"Do you know what kind of numbers and weapons they have, Urouge?" I asked as I turned to look at the mad monk.

"They had about two hundred pirates," Urouge stated with a grin. "But I managed to cut down that number through hit-and-run tactics in the past year," he added, his grin becoming more pronounced on his face.

"And this guy here cut that number down by a dozen more," he remarked as he turned to look at Wilson. "So that leaves them with about eighty-five or so able-bodied fighters," he added as he took out a map of the sky island.

"The lot of them are normal people except for Lokni himself," he explained as he unfurled the map on a barrel. "But you shouldn't underestimate them because they are normal people," he said in a stern voice.

"Lokni had equipped all of them with dials and dial-based weaponry," he explained in a grave tone that was a big contrast to his grinning visage, creating a strange expression.

"Dial-based weaponry?" Law remarked with a frown, seemingly curious about such weapons. "Burn Bazuka, burn blade, flash gun, and heat javelins, to name a few," Urouge replied with a nod of his head.

"And that's only the weapons with average Dials," the mad monk explained with a wave of his hand. "There are also weapons with much more dangerous Dials, but I don't know if they have any, so I'll get to it later," he added with a frown.

"They also have Dial-based transportation devices, like jet boards and shooters, that make them that much more dangerous," he concluded as he turned to look at the map he unfurled earlier.

"They are currently occupying the god palace in the middle of the island," he stated as he pointed his finger at the center of the map. "That is another problem since the palace has its own set of defensive measures that the pirates completely control," he added, scratching his head in an attempt to recall everything he knew about said defenses.

"I don't remember most of them, but I do remember that they anything to scoff at," he said in an embarrassed tone, still sheepishly scratching his head at his failure to remember the details.

"At any rate, if you people are as strong as you captain here, then those defenses shouldn't be a problem," he reasoned after a second of awkwardness he used to gather his wits.

"But there is one thing that could prove dangerous to everyone here," he added as he suddenly seemed to remember something. "It's a thunder cannon with an ungodly amount of thunder dials," he explained with a frown.

"A single blast from that thing could blast a hole inside a mountain, so we need to deactivate it or find a way around it," he concluded with a sigh.

"And that's all the information we have for now," I said as I stood up, taking back everyone's attention. "I have a rough plan in mind as to how we will deal with this situation," I stated with a smile, causing everyone to nod.

"The plan is pretty simple," I said with a smile. "Wilson and I will act as decoys and charge at the pirate's front door to attract their attention and this thunder canon Urouge talked about," I stated, causing everyone except for Wilson, who smiled eagerly to frown.

"With all due respect, captain," Laffite said with a frown. "If your friend's words are true, then that thunder cannon is too powerful for even you to take head-on," he added, causing everyone to express their agreement.

"That would typically be true, but I have an innate resistance to lightning," I replied with a smile, shaking my head. "It's like my resistance to poison but a little weaker," I added as I began rummaging through the Dial barrels for the only lightning dial I found earlier.

"See?" I remarked as I pressed the button on top of the dial, zapping myself for a couple of seconds.

Although I wasn't immune to lightning-like I was to poison, I still had a very high resistance, which meant that enduring this so-called was manageable even if it meant I had to use Haki to come out of it unscathed.

"You keep getting weirder and weirder every time I learn something new about you, captain," Laffite said in an amused voice, raising an eyebrow at my display, something that my crewmates did a lot these days.

"Hey, I resent that," I said in a mocked, hurt tone. "I'll have you know that I'm a completely normal monster," I added with a smirk, earning several eye rolls from my crewmates.

"Now, like I was saying before, I was so politely interrupted," I remarked while looking at my navigator sideways, causing him to shrug his shoulders.

"Wilson and I will act as decoys while Elly, Laffite, Kozue, law, and Urouge infiltrate the pirate's base to disable the defenses," I explained my plan as I singled out everyone who was going on the infiltration mission.

"I understand why you chose us to infiltrate the palace, but why is he tagging along, captain-Ya?" Law asked as he turned to the mad monk, giving him a once over with unamused eyes.

"His size isn't appropriate for such actions, and I doubt he even knows the meaning of the word subtlely based on his appearance alone," he rested his case as he pointed his index finger at the mad monk. Still, Urouge merely smiled proudly, not taking any offense at the surgeon's words but considering them as praise instead.

"Well, he's been dodging Lokni for a year now without being caught while taking out his men, so he can't be that bad," I replied while shrugging my shoulders. "I can do subtle when needed, but that doesn't mean I like it," the mad monk added from the side with a grin that wasn't so reassuring, but that will have to do.

