The world fell silent.
When Renzo spoke the final word, it was as if some invisible force reached out and erased the entire sound of reality.
The crackle of flames, the crash of the distant waves, even the groans of the injured and the faint beat of their hearts…
All of it was suppressed into near-nothingness.
Burgess' massive body froze where he stood, like a sculpture trapped in ten-thousand-year ice.
In his bloodshot eyes, reflected clearly, was Renzo's face, impossibly young, yet colder than anything human.
Fear, like a venomous vine, crawled up his spine, wrapped around his heart and throat, and choked out even the smallest sound.
"Bug…?"
The word echoed in his mind.
But no anger rose, only endless trembling.
Because he had finally recognized the man standing before him.
He didn't need the signature gray-striped Admiral's coat.
Just the aura, a terror capable of freezing the world itself, and those indifferent, eyes were more than enough.
"H-Haiiroyo…"
Burgess squeezed out the codename through clenched teeth, his voice as dry and rough as sandpaper.
To ninety-nine percent of the world, that name meant and harmless.
But to those who had stood on the battlefield of Marineford and personally witnessed the most horrifying moment of the War…
That name meant one thing:
God.
A taboo.
An ultimate terror that must never be provoked.
"Burgess! What are you dawdling for?!"
A cold, cruel female voice rang out from afar.
Moments later, several figures appeared at the far end of the port.
Leading them was the "Crescent Moon Hunter" Catarina Devon; beside her stood the silent sniper "The Supersonic" Van Augur with his massive rifle; and towering behind them was the brutish "Corrupt King" Avalo Pizarro.
They had come to retrieve Burgess and confirm whether the cleansing of this country was finished.
"Hm? Why did you stop?"
Devon licked her lips, scanning the scene.
When she saw Burgess frozen in place and the unfamiliar figure before him, a flicker of confusion crossed her eyes.
Van Augur was even sharper.
He felt it immediately, the strange, suffocating stillness in the air.
He raised his rifle and peered through the scope at the gray-clad figure who had his back turned toward them.
But the next second-
His pupils shrank.
'What kind of back was that?'
Through the scope, he wasn't seeing a human figure…
He was seeing an abyss.
A void that swallowed light, sound, life, even thought itself.
Absolute nothingness.
"Be on g-"
He only managed two words.
Because Renzo slowly turned around.
The moment his face fully entered Devon's, Pizarro's, and Van Augur's view-
Time seemed to rewind.
The ruined Patnia port was gone.
All they saw was the execution platform of Marineford, drenched in blood and fire.
They remembered that afternoon with agonizing clarity.
That man had stood just like this… with the same indifferent gaze… when he looked at their arrogant captain, Marshall D. Teach.
They would never forget what happened next.
When Blackbeard attacked, laughing wildly, wielding both the Darkness and Quake fruits simultaneously, they witnessed something that shattered their understanding of the world.
No earth-shaking explosion.
No sky-rending clash.
Renzo simply… raised his hand.
And in the next heartbeat, their mighty captain, the man with the two most vicious Devil Fruits, screamed with a sound no human throat should produce, as he watched his own arms, from the fingertips upward, slowly… become too "lazy" to continue existing.
They didn't break.
They didn't get severed.
They were erased.
Conceptually erased, overwritten by a higher dimension of "laziness."
That horror, that helplessness as the rules themselves denied your existence, had long since become their deepest nightmare, burned into the soul of every Blackbeard pirate.
"I–It's you!"
Catarina Devon's cruel smile shattered, twisting into a mask of terror.
"Haiiroyo… Renzo!!!"
Pizarro stumbled backward repeatedly, nearly falling over as the slabs of flesh on his face twitched in uncontrollable fear.
And finally, they understood.
Why Burgess had been frozen like an idiot.
Why the air here felt like it was pressing down on their lungs.
They had run straight into the one existence on this sea they should NEVER provoke.
Their slaughter of Patnia was meant as revenge against Renzo, a way to humiliate him without confronting him directly.
They couldn't dare step foot in G-5, so they planned instead to destroy a country under his jurisdiction, ruin his reputation, and make him pay.
It was supposed to be perfect.
A silent raid, quick massacre, clean withdrawal.
By the time Renzo learned what happened, they would be halfway across the world.
All he could do was rage at ashes.
A flawless plan.
A perfect revenge.
But…
'Why was he here?'
'Why was he here NOW?'
'WHY WAS HE THIS FAST?!'
'HOWWWW!!!'
Terror devoured every shred of rational thought.
Revenge?
Pride?
Plans?
All of it vanished.
These infamous New World pirates were left with only one instinct, one thought so primal it shook their souls:
RUN.
Get as far away from this monster as possible!
"RETREAT!!"
Van Augur reacted first, abandoning his aim and spinning around to flee at full speed.
Devon and Pizarro snapped out of their panic and scrambled after him.
Even Burgess, who had been pinned down by Renzo's killing intent, somehow forced his body to move and lumbered away in blind terror, in the opposite direction from the others.
Their speed surpassed anything they had ever achieved.
Pure survival instinct drove them beyond their limits.
But the moment their feet touched the ground-
The man who had stood motionless the entire time… finally made his second move.
Renzo's eyelids lowered halfway.
And in a voice soft as a dream, yet heard clearly in the soul of every living thing present,
he whispered:
"…Did I say… you could move?"
And in that instant-
Van Augur, Devon, Pizarro, Burgess, along with the dust they kicked up, the pebbles beneath their feet, even the drifting ash in the air.
All of it, every last mote, stopped.
Frozen, in perfect, impossible stillness.
Not a single law of physics applied anymore.
The world simply obeyed him.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu