One Piece: Max-Level Observation Haki from the Start

Chapter 205: Pressure? It Doesn’t Exist

With the Hades's level of mobility, pursuing them was out of the question.

Roya pondered briefly, then said:

"Those two Overlords and their ships were nothing more than bait the Silent King threw out to distract us.

He's stalling for time. But we cannot afford to waste ours chasing warships that no longer hold any true value for us.

Recalculate our course—we continue to the Ancient Relics!"

The Hades's stores of bio-metal were already full. Even if they managed to overtake and seize Griffith and Gars's vessels, all they would gain were additional raw resources.

Since the Silent King had already discarded these two Overlords—neither of whom were even of his original lineage—he would not have left anything truly valuable aboard those ships.

Far better to resume their search for the Ancient Relics. With luck, they might uncover technology on par with the Ancient God Mechs.

The psionic combat system developed by Nuwa and the squad had already demonstrated extraordinary potential. If they could further unearth Ancient technologies and upgrade their equipment, they would stand all the more prepared for the inevitable final battle against the Silent King.

And along the way, liberating resource worlds from the Necron scourge would weaken the enemy's supply chain. Why not do both?

Im quickly recalibrated their trajectory. The Hades surged forward with full power, accelerating within seconds to quintuple warp speed. In an instant it became a stream of light that seemed to transcend both space and time, racing toward its designated target world.

Within the Tri-Pyramid Necropolis, the Silent King hovered inside a vast assembly chamber, gazing upon the three fragments of Star Gods suspended before him.

Calmly, he intoned:

"You have no other choice. Either place your faith in me, or continue lingering wretchedly inside these shards."

The fragments all released resentful hums. The central shard even transmitted a psionic reply:

"We will never trust you again—and we will never keep wallowing within these cursed fragments!"

"Come then! This time, let us see if you can still use your despicable tricks to bind us within this accursed material world!"

A proud smile stretched across the Silent King's metallic visage.

"If I could trap you once, I can trap you countless times.

Do not think your centuries of research into breaking free of bio-metal bodies has brought you any closer to success. Your work is always lagging—always obsolete.

Compared to us, the Undying, your capacity for research is as nothing.

Once, our lifespans were but one ten-millionth of yours. That is why we understand far better than you the true value of time!"

The shard on the left let out a mocking laugh:

"What is this? Have you gone too long without conversation, growing lonely? Or is it that the boy called Roya has put you under such pressure?"

The Silent King's expression hardened once more into cold, mechanical indifference.

"Pressure? It does not exist. What exists is the inability to part with what one already possesses.

Struggle, then. I eagerly await the moment you tear free of the material world and return to the warp."

With that, he turned gracefully in midair and drifted out of the chamber.

Countless mechanical arms surged forth from the production lines, surrounding the three shards of Star Gods.

Top-grade bio-metal—materials normally beyond price—were welded to the fragments like worthless scrap iron.

Starry light radiated from the shards, softening the bio-metal until it seeped inward, fusing with them.

At least ten cubic meters of top-tier bio-metal ingots were required to expand a fragment's surface by a single square centimeter.

Judging by the sheer size of the assembly chamber, the bodies the Silent King intended to forge for these three Star Gods would be colossal beyond measure.

The amount of bio-metal needed to complete them would be an astronomical figure, unimaginable even to the greatest of civilizations.

The Silent King was sparing no expense to prepare for Roya's meteoric rise and looming challenge.

First, he had thrown two carefully cultivated war machines—the Fourth Archdemon Griffith and the Fifth Warfiend Guts—like mere cannon fodder into Roya's path.

Then he abandoned two ships laden with bio-metal resources, all just to lure Roya astray and buy precious time for the three Star Gods' descent into the material plane.

And now, to forge vessels strong enough to house them, he poured in unfathomable quantities of the highest-grade bio-metal.

No wonder the Star God had so incisively declared: the Silent King was indeed under immense pressure, forced to marshal his full might for war!

"Hmph! At the brink of life and death, what are mere resources worth? If the Four Gods of Chaos had even the slightest interest in the Undying, I would have gladly struck a bargain with those wretches as well!"

"Warp-powered mechs… Roya, you continue to surprise me. To so effortlessly replicate even such Ancient technology…"

Standing tall in the control chamber, the Silent King gazed out the viewport at the endless fleet of transports flowing through the gates, running calculations over and over of every possible outcome in a direct clash with Roya.

Orders streamed from him unceasingly, dispatched across the stars to his other five Overlords, urging them to hasten their harvests and deliver as much bio-metal as possible back to the Tri-Pyramid Necropolis.

Across countless resource worlds, the blood-soaked harvest raged without mercy.

Terrified, despairing peoples fought and fell. Their soul-projections absorbed more warp energy in death than they had across their entire lives—only to be consumed by the seeds the Necrons had sown in advance, transmuted into precious bio-metal resources.

With their deaths, their projections in the warp likewise perished.

So many soul-projections perishing in unison stirred a warp storm unlike any seen in a million years.

Only the oldest of legendary beings could faintly recall the last such storm—when the Ancient Ones and the Star Gods waged their bloodiest wars.

Even the Silent King himself, who had unleashed this slaughter, did not realize that his near-exhaustive, strip-mining frenzy was not benefiting him most at all… but the Four Gods of Chaos.

For though the Necrons harvested boundless bio-metal, the torrents of raw emotion released by the annihilation of soul-projections were even more potent.

The Chaos Gods greedily devoured the negative passions they each adored, weaving them into their vast, planetary-sized warp-forms.

As their warp bodies swelled ever greater, their whispers seeping into the material realm grew louder and more widespread.

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