"Impossible! That's impossible!"
Boom!!!
Under the pincer assault from Luffy and his two clones, Shamrock's body was blasted away once more like a cannon shell, hurtling violently into the darkness behind him.
Yet at that very moment, the dark mist that should have cushioned Shamrock slowly dissipated, revealing the hard wall behind it.
And so his body slammed straight into that ancient wall with over eight hundred years of history, instantly flying out of the Room of Flowers.
With Shamrock's departure, the darkness that had shrouded the entire Room of Flowers rapidly faded as well, restoring normal light to the chamber.
But under the ravaging power of darkness, the Room of Flowers—once filled with fragrance—was now left in utter ruin, as if it had been carpet-bombed by missiles. Everywhere one looked, there was nothing but devastation.
"He's not down already, is he!?"
Tap!
Dropping from the sky, Luffy shook out his slightly numb wrist and stared at the hole in the wall Shamrock had smashed through, muttering softly to himself.
At that moment, with the aid of Nami's Secret Technique / Light Up, Red and the others had also finished defeating the remaining hundred-plus members of the God's Knights that Shamrock had brought with him.
Seeing that things had calmed down on this side, Red flashed to Luffy's side and asked:
"Is it over?"
"Probably... not yet, right?"
Luffy scratched his head in confusion, staring at the dark opening he himself had punched through.
Even though the other side had taken quite a few of his blows just now, that was still combat power at the level of an Emperor of the Sea. There was no way he would lose the ability to fight that quickly.
"Is that so~"
Red turned his head and glanced at the God's Knights lying on the ground.
Compared to the powerful Shamrock, these God's Knights hadn't caused them much trouble.
Even the strongest among them, the new deputy commander, only had strength at the level of an admiral candidate.
Once Zoro and Sanji started going all out, those hundred-plus ability users didn't even have time to stir up much chaos before they were all flattened.
Under Red's instructions, however, the Straw Hats had not killed any of the God's Knights. Instead, they had simply knocked them unconscious, planning to stuff them into Usopp's body warehouse later.
Judging from the battle just now, the World Government's frantic efforts during this period had not been useless.
Those hundred-plus God's Knights had actually all become ability users on average!
More importantly, not a single one of them possessed some trash-tier ability. Every single Fruit was practical and worth developing.
Even with the effects of the Dark-Dark Fruit involved, that efficiency was still astonishing.
"Hurry and finish this, Luffy!"
"I'm guessing the Five Elders will be back any moment now."
"Even though we didn't accomplish our main objective, getting these hundred-plus ability users as test subjects means this trip wasn't wasted!"
"Got it~"
Luffy nodded, then turned his gaze toward the direction where Shamrock had disappeared.
But just then, four pitch-black magic circles suddenly appeared inside the now-re-illuminated Room of Flowers.
"Hm?!"
The sudden anomaly instantly caught Red's and Luffy's attention, and both of them looked toward the black magic circles that had just appeared.
"They came back this fast?!"
Red let out a startled sigh, then immediately issued an order to the Straw Hats through the mental network, telling them to gather up the hundred-plus unconscious God's Knights.
At the same time, he sent a message to Usopp and the others outside, telling them to prepare to receive them and get ready to retreat.
It had already been nearly two hours since they descended upon Mary Geoise.
Two hours might not seem that long in a war.
But in the hands of pirates, two hours was already enough time to plunder an entire city!
Not to mention that the ones who had come to Mary Geoise this time were no ordinary pirates!!!
This time, the number of Celestial Dragons killed in Mary Geoise by the Straw Hat Grand Fleet alone had already surpassed four digits.
And if one also counted the guards, butlers, and all the other attendants serving the Celestial Dragons, then in just two short hours, the total number of casualties throughout Mary Geoise had exceeded ten thousand!
Whether for the World Government or for the Celestial Dragons, this was unquestionably a devastating blow.
Without eight to ten years, there was no way they could recover to their peak state.
Of course, that was assuming they even had another ten years left to live.
...
...
"Received, Lord Red!!!"
In the outer district of Mary Geoise—
Buggy, who had just blown up a Celestial Dragon estate with a Buggy Bomb, suddenly sharpened his expression and responded seriously.
Then his body abruptly halted, stopping in midair.
"Hm? What's wrong, Buggy!?"
Galdino, vice captain of the Buggy Pirates—also known as Mr. 3—looked up in curiosity and asked.
Buggy immediately answered:
"The Five Elders are back!"
