Chapter 112

The lab's sterile air crackled with the acrid tang of overheated machinery as Dr. Lysandra stormed through the doorway, her indigo coat billowing like a battle standard. Proto-Mono cartwheeled in behind her, cackling as her holographic arm morphed into a sparking chainsaw. "New friends! Glitchy likes stabby lady!" 

Lysandra froze mid-stride, her mismatched eyes widening as they locked onto Marya. The clipboard in her gloved hand clattered to the floor. "Gods," she breathed, the word barely audible over the lab's shuddering vents. "It's like… she's staring back at me." 

Marya tilted her head, Eternal Eclipse's hilt cool under her fingers. "Who?" 

"Don't." Lysandra's voice sharpened, though her gaze flickered to Mihawk. "And you. Still playing the silent sentinel? Too late, Hawkeyes. As always." 

Mihawk's hand retreated casually from Yoru's pommel. "You've aged poorly, alchemist." 

"And you've perfected irrelevance." Lysandra kicked a stray SAD vial aside, its mercury contents hissing as they ate through the floor. Proto-Mono lunged for it, but Lysandra snagged her collar. "Focus, you radioactive gremlin." 

Marya's eyes narrowed. "Old friend of yours, Father?" 

"No," Mihawk and Lysandra snapped in unison. 

A smirk ghosted Marya's lips. "Enemies, then." 

Lysandra barked a laugh, brittle and raw. "Worse. Colleagues." She strode to the cryo-chamber, slamming a palm against Imu-β's glass. The embryo's gold-veined eye twitched. "Your mother thought the stars held Tartarus' coordinates. The Vanguard slit her throat for it. But this—" she jabbed at the creature, "—is their contingency. Clone a Titan-Sea King, leash the Current… control the gate." 

Mihawk's gaze flicked to the Haki-suppressing bullets glittering in a nearby case. "And you helped them." 

"I survived," Lysandra hissed. "Unlike Elisabeta, who charged into the dark with a child in her arms." Her voice fractured, just for a heartbeat. "She begged me to erase her research. To protect you." 

Marya's Void veins writhed beneath her sleeves, the curse's whisper seething. Lies. She envies. She fears. "Yet here we are," Marya said coolly, "standing on her ashes." 

Proto-Mono giggled, her form glitching into a pixelated parrot. "Ashes! Ashes! We all fall—" 

Lysandra silenced her with a maliciously powerful glare. "You're walking her path, girl. Right into the jaws of death." 

A tremor shook the lab. Alarms blared as the Titan-Sea King's roar echoed through the vents, closer now. Mihawk stepped toward the exit. "We're done here." 

"Are you?" Lysandra's smile was a scalpel's edge. She tossed Marya a vial of shimmering black liquid—Titan-Sea King blood, thick with ancient energy. "Take it. A parting gift from your mother's colleague. Let's see whose shadow swallows you first." 

As Mihawk ushered Marya out, Lysandra's laughter chased them, sharp and hollow. Proto-Mono blew a glitter-infused raspberry, her form dissolving into static. 

In the hall, Marya pocketed the vial, the Void's hunger curling around her thoughts. Soon, it purred. 

Mihawk glanced at her sword, its cursed edge devouring the light. "That blade…" 

"A tool," Marya repeated, her voice steady, her veins burning. 

Above them, the stars watched—silent, waiting, aligned

The fluorescent glare of the Marine Facility's halls gave way to the sickly green glow of mercury vapor lamps as Marya, Mihawk, and Jelly emerged onto Naylamp's Plaza. The circular courtyard was a collision of eras—its cracked mosaic of the tribal deity's face, inlaid with moonstones, overshadowed by World Government scaffolding and crates of seastone munitions. The air reeked of brine and gunpowder, the plaza's ancient stones trembling underfoot as the Titan-Sea King's roars resonated through the island's core. 

