Chapter 72 The World is My Sword.
HK-47 once told Rayleigh that if you only trained while being slowed down, you only become skilled in moving slowly. Although Rayleigh spent many hours practicing Haki with his Empty Sword, he would spend just as much time with his Sword of Babylon, integrating what he learned into his existing style and power systems.
The Force, being Haki's nosey next-door neighbor, gave many insights into Haki and the various flows it contained within. While analyzing the Light Side, Rayleigh gained insight into the World's aspects of Training, Growth, and many others. The Dark Side granted insight into many more aspects, but the most useful was the aspect of Weakness.
After he decided to just use cultivation terms, the headache he got from trying to piece them together lessened, so he would use the word Law instead of Flow most of the time.
From the perspective of the greater universe rather than just a world, the so-called Flow of the World, from a physics standpoint, was powered by the expansion of the Universe. Every empty point of space contained vast amounts of energy and constantly expanded, imparting that energy to matter to grant motion and allow for the passage of time.
The Laws that made up the World were just the naturally formed structures and concepts that the World used to keep turning and gaining control over these small pieces could grant greater control over the whole. The main reason it seemed supernatural compared to the Earth of his previous life was that this world and the Universe in general had an over-arcing Will. If the World had a Will, then Willpower could affect the world.
Though, Willpower was not infinite. Similar to that of the Force, using Haki exhausted the mind and spirit if not the body. If you wanted to increase your Willpower, you had to train.
Rayleigh was not surprised to discover a Law of Growth and Training in this world. It meant that a person who had completely and utterly dedicated themselves to training would receive more gains than should be possible. The Law of Weakness was an interesting boon as he could use it together with Growth and Training to weaken his body and strengthen the effects of the growth through the training.
Rayleigh's Will training had also sped up by an unreasonable amount. Now that his mind could access the Laws of the World, it seemed to take nutrients from these laws to develop itself further, and in the three months since Rayleigh started practicing, he had gone from eighteen Wills to twenty-one Wills with no sign of slowing down. The Will training he endured using itching powder before coming to this world was finally paying off.
Mihawk returned to the island five months after leaving, two months after the Pirate MC was first spotted.
At the time, Rayleigh was using the Sword of Babylon to practice and Mihawk attacked without warning.
Rayleigh's proficiency in Haki barely allowed him to guide the whole flow of the World into his sword. He had yet to reach the proficiency of any individual or fusion of flows that allowed him to use it to lead the rest of the World, but with his Overdrive available to strengthen his muscles, he could take the weight of Mihawk's blade and block it completely.
Mihawk actually showed a small smirk at this. It had been too long since he could use his entire strength in a fight without it ending in one move. The fact that Rayleigh was using abilities beyond what he was familiar with didn't matter. He had long heard from Shanks about these strange geniuses and knew that Rayleigh had not gone all out. This was the only reason Mihawk used his full strength. He knew that Rayleigh could take it.
Mihawk asked, "Have you beaten the Humandrill King?"
Rayleigh nodded, "With this sword I have." Overdrive easily allowed Rayleigh to match the Humandrill King's strength and he had been practicing using different flows against him for the past few weeks now.
Mihawk nodded and slashed forward again. Rayleigh's eyes widened and his senses went crazy as Mihawk's sword seemed to transform from the world into an unstoppable force capable of cleaving through mountains.
Rayleigh poured everything he had into his Sword of Babylon. Yoru and Rayleigh's Sword stopped a meter from each other as the pressure from Yoru met the Aura and Haki from the Sword of Babylon. Rayleigh felt that if he did not block this sword, he would be cleaved in half, and every one of his Wills entered the Ten of Point State to achieve hyper-focus. A black sheen appeared momentarily on the Sword of Babylon before it snapped in half and shattered to nothingness. A line of blood shot from Rayleigh's chest and he blacked out from the backlash, but one of his Wills barely managed to hold on and regained consciousness before he collapsed.
Rayleigh staggered back several steps and confirmed that he was still alive. That last surge of Willpower blunted much of the force of Yoru's slash and the remaining bulk of it was absorbed by the destruction of the Sword of Babylon.
Seeing that Rayleigh was still alive, conscious, and standing, Mihawk pointed out, "You are the second person this month to withstand Yoru. Though I did not use Conqueror's Haki on the first one."
Rayleigh laughed a bit though doing so hurt his chest and lungs. He sat down cross-legged, entered a state of normal Zetsu, and started using the Force to speed up his recovery. He then asked, "Anything special about the other guy?"
Pleased that Rayleigh did not disappoint him, Mihawk became slightly more talkative and answered, "He said that he would best me one day in the future. His captain was also interesting."
Mihawk pulled out a sheet of paper, one with a picture of a black-haired teen with tanned skin. He had a bright smile and wore a straw hat. It was a Wanted poster and had a bounty of 30 Million Berries with the title 'Monkey D Luffy.'
Although Immortal Beauty never gave the MC's name, Rayleigh's connection with the Force could grant him insight into the future of Main Characters. That and the fact that there was no way that a normal Pirate with a Bounty of only 30 Million would be remembered by Hawkeye Mihawk.
Rayleigh cheekily said, "I bet his bounty will increase by ten times within a year."
Mihawk asked, "Oh? And what would you give me if you lost?"
"You can ask me any question you want."
"And if I lost?"
"Let me hold Yoru for a minute."
"A bet it is then. How long will it take you to reform that sword?" Mihawk didn't mind the fact that he knew nothing about this student of his, but that didn't mean he wasn't curious. He could also guess from the manner in which the sword was destroyed that it could be reformed.
Rayleigh answered, "I'll have it back tomorrow." Remaking the sword was easy, but his Kyber Crystal was destroyed. As a Starting Game inventory item, he could disable the item's existence and re-enable it twenty-four hours later in its saved state. The catch was that it would not show any changes since he last Saved it using the Lightsaber Customization Kit. Rayleigh often uses Force: Weapon on the Kyber Crystal itself to strengthen his connection with it, so any progress he made since the last save is lost if it is destroyed.
"Then you can return tomorrow. I shall see how skilled you really are." Mihawk was looking forward to seeing Rayleigh's skills. Mihawk himself would not grow as a swordsman unless he found the mistakes in his style, but that required being pushed when he was not holding back. Mihawk's not holding back meant using Conqueror's Haki, and if Rayleigh could survive, then he might be able to push the world's number one swordsman.
Rayleigh nodded as Mihawk returned to his castle. Rayleigh remained motionless, recovering slowly until he could enter the Tavern for some food. Since he was injured, he would spend more points than normal on a really big meal to speed up his recovery.
The next day with the Sword of Babylon in hand, Rayleigh entered the training area behind Mihawk's castle and Mihawk joined him a moment later. The sound of swords clashing echoed as Mihawk tested Rayleigh's limits. Mihawk attacked with Strong and deflected with Gentle. Sometimes a Strong attack turned into a Gentle one to make a feint. Rayleigh used too much power to parry these and made an opening which Mihawk rewarded with a new scar.
