Chapter 231

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"Ikkoku Sovereignty!!!" Linlin roared, her voice carrying the weight of her fury as she unleashed a colossal slash towards the ship that dared to obstruct her path. Her eyes blazed with an infernal rage, the red glow reflecting the vengeance that consumed her.

Golden Lion Shiki was wreaking havoc on the island, and despite the chaos, a man who seemed to be from the World Government was managing to contain Shiki's rampage. Linlin had no recollection of such a man, and the events on Fishman Island that Katakuri had once shared illuminated the hidden machinations of the World Government.

She now understood that there were secrets they had carefully guarded—secrets that fueled her resolve to seize control of the world.

But for now, her focus was on getting onto the island where Shiki was and reclaiming her territory from the yellow cat who dared to barge into her territory while she was away. Yet, Admiral Zephyr stood as an immovable barrier in her path, his presence alone was a testament to his formidable power.

"Black Pulsar!!!" Zephyr declared, his voice resonating with unwavering determination. He didn't flinch as Linlin's massive, island-swallowing beam of sword energy hurtled towards him. With a powerful thrust, Zephyr propelled himself forward.

His fists radiated an ominous, dark glow, akin to black diamonds, and the surrounding space seemed to absorb all light, the darkness deepening as his haki exuded a suffocating pressure.

"Boom!" The clash of their attacks was cataclysmic. The deafening explosion echoed across the seas, sending a shockwave so powerful that it sent ripples through the surrounding waters.

Even Big Mom's massive, island-like ship was shoved backward by the sheer force of their confrontation. The pressure from the collision pushed Zephyr back to the island's shore, the recoil a testament to the monumental scale of their battle.

"Mamamama!!!" Linlin's laughter cut through the tumult, brimming with scorn and mockery. "Zephyr, you miserable wretch, do you wish to die so badly? Why are you here? Oh yes, I forgot—you're a marine dog. Did you not once prattle on about being a righteous marine? Look at you now, reduced to a glorified guard dog in a slaughterhouse!" Her voice was laced with venomous amusement, each word designed to undermine Zephyr's composure.

Despite Linlin's taunts, Zephyr remained stoic. Known as the Black Fist, his reputation for power and resilience was well-earned. His ability to match the legendary Garp in terms of raw strength was no idle claim.

Though perhaps not on par with Garp, his might was not to be underestimated. As the forces of their clash reverberated across the battlefield, the very ground trembled, and the air was charged with the intensity of their struggle.

The battlefield roared with the fury of a tempest as Linlin and Zephyr clashed with titanic force. The sky above Sorbet Kingdom darkened, and a storm of elemental fury ensued, reflecting the ferocity of their battle.

Linlin's eyes gleamed with a predatory light as she summoned her strength. "Mama Raid!!!" she bellowed, her voice a thunderclap that split the heavens.

A massive, crescent-shaped slash of energy erupted from her sword, its sheer size and destructive power turning the air into a storm of cutting wind and fiery shards. The blade's edge shimmered with an intense, golden light, slicing through the very fabric of space as it barreled toward Zephyr.

Zephyr, unfazed by the approaching onslaught, narrowed his eyes. With a grunt, he focused his haki into his arms, the dark aura around him coalescing into a dense, protective shield. "Dark Horizon!!!" he roared in return, his fists glowing with a menacing, metal-like sheen. He swung his fists forward, unleashing a powerful wave of dark energy that collided with Linlin's attack.

The explosion was apocalyptic. The force of their clash created a shockwave that rippled across the island, throwing debris and wreckage into the air. The sea surged violently, crashing against the shore in a frenzy as if trying to escape the devastation. The island itself quaked, its ground splitting and trembling under the immense pressure of their confrontation.

Linlin's eyes flared with unrestrained fury as she roared, her homies Zeus and Prometheus igniting with a fierce intensity. "Tartarus Wrath!!!" she cried, summoning a blazing torrent of energy that spiraled around her like a fiery maelstrom.