"He also knows the layout of the palace, and he's the only one with any experience with Dials, making him our best chance at deactivating the defenses," I concluded.

"If you say so, captain-YA," Law said from the side, resigning to his fate.

"What about me, captain?" Byron asked just as I was about to point out his task. "I was getting to that," I replied, nodding with a smile.

"I want you to stand by near the palace when we begin acting on the plan," I instructed, and Byron tilted his head in confusion as he looked at me to elaborate.

"I want you there just in case something goes wrong," I explained, raising one finger. "If someone needs help, whether it be me or anyone else, then it's your job to help us," I added with a smile.

"And if the infiltration mission doesn't work, then I want you to blast the palace to high hell with that new ability you learned earlier as soon as our friends come out," I stated, raising another finger as my smile turned into a cold grin.

"Put as much power into the attack as you can if that happens," I instructed in a grave tone. "We don't need any survivors," I concluded.

"Understood, captain," Byron replied while nodding his head. "But wouldn't it be easier to destroy the palace instead of risking your and Wilson's lives as decoys to infiltrate it?" he asked again in a concerned tone.

"It would, but there is probably a ton of treasure in the palace," I replied with a smile, making a coin sigh with my hand. "Not to mention the powerful Dials Lokni must have hoarded during his stay in the cloud sea," I added, not even bothering to hide the desire in my voice.

I wanted those rare and extinct Dials, and I'm going to get them one way or the other. My primary motivation for coming here was to obtain dials to upgrade my ship.

I already knew of a genius inventor, and the only reason I didn't ask him to upgrade my ship was so that I could secure more tools for him to do so before I did.

So now it was only a matter of gathering as many Dials as I could and bringing them to Wolf to let him work his magic, or science, in this case, but I digress.

"We're going to need those Dials to upgrade the ship, but we can get to that later," I stated, waving my hand dismissively as I turned to look at Bob and Doc Q.

"You two are on ship guard duty," I instructed, and they both nodded.

"Let's get going then. We have places to be and people to kill."

...

Third person's point of view:

Inside the God's Palace, in Skyguard.

"Captain, that troublesome monk that has been attacking our crew has met with the newcomers and is on their ship right now," a pirate reported while looking up at a regal throne that was at least three meters high.

On the throne was a man, sitting while arithmetically tapping his fingers on the armrest, seemingly deep in thought.

The man was tall. He seemed to be 2.3 meters tall. He had a pale white complexion and long white hair that looked like a piece of cloud floating gently in the air.

The man's visage was nothing much to look at, average in every sense of the word, but his calm demeanor, along with the stunning sight of his cloud-like white hair, made him look unique.

The man, Lokni, turned to look at his subordinates with a thoughtful expression as he stopped tapping the armrest. "What about the men we sent to scout the newcomers' strength?" Lokni asked in a calm tone.

"All dead," the subordinate answered after some hesitation. "How did my subordinates die?" Lokni asked as he resumed tapping his fingers on the armrest.

"One of the people left to guard the newcomers' ship killed them," the subordinate replied in a nervous tone. "One of the people left to guard the ship, you say?" Lokni asked again as his calm expression turned into a frown.

"Tell me, were the people I sent not equipped with Dials weapons?" Lokni asked in an irritated tone, his black hair turning black, crackling with lightning.

"Yes, they were, captain," the subordinate replied in an even more nervous tone, taking a step backward. "Then who I'm I to blame for this failure?" Lokni asked again, his eyes emitting blue light.

"I feed you, I pay you, and I give you the best equipment," Lokni began counting with an outraged tone of voice. "And you useless bastards can't even catch one Monk for an entire year," he continued as veins began bulging on his forehead.

"Not only that, but you're now telling me that one trivial pirate from North Blue has managed to beat more than a dozen of you?" Lokni kept reciting his crew's faults, and the subordinate finally lost his nerve, turning around and making a run for the exit.

"You useless piece of trash," Lokni exclaimed, lightning shooting out of his entire body, striking the fleeing subordinate and turning him into nothing but a charred husk.

"Someone come and take this scum out of my sight and send someone to see what the newcomers are up to," Lokni instructed after taking a deep breath to calm himself as his hair returned to normal.

More subordinates made their way into the throne room with fearful expressions, quickly picking up the charred body of their dead comrade and scurrying away. Still, they all suddenly fell on their asses because of a loud explosion that shook the entire palace.

"Find out what's happening outside, and put a stop to it," Lokni ordered calmly. "Or die trying. I don't need any more useless subordinates," he concluded, closing his eyes and sinking back into his own thoughts.