Rayleigh used Babylon to enhance the effect of Force Precognition and merge it into Observation Haki to grant visions of the future, but every time he looked, it changed as Mihawk adjusted accordingly, forcing him to look multiple times a second from multiple angles to discern all of the most probable futures and react accordingly.
Rayleigh's Human body limitation Swordsmanship faired decently against Mihawk's reality-bending Anime Swordsmanship. Similar to how Rayleigh read Goddess of Ice like a book, so too was Mihawk reading Rayleigh. He didn't mind of course. There is nothing wrong with a Teacher learning from his students.
The main problem with the swordsmanship Rayleigh learned in the MCU was that it assumed that the opponent would also use swordsmanship that followed logic. Mihawk's two-meter-long blade that could swing with the force of a mountain and adjust like it had the weight of a feather did not follow logic.
That being said, it did not take long for Rayleigh to adapt. Overdrive evolved in real-time to accommodate the shifts and changes in power. New ideas and concepts were being born one second, tested the next, and then either refined or discarded.
The only reason Rayleigh could keep up with Mihawk was that Rayleigh was faster. Mihawk's blade was more nimble, and precise, and he could out-predict Rayleigh's predictions, but Rayleigh had achieved a base speed that surpassed Mihawk's.
But even if Rayleigh could outpace the world's number one swordsman, that didn't mean he could beat him. At his fastest pace, Rayleigh's use of Haki could not keep up with his body. His strikes lacked the power to push Mihawk back while his blocks lacked the weight to do more than barely deflect Mihawk's strikes.
Any advantage Rayleigh gained from his speed was overtaken by Mihawk's power and dexterity.
The sparring match lasted thirty minutes. Thirty minutes of Rayleigh using Overdrive, Babylon, Sword of Babylon, Haki, and the Force. Each Hatsu Rayleigh used tripled the amount of aura he needed for upkeep so even if his aura could hold out for a full day on its own, using all three in an all-out fight reduced his fighting time to less than an hour.
Mihawk ended his attack and remained silent for a moment. Rayleigh didn't look tired, but Mihawk's observation haki told him the truth of the matter. After gauging Rayleigh's condition, Mihawk stated, "Return in two months," and turned around to walk back into his castle.
Rayleigh disabled the Sword of Babylon and started meditating. He had a lot to think about.
As predicted, Mihawk left the island the next day and Rayleigh went back to practicing. After a lot of meditation, Rayleigh picked five flows to fuse together and master. He chose Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. There were many reasons to choose these five, but the main reason was that it was used in Chinese Medicine due to the belief that these elements existed in the body and reinforced or restricted one another.
Rayleigh did not actually want his sword to burst into flames or send blades of water. He was a swordsman, not the Avatar. He would use the flow of these elements only to strengthen his body and swordsmanship. This would form his foundation. From this, he would fuse every other aspect of the world into his swordsmanship.
Each element had multiple facets and Rayleigh was not learning the flashy ones, but the aspect of the elements that existed in the human body. Using the Force to guide him, it did not take more than a few days to create a fusion of these five elements, Rayleigh then spent the next month refining his swordsmanship into this foundation.
By continuously incorporating new forms and styles into this flow, he could figure out if it was missing anything and he had in fact found a few holes that needed to be filled. Sensing what was missing, Rayleigh incorporated Lightning into the foundation and then tried to add Light and Darkness. Since he was going for the five elements, then he needed Yin, Yang, and the power of the tribulation.
Light was easy. Rayleigh was familiar enough with it thanks to his interactions with Justice. Darkness was a different story.
One would think that he could use the Dark Side of the Force as a reference to understand Darkness, but that was not the case. The Light Side of the Force did not represent Light, it represented the Force in a Healthy State while the Dark Side represented the Force in an Unhealthy State. Rayleigh's observations of the Dark Side granted insight into things like Weakness, Sickness, Madness, Pain, Lightning, and other things, but not pure darkness.
However, even though his foundation needed Darkness, he could work around it for now.
The elemental aspects of the flows he used negated each other so he could not use this foundation to set his sword on fire unless he purposefully weakened it, but that worked just fine for Rayleigh. As for what he called this fusion? It seemed only fitting to call it Force.
When Rayleigh used the flow of Force, the elemental aspects of his swordsmanship would continually reinforce each other while adapting to the world. So if his opponent became stronger, Rayleigh's swordsmanship would become stronger as well.
Even without the weight of the world granted by Armament Haki, Rayleigh could use Force to match the Humandrill King. Due to the BS property of Photographic Reflexes, this allowed the Humandrill King to use Force in return. Rayleigh had to use Overdrive to strengthen himself which caused the Humandrill's swordsmanship to get strengthened as well which then strengthened Rayleigh's swordsmanship.
Due to missing a few things, the loop was not infinite, but it was an exciting match that had the hundreds of Humandrills in the area cheering and shouting.
The match ended because the body of the Humandrill King could not keep up with the power of the sword technique, but it was still a good fight that left both parties satisfied.
After that, Rayleigh got started on using Force to direct the flow of the World. That took another week of practice.
Upon Mihawk's return, he showed Rayleigh another Wanted Poster. It was of the same person and the bounty had increased to 100 Million Berries.
Rayleigh asked, "What did he do?"
"Among other things, he defeated Crocodile."
"The Hero of Alabaster?" Rayleigh learned a few things about the Seven Warlords of the Sea from Justice while he was staying at Marineford.
"So it would seem," Mihawk put away the Wanted Poster and started attacking once more.
Rayleigh's Force met Mihawk's Strong and the most powerful of the Seven Warlords revealed a brief smile.
Rayleigh had yet to reach the level of pouring Haki into his Sword of Babylon as fast as he could move, but he had figured out a way around it. Instead of specifically pouring it into his sword in a way that he had to adjust with every move, Rayleigh's circulating, self-reinforcing flows would constantly strengthen everything. It was weak at first, but as the battle continued, it would grow stronger and stronger.
This was not beneath Mihawk's notice. He could easily overpower Rayleigh at this moment, but the longer he waited, the stronger Rayleigh got. How could he resist such an opportunity?
The explosiveness of fire, the immovability of earth, the ductility of metal, the fluidity of water, and the tenacity of wood. Rayleigh's sword contained a balanced measure of each that would refine itself over and over.
Mihawk held back less and less and soon, Rayleigh's sword had a black sheen as the weight of the world moved under the direction of the elements. Mihawk's sword then changed. A red flash of light seemed to shine in his eyes as a repeat of the attack that shattered Rayleigh's sword came at him.
Rayleigh deflected it this time but the impact shook his body and included a mental attack as well. Rayleigh overcame it and struck back, but Mihawk parried his attack and sent another blow of Conqueror's Haki.
With each exchange, cracks formed in the ground beneath them. The pressure of each sword was so great that neither even made contact with the other, they clashed a meter apart using their pressures alone. Then Rayleigh's sword started to crack.
Mihawk ended the fight without breaking the sword and looked at the cracks in the ground. If they continued, the foundation of his castle could be in jeopardy.
