The icy aura on Bonaba's face sent a chill down King Mars Louis XVII's spine.
Faced with the choice between survival and beauty, he chose without hesitation—his own life.
"Your Majesty! Please don't abandon us!"
The seven concubines he'd chosen screamed, their makeup streaked with tears. They had once felt fortunate to be favored by the king, but now they were being cast aside like broken toys.
Some of the women he had forcibly taken had long accepted their fates. A few even wished those rebel pirates would kill him.
"Captain Les! Take the Royal Guard and escort the royal consorts to the western harbor!"
Under Bonaba's cold stare and the desperate eyes of his concubines, King Louis gritted his teeth and made his choice. Whether the queens survived or not would depend on fate.
"CP3—send two-thirds of your agents to cover the queen's retreat," Bonaba ordered calmly, his eyes narrowing. He intended to use them to divert the attention of the Aralon Pirates.
Meanwhile, he, the king, and a few CP3 captains would escape quietly with the Devil Fruits in hand. That way, their chances of survival would be far greater.
"Yes, sir!"
The CP3 branch chief's face was expressionless, but he understood perfectly. The agents sent to "cover" the retreat were being thrown to the wolves.
Between the royal guards, the concubines, and the CP3 agents, the evacuation group was bloated and clumsy. It wouldn't be long before the Aralon Pirates discovered them.
Following the king's command, the CP3 unit rushed toward the western port under the night sky.
Meanwhile, Bonaba's CP0 squad led the king and several CP3 captains away from the branch office—but instead of heading to the port, they slipped into a small house in the city's lower district.
Their plan was to wait until the pirates' attention was drawn to the larger evacuation force before quietly making their escape.
Not long after, a flash of lightning streaked across the storm-darkened sky. Amid rolling thunder, a blinding figure descended upon the capital of the Kingdom of Bali.
He didn't head for the royal palace. Instead, he shot straight toward the CP3 branch.
"Yahaha! CP0 of the World Government—crawl out here before your god!"
"One Hundred Million Volts: Divine Punishment!"
Enel appeared with a roar of thunder, raising his hand to summon a colossal lightning pillar that obliterated the CP3 headquarters in an instant.
BOOOOM!
Before the terrified eyes of the citizens, the emblem of the World Government was reduced to smoking rubble.
"No one? They ran?"
Enel's expression darkened. Those CP agents had abandoned their post and fled.
Crackle!
In a flash of lightning, he materialized before a group of trembling islanders.
"Ants… tell me where they ran," he said lazily, his tone sharp with cold impatience. The meaning was clear—one lie, and he'd turn them all to ash.
"Th-they went west!"
Under the god's killing intent, the villagers frantically pointed toward the west.
Through his electromagnetic senses, Enel confirmed they weren't lying. Without another word, his body burst into lightning, streaking after his prey.
For once, Barrett wasn't stealing his opponents. This time, he'd crush that CP0 team himself.
As the thunder god vanished, Bonaba's hidden group in the slums exhaled in relief.
"That's… the Thunder God Enel! A bounty of 1.33 billion berries!" whispered one of the CP0 agents, trembling.
"Let's move north," Bonaba said decisively. "The east and south ports are obvious targets. The west's a battlefield now. North should be the safest."
To be cautious, King Louis activated his ability—his head detached and flew high into the air to scout ahead.
Seeing no immediate pursuit, they fled north out of the city.
But ironically, if he hadn't used that flying-head ability, the Aralon Pirates might not have found them. Unfortunately for him, Viola's Gaze-Gaze Fruit caught sight of it, marking their exact position.
Just as they left the capital, a massive flying battleship loomed over the skyline—the Ark of the Omen.
From afar, its crew could already see the smoking ruins of the CP3 branch.
"Go after them. Enel fell for their diversion," Souta Kiryuu said calmly, his arm wrapped around the waist of the Pirate Empress, a faint smile curving his lips.
According to Viola's report, Enel had chased the large group heading west, while the king and the CP unit had slipped north.
"Looks like these CP agents have some brains after all," Lafitte murmured, adjusting his top hat. "If Viola hadn't seen the king's flying head, even we might've been misled."
"What a coincidence," Souta chuckled. "Maybe it's fate—divine judgment catching up with them."
Perhaps their luck had improved ever since Souta contacted Baccarat, the woman with the Lucky-Lucky Fruit.
He made a mental note: it was time to summon Baccarat aboard the Ark of the Omen. With her luck on their side, even the Five Elders and Imu would struggle to catch them off guard.
At the same time, deep within the golden glow of the Gran Tesoro, another part of the Aralon Pirates' grand plan was in motion.
The next step in their voyage to the New World would begin with lifting Gran Tesoro itself into the skies.
Once airborne, Tesoro would make a grand declaration to the world—
that he was joining the Aralon Pirates.
Losing such a massive source of heavenly tribute and protection money would make even the Celestial Dragons bleed.
After all, Gran Tesoro's vaults held over 500 billion berries in liquid cash, not to mention its endless stores of gold, jewels, and luxury treasures.
Tesoro wasn't called the "World's Richest Man" for nothing.
Although much of the city's glittering wealth was made from his Gold-Gold Fruit's awakened powers, the true gold he controlled was still enough to form a giant the size of a mountain.
Less than half an hour later, the Ark of the Omen finally caught up with Bonaba and King Louis's fleeing party.
Bonaba couldn't believe it. They had been so careful—how had they been found again so soon?
Was there a spy among them?
"Captain Bonaba, the flying battleship is gaining on us! What do we do?" a CP3 captain shouted, his face pale.
The king trembled, his own fear nearly consuming him. The massive airship bore down like a divine beast, its shadow engulfing the forest.
"Split up!" Bonaba barked. "You take King Louis and run! We'll separate here!"
He and his two CP0 comrades broke off from the group, hoping to draw attention away.
"Wait! Bonaba, take me with you!" the king cried desperately, terrified at the thought of being left behind. He knew following the weaker CP3 unit meant certain death.
Even a low-ranking officer of the Aralon Pirates could slaughter them all without Souta Kiryuu lifting a finger.
...
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