Having traversed countless realms, can you possibly be as clever as me?

"It went to the left!" someone shouted, their voice young and cheerful, like they were playing hide-and-seek.

"Don't shoot vital organs, leave him alive so we can calculate whose score it is," another voice replied with a chuckle. "Whoever hits him the most times wins."

Realizing his pursuers were close, Cole rolled in terror into a thicket of bushes, then curled up his emaciated body.

The footsteps grew louder as they approached. Cole buried his face in the ground.

He forced himself not to think about death, but about the fate that he was probably destined to have. He commanded himself to think about good memories.

He thought of Aya, his wife. When she sewed clothes, she liked to put the thread in her mouth, just like him, with her brows slightly furrowed. That was the look that made his heart flutter the most.

They had a child, born in late autumn, a tiny, thin bundle, but with a loud cry. Aya didn't have enough milk, so every day before dawn he would go to the river to catch fish. The water was bone-chillingly cold in winter, but when he came back and saw Aya leaning against the headboard smiling at him, the little bundle in her arms clutching his finger tightly—he felt no bitterness at all.

The child hadn't been named yet. The village elders said they would gather together to choose a good name for the child when he turned one month old, but that one-month celebration never came.

Don't think about it anymore, don't keep thinking about it!

Tears of blood streamed down Cole's face as he trembled, unwilling to think any further, but the memories continued to unfold naturally.

The day before the child's full moon celebration, the Celestial Dragons' ship approached their country.

At that time, Cole didn't know what Celestial Dragons were. While he was chopping wood outside, he heard a hiss coming from the village entrance, followed by the muffled sound of houses collapsing and a woman's scream.

When he rushed home, he saw his house with the doors wide open, and a group of people dressed in black surrounding a man riding on top of another man. The man's face was half covered by a transparent hood, and the corners of his mouth were turned up, as if he had just discovered an interesting toy.

Before him, his wife and daughter knelt on the ground.

"This one," the man riding on the back pointed at Aya with the tip of his whip, "has good eyes. Take her back to the Holy Land; I want her to be my 125th wife. As for the others, they can return to being slaves!"

His tone was matter-of-fact, as if for someone like him, turning a person, a free person, into his possession was his inherent right.

"Yes, Saint Lozria, and what about this baby?"

"Take her to the Holy Land to raise," he said with a smile. "After all, I am a kind master. Let's raise her as a slave to please me."

"Yes!"

Cole naturally rushed forward to stop it all. He roared and howled, and then flew out and crashed into the stove, hitting the back of his head on the edge of the iron pot. He saw stars all over his face.

When he struggled to his feet, he saw the man called Saint Lozlia holding a sword with a small, curled-up, motionless object on the tip.

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Aya let out a piercing scream, and only then did the dazed Cole realize...

That motionless thing was his baby, who wasn't even a month old yet.

"You rude thing! How dare you disrespect the descendants of the god who created the world!"

Just as Cole got up, the man in black who had kicked him away stepped on him and yelled at him. Filled with anger, he struggled desperately, but couldn't break free at all.

Saint Lozlia looked down at the struggling Cole, pulled out a musket, and pulled the trigger.

The moment the bullet left the barrel, Cole knelt by the stove, blood streaming down his chest and into his collar, but he felt no pain. He was only looking at Aya. Aya was hugging the small, motionless body, curled up in a ball like a piece of burnt paper.

If there is a hell in this world, then this must be the lowest level of hell.

Cole thought desperately—but he quickly realized that wasn't the case.

"Take them away." Saint Lozlia changed her boots, pointed at Aya, and then pointed at Cole.

“He took him with him too. I like having these slaves watch me enjoy myself!”

"Then kill all these lowly people who have offended me!"

On that day, towering flames engulfed the entire village. Cole was chained to the bottom of the ship, his back marked with the slave mark known as the Hoof of the Sky Dragon, and transported to Mary Geoise, a high and mighty land at the top of the Red Earth.

The next three years were a torment for him that was no less than going to hell.

Endless labor, with endless whipping and torture whenever they paused, a game of wanton torment and slaughter, treating them like toys.

Cole persevered. He desperately wanted to see his Aya again, but in the past three years, he had only seen her once from afar.

Far away, behind the high walls of the manor, she was chained to water the flowers, her back bent like a bow, the shackles on her wrists chafing the skin until it was raw and covered in dark red scabs. He called her name desperately, but she seemed not to hear him, only continuing to water the flowers, hunched over, one scoop at a time. When she reached the last rose, she suddenly collapsed and didn't get up for a long time.

Later, Cole heard from an old slave who was dying that female slaves living in the castle who could not give birth to offspring that satisfied the Celestial Dragons would all be tortured and executed by the Celestial Dragons in the most cruel way.

They might inject deadly viruses, use them as targets for attack, or use other unimaginably cruel methods.

After that, Cole never saw his Aya again.

Then, he was transported here to serve as a target for the Celestial Dragons to hunt.

Cole had been hiding for a very, very long time; he had lost count of how many days it had been.

But this last bit of luck seems to be coming to an end today.

"Come out," a voice said, "I see you."

Cole didn't move. He dug his hands into the soil, his nails curling up, holding his breath so hard he dared not make a sound.

"Use fire," another voice said.

A burnt smell wafted over, and the bushes began to burn. A wave of heat licked Cole's back, and he curled up even tighter. When the flames reached the back of his neck, he finally let out a hoarse howl.

