In the Empty Throne Hall of the Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
The rapid expansion of the Rocks Pirates had even drawn the attention of Imu, the King of the World who rarely involved themself in worldly affairs.
Imu had already begun taking Rocks seriously, the man who barged into the Room of Flowers and proclaimed admiration for Davy Jones.
They suspected that Rocks D. Xebec was one of the D Clan inheriting the will of Davy D. Jones.
They even suspected that "Rocks" was a fake surname, and that perhaps Rocks himself belonged to the Davy lineage.
"Still no information on Rocks?"
Imu expressed a trace of dissatisfaction toward the Five Elders and the God's Knights.
More than a year had already passed, yet they still had no concrete intelligence.
"Please grant us a little more time, Lord Imu."
"We have already planted more agents on Elysium Island."
....
Cold sweat covered the Five Elders' foreheads.
Every attempt to infiltrate the core Rocks crew had failed. No one knew any further intelligence about the main Rocks Pirates.
And after the Rocks Pirates departed Elysium Island, they even lost track of their whereabouts entirely.
The Rocks Pirates' flying warship had become an enormous headache for the World Government's intelligence network.
It completely broke away from normal navigation routes.
They couldn't even pre-arrange intelligence personnel on the next island.
"Useless trash!"
"Have you at least figured out Guyue Ignis's abilities yet?"
Imu picked up Ignis's various photographs and narrowed their eyes slightly.
This was clearly more than just two Devil Fruit abilities.
Based on Ignis's attack methods, Imu and the Five Elders had already concluded that Ignis possessed at minimum the Paramecia Gravity Fruit and the Mythical Zoan Vampire Fruit.
They had never expected Ignis to obtain the Vampire Fruit, a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit that had disappeared for over 800 years.
That meant Ignis possessed eternal youth.
Even the Five Elders themselves did not possess such a power.
The contract abilities bestowed by Imu only granted immortality and ageless life, not restored youth.
Imu's ability contracts could bestow three types of marks upon subordinates:
[Shallow Sea], [Deep Sea], and [Deep Deep Sea].
The "Shallow Sea Mark" given to God's Servants merely established a basic contract connection and did not grant immortality.
The "Deep Sea" and "Deep Deep Sea" marks had a total of only thirteen slots.
Among them, the [Deep Sea] contract mark had eight positions and granted an immortal body.
The [Deep Deep Sea] contract mark had five positions and granted both immortality and eternal life.
The Five Elders were precisely the five individuals possessing the [Deep Deep Sea] marks.
The Commander of the God's Knights possessed a [Deep Sea] mark and could only ascend to become one of the Five Elders after one of them died.
Because there were only five [Deep Deep Sea] slots.
If the Commander of the God's Knights failed to survive long enough for a Five Elder to perish, they themselves would die of old age first.
Thus, the commanders and members of the God's Knights changed with every era.
Only the Five Elders remained eternally beside Imu.
At present, Saint Figarland Garling was still merely a young God's Knight and had not yet become Commander of the God's Knights.
After eventually becoming Commander, he would grow to desire becoming one of the eternal Five Elders himself.
In a sense, the Commander of the God's Knights was both a candidate for the Five Elders and a rival to them.
Historically, the Commanders of the God's Knights rarely got along with the Five Elders.
They practically wished for the death of an Elder.
After all, if no Elder died, they could never advance and would never receive Lord Imu's eternal life contract.
Even the future Saint Garling, believed himself to possess combat power superior to the Five Elders.
He desperately wanted to become one of them and obtain eternal life.
Thus, his relationship with the Five Elders was poor, as he longed for one of them to fall and free up a position.
Otherwise, he could only watch helplessly as incompetent old fools occupied the immortality seats while someone more capable like himself aged and died.
How could anyone accept that willingly?
.....
"The very first time Guyue Ignis faced the Cang Kingdom army, he already displayed moonlight slash abilities."
"While being escorted by CP agents, even while restrained with Seastone shackles, he was still able to unleash moonlight slashes."
"It can now basically be confirmed that Guyue Ignis's first ability was the Paramecia Moonlight ability."
"After Guyue Ignis led Rocks into the Cang Kingdom and killed the king and general, he then obtained gravity powers."
"It remains unclear whether Ignis directly stole the general's gravity powers or whether the Gravity Fruit reincarnated nearby by coincidence."
"After the Rocks Pirates entered the New World and Rocks recruited Newgate, Ignis still had not yet obtained the Mythical Zoan Vampire ability."
"When Ignis suppressed Kyo on Black Hand Pirate Island, he first demonstrated blood-sucking bat abilities."
"At present, Guyue Ignis has revealed three Devil Fruit abilities."
"If he acquires another ability user's power next time, we may be able to confirm more information."
....
The Five Elders reported all detailed intelligence regarding Ignis to Imu.
Now all of them were deeply interested, and even greedy, for Ignis's special constitution and the method by which he obtained Devil Fruit abilities.
If they could discover how to become a multi-fruit user, then these supreme rulers standing at the top of the world could instantly become multi-ability users themselves.
After all, the World Government possessed countless powerful and rare Devil Fruits in storage.
"Paramecia Moonlight, Gravity, and Mythical Zoan Vampire…"
"The importance of this Guyue Ignis is indeed even greater than Rocks…"
"No matter what methods you use, I want Guyue Ignis brought to the Holy Land as soon as possible."
Looking at Ignis's Moon God-style photographs, Imu spoke coldly.
This world did not permit the existence of a man that handsome.
Guyue Ignis looked more like a god than Imu themself.
Why should this insignificant insect become the center of the world's attention, while they, the King of the World and God of the Celestial Dragons, could only remain hidden in the shadows for so many reasons?
"Yes!"
Imu's chilling aura caused the Five Elders' bodies to tremble slightly as they withdrew from the Empty Throne Hall and returned to the Room of Authority.
But the pressure on them was now immense.
Shiki's Float-Float Fruit and Ignis's Gravity Fruit had rendered the World Government utterly helpless against the Rocks Pirates' flying warship.
"We can only continue sending powerful individuals out to sea as pirates. Someone must infiltrate the Rocks Pirates, otherwise we won't even know their movements or plans."
"CP0 agents are not enough. Have the Marines arrange some ruthless officers to go undercover as well."
"And the plans to bribe great pirates and underworld emperors cannot stop either."
...
The Five Elders truly found the now fully-risen Rocks Pirates extremely troublesome.
The Rocks Pirates had already been overwhelmingly powerful before; even two Marine Admirals couldn't defeat them.
Now, perhaps only the full mobilization of Marine Headquarters would suffice.
But unfortunately, the Rocks Pirates possessed flying warships, reducing the success rate of any large-scale encirclement operation to nearly zero.
The World Government would only have one chance to completely destroy the Rocks Pirates.
It had to be a one-strike kill.
Otherwise, if they failed, the Rocks Pirates' full-scale retaliation would plunge the entire world into chaos.
Neither the World Government nor Marine Headquarters would be able to withstand the Rocks Pirates' highly mobile revenge campaign.