"This island is no longer suitable for your practice. Come with me."
At the shore was the coffin-shaped raft that Mihawk used as a personal mode of transportation. It had a sail, but that sail was poorly designed for travel, and unfurling it was more likely to tip the boat over than propel it forward. So how did Mihawk get around the Grand Line so quickly?
According to Rayleigh's Clairvoyance, there was an anchor at the front of the boat and when Mihawk entered the boat, a certain tamed sea king would grab the anchor in its mouth and start swimming where Mihawk wanted it to go.
Rayleigh could not tell how the sea king knew which way to go since Mihawk didn't say anything and it didn't surface to ask him, but once the pair had boarded, the anchor was taken and the ship was pulled at a speed that did not lose out to most speed boats.
As both Mihawk and Rayleigh were quite used to being alone, neither felt the need to fill the silence between them with conversation as the raft was dragged further into the Grand Line.
After a few hours, Rayleigh recognized the background music of the world change as they entered the Calm Belt. For the first time, Rayleigh spoke up and asked, "Are we going to the South Blue?"
Above the Paradise half of the Grand Line was the East Blue and below it was the South Blue. In order to get to the North or West Blues, you needed to cross the Red Line. Rayleigh came from the South Blue and he could tell from the baring of the Sun that they were heading south, not north.
Mihawk answered, "No. There are many islands in the Calm Belt and there is one I have in mind for your training."
"Is it filled with giant monsters and powerful beasts?"
"Few beasts found on land are stronger than the Humandrill King, so that would not help you improve."
Rayleigh nodded and did not ask further. Mihawk would tell him later, so there wasn't a need to push for an answer now. Rayleigh's clairvoyance picked up the sea kings in the area but they seemed to avoid the sea king that dragged along Mihawk's boat.
The island they eventually reached was quite small. Other than a few handfuls of trees, it did not have much, and around the island were many outcroppings of rock.
After getting off, Mihawk pulled out Yoru, faced a specific direction, and slashed out with his strongest force.
The flying slash continued splitting the sea for at least a few kilometers before it ended. Rayleigh had to use Gyō and Force Enhance: Sense to clearly see that far. A bit further and it would have gone over the curvature of the world. The power from this slash was not just from the flow of the world through Mihawk's body. This was the power of the world being commanded by Mihawk. This was the power of Conqueror's Haki.
Mihawk stated, "This is one of the few locations where you can practice such a thing without being disturbed. I will visit every few months to check your progress."
After returning to his boat, he called out as an afterthought, "And if you wish to practice your combat skills, stand on those rocks over there." A few moments later and he was gone.
Rayleigh could not help his curiosity. He got out his Sword of Babylon and jumped over to the rock outcroppings that Mihawk had pointed out. Each only had enough room to barely stand. There was no room to move unless you wanted to fall into the water or jump to another rock.
A breath after taking his place on the rock, a sharp blade nearly tore through his side. The main reason he dodged was that the movement was caught by his En before his Haki even noticed it. As for what it was, its appearance only brought a single word to mind. Swordfish. Though to be fair, it was definitely the type of swordfish one could only see in a cartoon that had writers who loved bad puns. It had all the normal facets of a normal swordfish, but the 'sword' on its front was like a Japanese katana rather than a long pike. It even had the decorative Hamon.
Rayleigh's sword swung to the side to block another one. It flew out of the water faster than a cannonball and swung its 'nose' to cleave Rayleigh in two. Somehow, the edge of the fish's sword did not get cut in two from meeting Rayleigh's Sword of Babylon.
A moment later, Rayleigh understood what Mihawk meant when he said combat practice. A dozen swordfish of many sizes shot out of the water. Rayleigh had blocked them all while essentially standing on one foot. A smile unconsciously spread to his face. At least Mihawk had a good sense of humor, dropping him off in a Swordfish Sea King breeding territory.
After that, Rayleigh would spend a full hour using Overdrive, Babylon, and his Sword of Babylon at the same time on those rocks three times a day. Occasionally he would stun one of the swordfish and throw it to shore for food, but the rest he only parried or dodged.
The rest of his time that he didn't spend eating, meditating, or chilling in the Tavern was spent using the Empty Sword and practicing Haki and slashing into the sea.
Rayleigh's biggest breakthrough in Haki came when he figured out how to affect the flow of the World with the Jedi Power System. Why did this help? Two reasons. First, Rayleigh already had the Easy Masteries for Sense and Control with his Jedi Class. Once his Haki could be affected by the Force, the Sense Easy Mastery made training Observation Haki easier and the Control Easy Mastery made training Armament Haki easier. But neither of those came close to helping him as much as Tutaminis.
Tutaminis allowed Rayleigh to control the energy in his body and could affect all forms of energy. The flow of the world seemed like energy at first, but it was not, it was Law, closer to a blueprint or password than an actual form of energy. Once Rayleigh figured out how to use the Force to affect the flow of the world, the amount of Willpower he needed to move and control the flow of the world reduced to a fraction of what it was. Both Force and Haki required Willpower to move, but Rayleigh was leagues better at using the Force, so this was a direct cheat that brought his Armament Haki right to the level of being able to blacken his skin and sword at will. He was so excited that he invited Dragon Chef, Captain Jack, and Justice to the Tavern for a feast he paid for and threw a party. They enjoyed the free food, but paid the price of having to listen to Rayleigh brag.
After that, Rayleigh could add the Jedi Power system directly to his Force Fusion Flow. And since Babylon enhanced all Force skills, his Haki would receive an amplification boost while he used Babylon. Soon he would be able to enhance the power of Haki directly.
When just using Haki with his Empty Sword, Rayleigh's sword slash didn't fly a tenth of Mihawk's, but when he used Babylon, Overdrive, and everything else, Rayleigh's sword slash had almost reached Mihawk's distance.
His Force Flow contained Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Lightning, Light, the actual Force, and an attribute that Rayleigh simply called Sword.
When he practiced, he also used Growth, Weakness, and Training while using the maximum setting for the Zoldyck Family Adjustable Weight Set. At full weight, they were 2,500 Kilograms and Rayleigh's enhancement Divine Script enhanced that weight by tenfold. Not ten times, but tenfold. Each weight acted on Rayleigh as if it weighed more than the entire Zoldyck Family Door and combined they were over a million kilograms. Thankfully it only affected Rayleigh and not the island or it would have sunk. And that was not the max he could use, that was just the max he could use while moving using at least a quarter of his max speed while being affected by the Law of Weakness.
Months passed by and on the one-year anniversary of Rayleigh's first lesson, Mihawk visited and showed off a new Wanted Poster for Luffy with a bounty of 300 Million Berries.
Mihawk handed over Yoru and Rayleigh waved it around for a minute while asking, "So what did Strawhat do this time?"
Mihawk answered with an amused look. "He seems to have attacked Enies Lobby, nearly destroying the whole place."
Rayleigh, someone who had seen Enies Lobby and knew what it was used for. Hearing this he could only pause in shock. Then he laughed. If there was any doubt that Luffy was the MC, this put an end to it.
