EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons

"How are you doing this? Even if you're the Dark King...you shouldn't be able to resist my poison..." panted a nearly five-meter-tall and very burly man with features reminiscent of a mandrill, sharp teeth, pointed ears, a pair of detachable, demon-like horns, similarly detachable, bat-like wings, and a thick, well-groomed, afro-like beard. His attire consisted of a black, military-style trenchcoat with a popped collar and fifteen silver buttons, a maroon undershirt, a black tie, a brown belt, olive-green military trousers, and black leather boots, and his hands appeared mechanical, with metal plates over his knuckles and multi-segmented fingers vaguely reminiscent of metallic hydraulic lines.

"Honestly? I have no earthly idea," responded Rayleigh, sporting a smile as he, alongside Luffy and Robin, stood across from the demon-like man, Warden Magellan, on a fifteen-meter-wide, hundred-meter-long catwalk that loomed over a pit of thousand-degree flames. Magellan had eaten a Devil Fruit known as the Doku Doku no Mi(Venom Venom Fruit), allowing him to produce and control various types of poisons. Even island-sized Sea Kings could be felled by simply coming into contact with his poison, so while he could understand Robin's ability to resist with an enclosed, ostensibly impermeable suit, Luffy and Rayleigh should have succumbed simply breathing in the sleeping, paralytic, and hallucinogenic gases that filled the air.

Representing Magellan's greatest source of frustration, Luffy, covered nearly head to toe in gelatinous purple poison that made his skin hiss and produce hazy white steam, defiantly asserted, "I'll admit it...you're really powerful, bat guy...but it doesn't matter how much pain I have to endure! You can't stop me from saving my brother...!"

Midway through his declaration, Luffy's body gained a ruddy sheen as even more steam erupted from his pores. Then, at a rate exceeding one hundred punches a second, he exclaimed, "Gomu Gomu no—Jet Gatling!" and bombarded Magellan with heavy punches that could leave deep fist imprints in thick, reinforced steel.

Demonstrating why he was the Warden of Impel Down, Magellan endured most of Luffy's near-hypersonic punches, including multiple direct hits to his face, without flinching. He was pushed back centimeter by centimeter, but any ground he gave up was quickly recovered as he occasionally took a resolute step forward.

"Veinte Fleur~!"

Accompanied by the resonant sound of Robin's voice and numerous pink flower petals spreading through the area, a total of twenty arms sprouted across Magellan's body, grasping at his head, covering his eyes, pulling at the sides of his mouth, locking his joints, and holding his ankles to prevent him from stepping forward or defending his vitals. Luffy took advantage of this by throwing his hands back several tens of meters before launching a hypersonic double-palm strike against Magellan's abdomen, but even that barely caused the man to tumble backward and plop onto his bottom, and only because Robin had a hold of his ankles.

"Aaaaaaaaagh! He's not a Logia, so why do my attacks barely affect this guy...!?" exclaimed Luffy, the muscles in his face spasming as the poison from Magellan's body soaked through his hands and forearms from simply coming into contact with him. Fortunately, as intense and numbing as the pain was, it only seemed to affect the surface of his skin, allowing him to keep fighting.

"It's because you still have a ways to go as a pirate..." hummed Rayleigh, causing Magellan's circular eyes to widen and his pupils to contract as he directed a crimson-hued slash at him, leaving a second deep scar across his chest. Were it not for Rayleigh's presence, he was confident he could have defeated Luffy and Robin within moments, but the aging man wasn't known as the Dark King for nothing.

"Dark King Silvers Rayleeeeeeigh...!" shouted Magellan, forcing himself to his feet and charging forward like a runaway locomotive despite the deep, crisscrossing wounds on his torso. The viscous purple poison coating his body began to take on a menacing, dark crimson hue, but before he finish closing the distance, Rayleigh moved forward like a bolt of crimson-tinted black lighting, landing a heavy kick to Magellan's abdomen that sent the much larger man flying back and crashing through a wall faster than Luffy and Robin could perceive with their eyes.

'This has to be the work of that Vahn fella...' thought Rayleigh, staring at his left foot, covered in crimson-hued poison that attempted to sink into his flesh and spread through his body. Instead, it slowly sloughed down his leg, causing a burning sensation comparable to magma and leaving a necrotic patch of skin that promptly regained its complexion as if nothing had happened. From there, it gradually ate through the stone that formed the bridge, exhibiting how harmful it should have been.

"That was some kick..." panted Luffy, doing his best to shed the poison blanketing his body as he realized he only hurt wherever it made contact with his skin.

"Ha! You think that was impressive? You should have seen what I was capable of twenty years ago..." hummed Rayleigh, taking a moment to sheathe his inordinately long sword before removing his circular glasses to clean them.

"We should move on from this area as quickly as possible," suggested Robin, modeling a sleek, cat-eared diving helmet that vaguely resembled the protective headwear of a motorcyclist. Poisonous gas hung like a fog in the air, and the heat rising from below was affecting her even with her strengthened Devil physiology.

"Right! We've gotta hurry and save Ace...!" exclaimed Luffy, producing a piece of bone-in meat larger than his head and swallowing it, bone and all, before taking off with renewed vigor. Before becoming an Ascendee, his stamina would gradually diminish throughout a hard-fought battle, but with an Inventory full of grilled meat, Crimson Bapples, and several health and stamina potions, he could fight for days without rest.

"That ability seems rather convenient..." commented Rayleigh, exhaling from his nose before slowly shaking his head and returning his glasses to his face.

