A New Path - Chapter 220

The slaughter continued. The army of Gotei quickly made their way through the nobles and their guards like butter through a knife. They were highly efficient, scary efficient and brutal as every person was a kill without mercy. If some noble was left alive but badly hurt, they didn’t finish their job, they just let them bleed out on the ground and die in a pool of their own blood.

As this all happened, Bradley stood outside Kong’s door. He knocked three times with great force. His knocking put three dents into the door that was supposed to be made out of incredibly hard steel.

“Come on in!” Kong’s voice came from inside. His eyes met Kong’s who sat behind his desk with his arms crossed on the table. He was watching Bradley walk up until he stood in front of the desk.

“Never did I believe I would have to do this with you. This just shows how soft I’ve become by sitting up here on this mountain.” Kong said.

“If it’s any consolation to you. Sengoku and Garp had no idea either.”

“It’s not! Let us begin before I become too weak to continue.” Kong delivered a quick kick to his desk. The desk was sliced in two before it reached Bradley.

“Quick as always,” Kong glanced at the sword sitting comfortably in Bradley’s sheath.

“Would you have expected anything else?”

“Not really,” Kong and Bradley moved against each other and their initial clash brought down the walls around them. A storm was brough about by their fight and everyone around the Holy land felt the ground shaking.

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Amell and Shanks stood in front of a pair of gigantic white doors. Amell placed a hand on Shanks’s shoulder, “Are you ready, boy?”

“Yes, I am, master!”

“Then let’s not delay any longer.” Amell drew a breath and blew on the doors and they flew off their hinges with great force, almost like dynamite had exploded. The two of them walked inside the most important room in this castle.

“Portgas D Amell! What is the meaning of this?” At the bottom of the long winding staircase leading up to a throne stood the five elders. Before the throne, stood an incredibly tall individual that was staring down at the uninvited guests.

“Answer us, Amell! Unlike the boy, you have no right to step in this place!” Another elder said angerly. They stood ready to fight, but Amell spared them not a single glance.

“Oh, the world has had enough of you, won’t you die already.” With a wave of his hand, the five elders fell down on the floor, dead, with broken necks. “Good riddance.” He said and lowered his hand. He looked at the person standing before the throne and their eyes met.

“I saw this day come!” A pure, almost angelic feminine voice escaped the person. Shanks narrowed his eyes and Amell chuckled lightly.

“I am the inevitable, Im! You invited me to play in your game, and look where it got you.” The pressure coming off of Im’s stare would make Admirals go mad. But, here stood Amell and Shanks unafraid by that very gaze.

“I saw you standing here in this spot before your empire arrived. That’s why I never bothered playing. I knew my death was inevitable.” She looked at Amell. “But, what I didn’t expect was that it would happen by your hands.” She switched targets and looked at Shanks. “How far you have fallen.” Her pressure increased and a chill spread through the air.

The atmosphere around Shanks was heavy. His usual calm smile was strained, but still, he looked her in the eyes and bowed slightly. “This has been a long time coming, Mother!” His aura reached out to clash with hers and they created sparks in space itself.

Im’s long red hair swayed back and forth in the storm cooked up by their aura’s clash. “You lost that privilege the moment you abandoned this place. You were born as my child, but you are NO son of mine.” Her voice caused half the staircase to break apart. Her power from her aura alone was equal to five or six Admirals. It kept increasing but Shanks stood strong.

“You have a point there. I would never call myself the son of a woman who would have the world enslaved for her own amusement!” Shanks shot back words of equal pressure and the throne room started to break apart.

“Your tyranny ends today, Mother! And, even if I don’t want to admit it. I am your son, and it is and has always been my duty to kill you. To save this world from you!” Shanks drew his sword and with it came the entire eruption of his power. For the first time he released everything he had and the entire castle started to break apart. The mountain itself started to shake and once Im also released her full aura, it started breaking apart.

“Shanks remember, you can’t keep this up for long,” Amell said to Shanks before he disappeared from the throne room. And so, the fight began.

Im and Shanks began their clash. Just how people would describe Whitebeard and Shanks as titans, rulers of the New World. This fight was truly the clash of titans. Im carried a sword at all times, and it was similar to Shanks. These two swords weren’t of relative importance unless they were in the hands of this mother and son duo.

“Shanks you know what my duty is! WHY CAN’T YOU SEE I AM NEEDED!” Im and Shanks were two lightning strikes as they appeared and disappeared within the room. The roof had gotten destroyed and the entire castle was close to falling apart. Shanks slid across the ground after blocking another strike. “I know your duty! Remember, I am your son! I strive to protect the same thing you are. But, that does not give us the right to do anything we want!” Shanks sent back another sword slash. Im dodged it, but it cleaved the entire castle in two.

“WHY NOT?! I HAVE BEEN QUEEN OVER THIS WORLD FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!” Im started to grow in size. She started at two meters, and now she had grown to three. “You can’t win against me! You are a thousand years too early for that!” She simply punched the air and everything in front of her blew apart almost as if a tornado had come through.

“When I left, yes, I was too weak! But, Master Amell found me and he is more powerful than you can imagine. He prepared me for this. I was born to do this, and I will NOT fail!” Their clash started again, but now Shanks stood with his back against the wall. Im’s power had grown and she had become a lot faster than before. Shanks struggled to keep up with his mother in both speed and power. Each clash of their swords shook everything, even the mountain.

Amell currently hovered by the mountain, “Those two will destroy this whole damn mountain soon. Better I do something about it, this damn thing is still needed.” He placed a hand against the mountainside and everything stopped shaking and the red line stopped breaking apart. He was using earth bending to stop the mountain from being destroyed.

The fight between Im and Shanks has escalated rapidly and Shanks had been beating black and blue. He was down on his knees and Im stood above him with her sword in hand. “I should never have birthed you, my greatest failure. But, today I can finally remedy my biggest mistake.” Im raised her hand high. But, before the killing blow could be struck, she also fell down on her knees with a severe cough that sprayed the ground red with blood. “N-Not now! J-Just a little longer!” Im glared at Shanks. She reached for her sword but an invisible string snatched it before she could.

“You want this?” Lubbock stood with a mocking smile as he held the sword between two fingers. Im’s eyes shot open and she flew up, “YOU SCOUNDREL!” She screamed and in the process grew to five meters in height. She appeared before Lubbock quicker than he could comprehend and delivered a punch to his face that knocked out almost all of his teeth and sent him flying thousands of meters away in an instant.

“MOTHER! YOU’RE GOING TO DIE! STOP USING YOUR FRUIT!” Shanks possessed the goodness his mother didn’t. His heart broke now that he saw how far she had fallen. “STOP THIS MADNESS! WE’LL FIX THIS!” Shanks rose slowly to his feet. Im at the same time turned around and he saw how his mother’s face had changed. When they arrived, his mother looked to be twenty. Now, she looked well over a hundred years old.

“YOU! YOU RUINED ME!” Im said slowly. She took one step, her sword in hand, before she fell down on her knees, with her gaze still locked on Shanks. “Y…Y-You ruined e-everything… M-My son…” She fell flat on her face, her face pale and old, and her soul no longer present in the world of the living.

“Mother…” Despite not understanding, he allowed for a single tear to fall down his face. “How could you enable yourself to be turned into this…” His exhausted mind and body took over and he fell down, unconscious.

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End