While laughing and waving it around, Rayleigh had ten Wills in the Ten of Point Hyper Focus state using Psychometry on Mihawk's blade while another ten put the work into memorizing every detail about the sword's history. With this, Rayleigh could feel exactly how skilled Mihawk was and now knew his upper limit. He could also tell where Mihawk could be said to have hit a dead end. Thankfully, it wasn't a problem for Rayleigh.
Mentally, Mihawk was too dependent on using strong opponents to train and hone himself against. Even if Rayleigh ran out of strong opponents to fight in the Tavern, it wouldn't matter. He had multiple ways to keep improving himself, like Over-Clocking his Overdrive to damage his muscles and then recover stronger than before. The limit of such a training method was far beyond what Rayleigh could see at the moment.
Rayleigh returned Yoru and Mihawk left again.
After Mihawk left, Rayleigh used what he learned from Mihawk's strengths and weaknesses to refine the abilities and restrictions on his Hatsus. What he was left with was a monster that took a full two weeks to stabilize and complete.
1st Hatsu Overdrive.
No Restrictions.
Effect
-Enhances the effect of Force: Program and Force: Augment when used together.
-Enhances the Effect of Tutaminis and Haki when used together.
-Enhances the strength of the body.
-Enhances the speed of the body
-Enhances the skill level of Kō, Ken, and Ryū.
2nd Hatsu Babylon
Restrictions
-User must say aloud, "Open Babylon" to initiate. (New)
-Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal or Sword of Babylon must not be out of contact with the body for more than 30 seconds while in use.
-Cannot kill while using or Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal will explode.
-Must use two different Wills to meditate and strengthen the connection to the Force. (New +1)
-Must use one Will to channel the Force through the Kyber crystal.
-Must use one Will to use Shū on the Kyber Crystal. (New)
-Must use one Will to maintain Clairvoyance.
-Must use one Will to maintain Battle Precognition.
-Must use one Will to maintain Gyō.
-Must use one Will to maintain En.
-Must use one Will to maintain Observation Haki. (New)
-Must use one Will to maintain Tutaminis. (New)
-The En created must have the User as the Center and extend out in the form of a sphere.
-The size of the En field cannot be adjusted after the initial release.
-Every use of the Force while maintaining Babylon requires a separate Will.
-If Babylon is disabled, it cannot be re-enabled for five minutes.
Effect:
-All Force Skills used within the En Field are enhanced.
-All usages of Haki are enhanced.
-The user's body is enhanced.
-The power of the Hatsu: Overdrive is Enhanced.
-The effects of Observation skills like Gyō, En, Battle Precognition, Clairvoyance, Shatterpoint, and Observation Haki are Enhanced and are fused together.
-If injured while using Babylon, a blood-red Conjuration aura will generate and gather around the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal like a bloody mist. The more Conjuration aura is gathered, the thicker the bloody mist and deeper the bloody color. The Nen Skill: In may be used to hide the visible appearance of the mist.
3rd Hatsu Sword of Babylon (Has multiple forms)
Empty Sword
Restrictions
-The user must remain motionless and sincerely recite aloud the Force Code three times to generate the Conjuration Aura required to materialize the Empty Sword. If the user moves or is interrupted during the recitation, the user has to start over. The user can use 16 Wills to offset the recital once or use 32 Wills to offset the recital twice.
-The form of the Empty Sword cannot be changed after its conjuration. (New)
-Can only be wielded while using 2nd stage Zetsu. (No access to the Force or Nen once used)
-The Empty Sword will break if it draws blood.
-The Empty Sword will break if not in contact with the user's body for more than thirty seconds.
-The Empty Sword will break if the user does not maintain One with the Sword state. (New)
-The Empty Sword will break if the user does not maintain the Heart of the Sword state.
-If the Empty Sword breaks, it cannot be formed again for five minutes.
Effect:
-Materializes a long sword.
-A strand of transformed sword aura can form on the edge at will.
-The sword is indestructible unless the destruction conditions are met.
-Enhances the effect of physical, mental, and Haki Training
-The Empty Sword can transform into the Sword of Babylon by pressing the sword against the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal, switching from using 2nd Stage Zetsu, to using Overdrive and Babylon at the same time to make the Empty Sword absorb the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal. While the Empty Sword is absorbing the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal, the user must say aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon." This transforms the Empty Sword into the Sword of Babylon (Blue.)
Sword of Babylon (Blue and Red)
Restrictions
-The user must remain motionless and sincerely recite aloud the Force Code three times while maintaining Babylon and Overdrive to generate the Conjuration aura required to conjure the Sword of Babylon if the Empty Sword is not available. The user can use 16 Wills to offset the recital once or use 32 Wills to offset the recital twice. If the user moves or is interrupted during the recitation, the user has to start over.
-After the Sword of Babylon (Blue) has been conjured, the user must say aloud, "Split the Heavens, Sword of Babylon."
-Alternatively, if the blood-red mist conjured due to injuries sustained while using Babylon is thick enough, it can be used to directly conjure the Sword of Babylon (Red) without the above restriction.
-The Sword of Babylon must form around the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal.
-If the Sword of Babylon (Blue) has already been conjured, it can be converted into the Sword of Babylon (Red) if it absorbs a sufficient amount of the blood-colored mist conjured from injuries while using Babylon or by covering the entire Sword of Babylon (Blue) in the user's blood.
-Cannot make multiple swords. (New)
-Can only be used during Overdrive.
-Can only be used during Babylon.
-The form of the Sword of Babylon cannot be changed after its conjuration. (New)
-Must use one Will to channel Haki through it. (New)
-The Sword will break if Kō, Ken, or Ryū is used to defend the body from damage. (New)
-The Sword will break if Haki is used to defend the body from damage. (New)
-The Sword will break if is not in contact with the user's body for longer than thirty seconds. (New)
-The Sword will break if the user does not maintain One with the Sword state. (New)
-The Sword will break if the user does not maintain the Heart of the Sword state.
-The Sword will break if the user causes any damage to an opponent using a Force Skill independent of the Sword of Babylon. (New)
-The Sword will break if the user causes any damage to an opponent using Haki independent of the Sword of Babylon. (New)
-If the Sword breaks, it cannot be formed again for five minutes if the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal is intact.
Effect:
-Conjures a long sword. (Red or Blue)
-Aura channeled into the sword is automatically transformed into strands of sharpened sword aura thinner than a line of silk.
-All strands of sharpened sword aura are automatically filled with Conqueror's Haki.
-The more aura is channeled into the sword, the more strands of sharpened sword aura are generated.
-These strands automatically circle around the edge of the blade like a chainsaw and each additional strand reinforces the speed and sharpness of the strands of sword aura.
-These strands of sword aura can also be released at will in the form of flying slashes.
-While holding the Sword of Babylon, the power of the user's Control, Sense, and Alter aspects over their internal Force is heavily enhanced, allowing for greater feats of Internal Force usage.
