"Hmm."
While Rodnatz Saint and the CP agents were still in shock, Rowan suddenly disappeared from the spot, taking the mermaid with him.
What?
Just… like that?
He left?
The middle-aged man froze.
How could he just leave like that?
Everything had already been prepared.
How could this happen?!
A mix of frustration and relief rose in his mind.
If the target left, then it would not be his responsibility.
But before he could fully relax, his breath caught in his throat.
That bastard… appeared again.
After sending all the slaves from the auction away, Rowan's gaze locked onto Rodnatz Saint.
If their plan was merely to rely on seastone to restrain him…
Then this big piece of bait…
He would take it.
"Ah!!!"
A scream sharp enough to pierce the eardrums rang out.
Rodnatz Saint, who had just been kicking the CP agents, was once again swallowed by fear.
The gruesome image of Saint Samit's corpse flashed repeatedly through his mind.
He knew very clearly.
The man before him did not care about Celestial Dragon status.
And he would kill him without hesitation.
"Marines! Where are the Marines?!"
"Those useless Admirals, why aren't they here yet?!"
"Protect me! Protect me! If I die, you're all dead!"
By this time, Rowan had already walked up to him.
The CP agents stood in front, tense and trembling, gripping their guns.
Yet none dared to pull the trigger.
"When you've been a dog for too long… you forget how to be human."
The moment his words fell, the agents roared.
"Attack!!"
"Bang bang bang…"
Bullets rained down like a storm.
Rowan swung his blade.
Armament Haki coated his body in black.
He stepped in at an angle.
A flash of light.
Blood sprayed.
Several agents collapsed instantly.
Rowan stepped forward.
One agent, clutching his throat, struggled desperately to draw in air.
He tried to speak.
"Lea… ve…"
Rowan frowned slightly, confused.
These people had always been loyal dogs of the Celestial Dragons.
Was he warning him?
Thud.
The man's head dropped.
His eyes lost focus.
He was dead.
But that moment caused the hidden middle-aged man to tense up instantly.
They had come this far.
If the cloaked man noticed something wrong and left…
And the problem traced back to CP…
He would die.
Damn it.
An orphan who had struggled to climb to this position…
Only to betray everything at the final moment.
Fortunately…
It seemed the cloaked man had not heard clearly.
At last, Rowan stood face to face with Rodnatz Saint.
"It's been eighteen years. You probably don't remember me anymore."
"You and Samit… back then, you almost made me want to start over from scratch."
Rodnatz Saint looked at the corpses scattered on the ground.
His entire body trembled, as if facing a massive Sea King.
"Don't kill me… please don't kill me…"
"Please! I don't remember! I'm trash, I'm trash!"
"Samit… that bastard was worse! Please, I beg you!"
Rodnatz Saint trembled all over as he kept backing away, but there was only a wall behind him.
He could only curl up in the corner.
The scene stood in sharp contrast to what had just happened on the street.
It was truly ironic.
Rowan raised his blade and pressed it against the man's throat.
"Before this, you must have heard countless pleas for mercy, right? When that happened… did you spare them?"
Rodnatz Saint did not dare move.
He was afraid that even the slightest movement would slit his throat.
He did not want to die.
The miserable end of Samit was still vivid in his mind.
Death… was too painful.
"Can't answer?"
"That's because you never saw ordinary people as your own kind."
"In that case… why should I spare you?"
As his voice fell, Rowan's blade came down sharply.
"Shhh…"
"Boom!"
A flash of golden light burst out.
The blade in Rowan's hand shattered.
It was just a standard-issue sword without Armament Haki. Rowan did not care.
Instead, he turned his gaze toward the entrance.
Borsalino had arrived.
"Long time no see."
"You're a bit late this time. I heard you've been stationed at Sabaody for a while. You shouldn't be arriving this late."
Borsalino raised his hand.
Golden beams shot out, destroying all the special kunai Rowan had scattered around.
At that moment, black spatial markers crept upward, attaching themselves behind Rodnatz.
"You really are bold."
"This is already the third time, right?"
"If you succeed again, the Navy will lose all face."
Borsalino's eyes still looked lazy, but in reality his Observation Haki had been fully active from the very beginning.
After all, the bait this time was a real Celestial Dragon.
If he died, those people in Mary Geoise would cause chaos again.
The Navy might even have to push out a scapegoat.