"It's but one of the many boons of being an Ascendee," remarked Robin, sprouting a pair of thin, bat-like wings so she could pursue Luffy without having to sprint in oven-like conditions. Rayleigh took note of her wings, but as it wasn't the best time for an idle chat, he eventually took off after Luffy, prompting Robin to flick her wings and follow close behind a meter or so off the ground...

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"I feel as though we can see the influence of fate as events develop..." remarked Venelana, referring to how each Straw Hat invariably met an opponent that suited their skill set or pushed them to their limit. Sanji, as an example, ended up encountering the female Head Jailer of the prison, resulting in him getting beaten one-sidedly due to his refusal to fight back against a woman. Meanwhile, in another section of the prison, Chopper and Usopp encountered the prison's Jailer Beasts, a quartet of awakened Zoans that forced the former to employ his artificial awakening, Monster Point, to take them on while the latter ran around like comic relief, freeing prisoners alongside Buggy and Mr 3 to cause a riot.

"I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Zoro ends up meeting Shiryu before the raid ends..." appended Vahn, his gaze fixed on the various displays as he stood behind the bent-over Grayfia with his hands on her waist and his hips impacting her round and pliant buttocks. At the same time, Venelana floated behind him using her devil wings, her arms linked around him and her hands caressing his chest as she similarly paid attention to the events playing out on the displays.

"But that might be trouble..." added Vahn, his brows creasing slightly as he stared at a display showing five Marine battleships approaching Impel Down via the powerful sea current once blocked by the Gates of Justice. It was presumably the group tasked with escorting Ace to Marineford, but there was at least one person among them who wasn't there in the canon timeline: Admiral Kizaru.

"Shall I deal with him~?" asked Grayfia, her voice tinted with passion but her expression relatively calm even as her pussy clung greedily to Vahn's presently 32cm-long member.

"No," responded Vahn, his expression and tone firm as he asserted, "They should have deployed him to deal with me or Rayleigh. Once his fleet exits the Tarai Current, I'll head out to play with him..."

"Lady Tiamat's Aura of Karmic Protection may not be able to fend off lightspeed attacks empowered by spirit energy..." reminded Venelana, sounding more amused than concerned. Vahn seemed pretty confident that he couldn't be killed within Invirtua, and after witnessing what else he could do, she had absolute confidence in his perenniality.

"I'm well aware..." affirmed Vahn, pulling Grayfia flush against him and willfully filling her baby chamber to the brim as he asserted, "But I want to see how I compare against the pinnacle of the verse. It will serve as a useful point of reference for when I face even faster opponents..."

Seeing Grayfia bend over even further, her hands grasping her ankles, Vahn resumed his movements without hesitation. Kizaru could reach Impel Down within an instant if he used his light-based Devil Fruit, but since he lacked control over great distances, he traveled with his fleet. According to Sis, it would take said fleet a little more than five hours to reach Impel Down using the Tarai Current, so while there were several things he needed to prepare before the battle, it was only seventh on his list of priorities...

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Though it took longer than expected due to the jailers collapsing the elevators and blocking nearly every passage using meter-thick steel doors, Luffy and Rayleigh eventually reach the deepest level of Impel Down, a spacious, blue-tinted stone chamber with a distance of 200m separating the ground and floor. Compared to the upper floors, which included a spiky, bladed forest, a complex labyrinth of fierce beasts, a desiccated floor without food or water, a hellish floor with boiling blood pools and flames, and a sub-zero region where ordinary humans would freeze to death within seconds, it was downright peaceful. However, as every prisoner present subsisted almost entirely on their internal energy reserves and spirit energy(haki), it had a depressive atmosphere akin to a monastic chamber or cemetery.

Inhaling a deep breath, Luffy shattered the discomfiting atmosphere in one go by shouting, "AAAAAAAAAAAAACE! I'M HERE TO SAVE YOU!" at the top of his lungs.

"It's not possible..." muttered a raven-haired, exceptionally well-built young man with curly, chin-length hair, slight freckles, and a tattoo on his left arm depicting the letters ASCE with a cross through the S. Despite his status as a prisoner, he wore a necklace of red, rosary-like beads around his neck, black shorts, black boots, and a bright orange belt with a buckle bearing the letter A. This and the tattoo on his left arm were noteworthy as the native language written and spoken in the world of One Piece was Japanese.

Seeing Luffy zero in on him, tears began swelling in the young man's eyes before he became enraged and screamed, "YOU DAMNED FOOL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE WE ARE RIGHT NOW!?"

Raising his fists triumphantly, Luffy adopted a remarkably broad smile and shouted, "Ace! There you are!" before rushing over with Rayleigh following close behind with a tired smile.

"What the hell are you doing here...?" asked a remarkably deep and raspy voice, prompting Rayleigh to pause mid-step and direct his gaze to a large cage containing an extraordinarily muscular man with slicked back, mane-like blonde hair, reddish-brown skin, and a prominent burn scar on the left side of his neck and chest.

"Douglas Bullet..." muttered Rayleigh, his eyes briefly narrowing before he adopted a warm smile and remarked, "I certainly didn't expect to find you down here."

Interrupting the duo's exchange and Luffy and Ace's reunion, the other notorious prisoners present became riled up, many recognizing Rayleigh and many more shouting to be released. Unfortunately for most, Rayleigh knew most of them deserved much worse than being locked away for the rest of their lives, so most of their pleas fell on deaf ears. A few, however, were people he knew from his days as a pirate, so after their noise started to annoy him, Rayleigh grinned and released a burst of lightning-like black and crimson Conqueror's Haki that left Luffy speechless and knocked out all but nine of the most powerful and willful prisoners present...

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(A/N: Just a friendly reminder that there are 205 chapters available on my Patreon if you would like to read ahead and receive up to three chapters to day o3o...)