Chapter 960: The Infiltrator! Illusionary Transformation!

Chapter 960: Chapter 960: The Infiltrator! Illusionary Transformation!

The moment the words left Aeridar’s mouth, every single officer in the war room turned their heads in unison to glare at Doflamingo standing by the doorway. Their eyes flashed with a volatile mix of suspicion, savagery, and lethal intent.

"Uh... I am Doflamingo, Fuffuffu!"

Staring down the barrel of their collective gaze, Doflamingo subconsciously took a step back, quickly raising his hands to explain. "As for the glasses... my eyes were just feeling a bit irritated, so I took them off for a second to rub them!"

As he spoke, he reached into his coat, pulled out a pair of red, curved sunglasses, and slipped them back onto his face.

"Ah, I see. My apologies, it seems I completely misunderstood!"

Aeridar grinned widely, slowly rising from his seat.

In the next fraction of a second, just as Doflamingo’s face began to mirror that smile, Aeridar lunged forward like a striking predator, unleashing a brutal straight punch.

Boom—!

Fueled by devastating physical power and blinding speed, his fist instantaneously tore through the sound barrier with a thunderous roar. A compressed shockwave rolled outward, sweeping across the entire war room like a hurricane.

Doflamingo’s face warped in sheer horror. His body rippled and distorted like a mirage, allowing Aeridar’s fist to pass straight through his torso.

The catastrophic wind pressure generated by the punch burst forward like a localized jet stream, vaporizing the heavy oak doors of the war room into a hail of jagged splinters that shot down the corridor. Though the target had avoided a direct impact, the sheer force of the slipstream sent Doflamingo’s body tumbling violently across the floor.

The destructive momentum of the punch didn’t stop there. With a succession of deafening crashes, the kinetic energy punched clean through several thick interior concrete walls, tearing all the way to the exterior facade of the Central Tower and throwing up a massive, billowing cloud of dust.

Waaaaooo—! Waaaaooo—! Waaaaooo—!

The piercing screech of emergency sirens reverberated throughout the Central Tower, immediately triggering the alarms across the entire palace compound.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert—!"

"Damn it! It’s coming from the 23rd floor!"

"Guards! Guards! Flood the elevators and stairwells immediately!"

"Lock down the palace grounds! Don’t let a single soul escape!"

Inside the Central Tower, an army of pirates and elite guards began charging up the stairwells toward the top floors in a frenzied wave. Within the palace courtyard, commanding officers reacted with furious urgency, ordering platoons of guards to seal every exit before leading the remaining garrison to converge on the Central Tower.

Back in the decimated war room, Arlan, Hancock, Enel, Dimitri, Gorbo, and Betilla had all bolted to their feet, staring in absolute shock at the figure before them.

The illusionary form of Doflamingo shimmered like a popped bubble, twisting violently in the air before resolving into a completely different shape. Standing in his place was a stern, middle-aged woman with a prominent, hook-nosed face. She wore an outfit heavily adorned with pearls beneath a deep crimson overcoat, topped by a flamboyant bicorne hat featuring the three frowning skulls of the Blackbeard Pirates’ jolly roger. A European rapier hung loosely from her hip.

"Catarina Devon!!!"

Aeridar’s expression turned cold as stone as he locked eyes with the woman, instantly exposing her true identity.

She was one of the legendary escapees from Level 6 of Impel Down, the infamous ’Crescent Moon Hunter’ and Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates’ Sixth Ship.

"Damn it! It’s that hag!"

"The old witch from Blackbeard’s crew!"

"She perfectly copied his appearance... what kind of Devil Fruit power is this?"

"Damn wench! Sneaking into our domain and having the nerve to stand right in front of us... you must have a death wish!"

Furious and blindsided, the officers quickly closed ranks, fanning out to cut off every possible avenue of escape for Catarina Devon.

"Doflamingo never takes those sunglasses of his off. How on earth did you see through my illusion?" Catarina Devon demanded, her voice tight with bitter resentment.

