"Were you personally pushing the Navy's greatest hope in a hundred years into an abyss of eternal damnation?!"
Kong's roar, filled with fury and disappointment, thundered through the Leviathan's bridge.
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Garp picked at his ringing ear and gave a helpless, wry smile.
"Hey, Kong, what good does yelling at me do, you old geezer?" Garp mumbled around a mouthful of Senbei. "You think I didn't want to go to God Valley? The kid agreed to it himself. What could I do?"
"He agreed?!" Kong's voice shot up an octave in disbelief. "Has he lost his mind?! Doesn't he know the Five Elders are using him?"
"Who knows." Garp sighed. He glanced at Yas, who stood at the bow with his white coat billowing in the gale, his back like that of a god or demon, and his voice grew complicated. "Maybe, in his eyes, Rocks and the Five Elders are all just... slightly bigger toys."
"You..." Garp's words left Kong speechless for a long moment. In the end, he could only release a dispirited sigh and hang up.
He knew things had spiraled completely out of control.
The monster named Yas the Tyrannosaurus had grown beyond the full control of even him, the Fleet Admiral, or the Five Elders.
No one could predict where the future would lead.
A day later.
In the waters off the Sparta Kingdom.
The air reeked of blood and sulfur, so thick it seemed impossible to disperse. The sea was no longer blue, but a nauseating dark red.
Along the distant coast, an enormous fortress city built from jet-black steel and rock crouched on the horizon like a savage beast. Countless cannon muzzles gleamed coldly atop its towering walls, aimed at the sea. Black skull