold, hundreds of fully armed gang members were already waiting in battle formation.
Their gleaming katana blades shone coldly under the Moonlight, and every face was filled with fear and anger.
“Kill him!
Avenge the acting leader!”
Someone roared, breaking the deathly silence.
The swarming crowd surged forward like a tide, their shouts deafening.
Lucas drew his katana with an expressionless face.
On this sea, there is an eternal truth—once individual strength reaches a certain level, human-wave tactics become a complete joke.
Sword light flashed, and blood splattered everywhere.
Screams, the sound of weapons hitting the ground, and the cracking of bones intertwined.
Lucas was like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep; wherever he passed, no one could withstand a single blow.
Those gang members who usually lorded over the slums were as fragile as sandcastles built by children on the beach in front of him.
In just fifteen minutes.
The entire Flying Group stronghold had turned into a living hell.
Most of the time was actually wasted chasing down those deserters who had been scared out of their wits and were fleeing in all directions.
Lucas shook the blood off his blade, dragged out the last member hiding in a water vat, and slit his throat with one strike.
With this, the Flying Group, which had run rampant in the Country of Wild for decades, completely vanished from this world.
For the next three days, Lucas did not return home.
He plunged into the primeval forest deep in the Country of Wild, cutting down trees, stripping bark, and tying logs, building a raft for sea travel with his own hands.
Of course, he didn’t want to imitate that madman Blackbeard, daring to traverse the Grand Line on a raft.
He just needed a rudimentary vehicle to take him through the harsh waters surrounding the Country of Wild and reach the nearest commercial island.
The Country of Wild had no ships.
This place had given birth to two pirates famous across the sea, Golden Lion and Silver Axe, but nowadays, the gangs on the island didn’t even have the courage to set sail.
They were terrified that as soon as their ships left port, they would be labeled as “remnants of the Rocks Pirates” by the Marines and sunk to the bottom of the sea, along with their crews.
After all, the founders of the two largest gangs here were indeed former members of the Rocks Pirates.
Other smaller gangs also had intricate ties with them.
Lucas had received accurate intelligence from Gion:
After crossing that stormy sea area, at the speed of a civilian merchant ship, it would take at most a quarter of an hour to reach the next island, which was a winter island.
Just a quarter of an hour.
With his strength, even if the raft fell apart, he could use Moonwalk to get there.
On the fourth morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten.
Lucas dragged the finished raft to the seaside.
He threw his few belongings onto the raft, drew the katana at his waist, and swung it violently at the air behind him.
The air was forcibly dented by the sword energy, turning into a rolling shockwave that slammed onto the sea surface.
The massive reaction force pushed the raft out like an arrow from a bow, and in an instant, it shot forward dozens of meters.
Lucas stood on the raft and looked back at the island where he had lived for eighteen years.
No lingering attachment, no reluctance.
This place had buried his childhood, his kindness, and his only warmth.
Now, it was time to leave.
Just as he was preparing to swing his second strike to fully enter the stormy sea area.
The sky overhead suddenly darkened.
Lucas looked up abruptly, his pupils shrinking, and cold sweat instantly seeped from his forehead.
In his field of vision, a black island several kilometers in radius was plummeting from ten thousand meters in the air, like a giant boulder thrown by a god!
“Are you kidding me!”
“That old bastard Golden Lion!
Where did he get the information!
How could he have arrived so quickly!”
In this world, there are only two people capable of manipulating islands to fall from the sky—Golden Lion Shiki, and the future Admiral Fujitora.
He had no grudges against Fujitora and had never even met him.
Then there was only one answer.
He couldn’t figure out why Golden Lion, who was fully focused on his plan to conquer the world, would personally make a trip to the Country of Wild for an insignificant person like Roberts.
Would a pirate of such a high caliber really care about a small gang he created when he was starting out?
Before Lucas could think too much, the terrifying air pressure brought by the falling island had already swept over him.
The air was compressed into a violent hurricane, emitting piercing shrieks.
The sea surface for ten kilometers around was forcibly pressed down into a huge depression, and the seawater retreated in all directions like walls.
The raft beneath Lucas’s feet was violently tossed on the raging sea, ready to fall apart at any moment.
He didn’t foolishly try to slash the island to pieces; instead, he took a deep breath and dove headfirst into the sea.
Even if he could do it with all his might, he would still have to face Golden Lion next.
The weakness of the Float-Float Fruit is that it can only control things the user has touched.
But in this place where Golden Lion had lived for decades, this weakness simply didn’t exist.
Heaven knows how many “weapons” this guy had left here that he could control at any time.
Just by relying on long-range abilities, the opponent could toy with Lucas to death.
A gentleman takes his revenge, even ten years later is not too late.
“Boom!”
A thunderous roar that pierced the clouds and cracked stones shook the entire ocean.
The island slammed heavily into the sea, water exploded into the sky, forming a water wall hundreds of meters high.
The simple raft was instantly smashed into powder.
The raging seawater, under the guidance of some invisible force, turned into dozens of giant seawater lion heads, opening their bloodthirsty maws and biting crazily at the sea surface.
The towering waves rose and fell, as if wanting to tear everything in this sea area to shreds.
It took a full ten minutes for the sea surface to gradually return to calm.
Above the clouds in the high sky.
Golden Lion floated in mid-air, his golden hair dancing wildly in the wind.
He used Observation Haki to carefully scan the entire sea area, confirming that the young presence had completely vanished into the deep sea.
“Gehahaha!”
“An ignorant brat, daring to touch my, Shiki’s, people.”
He looked down at the calm sea below and casually brushed the dust off his clothes.
“Delayed for so long, it’s time to go back and continue urging those idiots to do their experiments.
It won’t be long before the whole world trembles under my feet.”
He turned into a streak of golden light and flew off into the distance, disappearing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
(Note: To be honest, Golden Lion’s plan to conquer the world is very childish; those beasts probably couldn’t withstand the Conqueror’s Haki emitted by Shanks in his prime.)