69novels Chapter 114 Why Fear
Chapter 114 Why Fear
The cold voice contained no emotion at all, as if it came from the Netherworld, and it actually suppressed the deafening roar that was originally loud enough to resound throughout the entire room, as if the flame of anger was instantly extinguished by an invisible force, without even a trace of residual heat left.
Kaido was startled and looked up subconsciously, only to see a tall figure suddenly appear on a beam that was originally empty, with his hands around his chest, looking down at him with his head held high.
Because the man was facing away from the light, his entire face was almost hidden in the shadow, making it difficult for Kaido to see his actual appearance. However, the powerful aura emanating from him was like that of a demon from hell, causing Kaido to suddenly feel an unprecedented and huge pressure like a tidal wave. His already disordered breathing became even more rapid, and the hand holding the mace began to tremble unconsciously.
——When did this guy appear here? Why didn't I notice him at all?!
——Is he a user of some kind of fruit ability? Or is he just simply incredibly fast?
A series of questions emerged in his mind. Kaido gently licked the sweat that seeped from his forehead and slid to the corners of his mouth. He quickly looked around and found that there was no trace of anyone else except that person. He was slightly relieved, but his inner vigilance and fear did not relax at all, for fear that he would fall into the enemy's trap if he was not careful.
"You seem a little nervous?"
The sound did not come from the beams in the ceiling, but sounded suddenly right next to his ears, as if a pair of invisible hands were stroking the back of his neck, making Kaido feel an extremely cold chill running from his spine straight to the top of his head. His hair stood on end, and his mind had no time to think about other things. He staggered several steps as if by reflex, and suddenly saw that the man was standing five meters away from him, his hands still maintaining the previous posture, without any change.
Like a ghost, it appeared behind him silently.
Under the dim light, the man's figure gradually became blurred, allowing Kaido to barely see his appearance.
Wrapped in a pitch-black armor, he looked like a human-shaped shadow cut out of the darkness. His face was expressionless and lifeless, like dead water, except for his gray-black right eye, which flashed a dark and deep light, causing Kaido to doubt for a moment whether he was a living person.
The curly hair and tough face shape add a bit of irresistible majesty and coldness to his image. The eyepatch on his left eye almost covers half of his cheek. One glance at it will give you the urge to take it off and see what's inside.
"If your intention is to take my life, then use all your strength!"
Kaido tried his best to suppress his fear and held the mace in front of his chest. He stared at the man who had no intention of taking any action. He shouted at the top of his voice as if to build up his courage, "Don't let your carelessness lead to a lot of flaws and then cry in front of me!"
"......cry?"
The one-eyed man who listened to his words patiently raised his hand and rubbed his temple with his index finger as if he didn't understand what he meant. After a few seconds that felt unusually long, his arms fell to his sides like aging machines. A rare smile appeared on his expressionless face, as if mocking the other person's ignorance. "I heard that it is an expression that humans often show when they encounter fear or despair. I have never had the opportunity to experience it. So I allow you to demonstrate it here, so that I can observe what 'crying' is."
The moment the cold, low voice fell, the man's slightly narrowed right eye suddenly glared, and the invisible spirit turned into a black cold wave that swept out, permeating every corner of the room in the blink of an eye, and even the temperature of the air seemed to drop below zero. As the lights continued to shatter, the whole room suddenly fell into a seemingly endless darkness.
Kaido, whose hair was already standing on end, felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He felt as if his soul was wrapped in the freezing cold wind and was about to solidify into an ice block that would never melt.
Bang!
Accompanied by a loud noise as the mace fell from his hand to the ground, Kaido fell to his knees involuntarily with a "thump", gasping for breath, sweat dripping from his forehead like raindrops, and his body shaking violently uncontrollably.
Just by releasing his domineering aura, Kaido fully realized that the opponent's true strength was far beyond his own understanding.
He has been on the sea for many years and has experienced no less than ten thousand battles of all sizes, including many powerful opponents, but no one is like the man in front of him, who brings Kaido a strong sense of oppression that is enough to destroy his own beliefs. The desire to resist in his heart also dissipated like the receding tide.
Unlike Roger and Whitebeard, who had dealt with him before and did things without concealing their personalities, that man was like an unfathomable lake. Beneath the calm surface, there were undercurrents that were imperceptible to the naked eye. Once a ship wanted to sail through it, it would be instantly dragged into the whirlpool of nothingness, with no chance of recovery.
The feeling of being in endless fear and the unknown was like facing that man...
——I can’t possibly defeat him… or I’m not even qualified to fight him…
A thought that Kaido took for granted emerged uncontrollably from his mind. His vision gradually became blurred, and tears welled up in his eye sockets and slid down his cheeks.
This was the first time in Kaido's life that he truly felt fear due to the huge gap in strength, and the first time he shed tears under the double blow of fear and despair.
"Are you afraid? That's right. Fear is not a sin, but a criterion for evaluating the value of one's own existence."