"So it really is an illusion. Is it a Devil Fruit or a jutsu? No wonder something felt off; a fake will always be a fake!" Aeridar let out a cold, knowing chuckle, his voice dropping into a lethal register. "To dare infiltrate this place, you must have an absurd amount of confidence in your parlor tricks. That bastard Blackbeard sent you, didn’t he?"

"Let me guess... are you planning to ally with Big Mom to take me off the board? Is that why you were sent here to gather intel?"

It was a logical conclusion for Aeridar to draw. At such a critical juncture in their war against a Yonko, having a core executive of the Blackbeard Pirates personally infiltrate their nerve center suggested a deep, insidious conspiracy.

Hearing Aeridar’s deduction, the surrounding officers felt a cold shiver run through them.

Devon chose to remain silent. Her hand shifted to grip the hilt of her rapier, her eyes scanning the room with calculated precision as she mapped out the positions of everyone present.

"Wretch! You honestly think you’re walking out of here alive?" Enel roared, tracking her shifty gaze as blue sparks began to dance across his skin. "If I let you escape from under my nose, my reputation will be completely ruined!"

Zzzt—! Zzzt—!

Blinding currents of electricity crackled violently around Enel’s body, arcs of lightning snapping against the air. He was personally tasked with the surveillance of the capital city of Nakor, yet an outsider had bypassed his perception entirely and slipped directly into the inner sanctum of their high command. To him, this was an unforgivable humiliation.

"We capture her first, then we break her for answers!" Dimitri said coldly.

He lunged forward, drawing the beast-fang dagger at his waist. The ivory blade extended at blinding speed, thrusting straight toward Devon’s chest like a striking serpent.

Clang—!

With lightning-fast reflexes, Catarina Devon drew her rapier, intercepting the blow dead-center. The ivory tip collided with her blade with a deafening metallic shriek, unleashing a violent burst of deflected kinetic energy.

The sheer physical weight of the impact forced Devon to anchor her weight. With a loud tear, the dark red carpet beneath her boots ripped into shreds, and the polished marble floor cracked open in several directions under the pressure.

In the next instant, the rest of the room moved to strike simultaneously.

"Not good!"

Devon’s heart plummeted. Her body twisted mid-air, dissolving into a shimmering phantom image that allowed the barrage of incoming attacks to pass harmlessly through her form.

Boom—!

A cataclysmic explosion rocked the room, sending a plume of debris and dust rocketing toward the ceiling. The combined might of the Chris Pirates’ executives completely obliterated the structural supports of the floor, creating a massive crater several meters wide that rained shattered stone down to the level below.

"What?!"

The officers gasped in unison. Catarina Devon had vanished completely from their sights.

"There’s an opening!"

Suddenly, Devon’s form materialized like a ghost against the ceiling, nine thick, fluffy fox tails billowing out from behind her waist. Seizing the moment of their confusion, she threw her weight forward, diving headfirst through the newly made crater.

"Damn rat! Who said you could leave?!"

A furious roar shook the foundations of the room.

Devon looked up in sheer terror. Aeridar had seemingly teleported directly beneath her path, his arm cocked back as he drove a devastating fist right at her. The suffocating pressure of his incoming strike alone made it hard for her to breathe.

In that split second of life or death, Devon’s body rippled once more like a mirage, instantly morphing into the exact likeness of Boa Hancock.

Catching sight of ’Hancock’ flying directly into his fist, Aeridar flinched. His knuckles hesitated for a fraction of a second, his momentum stuttering.

That brief window of hesitation was all Catarina Devon needed. Slipping just past the trajectory of his fist, she plummeted down through the crater, crashing safely onto the 22nd floor.

Rumble—!

The unleashed shockwave of Aeridar’s delayed punch detonated violently against the far side of the room, obliterating several more structural walls on the 23rd floor and kicking up a massive vortex of wind and blinding dust.

"Damn it!"

Aeridar cursed under his breath, his body hovering suspended in mid-air as he glared down into the dark abyss of the lower floor.