svetikya 52: No one was talking on the dock.
52: No one was talking on the dock.
The roar of Basil the Bonebreaker, the overlord of Gaya Island, echoed over the dock, and then... dissipated.
The entire dock was deathly silent.
No one answered the overlord's question.
Whether it was the residents behind him or the pirates in the front row holding weapons, everyone just watched him quietly.
Their eyes held a complex mix of emotions: pity, fear, relief, but mostly a detached indifference.
Basil's palms were slightly sweaty as he gripped the knife.
The eerie silence made it hard for him to breathe.
Are all these guys mute?!
Or perhaps... they were all terrified by the guy who took over his territory?
Just as he was trying to make sense of this suffocating atmosphere—
A sharp whooshing sound came from behind!
It was the sound of a blade tearing through the air! The target was aimed straight at his back!
Basil was able to reign supreme in this pirate-infested sea, which means he certainly had some skills.
His fighting instincts made him react almost the instant the sound rang out!
He suddenly turned to the side, and the cold blade grazed his ribs, cutting a gash in his captain's uniform.
"court death!"
Basil roared and, as he turned to the side, swung his knife in a backhand strike!
This ruthless and cunning strike embodies his years of combat experience.
"Pfft!"
The warm, rusty liquid splashed all over Basil's face.
He could even feel the tooth-grinding sensation of the blade cleaving through bone.
Basil's face contorted with smug satisfaction and a mocking taunt about to spill out, but then his expression froze the moment he saw who the attacker was.
The one he struck, spitting blood, was not the enemy he expected, but... his first mate!
That person who had been with him for almost ten years, who had handled countless dirty jobs for him, was his most trusted right-hand man!
Basil's mind went blank as he stared in disbelief at the scene before him.
What chilled him to the bone even more was the first mate's reaction; despite suffering such a fatal wound, the man showed not a trace of pain on his face.
Those eyes that Basil thought he knew well were devoid of any light, only a blank, lifeless void, like a living corpse whose soul had been ripped out.
The first mate stood there stiffly, letting the blood flow, his gaze fixed on Basil without any focus.
Basil turned to look at his crew, who had just been robbing merchant ships and drinking and boasting with him. Now, they all seemed possessed, silently jumping off the ship one after another and surrounding their captain.
The expressions on the faces of all the crew members were exactly the same as those of the dead first mate—
Their eyes were vacant and their expressions were blank, like...like a group of puppets being manipulated by an invisible hand!
"What the hell is wrong with you guys?! Say something!"
Basil's voice trembled with a hint of panic that he himself was unaware of.
What the hell is going on?! Are they all possessed?!
Still no answer.
Only the sudden, reckless attack launched by the Bone-Smashing Pirates!
The helmsman, personally trained by Basil, swung the heavy anchor chain and smashed it down on his head!
The gunners he had personally recruited had already raised their muskets and aimed them at his chest!
And the lookout who had followed him for many years actually tried to stab him in the waist with a poisoned dagger!
There were no shouts, no roars, only a silent and frenzied attack!
It was as if Basil was their mortal enemy, and they had to use every means possible, even if it meant mutual destruction, to tear him apart!
"Damn it! Are you all insane?! It's me! It's your captain!"
Basil parried and dodged while roaring furiously. He cut down another crew member who charged at him, the crew member dying with that blank expression.
Two fists can't fight four hands, let alone when facing a group of "puppets" who have lost their sense of fear and pain and only know how to kill.
Basil's scimitar slit open the throat of one crewman, while another's dagger plunged into his thigh.
He smashed one crewman's skull, and another crewman's axe struck his shoulder blade!
Blood, the crew's blood, his own blood, mingled together, quickly staining his entire body red and soaking the wooden planks of the dock.
"You forced me to this! You forced me to this!!!"
The excruciating pain and overwhelming fear drove Basil to madness, and he roared:
"Die, all of you! Anaconda's Nest!"
He suddenly squatted down and slammed his hands hard on the wooden planks of the dock.
The next moment, countless thick vines with sharp wooden spikes surged out of his body!
These vines have an unnatural dark brown color and smell of decaying plants. They twist, pierce, and entwine haphazardly!
"Puff puff puff puff—"
The sound of vines piercing flesh was continuous.
The crew members of the Bone Crusher Pirates who were besieging Basil were all torn apart, pierced, and shredded by his indiscriminate Logia-type Devil Fruit abilities!
The sounds of flesh tearing and bones shattering became the only melody on this dock at this moment.
Basil did not attack the onlookers; he wasn't tired of living and didn't want to die.
The vines raged for nearly an hour before slowly coming to a stop.
When the last vine lay limp on the ground like a dead snake, part of the dock centered around Basil had been transformed into a bloody slaughterhouse.
All the crew members of the Bone-Smashing Pirates were scattered on the ground in various twisted and broken positions; not a single corpse was intact.
The pungent, nauseating stench of blood enveloped the entire dock.
Basil knelt on both knees, leaned back, and gasped for breath.
His body was covered in wounds, and blood was flowing down from the wounds all over his body as if it were free. He had become a blood-soaked man.
Basil had only eaten the Devil Fruit a few months ago, and the fighting and using his powers had already exhausted a lot of his physical strength. The mental shock of personally slaughtering all his subordinates had left his eyes unfocused.
He lost completely; he hadn't even met the bastard who did the dirty work.
"The Bone-Smashing Pirates' treasure isn't just what's on the ship... We... we can talk..."
Basil looked up at the residents of Mogu Town and the pirate crew members who had been standing silently around the dock the whole time.
but.
The crowd remained silent, standing there quietly, watching him, watching the mess and bloodshed on the ground.
No one cheered, no one screamed in terror, and no one even whispered to each other.
Only countless eyes watched him coldly and silently, as if scrutinizing a... pitiful clown whose end was near.
The atmosphere was so eerie it sent chills down your spine.
Basil opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found that he didn't even have the strength to utter a single syllable.
The icy chill was more piercing than all the wounds on his body combined, rushing up his spine to the top of his head.
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.
Gaya Island Aerial View 2 (present-day):