No matter how cunning Blackbeard was, no matter how clever, no matter how many schemes he had prepared…
From the moment he appeared within Ren's field of vision, it was already destined that he would not survive.
One side held absolute intelligence transparency. One side possessed overwhelming raw power. And on top of that, he had been lured into a trap.
No matter what he did, there was no possibility of victory, no chance of turning the tables.
Ren had even used a small trick just now to ensure that no unexpected complications would arise.
Because Teach's attention had been focused entirely on external contact, the blade of Heavenly Might had directly vaporized and entered Teach's body through his respiratory tract.
Then, with the most ruthless means possible, it destroyed Blackbeard's ability to struggle or counterattack from the inside.
In any case, Blackbeard had been utterly defeated, and the More-More Fruit was now in hand.
The main objective at Impel Down had basically been completed.
Let's try it.
Ren picked up a pebble. The instant he threw it out, he activated the ability.
More-More Fruit—Tenfold Amplification!
The pebble he tossed out swelled out of thin air in a way that defied physics, expanding to ten times its original size and speed.
With a sharp whoosh, it punched through a broken wall and stirred up a commotion like a cannon shell striking its target.
He sensed the process of that attack. It had indeed amplified the pebble's volume and velocity tenfold from nothing.
Only a Devil Fruit ability could pull off something so absurd that it would make Newton claw his way out of the coffin.
"Next step."
Without the slightest attachment, Ren activated Combat Dispatch and headed for the next stage of the plan.
Meanwhile, inside Impel Down, dense ranks of Angels of Glory had already taken control of the situation.
Most of Impel Down's native guards had died in battle. The prisoners on Levels 1 and 2 had originally been in chaos, realizing that this was their chance and wanting to escape.
But before they could even figure out how to break out, they were struck by waves of black light.
Over one-third of the prisoners were erased. Immediately afterward came the angels descending from the sky.
The Angels of Glory were already elites to begin with. Under the enhancement of the Divine Favor Blessing, they completely crushed these materials.
These evildoers, whose hands were drenched in blood, were bundled up and prepared for transport back as nourishment.
And at this moment, Ivankov and the others also appeared.
Although Ren was not here, Angel of Glory 001 still completed this mutual assistance.
Of course, although the Judgment had an enormous capacity, there was still no way it could carry so many people.
The materials inside Impel Down, the Newkama, and the others added up to several thousand people.
The best way to leave the Calm Belt smoothly was still to use the Marine warships embedded with Seastone.
And very conveniently, a Marine fleet was stationed outside Impel Down year-round.
It was a large-scale fleet, with at least a dozen medium and large warships, enough to meet all their transport needs.
As for how to acquire them—
"Desert—Vajra Spada!"
Vivi swung both hands, transforming them into four incomparably sharp blades of sand, which crossed together and attacked the opponent whose lower body had sunk into a sand vortex.
At the same time, a flying Haki slash struck her body, only for her to dodge it by elementalizing one step ahead of time.
"Ah!"
Amid a shrill scream, yellow sand swept across the warship's deck, burying the final opponent.
Vivi condensed back into shape from the yellow sand, panting as she looked at the Marine officer lying not far away.
The man wore a coat of justice and had a full beard. Even after collapsing, his hand had not loosened from the hilt of his sword.
He was the strongest Marine stationed with this fleet, and also the highest-ranking officer present.
According to Robin, he should be someone who was only a little short on achievements before becoming a Marine Vice Admiral, but whose actual strength was already at that level.
Even so, he had still been defeated by her.
"Vice Admiral level… I've improved."
Vivi withdrew her gaze and looked toward the surrounding battlefield.
On a warship not far away, a Four-Winged Angel wielding a large scythe crashed into the Marine formation while braving gunfire and cannonfire.
Then, violent slashes erupted within the formation, swiftly and cleanly cutting down dozens of Marines.
In the sky behind the scythe-wielding angel, Two-Winged Angels hovered in midair, holding newly improved railguns and carrying out sniping attacks.
They covered the Two-Winged Angels below who were executing close-quarters combat.
Before these elite angels—whose attributes were powerful, whose equipment was powerful, who could fly, who did not fear death, and who had also been enhanced by the blessing—
This Marine fleet basically failed to organize any meaningful resistance.
The gun batteries were destroyed almost as soon as the battle began. Having seized absolute air superiority, the angels fired down from high above.
The first wave cleared out a large number of common soldiers. The second wave of electromagnetic sniping also made it difficult for the surviving elite backbone to resist.
The third wave was Vivi leading the team to carry out ground clearing. By the time she defeated the Marine officer in front of her, the Marine backbone forces stubbornly resisting elsewhere had also been eliminated by the angels.
Of course, it was impossible to suffer no losses. At least several hundred angels had been turned into scrap.
However, for angels who could be reborn, as long as victory was achieved, none of that was a problem.
After seizing this fleet, Vivi commanded the angels to sail away with the required warships and head to Impel Down to provide support.
As for whether the Sea Kings in the Calm Belt would object to such a large disturbance—
Nami, who was holding the skies, was no pushover.
The moment any Sea King surfaced and showed hostility, she directly hurled down a Thunder Spear from afar.
Since Skypiea, she had not had much presence, but that was only because Nami did not particularly like fighting and killing.
