The Five Elders' attitude toward pirates has always been rather strange. If they truly wanted to eliminate a particular pirate, if all five of them moved together, forget one Yonko—even two Yonko joining forces could be taken down with certainty.
Yet they allow pirates to run rampant in the New World, refraining from acting whenever possible, letting the Navy and pirates wear each other down.
There's a certain twisted elegance in using pirates to exhaust pirates, while also using pirates to drain the Navy.
From the World Government's perspective, Vane could understand why they did this. If the Five Elders wiped out all the pirates, then what purpose would the Navy serve?
With such a massive organization, if the Navy no longer had pirates as their goal, wouldn't they start looking for another target?
A Navy with no target yet filled with justice… might very well collectively transform into revolutionaries and turn against the World Government. So the World Government needs the Navy to stay busy—and for that, pirates must continue to exist.
As long as the pirates don't threaten the World Government's rule, they don't care how much harm is inflicted on the common people below. If we're talking about harm, the damage caused by the World Government is no less than that of pirates. The pirates' harm is sudden and explosive; theirs is continuous and unending.
If the World Government truly wanted to govern the world well, they should give Devil Fruits to the Navy instead of feeding them to slaves for amusement. They only want to rule—they have no interest in governing.
Moria clashed his two curved blades together.
"Trying to leave that easily? Hehihihi~"
Saint Sommers:
"What, you still want to fight? With just you people, are you planning to drag the World Government into mutual destruction?"
Repelling them without killing them—that was something Vane had anticipated from the start.
If they truly tried to kill Saint Sommers and Shamrock, the World Government's reinforcements would arrive at a speed beyond most people's imagination.
The pirate world contains certain magical elements—for example, the God's Knights and the Five Elders can use long-distance teleportation magic circles. As long as someone guides them, their descent is even faster than Dragonite.
"Moria, let them go… And I hope your World Government won't come to disturb Sleeping Island again. Otherwise… you may suffer losses you cannot bear."
Vane's words carried a measure of deterrence. After all, he had already caused Mary Geoise to suffer heavy losses once before.
"So arrogant. A pirate daring to threaten the World Government and the Celestial Dragons."
The last person to do something like that was Rocks. But in their eyes, Vane clearly couldn't compare to Rocks. That man truly dared to charge straight into the Celestial Dragons' ranks and slaughter them.
In the past several hundred years, there had only been one Rocks. And they did not believe that another pirate with that level of strength and leadership would appear anytime soon.
Sommers left Sleeping Island with an unwilling Shamrock.
By the time they returned to their ship, the accompanying World Government agents had just finished chiseling away the ice surrounding the vessel. To depart, they would still need to break through more than a kilometer of frozen sea.
In order to leave as quickly as possible, Shamrock directly ordered Cerberus Fruit to clear the path.
"Back then, he wasn't this strong… Although we never fought directly, I'm certain of that."
Shamrock had applied to capture Vane precisely because they had crossed paths once before—he knew some of Vane's background.
Yet in just two months, he had become nothing more than a "rookie" in front of the man. If not for the power bestowed by Lord Imu, he would have died outright.
"Shamrock, missions are like this. Even as members of the God's Knights, we cannot underestimate anyone."
When Saint Sommers was young, he experienced the battle against the Rocks Pirates at God Valley. When the Celestial Dragons—who called themselves gods—died, their blood was just as red as that of ordinary people.
Even the God's Knights could not stop those monsters. In the end, it was the Navy and Pirate King Roger who arrived and defeated Rocks.
The young Saint Sommers came to understand the terror of death. He began striving to strengthen himself, all for the sake of joining the God's Knights and obtaining an immortal body.
There is a difference between the Five Elders and the God's Knights. The Five Elders exist on a higher level of life.
The God's Knights' immortality merely prevents them from easily dying by external force. But before time itself, they are still powerless.
The Five Elders, however, are truly immortal. Even time cannot take their lives. The only one who can control their life and death is Lord Imu.
"I lost this time. But I won't keep losing. One day, I'll defeat him."
Saint Sommers, watching from the side, simply felt that young people were too hot-blooded. Against an opponent like that, why rush? With their immortal bodies, even if they couldn't avoid death entirely, they could maintain their combat power to a great extent until the very end.
As for ordinary people, age brings countless ailments. If it were him, he'd rather wait a few decades and celebrate at his opponent's grave.
...
Sleeping Island dock.
Moria: "After failing this time and retreating, they won't immediately attack again, will they?"
They could contend with the enemy's strength, but that immortal body was truly frustrating.
Vane shook his head.
"The World Government probably won't return. The Navy might."
If the World Government truly wanted to eliminate him in one stroke, a teleportation circle bringing five Five Elders along with two members of the God's Knights would have been more than enough. Since they chose to withdraw, they likely wouldn't come again in the short term.
Of course, given how openly Vane was absorbing population, they would certainly send in some spies.
Fujitora:
"I didn't expect their bodies to be immortal. Quite troublesome indeed."
Vane thought for a moment.
"Their immortality can't be absolute. It may be related to some Devil Fruit ability. Seastone weapons or attacks using seawater might be effective."
"If one's Armament Haki is cultivated to an extremely high level… although that condition is probably harder to achieve than the first two."
Imu's power must be intricately tied to Devil Fruits. And Devil Fruits are natural enemies of seawater and Seastone.
Vane even suspected that the reason Imu moved to the Red Line was to distance herself from the sea—not just because of the prophecy of rising waters, but perhaps simply out of pure dislike for seawater.
"In any case, the most critical obstacle to building Sleeping Island has officially passed."
With Dragonite, Vane could travel the entire world. But because the World Government's retaliation had yet to arrive, he had not dared to leave Sleeping Island even a single step.
Now that the World Government had retreated, he no longer needed to keep himself confined to the island.