Hermes could not be considered the fastest in the world, but among the many Homies created by Charlotte Linlin, it was the one most specialized in speed.
Its body, composed of different kinds of clouds, allowed Hermes to switch between different states depending on the situation.
“Mr…Mr. Cloud, are we really going to be okay doing this?”
“Relax, little princess of Dressrosa. I may always get stuck doing odd jobs and serving as transportation, but I’m plenty strong too!”
Viola, riding on Hermes’s back, still seemed somewhat uneasy, but Hermes was completely calm.
After all, Hermes stood at the very top among the Homies, possessing combat power comparable to Zeus and Prometheus. Dealing with someone like Buffalo, who was only trying to escape, was easy.
“Get out of the way, you freak!”
Buffalo had no idea what Hermes was. Looking at the bizarre cloud blocking his path, he simply wanted to charge straight through it. Then Hermes’s face darkened.
That was not a figure of speech. It literally darkened. Hermes transformed from a white cloud into a black cloud, and terrifying thunder began brewing inside its body.
Rumble!
Facts proved that trying to fly an aircraft through a thundercloud was a very dangerous thing. Buffalo, now trailing black smoke as he began crashing toward the ground, was more than enough proof.
Within Hermes’s field of vision, there were no longer any enemies capable of moving. Only the battle around Doflamingo in the sky was still ongoing.
“Remember to notify your father. Have him send people over there to arrest them.”
Hermes glanced toward the direction where Buffalo had crashed and paid him no further attention. Hermes’s lightning was not something just anyone could withstand. Buffalo, at least, certainly could not.
“Princess Nanamo, things are finished here. Where would you like me to go next?”
Viola personally witnessed Hermes transform from aloof and terrifying to ingratiating itself, and her understanding of life shifted slightly as a result.
“There’s no need for us to worry about Alber’s side. He’s probably a little angry right now. Viola, take a look at the other directions and see how things are going.
“Remember to call someone over to deal with… Never mind. I’ll help you handle this place later.”
Although Pica had been defeated, the effects of his ability remained. The human-shaped hill formed from rocks and soil would be a massive undertaking for the ordinary people of Dressrosa to clean up.
“Understood, Princess Nanamo. Please wait a moment.”
Viola formed a special gesture with her hands and began observing the area around Dressrosa.
“Hmm… There’s a ship hidden beneath the reefs not far away. It’s flying the Donquixote Family’s flag as well… Someone aboard is making a call. They seem to be contacting someone.”
“There are still more of them? Ignore them. Let them call out every backup they have so we can catch them all at once. What else is there?”
“There’s… there’s also someone who ran over to Sister Scarlett’s place! But Princess Chloe has already defeated him.”
Doflamingo had four elite officers beneath him. They were the four people who had encountered Doflamingo when he was still young and pledged their loyalty to him.
Pica and Trebol had both been defeated here. Vergo had been assigned an undercover mission and had already been away from the Donquixote Family for several years.
Although Rosinante had filled Vergo’s position and become the second Corazon, Rosinante had already exposed his identity by this point and was currently with King Riku.
The final remaining one was Diamante.
According to Doflamingo’s original plan, Diamante and Rosinante were both supposed to split up and carry out separate missions.
Rosinante had not obeyed Doflamingo’s orders, but Diamante was still “circling around from behind,” and by chance discovered Scarlett’s family living outside the flower fields.
Although Scarlett had withdrawn from the eyes of Dressrosa’s populace by feigning her own death, Doflamingo had still taken note of this daughter of King Riku, and the other Family members knew about her as well.
According to Doflamingo’s intentions in the original timeline, he had planned to kill King Riku outright.
It was Viola who used the power of her Glare-Glare Fruit as leverage, offering to join the Donquixote Family in exchange for King Riku’s life.
Scarlett, meanwhile, encountered Diamante while searching for food and ultimately bled to death.
Because of this, Doflamingo had also reminded the others to keep an eye out for other members of the royal family.
Not long before Doflamingo began fighting Alber, Chloe had also been doing something strange inside Scarlett’s house.
“How is it? Is there anywhere else still exposed?”
“Uh… no. It’s wrapped up very tightly.”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm! It’s all covered in bandages. Not a single bit is exposed!”
