"Whoosh... whoosh..."

  Suddenly, the surrounding pnts aation seemed to e alive. Bushes and weeds greidly, transf into massive tree trunks and viwisting like se serpents as they surged tates.

  "What?" Gates' expression ged as he dodged and maneuvered frantically. In the moment, he leaped high into the air, delivering a powerful kick. "Tempest Kick: Ran (Riot)!"

  "Swish! Swish! Swish!"

  A series of pale green sshes cut through the air, slig apart the rapidly growing trees and vihat attacked him.

  "Moonwalk!"

  "Tap, tap..."

  Without hesitation, Gates used his ability to step on the air and shot upward, attempting to escape into the sky. However, the vines and trees tio grow at an astonishing rate, relentlessly pursuing him and blog his path.

  "Damn it..."

  It was as if the enemy could predict his every move, knowily where he would go . Wherever he tried to escape, more trees and vines sprouted ahead, cutting off his retreat. Soon, tless vines coiled around him like venomous snakes, closing in without mercy.

  "Whoosh!"

  Gates’ face twisted in horror as his right foot was suddenly caught by several vihat shot out uedly. Before he could react, a mass of vines surged toward him, pletely engulfing and binding him tightly.

  "Swish... swish..."

  Sharp, spear-like tips of the vines surrounded him on all sides, h just inches away from his body. One wrong move, and these pnts would pierce him from every aurning him into a pincushion.

  He could feel the chilling fear creeping over him.

  "I’ve got you!" The enormous Quetzalcoatl swooped down in an instant, its razor-sharp fangs gleaming menagly as it gred down at Gates, radiating an overwhelming sense of pressure. The air was thick with dread as Gates trembled uhe beast's terrifying gaze.

  "Curse you..." Gates struggled desperately, but the vines were far strohan ordinary pnts, holding him fast. He was horrified—was this truly a nine-year-old child? This was a plete monster.

  "Your resistance is futile!" The giant creature began to shrink, reverting back to its human form, but even in his human form, El’s five-meter-tall figure loomed ates like an unscable mountain. In Gates' panicked gaze, El reached out with one massive hand, pressing it against his head.

  Using his Observation Haki, El activated his unique power, instantly reading Gates' memories.

  "Ah, so this is the Six Powers? Not bad..." El closed his eyes briefly and chuckled. "But the 'Life Return' teique, now that’s something worth looking into!"

  From the start, El had no iion of killing the CP0 squad leader right away. He had spared him because someone of Gates’ rank likely had mastery over both the Six Powers and Haki. Moreates had likely trained in 'Life Return', a rare teique said to allow full trol over one’s body by eling sciousness.

  To a monster like El, the Six Powers weren’t particurly impressive. Useful, but nothing game-ging. However, the secret of 'Life Return'—the ability to fully trol one’s body—was invaluable.

  If mastered, it would allow El to trol even his internal ans, greatly increasing his defense and unlog his hidden potential.

  "By the way, thanks for delivering that Devil Fruit straight to me!" El grinned.

  From Gates' memories, El had learhat the Wover ship carried a Devil Fruit, found by CP operatives in the New World and being transported teoise.

  But now, it was about to bee El’s prize.

  "What!?" Gates’ pupils shrank in shock. Cold sweat dripped down his face as he stared in terror at El. "What have you doo me? How do you know about the Six Powers... and the Devil Fruit?"

  The fact that El knew all this was terrifying—had this monster somehow read his memories with a special ability?

  "I'm not ied in expining things to my enemies. Feel free to guess about it in hell..." El surning away from Gates with a snap of his fingers, his voice dripping with alice. "All dogs of the Wover deserve to die!"

  "Shhh... shhh..."

  In the instant, the sharp, spear-like vines surrounding Gates shot forward all at once.

  "Armament Haki: Iron Body!!" Gates, unwilling to die without a fight, coated himself in Armament Haki, reinf his body as he struggled to break free from the vines.

  But El had already anticipated his resistance.

  "Crackle... crackle..." Without turning back, El’s body crackled with electricity. Visible currents of lightning surged through the vines, rushing tates.

  In an instant, the electricity coursed through his body, paralyzing him. His hair stood on end as his body was charred bck by the intense shock, leaving him writhing in unbearable pain.

  "Shhh! Shhh! Shhh..."

  "Ahhh..."

  With a series of siing sounds and a final, agonized scream, the CP0 squad leader ierced from every angle, reduced to a bloodied, mangled corpse. His body was left in a state too gruesome to describe.

  And it wasn’t just Gates—every CP agent who had fallen unscious from the earlier queror’s Haki suffered the same fate. One by ohey were impaled by the sharp viheir blood staining the ground.

  For years, El had barely survived, narrowly avoiding the same fate as Kaidht-hand man, King, another survivor of the Lunarian race. If things had gone differently, El would have been captured, experimented on, and tortured, treated like a b rat in one of the Wover’s inhumane experiments.

  And ultimately, his parents had been killed because of the Wover.

  There was no way El would show mercy to the Wover’s ckeys.

  "Swish..."

  After dealing with the CP agents, El opehe backpack he had brought, which was filled with various fruits. He khat Carmel had possessed the Soul-Soul Fruit and had no iion of wasting such a powerful ability.

  It was said that when a Devil Fruit user died, their ability would randomly reappear in another fruit nearby. El wao see if he could recover the Soul-Soul Fruit ability by cheg the fruits he had brought.

  "Looks like no luck this time."

  A short while ter, El looked at the pile of fruits—bananas, apples, mangoes, pomegranates—but none had ged.

  Still, El wasn’t too disappointed. He hadn’t expected much to begin with.

  But to leave no stourned, he spent the rest of the afternoon searg the isnd thhly, even iing the Wover ship. Only as the sun began to set did he finally give up.

  "Oh well, no big deal... I still got something out of this!" El shrugged, a smile crossing his face as he g the setting sun. "The Paramecia-type Dice-Dice Fruit, huh? Not bad at all."

  El, never oo waste food, quickly ate the fruits he had brought. He also took Carmel’s suitcase filled with Berries, the Devil Fruit he had found on the ship, and even a pair of Sea Prism Stone handcuffs, stuffing them all into a sack.

  Additionally, from reading Carmel’s memories earlier, El had already discovered the location of her hidden treasure. The "Mountain Witch" had left him with quite a pleasant surprise.

  Bleam