Mouad_ML

Five years before Monkey D. Luffy sets sail to become the King of the Pirates, another name stirs the seas with fear and ambition.

Born on the brutal Noctis Island, Raizen D. Crow witnessed firsthand the cruelty of a lawless world. While others dreamed of freedom, Raizen dreamed of domination. Armed with the forbidden Kuro Kuro no Mi — granting him the power to control living darkness — he vowed to unite the seas under a single iron rule.

Gathering a fleet of the most dangerous outcasts, assassins, and fallen marines, Raizen wages a silent war against the corrupt forces of the world. His mission is clear: seize the ancient weapons, crush the chaotic pirate era, and forge an empire where peace is enforced by absolute power.

As he clashes with rising heroes, secret government agents, and even future legends like a young Crocodile, Raizen’s ambition casts a long shadow across the seas — one that even the World Government cannot ignore.

But far away, a boy with a straw hat is preparing to set sail… and the age of dreams is about to challenge the age of control.

Before the dawn of a new era... there was a storm.

One Piece: Shadows Before Dawn

A king's power is not in what he commands — but in what he refuses to become.

The sky had turned black — not with night, but with the breath of the Endbringer, whose shadow now stretched across oceans and continents. Cities burned in silence. Mountains trembled. Time faltered.

Raizen stood atop the fractured remains of the Hollow Throne, the Crown of Shadows in his hands. It pulsed — alive, ancient, divine. With it, he could stop the Endbringer.

The gods — broken and defeated — knelt before him.

"Finish what we could not," they pleaded."Claim the Crown. Shape the world. Save it."

But the words echoed too much like Drax's… and Myra's… and every voice that had ever tried to shape Raizen into something less than free.

The crew arrived, battered and bloodied, standing behind him like ghosts of loyalty. One stepped forward — Elya, the once-betrayer — her voice shaking.

"If you do this… if you take the Crown's full power… we lose you.""But if you don't… we lose everything else."

Raizen's silence lasted a lifetime.

He reached into the Crown — not to wear it, but to feel it.

Entire futures sculpted by his will.

Peace — total, permanent — enforced by absolute dominion.

He could end hunger, silence war, kill gods.

He could become everything the world had ever feared.

And plunge the world into chaos — to let mortals forge their own path, no matter the pain, no matter the loss.

As the Endbringer's roar broke the heavens, Raizen made his choice.

He turned to his crew — friends, enemies, all — and smiled with sorrow in his eyes.

"A king who rules all… is no king at all."

And with a scream that shattered reality, he crushed the Crown of Shadows.

The explosion of light was blinding.The Endbringer wailed — not in rage, but in fear.

For the first time in eternity, the chain had been broken.

And as the Crown crumbled into dust, Raizen collapsed to his knees — mortal again, free again — as the world began to fall apart… so that it might begin again.

But the reckoning was not yet over.

Chapter 12: The Choice of Kings