A Flaw Exposed, Calamity!

Dressed in a long white coat, wearing a distinctive animal mask, and surrounded by Celestial Dragons across God Valley, Annus quickly reached a conclusion.

"You are... Cipher Pol 0?" Annus asked softly.

Cipher Pol 0, fully known as "CIPHER POL - AIGIS 0," was the world's strongest intelligence agency.

It stood at the very top of the World Government's directly controlled Cipher Pol secret intelligence organizations, and only the Celestial Dragons had the authority to deploy it.

Its most notable feature was the white suit that distinguished it from the standard black suits worn by lower-ranking Cipher Pol agencies.

As the "Celestial Dragons' strongest shield," Cipher Pol 0's primary duty was protecting the Celestial Dragons, so it was hardly strange for one to appear here.

"It is my honor to be recognized by the famed Calamity. However, could you do me the favor of leaving this island?" The Cipher Pol 0 agent in the snake mask and long white coat gave a slight bow, seemingly with no intention of attacking Annus.

In this Cipher Pol 0 agent's view, since the chance to launch a sneak attack from behind had vanished, he needed to avoid a direct conflict with Annus.

He would leave the fighting to the Marines. If Calamity Annus had not been about to enter the Celestial Dragons' hunting grounds, he would never have shown himself.

As long as there was no danger threatening the Celestial Dragons, everything could be ignored. It did not matter how many others on the island died.

"You have some manners... but since when did the World Government's watchdogs get to order me around?" Annus accepted the bow from the Cipher Pol 0 agent before him as a matter of course, with no intention of giving the man any face.

"Please do not make things difficult for me, Lord Calamity. Ahead are the noble World Nobles—"

A bolt of lightning suddenly crashed down beside the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent's feet, cutting him off.

The snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent staggered back several steps. His carefully maintained composure was scattered by the lightning in an instant, exposing his full caution and wariness.

"Are you going to make an enemy of the World Government, Lord Calamity?!"

"I prefer how you look now. That feigned calm of yours was rather fragile." Annus smiled.

Sometimes, he enjoyed playing a little.

Just as when facing prey that posed no threat, he would first let it flee some distance before following at an unhurried pace. Driven by the danger, the prey would desperately run, and all he had to do was remain close enough to overtake it at any moment, letting the prey gradually lose its ability to think amid the frantic surge of adrenaline.

No matter how hard the prey struggled, it could never escape his grasp. After repeating that a few times, what he got to savor was... despair.

"What... do you mean?!"

The snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent's hairs stood on end. At that moment, Annus's smile looked as terrifying as a demon to him.

"Expressions can be disguised. Tone can be disguised. But the human body does not lie..." Annus said softly.

"The beating of the heart, the rhythm of breathing, changes in body temperature, the secretion of sweat... all of that is real."

"From the moment you noticed me approaching, your body has been telling me that you are very nervous."

Even the finest impersonators in Cipher Pol 0 could not fake those physiological changes.

Life Return, the ultimate technique of the Six Powers, allowed a person to perfectly control their body. But when a certain emotion broke past its peak, even the most skilled practitioner would lose control, forfeiting complete command over their body from the inside out.

Those changes were minuscule to ordinary people, perhaps even impossible to notice. But to Annus, whose Observation Haki had reached an unfathomable realm, at such close range, those subtle changes were like mountains shaking and the earth splitting.

Ever since he had approached this forest, the Cipher Pol 0 agent before him had revealed fear. That caused cracks to appear in his previously flawless disguise, and his heartbeat rapidly accelerated.

"Tch... you monster!"

Having been seen through, the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent simply gave up pretending to be calm. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath.

I have to stop this dangerous man!

That was the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent's only thought at that moment.

Of course he was nervous and afraid. Standing before this man meant facing not only the man himself, but also the vile reputation and rumors about him that involuntarily flashed through his mind.

Those things, together with the suffocating mountain-like Haki emanating from the man before him, pressed down on him so heavily that he could barely breathe!

Only the truly strong could understand that feeling. Like a frog at the bottom of a well climbing out of the deep shaft, only then could it see how vast the true sky was.

"Still not planning to move aside? If you do, I can consider sparing you." Annus said with a light laugh.

"...In your dreams!"

The snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent had professional integrity and had no intention of yielding.

There were not many people on this island qualified to stop Annus. Aside from the Marine vice admirals aboard the warships who had yet to return to defend the area, only he and God's Knights remained. If Annus broke into the Human Hunting Tournament grounds, it would undoubtedly be a catastrophic failure on his part.

"Even if it costs me my life, I will stop you here! Soru!"

By stomping the ground dozens of times in an instant and unleashing explosive speed, the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent vanished from where he stood within a fraction of a millisecond, then immediately appeared behind Annus.

"It seems you have exposed a flaw, Calamity!"

Seeing Annus standing motionlessly in place, the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent rejoiced inwardly and thrust out his strongest Shigan without hesitation.

"Finger Pistol: Burst!"

In the flash of an instant, his Shigan, coated in powerful Armament Haki, shot forth, tearing through the air as it struck toward Annus's heart.

Yet it hit nothing.

"What made you think you had found my flaw?"

The snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent tried to turn around in horror, only to find that he could not. One hand had firmly seized his head, its five fingers like cast iron as they clamped around his skull.

"You should know that I am lightning itself. What made you think you could be faster than lightning?"

The gentle voice came from behind him, but the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent felt a chill run through him. The overwhelming, suffocating gap between them plunged him into despair.

"No... don't!"

"It is too late to say that now. Accept lightning's baptism. Perhaps it will give you a different experience."

As the words fell, Annus's five cast-iron fingers, coated in Armament Haki, transformed into golden lightning. The lightning pierced through the snake-masked Cipher Pol 0 agent's cerebral cortex and entered through his mouth and nose, destroying his brain in an instant.

Under such precise control of lightning, the completely charred snake mask fell into the grass amid black smoke without even starting a fire.

Then came the collapse of the Cipher Pol 0 agent's body. Brain-dead, with his breathing, heartbeat, consciousness, and neural responses all gone, he fell lifelessly to the ground.

The commotion caused by this loyal Cipher Pol 0 agent's death was so slight that it did not even startle the birds resting in the forest.

A fresh breeze swept through the grass beneath his feet. Humming a tune, Annus stepped casually over the snake mask amid the crisp birdsong and continued onward.

Suddenly, Mantra caught a powerful presence landing on the western shore.

"Hm? Roger has landed too? Looks like I need to act quickly..."