...
How many years has it been since he'd felt this way? Since this foreboding feeling claimed him? Since he felt the slightest hint of true, unadulterated, terror?
Not even the Pirate King's foray into the end. Into the beginning light of the truth of the Ancient Kingdom had driven him to this state.
Saturn kept his gaze focused ahead as the damning video stilled. Oh, it wasn't finished, no, Doflamingo hadn't seen it fit to end it on his closing statement. The damnable creature in it had simply stopped moving, as he relaxed back into his throne.
To the rest of the world, they would merely take it as a show of power. Take the image showcased before them to memory.
To him and his cohorts? To their king?
Saturn visibly held in the urge to showcase his worry as he watched Doflamingo keep true to his word of redefining his power.
The truth he'd spewed alone, could've been managed and written off as mere ramblings of a former Celestial Dragon.
The claims he'd made of ending the dynasty of the world could've been ignored, by the mere virtue of the man calling his own executioners towards him, having challenged the best of the sea's worst.
But as he stared at the man silently breaking open the truth of what a Devil Fruit entailed... As he watched him prove his claim of his prowess, of his willpower to do so...
Terror filled him at the sight of it.
It was that last point that worried him. It was that last point that gave credence, small as it were, to the man's claims of upending the world.
It didn't truly matter as to the kind of power he envisioned for himself, but rather the fact he was even capable of managing to change a core facet of himself and the world around him.
All things considered, all the happenings themselves considered...
Saturn frowned, heavily.
It took decades to change the core facet of a devil fruit. It took centuries to punt it to the realms the former warlord was striving for.
But more than that, it took either an unreal level of willpower, akin to their greatest enemy, to shift it alone or dozens of practitioners over the ages to change a single Devil Fruit.
Even Joyboy hadn't managed that in the end. Even Joyboy's own attempt had ended in a compromised form of power that relied on heavenly luck and deadly conditions.
Doflamingo didn't look like he was batting an eyelash as he shifted the reality of his power. And there certainly hadn't been any notable users of his fruit in the past.
To add on top of that the truth he'd somehow managed to glean from the nether. A truth that didn't exist anywhere. To add on top of that further, his ploy against them in Marineford that had left them at the mercy of Whitebeard... What had been considered a folly of the highest degree given what Doflamingo had had to lose was suddenly turned into a masterful gambit.
In one fell swoop, Doflamingo had almost crippled the Navy, gained the favor and protection of an Emperor, and then proceeded to use that momentary window of opportunity to... break open the world government's true origin.
It was no longer possible to claim them the mere ramblings of a madman as the only way to make him pay for it was to send themselves after him as the strength of the marines, their admirals were busy licking their own wounds for Whitebeard had not found it in himself to offer his usual mercy. And to send themselves after him was to all but prove his sordid claim, for the Five Elders would not normally bother going after the miscreant for the betrayal he'd committed.
That alone would've had him die an impactful death. But the truth of the matter was plain to see for Saturn as he watched the man come close to his perfected power.
Doflamingo was far more powerful than he'd alluded them to believe. Impossibly so. And now, while showcasing that power, he held them at check with the truth he'd blasted open for all the world to hear- The only way anyone would believe them to be mere ramblings would be if the man himself claimed them as that.
And Saturn truthfully wasn't sure if one of them alone could break him to the point he'd admit that- And to send more than one of them, would guarantee that sordid truth's existence for the next century.
Would guarantee a hundred and one other Oharas.
How was it all possible..? No matter how he thought of it, he couldn't discern the impossible turn of events that had occurred.
How was it possible he gleamed the impossible truth? How was it possible for one considered barely above the rookies of the current generation to have somehow gained the willpower necessary to challenge the Sea's Devils? How was it possible that he made it look so easy?
The terror he felt at the thought of it all, turned him numb.
There simply was no explanation for it.
The sudden shifting of movement alerted him towards the entrance- His eyes creasing in annoyance as he watched someone enter.
They had made themselves expressively clear when they asked for privacy. On account of the figure hiding in the shadows in the corner as they too watched the screen before them. The figure that would dictate the future.
His gaze went toward the intruder and instinctively held in the sigh that threatened to leave as he noted the fact it was the utterly moronic children's father. The children who'd thought it a good idea to go gallivanting away from their nest during a war.
He opened his mouth to cut off whatever Rosward made to say on account of his dead children- Placations at the forefront of his mind with promises he wasn't certain they could keep.
