Marineford, Marine Headquarters Building, Fleet Admiral's Office.
The atmosphere in Fleet Admiral Kong's office was heavy, permeated with an aura of power. Kong, with his tall, muscular physique, sat upright behind his massive desk, his old eyes meticulously reviewing the documents before him, his brows slightly furrowed.
Knock knock knock!
The clear sound of knocking broke the silence. The white-haired old man did not raise his head, and said softly, "Come in."
The door opened, and a silver-haired youth stepped inside. "Fleet Admiral Kong, Marine Academy Student Karl D. Sephiroth reporting!" Sephiroth announced loudly, standing at attention, giving a perfect standard military salute to the old man before him. His heart thumped, a slight anticipation enveloping him.
Kong finally raised his head, his gaze sharp, piercing through Sephiroth. "You are Karl D. Sephiroth...?"
"Reporting, Fleet Admiral, yes!" Sephiroth replied, his voice steady.
"That fellow, Zephyr, told me you wanted a good Saber..." Kong leaned back in his chair, a faint smile playing on his lips. "How are your swordsmanship skills? Have they reached the standard of a Sword Master?"
Sephiroth looked at the other party calmly, speaking neither humbly nor arrogantly. He simply answered truthfully, "I just reached it some time ago."
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Kong tapped the desk with his right index finger gently, his rhythm measured. He observed Sephiroth from top to bottom for a moment, as if weighing something invisible, before finally standing up. He walked to the cabinet behind him, took out a rectangular wooden box, placed it on the desk, and opened it casually.
In an instant, a chilling, ferocious aura emanated from the wooden box, enveloping the room. In Sephiroth's Kenbunshoku Haki perception, the black sword with its scabbard inside the wooden box felt like an extremely hungry beast. It seemed to call out, to shriek, as if begging him to pick it up, to release it from its cage.
Seeing the hesitant expression on Sephiroth's face, and his slight delay in taking the sword, Kong finally spoke to explain. "Its name is Slaughter Blade. In terms of quality alone, it can undoubtedly be classified as a Saijo O Wazamono Grade Sword, but..." Kong paused for a moment, his gaze turning serious. "It is a cursed blade that can take lives. Both enemies and its wielder, their lives will be taken by it and converted into its nourishment. Wounds inflicted by it will be extremely difficult to heal. Those killed by it will have the remaining life force from their corpses absorbed, causing their bodies to wither. And when the wielder uses this blade, merely holding the hilt will cause life force to be continuously absorbed. The more intense the battle, the more life force is absorbed, until the user's life force is depleted."
Kong grinned faintly. "However, conversely, even someone who doesn't know Busoshoku Haki can automatically possess Busoshoku Haki when wielding this blade. If someone with Haki uses it, the power of the slashes released will greatly increase."
After hearing the description of this sword, Sephiroth couldn't help but let a look of surprise flash across his face. This wasn't just an ordinary sword, this was a living force!
He reached out his hand, took the scabbard with his left hand and slowly gripped the hilt with his right, feeling a bone-chilling coldness. Slowly, he drew the sword from its scabbard. The full appearance of the Slaughter Blade was revealed before his eyes...
The bluish-black blade was about 1.4 meters long and about three fingers wide. There was a thin blood groove on the back of the blade. Except for the extremely sharp tip, the blade was covered with patterns resembling red blood vessels, which possessed a horrifying yet deadly beauty.
Sephiroth merely gripped the sword hilt, and the life force within him surged towards the blade like a flood with open gates, forcing him to use the residual life he had absorbed to meet its needs. A momentary feeling of weakness spread through his body.
After a moment, the Slaughter Blade seemed to have had its fill, and the speed of life force absorption slowed, becoming a trickling pace. Roughly speaking, it was a tenfold acceleration of aging... A formidable sacrifice.
However, after the Slaughter Blade had eaten and drunk its fill, a keen aura radiated from its blade. Even without testing the blade, he could clearly feel the terrifying power contained within that sword—a power that demanded its due.
