Samael Makes His Move, Fire God's Roar!

"Got it."

In the dining room, Dimon gave a casual reply.

With Ain's ability, he could check on Mammon's situation whenever he wanted.

He wasn't worried about Mammon's safety. Even if his operation was exposed, Mammon had the ability to escape if he wanted to.

Unless his luck was bad enough for Admiral Kizaru to be at headquarters.

Whatever else could be said about the Glint-Glint Fruit, its speed was unmatched. If Kizaru was determined to stop him from leaving, he might indeed be able to hold him up for a while.

"Besides matters concerning Punk Hazard, you can also keep an eye out for information on Devil Fruits."

"Understood."

After the brief work report, Mammon ended the call himself.

Dimon finished breakfast and left all the dishwashing to Ship Zuizui, then went up to the deck.

"It's been seven or eight days already. Why haven't we reached the next island yet, Zuizui?"

"Great and wise master, I'm here!"

Ship Zuizui emerged from the floor and hurriedly explained, "I've been following the Log Pose the whole time. I definitely haven't gone off course, master!"

"Really?"

Dimon put on a skeptical face, seriously suspecting they really had gone off course.

The Grand Line's magnetic fields were chaotic. Perhaps the Log Pose had suffered some kind of interference, causing it to point in the wrong direction.

It wasn't impossible. After all, he had sailed the Wave-Breaking Warrior all over the place along the way, even making a trip to the East Blue.

"Please believe me, master. Your humble servant will surely deliver you safely to the next island!"

"Bring me the Log Pose. Let me take a look."

At that, Ship Zuizui opened his mouth and spit out the Log Pose he had swallowed earlier.

Dimon picked up the Log Pose from the floor and stared at the needle trembling back and forth in its center. He was immediately speechless.

"Even I can tell what this means, and I'm no navigator. This thing's definitely been affected by a magnetic field."

No wonder they still hadn't reached the next island.

Now they were in trouble. Lost on the Grand Line, it wouldn't be easy to get back onto the right route.

"Master, I'm sorry!" Ship Zuizui immediately admitted his mistake. "I thought it would be fine as long as I followed the needle."

"Forget it. I don't blame you. You're only a ship, after all."

Dimon pondered for a moment, then turned his gaze to the distant sea.

A vast bank of fog was faintly visible in the distance. It stretched across the entire sea, with no end in sight, and even the midday sun couldn't pierce it.

Before long, the Wave-Breaking Warrior entered the fog.

Visibility here extended only a dozen or so meters. Anything farther away was nothing but a blurry shape.

Dimon reached out and grasped at the air, catching a wisp of fog and immediately activating it.

"Tell me, where is this?"

Once activated, the little wisp of fog slipped through Dimon's fingers and twisted in the air, gradually forming a line of words.

[Master, this is the Florian Triangle.]

"You can't speak?"

Dimon raised an eyebrow. It seemed to be like the [gentle breeze] from before: it could understand him, but couldn't talk.

The fog dispersed again, then formed another sentence a moment later:

[Master, please leave quickly. There's a group of evil people here who capture those who lose their way and wander into these waters.]

"I know who you mean. Gecko Moria, one of the Shichibukai, and his Moria Pirates, right?"

Now that he knew where he was, Dimon immediately realized who it was.

Gecko Moria, captain of the Moria Pirates and a Paramecia Shadow-Shadow Fruit user, had a bounty that was frozen before he became a Shichibukai at

320 million Beli!

[Just a few days ago, a group of pirates was captured by those evil people!]

The fog kept warning him. It genuinely hoped Dimon would leave this troubled place as soon as possible.

Dimon shook his head. "It's fine. Moria's no match for me. More importantly, what unlucky bastard did he catch?"

[A group of pirates called the Lola Pirates. Their captain is a human woman.]

"Who did you say? Lola?"

Dimon was stunned for a moment.

Lola, full name Charlotte Lola, was one of the Four Emperors Big Mom's daughters.

Thinking of the unlucky woman's identity, Dimon suddenly had a great idea!

Chapter 22: Samael Makes His Move, Fire God's Roar!

Of the four pirate emperors in the world today, Big Mom was the strangest.

Her dream was to create a country where all races could live as equals. To that end, she took the lead, forcibly married husbands of various races, and had a whole bunch of children.

With the help of those children, she established Totto Land in the Totto Land Waters of the New World and ascended to the throne as its queen.

Charlotte Lola was one of her daughters, and could even be called her most important daughter!

