Chapter 183: The Rise of Zephyr
At this point, Impel Down was completely breached, with no remaining resistance.
In this World, there were very few places that could withstand an attack from the five of them.
Even the current Marine Headquarters couldn't withstand it.
Aises was dead, Black was dead, and Scott was also dead.
Shiki directly used his ability to control the warships filled with Criminals, leaving Impel Down and heading towards the New World.
They came in a hurry and left in a hurry.
"Titan, you go back and search around first."
While on the warship, Hades instructed Titan.
Titan naturally understood Hades' meaning.
Transforming into Glutton, he immediately left the returning group.
The others didn't care about Titan's whereabouts; some guessed he had returned to Impel Down.
Rescuing people was the objective of the Rocks Pirates.
But Hades had other important objectives.
Impel Down possessed a crucial resource: Seastone.
Seastone played a significant role in the construction of the entire Impel Down.
Added together, it was an astonishing amount.
The Kronos Kingdom did not have Seastone mines.
In the New World, any Island with a Seastone mine was a strategic Island, sought after by various Factions.
Seastone could not only suppress Ability Users but was also an important metallic ore, containing rich energy, highly useful in various aspects.
Sending Titan back was for him to search Impel Down for Seastone.
Besides that, there were also various Ability Users.
Excluding Infinite Hell and Extreme Cold Hell, there were still quite a few Ability Users on the other floors.
Titan also possessed the ability to hunt Devil Fruits.
He naturally had to seize this opportunity.
He had already obtained a top tier Paramecia Devil Fruit, which was the ability he secretly stole when Hades told him to finish off Byrnndi World after enduring Byrnndi World's earth-shattering punch.
As for what happened at Impel Down, the Marines and the World Government received no news at all.
The Den Den Mushi Jammer didn't just interfere with Den Den Mushi signals; it could interfere with all signals.
With its application in war, especially the huge advantage the Rocks Pirates gained from it, the World Government's high bounty, the price of Den Den Mushi Jammers on the Black Market had increased countless times.
Reaching the sky-high price of three billion Beli.
Although there was a reason for the devaluation of Beli, the World Government and the Marines had also suffered greatly.
If the Kronos Kingdom were willing to sell a machine to the World Government, the World Government might even agree to some unreasonable requests.
It wasn't until a few days later that the Marines noticed something was wrong.
A Prison ship carrying Marines and Criminals arrived at the Gates of Justice and sent a message to Impel Down.
They hoped Impel Down would open the Gates of Justice to allow them to pass smoothly.
However, no matter what they did, no one received the signal.
A warship led by Marine Vice Admiral Sengoku arrived at Impel Down and saw nothing but ruins.
The entire Impel Down had been destroyed beyond recognition, and everything inside was in chaos.
After the Pirates from Infinite Hell and Extreme Cold Hell escaped, the Pirates on the other floors also took the opportunity to escape.
However, it was already impossible for them to leave Impel Down.
The warships guarding Impel Down were taken by Shiki along the way; the trend brought by Titan had also influenced him.
The entire Impel Down had turned into a Pirate Paradise.
"How could this happen?"
Sengoku looked at this scene in shock, finding it hard to believe that Impel Down had been breached.
From the looks of it, it had been several days.
After a careful search, they found the corpses of numerous Impel Down Jailers, including Impel Down Warden Aises.
Infinite Hell and Extreme Cold Hell were completely empty; the ferocious Criminals inside had all escaped, and no one knew where they had gone.
Such losses impacted Sengoku's brain; the brains of the Navy Officers who followed him were also blank.
The Impel Down that they had worked so hard to build was destroyed just like that.
To capture these ferocious Pirates, who knew how much effort had been put in, and how many Marine casualties there were.
Looking at the broken Hells connected to each other.
The environments of Extreme Cold Hell and Blazing Hell had already influenced each other.
If they weren't restored quickly, the unique environments of these two floors of Hell would likely disappear.
Thinking of this, rebuilding Impel Down would require an unknown amount of funds.
According to Sengoku's estimation, it would be impossible without several hundred billion Beli.
