April 15, 1497, Age of the Sea Circle
Orion moved swiftly through the darkness. Finally, after much preparation, the day had arrived when he would escape from this training island.
He had managed to accomplish the basic objectives he had set for himself, and now it was ti to bring the mission to a close.
He stopped under a large tree and took out a small Den Den Mushi he had stolen from the central building, where the highest-ranking agents on this island resided.
"Gloriosa, how's everything going? Were you able to get the recruits under control??" Orion asked.
"Orion, I've already hypnotized the vast majority. I only need the last group, then we can leave," Gloriosa replied through the snail.
"Very well, see you at the port."
Orion ended the conversation and put away the Den Den Mushi. Then he used Geppo and climbed onto one of the roofs of a nearby building, from where he surveyed the empty streets of Guanhao.
For today, they had divided the tasks each of them was to complete. Gloriosa was in charge of securing the recruits through hypnosis. Once the large group of children was under her control, she was to head to the port where Kalifa was standing guard.
The little girl had no combat prowess and could only serve as a lookout and report any irregularities.
Given her noble status as a mber of the dici family, she wouldn't face any problems even if she were found at the port, which was a restricted area for recruits.
The mission could have been carried out without her help, but Kalifa insisted on collaborating with the escape plan. If it weren't for the fact that they had assured themselves through hypnosis that she was truly on their side, Orion would have thought such a proactive attitude suspicious and that the little girl was up to sothing.
A few days ago, when Orion told her about his plan to escape, Kalifa had shown the sa enthusiasm as Gloriosa.
Orion had initially doubted her enthusiasm, but after several tests, he had no choice but to accept that he'd managed to change the girl's mind without resorting to hypnosis.
Kalifa had looked at him seriously and told him that everything she had learned about the world governnt was very strange. As soon as her critical thinking awakened, the little girl began to question her entire life, and quickly found many irregularities in things she had previously believed to be true.
Orion sighed with emotion as he rembered how the girl had told him, "All I know is that I know nothing!" and how she had promised to discover the secrets of this world. Furthermore, she no longer claid she'd be an elite agent in the future; instead, she wanted to be a teacher and educate the people of the world in all kinds of knowledge.
Now he understood why he had earned such a large amount of SP by influencing Kalifa. He'd thought his influence had been slight, but in reality, it had completely changed her future path. Perhaps the fact that he had introduced a change so early in the little girl's life had contributed to a greater deviation.
But without a doubt, the most important thing had been Kalifa's precocity.
She herself had studied, reflected, and refined her thoughts, and he had only given her the tools to do so.
Orion was truly amazed by Kalifa's genius, which was even superior to that of the child prodigy Gion.
Perhaps she had the makings of a famous academic in the future.
However, the important thing now was the escape plan.
Over the past few days, Gloriosa had slowly been hypnotizing the recruits and testing the limits of her powers. Once they confird the effectiveness of hypnosis on the recruits, they decided the best course of action was a rapid, mass exodus.
The plan was to hypnotize all the recruits and have them board one of the Marine vessels, which Orion would then pilot to escape the island.
He had originally thought of putting the children inside his Pocket Dinsion, but the sphere wasn't large enough to accommodate so many people, so they had no choice but to use this cruder thod.
Orion had planted explosives in various parts of the island, and at the right mont, he would cause massive chaos to cover his escape.
Now that he had finished planting the explosives, his task was to prevent the Cipher Pol agents on the island from realizing what was happening before they could escape.
He wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with the agents if possible, and so far, everything was going well— So well, in fact, that he was starting to feel uneasy.
He patrolled the area cautiously but didn't spot a single agent in the dark night. Then he took out the Den Den Mushi again and called Kalifa, who told him that everything was going well at the port.
Orion felt the feeling of unease growing inside him, and he didn't think it was wise to ignore it. After all, in this world where all kinds of powers like Haki existed, instinct and feelings like these weren't unimportant.
Orion headed over to where Gloriosa was, who was finishing 'gathering' the last group of recruits.
