Not long after, the four Elders left the Room of Flowers.

Once they were gone, Imu — remaining in place — turned around and looked at the massive canopy of the Pillar of the World behind Him.

He could feel the power contained within that tree — an endless, inexhaustible Source Energy of Lineage Factor sufficient to shape a world out of thin air.

That was originally His power.

Compared to this, the recent events in Dressrosa and the death of Saturn — the portion of power He had lost from the Abyssal Sea Contracts — should have been insignificant to the Abyss.

But now He was not the Abyss. He was Imu.

He raised His hand, looking at His young and forever vibrant human fingers.

“Lily… Davy…”

Imu’s voice was cold.

It was because of them. Only because of them.

They had caused Him to be bound. His vast and endless power could only exert a tiny fraction.

Just like the cocoons that could be seen everywhere in this Room of Flowers. Butterflies continuously burst them open and emerged.

That was also the desire in Imu’s heart — He too yearned to break the cocoon on His body and restore His original form.

But for so many years, the fruit that could grant Him freedom had been evading Him.

This was what led to His current situation, where the possibility of being caught up to by Star Lord actually existed.

“No…”

But upon thinking of this, Imu’s voice turned cold again.

He took a few steps and quickly arrived at the very end of the Room of Flowers.

He raised His finger and swiped it casually.

A door silently emerged in the air.

He stepped through and arrived at a secret chamber.

Massive wheel-lock vault doors opened one by one, and bone-piercing cold froze the ground.

But to Imu, the cold was insignificant.

He strode forward. He saw the giant straw hat placed in the secret chamber.

He didn’t care. He continued on.

Then He arrived at the deepest part.

And there lay two indescribably massive behemoths relative to Imu’s body.

One was the skeleton of a certain giant — demon-like horns growing from its skull, clearly an ancient giant. But the crucial point was its sheer size, almost even larger than the legendary “Country Puller” Oars.

That giant had been dead for an unknown number of years. But due to the low temperature, its skeleton was still intact, and intense Conqueror’s Haki seemed to linger within it.

“Nika… the first Warrior of Liberation.”

Imu murmured the name softly.

Then He sneered.

The so-called Warrior of Liberation — yet his corpse was kept in the deepest part of Pangaea Castle. That fact alone was enough to explain things.

“Freedom — a naive and boring word.”

Making this judgment, Imu’s gaze shifted to the other side of the giant skeleton, to a mechanized behemoth.

Zzt! Zzt!

Wisps of flame seemed to burn within it.

And if Vegapunk were here, he would inevitably recognize it. This thing was very similar to the Mother Flame he had invented.

But the difference was that within the flame of this machine, there seemed to be flashes of lightning-like electricity.

“Star Lord…”

Imu looked at the object, and the sense of urgency in His heart finally settled.

“You will not have the chance to catch up to Me.”

Yes.

The world had turned eight hundred cycles in His hands — and in even more ancient eras, He had witnessed everything.

Just like the name of this castle representing Him.

Pangaea Castle — the so-called Pangaea, meaning the “Lord of Creation” and the “Most Ancient One.”

These long years were enough for Him to accumulate countless trump cards.

So even if Star Lord had already shown the potential to catch up to Him, even if His power was bound because of the betrayer and the madman’s abilities — it still didn’t matter.

He still had the ability to erase Star Lord.

All He needed to do was wait.

Wait for Star Lord’s next appearance before Him. Before the World.

At that time, the entire sea would naturally return to calm once more.

The world would be bound anew — just as always.

Half a month later.

The existence of the Five Elders was naturally not a secret — most people with a basic understanding of the world knew of the “highest authority.” But at the same time, the Five Elders were very unfamiliar to the world. Everything about them was mysterious; most ordinary citizens didn’t even know their names.

Because of this, the news of Saint Saturn’s fall was not widely known among ordinary citizens.

For most people, the discussion still centered on the battle between Hebi and Hawkeye — another top executive of The Zodiac appearing was massive fodder for conversation in its own right.

As for the spider monster that appeared at the end of the battle, that footage and all related information had been locked down. The entire story was restricted to circulating within an extremely small circle.

But for those holding high positions or serving under the World Government, the situation was clearly different.

For example, citizens of the Government’s affiliated nations had recently noticed that their kings and nobles — who usually extorted heavy taxes and bullied the common people — seemed to be very well-behaved lately.

They were busy every day, seemingly anxious about something.

