The sudden appearance of the silver-haired woman did not overly surprise Law and his group.
Having experienced much, even if something incredibly unimaginable popped up, they could accept it readily.
The silver-haired woman had a voluptuous and sexy figure, and using only a few leaves to cover her vital areas, she could easily attract any man's gaze.
However, most of the group's attention was focused on the little doll the silver-haired woman had molded from petrified feathers.
The doll's face had that distinctive vertical mouth, naturally reminding everyone of the vertical-mouthed people lying dead all around.
'Could it be that the vertical-mouthed people who had just attacked them were molded by this silver-haired woman of unknown origin?'
Just as Law was speculating this, the silver-haired woman provided the answer.
The silver-haired woman gently pinched the doll's arms, modifying them into something resembling mantis blade arms. Then, infusing a small mass of Nen, the molded figurine grew in size in the wind, quickly becoming a burly man.
Still naked, still with that grotesque vertical mouth, the difference was that its hands had become mantis-like blade arms.
The silver-haired woman looked at the freshly molded vertical-mouthed person and nodded with slight satisfaction.
'This woman...'
Law frowned slightly and quickly glanced at Chucu, noticing surprise and astonishment in her eyes.
That reaction suggested she recognized this suddenly appearing silver-haired woman.
"You know her?"
Law's tone was icy.
"I know her, but we have not had much interaction."
Regarding matters other than the Mender, Chucu answered quite directly.
Just then, the silver-haired woman spoke.
"These humans can subdue you, so their skills are not insignificant."
She looked at Chucu held in Law's hand, not stopping her actions as she remotely absorbed a clump of light specks from the base of a caltrop tree and, within moments, molded another vertical-mouthed person.
Chucu remained silent.
The silver-haired woman did not mind. Her gaze shifted, passing over everyone one by one, ultimately returning to the human who had restrained Chucu.
With a single glance, she determined that Law was the strongest human in this group.
Still, for him to be able to keep Chucu from making any waves, there must be something unique about him.
Law focused on the silver-haired woman, who was continuously molding vertical-mouthed people. Figuring out why he could understand what the silver-haired woman and Chucu said was pointless at this moment.
Unlike Chucu, the silver-haired woman before him carried hostile intent.
Though not overly obvious, Law could still sense it.
In fact, that hostility was mixed with a hint of anger.
However, those emotions were not displayed on the silver-haired woman's face.
With his free hand, Law gestured to Kuro.
Kuro understood and quickly came to Law's side, turning into black smoke and drilling back into the back of Law's hand.
With Kuro back in place, Law extracted Shin from his spatial storage, then warned his teammates, "This woman is very strong. Do not be careless."
Everyone nodded in succession.
Although they had witnessed the powerful outward Aura of many Magical Beasts, even that paled in comparison to the Aura emanating from this silver-haired woman.
"Just who is this person?"
Just watching the outward Aura surging from the silver-haired woman as she molded vertical-mouthed people made Biscuit unable to hide her shock.
"Are you certain... that is a human?"
"..."
Biscuit shook her head.
Since appearing, the silver-haired woman had been focused on molding improved vertical-mouthed people, and the ones she created made no moves.
Law's side watched the silver-haired woman warily and also refrained from rash action.
The silence of one side did not beget the same silence from the other.
While molding vertical-mouthed people, the silver-haired woman spoke as if to herself, "I cannot recall when the last time I encountered humans here was. It must have been a very, very long time ago. So long that, even with my good memory, I can barely remember."
"Humans are rare and uncommon creatures, very suitable for collecting."
"Good-looking humans are very, very few."
"Powerful humans are very, very few."
"Humans who know array spells are even fewer."
The silver-haired woman raised her hand and tossed out a finished vertical-mouthed person.
Then, her cold gaze fell firmly upon Law.
"The array spell used to restrain my collection... which of you here was responsible for that?"
She posed a question, yet she was looking at Law.
As if that was the answer she believed.
'Array spells?'
Law's eyelids lifted slightly. Through the word 'restrain', he guessed many things in an instant.
'The so-called array spells were likely the Divine Scripts I had used earlier to restrain the petrified humans.'
'Could it be that all the petrified creatures we had encountered earlier were this unidentified woman's collection?'
"I think it must be you."
The silver-haired woman looked at Law and suddenly showed a hint of a smile.
Beside her stood ten molded vertical-mouthed people.
Bright Nen flowed over each of their bodies.
That was Nen infused by the silver-haired woman. Using some unknown method, she had used roughly a fingernail-sized mass of Nen to create enough to cover a burly man's entire body.
This most likely violated some law of conservation of energy.
"So what if it was me?"
As Law spoke, he suddenly swung his blade in a chop.
The target was not the silver-haired woman, but Chucu, who was in his left hand.
The suddenness of it meant that by the time Chucu reacted, a thin line had already appeared just below her eyes. Then, her body silently split in two.
Chucu's pupils trembled rapidly. How could she have expected Law to suddenly act, and against her of all beings?
Seeing Law suddenly slice Chucu in two with one blade, the silver-haired woman maintained a faint smile on her face, unmoved.
In front of Chucu and the silver-haired woman, Law calmly summoned the book of God Hand and sealed the lower half of Chucu's body into a page.
At that moment, Chucu was in a state of shock. Seeing Law's actions and the book he had summoned, shock appeared in her eyes.
In contrast, the silver-haired woman, who had been looking completely at ease, instantly became unsettled upon seeing Law seal half of Chucu's body into the book.
The expressions on her face rapidly shifted between incomprehension, confusion, shock, and gravity, as if a bottle of mixed flavors had been spilled and smeared on her face. It was as complex as could be.
Law had sealed part of Chucu's body into the book to free up his other hand, allowing him to focus fully on dealing with the silver-haired woman.
He paid no heed to Chucu's feelings. He raised his hand and tossed the remaining half of Chucu's body to Biscuit.
Seemingly without any hesitation, Biscuit immediately transformed into her muscular form and tightly held onto Chucu's half-body with her vein-popping hands.
"Sealing all things... with humans like this nowadays... how is that possible?"
The silver-haired woman stared intently at the book in Law's hand.