"Lord Red just sent down an order telling us to return to the Merry at once and prepare to retreat at any time."
"They got back that fast?"
Wearing thick wax armor, Galdino smacked his lips, a trace of reluctance flashing through his eyes.
A job where he could slaughter the World Nobles at will... who knew if he'd ever get another chance like this in his lifetime?
He hadn't even had his fill yet!
"Forget it." Galdino sighed, then immediately said:
"I'll leave the rest to you! I'm taking these treasures back to the Merry first!"
"Mhm~"
Floating smugly in midair with his arms folded across his chest, Buggy nodded to Galdino. Then, through his mental network subchannel, he immediately relayed Red's orders to all members under the Straw Hat banner.
In an instant...
Whether they were chasing down Celestial Dragons in the streets or searching through estates for priceless treasures, every pirate who received the order stopped what they were doing at once and rushed toward the Merry like a disciplined army following commands without hesitation.
For a time, all the pirates throughout Mary Geoise receded like a falling tide, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
All that remained was a shattered Mary Geoise, along with the corpses of Celestial Dragons lying everywhere in all manner of gruesome death.
...
...
Meanwhile, inside the Room of Flowers—
Under Robin's Flower-Flower Fruit ability, all the God's Knights were swiftly transferred and piled together.
Then, with a wave of Red's hand, a Hyperspace Hole opened, sending all of those God's Knights over to Usopp's side.
Uta was sent along with them.
Although she had been part of the Straw Hat Pirates for some time now, after Red had power-leveled her to Level 50, he had basically left her alone ever since.
A Level 50 Uta, paired with the miraculous Sing-Sing Fruit, was at the very least on the level of an elite Vice Admiral.
However, in front of the Five Elders, even an elite Vice Admiral could be erased with a single glance.
So rather than risk her getting hurt by accident in the battle to come, it was better to let her return to the Merry as a member of the Straw Hat Pirates and take charge of the overall situation there.
With her status as an unrivaled diva, she could actually accomplish quite a bit outside the battlefield.
This time, Red had only brought her along to broaden her horizons.
Though it sounded complicated, Red had already completed all of the above in the instant the magic circles appeared.
By the time the heads of four enormous monsters emerged before the Straw Hats, not a single member of the God's Knights remained in the Room of Flowers.
"Straw Hat crew!!!"
The Five Elders appeared in the Room of Flowers with blazing fury in their eyes.
They had never imagined that after painstakingly making preparations to move against the Whitebeard Pirates...
they would be stabbed in the back by the Straw Hat Pirates like this!!!
Although they still did not know exactly what had happened in Mary Geoise, from the reports of the God's Knights, they had already learned of the massacre that had taken place within Pangaea Castle.
In an instant, vast Conqueror's Haki wrapped in flames of rage crashed down upon the Straw Hats like a sea-toppling avalanche.
But Red had long been prepared for the techniques of these old acquaintances.
With a mere wave of his hand, a mental barrier instantly enveloped the Straw Hats, leaving their minds unaffected in the slightest.
"Oh my~ starting off with a show of force right away? You old bastards really are getting ruder with age, aren't you?!"
Under the terrifying storm of pressure, Red slowly raised his head, his gaze lazily sweeping across the four enormous monsters before him.
At the same time, he confirmed something in his heart.
"I have to admit, the antimatter world really is a wonderful thing!"
Looking at the Five Elders lineup that only numbered four, Red's eyes gleamed as he marveled inwardly.
He didn't believe for a second that after all this time, Imu had still failed to find a replacement for the next Five Elder.
And if the Five Elders still only numbered four, then there was only one explanation: the vacant position occupied by Mirabelagon had never been returned!
Unlike Saint Saturn, who had died immediately upon entering the antimatter world before, Mirabelagon's natural lifespan had not yet run out.
So even after being severed from Imu, she could still remain alive.
And once that connection was broken, Imu had no way to reclaim the authority of a Five Elder from Mirabelagon...
Which meant that as long as Mirabelagon remained alive and imprisoned inside the antimatter world, one seat among the Five Elders would remain forever absent.
"Straw Hat crew! Look what you've done!!!"
Faced with Red's mockery, the Five Elders ignored him and instead continued roaring angrily at Red and the others:
"You actually turned Lord Imu's Room of Flowers into this state..."
"Unforgivable!!! Absolutely unforgivable!!!"
Perhaps realizing that their own decision-making had gone wrong yet again, the Five Elders began flattering Imu the moment they returned.