Yet before the visibly angry Celestial Dragon could say anything at all, he watched in silent shock as the man started leaking bloodied water from the top. Rosward's anger rapidly turned to confusion, at least for a moment, before a lifeless expression momentarily took over, before even that disappeared as the man's entire body drained entirely.
He took in the broken skeleton left behind with mild horror. His cohorts beside him shifted in the silence that followed.
The fool of a guard that had let Rosward inside, for a moment, could only stare in shock at what had occurred before he lowered his gaze and calmly walked back out.
Had the guard been... silenced as well, it would've been a different matter.
Had the guard alone been silenced, it would've been a much better matter.
But it had been Rosward specifically that had been targeted.
Which told him one thing in truth.
It wasn't mere anger at what had occurred that filled their king.
No.
His gaze, along with his fellow elders, shifted towards the shadows as they watched their leader walk out towards their table.
Imu... was currently beyond the pale.
And if it wasn't sorted soon, he imagined quite more foolish dragons were to follow. And frankly, explaining the death of one, without a Godknight's judgment, was going to be hard enough.
And so he stood up from his seat and opened his mouth. "Rest assured Imu-sama, this will be deal-"
Yet before he could even finish his words, Imu cut him off by striking a dagger into the heart of the map on their table.
His eyes, along with the rest, lowered down towards the spot marked with mild shock in their eyes.
"You... Will... Do... Nothing..."
Confusion, fear, and anger filled him at that, yet all he kept to himself as he dared to move his gaze up the slightest bit. "Imu-sama?" He quarried.
It was then and there, the screen that had stilled itself, started back up- Yet it wasn't words that came out of that damned warlord but low laughter...
The warlord had clearly found his answer- Which was a problem for another time.
His focus was on the marked spot. As the rest of his elders were.
"Imu-sama?" He repeated again when the first got him no response- Only then noticing the fact Imu was currently focused on the former warlord himself.
"Let... Him... Cull..."
Shock joined his earlier anger and fear.
"Dragons... Grown... Weak..."
He opened and closed his mouth as the damning words washed over him.
"Have no need... For rotten whelpings."
When Imu's voice quieted down, he dared to raise his gaze towards him, his mind unsure of what to say or even do to such a command, his only thought was that it all felt wrong and yet the moment his gaze finally landed on Imu's face, he found himself frozen again.
This time, however, it was a different kind of cold and terror that settled over him as he took in the picture before him.
There was... Imu wasn't...
Why was their leader... Happy at the turn of events?
"The Will of D..." Imu started speaking again as if to answer his unspoken thoughts. "Is ending at last..."
He opened his mouth before immediately closing it as he processed the words, his shocked gaze slowly turning towards the screen still showcasing Doflamingo.
...Imu... Even Imu thought him that dangerous? Thought him powerful enough to... To break what they had all failed to. Imu thought him strong enough to break fate's damned curse when he and his cohorts had failed for centuries to so much as slow it down!?
He dimly noted that of all the emotions washing through him right now... Betrayal ruled them all.
"And... Doflamingo himself?" He questioned numbly. "When his culling ends... When the rot has been quashed and the curse finally broken... What will be done about Doflamingo himself?" He questioned and spewed more words in one encounter with their king than he had in the past decade combined.
Imu, for the first time in a very long time, looked him in the eye.
Saturn ignored the burning shudder that swept through his being at the gaze. Ignored his instinct to look away. Ignored the sudden pain that enflamed his whole being as his body threatened to break down then and there.
"...Will he be rewarded?" He questioned hoarsely. "Or will he disappear?"
Imu held his gaze for a moment that felt almost eternal. "Will you end... His existence yourselves?"
Confusion filled him at the strange question.
"Yes." He answered quickly following his slight lapse. "We are your swords-" He made to get into a knee, his cohorts have already stood up to claim the same- Only for all five of them to freeze at the sudden strange sound that came out of Imu in response to their promise.
They all stood, rock still as Imu walked away from them all.
"'End his existence...' You suggest..?" The strange sound that froze them all followed his words. "How curious..."
Imu's footsteps seemed to slow down though none dared to check under the weight that had suddenly fallen on them.
"When did you... Forsake your lives..?" Imu's voice felt cold, yet the confusing words made him feel almost lightheaded for a moment before he finally realized what the strange sound that came out of Imu was. "How bold you grow..." And what it meant for the world at large. "To challenge... A Shinigami..."
Imu's laughter was all that he could hear as the being disappeared from their view.
And with Imu's laughter dying down as he swept further and further away, all the Five of them could do was turn to stare at the dagger he'd left behind.
The dagger that had marked Mary Geoise.
...
Hope You Enjoyed! Don't Forget Feedback!