In that instant—
Ryuen made a quick decision and ordered the intel birds to find Saturn and the five Marine Vice Admirals traveling with him. At this point, he needed to know exactly when their fleet would arrive at Egghead Island.
After ending the call, Kizaru looked straight at Ryuen. "Looks like it's time for me to leave. If Saint Saturn and the others arrive and find me here, I might be forced to attack you because of the current situation…"
"No worries~"
"Admiral Kizaru, feel free to return to Marine HQ and report what's going on here. Sengoku and the others must be full of doubts right now," Ryuen said calmly with a slight nod.
"I understand," Kizaru replied. Then he turned into light and vanished from Egghead like a laser beam.
"Old man!"
"What about me? Should I leave too?" Sentomaru shouted up toward the sky.
But Kizaru didn't reply.
Instead, Ryuen looked at him and said, "You don't need to leave. Honestly, with your strength, you're no threat to us."
"What?"
"Damn it!" Sentomaru was completely enraged by Ryuen's words.
Vegapunk, Bonney, the rest of the Dream Exploration Group—they all burst into laughter after hearing that.
"Saturn and the others won't arrive at Egghead so soon. While we still have time, Vegapunk, can you help us sort out the tech here and hand over a copy?" Ryuen finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
As soon as he said that, everyone in the group got super excited.
Everything here felt so futuristic—they all dreamed of turning their Sky Island into a high-tech paradise.
"Of course. These technologies might not match the level of 800 years ago, but for our time, they're more than enough," Vegapunk gladly agreed to Ryuen's request.
Right after that—
Everyone in the Dream Exploration Group started getting to work with Vegapunk. Just sorting through everything might end up creating mountains of data!
Seeing everyone busy, Bonney and Sentomaru joined in to help too.
....
At the same time—
Saturn had just left Mary Geoise and arrived in the New World, where he met up with five Vice Admirals from Marine HQ.
Saturn didn't call on any Vice Admirals from the regular Marine chain of command. Instead, he summoned five Vice Admirals loyal to the Celestial Dragons. These five were secretly planted within the Marines by the Celestial Dragons themselves.
Their names were Vice Admiral Red King, Vice Admiral Urban, Vice Admiral Earth Tea, Vice Admiral Guillotine, and Vice Admiral Blue Grass!
And those weren't the only hidden forces the Celestial Dragons had placed inside the Marines.
If not for this operation, even the top brass at Marine HQ might've never known these five Vice Admirals actually worked for the Celestial Dragons.
Normally, this kind of thing should've been handled by Marine Admirals.
But the matter of York and the Mother Flame involved one of the ancient weapons, Uranus. Until they had full control of the Mother Flame, the Five Elders didn't want Marine HQ to know anything about it.
So the Five Elders had no choice but to activate these hidden pieces inside the Marines.
Inside the battleship's cabin—
Saturn sat silently in the center like a statue, his expression cold. The five Vice Admirals knelt on one knee before him like loyal guards.
"Saint Saturn!" they said in unison.
"Mm~"
Saturn looked down at the five kneeling Vice Admirals. His face showed no emotion. His heart was as still as water, and he spoke calmly:
"This trip to Egghead Island is for something Vegapunk has been working on."
"And that is—the Holy Mother Flame!"
"So, the main goal of this mission is..."
Inside the warship's cabin, Saturn explained the details of this mission to the five Marine Vice Admirals. However, he didn't tell them exactly what the Holy Mother Flame would be used for.
After giving out all the instructions, the fleet led by Saturn headed straight for Egghead Island in the New World.
.....
Marine Headquarters.
After returning, Kizaru reported everything that happened on Egghead Island to Sengoku and the others.
"Borsalino, did Ryuen say anything about what to do with Saint Saturn's team? And what about the Holy Mother Flame—did they just take it?" Vice Admiral Tsuru asked with a worried look on her face.
"Hmm..." Kizaru thought for a bit, then said:
"Ryuen didn't really say anything specific about what to do once Saint Saturn arrived at Egghead Island."
"But judging by the strength he showed a few days ago in Mary Geoise, I don't think their so-called 'Dream Survey Team' will have any trouble handling Saturn."
"What we don't know is what he plans to do with Saturn afterward."
"As for the Holy Mother Flame, yeah, they really did take it. They put it into their navigator Nami's pocket dimension."
"I don't think anyone else could take it out—only they can."
"I actually hope they take Saturn out on Egghead Island..." Akainu suddenly said. His voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the room heard it clearly.
At that moment—
Everyone was a little surprised and turned to look at Akainu.
No one said anything, and Akainu didn't explain either. Maybe it wasn't just his own thought—maybe the others were thinking the same thing too.
"If they really do that, we'll have to start thinking about what to do next. There's a good chance the World Government will do something crazy after this," Sengoku said seriously.
"Hehehe~"
"Whether it's sooner or later, the fight's coming anyway. If it's gonna happen, then let this world be flipped upside down!" Akainu said, a bit wildly.
"No—"
"That person, Imu..."
"We still don't know much about his power or ability. According to Ryuen, the Five Elders' ability to regenerate comes from Im."
"If that's true, things will get very tricky," Vice Admiral Tsuru said, shaking her head.
"There's something else. I'm not so sure it's a good idea for Ryuen to be holding onto the Holy Mother Flame. That guy doesn't follow any rules," Sengoku said while scratching his head in frustration.
The others looked a bit troubled too.
Ryuen's actions are really hard to predict. Like how he dealt with the Buster Call—who would've thought he'd go blow up Pangaea Castle in Mary Geoise?
"But right now, anywhere else might be even less safe than with them. And even we at Marine Headquarters... don't really know..." Tsuru said in a low voice.
Her words made everyone tense up inside.
If Saturn hadn't pulled those five Vice Admirals away today, they wouldn't have realized that the World Government had this kind of power hidden inside the Marines!
If those people were used the wrong way at the wrong time, the consequences would be unthinkable.
---
You can read 10 Chapters ahead on my
pat reon.com/GMadman