However, this had nothing to do with the Marines.
The rebuilding of Impel Down would definitely be paid for by the World Government.
The establishment of Impel Down itself took a long time.
Now, with Impel Down destroyed, the Impel Down system, which was independent of the Marines, had collapsed.
The number of surviving Jailers was less than two hundred.
This was also because Hades and the others acted too quickly and didn't have time to clear them out, or perhaps they didn't put these Jailers in their eyes.
The surviving Jailers were either fighting the Pirates who had broken free from their Cages or hiding in secret rooms.
As for who caused this situation, Sengoku already had a guess in his mind.
However, such troublesome matters should be left for Kong and the World Government's higher-ups to worry about.
The news from Impel Down quickly reached Marine Headquarters, and the World Government also received the news immediately.
"This counterattack came too quickly. The Rocks Pirates actually dared to attack Impel Down."
"What is there that the Rocks Pirates wouldn't dare to do?"
Although there was no evidence yet, the Marines and the World Government had already locked onto the Rocks Pirates as the culprits.
Only the Rocks Pirates could have done this.
They had celebrated too early, thinking that defeating one "Golden King" could weaken the Rocks Pirates' strength.
And now, the Rocks Pirates had attacked Impel Down and released those ferocious Pirates.
The Rocks Pirates' strength would expand again.
Thinking of this, Kong and the many Marine higher-ups present felt a sense of powerlessness.
No matter what they did, they seemed to be suppressed by the Rocks Pirates.
Thinking of the Criminals who escaped from Impel Down, each name was notorious and shook the Great Sea.
Just thinking about it made one's scalp tingle, and now they had all escaped.
The matter of blaming Impel Down was left unresolved.
Even Aises, with his terrifying ability, had died in battle.
What more could they say?
"Leave it to the World Government. The priority now is to restore our strength. No matter what, we must protect the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas. This is our foundation."
What Kong wanted now was to restore the Marines' strength, along with the further growth of Garp and Sengoku.
In this dark era, most of the Marine Elders had died.
More young and outstanding Marines were needed to step forward.
After the war ended two years ago, the Marines promoted a group of young veterans who had been tempered by war and gave them focused cultivation.
Zephyr, thirty years old, joined the Marines at the same time as Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru.
But it was only two years ago that he was officially promoted to corporal and learned the Marine Six Styles.
Over the years, despite being an ordinary soldier, Zephyr had never given up on tempering his body.
After obtaining the training manual for the Marine Six Styles, he soared.
Kong's attention was also focused on cultivating the younger generation of Marines, and Zephyr entered his sight during this period.
Zephyr had the potential to become an Admiral.
His body technique was powerful, and he awakened Observation Haki during the battles in the war.
A year after obtaining the Six Styles manual, he also awakened Armament Haki.
Such potential made Kong somewhat regretful that he hadn't discovered this uncut gem sooner.
If he had sacrificed himself in the war, it would have been a heavy loss for the Marines.
If he had been discovered earlier, perhaps Zephyr would have reached the level of a Top Tier Combatant like Garp and Sengoku during the war, and the situation might have changed somewhat then.
With Zephyr as a lesson, to prevent more talent from being buried, Kong requested various officers to recommend excellent Marines to him.
They would gather at Marine Headquarters for collective cultivation.
As for whether they were truly excellent or if it was due to using connections for personal gain, Kong would naturally be able to distinguish at that time.
The future Marine Elite Training Camp began to take shape from this point on.
Zephyr, who received Kong's attention.
In just two years, his military rank achieved a leapfrog promotion, from an ordinary small soldier to a Commodore level Navy Officer.
His outstanding leadership talent also made him a rising star within the Marines.
The defeat had too great an impact on the Marines, with heavy casualties.
There weren't many veterans who survived the war.
The declining Marines needed someone to step forward, boost the morale of the Marines, help them stand up again, and recover quickly.
Zephyr was the person currently being promoted by Marine Headquarters.
His rapid rise from an ordinary small soldier allowed countless Marine members to see hope for the future.
(end of chapter)