-0-

Johnny's point of view:

"Oh, this is the place?" I remarked as I stopped roughly two hundred meters away from the god's palace. "I'll have to give to the people who built it," I added with a smile on my face.

"It's alright," Wilson said while shrugging his shoulders, making his lack of interest in human architecture very obvious.

"Well, it doesn't matter either way," I said while cracking my knuckles. "It won't be standing for much longer," I concluded as I began relaxing my muscles and pushing the force I've been building up for a while now towards my fist.

"Flaming King Punch," I said with a smile as I punched forward, the compressed flames along with spring force I've been storing inside my muscles exploding towards the palace.

My punch took the shape of a gigantic fist, gouging everything in its way and creating a semi tunnel in the ground, finally exploding as soon as it reached the palace.

The explosion was nothing to scoff at either, destroying the palace's massive gates and gouging an enormous piece of the building's front.

"That's new," Wilson said with a raised eyebrow. "It's thanks to my devil fruit," I said while shrugging my shoulders, and Wilson merely nodded, taking my word for it.

Flaming king punch is an imitation of the king punch Oda showed us in the Dress Rosa arc, but mine works differently. In principle, flaming king punch was similar to flaming impact fist, but I merely put more force into the former, along with more compressed flames.

Ordinarily, my muscles wouldn't be able to endure the strain of storing so much force in them, but simply increasing their density to make them stronger and make them more durable seems to do the trick, but I digress.

"Here they come," Wilson remarked with a grin as pirates on jet boards began emerging from the palace. "There they are, quickly take care of them," one of the pirates shouted to his comrades, and they quickly began charging towards us.

"Die, you bastard," one of the pirates shouted, taking aim with a burn bazooka and firing at us. "While we're here, let me try something else as well," I said, causing Wilson to nod as I raised my hand and pushed it forward.

I frowned in concentration to try something I've been wanting to try since I found out I can phase through water while Wilson merely looked interested while the pirates began jeering and laughing at my actions.

"Air Barrier," I murmured with a smile, pushing my hands forward, causing the fiery streams the pirate shot towards us to crash into an invisible barrier, stopping in its tracks.

The way Air Barrier worked was simple. I merely manipulate the density of the surrounding air, making it solid and creating a durable invisible barrier, which isn't really necessary in this case. Still, it looks cool, and it could be helpful in the future, so why not?

"Oh, it worked," I said with a satisfied smile. "It looks like we won't be turning into barbeque any time soon," I added jokingly.

"As if that thing could even scratch you or me," Wilson replied with a disdainful snort, finally losing his patience as he jumped into the air towards the pirates.

-0-

Third person's point of view:

Somewhere near the god's palace.

"So, when do we get in, Laffite-YA?" Law asked as he turned to look at the navigator with a questioning look. "The captain said to wait for his sign," Laffite replied with a smile.

"But what is the sign?" Law asked again, seemingly confused. "He said we'll know it when it happens," Elly said while checking her equipment for one last time before the action.

"But what if we miss it?" Law still persisted, asking again. "You still don't the captain that well," Kozue replied to his question with a smile.

"If he said we'll know when it happens, then it'll be something big that we can't miss even if we tried," she added while shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, the captain loves his theatrics, so his sign will probably be something even Bob and Doc Q would notice back in the docks," Elly commented jokingly, causing everyone except for confused Law to laugh.

Their laughs suddenly stopped as a sudden, thundering explosion overwhelmed their hearing, along with a gigantic wall of flame charging towards the sky in the palace's proximity.

"See? I told you we wouldn't miss it," Laffite said as he stood up with a smile on his face, twirling his cane. "Let's go," he added, promptly making his way towards the palace's back.

"Joining this crew is going to prove more than I bargained for, isn't it?" Law murmured to himself with twitching eyes. "Yup," Kozue readily replied, smacking him on the shoulder to urge him on as she walked past him with a smile.

...

"It looks like they're throwing everything they have at us, good," I remarked with a smirk as I flew in the air, dodging and phasing through burn blasts as I fired my gun, taking down a jet boarding pirate with each bullet.

"More fun for us, so whatever," Wilson replied to my remark, as he charged through the enemy barrages, not even bothering to dodge and creating a bloody bath in the sky.

"Stop showing off, you big oaf," I reprimanded with a frown. "If you keep doing that, then you're going to face an attack that you can't tank sooner or later," I added without as I turned to look at Wilson, still shooting and reloading without even looking.

"If that happens, then you will endanger both your life and that of our crewmates," I concluded as I caught one of the pirates, throwing him to the ground as hard as I could, and balanced myself on his jet board.

