In the end, Sherwin still did not let Klee Meow swallow the Mother Flame again.

After all, there would be plenty of opportunities later, so it was better to first figure out what was happening outside.

With this thought in mind, they left the power room where the power reactor was installed, and walked all the way up back to the top floor where Punk Records was stored...

From here, they could directly see the outside through the surveillance Den Den Mushi, and the Den Den Mushi did not require the Mother Flame to provide power, so Vegapunk and the others should know exactly what had just happened outside.

"You’re back! Come and look quick! Two strange guys suddenly appeared, meow!"

(=`ω=)

As soon as they returned to the top floor, Haibara Meow rushed over and said to Sherwin with a serious face.

"And their situation doesn’t look like they used any scientific technology, and Mr. Vegapunk couldn’t make heads or tails of it either... I really want to study them, meow! Check-it!"

(ゝω)~☆

Just as Sherwin held Haibara Meow securely, Purah Meow jumped into his arms right after.

On the other side, Vegapunk and his clones only glanced over when Sherwin and the others returned, without even greeting them, before immediately turning their attention back to the surveillance screen in front of them, and all of them looked deeply worried.

"What on earth is going on? Tell me quickly."

His curiosity bursting, Sherwin held the two cats, and while asking them about the specific situation, he walked briskly over to lean in and look at the surveillance screen of the Den Den Mushi.

The four little kittens hanging on him followed suit, stretching their necks and peeking their little heads out secretively.

"...The Five Elders?"

Sherwin quickly recognized those two unfamiliar Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit users.

For half-beast form Zoan Devil Fruit users, one could still discern their original rough appearance. Although there was a significant difference between manga and reality, the appearance of the Five Elders was still quite recognizable.

The most critical thing was...

Sherwin had seen the silhouettes of the Five Elders after their transformations in the manga, knowing they were highly likely to be Mythical Zoans. The features of a spider and a bird also matched those silhouettes from the manga.

"I didn’t expect even them to come along. It seems the World Government still attaches great importance to you."

Although slightly surprised, Sherwin already knew about it beforehand, and having seen quite a few Mythical Zoans recently, he was still in the mood to tease Vegapunk beside him.

"That not right, they didn’t come along with the Marines, they crawled out of a magic circle, meow!"

(=`ー=)

Hearing a term from the mystical side come out of the mouth of the science-sided Haibara Meow made Sherwin freeze for a moment.

"Huh?!"

With a face full of confusion, he looked down at Haibara Meow in his arms, somewhat suspecting whether this little kitten had also absorbed something that made her brain not quite clear yet...

Even if you had said a teleportation circle, what on earth is a magic circle?!

"I am not confused, meow!"

(=`Д=)

Haibara Meow suddenly sprang up and threw a cat punch right at Sherwin nose.

"The pentagram circle that teleported them here, anyone who sees it wouldn’t think it a product of science, meow!"

While the little kitten continued to rain cat punches down on Sherwin, the little white bat Vermouth and the little salamander Shirley each separated a part of their bodies, cooperating to manifest the rough appearance of that pentagram magic circle in the air.

"It really does have quite a flavor of a magic circle."

Sherwin calmed down the angry Haibara Meow and nodded in agreement.

"Not only that, the recovery power of those two is also very exaggerated, even more exaggerated than Kaido, meow. And it doesn’t look like their Devil Fruit abilities. It would be great if I could get their Lineage Factors, meow~ Check-it~"

(ゝω)~☆

Purah Meow also helped to explain from the side.

As if to confirm her words, on the surveillance screen, Saint Mars, who was half-human and half-bird, was hit head-on by BIG MOM Sovereignty. The slash mark extended from his shoulder straight down to his waist and abdomen, splitting his body into two.

However, in the next second, Saint Mars, who had been chopped into two segments, was reconnected by streaks of black Energy, and the parts that had been burned to ashes by the flames were also replenished out of thin air, completely recovering after a short while.