The lightning inferno shot towards Zephyr, engulfing everything in its path. Linlin's flame attack was a swirling vortex of destructive fire and lightning, a blazing inferno designed to incinerate everything it touched.

Zephyr responded with equal ferocity, his aura darkening as he prepared to counter. He drew upon his haki-based abilities, his body radiating an intense force. "Balck Mamba!!!" he shouted, his voice echoing with the weight of his power.

A palpable wave of energy emanated from him, distorting the very fabric of space around him. The energy he created morphed into a massive black serpent and lunged forward. The energy vacuum it created bent the trajectory of Linlin's firestorm, pulling the searing flames away from him and redirecting them into the sky.

With a swift, almost imperceptible movement, Zephyr closed the distance between them. His fists, now enveloped in a dark aura, lashed out with pinpoint precision. "Dark sphere!!!" he shouted, sending a barrage of black energy spheres created by his rapid barrage of punches toward Linlin. Each sphere exploded on impact, creating blinding bursts of light and darkness that crackled with devastating force.

Linlin dodged and countered with incredible agility. She twirled her sword in a complex pattern, summoning waves of golden energy that cut through the air like a serrated storm. "Heavenly Thunder Flames!!!" she roared, calling forth a massive golden scmitar formed from her flames and lightning. The colossal weapon swung down upon Zephyr with the weight of a mountain, aiming to crush him under its sheer force.

Zephyr gritted his teeth, his haki flaring up in a protective aura. He raised his arms, channeling his armamnet haki to reinforce his defense. As the attack descended, he used his haki to create a counter-force, meeting Linlin's attack head-on. The ground beneath them shattered into fragments, and the shockwave from their clash sent tremors through the island, causing the very earth to crack and split.

The two combatants remained locked in their fierce struggle, neither willing to yield. Linlin's sword glowed with an intense, searing light, and Zephyr's dark aura pulsed with a menacing gravity field. Each attack they launched was met with a counter, each blow absorbed by a defense, and the battle continued in an unyielding display of raw power and skill.

Above them, the sky was a roiling tempest of storm clouds and lightning, and the weather itself seemed to react to their battle. The air crackled with the energy of their attacks, and the island's landscape was scarred by the ferocity of their fight.

In the midst of the chaos, Linlin's eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint. "You think you can stop me, Zephyr? I'll burn this island to the ground if I must, along with all those golden bastards you are so keen to protect!" she roared, her voice filled with unwavering resolve.

Zephyr's response was equally fierce. "I won't let you desecrate this place any further, Linlin. I'll stop you, no matter what it takes!" he declared, his voice a resolute challenge.

Back on the island, the reactions of the Celestial Dragons were mixed. The majority had retreated toward the capital, where their safety would be assured. Despite the pirates' failure to breach the island's defenses, a lingering unease pervaded the air.

The more cautious Celestial Dragons couldn't shake the feeling that this might turn into another God Valley incident. They didn't want to risk a hunt amidst such dangers, so they chose caution over recklessness.

However, not all Celestial Dragons shared this sentiment. Many bold and reckless ones believed that the pirates would soon be chased away and slaughtered. Their confidence bordered on arrogance, and they continued their mad hunt.

Even after five days of relentless slaughter, their bloodlust remained unsated. The more they killed, the more depraved they became, and the ever-changing scoreboard only fueled their frenzy. Each one sought to prove their superiority over their fellow Dragons.

"Ahahaha! Those fools! It's good that most have retreated—more rabbits for me to hunt!" bellowed a young scion of the Ju Peter family, his voice tinged with madness. He beheaded a half-naked woman he had just ravaged, his once-pristine Celestial Dragon attire now stained with blood.

The scion no longer cared about maintaining the immaculate image that the Celestial Dragons were known for. He wanted to cherish this feeling, this primal surge of power. At first, most of the killings were carried out by his subordinates, then he switched to firearms, and later to melee weapons.

As time passed, he began inventing increasingly perverted ways to kill his targets. His mind was consumed with a singular obsession—to rise on the leaderboard. He was thirteenth, but not for long.