"This blade is the best in the Marine inventory, but for decades, no one has been able to truly wield or control it," Kong explained, his gaze direct into Sephiroth's eyes. "If you can't either, I can give you another one. There are at least still some good Sabers in the Marine inventory..."
"No, I'll take this one!" As he spoke, a golden light flickered in Sephiroth's eyes and his tone was extremely excited, barely restrained. This blade was practically tailor-made for him! Draining life force might be a fatal hindrance to others, but for him, it was utterly meaningless! Just now, this sword absorbed over thirty years of his lifespan at once! For an ordinary person, half their life might be gone, but for him, as long as he extracted the life force from three to five sheep, he could replenish the lost lifespan. An incredible bargain.
Hearing this, Kong nodded with a serious expression. He said solemnly to Sephiroth, "Mm! Since you have accepted this sword, I must give you a bit of advice. I hope you will serve the Marines well in the future and not disappoint my expectations of you."
There was no such thing as a free lunch. The Marines typically provided resources to develop talents, such as famous swords, Devil Fruits, special weapons, etc. But, commensurate with that, the Marines also needed to gain the loyalty of these educated individuals. Sephiroth, as a Marine who was ready to quit at any time and whose stance on justice was not firm, honestly, he didn't want to be bound by these things. However, the Blade in his hand was truly tempting, the promise of unparalleled power so difficult to ignore.
Sephiroth's movement of sheathing his sword paused for a moment, but a brilliant smile soon bloomed on his face, the smile of a shrewd opportunist. "Alright, I understand!"
After leaving the Fleet Admiral's Office, Sephiroth rushed towards the exterior of the Marine Headquarters Building, as if impatient to test his new toy.
Upon reaching the beach at the edge of the island, he stopped and swung a casual slash, neither light nor heavy, at a meter-tall rock nearby.
Whoosh!
A streak of cold red light flashed in the void and disappeared. As the blade descended, he felt almost no resistance; the Slaughter Blade cut directly from the top of the rock down to the sand, as if the rock were made only of water. Its sharpness was truly terrifying, beyond his imagination!
However, conversely, after cutting the rock, the Slaughter Blade absorbed a bit more life force from it, as if replenishing its own consumption! Clearly, he wasn't actively providing Haki for that attack, but this blade did it automatically—a surprising yet advantageous feature. And the cost of using Haki with the sword itself was the direct consumption of one day's life force! For him, this was acceptable... After all, his current amount of Haki wasn't much, while his life force could be freely squandered. Trading his life force for Haki... it was worth it!
Next, Sephiroth corrected his stance, holding the sword with both hands raised before his chest, focusing all his energy.
"Ha!"
With a low shout, he swung the sword, and the Haki within his body rapidly flowed into the Slaughter Blade, imbuing it with immeasurable power. A blood-red sword energy, condensed to the extreme and solidified into a long, narrow line, shot out from the blade, tearing through the sky. With terrifying force, it directly cut off a large section of the cliff twenty meters away from him.
Boom!
The massive rock face slammed into the sea surface, creating countless splashes, its roar echoing throughout the island.
Sephiroth seemed slightly surprised by the clean cut he had made on the cliff face with his swing. He had just tried a full-power Flying Slash in his normal state after being imbued with Haki... However, the sword energy slash he released was stronger than the sword energy slash he used to cut the ship in the sea battle back then! Vaguely, he even touched upon the realm of the Great Swordsman, the realm of sword energy cutting steel with ease, as if slicing through butter.
As Sephiroth sheathed his sword, a faint smile played on his lips. "Tch! If this blade were forged into a Black Blade, wouldn't that be incredible?" he muttered, his eyes implying ambition. "No wonder every swordsman desires a good sword..."
The Slaughter Blade was an exceptionally powerful weapon, causing his current strength to undergo a qualitative leap, but he still needed time to adapt. Only when a swordsman could wield the blade in their hand to unleash attacks with desired power at will, and achieve perfect precision, could they be considered to have fully mastered the weapon, and Sephiroth was determined to reach that level.