Many kings had built bunkers within the span of half a month, seemingly for hiding. And many had suddenly become amiable toward the Marines stationed within their countries.

Marine Headquarters naturally felt this even more keenly.

“One of the Five Elders, Saint Saturn, died — speaking of which, that thing that appeared at the end on Instein Island was…”

Smoker, who had followed Roy back to Headquarters, was muttering to himself.

“The Five Elders are actually ability users. And they died at the hands of The Zodiac.”

As a general of Marine Headquarters, he had heard about this.

“So what?”

But Roy happily took a sip of iced cola. “Didn’t Vice Admiral Garp and Fleet Admiral Sengoku say someone had already filled the vacancy?”

“…That is the highest authority in the world!”

Smoker looked at Roy with exasperation. How on earth had this man bungled his way into the Vice Admiral position?

“Even if you don’t know about the recent changes in attitude of the countries worldwide, you should at least be able to sense it, right?”

“The Government has given the Star Hunters Unit even greater authority — even granting you the right to pass through Mary Geoise without applying, and the right to conscript independently… This must be related to Saturn’s death!”

Smoker spoke with assurance.

“The affiliated nations are all willing to hand over their transit rights, only asking that you regularly patrol the Four Seas and Paradise. This means you can go to any country and arrest anyone, as long as you deem them related to The Zodiac. The duties of the Star Hunters Unit have surpassed the regular duties of the Marines. Even when the Seven Warlords fell, the Government didn’t agree to anything like this.”

“This shows the Government urgently needs your help to restrict The Zodiac’s increasingly unrestrained activity — to maintain the balance of the sea.”

“Power is not infinite. For you to gain such great authority, someone must have relinquished theirs… There must have been a power struggle within the Government to reach this point.”

“Most crucially — after a Five Elder died, the Government didn’t choose to immediately dispatch elites for a full-scale crusade against The Zodiac… There must be other secrets at play. The Government’s wariness toward The Zodiac far exceeds our original understanding.”

He looked at Roy.

Roy rubbed his chin, then nodded. “Mm, Hina definitely told you all of that. Your brain couldn’t think of these things.”

Smoker fell silent.

Thinking that this man was actually the second-in-command of the Star Hunters Unit — holding power exceeding that of an Admiral — he felt very angry.

And besides — was his performance really that obvious? He had clearly simplified and summarized Hina’s words.

“Don’t worry so much about it.”

But Smoker said in a deep voice: “I want to join the Star Hunters Unit!”

Yes. Recently, a simple reorganization was taking place within the Marines. The Star Hunters Unit would be officially established, drawing elites from the various armies and the Marines under the World Government.

“Got it. Didn’t I already hand in your application form to Fleet Admiral Sengoku for you?”

Roy picked his ear.

Smoker was even more speechless.

The commander of the Star Hunters Unit was Garp, and the vice commander was this man before him. But these two were, without exception, hands-off bosses who shirked responsibility — to the point that the actual transfer and recruitment work was still being carried out by Fleet Admiral Sengoku.

“I’m not talking about that… I’m saying, I want to join!”

But Smoker naturally understood. The so-called application form meant nothing to Roy. Whoever he wanted in the Star Hunters Unit could join — this was within his authority.

And undoubtedly, Smoker was eager for this.

Because he had already realized it. That filthy state of the world he once thought impossible to change had now changed.

The World Government had relinquished power, and the authority of the Star Hunters Unit could be called unprecedented. Under such circumstances, joining would clearly allow Smoker to smoothly execute his Justice.

And most importantly, Smoker knew very well — although this man was usually unreliable, he was absolutely not the kind of superior who would disgust him at crucial moments.

Of course—

“Ha?”

Roy said very unhappily: “Captain Smoker, who do you think you’re talking to?”

“A subordinate cannot speak to their superior like this. And before asking someone for a favor, you must first offer an iced cola. This is common sense — understand?”

He slapped the table.

“Didn’t you see Hans’s lesson yesterday? Do you think I wouldn’t dare tear up your application form?”

Smoker said nothing.

He decided to take back his previous thought. As a superior, this man was truly terrible.

Not long after, accompanied by Smoker helplessly going to buy cola with a sour expression, Roy hummed a tune in his office, fully satisfied.

“When he comes back, I’ll say I don’t drink this brand… Mm, is this the taste of power? No wonder some people get corrupted.”

While humming, he gently raised his hand.

An object appeared in his palm.

It was a Vivre Card.

And on the Vivre Card, the name of its owner was written.

Shanks.

☆☆☆

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