All was silent, save for the ghostly flames casting their faint glow.
The moment Golden Lion appeared, everyone's pupils constricted.
"G-Ghost!"
Saint Aceho, sprawled beneath Golden Lion's blade, immediately cried out in a trembling voice.
Nami, Vivi, and the others could not help covering their mouths tightly, desperately suppressing their trembling bodies for fear that they might burst out laughing beneath Golden Lion's terrifying aura.
Even Admiral Kuzan, protected by the Iceheart Art, unconsciously lost his composure before Golden Lion.
Kuzan glanced at the "terrified and helpless" Garen, then sized up the "ferocious-looking" Golden Lion before finally gritting his teeth and saying:
"Golden Lion Shiki."
"I already sent your corpse to Marine Headquarters. How could you..."
As he spoke, Kuzan's gaze remained fixed squarely on Garen.
"How could you still be alive?"
Garen's expression did not change, nor did his gaze waver, though his brow was filled with solemnity.
At the same time, Garen was secretly issuing commands to Golden Lion in his mind.
"Ha ha ha!"
"You two ignorant brats think you can kill me, Golden Lion Shiki?"
Golden Lion immediately burst into wild laughter and spouted a bizarre setting that even he himself could hardly accept:
"Even if my fleshly body is destroyed, I can make my soul float out of it!"
"This is the ultimate secret technique I awakened after developing the Float-Float Fruit to its limits:"
"Ascension of the Soul!"
"What?!"
Garen looked "utterly shocked." "The Float-Float Fruit is actually this terrifying!"
"..."
Kuzan gave Garen a speechless look.
Golden Lion, however, had already extended a pale ghostly hand and lifted Saint Aceho up like a piglet.
Shrouded by those dim ghost flames, Saint Aceho was already frightened into questioning his entire life.
"H-Help..."
Saint Aceho's voice had gone from an old man shouting at a