Each punch from the Nightmare Beast was terrifyingly destructive. The booming shockwaves vibrated the entire sky island, and the sounds of the ferocious battle could be heard even on adjacent islands.
Bege wielded his Fire Cloud Sword, clashing wildly against the berserk Nightmare Beast. Fist met blade in a frenzy of aerial collisions, sending continuous rings of fiery shockwaves expanding outwards. When these waves struck the island below, swathes of forest dozens of meters wide were instantly pulverized. Explosions rocked the landscape relentlessly.
The Nightmare Beast fought like a maddened animal, its eyes seemingly spitting fire, its savage aura erupting without restraint. Its thick, heavily armored legs slammed down like falling mountain ranges, shattering the air and generating a terrifying force capable of overturning mountains and seas.
Bege's face contorted with a crazed intensity. Armament Haki flared, instantly coating his entire right leg black. He didn't dodge or evade, instead choosing the most primal form of combat – a direct, head-on collision.
Two sonic booms cracked like thunderclaps as the drastically different-sized right legs slammed into each other. In that instant, the ground beneath them disintegrated. Cracks spiderwebbed outwards violently from the point of impact, tearing through the earth before the entire area exploded upwards. Shattered rock flew like cannonballs. A small basin instantly formed where Bege had been standing.
A hurricane of displaced air blasted outwards, whipping up dust and debris into a veritable tsunami of grit.
Bege's face paled slightly. Unable to fully negate the force, he was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into a nearby hill. The hill promptly shattered into pieces amidst rolling thunder.
The Nightmare Beast was also thrown back, stumbling dozens of steps. It let out a furious roar, pounding its chest wildly before throwing its head back and unleashing a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering bellow of pure rage. Across the island, the lesser monsters cowered in terror.
Swoosh!
From within the dense cloud of dust and debris, Bege shot out like a cannonball. He didn't retreat; instead, he pressed the attack, striking first with aggressive force.
The Fire Cloud Sword flashed, unleashing a staggering dragon forged of pure flame. Simultaneously, the Nightmare Beast threw another punch, detonating the fire dragon on impact. The resulting explosion caused even greater devastation, further pulverizing the already broken landscape and deepening the crater.
The Nightmare Beast was caught in the blast, its fur and scales set ablaze, but it ignored the searing flames. It punched again, the sheer pressure of its fist extinguishing the fire on the ground beneath it.
"Beast King!"
The bloodlust radiating from Bege intensified, his eyes turning crimson. He unleashed his strongest sword technique once more. Blood-red sword energy slashed instantly onto the Nightmare Beast's massive fist.
CRACK!
The scales covering the Beast's fist were torn apart. The sword energy sliced deep, biting into bone and ravaging the flesh within, shearing off more than half the muscle and tissue from its hand.
The Nightmare Beast let out a low, pained growl, its violent aura spiking even higher. But then, abruptly, it plopped down onto the ground, sitting heavily. The savage fury in its eyes rapidly faded. It actually waved a hand dismissively at Bege, as if saying it didn't want to fight anymore.
Bege stopped in his tracks, a muscle twitching in his jaw. He knew what had happened: another soul within the Nightmare Beast's mind had seized control of the body – and this particular soul belonged to a beast that disliked fighting.
Having undergone nine fusions, the Nightmare Beast possessed nine distinct beast souls within its mind, like a patient with multiple personalities vying for dominance. These souls constantly fought for control, occasionally succeeding in taking over the body. This wasn't unique to the Nightmare Beast; all the fused monsters suffered from this 'multi-personality disorder,' which explained their often bizarre and unpredictable behavior.
"Why did I have to choose such a lazy beast back then?" Bege shook his head in resignation. He had captured a particularly powerful Sea King from the Calm Belt and fused it into the Nightmare Beast. Who could have predicted this powerful creature was inherently lazy and hated combat? This wasn't the first time its soul had taken over mid-battle, abruptly halting their intense clashes.
