"Releasing Restriction System Level Three, Level Two, Level One…"
Following Alucard's declaration, the black shadows completely enveloped the golden ship in Viola's sight. Blood-red seeped into the black shadows, leaving not a trace of gold visible.
Alucard's clothes, and even his body, were completely blackened, resembling a shadow. Only a pair of blood-red eyes was visible on his body. His hair was more than twice as long as before, his feet vanished, and the lower half of his body merged into the ship. Lightning-shaped dark shadows erupted from the stern, accelerating the ship to an unbelievable degree, a speed no less than that of a Fish-Man.
"Now then, show me a good performance before I arrive... Dragon!" Alucard cackled menacingly.
"That's incredible. At this speed, it will take less than a few hours to reach here..."
Viola muttered to herself, then quickly withdrew her Glare-Glare Fruit vision and instructed everyone, "No matter what, hold the line for five hours! Alucard will return within five hours!"
Viola was one of the very few people in the Immortal Pirates who dared to call Alucard by his given name. Hearing this, the morale of the Kuja female pirates soared. With that guarantee, wouldn't they surely win?
"Pass this news to everyone who hasn't rebelled, quickly!" Viola decided instantly.
The remaining members of the Poseidon Unit immediately dispatched a fresh group of people to ride the Sea Kings and rapidly disseminate the news across the battlefield.
"Five hours? You must be joking!"
The Revolutionary Army agents mixed in with the Immortal Pirates' rebel forces immediately lost their composure, cold sweat pouring down their faces. "That's wrong! According to the leader's analysis, they couldn't return in five days, let alone five hours!"
Dragon's plan had three steps. The first step was to deploy the current Whitebeard Pirates' 17th Division, who were mostly former Red Hair Pirates, to use their sentimentality against the Immortal Pirates' affiliated Golden Hair Pirates.
The first step succeeded: apart from Ivalis, all the former Red Hair Pirates members, including Beckman, had turned against them.
The second step was to remove key combatants. Zephyr's Trash Disposal Unit was the main combat force under Alucard, and removing them from the battlefield was the main reason for their deployment to another location.
Although Zephyr did not ultimately rebel, he also did not participate, which was counted as a major success, as the core fighters of the Immortal Pirates, such as Fallon and Elzeia, had been dispatched using various pretexts.
The third step was to seize the opportunity while the massive threat, Alucard, was absent. They would use the Devil Fruit incident as a fuse to provoke trouble and instigate a rebellion.
Honestly, had Beckman known the full extent of this, he would have admired the flawless nature of Dragon's plan.
But Man proposes, God disposes.
Who knew why Alucard was returning so quickly?
While the news was good for those who hadn't rebelled, they also found it hard to believe. Was he flying? Even flying couldn't be that fast, could it?
"Did Alucard-sama call via Den Den Mushi?" Urdaha jumped onto a Sea King and asked, enduring the disgusted look from the Kuja female pirate, Ryutan.
"Viola-sama saw him using her Glare-Glare Fruit," Rindo replied, temporarily setting aside the gender gap in the face of a major enemy, giving Urdaha the answer.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several bullets flew in at extreme speed. Urdaha quickly raised his Iron Arm to block them, but the bullets still managed to pierce the steel-forged prosthetic, grazing Urdaha's cheek. One even scraped his right eye. If the prosthetic had not altered the bullets' trajectory, he would have lost not only an arm but also an eye.
"Yasopp, you failure of all failures."
Urdaha gnashed his teeth, glaring with bloodshot eyes at Yasopp, who stood on the Whitebeard Pirates' ship aiming his gun.
Yasopp shouldered his sniper rifle. "Sorry, I won't die until I've avenged Shanks."
"You, of all people?" Urdaha's fury made him laugh.
The fighting between the two sides continued fiercely, but Viola's words had indeed changed the mood of the entire battlefield. Alucard was closing in, set to arrive within five hours.
Had Viola lied to demoralize the enemy, or had her Glare-Glare Fruit truly seen him?
Bang!
Beckman fired a shot at Ivalis, but the bullet was deflected into the air by Ivalis's sword slash. Closing in swiftly, Ivalis twisted his rapier, the blade and his long hair wildly spinning together.
Countless crescent-shaped golden sword slashes rushed out. Beckman jumped onto another ship to evade them.
Boom!!!
The torrent of crescent sword slashes pulverized two pirate ships instantly. Ivalis slowly ceased spinning. Both men looked visibly wounded and exhausted. The difference in their strength was never great, and it was precisely because of Ivalis's power that Alucard had entrusted him with such a heavy responsibility.
"…"
After catching their breath, Ivalis asked, "With your intellect, do you think that woman Viola is telling the truth or lying?"
"No ordinary tool could shorten a ten-day journey to that extent. However, there are many unknown abilities in this world..." Beckman gave an ambiguous answer, meaning he couldn't be certain either.
Ivalis held the flat of his sword up to his face, the reflection showing his own image. "You underestimate the Immortal Pirates too much."
With that, Ivalis turned into a golden flash and rushed toward Beckman. He lowered his body, holding his sword with both hands in a graceful and flawless stance.
"Half-Moon Funeral," Ivalis said coldly.
On the other side, the Revolutionary Army undercover agent within the Immortal Pirates quietly relayed the situation on the battlefield to Dragon.
Hearing the report, Dragon's perpetually stoic face tightened. Four words formed in his mind: "How is that possible?"
He had calculated the distance from Gran Tesoro to Amazon Lily; it should take a minimum of ten days, if not half a month. Returning in less than two days... that was ridiculous!
"...You should retreat first," Dragon ultimately decided after much deliberation, instructing his people to leave.
"But what about those who have already rebelled against Alucard?" the agent's voice transmitted through the Den Den Mushi.
"Well... we can't worry about them right now."
Though Dragon advocated overthrowing the World Government, he had also climbed his way up from a bloody background. Sacrificing others was not something he hadn't done before. Moreover, the ones being sacrificed were pirates, Alucard's pirates.