The Journey of Freedom After the Awakening of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit

"Take all the keys to the sixth floor!" Time was of the essence, and Moria, on a whim, gave the order to the shadow servant beside him.

The shadow servant skillfully walked to the wall opposite the gate and took five sets of keys.

The Shadow Servant had seen and heard everything the older man had said during the introduction, even through the newcomer's shadow, and knew which key belonged to which floor.

After obtaining the key, the Shadow Servant, along with the extinguished oil lamp, sank into Moria's shadow.

The room returned to darkness, and Moria's figure vanished, leaving only a trembling echo.

"Hunting time!"

……

Chapter 178 The First Impel Down Invader in History (Two Chapters Combined)

Monitoring and communication room.

A shadow dragonfly flew out from the shadow beneath the feet of a new prison soldier sitting in a chair and came to the center of the communications room.

"This is…"

The prison soldier sitting opposite the newlyweds happened to turn his head and see the Shadow Servant Dragonfly, but before he could even express his surprise at what it was...

The Shadow Servant Dragonfly disappeared, and Moria's enormous six-meter figure appeared.

"Whoosh...!"

The moment he appeared, Moria's mind raced, and the shadow beneath his feet flowed like water, quickly engulfing the eight soldiers in the communications room, excluding the soldier from the East Sea, rendering them immobile and speechless.

Moria then swiftly enslaved the eight soldiers.

"…Owner!"

The shadow slave soldier from the East Sea was taken aback when he saw Moria, and then he suddenly knelt down on one knee and called out to Moria instinctively.

Although he had no prior recollection of Moria, the Shadow Slave's instincts compelled him to submit to Moria the moment he saw him.

This is what makes shadow slaves so terrifying.

"Get up!"

Moria nodded slightly. As the East Sea Shadow Slave soldier stood up, the shadow enslavement of the other eight prison soldiers was also completed.

After gaining access to the shadow realms of others, Moria's ability to enslave ordinary people's shadows became incredibly fast, taking only a few seconds to complete.

The moment Moria appeared in the monitoring and communications room and manipulated the shadow, a faint but powerful aura erupted with his action.

The burst of energy was brief, and then subsided again, so much so that even Moria didn't notice it.

But some people noticed.

The warden's office, at this time, was not yet the fourth level of the prison, but the first level.

At that moment, the burly director behind his desk in the office suddenly frowned, stood up from his chair, and looked down at the second-floor communications room with a furrowed brow.

Is it just my imagination?

The warden whispered that just now, he had sensed a powerful aura flash by in the monitoring and communications room.

"No, it's not an illusion. There is definitely another person's presence in the communications room."

After carefully sensing the area with his Observation Haki, the warden confirmed that there was indeed an extra person's presence in the monitoring and communications room.

The monitoring and communications room is always staffed with nine people. It's just past lunchtime, so who would be in the monitoring and communications room at this time?

Moreover, the person's aura was unfamiliar; he didn't know them. Furthermore, the faint trace of aura they had just revealed was so powerful that it terrified him; otherwise, he wouldn't have noticed it.

After all, there are so many people in Impel Down, he can't possibly investigate every unfamiliar presence, especially since many new people have arrived recently, some of whom he's never even seen before.

However, someone who possesses that powerful aura is definitely not a soldier newly arrived in Impel Down.

"Could it be..."

Upon realizing that the prison warden might be an escaped convict, his expression changed instantly. He quickly left his office, beckoned the guards outside to follow him, and headed towards the elevator.

Meanwhile, the prison warden hurried along, picking up his Den Den Mushi (snail phone) and contacting the monitoring communications room.

He needed to determine the exact situation in the monitoring and communications room.

At the same time, it was also a clear message to Moria, this stranger: I have found you. No matter who you are or what your plans are, you are destined to never escape Impel Down.

It must be said that the warden was furious and confident. He never thought of sneaking into the monitoring and communications room to ambush Moria, but instead chose to take matters into his own hands.

"Um…"

In the monitoring and communications room, Moria frowned. His Observation Haki had a limited range, so he couldn't sense the warden's actions. However, just as he successfully enslaved the eight soldiers in the monitoring and communications room, the Den Den Mushi on the monitoring console suddenly rang.

"What a coincidence!"

Moria's expression was not good. He did not believe that such a coincidence could happen. He then looked at one of the Shadow Slave soldiers and asked him to find out who made the Den Den Mushi call.

The soldier walked to the monitoring console, glanced at the incoming Den Den Mushi, and turned to Moria, saying, "Master, it's the Chief!"

It's really... speechless. I wanted to do it quietly, but as soon as I got the key and entered the monitoring and communication room, I started to manipulate the shadow, and I was detected.

Needless to say, Moria knew that he had been detected by the warden of Impel Down's Observation Haki.

Otherwise, the Den Den Mushi wouldn't have called so promptly.