Marya knelt at the mosaic's edge, her gloves slick with mercury from the nearby river. The moonstones embedded in Naylamp's eyes glimmered faintly, their light choked by centuries of grime. "This was in mother's notebook," she thumbed through the pages, finding the sketch. "The ritual requires alignment," she muttered, unstopping a vial of Titan-Sea King blood. "Naylamp's Tears… and my…." 

Mihawk stood at her flank, Yoru unsheathed and humming. "You trust these ghosts to guide you?" 

"I trust the stars," she said, pricking her palm with the Kogatana's tip. Black blood welled, swirling with the vial's contents into the mercury pool at the mosaic's center. The liquid ignited, casting prismatic shadows as the moonstones flared to life. Above them, the fractured ceiling revealed a sliver of night sky—constellations shifting, aligning. 

Jelly quivered, his bioluminescence dimming as the Void's presence thickened. "Scary sky-glows…" 

"Stay close," Mihawk ordered, though his gaze lingered on Marya's blade. Its obsidian edge drank the ritual's light, the crimson runes pulsing like a predator's heartbeat. 

The plaza's double doors exploded inward. 

"Encore! Encore!" sang Mirror Marcellus, his polished silver coat reflecting the chaos as he waltzed through the debris. At his side, Guillotine Gereon dragged a massive axe, its blade serrated with seastone teeth. "Oh, look," Marcellus crooned, adjusting his monocle. "A has-been warlord and a toddler playing scholar. Adorable." 

Gereon spat, Haki-suppressing bullets rattling in his bandolier. "The girl dies first. Boss's orders." 

Marya didn't glance up, her finger tracing star-charted glyphs materializing in the mercury. "Distract them," she said, cool as the emptiness between stars. 

Mihawk's smirk was a blade unsheathed. "Gladly." 

Yoru clashed with Gereon's axe in a shower of sparks, the impact cracking the plaza's tiles. Marcellus flicked his wrist, summoning a mirror-like shield that splintered Mihawk's follow-up strike into a dozen lethal fragments. One grazed Marya's cheek, drawing a thin line of black-tinged blood. 

"Oopsie!" Marcellus giggled, his reflection fracturing into a hall of mocking duplicates. "Watch the art, darling!" 

Marya wiped her cheek, unfazed. The blood sizzled where it struck the mosaic, etching new glyphs into the ancient stone. Above, the constellations moved—Naylamp's serpentine form twisting into a coordinate grid that burned itself into her mind. Stygian Abyss. Tartarus' maw. 

Gereon lunged at her, axe raised. "Enough scribbling!" 

Jelly surged, his form expanding into a gelatinous wall. The axe lodged deep, Haki-nullifying rounds dissolving in his quivering mass. "No hurt stabby friend!" 

Marya's voice cut through the din, cold and precise. "Gate's key is the bearer. Stars align, chains break." The mercury pool erupted, a geyser of liquid light solidifying into a holographic star map. Tartarus' coordinates glowed like a fresh wound in the cosmos. 

Mihawk pivoted, bisecting three of Marcellus' mirrors with a single slash. "Marya. Now." 

She stood, Eclipse raised. The Void's laughter vibrated in her bones, but her hand didn't tremble. The mosaic exploded in a pillar of light, searing the coordinates into the sky. Somewhere in the depths, the Titan-Sea King answered with a roar that shook the Red Line itself. 

Marcellus' monocle cracked. "Well. That's… suboptimal." 

Gereon yanked his axe free from Jelly, snarling. "You think a map saves you?!" 

Marya met his glare, her eyes reflecting the dying stars. "No," she said, Eclipse's edge humming. "But this will." 

The air in Naylamp's Plaza crackled with the acrid stench of seastone and mercury, the fractured mosaic underfoot glowing like a captive galaxy. Marya's boots skidded across pooling blood—blackened and sizzling where her cursed veins had dripped—as Guillotine Gereon's axe carved a molten trench into the stone where she'd stood moments before. 

"Run out of scribbles, girl?" Gereon snarled, his bandolier of Haki-suppressing bullets clinking as he lunged. His axe gleamed with venomous intent, its serrated edge hungry for bone. 

