Several days later.
A West Blue affiliated nation—the Flanders Kingdom.
Faced with the Rocks Pirates' invasion, the king of Flanders surrendered at once.
Upon hearing that Charlotte Linlin wanted their heirloom, the emperor blade napoleon,…
King Louis VI unhesitatingly handed the national treasure over.
The kingdom's military elites were nearly driven mad by their cowardly monarch.
They cried, "We were ready to die in battle—why does Your Majesty yield first?"
Seeing the king so obliging, Fang Huo refrained from launching a war of ruin.
Golden Lion Shiki, Silver Axe, and Ganzi were furious; they wanted the treasury's riches.
But after Louis VI paid an additional protection fee and Fang Huo issued a firm order, Shiki and the others relented and left Flanders peacefully.
Only after the dreaded Rocks Pirates departed did Louis VI and his warriors breathe again.
"You trash call me craven—can any of you defeat them?"
"It was my wisdom that preserved Flanders."
"Had you reckless fools charged, Flanders would be as broken as Cang Country and Ying Country!"
Louis VI vented on his subordinates every grievance he'd swallowed from the Rocks Pirates.
How could these weaklings stop the world's strongest pirate crew?
The Rocks Pirates could crush an entire Marine grand fleet.
Rocks himself was a demon capable of slaying an Admiral.
In fury, Louis VI even rang the World Government to complain.
They paid enormous heavenly tribute yet received no protection from Marineford or the World Government.
Now the Rocks Pirates had extorted their heirloom and vast riches.
They requested a reduction in next year's heavenly tribute.
—The Gorosei never expected the Rocks Pirates, absent from the New World for a while, to surface in West Blue.
The World Government could do nothing about the Rocks Pirates' raid on West Blue.
With their flying warship, the Rocks Pirates outpaced both the World Government and Marineford.
All the authorities could do was slightly cut the heavenly tribute of victim nations to placate them.
A full year's exemption? Impossible.
The World Government and Celestial Dragons would not let the sheep grow bolder.
From this "peaceful" robbery, the Gorosei and God's Knights sensed something amiss.
It did not fit Rocks' usual style.
After all, Rocks had sacked the treasuries of Cang and Ying and burned their palaces.
Had Rocks suddenly turned merciful?
Yet countless analysts and agents confirmed: Rocks himself had not appeared in Flanders.
This intelligence was vital.
They had to verify whether Rocks was still aboard the flying warship—and why he'd missed the plundering.
If absent, where had he gone?
Could Fang Huo and the others have overthrown him?
The Gorosei ordered CP Agents to gather every scrap of intelligence on the Rocks Pirates.
More data meant more secrets revealed.
—Aboard the Gibeck's Sword at that very moment.
The Executives were dividing the spoils; even Newgate, indifferent to wealth, claimed his share.
He might not need it, but Sphinx Island did.
Charlotte Linlin gleefully split off a portion of her own soul and fused it into the emperor blade napoleon, forging a top-tier Homie and trusty aide.
That soul fragment came from Linlin herself—not from plundered life-force.
"Master~"
Under the Soul-Soul Fruit's power, the emperor blade napoleon, infused with Linlin's soul, became a sentient longsword.
A mouth of jagged teeth grew along the blade; the guard morphed into a bicorne hat, its skull now lively and expressive.
"Hahaha, from today on you're my Captain's hat and weapon!"
Charlotte Linlin was delighted with her new bicorne-blade.
"Yes, Master~"
The skull on Napoleon's hat-guard replied respectfully.
"Tch, how is Linlin's Soul-Soul Fruit so overpowered?"
Kiel Bastard, user of the Ghost-Ghost Fruit, looked at his own dull Negation Ghosts in dismay.
Why couldn't his ghosts grant objects life and awareness?
Comparisons really can be fatal.
"Let's test your combo move!"
'Roaring Light Cannon!'
The three great Homies—Sun Prometheus, Thunder Cloud Zeus, and emperor blade napoleon—merged; lightning and fire coiled around the blade, forming a ring of power.
With a swing from Linlin, a high-density bolt of lightning-fire laser blasted the sea, carving a monstrous water-devil.
"She's grown even stronger!"
Silver Axe watched, envious of such mighty Devil Fruit powers; if only he possessed them.
Now even Linlin had gained a formidable personal weapon.
Fierce glanced at his own great-axe—it suddenly seemed outdated.
"Fang Huo, how do you like my emperor blade?"
Charlotte Linlin rushed to show it off.
Without Fang Huo's intel, who knew how many years she'd have waited for a worthy weapon.
"Not bad."
Fang Huo smiled; still, it fell slightly short of his seven star demon sword.
He intended to personally nurture the seven star demon sword into a supreme grade blade.
When he ruled the seas, the authors and editors of the Famous Blades List would naturally add the seven star demon sword to the supreme grade, letting its name resound across the world.
Speaking of supreme grade blades, Fang Huo thought of the gokudō kaisen lost in West Blue.
Fūgetsu Kisaburō and Shimotsuki Kōzaburō had defied Wano's isolation policy and left this very year.
For some reason they had split up.
Fūgetsu took the gokudō kaisen to West Blue; Kōzaburō and Shimotsuki Furiko carried wado ichimonji and sandai kitetsu to East Blue.
Kozuki Sukiyaki, shogun of Wano, wishing to prepare two mighty blades for his son Kozuki Oden,…
traded the sandai kitetsu he had forged for the enma blade Kōzaburō had crafted.
Oden's twin blades—enma and ame no habakiri—soon became famed great grade blades known across the seas.
Meanwhile, the sandai kitetsu passed through many hands in East Blue, claiming the lives of several swordsmen without ever gaining renown.
It never even entered the list of skillful grade blades, let alone great grade.
Yet once it joins Zoro, the future protagonist swordsman, it will surely ascend to great grade—even supreme grade—rivaling nidan kitetsu and shodai kitetsu.
——