"But there's no fun in that," Wilson murmured as he kept cutting through the pirates like a hot knife through butter. "But, you're right, I guess," he added after some thought as he began actually dodging instead of receiving attacks like a meathead.

"And slow down," I instructed as I began trying to steer the jet board like the pirates did. "Don't forget why we're here," I added as I finally started getting the hang of handling the board.

"Still, aren't there too many of them?" Wilson asked as he resumed taking down the pirates but at a slower pace this time. "Are there even any pirates remaining in the palace?" he asked again in a confused tone.

"It would be even better if all of them came after us," I replied while shrugging my shoulder, shooting my gun as I soared through the sky while riding the jet board.

-0-

Third person's point of view:

Lokni sat in his throne room, watching the ensuing battle between Johnny, Wilson, and his subordinates through a complicated device that utilized vision Dials with a frown, tapping his finger at the armrest.

His frown deepened as he watched Johnny and Wilson effortlessly tear through his subordinates. He looked at this scene and scowled as a stream of unpleasant memories began flowing through his mind.

The first memory he recalled was of him trying to raid Spider miles a decade ago, only to be repelled by a local crime family that had nothing but monsters. The monsters annihilated most of his crew, and even he himself barely escaped with his life.

Still, Lokni didn't give up and gathered a new crew after two years and went on to raid another island, having learned the lesson that Spider Miles was off-limits.

No matter how hard he tried, Lokni couldn't remember the name of the island he raided next for some reason, but there was one thing he could never forget.

The goddamned freak. Lokni couldn't forget his creepy, expressionless face no matter how hard he tried. The man known as the magician had casually and selfishly decided his fate like it was nothing.

The freak merely looked at Lokni as he drew several cards from his deck when they faced each other.

"It would be better for you to forget about becoming a pirate. Nothing but mediocrity and eventually death awaits you if you follow this path,"

He would never forget those words, nor the expressionless face of the man that said those words to him while slaughtering his crewmates, leaving him alive for some reason.

Even after such a defeat accompanied by an ominous prophecy, Lokni didn't give up, reforming a new crew again. Still, he didn't even have the chance to raid another island, this time as a pirate with strange spring-like limbs raided the isle he was staying on with his crew.

The springy pirate didn't find raiding and pillaging the island enough as he began chasing after the fleeing Lokni's ship, driving him to a knock-up stream.

Lokni thought this was the end, finally resigning to accepting the harsh reality that he would die without amounting to anything in his life, but fate worked in mysterious ways.

The strange weather phenomena not only saved him from his pursuers instead of killing him, but it had opened many doors for him.

A cloud sea above the blue sea! Lokni wouldn't have believed it if he didn't see it with his own eyes. What's more, the inhabitants of this sea had many powerful weapons, and they were very naïve to boot.

Lady luck had finally smiled upon him! Lokni thought, but little did he know that was only the beginning at the time. The naïve sky-islanders even had a powerful devil fruit that would make whoever ate in invincible!

Lokni had to have that devil fruit as soon as he heard about it, so he began hatching his plan to steal the fruit and take over the Skyguard.

The plan worked without a hitch, much to his satisfaction, and he managed to slaughter or drive out all of the inhabitants of the sky island, taking it for himself.

Lokni reveled in his success after so many failures. Life had finally begun going the way he wanted it to go, and that quickly went to his head.

Lokni's euphoria at his sudden success, and that along with the knowledge that he was invincible because of the cloud-cloud fruit (He didn't know about Haki), made him look down on other people, even his crew.

Still, it was all smooth sailing until that grinning monk showed up on the island, slaughtering his crew left and right without anyone being able to stop him.

After the monk had killed twenty or so of his men, Lokni had finally had enough of the intruder and decided to take care of Urouge with his own hands.

He quickly ordered some of his men to act as bait for the grinning monk while he lurked in the shadow, waiting for Urouge to show himself.

Still, Urouge saw it coming somehow and managed to create a trap for his men, blowing them up to high hell with a lot of breath and flame Dials somehow without even being present.

This new failure drove Lokni drove Lokni mad with rage and made him view his subordinate as nothing but dead weight, so Lokni began sending them on suicide missions to hunt for the monk while slaughtering any who showed the slightest hints of incompetence.

And now there was a new pirate crew on Lokni's turf, and the bastards even reminded him of the monsters who defeated him repeatedly in the past.

"I will let you cut down my dead weight, and then I will take care of you myself," Lokni murmured ominously with an icy expression as he watched Johnny and Wilson destroy his subordinates with smiles on their faces.

