The voice went from relaxed to terrified in a single instant.
Boom!
The ground heaved upward as a colossal sandworm with a cross-shaped scar on its head burst out from beneath the earth.
Black flame clouds coiled around its enormous body.
A spotted boar wrapped in the same dark clouds charged out behind it, followed by a monstrous spider-like creature with the body of an ox-demon.
"Retreat!"
A shriek rang out from somewhere atop the enormous flower bud.
The gigantic mass of vegetation, originally created to imprison everyone inside, immediately began contracting.
"You think you can leave?"
Cyrus snorted.
A burst of flame erupted through the flower bud with a figure trapped inside it, smashing straight through the wall of vegetation before crashing into the ground.
The tremendous impact made the earth tremble.
Aramaki spat out a mouthful of blood. His chest had caved in, though it was already regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The three Elders who had emerged after his warning reacted quickly.
The instant Aramaki shouted, they split apart and rushed toward different sections of the flower bud.
Scorching flames were already surging from the tunnel they had used to enter.
Before they could reach the walls, however, they discovered that Aramaki's floral prison had already blackened and carbonized.
"One's missing."
Cyrus rose leisurely and looked at the three awakened Devil Fruit users who had been forced back into the clearing.
Aramaki climbed to his feet once his chest recovered and stared at Cyrus with a grave expression.
"Did you leave yourself another backup this time?"
Cyrus turned toward him, genuine curiosity in his voice.
"A backup?"
Aramaki's heart tightened.
How was he supposed to answer that?
No matter what he said, Cyrus would undoubtedly deliver a devastating blow.
"Aramaki, hold him back!"
The ox-demon spider roared.
As though they had planned it in advance, the sandworm immediately began burrowing underground.
The spotted boar charged toward the wall of flames, while the spider followed the sandworm and tried to escape below the surface.
Aramaki's face twisted, but he still obeyed.
His skin turned green as his body rapidly expanded, flesh transforming into thick, coarse bark.
"So you did leave another backup."
Cyrus smiled and made no attempt to pursue the others.
"Forbidden Forest!"
In the blink of an eye, Aramaki became a colossal tree-man over a hundred meters tall.
His immense shadow swallowed everything below.
Crocodile and Reiju remained where they were, neither dodging nor attacking.
Their confidence in Cyrus was absolute.
"They really came—and they're much bigger fish than expected."
Crocodile stared toward the spots where the three monsters had vanished, his tone strange.
He had expected the World Government to send assassins.
He had not expected the Five Elders themselves to come.
"Die!"
The towering tree-man roared.
A fist made from countless intertwined trunks and branches descended toward Cyrus.
The massive wooden arm was thick enough to inspire instinctive terror, and it was coated in dense Armament Haki.
Aramaki clearly intended to accomplish something with this strike.
Cyrus raised one hand and punched upward.
Firelight flashed.
A gigantic pillar of flame suddenly erupted into existence and pierced straight through the tree-man's Haki-coated arm.
The enormous limb disintegrated from a single blow.
Flames burst outward from within the wood, and the shattered trunks and branches burned to ash before they could even hit the ground.
After striking once, Cyrus vanished.
A heartbeat later, his figure reappeared.
Then came a deafening roar.
The thunderous crack of objects moving through the air at extreme speed converged with streaks of fire.
Three enormous figures flew back from different directions and slammed into one another.
The impact unleashed a tremendous shock wave, leaving the three battered monsters piled together.
During the instant Cyrus had disappeared, he had caught up with each of the fleeing Elders and kicked them back into the clearing.
"You've already seen me."
Cyrus walked toward the tangled mass of monsters.
"Did you honestly believe you could still escape?"
Compared with the three creatures, his body appeared almost insignificant.
He emitted no overwhelming aura either.
Yet all three Elders felt their hearts sink.
Any remaining hope was finally crushed.
Fear of death had clouded their judgment.
They had allowed themselves to imagine that Cyrus might not be present, that the assassination might succeed, and that Imu would reward them afterward.
Now it felt as though a basin of freezing water had been poured over their heads.
Once their minds cleared, they realized how recklessly they had been playing with fire.
They had made an unbelievably stupid decision.
Boom!
The tree-man's remaining arm came crashing down from above, seemingly attempting to rescue the three Elders.
Cyrus looked up and threw a punch with his left hand.