Upon arriving, he found the girl running along with the recruits.
"Orion! We're ready to go!" Gloriosa said, waving her arm happily and increasing her speed. She was truly excited by the fact that they would soon be able to leave this island and explore the vast, unknown world.
Orion nodded, seeing that there were no problems with the children, and inford Kalifa, who was on guard at the port, that they would head there imdiately.
On the way, Orion inquired about the process of hypnotizing the recruits, and Gloriosa explained the entire process to him in detail.
It was very good that Gloriosa had been able to receive the hypnotic powers granted by the mysterious mushroom, because at least it hadn't been wasted, but he still thought it was a sha that he hadn't obtained those powers. Not because he specifically wanted to be able to hypnotize people, but because he had to leave a crucial part of the plan in the hands of soone else.
Seeing the Nad Characters, who were among the group of hypnotized children, Orion showed a thoughtful look and continued toward the port.
They arrived a short ti later and began boarding the ship without any problems.
Half of the children had boarded the ship when a change occurred in the scene. Suddenly, a large number of agents erged from the sea and completely surrounded them.
Orion, who had been prepared for sothing like this, wasn't alard by the agents' appearance. He simply used his "Age Change" ability, and his body grew in size to that of an adult. He drew his disguised cutlass "Ace" and proceeded to attack before the Cipher Pol agents could subdue them.
"Everyone, get on board! Prepare to set sail!" Orion shouted as he attacked the agents.
Gloriosa gave instructions to the hypnotized children, trying to get them to hurry and board the ship, while Kalifa did what Orion had instructed her to do in case of an ergency before the operation began: Hide.
The little girl was of no help in battle, and the best thing she could do was avoid being captured and used as a hostage by the enemy.
Orion used Soru and dodged several Tempest Kicks launched by the agents.
These weren't elite agents, and most of them lacked the physical condition to use all six techniques. However, several of them were capable of using so of the techniques in a rudintary manner, and had a level of mastery similar to Orion's, or perhaps slightly higher.
Using his physical advantage, Orion quickly eliminated several weaker agents, but the sheer number of agents was simply too great for him to face them without taking any damage.
Two Tempest Kicks struck his body but didn't cause much damage, due to the combined defense of his two passive abilities.
He could also use Tekkai, but his control over it wasn't as good, and it was difficult to execute the defensive technique without limiting his movent. So he decided to simply focus on his mobility to confront the agents and withstand his opponents' attacks with his natural defenses.
"Attention, don't break formation!" shouted one of the agents besieging Orion when he saw that several agents had lost their composure at the monstrous strength of the enemy they were facing.
Many of them were thinking:
"Hey, this guy was being trained here?! But he's stronger than the instructors!"
The indignant thoughts of these agents weren't misplaced. Orion, when fully utilizing his power, was on par with the Guanhao instructors. This wasn't because he was very powerful; rather, the agents who trained recruits here weren't very powerful—otherwise, they'd be on missions instead of on this remote island training the next generation.
Orion's main advantage over them was his physical prowess, which was far superior to that of a normal human. Furthermore, now that he could use Observation Haki, his combat level had increased significantly, even if he couldn't yet master its use at his current level and frequently failed to activate it.
A Shigan struck his shoulder, piercing through his defenses, leaving a bleeding wound as a mark of its success.
Orion's defenses were still strong, but he couldn't completely stop the onslaught of the agents using the six techniques with just the toughness of his body.
Gloriosa saw that Orion was being besieged from all sides and was in a passive position, so she imdiately decided to help him.
Using her snake companion Yara as a bow, she launched a volley of arrows imbued with Armant Haki, which eliminated several agents without a problem.
The agents' faces imdiately changed when they saw Gloriosa springing into action. They could easily take care of Orion, but if Gloriosa joined the battle to support him, things would get far more complicated.
"Gloriosa! Have you forgotten your commitnt to the World Governnt?! Do you want your sister to suffer the consequences of your actions?!" shouted the agent who seed to be in charge.
