Chapter 6: Corruption and Lifeblood
A brilliant golden light shone, dazzling all who saw it.
Those who couldn't dodge in time, now bathed in the pale golden light, felt as if they were basking in a warm, comfortable sun.
Many of the ragged refugees stared with wide eyes, their expressions filled with disbelief. They could feel the aches and pains in their bodies gradually fading. Wounds from swords and bullets healed at a rate visible to the naked eye. Their bodies, weak from severe dehydration and malnutrition, began to recover, the long-lost feeling of health returning to their battered forms.
Once they came to their senses, they all raised their heads to gaze at the golden figure walking slowly along the high wall, dragging a spear. Gratitude filled their eyes.
Up on the wall, the dozen or so CP agents and the soldiers of the Jacob Kingdom were filled with shock and uncertainty. After realizing they themselves were unharmed, their faces turned exceptionally ugly.
"Damn it, how dare he mock us!"
"You damn lowlifes, go die!"
The soldiers charged forward with swords in hand, ready to make the one who toyed with them pay with his blood.
The dozen CP agents hesitated. They weren't as hot-headed as the local bumpkins of the East Blue. They instinctively felt that the young-faced boy before them was no simple foe, likely a Mythical Zoan user. Thus, they raised their guard to the highest level, preparing to let the soldiers test his strength first.
Unfortunately for them, their superior, the CP0 agent, had the same idea.
A cold command came from dozens of meters away: "You lot, go! Make this villain who interfered with a World Government operation pay the price!"
The CP0 agent, Joseph, believed that these soldiers alone couldn't possibly probe the depths of the man who gave him such an intense feeling of crisis. Sending in the CP agents, however, might reveal a thing or two.
"..." The dozen agents froze on the spot, their faces a whirlwind of emotions, their hearts filled with bitterness. They desperately wanted to ask their superior why he wasn't going himself. But for the sake of their families, they swallowed the words and, gritting their teeth, launched a desperate attack on the boy of unknown origin.
In an instant, sharp blades closed in on Louis's body, their polished surfaces reflecting the furious or terrified faces of their wielders.
But in the next moment, they all froze. The sharp blades slipped from their hands, clattering loudly against the top of the wall.
The life force that had entered their bodies began to flicker, awakening the billions of bacteria and fungi within them, causing them to break their delicate balance and gain the upper hand.
The faces of the soldiers and agents contorted in extreme agony. Their bodies became impossibly stiff, and their horrifying screams drowned out the roar of cannons, sending a chill down the spine of anyone who heard them.
Dozens of meters away, the expression on Joseph's masked face was one of "I knew it." The abilities of Devil Fruits were bizarre; a single moment of carelessness could lead to a devastating blow. He had to be on guard.
Then, as Joseph watched, a gruesome change occurred in the bodies of the soldiers and agents frozen in place.
Their skin turned a bruised black and began to rot at a visible rate. Their bodies swelled up like a bloated corpse, and a massive wound split open their abdomens, gaping and closing like a monstrous mouth. Their dark, bruised intestines spilled out, squirming as if they were alive.
The most terrifying part was that even after undergoing such a horrific transformation, they did not die, but remained rigid, wailing in agony.
Everyone who witnessed this scene was terrified, feeling a violent shock to their mind and body. They instinctively recoiled, their bodies trembling on the verge of vomiting.
Louis continued his unhurried advance, dragging his spear, his entire being bathed in a holy light under the sun.
As he walked, the ground beneath the high wall burst with life. Vibrant plants rapidly proliferated, and in just a moment, a stretch of fragrant green grass appeared before everyone's eyes.
"All things decay, yet life endures..." Louis whispered.
As far as the eye could see, life and corruption coexisted. Bathed in the golden light, Louis was a divine contrast to the hellish scene, like an angel descended upon the mortal world.
In the next moment, Louis vanished from sight, leaving behind only a crumbling section of the wall where he had stood.
The shattered stones had not yet landed when Louis's figure was already reflected in Joseph's pupils. He raised his spear, a blazing sun formed from fire swirling at its tip.
Scorching heat washed over Joseph, charring his clothes black. A fatal sense of crisis enveloped him, causing his pupils to tremble violently.
Joseph instinctively wanted to use the Rokushiki technique Tekkai to withstand the blow, but the frantic warnings from his Observation Haki forced him to abandon the thought.
"Kami-e!"
With no time to dodge, Joseph's body sensed the change in airflow and folded unnaturally like a piece of paper. At the last possible second, the spear grazed past his throat.
Pssshhh... The intense heat instantly ignited his upper clothing and seared his throat. The sharp pain made Joseph grit his teeth and narrow his eyes. He quickly tore off his burning clothes and tossed aside the heavily deformed mask that was now obstructing his vision.
"Shigan..." He coated his finger in Armament Haki and thrust it toward the golden-haired boy.
Louis tilted his head slightly, allowing the attack—which, reinforced with Haki, was countless times more powerful than a bullet—to pierce the air between his strands of hair.
His special Observation Haki extended, enveloping the CP0 agent's body and making his opponent completely transparent in his eyes. The twitching of muscles, the flow of blood, the subtle shifts in the skeleton—this series of changes allowed Louis to know the CP0 agent's every move, making it easy to predict his next action. In another story, such an ability might be called the Transparent World.
Under the blanket of his Observation Haki, he could even rapidly learn his opponent's abilities just by watching their movements.
For example, like this...
"Sunfire Shot!" Louis vibrated his spear with one arm, once again hanging a blazing sun on its tip before thrusting it out like a bolt of lightning.
FWOOSH—
The miniature sun combined with a shockwave, creating a golden beam that shot forward and enveloped the CP0 agent.
"!!" The CP0 agent's face changed drastically. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, infusing them with Armament Haki.
BOOM—
The sun abruptly detonated. Flames expanded, and the intense heat turned the wall in a radius of dozens of meters red-hot, nearly transforming it into lava.
Louis raised a hand and swiped, sending out a fierce gust of wind that dispersed the smoke and dust rushing toward him. Then, with a beat of his wings, he flew low, skimming the ground as he charged straight into the high-temperature zone.
As he moved, his finely crafted spear scraped against the rock, kicking up brilliant sparks and leaving a smooth, foot-deep gash.
Louis gave the CP0 agent—now covered in severe burns and looking almost like a piece of charcoal—no chance to react. He abruptly swung his spear upward.
Red-hot rock fragments flew up from the ground, scattering like exploding fireworks. Louis's spear traveled from low to high in a graceful arc. After leaving a wound so deep it revealed bone on Joseph's charred body, it sent him flying horizontally through the air.