"Heh heh heh... Hahahahaha... 'Eagle', you're truly the sharpest mind among the Five Guardian Council."
The man known as "Snake" chuckled lowly, then threw his head back in laughter. Once he'd laughed his fill, he asked with curiosity,
"But tell me, what tipped you off? I was careful not to leave a single trace."
With a burst of strength, "Eagle" drove "Snake" back, his cold eyes locked onto the traitor.
"Among the five of us," Eagle began, his voice frosty, "Lion oversees the altar and the townsfolk's welfare. Tiger is the captain of the guard, responsible for defending the village and hunting any wild beasts from the surrounding forests. Wolf trains the warriors, serving as our instructor. The three of them have little to no contact with the outside world. Only you and I share that privilege."
"I handle intelligence. I know I'm clean. You, on the other hand, are tasked with guarding the altar and conducting external inspections. Two years ago, you took a voyage across the sea. A few months later, you returned severely injured. All you said was that you'd been wounded by a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. You gave no details. We assumed your pride had been shattered and didn't press you. Maybe you didn't lie, but you sure as hell didn't tell us the truth either. My guess? That's when you first made contact with them, wasn't it?"
Back then, when "Snake" came home bloodied and broken, Eagle and the others had assumed his silence stemmed from humiliation. None of them suspected anything more.
"The sharpest mind on the island... I give you credit," Snake said, flashing a crooked grin and giving a sarcastic thumbs-up. He hadn't expected Eagle to deduce everything from such scant clues. The man's intellect was terrifying.
"Traitor! Snake, how could you betray us ?!"
Tiger spun around and pointed a furious finger at him. "You're breaking the vow of the bloodline! Do you even understand what that means?!"
Snake turned to face them all, then, without hesitation, he yanked off his crimson serpent mask. What emerged was a face twisted with malicious glee: he looked to be in his thirties, with dark red hair, matching shadow around his eyes, and a sinister aura that clung to him like poison fog.
"Eight hundred years," Snake, no, the man, growled, his voice rising with each word.
"For eight centuries, our clan has been chained to this island. All for some sacred vow to the royal bloodline of the Gamas Kingdom. Eight hundred years! Generation after generation, sacrifice after sacrifice. If we had a debt to repay, don't you think eight centuries is enough?!"
His grip tightened on his mask until his knuckles turned white. By the time he screamed the last sentence, it wasn't just fury, it was grief, betrayal, desperation.
Wolf reached out a hand, trying to say something.
"Enough!" the man barked, slapping the air as if to swat Wolf's words away.
"My name is not 'Snake'. I have a name, Nekk! I am Ansel Nekk!"
Lion turned, his voice rumbling like distant thunder through the subterranean chamber.
"So you've truly chosen betrayal. But if you renounce your defection now, help us kill these invaders, I'll show leniency."
"Spare me the sanctimonious crap, 'Lion'. Don't act like you're the boss just because you're the biggest brute in the room," Nekk sneered. His disdain dripped from every word.
"Another one seduced by the outside world..." Eagle muttered, spinning the golden short spear in his hand. "You're the fourth over the years... but your betrayal caused the most damage." His voice dropped to a whisper-sharp chill.
"No matter. Killing you is enough."
Without warning, Eagle's golden short spear blurred into motion, slicing the air with a series of afterimages as it lunged toward Nekk.
"Tch, then come try!"
With a sadistic grin, Nekk swung his blade forward to meet the attack.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang...!
Sparks erupted in mid-air as deadly steel clashed. The duel between Eagle and Nekk was ferocious, each strike echoing through the chamber like thunderclaps.
Watching them clash, Lion flexed his claw-like nails and bared his fangs.
"Nekk," he growled. "You've cast aside your role as a Guardian. It's better for you to die here."
Then, with a savage roar, he leapt forward, lunging toward Nekk.
Suddenly—wham!—a shadow shot past like a bullet, slamming straight into Lion and knocking him off course.
Lion tumbled sideways but quickly rolled back to his feet, only to find himself facing another figure.
It was Vito. He dusted himself off, cracked a grin, and said with a hint of madness,
"Damn, you've got a tough body, huh? But it's four on four now. You're mine. So, where the hell do you think you're going?"
A slash carved a meter-long gash into the stone wall, forcing Eagle to disengage momentarily. Nekk spun around to call out:
"Watch yourself, he's using a Devil Fruit that's been passed down in his family for generations. Zoan-type, Cat-Cat Fruit: Ancient Model, Cave Lion. It gives insane boosts to his physical strength!"
"An Ancient Zoan?!" Vito's mismatched eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at Lion.
"Damn, that's a rare one..."
But then his expression shifted. His lips curled into a grin, eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Still... even if I've only had my power for a short while, it's rarer than yours. Much rarer."
The instant the words left his mouth, the "Lion," "Tiger," "Eagle," and "Wolf" all froze, eyes widening in shock.
Rarer than an Ancient Zoan? That could only mean... a Logia? Or a Mythical Zoan?
Suddenly, a spark danced through the air.
Then more followed, blue-white arcs of electricity snapping and crackling off Vito's body. The flashes grew brighter, fiercer, coiling around him like living serpents of lightning.
The arcs of electricity sent a jolt through all four of them. Lightning? Could it be... that Devil Fruit? One of the most feared and powerful among all Logia?
Before they could speak, Vito's body surged.
His frame shot upward, taller, bulkier, more monstrous by the second.
Midnight-blue scales began to surface on his face, crawling down his arms, torso, legs, until his entire body was armored in shimmering, obsidian-blue plating.
Three jagged, bone-white spikes jutted out from his back, and the scales near them bore dark blue-black markings like thunderclouds.
His hands and feet expanded, claws sharpening into vicious, predatory talons. Electricity sparked wildly off his form, dancing across the floor.
In just a few heartbeats, a towering beast stood before them, five meters tall, bipedal and brimming with violent energy. Were it not for the six-meter ceiling, he might have torn straight through the roof.
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