“Ha! Don’t think you can fool ! I know very well how valuable Stussy is to you! No matter what I do here, the World Governnt can’t afford to lose such a key person!” Gloriosa said disdainfully.
She was a cheerful and hyperactive girl, so at first glance she might have seed sowhat foolish, but in reality she wasn’t inferior in intellect to any of the agents present. Although she wasn’t on Kalifa’s level, she was also a child prodigy.
The agent shouted angrily and lunged at Gloriosa, ready to knock her out, but he was intercepted by Orion, who appeared in front of him using Soru. Taking advantage of his lowered guard, he decisively attacked him.
“Thirty-six styles, Moonfall Sword!”
The agent couldn’t react in ti, and his body was severed in two by Orion, who, after eliminating the man, didn’t pause for a second and plunged back into the fray.
Little by little, wounds appeared on his body, and his clothes beca stained with blood. Even so, Orion continued to dance across the battlefield, eliminating agents with each swing of his sword.
Gloriosa saw Orion's heroic appearance, which in his adult form was very attractive, and her eyes lit up. In her mind, this was the kind of husband she should have in the future!
"Co on, Orion! Let's finish the fight and go explore the world!" Gloriosa said happily as she loaded her snake-bow with arrows, ready to launch another flurry of Haki attacks.
However, a figure suddenly appeared behind the girl, who hadn't expected to be attacked from behind. After all, there were the recruits under her hypnosis!
"Shigan!" The voice sounded behind her, and she felt imnse pain in her back.
Rob Lucci, who until that mont had behaved like just another of the hypnotized recruits, had used Shigan and launched five consecutive attacks.
Gloriosa looked in surprise at Lucci, who was staring at her with his eyes alight, like those of a hunter who had caught his prey. The boy’s expression had lost its usual solemnity and indifference, replaced by a maniacal smile of excitent.
Gloriosa spat out a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground, as a result of her injuries. She had never expected an attack from the recruits, and she hadn't managed to use Armant Haki to protect herself, so the injuries she had suffered had been truly severe.
Orion saw Gloriosa on the ground, covered in blood, and his mind exploded.
Usually, he kept his distance from the girl because she was too hyperactive and it was tiring for him to accompany her for long periods, but he cared for her and couldn't tolerate seeing her in that state now.
Without a second thought, he turned and ran toward Rob Lucci. Right now, this child—recognized as the best prodigy—wasn't capable of defeating him in combat.
Or to put it more bluntly, Rob Lucci had only one fate if he tried to confront Orion: a crushing defeat!
The agents took advantage of Orion's turned back to launch their attacks, but Orion opened a door in the air and disappeared without a trace.
Throughout the battle, Orion had been fighting with a handicap. He hadn't used his new abilities derived from the Doa Doa no Mi, as he didn't want to expose the fact that he had such powers.
However, now that Gloriosa had been seriously injured, he couldn't think too much about anything else. The only important thing was getting the girl out of danger.
Orion reappeared several ters ahead of where he'd disappeared, at the limit of the distance he could travel within his Pocket Dinsion. He then used Soru and arrived in front of Rob Lucci, who was looking at him with his maniacal, serial-killer smile.
“Thirty-six styles, Roaring Dragon Sword!”
Orion attacked imdiately, without holding back his power. He had made a decision: eliminate Rob Lucci.
It was sothing he'd been thinking about for so ti. In his contact with the Nad Characters on this island, most were 'normal' people, but only Rob Lucci caused him great unease every ti he saw him.
Finally, he had now confird his suspicions. There was sothing wrong with Lucci; he was probably a psychopath!
He didn't have the tools to cure such a complex ntal illness, so he had decided at this mont that it would be best to eliminate him now and prevent him from gaining enough power to pose a real danger in the future. After all, with his great talent, if given ti to mature, he would surely transform into a fearso enemy.
