Chapter 418: The Ambitious Schemer
After roaring his final oath, Teach collapsed to his knees with a heavy thud, as if all the strength had been drained from his body.
Illuminated by the campfire, he knelt on the ground. His shoulders heaved violently, his breaths sounding like a broken bellows, and cold sweat rolled down his body like rain.
In his blurring vision, only that unyielding, motionless silhouette remained.
"Hah... Hah..."
"Is it over... my filthy life..."
He slowly closed his eyes like a prisoner awaiting execution, allowing the darkness to completely swallow him.
—However, right at that moment.
"BOOM—!"
Heaven and earth roared. The suffocating Conqueror's Haki pressure that had been pressing down on him abruptly vanished!
That asphyxiating feeling of a collapsing mountain disappeared in an instant. The air began to flow once more, and the night breeze rushed against his face.
"Hah... HAAAH—!!!"
Like a drowning man breaking the surface of the sea, Teach gasped violently for air. His entire lungs trembled with the fresh intake of breath. He coughed wretchedly, sweat and tears blurring his vision.
His pupils were dilated from oxygen deprivation, and the heart in his chest beat erratically.
"Hah— Hah—"
Roy gently lifted a finger.
The void trembled slightly, and two pitch-black wooden boxes silently materialized, hovering and slowly spinning in mid-air.
Teach's entire body jolted. He looked up, trembling, his eyes dead-locked onto the two wooden boxes.
"You really are your father's son... Xebec."
The low murmur sounded as if it came from an ancient abyss, yet it crashed into Teach's ears with absolute clarity.
"!!!"
Teach's pupils shrank violently. His voice trembled, nearly tearing his throat:
"ROY!!! How... how do you know about my father?!!"
"You weren't even born then!!!"
However, Roy's expression remained completely impassive, neither confirming nor denying it.
He merely waved his hand casually—
The two wooden boxes slowly descended, landing steadily into Teach's arms with a heavy thud!
In that instant, the weight in Teach's arms felt as if the entire ocean had been pressed against his chest, so heavy it was suffocating.
"Eat these two fruits."
"Then carve out your own piece of the world to prove your ambition."
"Remember—as long as you do not harm civilians, the Marines can turn a blind eye to you."
"Pirate factions excluded~"
The words were spoken indifferently, yet they nailed themselves into the bottom of Teach's heart like an ironclad law.
Gulp...
Teach's Adam's apple bobbed, cold sweat dripping down his beard.
Is this a trap? A test? Or a gift—?!!
His brain worked frantically, his sanity teetering on the brink of collapse.
But just as he looked up and saw Roy's half-smile, raising an eyebrow slightly—
That single glance, like a ten-thousand-ton boulder, ruthlessly crushed all the doubts in his heart.
This is my last chance...
I absolutely cannot retreat!!!
Teach gritted his teeth fiercely. With manic eyes, he violently flipped open the lids of the wooden boxes!
Click—!
The pitch-black air was torn open by two faint gleams of light.
Two Devil Fruits lay quietly in the wooden boxes, their interlacing patterns seemingly mocking Teach's current fate.
His eyes widened to their limits. In his mind, he instinctively flipped through the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia he had memorized for decades.
The first one, he recognized at a single glance.
—Its skin looked like churning mud, the murky patterns giving off the illusion that it could swallow everything.
"This is a Logia... the Numa Numa no Mi (Swamp-Swamp Fruit)?!!"
Teach's chest heaved violently. His teeth were clenched, his heavy breathing sounding as if it would tear his throat.
Roy... actually gave me a power of the Logia class?! Is he insane?!!
Before he could even calm his shock, his gaze landed on the second fruit.
—Purple skin, shaped like a cantaloupe, covered in ordinary spiral patterns.
Teach's brows furrowed deeply. His mind rapidly searched, comparing it one by one... until his face turned completely dark.
"This thing... is the Paramecia: Gomu Gomu no Mi (Gum-Gum Fruit)...??"