-While holding the Sword of Babylon, the user's internal Nen is heavily enhanced.
-While holding the Sword of Babylon, the user's Haki is heavily enhanced.
-While holding the Sword of Babylon, the user's physical strength and speed are heavily enhanced.
-The Sword of Babylon (Red) can null and void the No Killing rule of Babylon, allowing kills without the Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal exploding.
-The Sword of Babylon (Red) multiplies the previous enhancements based on the amount of damage taken or injuries sustained.
Understandably, the restriction list looked crazy. Babylon alone needed ten separate Wills to use and the Sword of Babylon could no longer be used without using at least one Will to use Haki on it at all times. It was fine though since he now had 31 Wills so he had more than enough to spare.
He had completely given up on any form of attack that did not use the sword and his physical defenses had also been stripped so if he was attacked, he had to block with the sword or dodge.
And it was worth it. A Hatsu's power required a balance between cost and effect. By adding more Wills to Babylon, he had directly reached the level of Advanced Observation Haki, Future Sight, and had a bootleg version of Mystic Eyes of Death Perception when he used Shatterpoint.
By sacrificing his ability to attack without the sword, he massively boosted his attack power with the sword.
By sacrificing his ability to defend himself with Haki or Nen, he massively boosted the physical speed enhancement it granted and greatly raised his sword's durability. The Sword of Babylon did not have an indestructible condition, but it should be as close to indestructible as possible. Rayleigh inherited this from Mihawk as the latter never blocked attacks with his hand or kicked someone in the face. As a swordsman, you should fight with a sword. In a pinch, Rayleigh could still use harmless Force Skills like Telekinesis, Stasis, and Fear. The most devious part was that without any defense, he would be easier to injure, making it easier to conjure the complete full-powered form of the Sword of Babylon.
Oddly, one of the biggest boosts to Rayleigh's might came from the fact that he finally achieved One with the Sword. Now that he had an actual foundation for the style he would build up in the future, he could perfectly use the Sword of Babylon as if it were an extension of his body.
The first thing Rayleigh did after completing the update of his Hatsus was fight Netero. Rayleigh's new speed surpassed Netero's max speed. His flying slashes of silk-like sharpened sword aura were infused with Conqueror's Haki and chopped completely through his Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva. Rayleigh moved like Bankai Ichigo Kurosaki spamming Getsuga Tenshōs like no tomorrow.
When Rayleigh appeared behind Netero, the Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva actually appeared behind Rayleigh and all 100 pairs of hands slammed into him. A moment later, the Guanyin Bodhisattva roared. All of Netero's Nen concentrated into a single emission attack.
And Rayleigh cut it in half. Using his strongest slash, the emission attack, the Hundred-type Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Netero himself, were all split horizontally down the middle. Netero's final ace, his most powerful move, had been defeated.
At that point, Rayleigh was tempted to fight Mihawk in the Tavern, but it would be a waste of points since he could just wait until the real Mihawk showed up again.
And show up he did. Less than a month after his last appearance, Mihawk returned, but not for a fight.
Mihawk explained, "The Marines have called back each of the Seven Warlords to preside over the execution of Fire Fist Ace, Commander of the 2nd division of the Whitebeard Pirates. It seems they know that you are my student and I was asked to bring you along."
Even while training, Rayleigh kept the Pirate Chat Room open so he knew quite a bit about what was going on in the world. Rayleigh asked, "So they want your help when Whitebeard comes to rescue him?"
"That is the case."
"Alright, I'm in."
Before getting back onto the raft, Mihawk seemed to be thinking of something. After a moment, he asked, "What do you call your swordsmanship?"
Rayleigh honestly answered, "It doesn't have a name yet."
Mihawk nodded and said, "Then I shall name it. Hmm. Very well. It shall be called World Sword Style. Your sword is not a physical object, but you use the world itself as your blade."
Rayleigh couldn't help but smile.
Chapter 73 The Calm Before the Storm
"Strawhat Luffy did what?!"
Rayleigh could only repeat back in amazement.
The fresh newspaper the Marine handed to Rayleigh had a front-page news story that was beyond belief. The Pirate World MC punched a Celestial Dragon.
When Rayleigh and every other Player started in this world, they were given some base-level knowledge such as the language, local culture, and some minor details on how the world viewed itself. This meant that every Player knew that this world considered Celestial Dragons on the same level that a Church considered gods. Blaspheming one was grounds for execution and harming the dignity of one meant that the next crusade had your name on it.
What was more interesting was the lack of a mention of Luffy's arrest. Celestial Dragons were the so-called Reverse Scale of the Marines and touching one was the grounds for an Admiral to be sent out. If Luffy had been captured, the front page would have included a picture of him in chains, but it seemed that he had miraculously gotten away. As expected of the favored son of the World's Will.
Rayleigh peeked into the Chatroom and asked a question.
[Swordsman: Was anyone there when Luffy punched the World Noble?]
[Captain Jack: I was in Sabaody at the time. Had front-row seats to the whole thing.]
[Immortal Beauty: And the Admiral they sent didn't see you?]
[Captain Jack: Ha! The best part about always wearing the same outfit and hat when seen is that you become practically invisible if you wear anything else.]
[Swordsman: So what happened?]
[Captain Jack: No idea. Kizaru and some Bear Robots started attacking every Pirate in sight.]
[Immortal Beauty: So you didn't actually see what caused it.]
[Justice: I know the details. My Teacher told me. The World Noble went to a slave auction to buy a Mermaid and it seems Luffy was there and punched him. The former Pirate King's first mate, the Dark King was there as well and stopped Kizaru from capturing Luffy.]
[Lightning Lord: F*cking b stards. When I'm strong enough, I'm gonna blast their entire city to ashes.]
[Dragon Chef: Good luck with that. There are dozens of Mihawk-level swordsmen there who will cut you down even if you fly in from the sky.]
[Justice: Speaking of Mihawk, hey Swordsman, are you coming to Marineford?]
[Swordsman: You mean for the Execution? Yeah, Mihawk is bringing me along.]
[Dyna Might: You're actually gonna be there Swordsman? I still have a bone to pick with you.]
[Dragon Chef: Swordsman, you're gonna help the Marines execute Ace?]
[Swordsman: Nope. I just want to find some good opponents. Mihawk won't get in trouble even if I turn against the Marines so I'll do what I want.]
[Titan: That makes sense.]
[Swordsman: Who else is coming? This battle should result in the destruction of Marineford, the end of the Whitebeard Pirates, or both. In other words, it is the biggest party we've seen as Players.]
[Wild King: I'm coming and I'm bringing an army of Sea Kings. If anyone else wants to come and destroy the Marines, I'll give you a free ride. Sea Kings can easily traverse the Tarai Currents.]
[Goddess of Ice: You'd better not or I'll turn you into an Ice Sculpture.]
[Wonder Woman: Why are you still with the Marines when you know how bad they are?]
[Justice: The training is good and we are not ungrateful. I can't believe how you can just ignore all the good the Marines do just because of the few bad things they are forced to do. If Marineford is destroyed, wild pirates will wreck the world and it will be on your heads!]
