Year 1510, Sea Circle Calendar — Impel Down, Beast Hell.
Ryoku Vale's foot crashed into the cell door.
The steel buckled under the force, the crash echoing through the blood-soaked halls.
Prisoners poured from the open cell, clawing at the bodies of the downed guards for keys, weapons, anything.
Chaos spread like wildfire.
In minutes, the entire first level was in uproar.
The surveillance Den Den Mushi captured every second, their dead eyes feeding the carnage into the higher levels.
Let them see.
Let them come.
Ryoku stood atop the arena's dueling platform, his breath shallow, body aching from the cursed power still burning in his veins.
The prisoners gathered below, looking up at him like desperate rats cornered in the dark.
They didn't see him as a hero.
They saw a weapon.
And Ryoku knew it.
"Kill the guards below... or rot here," Ryoku said, his voice rough, hollow.
The crowd roared.
Not for him.
For the chance to bite back at the chains that strangled them.
They surged toward the stairwell.
Beast Hell.
A cavern of monsters.
Chicken-snakes. Human-faced lions. Scorpions the size of ships.
This level was ruled by the grotesque beast Sphinx—a hulking lion with a face twisted beyond nightmares.
As the prisoner mob flooded the level, gunfire erupted.
Stolen rifles barked at the jailer beasts.
Blood spilled.
But the moment Sphinx awoke, the tide turned.
The creature roared, charging into the crowd, crushing men beneath its paws, snapping jaws closing around fleeing prisoners.
Bullets ricocheted off its hide.
Panic spread like wildfire.
Ryoku leapt forward, feet pounding across the backs of prisoners, closing the distance in a blur.
His body protested. The seal clawed at his mind.
Open the Gate. Feed the Seal. Break the body.
He gritted his teeth.
"First Gate... Gate of Opening... OPEN."
The seal blazed inside him, his muscles snapping as his body broke its own limits.
Pain roared through his veins.
But he embraced it.
Sphinx lunged, fangs wide.
Ryoku met it mid-air.
"Front Lotus."
His foot slammed under the beast's chin, snapping its massive head back.
The creature never saw the follow-up.
Ryoku twisted mid-air, locking its torso, driving it head-first into the stone floor.
"Boom."
The ground shattered.
The beast twitched once... and lay still.
Ryoku staggered, breath ragged, his body screaming from the backlash.
The prisoners howled, their morale surging.
The jailer beasts, seeing their guardian fall, wavered.
But they didn't have time to flee.
Sadie arrived.
The air changed.
Even the prisoners—drunk on violence—froze.
Sadie descended the steps like a queen of hell, flanked by four of the largest jailer beasts.
Her voice, smooth and cruel, echoed through the cavern.
"Anyone who retreats... dies where they stand."
The mini-beasts whimpered, but none dared disobey.
Better to face Ryoku's fury... than Sadie's torture.
They turned, charging back toward the prisoner horde.
Blood bathed the stones once more.
The riot swallowed the second level whole.
But Ryoku stood apart.
He wasn't part of their rebellion.
He wasn't here to lead.
He was here to break through.
One level at a time.
And if the seal demanded his body as the price...
So be it.