The sword fell on Lucci, but he dodged it using Soru. He then appeared next to Orion and launched a Shigan that couldn't penetrate his body's natural defenses.
Regardless, Orion looked at him in surprise. He hadn't expected a child who hadn't yet developed to achieve such speed using Soru. Evidently, his control over the ability was far superior to Orion's. Rob Lucci definitely deserved to be called the most talented recruit here.
Lucci looked with so surprise at his finger, which hadn't managed to penetrate Orion's skin, and attacked once more, this ti using his full power.
However, Orion wouldn't let his guard down. He had already figured out Lucci's approximate speed and strength, and wouldn't be caught off guard again.
With great agility, he dodged the child's attacks and then went for his head again with a powerful attack, but before he could succeed, a figure erged in front of him and parried his attack with a finger.
Orion's pupils constricted at the appearance of the person who had arrived. An immaculate white suit, a cape of the sa color, and a mask covering his face.
His hair stood on end as the term to describe this person appeared in his mind: CP0!
“It seems I arrived just in ti. If the Jewel of Guanhao had died here, I would have been in a lot of trouble,” said the man with the mask.
Orion didn't hesitate for a second and opened a door in the air, imdiately escaping and appearing next to Gloriosa, who had fainted from the pain. He took her arm and tried to pull her into his Pocket Dinsion, but the CP0 agent suddenly appeared and, with a kick, destroyed the door he had created in the air.
Orion watched with great surprise as the entrance to his Pocket Dinsion had been so easily destroyed by the agent. He hadn't even known such a thing was possible!
Could it be due to the use of Haki?
“I can't let you escape now. Your abilities are truly promising. You'll undergo another reconditioning, and if we can't break your mind, you'll be eliminated,” the CP0 agent said emotionlessly.
Orion saw that the situation was truly precarious and used his last resort.
With a flick of his mind, a huge gate, resembling one of those portals common in works of fiction from his past life, appeared behind him.
Unlike when he used his “Space Door” ability, this gate wasn't transparent, and the landscape on the other side of the portal couldn't be seen.
Without hesitation, Orion threw Gloriosa into the portal.
“I told you it's useless. You can't escape,” the white-suited agent said, and launched an attack toward the large portal, intending to destroy it as he had done before.
However, the agent's attack collided with the large portal, causing no change. The massive gate didn't even flinch from the agent's attack, and Gloriosa successfully passed through the portal and disappeared from the scene.
The agent was surprised to see that his attack had failed, but he imdiately lunged toward the portal, intending to bring Gloriosa back. She was a valuable asset of the World Governnt, and they couldn't afford to lose her.
However, when he tried to pass through the portal, he crashed forcefully into it, as if he were trying to penetrate a solid wall, and bounced violently, unable to enter. This wasn't an ability equal to 'Space Door'; no one could pass through his 'Space Gate' unless authorized by Orion through the system!
Orion took advantage of the agent's distraction to open a door in the ground and imdiately found Kalifa, who was hiding inside the ship. He took her in his arms and pulled her into his Pocket Dinsion. Then, without wasting a mont, he used Soru at maximum speed and launched himself into the massive Space Gate.
A Tempest Kick struck him hard before he could enter, causing extensive damage.
Orion gritted his teeth and clung to his consciousness. He looked at the CP0 agent standing by the portal, unable to stop him; at the island's agents, who wore solemn expressions; and at the child recruits, who had been freed from Gloriosa's hypnosis when she fainted and were now watching the situation with curiosity.
Finally, he saw the Nad Characters he hadn't managed to rescue, and Rob Lucci, who was looking at him with a gaze filled with an intense emotion he couldn't quite identify—but it seed to be hatred or disgust.
Finally, he closed his eyes and, as he passed through the large portal, he undid his 'Art Coating' ability, which he had used to camouflage a large quantity of explosives around Guanhao Island.
The last thing Orion heard before losing consciousness was the sound of thunderous explosions echoing in the distance, and system notifications ringing in his mind almost simultaneously.
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