Bege pulled out a Den Den Mushi. "Bring the food over."
Almost immediately, a large airship appeared overhead, flying towards the center of the island. Seeing the ship, the Nightmare Beast's eyes lit up with undisguised joy.
A hatch opened on the underside of the airship, and massive carcasses of slain beasts began dropping down, one after another.
The Nightmare Beast reached up with both hands, snatching two of the falling creatures. It stuffed them directly into its mouth, biting off a head with a sickening crunch, sending blood spraying everywhere. This only seemed to increase its glee. It devoured the first beast in a few huge bites, then wolfed down the second just as quickly.
Over a dozen massive beasts rained down from the airship. Within moments, the ground was littered with blood-soaked bones. All the offerings had vanished into the Nightmare Beast's stomach.
It patted its bulging belly with a look of pure contentment.
Bege noted that the fist he had mangled moments ago was already healing at an incredible rate. The burns across its body had vanished completely. The Nightmare Beast's constitution was terrifyingly robust, possessing astonishing regenerative abilities.
Soon after finishing its meal, the Nightmare Beast collapsed to the ground, falling into a deep sleep. The carcasses it had just consumed were laced with an incredibly potent sedative – enough to knock out several hundred elephants.
The airship swiftly descended, landing on the shattered battlefield.
A group of Fire Tank crew members disembarked, carrying massive rings. They carefully clamped these restraints onto the sleeping Nightmare Beast's limbs. The rings were crafted from Sea Prism Stone, capable of suppressing the creature's immense power.
As the Nightmare Beast underwent more fusions, it grew increasingly powerful and dangerous. Compounded by its multiple personality issues, it spent nearly every day in a state of enraged madness, causing severe damage to the island. To control it, Bege had force-fed it a Zoan-type Devil Fruit – the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Fruit. Eating the fruit made it susceptible to the power-dampening effects of Sea Prism Stone.
With the Nightmare Beast secured, the crew quickly re-boarded the airship. Bege joined them, and the ship lifted off, leaving Mid-Beast Island behind and heading towards a smaller sky island nearby.
This smaller island housed numerous buildings. It served as the residential quarters for Bege's subordinates. On the far side of the island, large groups of crew members could be seen training intensely.
The airship landed at the island's port. As Bege stepped off the ramp, a crew member hurried towards him.
"Godfather!" the man reported urgently, holding out a newspaper. "We just received word! The Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, has been captured and imprisoned!"
Bege's gaze fixed sharply on the newspaper. The front page featured a stark image of Roger bound in chains, being escorted by Marines. His expression tightened.
He immediately contacted Treade on Lemon Island, ordering him to significantly bolster their defenses. Roger's eventual death would undoubtedly trigger the Great Pirate Era, throwing the New World into chaos. Lemon Island would certainly feel the repercussions. As his covert base in the New World and a crucial channel for his arms business, Bege could not afford any mishaps there.
Half a month later, Fleet Admiral Kong stood before the world's media at Marineford and delivered a thunderous declaration:
"Gol D. Roger will be executed one month from today in Loguetown, East Blue!"
The news spread like wildfire, circling the globe in record time. The world erupted. Ordinary citizens cheered wildly. Countless individuals, pirates prominent and obscure, began making their way towards the East Blue, both openly and in secret. Loguetown, once an unremarkable town, instantly became the epicenter of the storm that would usher in a new age.
Shortly after Kong's announcement, another shocking event occurred. The Flying Pirates launched a full-scale assault on Marine Headquarters itself. The battle nearly resulted in Marineford sinking beneath the waves. In the end, "Golden Lion" Shiki was captured, and the formidable Flying Pirates were all but annihilated.
This incident sent further tremors across the seas. The capture of the Pirate King, followed swiftly by the defeat and capture of Shiki, one of the New World's most dominant figures, dealt a heavy blow to pirate morale worldwide. Conversely, the prestige and perceived power of the Marines soared to unprecedented heights.