Imu slowly stood and walked steadily to the window. His gaze lifted slightly toward the glass. Only after a moment did he speak in a low voice.
"Joy Boy, do you know? The new 'Davy' has found a helper who does not belong here."
He paused briefly, then continued, "From the information pried out of those insects, around a year ago, this person descended in a village in the Maka Mountains. He wore strange clothes and was covered in wounds... The insects said he was laughing madly at the time, as if he had finally broken free of something."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A mysterious woman in a cloak walked to a spot three steps behind Imu, knelt on one knee, lowered her head, and said, "Imu-sama, please give your orders."
Imu did not turn around. His gaze lowered slightly, landing on the edge of the window frame's shadow. His tone remained calm. "Has no news come back from Elbaf yet?"
"Reporting to Imu-sama, no news has arrived."
Silence spread through the room like a tide.
After a long while, Imu spoke again. "Pass an order to the Five Elders. Closely monitor all users of the 'Gum-Gum Fruit' on the sea. Capturing them alive is the highest priority. Unless absolutely necessary, do not take their lives."
Yes. Even if the eater of this generation were killed, the Devil Fruit would eventually be reborn. Then it would once again deliberately avoid the World Government, be eaten by someone else, and a new round would begin.
"As you command, Imu-sama," the cloaked woman answered softly, then withdrew in silence.
In Elbaf, in the Underworld, Harald was not stupid. The moment Ron said "there are still ninety-nine forms," he realized he had been played. Naturally, he would not stubbornly take the remaining ninety-nine Tailed Beast Bombs head-on.
Rocks had not spoken the entire time. He had not exposed this number game, and he had not even given Ron a look that said stop messing around.
That meant Rocks had tacitly approved of this explanation. Tacitly approved that this one move truly had one hundred forms.
"Pirates really are cunning," Harald cursed under his breath, his voice shredded by the roaring wind. Then he pulled the corner of his mouth in self-mockery. "And I really am naive... to have believed a pirate's nonsense."
As those words landed, his gaze changed. The giant sword in his hand shifted angle. He no longer waited and no longer probed.
His hand tightened slowly around the hilt. Then he exploded forward, stepping across the broken ground like a stone mountain pushed down from a peak, charging at full speed toward the golden Nine-Tails.
His enormous body dragged an afterimage through the smoke, making the four people inside the golden Nine-Tails freeze at the same time.
"What's this guy trying to do? The three moves aren't finished, are they?" Silver Axe spoke first.
"Hey, hey, he's cheating!" Kaido's voice immediately exploded. He pointed at Harald, who was charging toward them, and looked at Whitebeard and the others. "Where's the referee? If this isn't a foul, I'll take his surname."
Whitebeard's gaze darkened slightly. "Kaido, do you think we're playing a game on the ship? Where would a referee come from?"
"Stop discussing that for now," Silver Axe said faster, with rare urgency. "Ron, hurry up and control this big thing to run!"
"No rush. I'll start with a round of bombardment," Ron said calmly.
As soon as his voice fell, the golden Nine-Tails' chakra arms opened at the same time. The Tailed Beast Bombs that had already formed shot one after another from countless palms like lit bombs.
Dark-red light dragged blazing trails through the gray-white smoke, like a painting of flames being drawn at high speed.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Countless Tailed Beast Bombs fell like torrential rain, weaving an airtight firepower net in the sky over the Underworld.
Harald slammed on the brakes. His feet plowed two deep trenches into the broken ground, gravel rolling to both sides like waves split apart.
His enormous body suddenly turned sideways, beginning to dodge the dark-red points of light raining down from the sky.
Boom, boom, boom!
Explosions rang endlessly behind Harald.
The earth was struck by Tailed Beast Bomb after Tailed Beast Bomb, as if hammered by countless giant iron hammers at once.
Rolling smoke shot into the sky from the explosion points like one gray volcano after another, dyeing the already chaotic sky even darker and heavier.
Harald moved through the smoke. Each dodge scraped past the edge of an explosion, scalding heat waves chasing from behind him.
He was waiting for an opportunity. He guessed that with such high-density energy attacks, Ron could not last long.
He only needed to counterattack the instant the other's rhythm showed a flaw.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Ron's attacks showed no sign of stopping. Tailed Beast Bombs, Ice Release, and lava spheres appeared alternately on the battlefield in different forms of energy, tracing burning and freezing paths through the sky of the Underworld. They wove together into a continuously burning net.
Looking around, the smoke was already so thick that it almost buried half the body of the golden Nine-Tails.
Most of the ground had collapsed. Seawater surged in through the cracks, cutting the remaining rock layers into isolated islands.
Rocks and Loki had long since retreated below the golden Nine-Tails, standing on a high patch of ground that had not yet broken apart.
Harald: "???"
Whitebeard: "???"
Silver Axe: "???"
Kaido: "???"
Rocks: "???"
Honestly, Harald's mentality nearly exploded in that moment. Earlier, he had guessed that with such high-density energy attacks, Ron could not possibly last for long.
Yet he never expected that Ron's power would seem inexhaustible. If Harald wanted to approach, he had to eat wave after wave of attacks just to get close.
Whitebeard had thought he understood Ron's power well enough. Now it seemed this guy's strength had simply exceeded imagination.
Silver Axe was completely dumbfounded. Those who knew him knew this was Ron. Those who did not would think it was a mobile artillery platform - and one that never needed to reload and never got tired.
Kaido's mentality was different. The more he watched, the more excited he became, his eyes almost shining. What Haki? What Taijutsu? None of that was as practical as finding a Devil Fruit like this.
Bombard whoever you disliked. That was the path of strength he dreamed of.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong. Twelve points wrong out of ten.
Rocks felt Ron was still hiding things. This brat could no longer be described as a monster. He was simply a weapon of war. Rocks felt he could take Ron to the Holy Land Mary Geoise and bomb it once, then run after finishing. Ron's ability to flee was first-rate anyway.
After Mary Geoise rebuilt halfway, they could go repeat the operation. The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
At that moment, Golden Lion Shiki appeared at the edge of the battlefield through the smoke.
His gaze passed through layer after layer of thick smoke and landed on the golden Nine-Tails wildly bombarding everything. His smile slowly froze.
"Did they steal the giant kingdom's national treasure? Why are they fighting this desperately?"
But soon, Shiki laughed again. Although he did not know what it was exactly, anything that could make Harald fight like this was absolutely valuable.
This trip was worth it.
"Mama-mama." Linlin's voice soon came from behind him. "I think so too."
Shiki's brows suddenly tightened. He glanced toward the direction of the voice and saw Linlin sitting on her thundercloud, floating over quickly.
Shiki realized he could not be slow. He had to enter the battlefield before Linlin, then put on an act and paddle around. Otherwise, if he asked for a share later, he would absolutely be rejected.