If it weren’t for the fact that he still maintained that half-human, half-bird hybrid form, Sherwin would have even mistaken him for a Logia-type Devil Fruit user.

So that how it is. Is this the main reason why Klee Meow swallowed the Mother Flame, causing the barrier to temporarily disappear?

Through the alternating explanations from Haibara Meow and Purah Meow, as well as various details observed on the surveillance screen, Sherwin quickly learned to what an exaggerated extent the recovery power of the Five Elders reached.

A solemn expression identical to Vegapunk couldn’t help but appear on his face as well.

Five Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit users were not terrifying, and even if they had all awakened, a way to deal with them could be figured out. But five Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit users who couldn’t be killed no matter what—that situation was completely different.

Saint Saturn and Saint Mars were both like this, and Sherwin didn’t think the other three would lack this kind of recovery ability.

He hadn’t expected that besides Imu and that "Mothership" suspected to be the Ancient Weapon Uranus, the World Government still hid such a trump card.

Soon, the pirates on the screen began to retreat.

Not being able to kill Saint Saturn and Saint Mars was secondary the key was that Egghead barrier had started working again.

In this way, their main objective could not be achieved at all, and continuing to drag things out wouldn’t yield any results.

The Five Elders could rely on that cheated recovery power to fight a war of attrition with Kaido and the others without any problem, but they had no way to stop them from leaving.

After all, speaking purely of strength, they were still a bit lacking compared to the several veteran Emperors of the Sea.

The World Government side could at most chase after them to wipe out some small fry to vent their anger.

"Dr. Vegapunk, what do you think? Do you have any clues about what is going on with the bizarre recovery power of the Five Elders?"

Seeing the pirates on the screen begin to retreat in an orderly fashion under the command of Kaido and the others, only then did Sherwin turn his head to ask Vegapunk.

Vegapunk maintained his grave expression and slowly shook his head, "It also the first time I’ve known that the Five Elders possess this kind of ability..."

After a brief silence, he suddenly asked, "Sherwin, do you still remember that Hobby-Hobby Fruit ability user from the Donquixote Family?"

"Sugar?"

"Yes, don’t you think the situation with the Five Elders is somewhat similar to her toy soldiers?"

"Eh? But they are the Five Elders! The highest authority of the World Government! Who else could command or even control them?!"

York, representing "Desire," widened her eyes.

"It might not necessarily be someone higher than them perhaps it the Devil Fruit ability of one of the Five Elders themselves," Pythogoras, the clone of "Wisdom," analyzed. "Aside from a Devil Fruit, it hard to imagine what else could grant someone this kind of near-immortal ability."

Reminded by them, Sherwin, who knew about Imu existence, suddenly saw the light...

Whether it was a Devil Fruit ability, he didn’t know, but this was highly likely Imu ability.

Otherwise, it was truly impossible to explain how they could endure an existence ruling over them when they had already reached the position of the Five Elders, especially when that existence was a long-lived being, leaving absolutely no hope of seeing the other party "pass away."

Even if the Five Elders couldn’t defeat Imu in a fight, if they wanted to seize power or turn the other party into a figurehead, there were plenty of ways, as countless ambitious figures had already demonstrated throughout history.

At worst, they could just stop playing along with Imu and start their own new syndicate elsewhere, just like the Four Emperors who carved out territories in the New World.

But if Imu could grant them immortality, or even longer lifespans, then all of this became much more reasonable.

He had still crossed over too early the manga would probably reveal the truth and a solution later on.

Sherwin smacked his lips with some regret, though he wasn’t overly worried.

Setting aside the fact that Imu liked to hide in the shadows as a mastermind, even the Five Elders wouldn’t act lightly.

It was just that before finding a solution, it wouldn’t be wise to provoke the World Government too much...

At worst, he could wait until Luffy awakened Gear 5 in the future, then draw a few vials of his blood and have Haibara Meow create a batch of Felyne-made Nika clones.