Rowan glanced at the trembling Celestial Dragon behind him and smiled.
"If that flying seastone cuff just now is your only trump card, then I don't think your presence matters."
"If anything, you'll just end up taking the blame afterward. Don't you think?"
Not far away, Borsalino sighed.
But the light gathered at his fingertips never faded, ready to strike at any moment.
"Marine!"
"Save me, Marine!"
"Quick, kill him!"
Rodnatz Saint shouted twice.
But when Rowan looked at him, he instantly shrank back, retreating into the corner again.
"He can't save you."
The moment the words fell, Rowan vanished.
As soon as he reappeared, a beam of light swept past.
"Boom!"
The roof of the auction house was blasted open.
As debris rained down, Rowan appeared once again beside Rodnatz.
A special kunai was thrown, only to be precisely destroyed.
But Rowan followed up immediately with a punch.
Borsalino's laser was just a moment too slow.
"Crack."
A faint sound rang out.
But in Borsalino's mind, it sounded incredibly clear.
It's over…
Cloaked man.
Whether it was teleportation, transformation, or even abilities like Kuzan's freezing power, it did not matter anymore.
Whether it was Paramecia or Mythical Zoan… none of that mattered.
Because for Devil Fruit users, even if they adapted slightly to the P-material in seastone,
they still could not use their abilities.
That was the most fundamental rule.
Without that teleportation mobility…
he was nothing special.
World Government CP0.
A Zoan-type Devil Fruit user.
Codename: Chameleon.
That…was the real trump card.
Even though Rowan had known about his presence beforehand, the moment he entered the hall, he had still subconsciously overlooked that CP0 agent.
And ever since the second Celestial Dragon was killed, whether the bait was fake or real,
the inner lining of their clothes always contained seastone.
That was why Rowan's blade and kunai were destroyed first.
To kill a Celestial Dragon, physical contact was required.
At the moment of contact, teleportation would become unusable.
And that instant… was the opportunity for CP0.
"Pfft!"
The sound of blood splashing rang out.
From within the dust, a weak voice emerged.
"Sa… save me… you idiots…"
As the words fell, the presence of the Celestial Dragon gradually faded under Observation Haki…until it disappeared completely.
A hand withdrew from Rodnatz's chest.
Rowan flicked the blood off with a look of disgust, casually glancing at the seastone handcuffs on his left hand.
Behind him, the middle-aged man's blade was embedded in the ground.
That slash had split the entire hall in two.
And yet, it still failed to hit Rowan… it didn't even slow him down.
"How… is that possible?"
The "Chameleon" turned around.
"You're not a Devil Fruit user?"
"No… teleportation, changing appearance, even using freezing techniques…"
"How could you not be one?"
Not far away, Borsalino frowned deeply.
This entire operation to capture the cloaked man had one core assumption:
That he was a Devil Fruit user.
And that seastone could completely suppress his abilities.
But now…he wasn't a Devil Fruit user?
How was that even possible?
Three abilities.
Teleportation, transformation, freezing.
No matter how you looked at it, at least one of them should have been a Devil Fruit power.
"So your final trump card was this?"
Rowan lifted the seastone handcuffs on his wrist and casually shook them.
There was no sign of weakness in his body at all.
"Ah!"
A golden flash swept across.
A laser exploded through the ceiling again, yet it failed to harm Rowan in the slightest.
Beside the corpse of the Celestial Dragon, Rowan reappeared, looking over with interest.
"You want to try again?"
"Boom!"
A cold slash cut through the air.
The CP0 Chameleon, holding a blade, had an extremely ugly expression.
The mission had failed.
From the very beginning… it had already failed.
The enemy was not a Devil Fruit user.
Seastone had no effect on him at all.
Looking up through the shattered ceiling, Rowan checked the time.
The Revolutionary Army probably hadn't finished yet.
He needed to stall a bit longer.
As long as he stayed here, the World Government's attention would not shift to those five locations.
Compared to the still-developing Revolutionary Army,
he himself, with teleportation, was a far greater threat to Mary Geoise.
A cloaked man with an organization and base…and a cloaked man who could not be restrained even by seastone, moving freely and targeting Celestial Dragons…were completely different concepts.
"Damn it!"
"Wouldn't it be easier if you just died obediently?"
"You filthy rat hiding in the shadows… once your nest is discovered, your fate is already sealed… Revolutionary Army!"
