"You think you can kill me?"
As he spoke, Sephiroth's gaze swept over Bullet, Teach, and Doflamingo. When he saw Red Earl Redfield and Paton, a hint of surprise and greed flashed in his eyes.
Yes, greed.
In this world, there were very few Devil Fruits he still wanted to obtain, but Paton's Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Bake-danuki form was an exception.
After all, with his strength reaching Sephiroth's level, no matter how powerful a Devil Fruit was, it would be difficult to raise his upper limit. At most, it would just add some flashy attack methods, and even Paton's Fruit was like that.
However, the illusion ability of the Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Bake-danuki form was truly a bug. Even if it didn't greatly improve his strength, he still wanted it!
After all, it could not only create various real illusory individuals but also perfectly replicate the Devil Fruit abilities of those individuals. If this ability was used well, he could easily create a group of high-level thugs with illusions, forming an army by himself!
Hearing Sephiroth's words, Bullet, Doflamingo, and the others all had gloomy expressions, weighing the strength of both sides in their hearts. Although the Pirates had Bullet and two Four Emperors crews, and the Marine side, in addition to Sephiroth and three Admirals, also had the Shichibukai assisting, as well as Ace and Marco, who were inexplicably here.
In terms of combat power, the Pirates seemed to be at a disadvantage.
"If they aren't enough, then what about us?"
A slightly gloomy voice came from afar, and everyone subconsciously looked over. Immediately, everyone saw sixteen figures wearing black robes and strange masks on their faces walking out from the distant forest.
Seeing this scene, a hint of surprise couldn't help but flash in Sephiroth's eyes. The corner of his mouth slightly curved upward, outlining a cold arc:
"You guys who hide your heads and show your tails, don't you dare to show your true faces?"
"Hmph! Since you want to die with understanding, I will grant you that!"
One of the sixteen black-robed figures, leaning on a cane, took a step forward, took off the mask on his face, revealing an old face.
"Gorosei... Jaygarcia Saturn Saint!?" xN
Doflamingo and Marco, who were puzzled, were immediately shocked when they saw the true appearance of the person who came.
In the reports of the World Economic News, the Gorosei, like other Celestial Dragons, had already fallen into the abyss with Holy Land Mary Geoise and were as dead as could be. Unexpectedly, two years later, the Gorosei had resurrected...?!
"You heinous person, you not only destroyed Holy Land Mary Geoise, killed the descendants of the creators, but also tampered with the supreme law we established. Your crimes are unforgivable... Today is your death day!" Saturn Saint said with hatred.
Everyone present knew a thing or two about the supreme law mentioned by this Gorosei. It was actually the privileged law of the Celestial Dragons.
In the year 1521 of the Sea Calendar, after Sephiroth became Fleet Admiral, he proposed to all the countries in the world to abolish all the privileges of the Celestial Dragons. His reason at the time was also sufficient... The Celestial Dragons as a group no longer existed, so the corresponding laws naturally needed to be changed!
Since most of the World Government member countries were secretly puppets of the Umbrella Corporation at that time, after Sephiroth proposed this application, although the countries still held a fake King's Meeting to discuss whether this was feasible, it was ultimately passed without any suspense.
Therefore, the World Nobles Celestial Dragons, in terms of law, no longer had any privileges. Even if Sephiroth were to stumble in the future and be defeated by Imu and the Gorosei, and the Celestial Dragons regained control of the World Government, it would be a difficult matter for them to have the same privileges as before. Unless they can reshuffle the entire sea's power.
"Teach, are they the powerful force you mentioned...?" Doflamingo's expression was complex as he turned to look at the dead fat man beside him.
Due to his unbearable childhood, he had always held a grudge against the Gorosei, and even the entire Celestial Dragon group. Therefore, he found the Gorosei disagreeable in every way.