Rebecca held a roll of bandages with very little remaining, while discarded bandage wrappers were scattered around them. As for Chloe, just like Amphitrite back then, she had turned herself into a miniature “Miss Mummy.”
All of her exposed limbs were wrapped in a layer of bandages, leaving only her eyes uncovered.
She had no objections to being assigned to guard Scarlett’s place. After all, when she first came to Dressrosa, Scarlett had been the one to receive her.
Rebecca was only six years old. Looking at Chloe, who had wrapped herself up so thoroughly, she simply thought it was fun and even copied Chloe by winding two loops of bandage around her own arm.
Scarlett, however, did not quite understand.
“Maybe I shouldn’t ask, but… why are you doing this?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. I just saw Alber covering himself up so completely and wanted to try it too.”
“Looks like I really am getting old…”
“You two stay inside. Don’t come out. Someone’s coming.”
Chloe, who had been showing Rebecca how to wrap the bandages so they would not come loose during intense movement, sensed the presence of a stranger outside.
After telling the two of them not to come out, Chloe walked outside alone and looked toward the tall figure in the flower fields.
Diamante was tall and wore a bright red cape. A ring of petal-like decorations protruded from his collar, and two streaks of face paint were drawn across his face, making him look like some sort of tribal chief.
“What kind of person… would live in the flower fields beneath the Royal Palace? How intriguing. Little girl up ahead who looks like she’s about to join a Halloween parade, could you give me the answer?”
Although Scarlett had moved out of the Royal Palace, the location of her residence had been carefully chosen.
It was convenient for her to see her daughter, allowed Kyros to take better care of his family, and to keep out of the public eye, the place where Scarlett lived was not somewhere ordinary people could come. At this moment, Diamante felt that he had made a new discovery worthy of Doflamingo’s praise, so he could not help but look rather pleased with himself.
As for the strange person carrying a blade who had appeared before him, she did not make him wary in the slightest.
Diamante was arrogant and conceited by nature, and his journey so far had gone quite smoothly. Even though Doflamingo’s first plan had failed, Diamante still did not believe Doflamingo would lose.
“You’re with the Donquixote Family too, right?”
Normally, no one would sleepwalk all the way out here in the middle of the night. Chloe was merely asking for confirmation, just to be safe.
“Since you’ve already said so… then of course I’ll admit to that identity. If you know who we are, then you really are protecting something. Just what is inside that house behind you?”
Although he spoke with apparent politeness, Diamante had already drawn the longsword at his waist while asking the question. With a flick of his wrist, the sword bent like a venomous snake and stabbed forward.
The casual shaking made the blade’s trajectory extremely unpredictable, but Chloe paid no attention to its path and did not even bother trying to block.
Clang!
The blade was directly bounced away by Chloe’s skin. The feedback through Diamante’s hand made it feel as though he had just struck Tekkai.
“Oh? Looks like you’re no ordinary person.”
“You’re not bad either.”
“Much obliged—”
“I didn’t expect the New World to have such a comic character.”
Diamante’s expression immediately darkened. Even compliments from an enemy were something he would accept in full, using them to satisfy his vanity.
As someone who loved mocking his enemies, what he hated most was being mocked by others.
“How irritating… Looks like I’ll have to make you suffer a little.”
As he spoke, Diamante reached inside his clothes and pulled out several objects resembling fireworks shells.
Bang! Bang!
Countless fragments flew into the sky with the wind, and against the moonlight, they looked like scraps of paper scattering everywhere.
Diamante then lifted his cape and held it over his head.
“Death Enjambre!”
Those paper-like fragments began to change, transforming from flat strips into round, bulging caltrops.
Diamante was the user of the Paramecia-type Ripple-Ripple Fruit, a Flag Human capable of altering the shape and weight of objects.
Whether it was his own body or objects he touched, he could turn them into light, fluttering things resembling silk. Those paper scraps had actually been made by Diamante from extremely dense metal.
The clothes he wore were likewise made from hard steel that had been softened through his ability. Since Diamante’s power did not alter the actual material itself, this allowed him to improve his defenses.
The smaller caltrops were the size of eggs, while the larger ones were comparable to an adult’s fist. After they flew high into the air, Diamante released his ability, and under the pull of gravity, they immediately came crashing downward.