Marya pivoted, Eternal Eclipse meeting the axe in a shower of sparks. The blade's crimson runes flared, drinking the residual Haki from the clash. "You talk too much," she said flatly, her voice cutting through the din of collapsing masonry. Behind her, the star map's coordinates pulsed above the mosaic, searing Tartarus' location into the night sky. 

Across the plaza, Mihawk moved like a shadow given teeth. Mirror Marcellus' duplicates swarmed him, their polished silver coats reflecting Yoru's slashes into a kaleidoscope of lethal light. 

"Tsk, tsk, Hawkeyes!" Marcellus sang, his monocle glinting as he danced between shards of his own shattered mirrors. "You used to be art! Now you're just… derivative." 

Mihawk's reply was a crescent slash that cleaved three mirrors—and the wall behind them—in half. "And you've always been a cheap parlor trick." 

Jelly, meanwhile, had inflated into a gelatinous dome over the star map's nexus, his bioluminescent body absorbing seastone rounds meant for Marya. "Bouncy!" he squealed, ricocheting a bullet into a Vanguard grunt's kneecap. "No pew-pew at stabby friend!" 

Marya ducked under Gereon's backswing, her gloved hand smearing black blood across the mosaic's central moonstone. The ground shuddered as the Titan-Sea King's roar echoed through the plaza, its metallic scales grinding against the island's foundations. Above, the constellations shifted—Naylamp's serpentine form constricting around the Stygian Abyss' coordinates. 

"Focus!" Gereon barked at Marcellus, sweat glistening on his scarred brow. "The map's almost—" 

Marya's boot hooked his ankle, her Mist-Mist form dissolving just as his axe shattered the ground. She rematerialized behind him, Eclipse's edge kissing his throat. "You're a distraction," she said, cold as the space between stars. "Nothing more." 

A mirror shard whistled toward her temple. She leaned back, letting it graze her cheek—another scar to match her mother's—as Mihawk's blade intercepted Marcellus' lunge. 

"Darling, you're ruining the composition!" Marcellus whined, his coat now tattered, monocle cracked. 

Mihawk's golden eyes narrowed. "Compose this." 

Yoru's downward strike split the plaza floor, the shockwave hurling Marcellus into a scaffold tower. Crates of seastone munitions rained down, detonating in geysers of corrosive mercury. 

Marya seized the moment. She pressed her palm to the mosaic, her blood mingling with Naylamp's Tears. The moonstones blazed, the star map solidifying into a hologram of the Stygian Abyss—a swirling maw in the ocean's heart, its depths alive with primordial shadows. 

"Don't you dare !" Gereon roared, hurling his axe. 

Jelly surged, his form stretching into a gelatinous net. The axe lodged deep, its seastone teeth dissolving in his acidic core. "Owie!" he wailed, deflating to a puddle. 

The coordinates locked. Marya's Void veins burned with the map's imprint. Tartarus. The gate. The end. 

Mihawk gripped her shoulder, his touch brief but grounding. "Move." 

She nodded, mist already coiling around her legs. "Jelly. Now." 

The fishman hybrid burbled, reforming into a glowing arrow. "Shiny exit!" 

As they fled, Marcellus' laughter chased them, unhinged and glittering with rage. "This isn't over, darlings! The Gorosei aren't going to let go!" 

Marya didn't glance back. Her mother's journal weighed heavy in her coat, its pages whispering of Elisabeta's final moments—of a choice between legacy and annihilation. 

Mihawk's blade cleaved the plaza's outer wall, moonlight spilling through the rupture. Behind them, the Titan-Sea King's gargantuan shadow blotted the stars, its metallic scales scraping the island's spine as it surged toward open sea. 

"The gate stirs," Marya murmured, more to the Void in her veins than to Mihawk. 

He eyed Eclipse's cursed edge, now throbbing in time with the distant Current's song. "That blade is more than a tool." 

