99 Arrival of the Heavenly Demon

Whilst Stussy and Hallorian fought with the empowered assassin, the other marines who had previously been suppressed by the sound of Benjiro's music charged at the handsome musician with the intent to kill.

Benjiro who had his head down facing the zither in his lap suddenly spoke for the first time since he started playing.

"The man who brought me into this world wants to kill me, the organisation that raised me wants to kill me.

All alone in this world I stand. If the heavens want my life then come. I play this piece as a tribute to my current circumstance. I call it "Last Stand"!"

As he said that the music changed once again. The tranquil music faded into the background and taking its place was the sound of an overbearing and aggressive melody. Each note contained Benjiro's pain and loneliness, but more than that it contained his pride.

As the music changed, the Marines who had charged at Benjiro were forced to slow their pace right down as they felt as if their souls were being forcefully split in 2. Hallorian and Stussy also felt suppressed under the sound of the music but as they were far more powerful than the others they were able to ignore it to some degree.

When Hallorian who was keeping an eye on the battle between Benjiro and his subordinates saw that his own men were on the verge of giving up he frowned and shouted.

"Don't stop! If you don't kill him the music won't stop, and it'll be all of you who lose your lives."

The Marines knew the words of their commander were right and forced themselves to continue despite the soul wrenching agony they were feeling.

As time went on, the power of the music increased and at this point, only the stronger ones were able to barely continue, but the weaker ones were forced to the ground in pain. One man even started bleeding from all orifices.

The marines weren't the only ones affected by the music. As the power of the music increased, so too did the power being channelled into the assassin. The previous stalemate between her and the married couple was broken. The couple was now on the backfoot and showed signs of being suppressed.

Watching the battle whilst hidden, Ori felt as if he was watching a lone general fighting a war against an army numbering in the thousands. Despite his injuries and fatigue, the general's back was still straight, and his head held high with his pride preventing him from falling.

Even though the music wasn't targeted at him Ori still felt his blood boiling in excitement.

Stussy who was fighting alongside Hallorian was frowning more and more as her fight with the assassin went on. Suddenly she looked at Benjiro seeming to figure something out.

"You ate the inspiration fruit!

And here I thought you loved me and told me everything. But to think you not only kept the fact that you were a Master Musician from me, but also that you ate a devil fruit.

With your strength finishing in the top 20 of the of the Marine's Genius Camp would've been easy, even with out your devil fruit, so why did you hold back all those years? If you hadn't you could've gone on to be one of the marine's rising stars and even made your father proud."

Benjiro didn't reply, he didn't even look up at her, he just carried on playing as if everything happening around him had nothing to do with him.

Stussy didn't get angry at him for ignoring her, she just smiled indifferently. She turned to Hallorian and said.

"Don't fight back, just dodge her attacks. Benjiro won't be able to carry on playing forever, as soon as he runs out of energy and his music stops, her strength will return to normal and we won't be able to suppressed anymore. At that time dealing with them both will be easy!"

Hallorian nodded and the couple changed from actively clashing with the assassin to hit and run tactics.

Seeing the change of approach, Benjiro knew that if things carried on as they are he'd eventually lose this one. He suddenly intensified his playing and the suppression increased on the marines as did the strength of the assassin.

3 more of the marines surrounding Benjiro dropped dead to the sound of Benjiro's music, leaving only 7 alive attempting to resist the affect of his music and kill him. The man closest was now only a couple of meters away, one more step and he'd be in striking range.

Despite being blind, Benjiro could feel the mans presence stood almost right on top of him. He faced the sky and smiled helplessly.

[Is this how things end for me?

Haha if only things were different… Maybe I could've sailed with Ori and the others becoming a Heavenly Demon Pirate!]

The marine who had just reached attacking range raised the saber in his hand and mercilessly chopped downwards about to take Benjiro's head.

The assassin who was pretty much playing a game of whack-a-mole with Stussy and Hallorian went pale as she saw the marine about to take the head of Benjiro.

"NOOO!"

Even though she desperately wanted to save him, she was too far away to do anything.

Just when all hope seemed lost and the saber was mere millimetres from taking his head, it stopped.

Hallorian who almost jumped for joy at the thought of Benjiro's head rolling glared at his subordinate who seemed to have stopped of his own accord at the very last second.

"What the fuck are you playing at?! Hurry up and kill him!"

The marine who held the saber to Benjiro's neck was the one in the most shock.

"I… I can't move!"

No matter how hard he moved he couldn't move his body in the slightest. Just as Hallorian was about to ask what he meant by not being able to move he saw someone walking towards them from the sky.

When he saw who it was, his eyes widened in shock!

"You… Your… The Heavenly Demon!"

That's right, the one walking towards them was Orion. The reason the marine couldn't move was that Ori had compressed the air so much that it was almost as if space itself had frozen around him.

He had removed the illusion disguising him and was walking towards them using the air as a platform.

He paid no attention to the looks on the faces of Hallorian or the others. His full attention was on the now blinded Benjiro.

Benjiro heard the words of Hallorian but couldn't bring himself to believe it until he released his observation haki and felt the familiar aura of Ori slowly descending towards him.

"Ori? You're here?!"

Ori smiled brightly as he replied.

"Do you really think I could just let the Musician of the Heavenly Demon Pirates go and get himself killed?!"