Chapter 37 Future plans

As Augustus closed the portal, he stood there in silence for a few seconds.

"Are you alright?" He turned his head towards Vegapunk and asked, wondering if a little radiation managed to reach him.

"I felt very sharp needles pricking all over my body when the portal was opened. I couldn't utter a sound, nor could I breathe. But it seems, after a self-analysis, my body is fine," Vegapunk responded, wiping away the sweat covering his forehead.

"The World Government doesn't exist anymore," Augustus said.

Im might have just survived, but in the story, Im was clearly immortal. Her condition is probably extremely severe. The rest of the World Government is definitely dead. I stood so far away from the actual explosion, yet I was still affected by the radiation. The people at the center of it could definitely not have survived.

"Alright, we have a long list of things to do now," Augustus said as he formed a portal. 

"Decommission all the nukes," Augustus said. 

Although he was worried that they might get stolen and reverse-engineered, he was not willing to let the defense level of his kingdom drop.

Augustus stepped through the portal and appeared inside the castle room. In a hurried pace, he walked out to the throne room's front gates, which opened. 

"Summon all the ministers," Augustus said and quickly went back into the room as the guard outside began rushing to inform the summons who had been given minister positions in the kingdom.

Augustus opened a portal and stepped through, appearing in Alabasta's training grounds where Godfrey was holding drills with the soldiers.

"Come with me. It's an emergency," Augustus said as he stepped back into the portal to the throne room while Godfrey quickly followed.

"Your Majesty, what's the matter?" Godfrey asked.

"I'll tell you. Let everyone gather first," Augustus said as he sat on his throne, and the summons soon began entering the hall.

First came Tony and Strange.

"Augh, you know how bad my back hurts," Tony grumbled as he walked in right beside Stephen.

"What's the matter, Your Majesty?" Stephen asked.

Right after them walked in Artorias, Shiroe, and finally Aizen, who entered with a smile.

"Your Majesty, I have something important to report," Aizen said, but Augustus stopped him.

He looked around at all of his top summons solemnly and began speaking.

"The reason I have gathered you all here today is to inform you of the destruction of the World Government," Augustus said, causing Tony, who was rather relaxed, to immediately straighten his back and look at Augustus with a touch of betrayal.

Augustus looked at Tony and could only sigh.

"Aizen, you may report," Augustus said, feeling like it would be best to let Tony and the rest hear it from Aizen's mouth.

Godfrey was unbothered by the news, Shiroe was silent and didn't show any emotion, but his mind was racing, thinking about what should be done next for the kingdom's economy to prosper.

Stephen was too shocked to speak; he was aware of Augustus's word not to use nukes to defeat the World Government. In Stephen's mind, destroying the World Government so quickly could only be done by nukes.

Although it was hard to see Artorias's expression, Augustus could distinctly sense how disappointed Artorias was.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Aizen said as he stepped forward with a bow.

"Yesterday, after I was sent to the kingdom, I explored the power of everyone here to better strategize for our conquest, and finally, I went to check our strongest weapon, the nukes.

There, I witnessed Vegapunk talking about betraying you, Your Majesty, and deactivating the nukes. So I snuck a nuke right from under Vegapunk's eyes and launched it myself to ensure Vegapunk would not be able to sabotage the plans for the World Government your majesty has."

Tony looked over at Aizen at this time and realized that it was not Augustus who went back on his word. Godfrey, on the other hand, felt proud of Aizen for handling the situation.

"It was a matter of miscommunication," Augustus said.

"I had told Aizen, Shiroe, and Artorias that the World Government would be destroyed with nukes, but Artorias managed to change my mind. I told Tony about this, who informed Vegapunk."

"Vegapunk was not betraying; he was just following my command," Augustus said, causing a still silence to descend in the hall.

Stephen felt like laughing at this time at the absurdity of the situation but knew that it would be a bad idea, so he just shut his mouth.

"Things have already happened, and a huge chunk of the area around the Red Line is now unusable due to large amounts of radiation," Augustus said.

"The Marines no longer have financial support, so they will now be more of a mercenary group on a large scale, promising protection to countries for money in return."

"Or they will try to be the new rulers," Augustus said.

"I don't want any of that to occur, so I will bring the Marines under our command."

"The Grand Line and New World will be severed as no one will be able to pass through, and the underwater kingdom will probably face immense radiation problems as we speak, so I propose we rescue them and also bring them under us," Augustus said.

"Your Majesty, please leave that to me," Godfrey said.

Godfrey doesn't understand radiation, but if he is 10,000 meters under the water, I think he should be fine, Augustus thought to himself and nodded.