Even Scarlett, who was hiding inside the house, was startled by the dense series of impacts. Diamante, meanwhile, used his cape as a shield to block the attacks raining down from above.
As for Chloe…
“And you got upset when I called you a comic character, but with tricks like these, you should go be a clown in a circus.”
To Chloe, this rain of iron was no different from ordinary rain. If there was any effect at all, it was that the iron spikes had torn through her bandages and messed up the hair she had coiled up.
“You sharp-tongued brat… Army Bandera!”
The ground beneath them suddenly began surging like ocean waves, while only the area beneath Diamante’s feet remained steady.
“Now you won’t even be able to keep your footing! Let’s see how you dodge my next—”
Before he could finish speaking, Chloe flapped the wings on her back and flew up, her eyes now carrying a hint of the look one gives to a mentally challenged person.
“You could turn the ground completely upside down and it still wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Looks like there probably isn’t anything valuable to get from you.”
Diamante saw only a flash of fire before Chloe appeared behind him. The Sandai Kitetsu she had just drawn was already sliding back into its sheath.
Clang…
The metal cape was cut cleanly into two pieces, and there were even signs of melting along the severed edges. Blood did not spray from Diamante’s body, but a charred wound had appeared across his chest and abdomen, nearly cleaving him diagonally in two.
“Blazing Phoenix.”
Only after the attack had ended did Chloe call out the name of her move.
[She actually didn’t shout the name of her move first… damn brat…]
“Looks like I ended up dealing with the weakest one. How did a lunatic like this become an officer…?”
Diamante was not difficult to deal with. Any swordsman capable of cutting steel could inflict effective damage on him. As Diamante lost consciousness, the surging ground returned to normal.
However, the iron caltrops in the sky continued to rain down. Chloe, bored and unconcerned by them, even started calculating how much she could make by collecting the iron balls afterward and selling them as scrap metal.
Meanwhile, aboard the Donquixote Family’s ship, the final member of the Donquixote Family, Señor Pink, was waiting there.
As for Dellinger from the original timeline, the reason the Donquixote Family had been able to take him in was because neither Fish-Men nor humans liked the mixed-blood child, giving the Donquixote Family the opportunity.
With circumstances now changed, Dellinger naturally never joined the family.
The other broker, somewhat greasy and overweight, was dressed in baby clothes. Señor Pink had originally married and had a child, but his wife hated pirates, so Señor Pink had always concealed the fact that he was one.
However, while he was away on a mission, his child fell seriously ill with a fever. His wife was unable to contact him no matter what she tried, and in the end she also discovered the truth that he was a pirate.
Their child died from the illness, and his wife was reduced to a vegetative state by the shock, only showing some reaction to people dressed in baby clothes. From then on, Señor Pink adopted that outfit permanently.
Señor Pink was not yet a Devil Fruit user, so Doflamingo had arranged for him to remain aboard the ship.
The collapse of Pica’s stone giant, Doflamingo fighting in the sky, Buffalo crashing, and all the commotion in the distance had all been witnessed by Señor Pink.
[If things go wrong, make this call. Though I doubt we’ll need to use it. Fuffuffu…]
This was Doflamingo’s arrangement before setting out. At this point, Señor Pink felt the situation had reached the point where he needed to contact the other.
“Hello? Did something go wrong on Doffy’s side?”
The call was answered almost immediately. A piece of hamburger meat suddenly appeared beside the Den Den Mushi’s eye, and the familiar voice instantly made Señor Pink realize who was on the other end.
“Vergo?!”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
Señor Pink briefly explained the current situation to Vergo, making Vergo realize that things seemed to have become critical.
After all, the fact that Doflamingo had activated this backup plan already meant the situation was unusual.
“I’ll be there shortly.”
With that, Vergo hung up.
As an undercover agent, so long as he had not yet been activated, he was usually extremely loyal.
Seeking neither fame nor profit and caring only about climbing higher, Vergo had already risen to the rank of Captain and will soon be promoted to Rear Admiral. Already the second-in-command of the G-5 Branch, he had the authority to carry out missions independently.
And so, a Marine warship departed from the G-5 Branch and sailed in the direction of Dressrosa…
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