[Captain Jack: Meh. Sometimes it takes more effort to keep a broken thing together than it does to allow it to fall to pieces and rebuild it from scratch. If this is all it takes for the Marines to fall, then it is better for it to happen sooner so it can be rebuilt into something better later.]
[Swordsman: Dragon Chef, Titan, are you gonna come?]
[Titan: One of us will. The other will stay to take over Whitebeard's territory. We're gonna do best of three to figure out who will go and who will stay.]
[Swordsman: Why do you want his territory?]
[Dragon Chef: I don't have the Jedi Class so I can't go there to have fun. I'll be taking over Titan's crew when he leaves for the Jedi Galaxy and using the Beast Pirates, Big Mom Pirates, and Red Haired Pirates as sparring partners instead.]
Rayleigh read over the messages and recalled that a few of the Players still lacked a presence in the Force. During his Nen Training Lessons, he told the Players to go awaken their Jedi Class so that he could use Impartation to speed up the rate they understood his lessons, but Dragon Chef was one of the few that did not do so.
At the beginning of the game, it was possible to sacrifice a class to strengthen another class, but Rayleigh did not want to assume, and asking at the time would have been impolite.
[Swordsman: Does anyone have any guesses on who is gonna win? I tried peeking but I only saw static.]
[Wonder Woman: If Little Miss Icicle and her glowing SIMP don't get in our way, we should easily be able to destroy Marineford.]
[Justice: F*ck you! And you guys are badly underestimating the Marines if you think we'll lose. All three Admirals, the Fleet Admiral, Vice Admiral Garp, fifty other Vice-Admirals, fifty warships, and a hundred thousand armed Marines will be stationed here with Home Field Advantage!]
[Goddess of Ice: If you don't want to die, you should stay away. None of you are a match for the Admirals.]
Rayleigh could not guess how the battle would end but he had the confidence to survive any outcome. Even Mihawk could not keep up with his speed, so how could anyone else hope to do so if there wasn't a Fast Fast Devil Fruit or something.
Thinking on this, Rayleigh started meditating and tried to feel out if there was a Devil Fruit, a Flow or Law of the World that could enable someone to run and move like the Flash. He didn't find anything at first, so he delved deeper, silencing everything around him.
Within the center of the world, Rayleigh could not find anything that looked like a Law of Speed, but he did see a glowing golden law. From his senses, it seemed to be the most powerful law of them all, stronger than the rest of them put together. Rayleigh could not stop his curiosity and he delved deeper. The other laws around the golden law faded away, giving away the true form of the most powerful law in the world. Why did it look like a jacket?
Rayleigh awoke with a start when he realized that he had not been meditating, he had been dreaming. Without a bed, Rayleigh had not actually slept in over a year, so it wasn't too surprising that he fell asleep. Still, what a weird dream.
He was currently on a Marine Ship heading for Marineford. Usually, Mihawk would just take his own boat where he wanted to go, but due to the imminent war, Marineford would not be allowing private vessels anywhere close to the base so they had to be taken there by Marine Ship first. Thankfully, the voyage only lasted a few days. They just had to sail to Enies Lobby and the Tarai Current would take them to Marineford in a few hours.
Out of morbid curiosity, Rayleigh stayed on deck and use Clairvoyance as they sailed past Enies Lobby to the Gates of Justice. The main castle-like building at the end of the island was still in ruins while the rest of the island looked to be half-way through reconstruction.
Rayleigh asked one of the Marines on deck, "How did that happen?"
The Marine in question shook his head, unwilling to say anything, so Rayleigh used Jedi Mind Trick to ask again, "You can tell me, you know I won't say anything to anyone."
The Marine looked blank for a moment before looking back at Enies Lobby and sighing. "Well, alright, but don't tell anyone I told you." It seemed that he really wanted to get it off his chest.
According to the Marine, he was stationed there at the time. Two prisoners were being taken from Water Seven to Enies Lobby by sea train and it was during Aqua Laguna, an annual storm that sends a tidal wave at Water Seven. No one sails during Aqua Laguna, so there were no ships or extra men on Enies Lobby. No one expected a second sea train to follow the first one to Enies Lobby carrying a bunch of pirates and ship builders. Each track only had one train after all.
That was the first problem. The second problem was that, not long after the intruders arrived, the pair of Giant Marines used as guards turned on the rest of the Marines. So not only were they understaffed and at their weakest due to the timing, but they got surprised attacked and their main defenders turned on them. This wrecked their formations. Still, they were eventually able to capture and tie-up all the shipwrights, the giants, and everyone else but the pirates who were on the other side of the island.
The Marine didn't know what happened next, but he did know how it ended. Everyone was ordered to keep it secret since it was a complete disgrace, but it seemed that the one in charge of Enies Lobby accidentally signaled for a Buster Call on the Marine Base itself. This caused a fleet of ten warships, led by five Vice Admirals, to be sent to Enies Lobby where they would fire their cannons at the island until nothing was left standing. The captured shipwrights and giants got away while the pirates somehow sailed away, right through the warships.
Rayleigh asked, "How does everyone know that he did it accidentally?'
The Marine looked partially dead inside with shame as he answered, "Because, in addition to accidentally using the Buster Call communicator, he then explained himself to his prisoner while accidentally using the island-wide communicator, so everyone heard it."
Rayleigh gaped at the explanation. For some reason, the first term that appeared in his head was Nepo-baby. Rayleigh figured that whoever was in charge must have been extremely incompetent and only got their position because of a parent or two who held an even higher position. He sincerely hoped that such a person would not trouble future generations by having children, unaware of the fact that the prisoner he held at the time had already achieved this feat through the casting of the most powerful DnD Spell, Testicular Torsion.
After sailing through the Gates of Justice and dropping off supplies at Impel Down, Rayleigh had once again arrived at Marineford.
Mihawk had his own quarters at Marineford and left without a word. Justice quickly found Rayleigh and said, "Man, you got a tan!"
Rayleigh nodded. He usually only wore pants while training and the Calm Belt was without storms, so he had been standing in direct sunlight for months and acquired a very light bronze tone that made him stick out less in this world compared to his previous complexion. Rayleigh didn't know why, but Players seemed to tan very slowly.
According to his Birthday in this world, he had turned eighteen a few months ago so Rayleigh no longer had any remnant of a childish appearance. His sharp features almost looked like Mihawk's, but Rayleigh kept his face clean-shaven using his sword so he lacked the sideburns or beard that gave Mihawk his distinctive look. His brown hair was cut short but left uncombed and his brown eyes only lost in sharpness to Mihawk's own.
Justice and Goddess of Ice had also turned 18 and both had their own ships, crews, and ranks as Rear-Admirals. They would likely be promoted to Vice Admirals after the war if there was still a Marineford standing.
Since every Player was born within six months of the World Main Characters, none would be a full year older or younger than the others. Though this inconvenienced some of the Wizard Players since many were a year behind others in school depending on whether they were born a few months after the Wizard MC or not.
