Chapter 288: The Battle for God Valley’s Fate

The clash on the main battlefield quickly tipped in one direction. It was always a one-sided fight from the start.

With clear intel, who would ever pair themselves against someone completely out of their league?

Borsalino wrapped things up first as usual, and plenty of squads owed their victory to Captain Borsalino’s timely help.

The tide turned fast, the battle’s outcome shifting before their very eyes.

Members of the World Government were either caught or killed, and the thunder of combat across the island faded to a whisper.

With the fight ended, everyone on the field broke into a run, all heading for the lab.

For them, every showdown at admiral level is a chance to learn by watching the best.

None of them ever doubted they could reach that level. Not for a second.

They all saw themselves as true prodigies—sooner or later, they’d get to stand among the admirals.

Studying these battles in advance would only pay off when their own time came.

Back on the main field—

Ledfield was putting on quite the show for Karl.

He wanted Karl to know that Ledfield’s fame wasn’t for nothing. Karl wasn’t the only one growing stronger; he’d been putting in the work too.

“Finger Gun!”

“Six Powers Ultimate Technique: Royal Spear!”

Selma certainly lived up to being CP0’s top commander—he handled political maneuvers and combat with equal finesse.

He’d mastered Six Powers so well that he’d even developed his own techniques tailor-made for himself.

In a short span, he went toe-to-toe with Ledfield in fierce close-range combat.

But that was as far as he could go.

Seeing two Holy Knights get beaten or routed in moments had already shaken him deeply.

Even now, the only thing keeping him standing was sheer grit and biting down on his last hope.

He pinned his hopes on Colin, who’d made it into the lab. He knew about Colin’s Devil Fruit power after all.

The moment Colin saw Vegapunk, he could snatch him away. That fruit didn’t even need to touch a person to teleport them—a wide-area spatial transfer for kidnapping.

Once Vegapunk was taken from the lab, their outside lookouts would instantly confirm mission success. That was all they needed.

And that would keep Selma alive, too.

What he didn’t know, though, was that Colin had already been captured by Halil.

Forget taking Vegapunk—anyone who set foot on the island was in hot water now.

Clang!

“Still daydreaming while fighting me? Seems I haven’t pushed you hard enough yet.”

“Time for you to see what I’m really made of.”

In a flash, Ledfield’s rapier glowed with a menacing blood-red light. The moment that light appeared, Selma panicked.

A sharp, rusty stench burst from the blade and turned his stomach, making him want to retch on the spot.

Selma’s voice cracked as he yelled, “How many people have you killed for that sword to smell like this?”

“You’re a devil—a true monster.”

This thick bloody aura wasn’t from killing hundreds, even thousands. At bare minimum, it was in the tens of thousands.

And there was something sinister about the sword itself. It’d soaked up all that blood and death—for what? Why collect it?

He ran intelligence. There shouldn’t be any massacre on the sea he didn’t know about.

Could it be—

Was this blood scent coming just from that rapier?

If that sword had been around long enough…it was possible.

“I lost count—but I’d say most of them were Navy men.”

“But right now, you can barely protect yourself. You’re not even thinking about running. Still got the nerve to question my sword?”

“Blood Slash!”

A flash of crimson flickered in his eyes as intense Conqueror’s Haki poured into the blade.

A blood-red crescent wave burst from the sword, slashing toward Selma with crushing force.

The deadly arc carried an eerie wail, and before it even got close, Selma saw countless vengeful spirits lunging at him—a nightmarish army of the dead.

The sheer weight and hatred behind it made Selma go pale. “Navy? No way. That’s impossible.”

“When did the Navy ever take that many losses?”

As he racked his brain for every Navy tragedy, his pupils shrank. “Wait—is it God…”

In that brief moment of shock, the bloody blade wave was already on him.

No time to think—he launched into Moonwalk and shot up into the air. Seeing the attack fly straight past him, he finally exhaled in relief.

Except, before he could catch his breath, the wave swept right beneath his feet.

It didn’t hit him directly, but in an instant, his mind was flooded with the screams of those restless souls.

His head pulsed with agony—he felt drunk, unable even to hold his Moonwalk. He plummeted to the ground, consciousness swallowed by darkness.

“Where…am I?”

“Is anybody there?”

Alone in the dark, he shouted, and suddenly a glimmer of light broke out ahead.

In a blink, scorching white light washed over his entire consciousness.

He found himself standing in a strange battlefield, the very sky tinged red, surrounded by people in Navy uniforms.

“It shouldn’t have ended like this for me.”

“We died because the World Government gave the order to destroy God Valley!”

“Give us our lives back!”

“Why did we have to die for nothing while you got to enjoy peace and quiet!”

“Come on down! It’s your turn to suffer with us.”

Countless Navy souls in tattered uniforms swarmed him—some bleeding from every pore, some missing limbs—all of them horrible to behold.

He never even saw when a pack of these broken spirits started gnawing at his flesh.

Where their teeth tore into him, chunks of his body broke away and dissolved into sparks of light.

“Aaaagh!”

The pain shot straight through his skull, snapping him back to awareness.

It gnawed at his bones, relentless as a parasite. He’d never felt agony like this.

Even the torments he’d suffered during the World Government’s agent trials were nothing compared to this.

“No—this is my soul!”

As expected of CP0’s top brass—he instantly realized this was a spiritual attack.

A moment ago, he’d been facing Ledfield. In a blink, he’d appeared in this nightmare world.

He noticed that where his flesh was bitten away, there was no blood—new skin simply grew back.

Smart as ever, he realized now wasn’t the time to just give up.

He shoved aside the nearest Navy ghosts, fury flaring. “You’ve died once already! Can’t you just rest in peace?”

“Scum like you should stay dead!”

He reached out and tore the soul that had bitten him clean in half.

When it broke apart, it faded into tiny motes of light and vanished.

Seeing his attack actually worked, he broke into wild, savage laughter.

“If you still can’t rest in death, then I’ll kill you over and over again!”

Selma turned even more vicious, thrashing at every ghost in sight.

Spirits fell left and right, torn apart by his fury.

But to Ledfield outside, all he saw was Selma flailing wildly at thin air.

It left Karl, who was watching, a little more than confused.