One Piece: The Archangel's Guide

Chapter 316: Conqueror's Haki

In the center of the town, black magic circles appeared beneath the giants, swallowing them as dark flames licked at their bodies. Terrified screams echoed, causing Imu, hovering in the sky, to frown.

"How unsightly."

"The Elbaf giants truly are the most suitable weapons." Imu, wings spread, looked down with cold, crimson-ringed eyes at the giants being twisted and "flipped" below.

The Black Transmutation Domination was a gift.

By forging a [Demon Contract] with the true King of the World, the recipient would be granted a wicked power, gaining an immortal body and extraordinary strength in exchange for a portion of their lifespan.

They would become a demon.

In Imu's eyes, this was a god granting a lowly species the opportunity to serve. They should be honored to fight for their god, not resisting and screaming.

Imu's gaze shifted to the distant battlefield, where the army of giants was forming a familiar battle line.

"An unexpected surprise..." Imu calculated the remaining time in this vessel. The demon wings beat, carrying the body toward the battle.

But in the next second, an astonishing change occurred.

A hurricane of Conqueror's Haki, laced with black-red lightning, tore across the battlefield and slammed into Imu, sending the clone of Junko reeling.

Imu looked up, blood pouring from the clone's eyes, nose, and mouth, its body spasming.

"That... dead remnant's... Haki?!"

A hellish whisper echoed in the sky.

Under the continuous, overwhelming assault of the Haki, the blood-red color in Imu's eyes faded, reverting to the clone's blank, lifeless stare. Imu's will, along with the projected Devil Fruit power, was instantly suppressed and violently expelled from the body.

It had happened too fast. Before Imu could react, the power was gone. Only a final, fading wisp of consciousness remained.

"LOUIS!!"

As Imu's consciousness faded, it forced the clone's blurring eyes to look down. The sight made its face twist in rage.

The magic circles that had been consuming the giants were dissolving under the Haki blast.

"You dare... take Mu's... slaves—"

Before the thought could finish, the vessel died, and Imu's will was forced out.

In the next second, the vast town was dead silent, save for the gasping of the giants who had survived, collapsing in the streets.

"..."

On the distant battlefield, the giants all turned, staring in disbelief at Gerd.

"What was that Haki?!"

"It tore the sky apart!"

"And... how are we still standing?!"

Their faces were a mask of shock.

Dorry and Brogy were the first to recover.

"Was that... Louis's Haki?"

"He's... that strong?!"

"Did something happen in the town? I sensed another ominous Haki... but it's gone now."

Gerd, facing their questions, just stared silently at the rip in the sky. She had been just as terrified as they were when the feather exploded.

In the crater, Fujitora wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. So this... is the Haki of the World's Strongest Man?

He looked past the giant army, toward the town. What was that presence that was just purged? And what happened to the civilians? He was beginning to suspect the true, dark purpose of his mission. He sighed, his heart heavy, and gripped his sword, feeling lost.

At that moment, on the surrounding warships, a new order came down.

"The Five Elders command: Annihilate them!"

The cannons roared to life, but this time, the barrage wasn't to herd them. It was aimed directly at the battlefield and the town.

"They're firing again!" the giants roared.

Fujitora looked up at the rain of iron, his blank eyes somehow seeming even more hollow. He sighed.

In the Flower Room, Imu's will returned. Its face was black with rage. Its entire being thrummed with a terrifying, uncontrolled aura. The flowers in the room instantly withered, turning black and crumbling to dust.

The room, once a paradise, was now a dead husk.

Imu stood in the center, face hidden in shadow, only its trembling, blood-red eyes visible.

"Louis..." a hellish whisper echoed.

West Blue. The Giant Kingdom.

The once-lush kingdom was a scorched battlefield. Craters and the bodies of fallen giants littered the landscape.

But every living being, human and giant, was staring at the sky in mute terror. A wound had been torn in the fabric of the world, a massive, canyon-like rift in the clouds.

"Conqueror's Haki?!"

