"Bastard! Is someone trying to take advantage of the chaos?!"
A vein throbbed on Doflamingo's forehead. He held his fingers in a claw shape, pulling on several shimmering strings.
"Wait, Doffy!"
Aeridar's expression changed as a possibility dawned on him. He immediately demanded, "Where did you put the Vigor-Vigor Fruit?!"
At his words, everyone in the room was stunned.
"Damn it!"
Doflamingo was furious. He lashed out with his hand at the golden wall beside him, his sharp strings instantly slicing a hole in it. The next moment, Doflamingo led the charge, and everyone in the room swarmed through the opening.
Ninth Floor.
The hallway was filled with corpses lying in tangled heaps, with severed limbs and arms everywhere. It was a river of blood. Some were cut down by blades, others were crushed by blunt force, and still others were completely frozen solid, a thick layer of frost coating their bodies, utterly lifeless.
"Kill them!"
"Damn it, who are you people?"
"Hold them! Hold them back! The big shots are right above us!"
"Agh! My arm!"
"Push through! Faster! Faster!"
At the end of the corridor, at the entrance to a luxurious room, dozens of people were locked in a chaotic brawl. One side wore black suits, the other, black ninja-like outfits. They fought in a bloody frenzy.
"Hmph. You're too slow. I'll handle this myself! Cold Prison!"
A frigid voice echoed.
Suddenly, the temperature plummeted. White frost instantly covered the walls as if the dead of winter had arrived. Both sides in the hallway began to shiver, completely losing the ability to fight.
"P-p-please, M-master, have m-mercy…"
One of the men in a ninja suit shivered uncontrollably, begging for mercy.
Step... step... step...
A series of clear footsteps sounded as a handsome, blonde-haired young man in a long black cloak and black boots walked toward them. He exuded the air of a high-class noble.
If Aeridar were here, he would immediately recognize this person: the fifth prince of the former Clifford Kingdom, a member of the Dasco royal family, and a user of the Paramecia-type Cold-Cold Fruit, Dasco Benson!
Compared to a few years ago, Benson now looked much more mature.
"You're just cannon fodder. You were all going to die anyway." Benson looked at the group of men freezing to death and let out a cold laugh.
"You... you…"
The group stared, their eyes wide with disbelief.
"I don't have time to waste on you. Just die!"
Benson scoffed, and the temperature around him dropped once more. In a matter of moments, everyone present was frozen to death. Not a single person survived.
"Hmm?"
Benson's ear twitched as if he had heard something.
"That was fast."
Benson let out a soft laugh and threw a punch at the frozen door in front of him.
CRACK!
The entire door shattered into countless pieces.
"Got it!"
Benson walked into the room and immediately spotted the golden box in the center. He opened the box to reveal a verdant green Devil Fruit. He tossed a metal tag onto the floor, then reached for the Vigor-Vigor Fruit with one hand and held the radio in his right ear with the other. "Mando, come get me."
Whoosh!
As soon as he finished speaking, a figure appeared in front of Benson, and the metal tag on the ground vanished.
"Heh heh heh… So this is the legendary Vigor-Vigor Fruit." A pale Mando looked on curiously at the green fruit in Benson's hand.
"That's right, the legendary Vigor-Vigor Fruit. Mission complete." Benson grinned.
"You bastards! Drop that!"
A furious roar echoed. A thick, fiery red string pierced through the wall and shot toward Benson.
"Nani?!"
Benson was startled and swiftly dodged, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack.
Step... step... step...
A wave of rushing footsteps followed as a group of people burst into the room.
"You little brat! Hand that thing over!" Doflamingo stared at the Vigor-Vigor Fruit in Benson's hand, his voice cold and a vein fully bulging on his forehead.
"You're… Dasco Benson!"
At that moment, Aeridar looked at the blonde young man and felt a sense of familiarity before instantly recognizing him.
"It's been a while, Aeridar-dono," Benson said with a smile, greeting Aeridar.
"Damn it!"
Aeridar didn't respond. The moment he saw Mando, his face changed drastically. He roared, "Grab them!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Aeridar threw a punch.
"Huh?"
Tesoro and the others were dumbfounded, unable to react in time.
"This is where we part ways for now! Until next time!"
Benson grinned, waved, and then vanished with Mando.
Clank!
Two metal tags dropped to the floor.
CRASH!
The next moment, Aeridar's fist blast tore through the living room, creating a huge hole in the opposite wall.
"What… what just happened?"
The eyes of everyone present shrank as they watched the two disappear. Besides their shock, their minds were filled with questions as they stared blankly at the two metal tags that had appeared on the floor.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Aeridar was furious. After all that effort, he finally saw the man again, only to have him escape once more.
"No!"
Oz Widwen cried out in despair. The Vigor-Vigor Fruit had been stolen right in front of him. How was he going to explain this to the Gorosei?
"Fuffuffuffuffuffu! I'm so angry, I'm laughing. It seems every demon and devil thinks they can get one over on me."
Doflamingo lowered his head, covering his face with his left hand, letting out a low, eerie chuckle.
ZING!
A shimmering string appeared. The room's decorations were instantly sliced in half by the fine, almost invisible threads.
After a long pause, Tesoro finally snapped out of his daze. He turned his head blankly and asked, "Who were they?"
"Dasco Benson, the former prince of the Clifford Kingdom, a user of the Paramecia-type Cold-Cold Fruit. The other one is his subordinate, a top-tier assassin from the black market, the Black Ghost, Mando. He's a user of the Paramecia-type Swap-Swap Fruit," Aeridar said, his face grim.
"You idiot, don't you know you're supposed to root out the problem completely?! Do you have any idea how much trouble the loss of the Vigor-Vigor Fruit will cause the World Government?! You moron!" Oz Widwen stormed up to Aeridar, seething with anger.
"Do you think I don't want to?!"
Aeridar was enraged. He grabbed Oz Widwen by his collar, unconsciously releasing a surge of Conqueror's Haki. "Do you know how much trouble the Swap-Swap Fruit is?! It has the ability to swap positions with any marked object within a hundred-mile radius! Do you think it's that easy to catch a guy like that?! I've been chasing him for years!"
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TN: Swap-Swap Fruit was prev. translated as Switch-Switch Fruit.
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