"Zehahaha-! The enemy of an enemy is a friend. Doflamingo, isn't the most important thing for us right now how to deal with Sephiroth?" Blackbeard Teach laughed indifferently and motioned for Doflamingo to look at the bigger picture, as dealing with Sephiroth was more important at the moment.
"Hmph! You don't need to tell me that, I know it too." Doflamingo said coldly.
"A mere bunch of rats from the sewer who can't see the light, dare to be so arrogant in front of me? You seem to have forgotten the days when I chased you until you scurried away with your heads in your hands!" Sephiroth sneered, his face full of disdain.
"Times have changed. To deal with you, we have made full preparations." As he spoke, Saturn Saint raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
Swish-! Swish-! Swish-!...
The ten originally black-robed tall figures suddenly tore off their cloaks, revealing their bodies and appearances. Pitch-black wings, bronzed skin, strong and sturdy bodies, and ten faces that were exactly the same as Kaido in his youth.
Immediately, the bodies of these ten people quickly changed. Pieces of blue-green scales rapidly covered their skin, a thick dragon tail grew from their backs, and their hands and feet turned into the shape of dragon claws.
Sephiroth: "..."
Teacher Kaido is already dead, and you guys still won't let him go!
Saturn Saint looked at Sephiroth's expression, which seemed to want to speak but stopped, and then wanted to speak again, and immediately sneered:
"Sephiroth, this is the trump card we prepared to deal with you... the Seraphim!"
There was a reason why the Gorosei created Kaido's Seraphim.
Since Holy Land Mary Geoise was destroyed by Sephiroth and the Celestial Dragons' power was gone, it became a very troublesome matter for the Gorosei to collect the lineage factors of strong individuals. Thus, they could only focus on the existing experimental materials.
Since both Kaido and King had been captured by the Marine, their lineage factors were stored in many laboratories for various experimental studies. Considering Kaido's inherent strong physical talent, coupled with King's lineage factor and the Azure Dragon Fruit lineage factor, Saturn Saint felt that he could definitely create extremely powerful Seraphim with these.
So, he simply went all out, investing most of the organization's liquid funds to create ten Seraphim.
Sephiroth looked at Saturn Saint's smug appearance, and he couldn't help but curl his lips, mocking:
"Hilarious! You think I don't have mere Seraphim?"
As he spoke, he suddenly swung down the butcher knife in his hand, opening a huge door to his personal space.
Immediately after, rows of huge glass containers came into everyone's view. In each glass container lay a Seraphim, and there were as many as fifty of them!
These Seraphim could be divided into five types, created based on the lineage factors of Hawkeye, Jinbe, Luffy, Garp, and Kuma. Among them, Garp's Seraphim also used the Azure Dragon Fruit lineage factor.
In addition, all these Seraphim were accelerated and matured to a middle-aged state by Sephiroth using the Ripe-Ripe Fruit, reaching their theoretical strongest combat power after growth, unlike Saturn Saint's Kaido Seraphim, which still needed a very long time to reach their strongest combat state.
The Seraphim, born from the combined genius of Sephiroth and Vegapunk, were engineered to surpass even the Marine's elite Vice Admirals in combat prowess. While they hadn't quite reached the level of Marine Admirals, the margin was razor-thin.
In a one-on-one fight, they might falter — but unleash three to five Seraphim at once, and even an Admiral would be overwhelmed. Victory was all but guaranteed.
Don't ask Sephiroth how he knew. He'd witnessed it firsthand: a Marine Admiral, once invincible, brought to his knees by five Seraphim working in unison. The Admiral hadn't stood a chance.
But such power came at a staggering cost. Fifty Seraphim alone had devoured an entire year's military budget. And yet, Sephiroth's resources ran so deep, he could afford it without blinking.
If Tesoro hadn't broken down in front of him, pleading, "Don't build any more! If you do, the Company's capital chain will collapse!" Sephiroth might have pushed forward with plans for another hundred or two Seraphim.
Reluctantly, he'd shelved the idea — for now.