"Its ability is to turn the body—including internal organs, skin, and bones—entirely into rubber. It can stretch, bounce back, and is immune to blunt physical attacks..."
"To put it bluntly, it's just a joke of an ability that turns you into a rubber freak?!!"
His breathing quickened, his beard trembling with fury. He clenched his fists violently, veins popping as a volatile rage surged within him:
"Are you kidding me!!! Such a garbage ability, and he expects me to eat it?!!"
"Roy... are you trying to humiliate me?!!"
But the moment this surge of anger erupted, the image of Roy's cold, ruthless eyes flashed in his mind, and a sudden chill gripped his heart.
A shiver ran down his spine, leaving him drenched in cold sweat.
No... that's not right.
He gritted his teeth, a thought flashing through his mind—
Could it be... this is his true method of keeping me in check?!
The Swamp-Swamp Fruit grants me power... but the Gum-Gum Fruit is the shackle?!
Trying to trap me with a powerless ability to limit my ambition?!!
At this thought, Teach's eyes abruptly turned manic. A sinister grin stretched across his lips before he erupted into a world-tearing, hysterical laugh:
"Ze—hahahahahaha!!!"
"Roy!! You underestimate me!!!"
"Even if it's rubber—I'll grind it into fangs capable of swallowing the world!!!"
With his words falling, he hesitated no longer. Opening his bloody maw wide, he swallowed both fruits simultaneously!
"GULP—!!!"
In an instant, a tearing agony swept through his entire body!
—The viscous sludge of the swamp and the elasticity of the rubber violently clashed within him!
His veins bulged like slithering venomous snakes, and the muscles beneath his skin contorted violently as he rolled and struggled on the ground.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH—!!!"
His miserable screams sounded as if they came from the abyss of hell, but his eyes were more manic and lucid than ever before!!!
"I AM TEACH!!!"
"I WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT DIE HERE, AAAHHHH!!!"
—Darkness and light intertwined, tearing apart and fusing together.
Roy gazed at the scene before him. His fingertips paused for half a second as he sighed softly in his heart:
Teach... truly worthy of being the most primal [Pirate].
In his eyes, Teach had long since transcended the realm of a mere "greedy scoundrel."
He was a strategist who could endure for years, maintaining a low profile and waiting patiently for the right moment;
An opportunist with absolutely no bottom line, ready to seize a chance without hesitation, even through betrayal and cruelty;
The incarnation of desire, transforming his dreams into an endless, insatiable ambition;
The destroyer of order, using plunder and betrayal to subvert the very foundation of the world.
—Marshall D. Teach.
He embodied the most primal and terrifying aspect of a "Pirate"—
Unquenchable greed and a ruthlessness willing to pay any price.
Snap—
Roy snapped his fingers casually.
The pitch-black barrier instantly receded like the tide, and heaven and earth returned to silence.
Amidst the embers of the flames outside, Ace stood with his arms crossed.
At his feet, Lafitte, Van Augur, Burgess, and Doc Q had been scorched by the flames, covered in wounds and shivering, not daring to put up the slightest resistance.
"All taken care of, Big Brother Roy."
Ace grinned. The blistering flames receded with the wind, leaving behind only the scent of charred earth.
Roy nodded slightly. Turning around, he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Ace, their backs gradually blending into the night breeze.
The sound of the wind swept past, carrying his cold yet ironclad whisper: "Remember my words, Teach..."
—That voice, like a curse, was etched deep into the night.
"Hah... Hah..."
Teach slowly struggled to get up, his hands pressing against the blood- and mud-stained ground, his chest heaving violently.
A blood-red light danced in his pupils, like the interweaving of fire and darkness.
He stared fiercely at the retreating backs of Roy and Ace, a chilling, low growl squeezing through his teeth:
"One day... I will plunge this entire ocean into total darkness!!!"
Vicious, sinister, yet burning with a fierce, absolute resolve.
—That was the look of an ambitious schemer.
...
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