Army Admiral Purple Steed was a powerful figure selected during the World Government's great conscription, chosen from one of the World Government's affiliated nations.
Originally, a powerhouse like him was meant to be placed in a force like the Marines, where combat was more frequently needed. But at the time, the three Marine Admiral positions were already full. Purple Steed's strength and abilities were too exceptional, and his status was not low either. Giving him only the rank of Marine Vice Admiral would have been too much of a slight.
In the end, they had no choice but to appoint him as an Army Admiral.
The Army had no Fleet Admiral. It was directly under Sengoku's command. In fact, before Purple Steed, the Army hadn't even had an admiral at all. So after becoming Army Admiral, Purple Steed was essentially placed in direct command of the entire Army.
And yet, with his overwhelming strength and ability, he won the complete trust of all the Army officers. Even Commander-in-Chief Sengoku and the Five Elders held him in high regard.
Because unlike the usual powerhouses brought in through mass conscription, Purple Steed was different. His background made him trustworthy. He had originally been a noble military commander from one of the World Government's allied kingdoms. His interests and his family were all tied to the World Government, making him someone they could safely trust.
The Five Elders had even deliberately nurtured him with the intention of making him the supreme commander of the World Government's Army.
At that moment on the battlefield, under Purple Steed's orders, the soldiers rushed toward Rosinante at high speed. And from their bodies, an astonishing fighting spirit began to erupt.
Seeing those soldiers, Rosinante suddenly frowned.
"So that's it. No wonder the Five Elders chose to use human wave tactics... so that's what's going on," Rosinante said with a sudden smile.
"These men are in a strange mental state. They're all unusually stirred up, overflowing with battle intent. This isn't the kind of aura an ordinary army could have," Redfield said, easily noticing the anomaly with his Observation Haki.
"This is bad. Their battle spirit is incredibly intense. Even His Majesty's Conqueror's Haki probably won't have as much effect as usual. The World Government's goal is likely to use this ability, combined with sheer numbers, to wear down our stamina!" Bins said, his expression changing.
"Interesting. Very interesting. This should be a Devil Fruit ability, right? I didn't expect there to be a fruit with this kind of strategic power. Just a simple sentence, a single word, and it can fill people with the determination to fight to the death. One command, and ten thousand troops respond. This kind of power is practically perfect for commanding armies," Rosinante said with a smile.
"Now that you mention it, I remember. This should be the Paramecia-type Command Fruit. I once saw it in a Devil Fruit encyclopedia. Supposedly, it allows subordinates who've been trained under the user to carry out any military order to the death once they're on the battlefield. And the Command Fruit doesn't just make soldiers obey and bring out the full extent of their strength, it also allows the user to draw power from an entire army in the middle of battle, increasing his own combat ability. As for how much strength he can extract and amplify, that depends on how far the user has developed the fruit," Redfield said.
"There's really a fruit like that?! Your Majesty, should we just go by air instead? If we get trapped in the middle of an army and they use numbers to drain our stamina, it'll put us at a huge disadvantage!" Bins said.
"By air? Do you think the Five Elders would set up a formation like this and leave the sky unguarded? It seems the World Government really has grown much stronger over the past ten years," Rosinante said thoughtfully as he looked upward.
Following Rosinante's gaze, they saw countless giant birds circling in the sky. Mounted on their backs were knights holding long spears.
Bins was slightly shocked. He hadn't expected the World Government to have an air force as well. To tame that many enormous birds, they would probably need a Devil Fruit user specialized in that area.
"Besides, I came here for the Five Elders. If a scene like this is enough to scare me off, I might as well turn around and leave now instead of staying here and humiliating myself," Rosinante said with a calm smile.
"I'd like to see whether this Command Fruit is stronger... or whether my Conqueror's Haki is stronger!"
A sharp light flashed in Rosinante's eyes. At the same time, an overwhelming surge of Conqueror's Haki burst from his body and smashed forward.
That wave of Conqueror's Haki was tyrannical to the extreme. Even though the soldiers' wills had been strengthened by the Command Fruit, under the impact of that domineering force, one after another, they still collapsed.
"Rosinante's Conqueror's Haki is much more overbearing than before, yes, but more importantly, his application of Conqueror's Haki is unprecedented. It seems certain now that during those ten years, while his soul was in another spacetime, he obtained an entirely different kind of power," one of the Five Elders said.
"But no matter how powerful Rosinante's Conqueror's Haki is, he still can't knock out every soldier under the Command enhancement. In that case, my objective has already been achieved," another Elder said.
Rosinante's Conqueror's Haki was indeed terrifying, but there were simply too many soldiers before him. Its power had been dispersed.
On top of that, with the enhancement from the Command Fruit, more than half of the charging soldiers remained standing, unaffected.
"It seems this Command enhancement is far stronger than I imagined," even Rosinante said in surprise.
But while Rosinante was surprised, someone else was even more shocked.
No one understood the power of the Command Fruit better than Admiral Purple Steed himself. Yet even with the enhancement of his fruit, so many soldiers had still been knocked unconscious.
As expected of the existence feared by the World Government, the Five Elders, and the Marines... Dragon King Rosinante truly was extraordinary.
But in front of him, no matter how strong a person was, it was meaningless. Before an army of thousands upon thousands, individual strength was bound to seem insignificant.
With that thought, Admiral Purple Steed shouted once more to the soldiers who had withstood Rosinante's Conqueror's Haki:
"Kill!"
At that single roar from Purple Steed, dense battle intent and killing intent erupted from the soldiers once again, and they charged toward Rosinante at even greater speed.
"Perhaps it would've been better if you'd simply fainted. At least then you might've kept your lives. But it seems there's no helping it... today, I'll have to slaughter without restraint," Rosinante said.
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Note: The Command Devil Fruit is an OC and is different than the Whip-Whip Devil Fruit wielded by Kujaku
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