Lucci was indeed very angry, so angry that his rage overshadowed his reason. Despite CP0 paying such a heavy price, Kozuki Oden still escaped. The personnel belonging to CP0 were injured, crippled, or dead. This outcome was unacceptable to anyone.
Lucci no longer wanted to consider future or subsequent issues; he only wanted to unleash the anger in his heart and burn all the enemies before him, making them accompany the deceased CP0 members in death.
With this mindset, Lucci attacked with hatred, which plunged him into a state of madness. Pain watched the approaching enemy calmly, while Konan and Golden Lion had also prepared for battle.
After running a short distance in his leopard form, Lucci used "Soru" to appear directly in front of Pain, launching a "Finger Pistol: Madara" strike rapidly towards him.
Lucci instantly entered "Life Return" state, firing countless Finger Pistols from both hands, attacking Pain. Just as the attack was about to reach Pain, Lucci stopped, looking at the person in front of him with shock.
A figure swiftly appeared in front of Pain, raising a hand to block all of Lucci's attacks. Human Path Kalifa appeared before Lucci's eyes. Although Lucci was greatly shocked, he did not daze.
He quickly retreated to a certain distance, scrutinizing Kalifa.
"Kalifa?…"
"Why?…"
"Did you betray the organization?…"
Lucci didn't understand what was happening and questioned her loudly in anger. Nero, who was about to attack Crocodile, also stopped his attack upon hearing Lucci's shout and retreated to Lucci's side.
Like Lucci's expression just now, he looked at Kalifa with shock, not understanding what was going on. Kalifa was dead, of course, she wouldn't answer Lucci's questions unless Pain was willing to let her speak.
Aokiji in the distance also looked at Kalifa with a puzzled expression, not understanding. Lucci did not get the answer he wanted, and his heart grew more anxious.
Lucci couldn't understand why Kalifa would betray them and help the enemy block his attacks.
Anger made Lucci somewhat lose his reason, but not his intelligence. Lucci carefully examined Kalifa's face and attire, noticing that the usually beauty-conscious Kalifa had many things added to her face, similar to what was on Crocodile's face.
Looking at Crocodile's eyes and Kalifa's eyes, which were identical to those of the strange-eyed young man, Lucci finally understood where the problem lay.
Kalifa had once reported to Lucci about the enemy's eyes. Now, Kalifa's eyes were also like Crocodile's, and Lucci instantly realized that Crocodile and Kalifa were dead.
This was the enemy using some strange ability to control their corpses, leading to the previous intelligence mistakenly thinking that Crocodile had defected.
Thinking of this, Lucci's anger burned even fiercer, his face so grim it looked like it would drip water. Nero, not understanding, recovered and looked at Lucci, asking, "Officer… what's going on?… Kalifa, she?…"
Nero's question was very subtle, fearing that his words would provoke Lucci into losing control.
"Kalifa is dead!… Crocodile is also dead!… This is the enemy using some special ability to control their corpses!…" Lucci replied with a cold tone.
Human Path Kalifa had already been sent to the sand not far from where Pain and the others were fighting, to serve as an ambush, when Reno went to Sky Island to deliver Pain's instructions.
Lucci's surprise attack forced Pain to prematurely use Human Path to gain immunity to physical damage.
Pain originally could have avoided Lucci's attack in many ways, but he gave up on those methods and chose to have Kalifa appear, with the aim of giving the World Government a warning and making them calm down.
Pain had already decided that if the enemy wanted to fight, he would make them suffer a painful blow all at once, using "Chibaku Tensei" to control all enemies, and then Human Path would step in to harvest Souls.
Currently, Animal Path had not yet descended, so it did not possess the ability to summon other Paths. Therefore, Pain could only rely on Reno to bring Human Path down from Sky Island and hide it in the sand.
Seeing that the enemy was deterred and no longer attacking, he decided to stop while he was ahead. Pain did not understand the attitude of the person who arrived later, nor did he know his concerns, but he knew that person was Aokiji, one of the former Admirals.
If a confrontation could be avoided now, that would be the best scenario. If a fight was absolutely necessary, Pain was not afraid, but this battle would certainly not be short and might lead to more complications.
