Chapter 172

The atmosphere remained deathly still.

No one could answer his question.

"A full three thousand men…"

"In an instant, they all fell."

"What on earth is going on?!"

The remaining survivors spoke up one after another.

Their voices trembled, unable to suppress the thick terror welling up inside.

Watching,

with fallen companions strewn all around them, the greed and desire that had filled their hearts vanished completely without a trace.

Fear!

A thick, suffocating fear surged into their hearts!

"Just a single encounter…"

"Three thousand people wiped out in one go?!"

"This—surely this can't be real?"

"It was only the blink of an eye—so brief a moment—and three thousand people were all instantly killed at once?!"

"It has to be fake, right?!"

"I—I must be losing my mind!"

These survivors began to doubt their very existence on the spot.

Witnessing the devastation left at the scene…

All of this magnified the terror in their hearts beyond measure.

They wouldn't dare imagine it even in their dreams.

One day,

they would witness such a cognition-shattering, terrifying sight!

Over three thousand people…

wiped out in a single encounter by someone!

What kind of concept is that?!

Unthinkable!

Gulp!

They couldn't help but swallow hard, scalps tingling, shivering as they froze stiff on the spot.

·· ·········Seeking flowers··· ····

Before long,

the shivering lot, their legs gone weak, collapsed to the ground on the spot, eyes brimming with terror, faces pale as if they had witnessed something utterly horrifying.

And as a result…

they had lost all their courage.

In common parlance,

they had been scared out of their wits!

"Wh-who can explain this."

"What exactly happened?"

"Why were everyone instantly killed in a flash?"

They asked in trembling voices.

On the other side,

led by the demon-man Oren, three squad captains stood beside him.

At this moment,

after clearly seeing the devastation left at the scene, the smiles on Oren and the others' faces stiffened one by one, and a thick dread, shock, and horror surfaced in their eyes.

"Wh-what on earth is…"

First Squad Captain Homa trembled all over, his hands and feet turning cold.

The scenes before his eyes became the greatest nightmare of his life!

All of this caught him completely off guard.

Before this,

no one could have imagined…

that a full three thousand-plus vicious, atrocious pirates would be wiped out clean in the span of mere breaths!

................. 0

This was truly too cognition-shattering.

"B-boss."

"Did you see that clearly?"

"What on earth is…"

"What kind of power is this?!"

Homa craned his stiff neck, casting a terrified gaze toward the demon-man Oren.

What kind of terrifying power could possibly wipe out over three thousand people in an instant?

Anyway,

He didn't dare imagine it!

The horrifying events unfolding before his eyes had completely exceeded the bounds of his comprehension.

"H-how could this be?!"

"This power…"

"How could it appear in the Grand Line!"

Aolen's eyes went wide with disbelief.

He had recognized it.

He knew just how terrifying this power was!

Precisely because of this,

at this moment, his mood was so shaken and out of sorts.

"Boss, do you know what this power is?"

Gelin and Jia Er Sen pressed him in terror.

"Once…"

"I traveled to the latter half of the Grand Line, to that terrifying sea region known as the New World, and I witnessed this utterly dreadful power!"

"At the time it was only a fleeting glimpse, and I was scared out of my wits on the spot."

"It was precisely that experience that drove me half-mad, fleeing from the New World back to the Grand Line. And I made up my mind that in this lifetime, I would never set foot into the New World again."

"But I never expected…"

"Today, here, I would actually feel this power once more."

At this point, Aolen paused for a moment.

Gulp!

His throat was parched, and he couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Then,

he continued in a voice filled with shock and fear.

"This is a power that only the true monsters of the sea can possess!"

"It is called…"

"the potential of a king, possessed by only one in a million!"

Aolen's gaze was filled with terror as he stared at the group of subordinates lying collapsed ahead.

He opened his mouth and spoke in a trembling voice.

"This power is…"

"the legendary, Conqueror's Haki!"