One Piece: Max-Level Observation Haki from the Start

Chapter 210: They Want Revenge

Contrary to the natives' expectations, nothing happened after the terrifying psychic wave passed.

The demons of legend—the ones said to blot out the sky when the wave came—never appeared.

The tribes, who had survived generation after generation only by offering blood and lives to repel those demons, found themselves unharmed this time. Not a single casualty.

The women and children left behind emerged hesitantly from their hiding places. They gathered on high ground in their settlements, gazing toward the mountain that had always filled them with dread. They whispered to each other, but none could find an answer.

Surely it couldn't be… that the two great rival tribes had finally set aside their hatred to strike together at that mountain, the nest of endless demons?

Beneath Roya's feet, the warriors—whose bodies had nearly been crushed beneath the suffocating psychic pressure—now rebounded with explosive fighting spirit.

Better to die in battle than to be slaughtered like cattle. Better to fall in glory than waste away in fear!

This was the true spirit of a tribal warrior.

The two chieftains locked eyes, then looked again at Roya, who hovered calmly above.

Though sworn enemies, none knew each other better than they did. And both saw in the other's gaze the same burning defiance—the fury to fight for their people's survival.

The god's soldiers had already entered the demon nest, already enraged the Demon Lord, already triggered the dreaded wave ahead of its time.

Then what remained for them, the strongest warriors of their tribes, was not to kneel and pray—but to rise and fight!

To fight for the survival of their clans. To prove themselves before the god and earn his favor.

Most of all—to take revenge.

Revenge for their ancestors who had perished in the demons' jaws.

Roya felt the shift in their emotions. From Nuwa's shared insights, he also knew the hideous truth: these "demons" were in fact the corpses of their very ancestors, twisted into weapons.

If the natives learned that the enemies they longed to slay were none other than their forebears, what would they think?

Whoever had wrought such tragedy upon this world deserved nothing less than annihilation.

Roya released a faint thread of spirit-sense, weaving it into the warriors' consciousness, soothing their erupting battlelust.

For though their fighting prowess was formidable, they had almost no protection—little more than strips of beast hide bound around their throats and chests.

Such armor could never withstand the claws and fangs of the blood-drinking monsters.

To send them into the wreckage now would be no different than sending them to their deaths.

Besides—with Whitebeard's team and Nuwa's squad inside, there was no need for further aid. Not yet—not before the Demon Lord fully awoke.

The warriors slowly grew still, no longer clamoring for battle. Instead, they bent lower in reverent prostration before Roya.

They understood. This was the god's mercy.

Their steady stream of faith poured into him, and Roya resolved to act—he would strike directly into the Warp, against the Demon Lord's spirit-form.

As his understanding of the Warp deepened, Roya recognized his unique advantage over other psionic overlords like the Seventh King his spirit-sense could enter the Warp at will, from anywhere.

Though his spirit-projection could not yet roam freely through that realm, he could use his body as a bridge—linking his consciousness to his physical form, then piercing into the Warp at its corresponding point.

In this way, he could effectively maneuver his projection as though it were free-roaming.

Which meant that right now, Roya could launch a direct assault on the Demon Lord's spirit projection. He could gauge its strength, press the attack, or disengage at will. The initiative was his.

His spirit-sense stirred. He drew upon refined Warp energy within his projection, channeled it through his body as conduit, then thrust it back into the immaterium, hurling it straight toward the Demon Lord's projection.

Through his mind's eye, it appeared as a lightning spear—gilded gold, coils of thunder writhing along its shaft—piercing forth with unstoppable momentum, aimed at the very core of the abomination.

At the same time, he wove threads of spirit into a protective cage around the weaker nearby projections, shielding them from the coming clash.

His killing intent ignited the Demon Lord's response.

A brutal psychic wave erupted from its projection, crashing outward indiscriminately, sweeping over the weak spirit-forms nearby.

Roya knew at once what it meant—the creature sought to churn those fragile projections into a Warp storm, erecting a wall of chaos between them to stall his assault.

Self-serving cruelty. To the Demon Lord, the lives of lesser spirits meant nothing.

Roya snorted coldly.

"So that's all you can do?"

His lattice of spirit-threads absorbed the wave, unraveling its energy into nothing.

In the same instant, the lightning spear struck home.

White and gold serpents of thunder burst forth inside the Demon Lord's projection, detonating across its black-and-red form in a storm of radiant explosions.

In the material world, a roar thundered from the wrecked ship, so vast it shook the entire mountain of metal. Stones and debris rained down in avalanches.

The tribal warriors stared in shock. They did not know what the god had done—but they could feel the Demon Lord's pain.

The being that had always brought them terror and slaughter was howling under the blows of the god's servant.

What did this mean?

It meant the god above was the Demon Lord's bane—their savior.

The warriors pressed their foreheads to the ground in worship. Even the women and children in the settlements realized now: the Demon Lord was in peril.

The mountain of fear looming over them was beginning to crumble.

Inside the wreck, Whitebeard drove Murakumogiri into the wall to steady himself as the world quaked.

Kaido barked in astonishment:

"What has Lord Roya done? It feels like that big bastard below is about to lose its mind!"

Whitebeard answered grimly:

"Lose its mind? No—it won't get the chance. If I'm not mistaken, Lord Roya has found a way to strike directly at targets within the Warp. Against such power, beings who lack this ability are nothing but motionless targets—helpless before him."

Kaido gaped.

"Old man… has your understanding of the Warp already reached such a height?"

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