After getting taken away by Justice, Rayleigh asked, "Did you ask the Marines to tell Mihawk to bring me?"
Justice paused for a moment before answering, "Yeah, I wanted your help since things might really go sideways with all the other Players coming over. If you can help stall the other Players with Goddess of Ice and myself, then you won't have to do anything else but wait for the Marine's victory."
Rayleigh stated, "I don't mind fighting the other Players who show up, but I won't kill anyone if I don't want to."
Justice replied, "I wouldn't have it any other way. Me and Goddess of Ice haven't killed anyone yet. For all the bitching that the other Players have against the Marines, we don't kill our prisoners unless there is no choice. Even Marine Longswords are made purposefully too thick to make them last longer and less lethal."
"Yeah, but that should only be the case in standard times. This battle will be different."
Justice nodded and replied back, "Well, no one will say anything if we kill someone during the battle, but I'm good at disabling and Goddess of Ice is good at freezing while keeping them alive, so it won't be a problem. This battle should have the best of the best of the Haki users of both sides, but they will total less than one percent of everyone, with half of that being the Haki users of the Marines."
Justice took them to the training barracks and Goddess of Ice was waiting there with an ice sword and an expectant glare.
Rayleigh sighed and raised a finger for the universal sign of 'One Moment.' He then used Force Muffle and started reciting his Force Code aloud. Thanks to Force Muffle, neither Player could hear him, and a few moments later, a longsword materialized in Rayleigh's hand while he entered the state of Second Stage Zetsu.
Justice asked, "What was that and why are you in Zetsu?"
Rayleigh replied, "This is my training sword. I've been using it to practice my Sword skills and Haki."
Goddess of Ice asked, "So you can't use Nen?" She didn't have a Hunter Class but knew what Justice knew of it since he told her everything.
Rayleigh didn't answer but walked into the training stage and raised his sword.
Goddess of Ice vanished and reappeared behind Rayleigh with her sword raised and a confident smirk, but only after passing him did she hear the cracking sound of her Ice Sword shattering.
Rayleigh replied, "Just because I'm not using Nen doesn't mean I'm weaker than I was the last time we fought." Rayleigh's mastery of One with the Sword combined with his possession of Heart of the Sword into what could essentially be called a Sword Domain. As long as you were within his range, he would strike with the most efficient, quickest, and strongest attack. If you were within his range, you had already been cut.
Goddess of Ice made a new Ice sword that quickly became jet black and charged again using Shave to clear the distance. Her Haki saturated sword met Rayleigh's Haki saturated sword and the pressure from each met a half meter from one another, stopping the blades from making contact. A moment later, Rayleigh sliced through her pressure and stepped forward. She could move the world with her Will, but the world she moved was not being led by her specialty.
Rayleigh stated, "Let me show you something," and the black sheen of his sword vanished. He moved with the same speed and strength against Goddess of Ice and her Haki infused Ice Sword seemed to best Rayleigh for a moment, but then he powered through, erupting in strength. She moved to deflect the blow and strike back, but her own attack was caught and slowed to a halt in a matter she found quite familiar.
In this way, Rayleigh sparred with her for ten more minutes only using the Law of Ice. By the end, Goddess of Ice had figured out what Rayleigh was doing and asked, "How can you do that?"
Justice asked, "What did he do?"
She answered, "His sword felt colder than mine did. It felt more like ice than my sword did."
This reply left Justice stumped with more questions than answers.
Rayleigh explained, "I just moved my sword like freezing ice. Did you know that pure, still water can be super-chilled to below freezing without getting frozen? But when super-chilled water gets disturbed or mixed with something, it freezes rapidly with unstoppable force, almost like an explosion."
From what he observed, Rayleigh could tell that the effect of the Chilly Chilly Fruit made water think it was super-chilled and then caused it to instantly freeze. So it wasn't actually the power of Ice, but the power of cold. Rayleigh figured out how such an effect would look as a sword style and showed it off to Goddess of Ice to help her understand her own element a little better.
Seeing that this was something that could help her, Goddess of Ice continued their spar, but no longer used Haki. She simply tried to digest the sword form that Rayleigh had made up on the spot.
An hour later, an old Marine with a walking cane entered the training area. It was not someone any of the Players were familiar with but he wore a Commodore's outfit and would not have entered their private training room without a reason. The old man seemed feeble enough to drop dead any moment and peered through his glasses for a few moments before spotting Rayleigh. "Ah yes, you. Please follow me to your quarters."
Rayleigh looked over to Justice who shrugged.
Not seeing anything particularly suspicious about it, Rayleigh exited Zetsu which caused his sword to disperse, and walked over to the old man who started to slowly hobble out of the training hall. Justice and Goddess of Ice followed since they had nothing better to do than see where Rayleigh would be staying until the execution.
Rayleigh caught the man's hand a moment later when he tried to touch Rayleigh's face. Rayleigh smiled and said, "Entering Zetsu is fine, but that variation of Force Stealth does not hide your presence in the Force, it just makes you harder to notice by those without a strong presence in the Force."
The old man sighed and slapped his other hand on his own cheek. Once he made contact, his form shifted to a youth of their own age.
Rayleigh let the Player's other hand go and asked, "Mimic, I presume?"
Justice exclaimed, "You're Mimic! How long have you been here?!" Mimic was something of a pseudo-legend among the Players as everyone had heard of him but no one had ever seen him. He also had the most up-to-date info on the World Government and the information he freely shared about them helped many of the Players.
Rather than answer, Mimic looked over Rayleigh again and replied, "I'm curious how you were able to completely hide your own Force presence while fighting her. I haven't figured out that trick yet."
"Ah, that's not hiding my presence, that's cutting it off completely. If every Force user is an antenna, you simply changed the frequency of your broadcast while I shut off the power."
"What?! But that means you have to give up all your Force Powers!" He honestly could not believe someone would take such a risky step. Without Force powers, life saving skills like Danger Sense didn't work.
"That's right, and it makes Haki so much easier to learn."
Tired of being ignored, Justice ran over and shouted, "Hey! I asked you a question!"
Mimic looked over at Justice and said, "I'm a CP9 Agent, I don't need to answer your questions. But I will if you ask nicely."
Goddess of Ice asked, "Were you the one who touched my face a few years ago?"
Mimic tapped his face with one hand, turning into a duplicate of Goddess of Ice. What was interesting was that this duplicate was the same age.
Rayleigh asked, "Is it always the same age?"
Mimic changed back and shook his head, "No, but I don't need to touch a face to update an existing one, any skin contact will do for an update. In any case, I came here for two reasons. One, I wanted to see if I could get a copy of you. Two, I also wanted to thank you."
"Well, that's direct. What did you want to thank me for?"
Mimic changed back to Goddess of Ice and a moment later, an Ice Sword formed in her hand.
Justice exclaimed, "You copied her Devil fruit too?!"
