Chapter 444: Shackles Broken, Fury Ignited

Sakazuki didn’t bother heading to the royal palace. With Observation Haki, he could tell there was no real resistance left in the entire kingdom.

This task was more than enough for his subordinates to handle.

Instead, he followed the trail of his Observation Haki to a prison that had just been liberated.

The cellblock was built right into the kingdom’s outer wall and held tens of thousands of prisoners.

With a population of just over 1.2 million, more than 50,000 people being locked up was nothing short of pathological.

“Commander, sir!” A Revolutionary Army soldier preparing to enter the cell snapped to attention on seeing Sakazuki, instantly saluting the man draped in a black and red cloak.

Most of these soldiers served under the kingdom’s oppressive king, losing children or even being enslaved themselves under the rule of the World Government.

Without the Revolutionary Army’s intervention, they probably wouldn’t have survived—who knows where their bones would have ended up?

That’s why each and every one of them felt immense gratitude toward Sakazuki. After all, most soldiers serving under him had been personally saved by the man.

“At ease, soldier.”

Sakazuki, towering at over three meters, strode right past the soldier and into the cellblock.

Inside, it was dark and damp. At first, the cells held some fierce-faced, dangerous-looking types. But as he passed dozens of cells, they became filled with children and women.

Some cells even crowded more than twenty kids together, or housed a dozen beautiful young girls.

“Bang!”

“Damn the World Government!”

Sakazuki slammed his fist hard onto the prison bars, his right hand transforming into magma in a flash. In seconds, the iron melted away.

“Come on, everyone! We’re the Revolutionary Army. We’re here to help you!”

“That’s right! We’re here to save you. You don’t have to worry about being sold off ever again!”

A team of women followed Sakazuki, there to comfort and help the traumatized recover as quickly as possible.

Sakazuki pressed on, repeating his work cell by cell. After opening hundreds of cells, he found someone in the last cell he never expected.

“Fishmen?”

He never imagined he’d find Fishmen on an isolated island outside the New World.

Fishmen were supposed to live in the New World, weren’t they? There was plenty of land there just for them.

“And you are?”

The Fishman at the front seemed to recognize Sakazuki.

He’d never dared dream that someone would come to rescue them, so for a moment, he was a bit lost for words.

“I’m Sakazuki. The Revolutionary Army has liberated this kingdom. Why were you all captured?”

Hearing the name, the leading Fishman finally stepped out from the shadows, a group of Fishmen of all ages trailing behind.

“Lord Sakazuki!”

“My name is Oroki…”

Oroki explained to Sakazuki how they’d ended up captured by people from the West Blue.

Even after four relocations, Fishman Island still had hundreds of thousands of Fishmen left at home—no one wanted to abandon it completely.

While Karl’s Pirate Crew was fighting on distant fronts for over a decade, the World Government secretly sent out capture squads, abducting tens of thousands of Fishmen.

They were transported for gene experiments so the World Government could engineer powerful serums. But research, cloning, and genetic tampering killed thousands.

The rest, deemed useless for research, got tossed aside like garbage and ‘awarded’ off to various allied nations.

“Hmm?” Sakazuki, who had been sitting and listening quietly, suddenly jumped to his feet.

“Is something wrong, sir?”

Seeing Sakazuki’s uneasy expression, Oroki quickly spoke up.

“Oroki, get your people out—now!” Leaving those words behind, Sakazuki strode quickly out of the cell.

Uncertain but seeing Sakazuki’s urgency, everyone rushed to follow. Whatever happened, escape was their first priority.

Sakazuki emerged because he sensed a deep, sinister presence just outside Sophia Kingdom.

As he stepped outside the kingdom’s castle and strode into the open courtyard, he spotted a man in golden armor floating in midair, looking down at him from above.

Onigumo, who was supposed to be inspecting the West Blue, was still days away—if he were closer, Sakazuki wouldn’t have risked moving on Sophia Kingdom first.

He’d avoided Onigumo, but even so, a member of the Holy Knights had come to their doorstep.

“Revolutionary scum! You’re all just rats, crawling through the sewers, hiding every day!”

Whoosh!

A sharp sound split the air as another Holy Knight, also clad in golden armor, landed ahead and right of Sakazuki.

Holy Knights always moved in pairs: two for each of the four seas, two for the Grand Line, all to investigate Revolutionary Army movements in secret. But they hadn’t needed stealth this time—Revolutionaries had come to them, right out in the open.

“If it weren’t for the World Government’s deeds, there wouldn’t be so many tragedies and slaves out on the seas.”

“Any leader who doesn’t belong to the World Government’s fold is nothing but filth.”

Hearing the insult “filth,” Sakazuki’s rage boiled over. “Huff!”

Scalding air shot from the corner of his mouth. “Enough talk—Meteor Volcano!”

Sakazuki’s right arm turned to magma again. Rising into the sky, he unleashed a blazing barrage of molten rock, lighting up the heavens.

Purple flames engulfed the magma, raining down from above, heating the air for hundreds of meters around.

Years of study had let Sakazuki change the magma’s color to violet; at max output, the temperature soared to a staggering 7,000°C.

Even in normal conditions, it reached 5,000°C—a huge leap beyond the base Magma Fruit’s own heat.

“Nani?!”

“Is that really the temperature of the Magma Fruit?!”

The two Holy Knights were horrified. That heat was overwhelming—

But Sakazuki’s Magma Fruit maxed at 1,500°C, didn’t it? How could this attack be so much hotter?

Red warning flashed in their minds; Observation Haki warned them that a brush with that violet magma meant instant incineration.

With lightning reflexes, both twisted free in midair, dodging the deadly rain of magma.

“We’re not done yet—Great Eruption!”

Seizing his chance, Sakazuki sent a blast of vibrant purple fire straight at one of the Holy Knights.

Sensing grave danger, the Holy Knight shot higher into the sky, Armament Haki coating his whole body—magma raining down all the while.

He dodged Sakazuki’s attack, but some falling magma still melted his left hand as he escaped.