But upon hearing that, Red suddenly let out a sneer.
"Hey, hey~ we weren't the ones who did this!"
"We had no time to waste attacking some useless broken flower garden!"
"This was done by one of your own people—the guy who looks exactly like Red-Haired Shanks."
"Shamrock!?"
From Red's description, the Five Elders immediately realized who he was talking about.
Only then...
Wait, that's right!?
Where had Shamrock gone!?
Ever since that brat inherited his father's post and became part of the God's Knights, he had long since dropped his previous respectful attitude and was always pointing fingers at the Five Elders' plans.
So why had he vanished at such a crucial moment!?
They hadn't returned that slowly, had they!?
The moment they received the news, they had abandoned their original plan and immediately used Lord Imu's power to rush back here.
"I'm over here!"
Just as the Five Elders were wondering, a hoarse voice suddenly rang out.
Then, from the wall in the distance, Shamrock—wearing the face of red hair—jumped down from above and swiftly arrived beside the Five Elders.
But his current state was nothing like the calm and composed demeanor he had shown earlier.
His hair was in disarray, his clothes were ragged, and his body was covered with one unmistakable fist mark after another...
All of it was proof that he had just gone through a battle of no small scale.
"Shamrock, how did you end up like this!?"
Seeing this, the bald Five Elder immediately demanded an explanation.
Shamrock's eyes darkened, and in a hoarse voice, he said:
"It was Straw Hat brat Luffy..."
"His power... isn't controlled by my darkness!!!"
"I see..."
Hearing this, the Five Elders showed little emotional reaction.
Perhaps they had already expected as much.
After all, Nika was also known as the Sun God form, so being able to break through darkness seemed perfectly natural.
At this moment, the Five Elders still had not realized the severity of the problem.
What Shamrock meant by Luffy's power was not the so-called Nika form at all.
And that meant that Luffy, without relying on his Devil Fruit ability, already possessed the strength to fight a top-tier Emperor-level powerhouse!
And not just fight—
but utterly overwhelm him!
And if Luffy were to use his Nika form on top of that...
Whoosh~!
A scorching gust of wind suddenly swept over the heads of the Five Elders, cutting off their train of thought.
Sensing an unprecedentedly intense aura of life, the Five Elders and Shamrock abruptly looked up toward the Straw Hats.
And then...
they saw a gigantic Luffy, his body wreathed in white flames like streaming ribbons, grinning foolishly at them with a huge smile.
"Looks like the real fight is only just beginning!!!"
Having entered his Nika state, Luffy cracked his knuckles, his eyes blazing with battle spirit.
"Be careful, Luffy. Don't get too carried away," Red immediately reminded him after using the mental barrier to protect the Straw Hats.
"After all, we didn't come here today to wage war!"
"Everything depends on retreating safely!"
"Don't worry, I know, Red!" Luffy answered knowingly.
As he experienced more and more, although Luffy still outwardly looked like his usual innocent self, deep inside, he had quietly grown more mature.
"Mm." Trusting Luffy completely, Red nodded lightly.
Then he released Zoro and Sanji from within the mental barrier and said to them:
"This is a rare chance for a fight. The two of you can handle keeping Shamrock occupied for a while!"
"Hey, hey, Red, you're underestimating us too much!"
Hearing that Red had given them such a simple task, Zoro and Sanji immediately protested in dissatisfaction:
"Exactly! He's just some Emperor-level guy. What do you mean 'keep him occupied'!?"
"With my strength and that moss-head's, we ought to make sure he never sees tomorrow's sun!!!"
"All right, my mistake."
The corners of Red's lips rose as he readily admitted the error.
"Then your mission... will be to help the World Government lose yet another top combatant and kill the new commander of the God's Knights!!!"
Although Shamrock possessed talent equal to Shanks's, and in addition had the Dark-Dark Fruit that Blackbeard could only dream of day and night...
It was like two key Emperor-level factors condensed into a single body. There was no way the little he had shown so far was the limit of his abilities.
Against a wildly overpowered, cheat-enabled Luffy, that was one thing.
But against everyone else...
Still, since Zoro and Sanji insisted on raising the difficulty for themselves, Red naturally had no intention of discouraging them.
Come to think of it, it had been a while since he had checked on their training progress.
If the two of them had developed some interesting new abilities during this period, then perhaps they really might create a miracle.
After all...
Luffy wasn't the only one with cheats~!
(End of Chapter)