Mimic changed back and shook his head. "Not exactly. You see, after hearing your theory on how Devil Fruits make up the laws of the world, I started my own investigation and came to a few conclusions. As a thank you for telling me what you discovered, I wanted to tell you what I discovered in turn."
"Oh? What did you find out?" Although Rayleigh could make his sword cold, he could not just make a Sword of Ice as easily as Mimic had using Haki alone.
Mimic continued, "If we're going to use Cultivation Terms, then you could say that each Devil Fruit grants power over a certain law, but that is only half of what it does. Each Devil Fruit also grants the user the Physique most capable of using that Law. Before realizing this, even if I copied a Logia User, I could not use the power of a Logia Fruit. But now I can. I can copy the Physique of a Devil Fruit User and activate it using the Law associated with that Devil Fruit."
Goddess of Ice asked, "You mean like Heavenly Ice Physique or Pure Yin Physique, that sort of thing?"
Mimic nodded to the politely asked question and continued, "Yes. Without that physique, even if you master the Law of Ice, you cannot recover your body from Ice like she can because you lack the innate physique to do so. And I also think I understand the main difference between us and the Warrior, Ninjas, and Wizards. Again, using Cultivation terms, our classes cultivate the Dao while they are Body Cultivators."
Rayleigh asked, "So you think that they can continually remake and reforge their bodies while we can obtain the power of the world?"
"That would make the most sense, wouldn't it? Body Cultivators are usually much stronger in Light Novels." He then stared at Rayleigh for a moment before adding, "Behind Sword Cultivators of course. In any case, I have paid off my own debt to you, goodbye."
He then turned to leave, with Justice saying, "Creepy bastard. At least we know what he looks like now."
Rayleigh gave Justice a skeptical look and asked, "Do you really think that was his actual appearance just now?"
Justice looked stunned for a moment. Trying to change the subject, he pointed out, "Wait, so who is going to show you where you're going to stay?"
The three remained silent at the question. This was awkward.
A few days passed and the mood around Marineford got tenser and tenser.
The day of the execution arrived and the Pirate Chatroom was surprisingly quiet. It was obvious that many plans were to be set in motion this day and the Players responsible did not want those plans advertised. Rayleigh even felt a small threat to his own life coming, but it wasn't enough to concern him.
Three hours before the execution, the prisoner, a young man with black hair and freckles, was brought to the newly built execution platform. The whole of the inner part of Marineford was arranged like a layered cake with the Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice Admiral Garp, the prisoner, and two armed guards set on the top of the platform. Below the platform stood the three Admirals, Kizaru, Aokiji, and Akainu. Below them were the Seven Warlords, or at least five of them. Crocodile and the Fishman Jinbei were missing. Below them were lines of Vice Admirals, and the lowest layer below that, standing in front of the harbor to Marineford, were one hundred thousand Marines.
Of the group, the one who attracted the most eyes was the Warlord Boa Hancock. She had pale, flawless skin, ebony black, perfectly straight hair, and a large snake at her side that had curled itself into a standing chair for her. In addition to being ridiculously beautiful, the woman radiated pure SIMP aura, turning any lesser man who looked upon her or got too close into her SIMP. Rayleigh had not seen such a phenomenon before and figured it must have been the woman's Devil Fruit. Without it, she would have just been an attractive woman who could probably place 2nd or 3rd in a major Beauty Pageant at most, but with it, she seemed to be the most beautiful woman alive.
That said, the effect was close to zero on him. Rayleigh effectively spent his puberty doing the harshest training, so the discipline he forged kept his mind and hormones where they needed to be. He recognized the effect in the same way he recognized that ice was cold, but that didn't mean he felt cold. Still, it was best not to look down on her. For all he knew, that was just her passive SIMP aura and she could magnify it a hundred million fold, making everyone around her unable to think of her as anything but a Goddess descended to Earth who must be worshiped, adored, and obeyed. That was very unlikely, but Rayleigh would rather over-estimate her than get caught off-guard.
The other Warlords each had their own unique quirks. The man called Doflamingo had sharp sunglasses, wore a coat with pink feathers, and had a malicious smile of enjoyment at the fear the Marines were showing. For some reason, he kept one leg in the air.
The man the Players referred to as a Robot Bear had a massive frame and chest, but oddly skinny legs and arms.
The one called Gecko Moria looked even less human than Robot Bear, he was way taller, had purple skin, two horns on his head, and vertical stitches down his chest.
And then there was Mihawk, just standing there being his usual badass self with his arms crossed, overlooking the scene that would soon fall into carnage.
After looking them all over again, Rayleigh realized that each of the Warlords seemed to be associated with an Animal, either in name or appearance. Crocodile, Shark, Snake, Flamingo, Bear, Gecko, and Hawk.
At the moment, Rayleigh did not have his sword. Keeping his Empty Sword out left him defenseless while keeping out the Sword of Babylon required way too much aura since it could only be used when using both Babylon and Overdrive. He didn't know when the fighting would start or how long it would last, so he had to save his reserves for the moment.
It wouldn't matter though. Even without the sword, Rayleigh could use Overdrive to boost his speed, transform his aura into sharpened sword aura, and fight using martial arts and boxing. No need to go all-out until there was something to actually fight.
Rayleigh, Goddess of Ice, and Justice actually stood on the third level, where the Vice Admirals were standing, but instead of being in front of the execution platform, they were standing closer to the sides.
Once everyone was standing in their positions, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, a man with round-rim glasses and a thick black afro took out a communication snail and started speaking into it.
"Gentlemen, I have something to tell you. Portgas D Ace. This man will die here today. And there is great meaning in that death."
Since the execution should not be starting for three hours, Rayleigh figured that they either intended to make a long show of it, or they were scheming something.
Sengoku placed the little communication snail next to the prisoner and ordered, "Ace, say the name of your father!"
Not only were there speakers around the whole of Marineford, but there were also TV-Snails and this picture was being broadcast, live, to some areas while other areas got the audio from Radio-Snails.
Ace shouted in protest, "My father is Whitebeard!"
Sengoku argued back, "No!"
The man bearing the tattoo of Whitebeard on his back declared, "It's true! The only father I have is Whitebeard! Nobody else!"
The Fleet Admiral seemed to give up convincing him and entered story mode. He told the world, "A long time ago, we were desperately searching. Because on some island, somewhere, that man's child might be alive. Cipher Pol could only give us the smallest bit of information. So we checked all the newborn children who were born soon after, as well as their mothers, and still we found nothing."
"That should have been it... But your mother gave her life for your birth, using sheer willpower to perform a trick. She deceived us, no. She deceived the entire world! In the South Blue, there's an island by the name of Batelira. Your mother's name was Portgas D. Rouge. We never imagined what she was capable of. Out of love for her child. She carried him in her womb for twenty months. And when she gave birth, her strength finally gave out and she died right there."
"One year and three months had passed since the father died. A child born with the blood of the world's greatest villain running through his veins. That child was you. There's no way that you don't know! Your father... Was the Pirate King! Gol D. Roger!"
Rayleigh thought to himself, 'Well, I'm sure this won't end badly at all.'
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