Space warped in front of his fist.
The force compressed the air itself, and the blow struck from a distance.
A massive hole exploded through the tree-man's chest before flames engulfed its body.
The giant toppled backward.
Just as before, it burned away completely before it could finish falling.
Since Aramaki's true body was not here, Cyrus paid him little attention.
The Woods-Woods Fruit allowed its user to leave behind a seed and regenerate from it later.
Such an ability undoubtedly had limitations.
But Aramaki had become far too troublesome, and Cyrus had no intention of continuing to tolerate him.
His real body was most likely in Mary Geoise.
Imu had also left her mark upon him, granting him a form of immortality.
Or perhaps she had simply taken an interest in his ability to revive through seeds.
Cyrus decided that the next time he visited Mary Geoise, he would extract the Woods-Woods Fruit.
He turned his attention back toward the three giant monsters now climbing to their feet.
Standing side by side, they resembled three small mountains.
"You're awfully quiet."
Cyrus smiled.
"Trying to think of a way to beg for your lives?"
"Would you spare us?"
The ox-demon spider asked in a deep voice.
"No."
Cyrus shook his head.
"Then there's nothing to discuss."
The creature, which had previously possessed the upper body of a man and the lower body of a spider, transformed completely.
Its body expanded into that of a gigantic spider.
The other two followed suit.
All three fully assumed their Mythical Zoan forms, each one comparable in size to Aramaki's towering tree body.
Whoosh!
Two enormous pincers stabbed toward Cyrus with scorching heat, moving with astonishing speed.
The instant they struck him, his body vanished.
The pincers plunged into the earth.
Their venom immediately began corroding the ground, rapidly enlarging the crater around them.
At the same time, the massive sandworm transformed from Saint Peter opened its enormous mouth and descended.
Its target was not Cyrus, who had disappeared.
It was Crocodile and Reiju.
The Elders understood that escaping while Cyrus was present was nearly impossible.
But nearly impossible was not the same as completely impossible.
Everything depended on whether Aramaki could act quickly enough.
Before then, they intended to seize Crocodile and Reiju as hostages.
That might buy them some time.
The sandworm's open maw descended like a colossal sack falling from the heavens.
Sand erupted outward.
Crocodile swept Reiju into the storm, creating an enormous sand vortex.
"The chairman may be absurdly strong, but I'm no pushover either."
Crocodile's voice echoed from within the storm.
Then an immense suction force erupted from the sandworm's mouth.
The sandstorm immediately became unstable.
Yellow sand was dragged into the creature's throat in ever-increasing quantities.
"Ignite."
Cyrus's voice suddenly rang out.
The sandworm froze.
From head to tail, its entire body transformed into a blazing torch.
Countless flames erupted from within.
The inferno consumed its insides, the brightness shining through the creature's outer flesh so clearly that everyone could see it.
Fire poured violently from every wrinkle and cavity across its body.
Its tremendous vitality kept it alive for a time.
The gigantic worm thrashed wildly across the ground.
The spotted boar and enormous spider felt a chill at the sight.
Even if they wished to help, they had no idea how.
"Wait!"
The spotted boar suddenly spoke.
"Lord Imu will not stand by and allow us to die. The consequences are something even you cannot endure."
With no other option, the boar invoked Imu's name, hoping it might make Cyrus hesitate.
At the very least, it could buy time.
"Heh."
Flames gathered in midair, forming the upper half of Cyrus's body.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"I'll attack even Imu whenever I feel like it. What makes you think the three of you matter?"
Both the boar and spider felt a flicker of hope when Cyrus responded.
"But we still have value. All of us do—including him."
Since Cyrus was willing to talk, the boar tried to use the opportunity to save Saint Peter as well.
Before he finished speaking, however, the sandworm stopped thrashing.
The flames did not weaken.
Under the horrified gazes of the other two Elders, the sandworm burned away completely until not even ashes remained.
The boar and spider instinctively backed away.
"I wonder whether he can revive after that."
Cyrus's voice dragged them out of their terror.
"Judging by your expressions, apparently not."
"We…"
They wanted to say something but had no idea what.
Imu had granted them immortal bodies.
But if every trace of the body had been burned away, how could that immortality still function?
They were not Aramaki, capable of leaving replacement seeds behind.
"Your summoning array seems rather slow."
