Makoto stopped walking.
Before him were the Five Elders.
Five old men in black suits, standing side by side in front of the half-sliced Pangea Castle.
The Five Elders' gazes fell on Makoto.
In those looks were anger, wariness, and a hint of something they themselves were unwilling to admit—
Fear.
Makoto met their gaze and spoke, smiling.
"As long as you destroy the heart, the immortal body can't be used."
"This is too weak."
To be honest, Makoto had always thought those idiots in the World Government had underdeveloped brains.
Damn, Luffy, the user of the Nika Fruit, was causing havoc everywhere outside, and they just wouldn't capture him.
But he still somewhat recognized their strength.
Setting aside everything else, that immortal body was quite troublesome.
Makoto never expected that he had actually overestimated them.
He had thought their immortal bodies were the 'pirate version of Edo Tensei'… as long as Imu, who granted them this ability, was fine, they could revive indefinitely.
But it turned out to be a weakened version of a Devil's body.
As long as the heart was destroyed, they couldn't revive.
Damn.
It was even inferior to the Devil bodies in the Chainsaw Man World.
Although both had hearts as weaknesses, at least the Devils in the Chainsaw Man World didn't need to sign contracts to be someone's dog... they inherently possessed regenerative abilities.
Unlike these Celestial Dragons, who had to be Imu's dogs just to obtain this half-assed immortal body.
And many Devils didn't even have the weakness of a heart. Unless you completely destroyed their bodies, like against Buu, they could still revive if they had blood.
"Got any new tricks?"
Makoto looked at the Five Elders, his expression disappointed.
His mood was like seeing someone say in the group that a popular actress had started doing adult videos, rushing over excitedly to watch, only to find that the so-called adult video was the actress washing her feet by the seaside!
The expressions of the Five Elders, in that instant, became extremely ugly.
They had lived for hundreds of years, and no one had ever dared to speak to them in this tone.
But at this moment, they could not refute.
Because the miserable state of Garling and Sommers was right before their eyes.
Saturn took a deep breath.
The next moment, his body began to change.
Boom—
Black fog surged from his body, enveloping him completely.
Within the fog, his form began to swell, twist, deform.
Four thick legs emerged from the fog.
A huge mouth with fangs opened within the fog.
Mythical Zoan: Gyuki Form.
The other four Elders transformed almost simultaneously.
One turned into a bird covered in black flames, one turned into a giant boar with two huge tusks, one turned into a giant insect covered in scales...
Five Mythical Zoans surrounded Makoto and his group.
Their enormous forms blotted out the sky and sun, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.
Garp and the others behind them changed expressions.
This was the first time they learned that the Five Elders were also Devil Fruit users.
And they were all Mythical Zoans.
"..."
Garp frowned deeply.
He had thought they were just a bunch of useless armchair strategists in an office, but it seemed they had some skills.
Garp looked at Makoto—
He remained standing in place, motionless.
His expression hadn't changed at all.
His subordinates… Yu, Beam, the Four Gay Bros, not one of them showed any fear either.
On their faces was the same expression.
Excitement.
"Attack!"
Saturn's voice was like thunder, exploding in the night sky.
The five Mythical Zoans attacked simultaneously.
Giant claws tore down, sharp fangs bit down, tails swept down, wings flapped down… five attacks from five different directions, all aimed at Makoto and his group at the same time.
If it were an ordinary person, or even an Emperor commander-level pirate, just the residual shockwaves of these five attacks would be enough to crush them into mincemeat.
But Makoto didn't even raise an eyelid.
He stood there, motionless.
"I'll take it!"
Yu stepped forward, the machine guns on both arms firing simultaneously.
Armor-piercing bullets poured down like a rainstorm, accurately hitting Saturn's outstretched giant claws, riddling them with holes.
Saturn's giant claw paused in mid-air… the wound began to heal, but noticeably slower.
"How come you get to attack first!?"
The Teddy Devil let out a strange cry, his body swelling to over three meters tall, and smashed a fist towards the bird-form Elder.
"Boom!"
The fist collided with the bird's claw, producing an earth-shattering loud noise.
The Teddy Devil was pushed back to the ground by the impact force, but the bird was also forced back several steps.
"Hoh hoh hoh! Not bad!"
The Teddy Devil laughed maniacally and charged up again.
To be honest, in terms of pure physical strength, the people Makoto brought were inferior to the Five Elders.
Only Yu and the Teddy Devil had attack power strong enough to damage their immortal bodies.
But now it was different.
After learning that the weakness of the Five Elders was their hearts, the mindset of both sides had changed.
Even Beam, the weakest among them, after entering his beastman form, had a way to deal with them… concentrated attacks on the heart.
"Let me see if your heart has developed properly—"
Beam opened his shark-like giant mouth and lunged at Saturn in his Devil Form.
Saturn's expression changed.
His huge body became a burden at this moment.
Beam was much more agile than him. He tried to swat Beam with his claws, but Beam always dodged at the last moment and continued burrowing towards his chest.
This fighting style terrified the Five Elders.
Because the heart was indeed their greatest weakness.
Once the heart was destroyed, the immortal body granted by Imu would fail.
At that point, they would truly die.
Having lived for hundreds of years, they had never considered the question of 'death'.
But now—
The thought of death kept flooding their minds.
The attacks of the Five Elders began to become frantic. Each strike was more ferocious than the last, but also more disorderly.
After all, they hadn't experienced the feeling of death for hundreds of years.
Yu seized a gap, flashed forward, and rushed in front of Mars, the bird-form Elder.
The tip of his gun aimed at the other's chest.
Mars's expression changed drastically. He opened his huge beak and spat out a stream of flame, colliding with Yu's armor-piercing bullet.
The square in front of Pangea Castle had completely turned into a meat grinder.
The Mythical Zoan forms of the Five Elders were indeed powerful, and coupled with the immortal body granted by Imu, their strength could definitely rival an Emperor crew, perhaps even surpass it.
But Makoto's subordinates were precisely their nemesis.
Aside from Yu and the Teddy Devil, the other three of the Four Gay Bros, the Dolphin Devil, the Gorilla Devil, the Rabbit Devil, along with Beam, individually were indeed not strong enough to contend with the Five Elders head-on.
But don't forget, they were also immortal bodies!
Whenever a member of the Four Gay Bros or Beam was torn apart, knocked away, or cut in half by the Five Elders, they would always rise again from the blood within seconds, wounds healing, limbs regenerating, and then continue charging like mad dogs.
And their goal was very clear—
The heart.
They kept attacking the heart area, completely disregarding whether they themselves would be cut, hit, or killed.
Even if their own hearts were targeted by the enemy, they still had Makoto backing them up.
This reckless fighting style gradually caused the Five Elders' movements to lose their rhythm.
They themselves had to admit, they were afraid.