"Ding!" The device on his wrist beeped, drawing his attention. His eyes widened in delight as he saw that his position had just shot up to ninth place. His points had soared by ten thousand in an instant.

Giddy with excitement, he rushed back to the headless corpse, tearing away the remaining clothes in a frenzied search for the reason behind his sudden rise. And then he saw it—the mark of an Ultra Rare Rabbit. Each of these kills granted him a staggering ten thousand points.

"Hahahahaha!" He bellowed in mad laughter, his joy uncontained. But as his laughter echoed across the blood-soaked ground, a massive change occurred in the central plaza of Sorbet Kingdom's capital.

On the enormous billboard that had been counting the number of surviving "rabbits," the counter hit a grim milestone. After five days of relentless carnage, half of the "rabbits" had been killed. True to their word, the event organizers were now ready to declare the Unique Rabbit.

The massive signboard flickered, and a new portrait was displayed. Simultaneously, notifications were sent to the wrist devices of all participants. The announcement was met with stunned silence, the hundred thousand points for hunting the Unique Rabbit flashing in bold, ominous letters.

But it wasn't the points that shocked the onlookers—it was the portrait. The image sent a wave of disbelief through the gathered Celestial Dragons. Only a select few, including Agana, the God's Knight, and a handful of others who were privy to the target's identity, remained composed.

The Unique Rabbit was none other than one of their own—a fellow Celestial Dragon, Donquixote Harling.

"Father…" Donquixote Mjosgard whispered, his voice trembling as he stared at the billboard in the central plaza. His mind reeled, unable to comprehend what was happening. This had to be a mistake.

At first, Mjosgard had taken part in the hunt, reveling in the killing. But after the first few murders, the thrill had turned to horror. Unable to stomach the slaughter any longer, he had quietly withdrawn to the central plaza, seeking refuge from the madness.

"No… no, this must be a mistake!" Mjosgard's denial gave way to panic. He rushed toward the event organizers, desperate for answers. But before he could reach them, a group of Cipher Pol agents blocked his path.

"Move, you bastards! I'll have your heads if you stop me!" Mjosgard threatened, his voice filled with a mix of fury and desperation. Yet, despite his threats, the Cipher Pol agents remained steadfast, their expressions cold and unyielding. As Mjosgard's own men prepared to intervene, a chilling voice froze them in their tracks.

It was the current head of the Donquixote family, an imposing figure whose authority was unquestionable. "It's an order from the Elders," the old man intoned, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Harling has tarnished his noble lineage by colluding with outsiders to bring harm to the Celestial Dragons. He is no longer part of the Donquixote family, and all his privileges as a Celestial Dragon have been stripped. Mjosgard, if you value your position, I suggest you keep your mouth shut."

"Why… why… what has my father done to deserve such a fate?" Mjosgard roared, still unable to reconcile with the reality before him. The thought that his father, once a revered Celestial Dragon, was now to be hunted like common prey was unbearable.

The patriarch's gaze hardened as he delivered the damning truth. "You can thank those pirate scum who have become a thorn in our family's side. It seems your father was colluding with Doflamingo, leaking information from within the Holy Land."

"No… no, that's bullshit!" Mjosgard's voice cracked with the weight of his denial. "We both know that's a lie. Yes, my father worried about my cousins, but he would never do something that would harm my position. He's too much of a coward for that!"

The patriarch leaned in close, his voice dropping to a whisper only Mjosgard could hear. "Of course, we know your father had no hand in such treachery. Like you said, he never had the guts for it. But the Elders demanded a scapegoat, and who better to blame than your father? Listen well, Mjosgard—I could have added your name to the list, but I chose to spare you. So, I suggest you understand your position and play your part."

With that, the patriarch walked away, leaving Mjosgard to grapple with the horrifying reality. Around the plaza, other Celestial Dragons began to murmur among themselves, the name Harling already tainted by the patriarch's admission. In their eyes, he was a traitor—no longer one of them.

But deep in Mjosgard's heart, a rage unlike any he had ever known began to fester. He knew the truth—his father was innocent. It was Mjosgard himself who had been the mole, the one secretly aiding Doflamingo and his brother.

