"Hmm... Where... is this?"
When Vivi barely opened her eyes, she was still in a state of utter confusion.
But soon, consciousness returned along with her mories, allowing her to recall everything.
She looked around and only then realized she was being held in the arms of a tall woman.
"Oh? You're awake?"
Hearing this voice, Vivi looked up at the beautiful woman with crimson horns and long, white-to-blue gradient hair.
"You are... Yamato? The one called the new Emperor of the Sea, Yamato?"
"Uh, there's no need to bring that up," Yamato said, slightly embarrassed, but quickly brushed the feeling aside and asked softly, "More importantly... how does your body feel?"
"My body..." Vivi paused, then focused inward to assess herself. "Aside from so stiffness and pain... there's nothing wrong."
"I see..." Yamato said, casting a strange look toward Lily, who was lying on the ground not far away.
Vivi followed Yamato's gaze.
It seed...
She had missed a lot just now.
"Vivi, you're awake?" Michael looked up, eting Vivi's eyes, and offered a gentle smile. "This way... I can give Cobra so kind of explanation."
With that, he knelt on one knee, gently lifting Lily into his arms.
Once he stood up again, he addressed everyone else present:
"Everyone... leave."
It was a calm statent, devoid of any forceful command.
Yet, Vivi instinctively felt a desire to obey his words.
Exchanging a glance with Yamato, Kozuki Toki then led Vivi out of the Flower room, heading outside.
Although they didn't know what Michael intended to do, they never questioned their father's decisions.
Only after sensing Yamato and Kozuki Toki's presence gradually fading into the distance did Michael turn around and walk deeper into the Garden of Flowers.
"Where... are we going?" Lily's voice still carried a hint of sharpness, but it was noticeably weaker than before.
In just these few short minutes, the life force within her body had once again been rapidly draining away due to the power of the Demon.
"The Human-Human Fruit, Demon grants the entire Celestial Dragon race an immortal and indestructible nature."
"To be precise, it doesn't grant them immortality..." Lily managed a weak shrug. "It's 'synchronization.' Through the power of the Demon, I synchronized the 'state' bestowed upon by the Immortality Surgery with those who received the attention of the Demon Form's power... And now, with such widespread synchronization of this ability, even the Immortality Surgery can't hold up anymore, hehe."
"So you're saying the Demon's consumption of power even exceeds the life-lock limit of the Immortality Surgery?"
"Although I don't quite understand your choice of words, I grasp your aning... That's right. Ever since I gave up absorbing Nefertari Vivi's life force, I was destined to be completely drained and killed by the Demon..."
Lily's eyes were filled with calmness and anticipation.
Over eight hundred years of longevity had never been a good thing for her.
In a way, this was another form of "reaping what she sowed."
Every ti she woke from a midnight dream, Lily would recall that afternoon when she decided to undergo the Immortality Surgery...
That was the beginning of everything.
"Michael, it's ti."
"It's ti to act."
"I've waited for this day... for far too long."
Michael looked at Lily but said nothing more, stopping his steps amidst the flower beds.
The next mont, Conqueror's Haki swept through the entire Garden of Flowers...
But only within the Flower room.
Outside, no one would sense even the slightest trace of its presence.
Michael's Conqueror's Haki had grown so dense that it could distort, even block others' Observation Haki.
In other words...
This Garden of Flowers was now essentially a sealed chamber.
And Lily thought Michael intended to act against her, fulfilling her final wish.
So she closed her eyes...
But the expected release never ca, no matter how long she waited.
"Co out... you've been hiding for quite so ti."
Who... was he talking to?
Lily abruptly opened her eyes, turning her head to examine the flower beds before her.
A rustling sound echoed, and Lily initially thought it was a disturbance caused by Michael's overwhelming Conqueror's Haki...
But the next mont, an ugly giant of a man erged from the flower beds.
"Black... beard?"
"Ahahaha, Mr. Michael, and dear Queen Lily... what a coincidence!" Blackbeard awkwardly scratched his exposed belly.
"The weather is really nice today..."
"Enough, Blackbeard. We all know your true purpose for being here, so let's drop the act," Michael said with a smile, shaking his head.
"Co on, whatever you plan to do, get on with it."
"Um, Michael... sir, I don't quite understand what you're saying."
"Aren't you just waiting to swoop in when both sides are exhausted or one side is defeated?" Michael tapped his chin.
"Co on, the opportunity is right in front of you now..."
"Ah, this..."
Blackbeard laughed.
It was a laugh uglier than crying.
"No... Mr. Michael, please don't joke with . I did have the idea of swooping in, but now it's completely vanished..."
"Vanished? Wishful thinking!" Michael glared, his Conqueror's Haki pressing down on Blackbeard like a solid wall.
"I'm telling you to absorb it, so you absorb it!"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Blackbeard shuddered violently all over.
Although he also possessed considerable Conqueror's Haki, compared to Michael's...
He was nothing but a weakling, utterly vulnerable.
He never expected that soone would... force him to swoop in like this.
Thinking of this, he instinctively activated the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit.
His hands turned into so kind of black substance, and black smoke continuously emanated from his body.
Michael, observing Blackbeard up close, noticed that the black substance emitted by the Dark-Dark Fruit bore a striking resemblance to the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Demon.
His gaze toward Blackbeard then beca even stranger.
Perhaps...
The Demon Fruit was originally sothing fate had reserved for Blackbeard.
But due to Michael's appearance, an unpredictable change had occurred.
And this... seed to be the only way to set things back on track.
"Can I ask again why you want to absorb the Devil Fruit power of the Demon?"
"Isn't this your original destiny?" Michael gave Blackbeard a deep look. "An existence sharing the sa origin as Joy Boy, maintaining the balance of this world has always been your mission... just like darkness and light, just like demons and Nika."
Blackbeard was stunned.
Besides Lily and the Five Elders, he never expected...
The Archangel before him also knew about his origins.
"Surprised? But I have my own goals too."
Michael's gaze fixed directly on Blackbeard's face.
"If you want the dragon slayer to never beco the dragon in the end..."
"Then there must always be a dragon."
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