"So, how come Luffy's invasion of Impel Down was so easy back then? Did Magellan's Observation Haki only work on certain people? Did he selectively ignore it when he encountered Garp's grandson?"

Moria shook his head inwardly, but couldn't help but mutter a sarcastic remark.

He then quickly ordered the Shadow Slave soldiers: "Immediately cut off all communications with Naval Headquarters!"

"Yes, sir!" The soldier who received the order quickly destroyed the Den Den Mushi that was supposed to contact the Navy Headquarters.

This way, at least half an hour will pass before the Navy Headquarters knows what's happening here, Moria thought to himself.

"Now, let's smash the surveillance screens so that the warden doesn't know who he is, whether he's an infiltrator or an escapee. This way, I'll have more time to go to the sixth floor and complete the transformation of the Red Earl and the others into his shadow servants."

Moria, having quickly devised a plan, manipulated his shadow to destroy all the surveillance screens.

Then he instantly killed all the soldiers in the monitoring and communications room.

This was to mislead the warden into thinking that someone had escaped from prison.

"Oh right, and the power room too!"

Moria suddenly realized that the power room controlled the elevator that went directly from the first floor to the sixth floor, and that it had to be destroyed.

Moria immediately swapped places with a shadow servant dragonfly that flew out from under a shadow slave soldier in the power room and left, then instantly reappeared in the power room.

"Sizzle sizzle...!"

In the instant he appeared, without becoming a shadow slave, Moria directly manipulated his shadow to pierce the heads of everyone in the power room, including the shadow slave soldiers.

"Bang bang bang...!"

Moria then proceeded to smash everything in sight, successfully destroying all the equipment in the power room.

Realizing that the elevator couldn't be started, he instantly switched places with the Shadow Servant and left.

This time, he appeared on the sixth floor, where Shadow Servant Dragonfly had been present since early morning.

"Tap tap tap...!"

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed down the long corridor.

The prison warden, who was rushing towards the elevator to take it down to the second floor to the monitoring and communications room, suddenly frowned slightly.

That stranger struck again. The warden's Observation Haki detected that everyone in the monitoring and communications room was dead.

"That bastard!"

"If I catch you, I'll make sure you spend a good long time in the interrogation room!"

With a low growl, the prison warden shouted another command to the soldiers behind him.

"Hurry up!!"

The warden, annoyed by the soldiers' slow pace, decided to speed up and run towards the elevator himself.

But before he could even start running, he suddenly stopped.

"Hmm...in the power room!"

"not good!"

The warden's pupils contracted slightly. He sensed with his Observation Haki that Moria had suddenly disappeared from the monitoring and communications room and appeared in the power room. Then, all the soldiers in the power room died instantly.

Needless to say, it must have been that stranger who killed him.

He immediately turned around and ran towards the power room, which was on the first floor, not the second.

As he ran, the prison warden tossed a Den Den Mushi (snail phone) to the soldier behind him, instructing him to immediately notify the deputy warden and the chief guard.

"Quickly, notify Magellan that he doesn't need to go to the communications room anymore, and immediately take his men to the sixth floor. Hogura, go back to the communications room and see if you can contact Marine Headquarters. If not, immediately go to the sixth floor and hold it with Magellan!"

"We must not allow anyone to infiltrate the sixth floor and release the prisoners inside."

The prisoners on the other levels are manageable; the warden is confident he can suppress them at will. But the sixth level is a different story. There are too many powerful prisoners there, and if they are released, the situation will definitely not be what the warden wants to see.

"Yes, Warden!" Upon receiving the order, the soldier behind the warden quickly connected with Magellan and the guard's men via Den Den Mushi (snail phone) to inform them of the warden's command.

"Go to the sixth floor!" Magellan, who was originally on the third floor and was rushing towards the elevator, also knew the importance of the sixth floor. He immediately changed direction, took the passage to the fourth floor, and then went through the fifth floor to the sixth floor.

Meanwhile, the warden, who happened to be on the second floor, continued running towards the monitoring and communications room.

The warden of the prison had only turned around and run for a few seconds when, according to his Observation Haki, that aura suddenly disappeared again.

This time it truly disappeared; at least it was no longer detectable by his Observation Haki.

Judging from his extraordinary Observation Haki perception, that unfamiliar powerful figure was at least not on the first or second level.

"Did he escape using a teleportation-like ability?!"

The warden guessed that the unfamiliar, powerful man must be a Devil Fruit user, based on the sudden appearance of him from the second-floor monitoring and communications room to the first-floor power room.

But...did he really escape? The warden wondered as he continued toward the power room.

"wrong!!"

The warden's expression suddenly changed; he had figured it out.

"That guy isn't an escapee, he's an intruder!!"

"First the monitoring and communications room, then the power room. That guy must have destroyed both of those places. He destroyed the monitoring and communications room to keep the outside world from knowing about Impel Down's situation, and he destroyed the power room to prevent the Marine Headquarters fleet that might be sent to reinforce from passing through the Gates of Justice."