"Such a juicy piece of meat has come right to my door. It'd be a shame not to take a bite!"

A great idea came to Dimon.

There was no doubt about Lola's importance to Big Mom. With that bargaining chip in hand, he could easily get a ransom out of her.

Of course, the ransom wouldn't be money. He had no use for that much money. What he wanted was Devil Fruits.

Once that thought clicked, everything became clear!

Dimon's eyes grew brighter. Why am I going to all the trouble of gathering information all over the world and struggling to find Devil Fruits?

Wouldn't kidnapping be faster?

However, extorting one of the Four Emperors was risky, so he would naturally stay behind the scenes and avoid exposing himself.

He had to send someone over to kidnap Lola first.

With that in mind, Dimon immediately said, "You lead the way. We're going to find Gecko Moria first."

As local fog, it knew the Florian Triangle like the back of its hand and naturally knew where the Moria Pirates were hiding.

Unable to defy its creator's orders, it obediently led the way.

Half an hour later, a massive dark shape loomed in and out of sight through the fog.

[Master, the lair of those evil people is just ahead.]

"Thanks for your help."

With a thought, Dimon released the restraint he had placed on his consciousness.

Flames burned fiercely around him, as if they had gained a consciousness of their own. They detached from his body and then coalesced into an elemental creature.

"Whew, I'm finally out!"

"Samael, I have a job for you."

In the thick fog, an enormous ship floated silently on the sea.

It was immense, with a dark color scheme and a shroud of fog that never dispersed. Its overall appearance was eerie and sinister.

At first glance, no one would have thought it was a ship. It looked more like a ghost island that could sail.

In fact, it really was an island, originally converted from an island in the West Blue and relocated here by Moria through unknown means.

A towering, thick circular wall surrounded the island. At the front entrance was a gate shaped like a pair of giant lips that clamped shut. Inside the wall, a ring of water encircled the main island at the center, which was covered in dark, eerie forests of dead trees.

At that moment, in one of those forests.

A fireball fell from the sky and slammed into the ground, setting a few nearby dead trees ablaze.

The flames spread out, then quickly came back together, gradually taking shape.

"Where am I supposed to find them now? Honestly, the moment he lets me out, he puts me to work."

Samael formed an arm out of flames and couldn't help scratching his head.

He floated along for a while. Suddenly, an eerie laugh sounded from the dead woods on both sides of the path.

"Hehehe... what a fascinating creature."

Samael stopped, and the eyes on his humanlike face narrowed.

The next moment, a pale, almost transparent white ghost doll floated out from among the trees. It flew once around Samael before stopping in front of him.

"Where did this little bug come from? Pfft!"

Samael curled his lips in disdain and spat out a fireball.

The instant the fireball touched the ghost, it exploded, sending flames soaring into the sky. But immediately afterward, the white ghost doll flew out of the blaze unharmed.

It danced through the air, seemingly mocking its opponent's incompetence.

"Hehehe... that's no use. Answer me, idiot! Who exactly are you? What are you doing on this island?"

With Samael's fiery temper, he couldn't stand such an insult.

His originally small body expanded rapidly, growing dozens of meters tall in the blink of an eye. The next moment, a roar resounded through the heavens and earth.

"Fire God's Roar!"

Boom!!

Blazing flames gathered in his mouth and erupted. The jet of fire swallowed the ghost doll in an instant, then continued on with undiminished force, sweeping away everything in its path.

The earth was set ablaze by the searing fire, forming a channel of lava that stretched for a thousand meters.

The commotion immediately drew the attention of the entire island, startling everyone.

In a cemetery, zombies crawled out of their coffins and rolled around on the ground from the heat.

In the dead forest, withered trees with human faces pulled up their roots and hurriedly fled the battlefield.

"Hmph, is that all you've got?" Samael said disdainfully. "I barely even tried."

Meanwhile.

In the old castle at the center of the island.

Inside a room in the Gothic ghost castle.

"Aaaah!"

Perona's eyes snapped open, and she broke out in a cold sweat. She patted her wildly pounding heart, her fear gradually turning to anger.

"Damn it, who is that guy?! I'm so mad!"

The ghosts she created were immune to all physical attacks and weren't afraid of being burned by fire.

But the earlier commotion had been too great, and the attack's power too terrifying. She had simply been scared.

Perona calmed herself, but the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She immediately lay back down on her bed.

A ghost then emerged from her body, looking exactly like her.

"Ghost Doppelganger!"

"Just you wait, you damn bastard!"

Elsewhere.

At the top of the castle.