One Piece: Alucard the Immortal

Chapter 622 - 621: Do You Plan to Grow Old and Die Here?

"Dammit..."Seeing Alucard walking toward him, Saldeath recoiled in terror, eventually retreating until he was positioned behind Ace.

Ace, meanwhile, remained motionless. From the moment Teach had captured him, he had already resolved himself to face death alone. What does a man who no longer fears death have to fear from anything else?

"You look pathetic, Ace."

Alucard looked at Ace, the red light reflecting off his circular shades as he grinned.

Ace snorted and turned his head away. "Did you come all this way just to mock a loser?"

"Oh?" Alucard looked at Ace with some surprise. "You don’t harbor any resentment toward me for my actions?"

"..."

Without the assistance of the Golden Hair Pirates led by Ivalis, Ace would not have been captured, even with a "pig teammate" like Luffy, given that he had the help of Sabo and the others at the Sabaody Archipelago.

Since Alucard was the mastermind behind his capture, logic dictated that Ace should be cursing his despicable tactics. To Alucard’s surprise, he did no such thing.

"I don’t know why you did it, but a loss is a loss," Ace countered mockingly. "What’s so strange about pirates plotting against one another?"

Rather than hating Alucard, Ace hated himself more. Why had he been so impulsive? Why had he ignored the warnings of his Pops and the others to hunt Blackbeard alone? If he hadn’t, things wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Yes, it was all his own fault.

"You’ve got guts. You’re much stronger than your little brother."

Alucard suddenly pulled out the black gun, Jackal, and pressed it against Ace’s Seastone handcuffs. "Do you need me to... save you?"

Ace and the other prisoners of Level 6 were stunned. If Ace were rescued now, the elaborate public execution planned by the Marines would be completely ruined. The Marines would have lost the war before it even began.

Ace was equally shocked, but the state only lasted for a few seconds before he let out a cold laugh. "Are you kidding me? You’re the one who threw me in here, and now you want to let me go?"

"I suddenly felt like saving you, but it’s also impossible for me to save you," Alucard said, his words seemingly contradictory.

He walked past Ace, his back turned to him. "Pray that Whitebeard can save you."

Ace’s expression was conflicted. If he had the choice, he would rather Whitebeard didn’t come. Once the war started, regardless of the outcome, the Whitebeard Pirates would suffer devastating losses, potentially sinking to the bottom of the Yonko rankings.

Seeing that Alucard truly had no intention of freeing Ace, Saldeath ignored everything else and waved his hand, ordering the jailers to quickly transfer the prisoner.

After Saldeath led Ace away, a silence fell over Level 6 as the prisoners stared at Alucard.

Near the end of Roger’s era, Alucard had already become famous as one of the "Three Monsters." Most of the people in Level 6 had heard of his name.

"Hey, Immortal!" someone shouted. "Let me out! You’ve heard of my name, right? They call me the ’Man of the Ghost God’!"

"Wait! You should release me! Do that, and I’ll pledge my loyalty to you!"

"I’m a man with a bounty of 550 million Berries! Pick me!"

Ignoring the collection of trash, Alucard walked to a cage deep within the floor. Inside was a man bound by Seastone chains not just on his limbs, but also around his face and neck.

The man receiving this "special treatment" was "Golden Lion" Shiki. He had escaped once before, but was later captured by the former Fleet Admiral Kong during a war where he had allied with Alucard.

"Yo, long time no see."

Shiki leaned against the wall of his cell, his expression showing no particular surprise. "I haven’t had a drink in a long time. Can you spare a glass?"

Alucard pulled a bottle of wine from a pool of blood and tossed it inside. Shiki caught it and examined it, frowning. "Special reserve wine only enjoyed by the World Nobles. It seems you’ve been quite busy on the outside."

With a flick of his finger, he popped the cap. Shiki took several deep gulps and laughed. "Jihahaha! Not bad, not bad!"

After draining more than half the bottle in one breath, Shiki grinned crookedly. "So, what are you doing here? You didn’t come all this way just to see an old man, did you?"

"It’s nothing. I’m planning to launch the second total assault against the Government. I didn’t have anything to do while waiting, so I decided to take a stroll," Alucard said indifferently.

"The second?" Shiki was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. "I see. You actually dare to do what Roger didn’t dare to do back then."

Ignoring the commotion from the other cells, Shiki spread his hands. "But I’m just a remnant of the old era. Whitebeard will probably die in this battle too. If that happens..."

At this point, Shiki glanced toward his front left. In a cell in that direction sat a tall, thin old man—"Red Count" Redfield. Like Shiki, he was a pirate who had existed in the same era as Roger and Whitebeard.

"Do you plan to stay here and grow old until you die?"

Shiki froze at the question, then smiled. "Are you saying you’ll help me?"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Alucard fired several shots in succession, shattering all the Seastone chains on Shiki’s body. Without waiting for a response, he turned his back on Shiki and walked toward the entrance to Level 5. "Come out, remnant of the era. Just like that fellow Whitebeard, let’s bring things to a conclusion."

Shiki understood Alucard’s meaning instantly. After a few seconds of silence, he laughed manically. "Jihahahaha! Interesting! Rather than rotting away in a prison, I’d rather do this. It’s just a bit of a shame I can’t end it under the gaze of the whole world."

As Alucard and Shiki passed one of the cells, a person inside suddenly called out to Alucard. "Hey, please wait. Could you release this old man as well?"

The two glanced over. It was the cell where Ace had been held previously, and the person inside was... "Knight of the Sea" Jinbe.

Seeing Alucard looking at him, Jinbe continued, "The Fish-Man Tribe owes a great debt to Pops Whitebeard from the past. Although it was a deal, we also owe a debt to the Immortal Pirates. Please let this old man go. Once I have repaid Pops’ kindness, I will repay the kindness of the Immortals."

"Oh, the Fish-Man Jinbe." Shiki narrowed his eyes. "I heard he gave up his Warlord title because he refused to fight Whitebeard. To think such a man is a pirate."

Alucard stared at Jinbe, and the latter met his gaze without flinching.