It did not mean that her strength had not improved. Otherwise, there would not be a layer of thunderclouds spanning several hundred kilometers.
At this point, the front at Impel Down had come to a complete end!
However, for Ren's group, the entire plan had not yet reached its conclusion.
Boom—boom—boom…
The clamor of warfire spread across the land of Wano.
The members of the Beasts Pirates who had remained behind in Wano had never imagined that someone would actually dare target a Yonko—and even fucking succeed!
"Um… Lord Queen, we still can't contact Lord Kaido!"
A panicked Beasts Pirates member burst into the surveillance room and truthfully reported his attempts to the tall, fat man before him.
"Hm? Is there a Den Den Mushi jammer?"
The one questioning the Beasts Pirates member was a bald man with a cigar in his mouth.
He wore sunglasses, had purple lips, two golden whiskers beside his lips, and a golden braid atop his head.
He was obese, round like a balloon.
Most striking of all was his left arm, which was a mechanically modified prosthetic. On his right arm was a dark tattoo bearing the word "QUEEN" and the emblem of the Beasts Pirates.
He wore black-and-white striped suspenders over a jumpsuit, with two swords tucked behind him.
Judging from his overall aura, he was clearly no ordinary person.
In fact, he was the All-Star currently guarding Wano—Queen the Plague!
Even in the New World, he was a monstrously powerful figure!
The reporting Beasts Pirates member swallowed and forced himself to say, "We don't know…"
"Useless trash! Didn't this great me give you equipment?!"
Queen angrily grabbed the messenger. "Or do you think this great me's technological equipment is junk?"
"N-No!"
The latter shook his head repeatedly in panic. "We really did follow your instructions, but we still can't understand what's going on.
"It doesn't seem like they're being blocked by a Den Den Mushi jammer at all. Maybe… maybe it's a Devil Fruit user?"
"Hm?"
Queen frowned, then threw the small fry aside. "If it's a Devil Fruit ability… then it's not strange that we can't make contact. But…"
He looked toward the image on the surveillance screen, then recalled the face-slapping process from not long ago.
His expression could not help darkening by several degrees again.
Lord Kaido had gone out. That interrogation-loving pervert and Jack had also left.
This was supposed to be happy yee-haw time, so why the hell had it turned into this?!
Time rewound to before Kaido's departure.
When Kaido judged that Whitebeard would definitely die at Marineford and decided to seize territory ahead of time, he issued his orders.
All of Wano began moving.
Considering possible competitors and the speed at which territory would have to be seized,
The Beasts Pirates had sent out more than half of their elites. Three of the Tobi Roppo had gone, leaving behind only that pair of siblings.
Among the Three Disasters, both Jack and King chose to move out.
Queen gave up on following them out of the country because he needed to research virus weapons.
Besides, the home base needed someone to guard it.
After that, however, King came to find Queen in the surveillance room, where he had been planning to watch Lord Kaido depart before going off to hold a yee-haw concert.
"The New World has been very turbulent recently. Since you're staying behind to guard the homeland, stop holding yee-haw singing parties every day.
"If anything goes wrong, I'll kill you, you dead weight!"
King warned him with an unfriendly look in his eyes.
"There's no need to worry about that sort of thing, right? How could anyone dare come looking for trouble with us?"
Queen sneered disdainfully.
As the home base of Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, who in the world would have the guts to raid Wano?
If anything, it would make more sense to raid Totto Land instead of Wano!
"It's exactly because you think like that that I have to warn you on Mr. Kaido's behalf!"
King narrowed his eyes, his tone growing even more displeased.
"Hah? Take a look at the surveillance room, will you?"
Queen pointed disdainfully at the enormous multi-panel screen. "The seas outside Wano are incredibly dangerous. That's a natural barrier.
"And the terrain is extremely elevated. It's practically impossible for outsiders to enter from anywhere else.
"Unless they know the method of climbing the waterfall, but even that's extremely difficult.
"Besides, we've also set up a large number of cannon batteries among the stone pillar formations in the outer sea. Seven whole defensive lines, you know!
"So even if I go hold a yee-haw concert next, there won't be any problem!"
He emphasized that point heavily. As for the multi-panel screen he was pointing at, it was naturally the surveillance room.
As a major power with abundant manpower and resources,
Wano's interior and exterior were naturally equipped with large numbers of surveillance devices, along with a surveillance room that integrated the images, allowing them to obtain information at the fastest speed.
"I don't care about that, dead weight. If I come back and hear that you held a yee-haw concert, you can wait for me to hack you into pieces."
King ignored Queen entirely and left after dropping those words.
"Honestly, I hate him so much!"
Queen immediately became extremely irritated. However, while he grumbled and cursed, he still obediently stayed inside the surveillance room.
Every dozen minutes or so, he would curse and complain about how there was absolutely no need to be so tense and on guard.
However, the Beasts Pirates members in the surveillance room who were responsible for monitoring everything all looked completely used to it.
By the time he had gone through more than twenty rounds of this,
The multi-panel screens inside the surveillance room were still as quiet as ever.
That made Queen even more impatient.
"I told you already. How could anyone possibly come attack?"
He muttered as he rolled back and forth. Then, the door of the surveillance room was kicked open.
(End of Chapter)