The bespectacled man watched as the pirates moved to surround The Lucky.
He was actually a World Government agent.
Originally, he had only come to this island to scout for talented children to replenish the ranks of CP, but to his surprise, he had discovered the Myriad Worlds Pirates instead.
A few days earlier, he had already received orders: if he found the Myriad Worlds Pirates, he had to immediately report their location to the Marines and keep them under close surveillance until the Navy arrived.
But as a World Government agent, he wasn't content with merely passing along information.
He wanted the credit for capturing them himself.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a combat specialist, so he came up with another plan.
He would pay the pirates on the island to do the dirty work for him.
After all, the relationship between the Marines and Cipher Pol under the World Government had never been particularly friendly.
That was why he had approached the Tresia Pirates, intending to use money to hire them.
His plan was simple.
Catch the people left on the ship while Ren was away.
Then use those captives to threaten him.
Even if Ren refused to surrender, he still wouldn't be able to leave the island once they seized his ship.
It was a beautiful plan.
The only problem was that he had no idea the people left aboard the ship were far beyond what the Tresia Pirates could handle.
At that moment, Chrysler had already led his men in surrounding The Lucky.
The nearby pirate crews had all quietly moved away the second they saw the Tresia Pirates make their move.
As one of the five strongest pirate crews on the island, the Tresia Pirates were not a group most people wanted to offend.
Chrysler looked at his men and reminded them, "Remember—the people on board are to be taken alive."
"Yes, First Mate!"
Martha had already discovered Chrysler and the others long ago.
But according to her programming, unless the enemy made the first move or attempted to board, she would not counterattack.
Now the Tresia Pirates had already brought over ladders.
They were preparing to climb aboard.
The instant the ladders were set in place, Martha appeared before them.
Looking at her beautiful face, Chrysler couldn't help thinking to himself,
The Myriad Worlds Pirates really are something else. Aside from the captain, the rest of them are all gorgeous women. Once we capture them... maybe I'll get the chance to have some fun first.
But before his fantasies could go any further, Martha's right arm transformed into a plasma cannon.
A single blast sent the pirate who had just climbed onto The Lucky flying backward.
"AAAHHH!"
Then Martha aimed at the remaining members of the Tresia Pirates and said coldly,
"Warning. Boarding is prohibited."
Seeing that she had started fighting without hesitation, Chrysler immediately shouted,
"Attack!"
A wave of pirates raised their weapons and rushed at Martha.
Faced with the crowd, Martha reshaped her liquid metal into a mass of writhing tentacles and charged straight into them.
In an instant, a large number of pirates were killed by the metal appendages.
Watching Martha slaughter his men without mercy, Chrysler realized he couldn't allow her to continue like this.
He thrust out both hands.
A violet sphere of light appeared in his palms.
"Hah!"
With a roar, he launched the glowing sphere directly at Martha.
Martha was incredibly strong on offense and defense, but speed was one of her few weaknesses.
This particular attack was too fast.
She failed to dodge it.
The instant the sphere struck her, it spread out into a hemispherical field around her body.
Then the liquid metal covering Martha began to vanish at an astonishing rate.
In just a few seconds, the massive amount of metal she controlled shrank down to only her original reserves.
A red light flashed in Martha's eyes as her processing unit began analyzing what had happened.
"Hahaha!"
Watching the liquid metal disappear, Chrysler burst into laughter.
"Thousand-Faced Witch, you can't keep transforming anymore, can you?"
He sneered and raised his chin.
"Let me tell you, I ate the Erasure Fruit. I have the power to erase the abilities of other Devil Fruit users."
"Your Devil Fruit power is gone."
At that moment, one of the pirates snapped a pair of handcuffs onto Martha's wrists.
The instant the cuffs closed, the violet field disappeared as well.
Chrysler let out a sigh of relief.
His own power could suppress other ability users, but it didn't last very long.
Fortunately, his men had managed to get the seastone cuffs onto her.
Now that Martha was restrained by seastone, there should have been nothing left to fear.
"Hahaha!"
Seeing the cuffs secured, the pirates all relaxed and laughed, convinced Martha was no longer a threat.
But then, just as suddenly, the laughter stopped.
Because Martha's right arm transformed into a plasma cannon again.
And in the next instant, before the stunned eyes of the pirates, she fired—
blowing apart the head of the pirate closest to her.
"What the hell?! Why can she still use her ability?!"
Chrysler shouted in disbelief.
Then he grabbed one of his men by the collar and roared,
"You idiots! Did you put ordinary handcuffs on her instead of the seastone ones?"
The pirate nearly cried on the spot.
"First Mate, how could that happen? We may be stupid, but not that stupid!"
Chrysler thought about it and realized that was true.
These idiots were fools, but not enough to mistake normal cuffs for seastone.
But if that wasn't the reason, then why the hell could she still use her ability?
Of course, the Tresia Pirates had no idea that Martha was a machine.
The seastone really had blocked her from using her power to multiply liquid metal.
But as a Terminator—an ultimate killing machine—liquid metal was far from the only weapon in her arsenal.
Martha began blasting the pirates apart one after another with her plasma cannon.
She was practically a walking massacre.
The pirates panicked and scattered in every direction.
Watching his men get hunted down, Chrysler cursed viciously.
"Damn it!"
Then he leveled his spear.
Catching the moment when Martha fired another plasma shot, he thrust with all his strength.
Though he was a Devil Fruit user, Chrysler was also an expert spearman.
Clang!
The sound of metal crashing against metal rang out.
Martha was sent flying backward by the blow.
Splash!
The tremendous impact launched her straight off the ship and into the sea.
Chrysler stared at the twisted, deformed spearhead in shock.
He hadn't held back in that strike.
He had attacked with everything he had.
But what defied belief was this—
not only had the woman's body been far heavier than expected, his own spearhead had actually bent.
Was her body made of iron?
No.
Even iron shouldn't have done that to his weapon.
Still...
at least he had knocked her into the sea.
That should have finished her.
"You three—go down and check whether she's dead. If she's still alive, drag her back up."
Just as Chrysler finished giving the order, every hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
He instinctively twisted to the side.
His reaction was fast—
but not fast enough.
His right arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder.
If he hadn't moved at all, he would have been cut in half.
Clutching at the spray of blood, Chrysler stared in horror at the beautiful blonde woman standing there, silver-eyed and calm.
She was breathtakingly beautiful.
And just now, she had nearly killed him in a single strike.
Teresa tilted her head slightly and said in a light voice,
"Oh my. You actually dodged."
Then she vanished.
No—
not vanished.
She was simply moving too fast to be seen.
The next moment—
Slash.
Before Chrysler's mind could even catch up, Teresa had already appeared behind him, and her sword had already passed through his neck.
His final thought was strangely calm.
Why does that body on the ground look so familiar?
Oh... that's my body.
"First Mate!"
The members of the Tresia Pirates cried out as Chrysler's headless corpse toppled over.
Teresa turned to look at the survivors and smiled beautifully.
"You're all with him, aren't you?"
Then she disappeared again.
And when she reappeared, every remaining member of the Tresia Pirates was dead.
"W-What kind of swordsman is this...?"
"Chrysler had a bounty of eighty-eight million beli, and he couldn't even fight back before being cut down!"
"That woman is terrifying!"
The surrounding pirates, who had been watching from a distance, were all shaken to the core by Teresa's overwhelming power.
With a faint smile, Teresa slowly swept her gaze across them.
Every pirate she looked at took several unconscious steps backward.
[Author Note]
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