Cyrus smiled.
"Would you like me to notify the person responsible? The one who didn't appear is handling the ritual, isn't he?"
"How do you know that?"
The two surviving Elders finally lost their composure when Cyrus exposed the summoning method.
Before either could recover, a gigantic pentagram appeared beneath them.
"It's here!"
The two were overjoyed.
The ox-demon spider opened its mouth and spat out a vast torrent of venom toward Cyrus.
The pentagram flashed.
Both enormous creatures vanished completely.
Flames filled the air.
The flood of poison did not survive even a single instant before being consumed.
The sandstorm dispersed, revealing Crocodile and Reiju once more.
"Chairman?"
Crocodile looked confused.
Cyrus had clearly possessed enough time to stop them.
Why had he allowed them to leave?
"Confused?"
Crocodile had been staring at Cyrus's fiery figure in the sky, but the voice came from behind him.
"Yes."
He spun around and found Cyrus standing nearby with his hands clasped behind his back.
"It seems this place will need repairs."
Cyrus glanced around casually.
"That's not a problem, but the two who escaped…"
Crocodile still wanted an explanation.
"Escaped?"
Cyrus raised an eyebrow.
"Do you truly believe they could escape from me?"
'You were obviously the one who let them go.'
Crocodile wanted to roll his eyes but wisely restrained himself.
"I already planted flame seeds inside them."
Cyrus waved a hand.
"They'll deliver a surprise to the others."
"That takes care of everything. I should head back."
"Wait!"
Seeing Cyrus prepare to leave, Crocodile hurriedly stopped him.
"They won't come after me again, will they?"
He had become considerably less confident.
When the sandworm opened its mouth, even after transforming into sand and creating the storm, Crocodile had felt unable to escape.
Without Cyrus's intervention, he truly believed the creature would have swallowed him.
He had underestimated the Five Elders.
Against Cyrus, they were not even worthy of being called opponents.
Against Crocodile, however, they were enemies he could not hope to defeat.
"You should be safe. They'll be too busy dealing with their own problems."
A doorway appeared.
Cyrus stepped through and vanished.
"Uh…"
Crocodile raised one hand too late.
"I never imagined the Five Elders were that powerful."
Only after Cyrus left did Reiju finally seem to awaken from her daze.
"Awakened Mythical Zoan users really are terrifying."
Crocodile's expression hardened.
"I'll need to become stronger."
Authority was intoxicating, but personal strength remained essential.
Without enough power to protect it, even the greatest authority was nothing more than a castle built in the clouds.
…
Mary Geoise.
A pentagram flashed, and two enormous figures appeared upon it.
"Looks like we made it in time."
Saint Mars breathed a sigh of relief when he saw them.
Then he immediately noticed something was wrong.
There were too few.
"Where's the other one?"
He hurriedly asked.
"Dead."
The spotted boar answered, its voice filled with terror and unease.
Cyrus could have killed them both with ease.
Had the warning truly worked?
That seemed impossible.
Even Lord Imu herself had been unable to accomplish anything against that man.
At that moment, Saint Warcury suddenly felt heat.
He turned his head.
Flames had appeared atop the enormous ox-demon spider beside him.
Then the same sensation spread across his own body.
His vision distorted as though fire were burning directly before his eyes.
"You two…"
The pair themselves had barely noticed anything, but Saint Mars screamed and fled backward.
Boom! Boom!
Two tremendous explosions erupted.
Flames and terrifying shock waves spread in every direction.
Two enormous mushroom clouds rose into the sky.
Darkness appeared abruptly and blocked part of the blast.
Saint Mars had already transformed.
But after being touched by the flames, he shot into the sky and fully assumed the form of a gigantic bird wreathed in fire.
The blazing creature flapped and rolled through the air, desperately trying to extinguish the flames covering its body.
Instead, they burned even more fiercely.
Boom!
After struggling for a short while, the bird crashed heavily to the ground.
Its body twitched weakly while the inferno continued raging.
Aramaki, who had reported the situation and asked Saint Mars to summon the others back, went completely numb.
If Mars had not ordered him to keep his distance earlier, he would have been caught in the explosions as well.
They were finished.
Whoosh!
A half-man, half-horse figure appeared.
Saint Nusjuro, his body wrapped in bandages, stared at the devastation with a dark expression.
His eyes were filled with horror.