"Commander! I just fought the target!!" said Towa in a solemn tone while pointing downward.
"Haaah, what do you mean..." asked the commander with a frown.
He didn't understand what Towa meant, and it never occurred to him that the target he was chasing could transform into a Sea King, as such a thing had no precedent.
Before Towa could reply, the agent who had gone to inspect the cargo hold came running and said quickly
"Commander, everything in the cargo hold fell into the sea!"
"What!!?" he shouted in anger, then quickly ordered,
"Quickly, go down with Rikoa, we can't afford to lose that treasure..."
"Commander, the Sea King was the target..." said Towa suddenly, which deepened his frown.
"What do you mean..."
Sensing the impatience in his commander's tone, Towa quickly explained,
"My ability tells me that the target's location is the Sea King serpent that just attacked..."
"Hmm, do you mean that damned slave was inside the Sea King serpent..." he asked quietly, then shouted in Towa's face with anger
"Damn it!! Did the Sea King eat him? Why didn't you tell me earlier..."
Towa shook his head and explained in a solemn tone,
"No, no, that's not what happened. The Sea King is the target... The aura of the Sea King perfectly matches the aura of that slave. I felt the same thing at the place where Saint Marcellus died, but I didn't think much of it..."
He paused for a moment, staring at his commander who stepped back, then continued in disbelief:
"That slave is the Sea King serpent that just attacked. I think somehow he can transform into..."
He couldn't even complete his sentence because he couldn't believe his own words.
"Impossible!!..." the commander harshly denied Towa's claim.
"Even if he's a Devil Fruit user..." he suddenly stopped mid-sentence before continuing with a revelation, "Unless he's a user of a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit, those fruits grant their users special abilities..."
Towa's eyes widened, and he responded with a shocked and slightly envious tone, "What? He has a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit? Damn it, the same type as the one we're escorting to Mariejois..."
"Damn! Why did such a powerful fruit fall into the hands of that slave..." he thought with jealousy and envy.
The commander nodded while placing his hand inside his coat.
"That's the only logical explanation. This raises the threat level of that bastard. We must report this to headquarters..."
He pulled out a Den Den Mushi from his inner pocket and added,
"We can't fight this type of enemy, the kind that can escape through the sea. Also, I hope Rikoa finds the box containing that Devil Fruit. Otherwise, the punishment will be severe..."
"In the worst-case scenario, we might end up in prison..." he muttered before ordering Towa, "For now, forget about the target... Go to that pirate ship and seize it..."
He pointed to the ship where Ace and Deis were. Deis lowered the binoculars from his hand and said while wiping sweat from his face,
"That was definitely Seth. Fortunately, we didn't end up fighting him..."
He turned to look at Ace, who was staring at the distant ship that was sinking, "That guy is a terrifying monster. Luckily, he didn't show any hostility toward us..."
Ace nodded in agreement with Deis's words and muttered in amazement,
"Heh! I didn't expect Seth to be this strong..."
He sighed and added gloomily, "Unfortunately, he refused to join us..."
"Hmm, Ace, Ace..." Deis quickly shook Ace's shoulder while pointing to the sky.
"Hmm? What!?" Ace asked, then followed the direction Deis was pointing.
"Damn!! Can he fly...?" Ace shouted in shock.
"You idiot, is that what you're worried about? He's coming here, and I doubt his intentions are good," said Deis bitterly, then added, "He probably wants to take the ship after Seth destroyed theirs..."
Ace's face became serious. "No way. I won't allow that. I just got it..." Flames began to appear on his body.
Deis stepped away from him and said, "Take him down while he's still in the air..."
Elsewhere, about 50 meters below the sea surface,
"Can I use more than one transformation at the same time!?" asked Seth, who was swimming away from the ship he had destroyed. At the same time, he was working on stopping the bleeding by cauterizing his wound with the electricity his body generated.
[Negative...]
[The functions of the watch system depend entirely on the host's physical strength. Currently, only one transformation can be used at a time...]
"Damn it!! My physical strength again!!!" Seth cursed gloomily. When he saw the power of the World Government agents, which surpassed anything he'd seen before, he wanted to use the new transformation copied from Ace while remaining in Sea King form, but clearly, he had overestimated himself.
"I swear I'll start training myself the moment I return home..."
Seth thought angrily as he swam back toward the pirate ship where Ace and Deis were. He wanted to reach there quickly and push the ship away from the government agents.
"Even without the ability to use more than one transformation at the same time, I can still switch between them easily..."
His eyes lit up at this thought. He swam upward toward the black dot representing the ship.
Above, the ship was raining down giant fire fists at the CP1 agent, who was dodging them while sending air bullets from his fingers that pierced Ace's body.
"Damn it!! It's a Logia..." said Towa, who saw the areas hit turn into fire instead of the blood he expected.
"Just what is going on with this damned place? First, the murder of Saint Marcellus and it turned out the killer is a Mythical Zoan user..."
"And now this bastard is a powerful Logia user..."
He screamed in anger while dodging Ace's attacks.
Bang!!
Bang!!
Deis was not idle, as he began firing his pistol.
"Hmm, there's a fight. Did they get here that fast..."
Seth thought gloomily as he listened to the sounds of gunfire. He quickly surfaced, poked his head out, and looked at the scene before him where Towa was dodging attacks from both Ace and Deis.
"As expected, Ace is strong..." he muttered as he looked at the fire fists that resembled small meteors.
"But even so! ... This masked man is strong..." he said bitterly. A hesitant expression appeared on his monstrous face. "Should... should I abandon them!?" This tempting thought appeared in his mind. He nodded to himself, "Anyway, it's not like they're my family for me to sacrifice for them...."
He paused for a moment and added with guilt,
"It's just that I'm the one who dragged them into this mess..."
He had overheard part of the conversation between Towa and the CP1 commander and knew they were here because of him, which made him feel guilty and hesitant to abandon Ace and Deis after involving them. Even if they were the ones who boarded his ship, his personality wouldn't allow him to abandon them. But that didn't mean he would sacrifice his life for them. The moment he saw that things got too dangerous, he would leave without hesitation.
He stared at Towa's face and muttered, "Speaking of which, I have to get rid of that person. He can track my location. If he doesn't die, I'll never have peace..."
He added after a moment of silence, "And his ability seems interesting..."
"Is there a way to copy DNA without granting transformation access!?" Seth asked the watch, trying to find out whether he could copy others' DNA without going through what happened with Ace.