Chapter 96 Madness

Author: Xiao Yifeng

Translator: PapaSmurf0700

As Ace burst free from the Navy's grasp, the sky above him began to rain fire. Gouts of molten rock crashed into the desert sands, and for a moment, he was just a bewildered kid staring at an impossible sight. Then, it registered. The lava was falling from the exact direction Vivi had pointed them, toward the place she said Luffy would be. A cold dread, quickly replaced by fiery resolve, gripped him.

"Luffy," he breathed, his voice a low growl. "I'm coming."

Miles away, Smoker and Hina, deep in their own hunt for Ace, watched the same alarming spectacle paint the sky red.

Hina's perfectly composed expression shattered. "Hina is shocked! Is that the work of Admiral Akainu?" she wondered aloud. Her patrol had been routine until a sudden directive from Navy HQ ordered her to Alabasta to support Smoker. They'd been told reinforcements were en route. With magma falling from the heavens, it was a logical leap to assume one of the Navy's greatest powers had arrived.

Smoker, however, took a long drag from the cigars clamped in his jaw and shook his head, white smoke billowing around him. "No," he rumbled, his voice thick with certainty. "HQ wouldn't send an Admiral here for this." He wasn't entirely sure, but he trusted his gut. While he hadn't met the reinforcement himself, Tashigi had confirmed their support was a Vice Admiral. Powerful, yes, but not a walking volcano like Akainu.

The situation was spiraling. Smoker ground his teeth. "Hina. We're going to check it out. Now."

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Bai Ye's expression was grim as he faced his crew. "Can you get away?"

Nami, startled by the question's finality, hesitated. "I… I think so."

A faint, sad smile touched Bai Ye's lips. "Good. Then run. Run as fast as you can."

Luffy, ever direct, needed no further explanation. The gravity of the moment was plain to see. "Let's go!" he ordered, his tone deadly serious.

Sanji glanced up at Vice Admiral Tokikake descending from the sky, a knot of dread tightening in his stomach. Zoro's eyes, however, were fixed on Bai Ye, his face hardening. "You're not coming with us," he stated, more an accusation than a question. "You plan to stay here and hold him off."

The words hung in the air. Nami and the others, stunned, all turned to stare at the Priest. They saw it in his eyes—a quiet resignation, the look of a man who had already said his goodbyes.

"Honestly," Bai Ye said with a dry chuckle, "the next part was supposed to be my time to shine." His expression hardened as he slammed his palms together. "Dui Gua – Water Swamp!"

The solid ground beneath the Straw Hats dissolved into a thick, murky swamp. The sudden pull was irresistible, sucking them down into the earth.

As his friends began to sink, Bai Ye met each of their gazes, his smile a heartbreaking farewell. "You have to keep going," he urged them, his voice firm. "All of you, together!"

The dam of composure broke. "BAI YE!" Chopper and Usopp wailed, tears and snot streaming down their faces.

"You idiot!" Nami screamed, her own tears blurring her vision as a flood of memories washed over her. "You think I can just abandon a crewmate and run?!"

"Bai Ye! Let me stay, at least!" Sanji roared, fighting uselessly against the swamp's grip. Zoro remained silent, but his eyes burned with a fierce, unwavering solidarity. "Bai Ye!"

Luffy, his face a mask of anguish, stretched his rubber arm desperately toward his friend, but the suction was too strong. The mire closed over their heads, swallowing them whole, pulling them away to safety and leaving Bai Ye utterly alone.

Watching them disappear, Bai Ye turned to face the chaos of Alabasta. He still held a sliver of hope that he could evade Tokikake and rendezvous with them at sea. The Straw Hats were strong, stronger than he ever remembered them being at this point. "They'll be fine," he whispered to himself. A faint, bitter smile formed on his lips. "But as for my journey… this might just be the end of the line."

Vice Admiral Tokikake landed softly, his gaze locked onto the lone figure. The relaxed air he once had was gone, replaced by a cold, sharp focus. "Priest Bai Ye," he acknowledged, his voice dangerously low. "You are every bit the nuisance the reports claimed."

"As long as I can escape, I will return to my ship," Bai Ye shot back, his stance defiant.

Tokikake almost laughed. "And you think I'll give you that chance?" He moved, his speed a blur, his katana slicing through the air.

Bai Ye dodged, invoking his Golden Light Curse to shield himself, but it wasn't enough. The blade found its mark. A deep, grievous wound opened on his chest, and he collapsed to one knee, blood staining his robes.

Tokikake stood over him, his voice devoid of all emotion. "Once you are eliminated, catching the rest of the Straw Hats will be trivial. Or do you truly believe you can delay me for long?"

With the last of his strength, Bai Ye brought a small, dark object to his lips and crushed it between his teeth. "Not very long," he gasped, a bloody grin spreading across his face. "But long enough."

He raised his head, and the change was instantaneous. The man was gone, replaced by something utterly unhinged. His eyes blazed with a ferocious, wild madness that made even the Vice Admiral take an involuntary step back. "This… this presence…" Tokikake muttered, stunned.

A chilling, spectral voice slithered from Bai Ye's mouth. "I think… I can kill you now."

The pill was a relic of a darker time: a Sixth Grade Blood Demon Pill. The infamous Blood Demon Sect used it as their final, desperate gambit. It was a true devil's bargain. In exchange for godlike power, it exacted a terrible price. When its effects faded, the user's meridians would be annihilated, leaving them a cripple with no more than thirty days to live. It was a wound no doctor, no miracle, could ever heal.

But the power it granted was absolute. It could multiply the user's strength tenfold, a hundredfold, pushing them to monstrous heights without the risk of their body disintegrating from the sheer force. While under its influence, there was no pain, only a state of half-crazed, half-lucid fury where one's combat potential was amplified beyond all reason. The old orthodox sects had one simple rule when facing a Blood Demon Sect member who had taken the pill: run.

A blood-red aura, so dense it looked like liquid, erupted from Bai Ye's body, staining the very air crimson. He was no longer a man; he was a desperate, terrifying force of nature willing to burn his own soul for one last fight.

Still on one knee, Bai Ye threw his head back and unleashed a primal, soul-shattering howl that echoed across the war-torn city. It was the roar of a cornered animal, of a dying general forging a pact with a demon for one last taste of victory.

He rose to his feet, seemingly weightless, an ethereal figure of pure power. His eyes were closed, his Daoist robe hanging in tatters from his frame, revealing a chest forged by brutal training. His long hair, freed from its bonds, whipped around him in an unseen wind.

Bai Ye could feel it—a raging, infinite power roaring through his veins, pushing his mind to the very brink of insanity. A wild, delirious laugh tore from his throat. "Hahahaha!" For a fleeting moment, a trace of regret flickered in the madness, but it was instantly consumed by the inferno. This was it. His final, glorious stand.

In their intense focus, neither the transformed Priest nor the wary Vice Admiral noticed a strange movement in the rubble nearby. A single, disembodied arm sprouted from the ground, its hand clamping firmly onto the wall of a ruined house.