"Everything's a tool," she said, stepping into the salt-kissed wind. "Even gods."

As they vanished into the mist-laden dark, the plaza collapsed, Naylamp's shattered eyes weeping mercury into the sea. Somewhere in the Abyss, the Void laughed—and the world held its breath.

The metallic roar of the Tidebound Guardians shook the air, their gargantuan forms breaching the obsidian waves like living warships. Moonlight glinted off their Star-Metal scales, each plate etched with World Government serial numbers that glowed faintly—Property of Project Leviathan. Jelly quivered atop the submarine's hatch, his bioluminescence flickering as he morphed into a panicked lighthouse. "Metal puppy-dogs! BIG ones!" 

Marya's mist coiled around the sub, thick and corrosive, swallowing the vessel whole. "We need to submerge," she ordered, her voice steady even as a Guardian's tail slammed into the water beside them, drenching the deck in briny spray. 

Mihawk stood at the prow, Yoru's edge humming. "They're faster than they look." 

"Everything's fast when you're prey," she replied, her Void veins pulsing beneath her sleeves. The cursed blade at her back throbbed in time with the sea kings' screeches, its hunger mirroring the Void's whisper: Let me feast. 

A Guardian lunged, its maw bristling with seastone-tipped teeth. Mihawk moved—a single, fluid slash that cleaved the beast's jaw in two. Black ichor rained down, sizzling where it struck the mist. "Annoyances," he muttered, though his grip tightened on Yoru.

The vessel rocked violently in the wake of the Titan-Sea King leaping from the depths, its maw clamping down on a Guardian. The creature writhes and struggles to free itself, becoming limp as the Titan-Sea King disappears to the watery depths with its prey upon which to feast.

Marya's hands blurred, weaving denser fog as the sub's engines whined to life. "Sealing the vents." 

"Bloop!" Jelly oozed into the engine ducts, his gelatinous form plugging leaks as another Guardian's tail grazed the hull. 

The Void's laughter slithered into her mind, oily and amused. "Run, little eclipse. But you'll circle back to me. The stars decree it." 

She ignored it, focusing on the holographic star map flickering in the sub's cockpit. The Dark Constellations swirled above Karathys—serpentine patterns visible only through the lens of Naylamp's Tears. Joy Boy's constellations. His promised return. 

Mihawk glanced at the coordinates, his reflection warped in the cracked glass. "You're charting a course to Tartarus." 

"To answers," she corrected, dodging the implicit question. 

A tremor rocked the sub as a Guardian's claw punctured the mist barrier, Star-Metal talons screeching against the hull. Mihawk leapt, Yoru carving a crescent of dark Haki that severed the claw at the joint. The dismembered limb sank, its scales dissolving into mercury mid-fall. 

"Incoming!" Jelly shrieked, his body ballooning to cushion a collision as another Guardian rammed them. The sub listed violently, throwing Marya against the control panel. Her cursed blade clattered to the floor, its runes flaring hungrily. 

Mihawk hauled her upright, his gaze lingering on the sword. "That thing's more liability than tool." 

She snatched it up, cold defiance in her eyes. "Not now, Father!" 

The Void crooned, "He fears what he doesn't understand. Smart man." 

The sub plunged into deeper waters, the Guardians' roars fading to distant thunder. Marya's mist thinned, revealing the abyssal dark below—and the shimmering outline of the Stygian Abyss, its currents swirling like liquid night. 

"Coordinates locked," she said, her voice betraying nothing, even as the Void's presence swelled in her chest. 

Mihawk sheathed Yoru, his tone deceptively casual. "You realize Tartarus will devour you first." 

"Devour us," she corrected, meeting his gaze. "Unless you're planning to swim back." 

A rare smirk tugged at his lips. "Not…. Today." 

As the sub vanished, the Void's whisper trailed them—a serpent's promise: 

"You'll bring me home, Bearer. And I'll make you glow." 

Above, the Dark Constellations pulsed, their light swallowed by the dawn.