Enraged, the Chameleon slashed forward.
The moment the last words left his mouth, a sharp blade aura descended.
"Boom!!"
He tried to provoke Rowan and launch a sneak attack… but failed.
"You think you can hide for long?"
"Opposing the World Government means you've been walking the path of destruction from the very start."
"From today onward, both CP and the Navy will target you."
"How long do you think you can keep hiding?"
His attacks carried the power of a great swordsman.
Each strike further reduced the auction hall into ruins.
But even after the entire building collapsed into rubble…
he still couldn't touch Rowan even once.
Nearby, observing everything, Borsalino's expression shifted slightly.
From the moment Rowan entered until now, he could confirm one thing.
Any time Rowan used those special weapons… they would be destroyed instantly.
Including the sword at the very beginning.
But the opponent was still using teleportation.
And every time he reappeared, he never left the range of this hall.
It's the corpses.
"Buzz…"
Golden light exploded outward.
Borsalino destroyed every corpse in the area, including the ones killed near the entrance earlier.
Only the body of the Celestial Dragon, Rodnatz Saint, was left untouched.
The mission had basically failed.
Now this was only about verifying the limits of the opponent's ability.
A Celestial Dragon's corpse… he did not dare to touch.
Borsalino's action also made the Chameleon understand.
He looked toward Rowan again.
"Your ability… has been seen through."
Rowan shook the seastone cuffs on his hand again.
"So you figured it out?"
"That's troublesome… but can you actually catch me?"
"Boom!"
A slash swept through the air.
Rowan instantly appeared behind Borsalino, but what greeted him was a long, golden leg.
"Bang!"
"Boom!"
With both arms crossed and coated in Armament Haki, Rowan was struck for the first time.
His feet carved two deep grooves into the ground before he barely stopped the force.
But in the next moment, a blade formed from golden light followed immediately.
Rowan flashed behind the CP0 agent.
But a sword was already waiting for him.
This time, he learned.He vanished again, appearing beside the Celestial Dragon's corpse.
The ground trembled.
Two combatants at admiral-level power missed repeatedly, reducing the auction hall completely into ruins.
"You really don't hold back."
"Two dogs of the Celestial Dragons."
Rowan's gaze locked onto the two of them, his Haki tightly focused.
But deep inside, a growing urge to clash head-on began to rise.
He had fought admiral-level opponents several times before.
Borsalino was already an old opponent.
But before, he mostly relied on the Flying Thunder God technique to evade attacks.
Direct confrontations were rare.
Today… that would not work.
He needed to buy more time.
If he neither retreated nor fought seriously, these two would soon notice something was wrong.
In his mind, the image of that little girl on the street appeared again.
Those blood-filled eyes.
When he was one year old…his parents' cries, his uncle's desperate pleas, the falling figures of the people at God Valley Incident…all flashed through his mind.
Borsalino would become one of the future Navy Admirals.
And there would be three of them.
Above them stood Sengoku and Garp, along with countless vice admirals.
On the World Government's side, there were even more.
The army commander of the Red Line.
The dark horse of the criminal investigation unit.
The Commander-in-Chief, Kong.
The five elders in the Room of Authority.
The Holy Knights.
And finally… the existence that destroyed the Lulusia Kingdom.
Imu.
Not enough…
This level of power…was nowhere near enough to overturn this world.
The treasure chest had given him the strongest fire-type Zanpakuto.
Yet he could not use it.
That was a warning.
A warning that his will had weakened.
Perhaps from the very beginning, he had been wrong.
Attribute cards could enhance Haki.
They could awaken Armament and Observation.
But Conqueror's Haki…required an unshakable will from within.
And a Zanpakuto was a weapon of the Shinigami.
A Shinigami existed as a spiritual being.
Spiritual pressure was not something that could be replaced by physical stamina.
But in this world…there was something similar.
Conqueror's Haki.
"Boom!"
Black lightning exploded at the center of the hall.
A tremor rising from the depths of the soul made both the CP0 agent and Borsalino narrow their eyes.
"How terrifying…"
"The disposition of a king."
"One in a million possess Conqueror's Haki… and yours is incredibly strong."
"With that kind of Haki, your position in the Revolutionary Army must be very high."
"You might even be their leader."
"Someone like you must die here."
Rowan looked at the two of them.
"Let's try it."
"Maybe today… someone's going to lose their life here."
"You never know."
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