As if inspired, the armored man slowly opened his arms and walked towards Kaido who was frozen in place. His metal boots made a dull sound when they landed on the ground, as if he had composed a symphony of hell for the extremely depressing atmosphere at the moment. "Usually, deep in the hearts of creatures like humans, there is often a mountain that no matter how hard you try to climb, you can't even see the mountainside. Only those who realize this can be said to have truly 'grown up'. However, this is just a small starting point to climb to the top."
As he spoke, he had walked to the body that had almost completely lost its will to fight, stretched out his right hand covered by armor, and announced loudly without any careful consideration: "Come on, come here! You have the potential to be a member of us very well. Violence and destruction are your deepest instincts. Abandon those sinners who have no future, and build an ideal new world with me!"
The man's words seemed to have an irresistible magic that could make anyone follow his steps involuntarily without any doubt about their authenticity. Kaido was like a walking corpse. He slowly and stiffly raised his face filled with fear, staring blankly at the man in front of him for a long time. Finally, as if responding to his words, he stretched out his numb right hand with difficulty and moved towards the other's hand little by little.
His mind was already turbid and swaying, like a piece of driftwood floating on the sea, with no other choice but to continue drifting along with the waves. This feeling of being completely unable to think not only did not make him think of struggling, but instead made him feel warm and indescribably happy, as if he could be freed as long as he did what the other person said.
"Not long ago, your predecessor, Miles Azrael, died in the line of duty. His excessive weakness and arrogance were not enough for him to be qualified for this important position that was far beyond his capabilities, so he unfortunately lost the qualification to enter the new world."
Looking down at the young man who was already a little shaken and no different from a puppet at the mercy of others, the one-eyed man's face was as calm as ever, as if any expected development could not move him in the slightest. He continued in that high-pitched but emotionless voice, "I have already investigated your past in the Woka Kingdom, including the reason why you joined the Rocks Pirates. As a reward for joining the Knights, I will be waiting for your challenge at the summit anytime and anywhere. When you are qualified to fight me to the death, I am sure that others will recognize your value."
These words, which sounded like a spring breeze to others, shocked Kaido's whole body, and his right hand, which was no more than three centimeters away from the opponent, suddenly stopped in mid-air.
——The Summit? The Knights? Could this guy be the leader of the Knights of God?
——Assuming that he is the strongest among the enemies, there is still a possibility, that is...
Thinking of this, Kaido no longer hesitated for a moment, and quickly pressed his outstretched right hand on the man's shoulder. The fear and confusion on his face turned into anger and resentment without any signs, and the sound of gnashing teeth squeezed out from between his teeth: "That day when we were away, you messed up the Beehive Island, severely injured Setsu, and killed Capona and the others, right?"
"Oh? Are you talking about the girl who ate the Mythical Beast Seed Fruit? It turns out she's not dead yet."
Facing Kaido's sudden change of attitude, the one-eyed man raised his eyebrows, a hint of surprise appeared on his face, and even as his shoulders creaked from being pinched, he continued to mutter to himself, "Her ability is indeed very rare. The government spent several large sums of money but failed to obtain the fruit. It's a pity that it fell into the hands of a loser, which is too much of a waste—"
Before he could finish his words, he was hit hard in the abdomen. The pitch-black fist was deeply embedded in his abdomen, and armor fragments mixed with blood splattered everywhere.
"Ugh!"
The one-eyed man spat out a large mouthful of blood with a painful expression on his face. His right eye suddenly bulged out slightly. In his blood-stained vision, he saw the ferocious expression of the young man, who seemed ready to devour anyone. His wide-open eyes were covered with bloodshot, and he roared at him word by word in a threatening tone: "If you keep talking nonsense, I will beat you to pieces!"
"...Hehe, you look like a completely different person compared to that ugly look just now."
Although sweat was pouring down his forehead, the one-eyed man's face, which was distorted by pain, still showed a hint of smile, as if declaring his victory. "It seems that the girl is very important to you, so you can escape the boundary of fear in a brief moment? ...Humans are really a kind of wonderful creatures. The ups and downs of emotions seem to make people forget the huge gap in strength for a while."
He was halfway through his words when he suddenly melted into a pool of sticky black liquid and fell to the ground and disappeared. At the same time, a figure exactly the same as the one-eyed man stood again not far in front of him. His whole body was intact and there was no sign that he had been hit by a heavy punch a few seconds ago.
"Just treat it as some processing of fresh ingredients. I will personally crush this boring and unnecessary emotion so that you will never have even a trace of resistance."
The man with no emotion on his face spoke calmly, invisible waves turned into a spiral that lingered on his right arm and gradually gathered into a gray-black sphere on the palm of his hand. The suffocatingly strong sense of oppression also spread to the entire room, as if the air around him was also trembling slightly, making Kaido dare not relax or be careless. Instinctively, he grabbed the mace on the ground and placed it behind his head. The armament color in his body was transferred to the stick, causing countless tiny purple-black lightning to burst out from its surface, crackling in the dead silent room, as if performing an unpredictable prelude to the death battle that was about to take place.