On the battlefield, the Sandwyrm (Ju Peter), coiled like a serpent, was sweating. "Lord Imu... was forced to retreat... by that monster's Haki?"

"WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING?!"

A roar. A black, Haki-coated battle-axe sliced through the air, severing the Sandwyrm's head.

Hajrudin, in his dragon-man form, strode forward and stomped, his armed foot crushing the giant head. The impact shattered the ground for hundreds of meters.

Black flames erupted from the neck-stump as the head began to regenerate. The Sandwyrm lunged, its fanged maw clamping down on Hajrudin's entire upper body. Black-red Haki coated its teeth as they bit deep into the pink scales, drawing blood.

"Harald's son?" the Sandwyrm's voice sneered. "I never thought you would become Elbaf's new king. We underestimated you."

"Your Majesty!!" the Elbaf giants roared, rushing to help.

Hajrudin, his fangs clenched in agony, roared. His arms, buried inside the Sandwyrm's gullet, bulged with power.

"SQUELCH!"

With a sickening, wet tear, he ripped the Sandwyrm's body in two from the inside out.

"!!" The Sandwyrm's eyes widened in shock as blood fountained from its severed halves.

Hajrudin stood, bathed in blood, holding the two writhing pieces of the monster. The sight of this raw, overwhelming power sent a jolt through the Elbaf giants.

"He... he tore the giant worm apart with his bare hands!!"

"OOOOHHH!"

In that moment, any lingering doubt about their new king's "impure" blood vanished, replaced by a wave of fanatical adoration.

Hajrudin threw the body parts aside and hefted his axe, watching as the Sandwyrm's black flames flared, rapidly reassembling the creature.

"All of you, fall back! Deal with the other enemies! This one is hard to kill. My fight isn't over."

The giants, seeing the monster regenerating, wisely obeyed.

The fully-restored Sandwyrm rose, now in its hybrid form—a giant-sized humanoid torso on a massive worm's body, wreathed in the black smoke of an Awakened Zoan.

"Elbaf was so close to joining the World Government, so close to serving us," Ju Peter said, his voice now calm and beatific.

The giants froze. "What... what did you say?!"

Ju Peter ignored them, his gaze fixed on Hajrudin. "But your father ruined it. He dared to eliminate the giants' military strength. Did he really think the World Government was inviting him to join out of... kindness? As punishment, we gave him a 'stronger' power. A power that would twist him, make him kill his own subjects."

The giants were horrified. "Lord Harald..."

"I heard," Ju Peter's voice turned to a cold sneer, "he was killed by his own son. How pathetic. A 'wise king' slaughters his people, only to be killed by his infamous, scumbag son!"

"HAVE YOU SAID ENOUGH?" Hajrudin, his eyes blazing, roared. He wiped the blood from his face and charged. "If you're done talking, then crawl back to Mary Geoise!"

"Still fighting?" Ju Peter said, almost pityingly. "It seems you still don't understand. Without Conqueror's Haki, you cannot harm us. Do you have the ambition of a true king? Do you have the ancient giant blood of Harald? You show no sign of it. You are so far beneath Harald and Loki. This is the new king of Elbaf? How the giants have fallen."

Ju Peter knew the truth. It wasn't just having Haki. It was having enough of it, and knowing how to use it.

Hajrudin roared, his own vast Haki exploding outward. His dragon eyes locked onto Ju Peter. He breathed a torrent of fire, coating his giant axe in both flames and his own Haki.

He leaped, his muscles tensing, and swung the axe, which was now crackling with black-red lightning.

As his shadow fell over Ju Peter, his voice, now an indisputable fact, boomed across the battlefield.

"You are facing the 2nd Division Commander of the Archangel Pirates!"

"The eldest son of King Harald of Elbaf!"

Ju Peter's eyes widened. "That's impossible—"

"AND THE KING OF ALL GIANTS!"

With a final roar, the flaming, Haki-wreathed axe descended, ready to split the mountains.

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