All Cipher Pol Agents Mobilized

However.

"Buzz—!"

At that critical moment, a bizarre, blinding purple light suddenly flared up in the center of the ruins!

The light resembled an eerie purple demon moon, instantly robbing everyone present of both sight and hearing!

"What the hell is this?!"

C-4's fatal finger strike stopped just one centimeter before piercing Lace's throat, as though it had sunk into an incomparably viscous swamp. It could not advance even half an inch further!

He turned his head in terror, only to witness a shocking sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Roski, who had been lying in a pool of blood and barely clinging to life, slowly rose to her feet!

The wounds all over her body had stopped bleeding. At her chest, a purple hexagonal crystal that pulsed like a heart radiated a glow that completely engulfed heaven and earth!

This was the ultimate phenomenon that only appeared when one drove a Devil Fruit ability to the limits of life itself, even overdrawing the soul!

"She's gone mad?! If she burns through her life like this, she'll die too!"

C-4 and C-5 finally felt fear seep into their bones. They desperately tried to use the Six Powers to escape, only to discover that their bodies seemed completely locked down by the purple light. They could not move so much as a finger!

"Major Lace..."

Within that frozen space and time.

Roski's mournful yet resolute voice rang directly within Lace's mind.

With great difficulty, she raised her blood-soaked right hand and plunged it into her own chest. She forcibly tore out the purple-glowing crystal in one violent motion!

Blood gushed out.

Yet there was no pain on Roski's face. Instead, she revealed a smile that seemed filled with relief.

She staggered over to Lace and forcefully stuffed the "Illusion Crystal," still warm with her body heat and blood, into Lace's hands.

"Take it... and go!"

Her face, streaked with tears of blood, carried an ultimate sorrow that had seen through life and death.

"I should have died in that disaster ten years ago!"

"The current me, and this village... are nothing more than a beautiful dream I forcibly preserved with my Devil Fruit ability!"

"Every dream has a day when it must end! This is my destiny!"

Boom!

Those words exploded in Lace's mind like a thunderbolt.

She should have died ten years ago?!

This was a dream forcibly held in place?!

"Take this Memory Crystal and go! Give it to Rochi!"

Roski's body began to turn translucent, dissolving into specks of purple fluorescence. With the last of her strength, she fiercely shoved Lace out of the purple domain that had been tightly sealed off.

"And... tell that idiot!"

"Hide! Never avenge me! Live—no matter what, you must live well!!!"

The instant her words fell.

Roski abruptly turned around, spread her arms, and faced the two terrified Cipher Pol Agents as she completely detonated the last shred of life within her!

"Ultimate Illusion: Eternal Death Loop!!!"

"Rumble—!!!"

The purple light swallowed heaven and earth, transforming into an independent dimensional space that could never be broken. It dragged Roski, the two Cipher Pol Agents, and the debris scattered across the ground into an endless abyss!

There was no sound, no explosion.

When the purple light faded.

The entire square was empty. Other than the broken corpses of the Marines and the winter supplies stained red with blood, the agents and Roski, who had been fiercely fighting here moments ago, had been completely erased from the world as though they had never existed!

"No—!!!"

Lace collapsed onto the ground, clutching the still-pulsing purple crystal as she let out a heart-rending cry.

The mission had failed completely.

She had failed to protect her superior's family.

The winter supplies her superior had prepared so happily were now soaking in the blood of his brothers-in-arms, an utterly bitter irony.

The cold sea wind swept through the ruins.

Lace rose to her feet trembling, looked at her fallen subordinates, and bit her lips until blood streamed down.

"Retreat..."

Her eyes were bloodshot as she gripped the crystal tightly and issued an agonizing order to the few severely wounded soldiers who remained:

"Take our brothers' bodies and return to the Grand Line..."

Lace turned her head and stared fixedly toward the Grand Line. The tears in her eyes were replaced by a savage hatred that sent chills down the spine.

Her superior's sister had been driven to self-destruct, her soul scattered and gone.

An entire shipful of brothers had been slaughtered like pigs and dogs by Cipher Pol!

The Holy Land of Mary Geoise, the world's hub where power and conspiracy intertwined.

Within a secret intelligence base deeply hidden inside the Red Line, the atmosphere was so heavy it seemed as though water could drip from the air.

"Sir, something has happened!"

An intelligence officer in black sunglasses hurried into an office without windows, where only dim candlelight flickered.

He held an exquisite metal tray in his hands.

On the tray, two special sheets of paper that had originally been the size of palms were now burning violently at a visible speed, turning into flakes of ash!

These were Vivre Cards that represented life signs!

When they burned completely, it meant that the owners of the Vivre Cards had died completely!

"C-4 and C-5's Vivre Cards... have gone out?"

A tall man clad in a white cloak and wearing a deathly pale, featureless mask slowly turned around in his broad leather chair.

Looking at the two sheets that had turned to ash, his eyes beneath the mask shot out with two chilling flashes of light!

"Damn it! Weren't they sent to East Blue to investigate that Marine called Rochi?! Why did they die there?!"

The commander's voice was as piercing as ice. "In a weak sea like East Blue, where you can't even find a pirate with a bounty over ten million, who could kill two Cipher Pol Agents proficient in the Six Powers?!"

"R-Reporting, sir!"

The agent in sunglasses swallowed hard, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

"According to the encrypted message C-4 sent back at the cost of his life..."

"In that long-abandoned Locke Village in East Blue, not only did they fail to find any leverage against Rochi, they instead... instead came across a legendary Devil Fruit!"

The commander abruptly sat upright. "What fruit?!"

"The Illusion-Illusion Fruit!!!"

The sunglasses agent's voice trembled. "Commander C-4 reported that the strategic-level fruit, capable of freely altering memories on a mental level and designated top secret by the Five Elders, was in Rochi's biological elder sister!"

"Furthermore, Rochi's adjutant, Major Lace of the G-8 Branch, was also present. Commander C-4 speculated that Major Lace led Marines in obstructing the capture, ultimately resulting in... mutual destruction!"

Silence.

The entire office fell into deathly silence.

"The Illusion-Illusion Fruit... has actually appeared!"

The commander suddenly rose to his feet and crushed the hard redwood desk with one hand. His violent aura alone sent the sunglasses agent stumbling three steps backward!

To the World Government, this Devil Fruit's strategic value far surpassed that of many Logia fruits!

If used properly, they could even control the powerful kings of allied nations without shedding a single drop of blood!

"Immediately verify Major Lace's whereabouts!"