【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 509 Heart

Lu Qi was awakened by a sudden, sharp, and suffocating pain. What the hell? A voice kept buzzing in his ears. Three unfamiliar auras, one of which emanated a malice that he could hardly ignore. His pale fingers gripped the edge of the bed, and he trembled as he tried to reach for the sword leaning against the wall, but the intense pain of his heart contracting continued to emanate from his chest.

"Your name is Lu Qi, right?"

When the voice reached his ears, the excruciating pain in his chest had subsided, leaving only some lingering phantom pain. Lu Qi took a breath and looked up at the man opposite him, who appeared to be wearing a pair of ram horns, overlapping in his field of vision. "Who are you?"

"My name is Caesar, and I am your master. You will stay here and serve me!"

"So you're the leader here?" Lucci propped himself up on the bed, his head drooping as he leaned against it. His vision was still blurry. He breathed heavily and used his Observation Haki to scan his surroundings. There were three people. The man on his right was the most threatening, while the other two were not.

"That's right, I am the master of this island, and you will become my most prized subordinate, hehehehe!" Caesar laughed triumphantly, his mind uncontrollably starting to fantasize. As long as he could get this 9 million bounty pirate to serve him, it would be easy for him to break free from the Joker's control, and he might even have the hope of bypassing the Joker and making a direct deal with the Four Emperors.

"What if I say no?" Lucci said casually, his vision clearing as he noticed the discomfort in his lungs with each breath.

"Hehehe! This is a notification, not an invitation." Caesar grinned, his size beginning to grow enormous. "I'll show you why I'm your master!!"

“Master?” Lucci repeated, frowning as he looked at Caesar’s evil smile with his purple smoky makeup. His body also grew larger at the same time. He quickly noticed the cloud-like white smoke emanating from the man, guessing that he must be some kind of Logia-type Devil Fruit user.

But more than speculating whether the man was a power user, Lucci was more concerned about what the man was holding in his raised hand. It looked like a heart, a heart that had been cut open. He felt a strange sense of familiarity as he stared at it. This couldn't possibly be his, could it?

"Hehehe! Very good!" Caesar laughed triumphantly, licking his lips expectantly, already fantasizing about the scene of him stepping over the clown to rise to power.

Lucci resisted the urge to tear off the bandages to check his chest. All he needed to do was take care of this guy in an instant, and then there would be chaos, which would create favorable conditions for him to search for information. He just didn't know how far away Luffy and the others were. Thinking of this, Lucci let out a breath. He had to deal with this matter as soon as possible.

The situation changed almost instantly. Luo looked at the man who had just been weak with surprise, but whose aura suddenly became incredibly strong. He suddenly attacked Caesar. Luo didn't even notice when the man had gotten his sword. Moreover, this attack speed should not be something that a patient who had just undergone lung surgery could produce.

Monet, who had been standing next to Caesar, was completely oblivious and just stood there staring blankly at him.

Luo understood that if he didn't intervene, Caesar would be eliminated immediately, but he didn't want Caesar to die, so he made his move. A thin blue membrane instantly enveloped the group, and he successfully swapped Caesar's body with a chair on the other side just as the blade was about to strike.

Caesar narrowly escaped death from the blade, but even so, he was still struck by the sword energy emanating from it. His body flew backward the instant Law switched skills, and Caesar's wide eyes were filled with fear.

Monet was awakened by the loud noise of the wall collapsing. Finally, she came to her senses. In an instant, the room was filled with a blizzard, and Monet's figure instantly grew larger, transforming into a snow fairy with a gaping maw. A snow shield blocked Lucci's next attack, but only for a moment. The next second, the snow shield shattered completely, and Monet opened her sharp mouth to bite at Lucci's head.

Lucci frowned, expressionless, and swung his sword at the snow woman. After a shrill scream, the snow woman's eyes rolled back, and she completely lost consciousness.

Lucci stopped looking at the fallen female harpy and turned to stare intently at the man wearing a white spotted hat. This guy's skills were extraordinary. Before Lucci could think any further, a sudden, excruciating pain struck him, a pain that seemed to pierce even his soul. Lucci trembled and collapsed to the ground, gripping his knife tightly, trying to resist the intense pain caused by the sudden, violent contraction in his chest. "Ugh..."

"Do you understand now? You'd better not resist, hehehehe!" Caesar stood up from the ruins with a twisted expression. The fear of death he had just felt from that attack was still vivid in his mind, but now...

Seeing Lucci's face contorted in pain as he clenched his heart, Caesar smugly smiled. So what if this pirate was strong? His life was now in his own hands. He had no reason to be afraid of him. So he chose to continue his recruitment plan. "How about that? You feel it now. If you don't want to feel this pain again, then obediently work for me."

"What did you do to me?" Lucci gasped for breath, glaring at Caesar, who stood smugly in front of him.

"Hehehe! Look at this, this is your heart, what a perfect gift." Caesar held up the heart he was gently squeezing, turning to look at it with a smug look on his face. "Just by squeezing it gently like this, you'll feel this interesting pain. How about it, want to try something even more painful?"

“Hmm… Now that we know the reason, things are easier.” Lucci gasped for breath, enduring the pain in his chest, his gaze fixed on the figure that slowly emerged behind Caesar. Then, he suddenly swung his knife at the man beside him who had been holding the knife. He remembered his identity: Trafalgar Law.

Luo hadn't expected Lucci to suddenly turn his hostility towards him. He had been standing by doing nothing, and he was internally complaining, but his hands were quick as he swung his sword to block Lucci's attack.

Luo gritted his teeth and kept retreating, barely managing to block the blades attacking him. The dense and rapid slashes gave him no chance to counterattack, and how could the force be so strong?

He never expected that this guy would still have such strength despite being injured and having a restricted heart. If this guy were in his prime, he might not have been able to withstand such a rapid attack. But even now, he couldn't find a chance to counterattack until the guy's attack suddenly trembled violently, which instantly gave him an opening.