The bond they shared was one forged in childhood, an unbreakable connection that even the Holy Land couldn't sever. They had been inseparable, spending their days together, often bossing around Rosinante, who followed them like a loyal duckling. But now, his father was paying the price for his actions.

Mjosgard's fury simmered beneath the surface, a hidden fire that threatened to consume him. He wanted to scream, to confess that it was him, not his father, who deserved to be hunted. But he knew better.

His time for vengeance would come, but for now, he had to find a way to save his father. Yet as he looked at the faces around him, at the cold indifference of the Celestial Dragons, he knew the chances were bleak. And so, Mjosgard's rage remained hidden, a dark secret that would one day burst forth in flames of retribution.

The island's atmosphere had been tense for days, thick with the stench of death and the echoes of distant screams. The Celestial Dragons who remained on the island continued their hunt with a mixture of frenzied excitement and cold detachment.

But now, as the announcement of the Unique Rabbit spread, their reactions varied—each one a reflection of the cruel reality that defined the Celestial Dragons.

One Celestial Dragon, a woman of aristocratic bearing with a permanent sneer etched on her face, stared at the portrait of Donquixote Harling displayed on her wrist device. Her hands trembled, not out of fear, but disbelief.

"This… this can't be right!" she muttered to herself, her voice shaking. "A Celestial Dragon… one of our own? How could he be the target?" She stood there, frozen, her mind grappling with the impossibility of the situation.

The very idea that a fellow noble, someone who had shared their divine bloodline, could be reduced to mere prey was an affront to everything she believed in. Her hunting party noticed her hesitation, and for the first time in days, she felt a pang of something unfamiliar—doubt.

The pride and superiority she had always held as a Celestial Dragon seemed to crack, ever so slightly, under the weight of this revelation. But her disbelief was met with the cold reality that in their world, nothing was sacred—not even their own.

Not far from her, another Celestial Dragon reacted quite differently. This one, a rotund man with a face twisted by years of sadistic pleasure, let out a shrill, gleeful laugh. His eyes sparkled with a manic light as he realized what this meant.

"Oh, this is splendid! A fellow Celestial Dragon, hunted like the rest of those worthless vermin!" he cackled, his laughter echoing through the blood-soaked trees. The thrill of hunting one of his own sent shivers down his spine, a sensation so perverse and exhilarating that it surpassed any pleasure he had derived from the slaughter so far.

"Imagine the prestige, the glory, the honor of being the one to claim Harling's head! A hundred thousand points… and the chance to assert my dominance over all the others!"

His thoughts raced as he imagined the looks of envy and fear on the faces of his peers. To him, the hunt had just reached its pinnacle—a perverted game where the ultimate prize was the death of someone who, until now, had been untouchable.

Meanwhile, another Celestial Dragon stood apart from the others, his gaze cold and calculating. He didn't care about the identity of the Unique Rabbit. To him, Harling was nothing more than a means to an end—a stepping stone toward victory in this grotesque competition.

He glanced at the hundred thousand points flashing on his device, the sheer magnitude of the number igniting a cold fire of ambition within him. "Harling or not, it makes no difference," he murmured, more to himself than to anyone else.

"All that matters is the points. With those points, I can secure my place at the top, above all the others." His voice was devoid of any emotion—no thrill, no disbelief, just a simple, ruthless desire to win.

In his eyes, Harling was already dead, his life nothing more than a currency to be exchanged for status and power. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, his mind already plotting the most efficient route to track down his target. To him, this was not a hunt—it was a transaction.

As the island continued to echo with the sounds of the hunt, the reactions of the Celestial Dragons painted a disturbing picture of their world. Disbelief, thrill, and cold indifference all mingled, revealing the twisted nature of their existence.

To them, the hunt was not just a game; it was a reflection of their innate cruelty, their belief that they stood above all others—even their own. In the end, Harling's life was worth no more than the points it could bring, a grim testament to the hollow, merciless reality of the Celestial Dragons.