Facing the direction where Roya stood, Sengoku gave a standard naval salute—so formal and respectful it was as if he were paying homage to the sovereign of a nation.
Only when Roya gave him a slight nod of acknowledgment did Sengoku speak:
"Lord Roya, is this creature the threat that, from now on, the entire world must join forces to face?"
Roya replied evenly,
"This creature is nothing more than a pawn—an advance scout—of our true enemy."
Sengoku's expression darkened, and Kizaru was inwardly shaken.
The photon round he had fired earlier to save Smoker was, in fact, the result of his recent dedicated training.
It was the repeated, humiliating beatdowns at the hands of Squard—being pinned to the ground over and over—that had awakened Kizaru to the importance of precise control over energy output and burst power.
He had been immersed in researching this ever since, and had finally grasped some of the underlying principles.
As a result, these newly-developed photon rounds consumed far less energy than his previous signature technique, the Yasakani no Magatama, yet their destructive power was over five times greater.
He had thought that by showcasing this brand-new trump card before Roya, he could earn some merit in advance—perhaps securing himself a favorable position in the future order of the World Government.
But who would have thought that those seemingly primitive bone spears would far exceed his expectations in strength?
Not only that—the bone spears carried a terrifying, strange energy that allowed them to freely change direction and track their targets.
Moreover, this sinister energy possessed a certain corrosive property.
To precisely control each photon round, Kizaru had infused them with a trace of his own consciousness energy.
However, the instant his photon rounds entered the bone spears, he felt that corrosive power greedily devouring his consciousness energy.
It was for this reason that he had to abandon the tempting idea of seizing control of the bone spears through his photon rounds, and instead detonate the rounds before his consciousness energy was completely corrupted and consumed.
Thus, although from the outside it had seemed that Kizaru had the upper hand in their brief, long-range clash, in reality he had only fought this bio-weapon to a draw at best.
The key point was that, after mastering fine control of his energy, Kizaru had considered himself to have once again returned to the ranks of the world's top-tier combatants—yet in his first battle against a completely new enemy, he'd come away… somewhat bruised.
And this powerful enemy was merely a pawn of the true foe!
Just how absurdly strong would the "true enemy" in Roya's words be?!
Roya took in every fluctuation of emotion on the ship with his spiritual perception, knowing that a strategic meeting gathering the world's top powers could no longer be delayed.
Leaping from the bridge in a single bound, he said at the same time:
"As for this enemy, I will give a full explanation at the World Conference."
Before his words had even faded, he flickered from sight, reappearing directly above the bone-armored giant.
A faint, unfathomable energy gathered at the tip of his foot, and then—he tapped it lightly atop the giant's head.
The bone armor melted instantly, like snow under intense heat, evaporating into nothing.
In the blink of an eye, the imposing bone-armored giant was beaten back to its original form: the "stomach sac."
Roya sent out another invisible, intangible strand of spiritual perception, binding it securely, and tossed it straight onto the deck of the Pluto.
A true alien bio-weapon like this could not be more perfectly suited as raw material for Vegapunk's experiments.
In another flicker, Roya was back on the deck.
Sengoku glanced at the massive stomach sac, still squirming but tightly restrained by some strange energy he could only faintly sense.
In a deep voice, he said:
"Lord Roya, I will send people to press all the kingdoms to hurry to the Holy Land, Mary Geoise, for the conference."
"I will also dispatch the SWORD unit to place all Celestial Dragon forces under strict surveillance!"
Roya nodded slightly.
"Then I must trouble Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
Just then, Kizaru's flagship finally edged forward, timidly closing the distance.
Sengoku gave a formal bow and returned to his warship.
Kizaru, dragging Smoker with him, also headed back to his flagship.
Roya extended his spiritual perception, linking with the Pluton's ship-spirit. The massive vessel trembled slightly, then skimmed along the surface of the sea with uncanny agility, flying towards Mary Geoise.
Before long, the Pluton reached Mary Geoise.
To prevent the strange stomach sac from causing panic there, Roya docked the ship at the undersea entrance of the imitation pyramid.
This was both to conveniently unload the "cargo," and to serve as a show of overwhelming deterrence to any Celestial Dragons in Pangaea Castle still harboring thoughts of defiance.
Using spiritual perception to tow the stomach sac, he entered Mary Geoise's secret underground space from below the water.
As expected, news that the Pluton had docked near Mary Geoise quickly spread within Pangaea Castle.
With Rob Lucci's secret organization deliberately guiding the narrative, the Celestial Dragons learned almost immediately that this terrifying warship—of which they had never heard before—was the personal flagship of Roya, the man who had issued the order stripping them of their privileges.
The Celestial Dragons who had been stirring restlessly, preparing to launch a coup in Roya's absence to reclaim control over Mary Geoise, immediately wilted. Meek and docile, they became lambs awaiting slaughter.
In the underground pyramid, Vegapunk finally stopped sending out those inexplicable female clone researchers—this time, his true body came in person, throwing himself onto the giant stomach sac with fanatical excitement.
Roya knew Vegapunk's consciousness energy was extraordinarily strong, and multitasking was child's play for him.
Thus, he directly shared with Vegapunk the various memories he had obtained from the Star Spirit.
At the same time, he used his spiritual perception to perform a full analysis of Vegapunk's strange metallic body.
This analysis took him an entire half day—proof of how complex and profound the bodies used by these alien "Harvesters" truly were!
By the time Vegapunk had finished digesting the Star Spirit's memories, he had also completed a preliminary analysis of the stomach sac.
Looking at Roya with even greater fanaticism in his eyes, Vegapunk said:
"Lord Roya, the reason this creature ceased resisting is not only because your spiritual thread's restraining power is incomparably strong—it's also because your aura now carries the presence of a higher-ranking member of this alien race!"
Roya slowly drew in a deep breath.
"You're correct—and that's exactly what I've deduced from analyzing both your body and this creature's structure."
"From this information, I've already been able to roughly infer the individual and societal structure of this alien race."
Vegapunk's eyes shone even more brightly.
"Please, my lord—do tell! I'm all ears!"
Then, unable to resist, he added in awe:
"A race that exists solely to plunder the life matter of others… their individuals and social structure must be fascinating, mustn't they?"
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