A mission

On the day that Ian had taken Kong with him from Marijois to that island so that they can fight.

The world government had entered a high level of alertness due to Ian being able to invade them quite easily two times now. And he had even managed to kidnap their own chief commander Kong.

The first time it could be said that Im was confident in her abilities and knew that Ian would not dare show up again after the last time she showed him a glimpse of her true prowess.

But the fact that he did so regardless, and had taken one of her top officers with him at that, had her on high alert. Not to mention rage.

Rage, that he would dare stand against her again and again.

Not to mention she did not understand the message Ian was trying to give her.

Was he declaring war against the world government? Was he telling her that he'll take her top officers one by one from now on?

Or was this just a threat on his part? Or could this all be related to something else?

All these thoughts were making her angrier by the second.

So she had called for the five elders to come to the throne room.

She then ordered them.

"Send our assassins after him! And two admirals too. Make sure that one of them is Kizaru! I want him to be killed! This Ian had been standing in my way for too long!" She had ordered the elders kneeling in front of her.

She knew that the assassin alone would not be enough at all against someone like Ian. But since she knew that that would not be enough…

So she ordered two of the marine admirals to go with those assassins.

Said admirals were Kizaru and Fujitora.

Of course, this was all done by her proxy, the elders. Who had scurried around to deliver the orders themselves.

****

Fujitora was a man of honor, but even he cannot disagree with an order from the five elders.

As such as he was summoned along with his fellow admiral Kizaru to their chambers, he knew he had to come as fast as possible.

both of them were quite perplexed and Fujitora could sense that his fellow admiral was more serious than usual.

Fujitora concluded that even he did not know what they were summoned for.

Not to mention that not every day did an admiral meet the five elders. Even their boss didn't do that so often.

So he braced himself to be ordered to do something he would not normally do…

But to his surprise, the five elders had just one order.

"Kill Ian Louis with the help of Kong!"

And that had somewhat surprised the two admirals before they gave a nod of affirmation and went on their way.

Kizaru understood his job now that it was explained.

Since he was the fastest person alive possibly, he went ahead of Fujitora to try to stall against Ian.

****

Im was confident that with this they would be able to work with Kong and kill Ian Louis once and for all.

As to where to send them, she had been alerted to the presence of Kong on an island that was quite far and would take them a day of travel to reach. With the exception of Kizaru, the fastest person they had who would be able to reach that place fast.

Still, she thought that Kong would be able to hold himself long enough for Kizaru and reinforcements to come and help him.

But then just after the assassins and admirals had sailed out, she found her connection was severed.

She knew what that had meant.

And she went on a rampage destroying chairs desks, and the like.

Kong had died. He didn't even manage to last long enough for Kizaru to join him in the fight.

"IMPOSSIBLE… impossible… impossible… impossible" She kept muttering angrily to herself.

There was no way Kong can die that easily. Unless Ian Louis was extremely strong and he was hiding his real strength. Otherwise, she knew for a fact that no one can progress that fast.

Ian Louis was standing in her way at every turn. And now she knew that his strength had reached a high level. For him to be able to kill Kong as fast as he did.

Even some of the five elders, who held strength as much as an admiral, would not be able to do anything against him now. And even with the abilities, she had given them…

She knew that against real strength, no tricks could work.

Still, there were many things she could do now…

****

Since then two days had passed.

And the admirals had gotten back. Sadly they weren't even able to acquire Kong's body.

The two admirals had given their reports about what happened.

And then the elder's proceeded towards their sovereign Im's throne room to give their own report.

Along the way, they conversed with sweat on their foreheads.

The one with a scar on his face started.

"We need to find out who leaked the info!" he stated. Although there was visible anger in his eyes.

The info he was talking about, was the information about the kidnapping of Kong.

Somehow, someone had leaked this, and now it had already started to spread around the world that Ian Louis the fifth emperor of the sea, had infiltrated the world government by himself and had managed to kidnap their chief commander, who until now was still not confirmed if he was dead or alive.

The fact that this news was heavily guarded left no other option than spies being among their ranks.

The elder with the long white hair hummed and nodded.

"Indeed! We can't let traitors be among us! It appears we had been quite lax in the past!" He spoke up.

His fellow elders gave nods.

And then the bald elder started speaking.

"We have definitely been lax, otherwise we wouldn't be going to deliver reports about two consecutive failures to sovereign Im" He muttered regretfully.

First of all, the news of Kong's kidnapping by Ian was soon going to be public knowledge. And then they had failed to retrieve even the body of Kong. Not to mention that their goal was to kill Ian.

The others shared pained looks.

They had failed her. And they were most assuredly in for a punishment. A rather brutal punishment.

All of them shuddered.

The youngest of them and the healthiest looking one couldn't help himself as spoke up quietly.

"Shouldn't we postpone this information for a while? At the very least until our next report to Sovereign Im?" He asked them.

Giving two reports of their failures was sure to guarantee them a painful time with her.

The oldest looking of them all who was wearing glasses, glared at him at that as he raised his voice.

"You fool. Do you think the sovereign wouldn't know that? Then what happens when she does? Keep your mouth shut when it can only utter such idiotic things!" He yelled at him for even suggesting such a thing.

The young elder lowered his head in shame. Not soon after thinking of what the eldest elder had told him, did he understand that his plan had guaranteed that at the least one of them would die. It was not beyond doubt that Im would kill one of them if that was the case.

All the time they had been walking towards her throne room.

When they reached the room, they entered and just like usual went to kneel at the very bottom of the stairs leading to the throne.

"Sovereign Im. We have things to report!" the glasses-wearing elder spoke up.

His voice steady and calm, despite the sweat rolling on his brows.

"You may proceed!" She calmly ordered him.

She had had two days to calm down and had come up with many plans to deal with Ian.

The elder then proceeded to report everything up.

All along Im stayed silent.

But after a while, she just gave a nod.

"I knew that he was dead the moment our troops had set out. I sensed it. However, I need you to take care of the spies' among us as soon as possible." She ordered.

The elders gave silent nods.

"As towards Ian Louis… An order to kill on sight would be invoked against him. Admirals would be tasked to search for him and stay alert towards any action he does. If found, they are to engage him immediately. Furthermore two of you…" Next she ordered them to start taking action against Ian Louis.

The list of things was long to do.

And by the end of the meeting, the only two elders that left the throne room, had looks of determination on their faces as they completely ignored the yells of pain coming from behind them.

They had a mission to do!