A few minutes earlier.
"Geh heh heh heh heh!!"
"A Haki user's shadow! Rare—truly rare!"
Cold moonlight fell over the ancient castle, while sinister laughter echoed continuously from a dim room in the rearmost building.
A huge, grotesque figure sprawled in his seat. His flame-shaped onion head bore two short horns, while his fangs and pointed ears made him look like a demon. Yet his bloated body was supported by tiny limbs.
"As expected of a strong man who could contend with so many Zombie Generals at once!"
Looking at the struggling black shadow in his hand, Moria could not stop himself from baring his sharp, bone-white teeth.
"Though plenty of high-grade corpses were wrecked, it was worth it. This was just a crewman with a bounty of 160 million Berries!"
"If I could get the shadows of those two with bounties over 500 million, I can hardly imagine how powerful they'd be! Geh heh heh heh heh!!"
"Lord Moria! Lord Moria!"
Two excited shouts rang out from the doorway. Looking over, he saw the squirrel brothers rushing in while carrying a coffin.
"Whoa! Did you find something else?!"
"That's right, that's right!"
"It's Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hat Crew!"
"Geh heh heh heh! Who did this?!"
Moria was overjoyed at the news. He stretched out his fat neck curiously and asked, "The Zombie Generals and the Three Mysterious Beings were all just sent to deal with Straw Hat Boy Luffy and Black Snake Reiner, weren't they?"
"Reporting to you, Master! We don't know either!"
The squirrel brothers opened the coffin and pointed at the bound, unconscious Zoro inside as they shouted:
"The traps in the castle were triggered for some reason. We found Roronoa knocked out by sleeping gas inside, so we tied him up!"
"Is that so?