In a dilapidated house behind the battle zone in Dressrosa.
A bulky corpse lay on the filthy floor.
No one had lived in the house for years. A foul, musty smell filled the rooms, and gray-white cobwebs hung in the corners, thick with dust.
Vines had crept through the gaps in the windows. The whole house looked ready to collapse.
The corpse had been dead for some time. Its blood had begun to congeal, its skin had turned ashen, and its head had been cut off.
Against that backdrop, the scene looked especially horrifying in the dim house.
A beautiful woman with silver hair and crimson eyes sat beside the corpse, holding a head in her hands. It appeared to belong to the body.
"Mother, how did you end up dead? I suppose you were still weaker than that man."
The woman holding the head was Launi Aileen. The corpse on the floor belonged to Charlotte Linlin.
Charlotte Linlin's death meant the balance of power in the New World was about to change dramatically.
Whether it was the Whitebeard Pirates or the Beasts Pirates, if their leader died, the crew beneath them would cease to exist.
The crews of the Four Emperors survived under the protection of those four Great Pirates' overwhelming strength.
Without them, the others might not be weak, but they could never maintain their former glory.
Werther had already killed several of the Big Mom Pirates' Sweet Commanders. Now that Charlotte Linlin was dead, Totto Land would cease to exist.
"Mother, do you know? This is how Launi was killed too. Her head was cut off."
Launi Aileen did not seem particularly grief-stricken. Instead, she smiled.
"Weakness is a sin—an unforgivable sin. So, Mother, I don't want to be weak anymore."
Her crimson eyes gleamed red in