Pain currently needed time and deeply wished to float on Sky Island for a while to improve his strength. This battle, triggered by CP0, was superfluous in Pain's view. Unless absolutely necessary, Pain had no intention of moving against the World Government for now.
However, the appearance of Oden unfortunately triggered a series of butterfly effects, leading to the Marines' relentless pursuit and this unexpected war.
Seeing that Lucci was no longer attacking, Aokiji took the initiative to speak, acting as a "mediator."
"I say… are you still going to keep fighting?… Your commotion isn't small, and it could harm innocent civilians, you know?… Although I've already left the World Government… my concern for the common people has never diminished…"
Aokiji's words were very clear: he hoped both sides would temporarily stop. After all, Kozuki Oden had escaped, so fighting to the death now was useless unless they could keep everyone from the other side.
But even if Aokiji was very confident, he knew it was impossible to keep everyone. The reason why strong individuals are strong is because they have a sense of each other's Qi.
They would have a rough idea of the enemy's power level. Aokiji's words also carried another meaning: if the fluctuations of a major battle endangered the civilians, then Aokiji would inevitably intervene.
At that point, both sides would have to fight to the death, and who would survive would be unknown.
Pain remained silent, watching Lucci and Nero with cold eyes.
Lucci was struggling intensely internally. This mission had completely failed. Upon returning, CP0 would surely be disbanded, and he himself might be shelved by the World Government, which was not what Lucci wanted.
However, Kaku and Jabra were facing life-threatening injuries and needed immediate treatment. If there was any more delay, they might not be saved, which was also not what Lucci wanted.
Lucci's eyebrows sometimes twitched high, and at other times, he was expressionless.
Finally, Aokiji helped him make a decision.
"Lucci… take the heavily injured and go get treated… I'll handle the aftermath…" Aokiji said in a seemingly lazy tone.
Aokiji's actual meaning was: take the people for treatment; if the higher-ups want to assign blame, he would take responsibility.
Lucci flashed to Kaku's side, looked at the heavily injured Kaku and Jabra, and finally, resignedly carried the two away. As for the others, Spandam was lucky enough to still have his skeleton intact, but no one was there to collect him.
Kumadori and Fukurou were utterly annihilated, directly vaporized by the aftermath of Oden's battle. Thus, four CP0 members died: Blueno, Kalifa, Kumadori, and Fukurou.
Two were heavily injured: Kaku was disfigured, and Jabra was crippled; even if he survived, he might become a cripple unless there was some other method.
Only Lucci and Nero remained as active combatants. After this battle, CP0 would likely come and go quickly.
Pain watched Lucci and the others leave without ordering them to be stopped. Pain understood that if he tried to stop them, Aokiji would certainly not stand by.
Pain turned to look at Admiral Aokiji and spoke calmly.
"Former Admiral Aokiji… my name is Pain… I am the leader of the Akatsuki Organization…"
"I will remember the World Government's 'care' for my organization… Kozuki Oden is a member of my organization… I hope you convey to your superiors to put away their greedy thoughts and not bring trouble upon themselves again…"
"Otherwise… the World Government will surely incur the wrath of the gods because of this greed!…"
Pain solemnly issued a warning, hoping Aokiji would relay his words, making the World Government wary and causing them to restrain their actions.
Upon hearing Pain's warning, Aokiji also sighed inwardly with a helpless expression, "Seriously… what kind of people has Akainu provoked?… They can even threaten the World Government now…"
Although he grumbled inwardly, he replied, "Pain, is it?… It's a pleasure to meet you!… If it weren't for the big battle you just had, I would genuinely want to spar with you… But well… never mind… this time it's too troublesome!… Let's save it for another opportunity…"
"I can't convey what you just said… After all, I'm not with the World Government anymore… But well… I can give you a piece of advice…"
"Young man… this world isn't as simple as you think!… Goodbye, Pain… I hope we'll have a chance to spar next time…"
Aokiji finished speaking with a dashing smile, then rode away gracefully on his bicycle made of ice… To be continued…