It seemed that inevitable death and despair awaited him, but at that very moment—

A voice pierced his ears.

......

After the Navy and World Government ships surrounded God Valley, the infamous Rocks Pirates broke through from the east side of the island and entered the sea.

The mighty pirates, who had roamed the world virtually unchallenged, stormed into this island nation as if it were their own backyard. The Navy was utterly helpless against them. In a single encounter, the Rocks Pirates had completed their landing from the east.

Meanwhile, the Roger Pirates also landed from the other side, and at the same time, many other pirate crews also broke into the area.

Do you think they came to rescue the civilians here and to fight against the inhumane atrocities committed by the World Government?

"I'm here, Shaki-chan! I've come to take you home!!!"

"Shut up, Xia Qi is mine, and none of you are allowed to take her from me!"

"Idiot, Shakky doesn't matter, the treasures on the island are the most important!!!"

The clamoring and shouting pirates stormed into the slaughterhouse protected by the World Government and the Navy, but they were not there for any justice or other great purpose.

The vast majority of them came here for a ridiculous, unfunny reason: for a very beautiful woman. The slightly better ones, however, were only after the Celestial Dragons' treasure.

Yes, how can you expect them to do more? They are pirates, and they are supposed to be evil. In fact, it is more poignant that these evil pirates, driven by the pure purpose of seizing treasure, seem more human than the righteous navy.

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"Where did Rocks go? He disappeared as soon as he got off the ship! Hey, Fierce Girl, did he go and kidnap Shakky?!"

Wielding the withered tree and the cherry blossom sword, the golden lion unleashed countless afterimages of its blades, slicing countless pirates and marines into mincemeat. While chewing on a cigar, it barked menacingly at the silver axe beside it.

"Who knows what that is? But Rocks isn't as obsessed with Shakky as you are!" Silver Axe Fierce destroyed a warship with a single strike imbued with ferocious Armament Haki.

"Linlin and that brat Kaido are gone too. Tsk, we can't let these small fry delay us any longer. We can't let that bastard John take all the Celestial Dragons' treasures!"

Golden Lion turned and floated into the sky, preparing to unleash his Devil Fruit power to give chase, but in that instant—

A deafening sound suddenly interrupted all the battles in God Valley!

Whether it was the pirates vying for treasure, the marines fighting, Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Kaido being chased by Garp, or Rocks confronting Im, they all raised their heads—

A beam of sky-blue light shot into the sky, followed by an endless flow of water in the surrounding area.

The sea seemed to come alive! The endless waves formed by the seawater almost swallowed the entire Valley of the Gods. Seeing the seawater that had reached a height of ten thousand meters, both pirates and marines, as well as Celestial Dragons, stopped fighting.

What the hell? Who caused such a massive tsunami?!

Then, the seawater gathered together and formed the phantom of a holy and beautiful goddess with extraordinary beauty.

If that were all, it would be fine. The most important thing is that the moment she appeared, everyone present, from the slaves to the Im, slowly knelt down under an invisible pressure!

"How is this possible? How could this happen...?"

Im broke out in a cold sweat, staring intently at the pure goddess above him. He had an idea that even he found absurd: with just a thought, he would be easily torn apart by this being!

But how could such power possibly exist in this world? Joy Boy? No, even he in the past could not possibly possess such power!

This is absolutely his imagination!!!

Just as Im was racking his brains trying to find an answer, two figures suddenly rose before the goddess: a ragged slave and a handsome, dark-haired man.

"As you wish, Cole, kind Axis."

The man stretched out his hand, and the sound he made echoed throughout the Valley of the Gods.

"Your wish has been fulfilled. From this day forward, all Celestial Dragons will become androgynous transvestites, utterly extinct!"

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.

P.S.: The intermittent post is back!!! If you have time, please go back and update it, thank you!

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661. Water and strife, two gods in one religion

The flames that were engulfing his back stopped.

Or rather, Cole felt that his world, everything before him, had become an incongruous pair.

The fire was still burning, and the Celestial Dragon's laughter continued, but in that instant, his world was split in two. One half was burning bushes, twisting heat waves, and approaching death; the other half was something endless, unfathomable, like something surging up from the deepest part of the ocean.

Then, a handsome man stood before him, his eyes gleaming with golden light, and said with pleasure...

"Oh, poor soul, you suffer so much, you yearn for rebellion, you crave strife, you desire a pure ocean."

"You—" Cole opened his mouth, but the thick smoke choked him, making it almost impossible to speak. "Who are you?"

The man did not answer, but Cole heard it and sensed the presence of a god!

"I am everything in this world that refuses to be crushed." The voice was deep, damp, and filled with an ancient, labored breath, like the churning of a deep sea that hadn't seen the sun for ten thousand years.

"I was there when the ship sank, I was there when the city fell, and the way the dead gritted their teeth and refused to close their eyes the moment the butcher's knife fell—that was me."

"I am the embodiment of all strife, I am the embodiment of this sea, I am this sea awakened by the strife of you humans—"

"god."

The flames were already licking Cole's neck. His hair was curled, charred, and peeling. But he could no longer feel the burning pain. A desire hotter than the flames surged up from his tailbone, exploding along his spine vertebra by vertebra, like the immense force of a thawing glacier breaking through layers of frozen soil.

"Please! God, please!" Cole pleaded.