One Piece: Failure’s Road to the Pirate King

"Sage!"

Just as Sage looked up, a figure as swift as lightning rushed to his side.

Lily, with her right hand resting on the hilt of her sword at her waist, wore a serious expression. "Did you have a battle here? I saw Navy on the way and heard the commotion."

She had been buying perfume at the shop when she heard the loud noise, and upon looking ahead, she saw an unusually thick fog rising.

Moreover, the rain had stopped.

She immediately handed her things to her subordinate and came over alone.

However, as soon as she arrived, she saw Smoker gasping for breath in the pit. After a moment of shock, she turned to look at the man above who seemed to be watching the show.

"Who are you?" Lily's gaze turned cold.

"An impolite guy."

Sage walked to the edge of the pit and kicked Smoker over, pulling a cigar from his chest pocket. He instinctively said, "Paru, give me that one."

As he spoke, he was taken aback; that kid seemed to have gone with Akin to take an injured person to the doctor. Now, only Miote and the newly arrived Lily were beside him.

"No fire?"

Sage clicked his tongue, preparing to search Smoker for a lighter, but at that moment, a red glow caught his eye, and he instinctively looked up at the person above.

Boom! Flames erupted from the cigar's tip, igniting it.

"Sorry, I got a bit curious and lost track of time."

The man in the orange cowboy hat extended a finger, smiled at Sage, and then jumped down from the rooftop, landing on the ground. He adjusted the brim of his cowboy hat and said, "Norton Sage, I've seen your Bounty Notice. The newspaper says you destroyed four Kingdoms. Looking at you now, you really are strong. And you must be Enderta Lily, you look even better in person."

While paying attention to Luffy, he also noticed these two, especially Sage, whose recent Bounty Notice had skyrocketed to two hundred seventy million. From both the monetary value and the level of Haki, he didn't seem like someone who had just arrived at the Grand Line.

Lily's eyes narrowed. "A bounty hunter?"

"No, my name is Ace, and I'm a Pirate too." He smiled. "We're in the same line of work."

Sage was momentarily stunned, narrowing his eyes. "Ace?"

The inexplicably appearing flames made Sage take a puff from the cigar and slowly exhale the smoke. "Oh, it's you, the captain of the Whitebeard's second division."

Then, he lost interest and turned to walk away.

Having lived for over twenty years, he had long forgotten the plot of the original story. He could only recall Luffy and Ace when he encountered them; to him, they were just passersby.

Protagonists?

What did that have to do with him?

They weren't even his relatives.

Especially this guy, who was watching the fight, made Sage feel like a monkey on display.

If it weren't for the apology and the cigar, he wouldn't have been so easy to talk to.

Seeing Sage walk away, Ace shrugged and glanced at Smoker in the pit, laughing, "Looks like you're having a bad day; you can't stop me."

Although he was somewhat curious about Norton Sage and had thought about bringing him onto his father's ship upon recognizing him, after observing, he abandoned that idea.

He wasn't someone who would settle for being beneath others.

Ace turned his back to Sage and the others, preparing to chase after Luffy.

"Whitebeard?" Lily followed behind Sage, puzzled.

Whitebeard's reputation was, of course, well-known. Anyone who wasn't completely ignorant of news would know.

His name echoed across the seas, appearing in songs sung by children as a monster and an embodiment of evil, often used by adults to scare children, like "If you misbehave, Whitebeard will come to catch you."

He was a living legend.

But there were always those who didn't know, like Lily, who had never left the Royal Palace and had no exposure to outside news.

"One of the four Emperors of the Sea, and one of my long-term goals, a monster on the Sea, but…"

Sage thought for a moment and said, "Now he's just a sick old man who will be replaced sooner or later."

Boom! A flame shot between Sage and Lily, exploding into a burst of sparks.

Sage stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the man behind him, whose head was slightly lowered, the brim of his hat obscuring his eyes, with flames flickering on one arm. He said in a deep voice:

"Are you not satisfied with just watching? Ready to step into the ring yourself? Portgas D. Ace."

Ace adjusted his orange cowboy hat and grinned, "I can't just pretend I didn't hear that. Whitebeard is the greatest man in the world, not some sick old man. Shouldn't you apologize?"

Sage turned to face Ace, biting down on the cigar and raising his head, exhaling a puff of smoke. "Am I not speaking the truth?"

We are all Pirates, navigating the Sea with our own dreams and ambitions; who cares about each other's status?

To him, Whitebeard might be formidable, but that had nothing to do with him; in fact, he might even be an enemy on his path forward.

After all, the territory occupied by the Four Emperors was the largest.

"I can't stand anyone slandering my father, especially someone like you. It seems you've heard about my father's age, so you want to target him, huh?"

Ace grinned maliciously. "You don't have to wait until the New World for my father to teach you a lesson. As the captain of Whitebeard's second division, I'll let you know the vastness of the world right now, and teach you some manners along the way."

"Such a hot-headed guy."

Sage clenched his fist, a sinister smile gradually appearing on his face. "Just right, I was still considering whether the smoke's strength was insufficient; let's use you as a test!"

"Flame Pillar!"

His arm transformed into flames and suddenly pushed forward, shooting out a rapid fire column that instantly reached Sage, exploding and spreading into a wall of fire on the ground.

This kind of flame couldn't possibly form a wall unless it was being blocked.

Behind the flames, a gust of wind blew from the side, stirring Lily's hair and revealing her slightly astonished expression.

Along with it came the burning flames and the fur cloak of the man behind.

Sage bit down on the cigar, looking down at the flames igniting on the ground, his gaze gradually rising to Ace on the other side of the flames, slowly saying, "Not bad in power."

It was pure flame, without a body, but its power was far greater than that of smoke.

Haki couldn't grasp these things, but it could attack and knock the flames away.

As for who had the upper hand, it depended on whether the power of the flames was greater or the strength of Haki.

Natural Type indeed didn't require Armament Haki; Haki couldn't cover elements, but its power was already sufficient.

"A worthy opponent to test."

Sage opened his right hand, leaning it against the side of his head. "Let's greet each other first!"

Whoosh! The hand resting against his head swung forward forcefully, extinguishing the burning flames in an instant, as if it had encountered an extremely strong air pressure.

Boom!!

The ground where Ace stood let out a tremendous sound, as if something hard and massive had plowed through it, revealing a deep rectangular trench.

Above that trench, a burst of flames spread out, quickly condensing into a bundle, leaping towards the rooftop, revealing Ace still engulfed in flames.

He looked at Sage's hand, his expression turning serious.

Was that External Release?

Shouldn't it be Impact? Why did it destroy the ground like this? And that amount of Haki… just a casual wave of the hand unleashed such strong Haki; how much Haki did he actually possess?

As someone who had just arrived at the Grand Line, wasn't that a bit too much?