-0-

"I wonder what's going on," Urouge said with a frown as they neared the god palace from behind. "There should be at least twelve guards at the back," he added with a thoughtful expression.

"It doesn't matter," Laffite replied with a smile. "The fact that there are no guards right now is better for us," he added as he began approaching the rear entrance.

"Laffite is right," Kozue commented as she carefully followed behind Laffite. "We can worry about the lack of guards after we finish our task," she concluded.

"Wait," Urouge suddenly interrupted, causing everyone to stop dead in their tracks. "There," he said, pointing at a seashell on top of the rear gates.

"That's a vision, Dial," he explained with a frown. "Someone could be watching from inside the palace, so we need to get inside without being in range of the Dial," he concluded while shaking his head.

"I can help with that," Law said with a serious look on his face. "Room," he murmured, creating a wide transparent sphere, and thew a couple of small rocks at a balcony above the vision Dial.

"Shambles," he said as they all found themselves standing atop the balcony in the bling of an eye. "That's handy," Laffite praised with a smile as he slowly opened the door in the balcony, scouting ahead.

"It gets the job done," Law said with a shrug as he followed after Laffite after the latter carefully made his way inside.

...

"Only five to go," I remarked with a grin while watching the last five pirates hovering around in the air with panicked expressions. "three left," Wilson replied as he flew behind one of the pirates, grabbing him and tossing him towards his companions.

The two pirates crashed into each other, both of them losing balance and spiraling downwards toward the ground.

"And that's a wrap," I added as I shot down the last three remaining pirates with my gun. "I really hope that's enough time for the guys to disable the defense systems," I said while watching the last three pirates fall to their demise.

All in all, the fight has been somewhat interesting. Lokni's subordinates, as weak as they were, had a shit ton of Dials-based weapons, with some of them even rocking reject and impact Dials, but they could barely use them and would end up injured or dead afterward.

Still, for normal humans, Lokni's subordinates put up a decent fight, so there's that at least.

"Hmm," I hummed as I turned to look at the palace, feeling something off. "Something is coming," I said with a frown, and merely seconds later, tendrils of thunder cloud began streaming out of the palace.

"It looks like the host has come out to play," I said with a smile as the tendrils combined and transformed into a man.

The man, Lokni, had the most average face I have ever laid eyes on, but he appeared to be anything but that. He had a pale white physique and long black hair that resembled thunder clouds floating in the air.

He seemed to be roughly thirty-five years old, give or take a couple of years, and he only wore simple black pants, showing off his muscular body that had scars crisscrossing all over it.

"Play, huh?" Lokni turned his unimpressed eyes towards me as he slowly worded his sentence. "I suppose you can call it that," he added in an icy tone.

"Less talking, more fighting," Wilson exclaimed from the side as he transformed into his hybrid form, charging towards Lokni with his fist cocked backward.

Wilson was extremely fast, instantly appearing next to Lokni and delivering an experimental punch to the pirate captain. "It's no use," Lokni said with a passive expression on his face as Wilson's fist created a hole in his abdomen, which promptly reformed as soon as the latter took back his fist.

"Logia, eh?" Wilson said with an amused smile as he jumped backward, creating some distance between them even though Lokni didn't make any move to counterattack.

'Might as well leave this to Wilson,' I thought with a smile as I floated in the air, waiting for the fight to resume with a smile. 'If he wins, then all is well, and if he losses, then maybe he'll finally learn to stop fighting so recklessly,'

"That is correct," Lokni said with a careless attitude, shrugging his shoulders. "This is the power of a god," he added as he created a small thunder cloud ball in his hand.

"Stop resisting and accept your death," the pirate captain concluded, throwing the thunder cloud ball towards Wilson. I sighed in annoyance as Wilson merely grinned at the incoming attack without even trying to dodge it.

It didn't take long for Lokni's attack to reach Wilson, and the latter immediately replied by punching the incoming thunder cloud with a Haki-covered fist.

Fist met thunder cloud in a booming explosion that dispersed black clouds that crackled with electricity all over the vicinity, making it difficult to see the result of the clash.

Still, the clouds dispersed after a couple of seconds, revealing Wilson, who had singed fur and scorch marks all over his body, but he seemed to be mostly fine and still grinning to boot.

"That hurt you bastard," Wilson said with a grin on his face as he began dusting himself, causing some of his burnt fur to fall off his body.

"It seems that I will have to make your death extra painful," Lokni said as his calm facade turned to frown as more thunder began crackling in his hair.

'Someone is short-tempered,' I observed from the side with a smile on my face as I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"Jupiter's descent," Lokni exclaimed with a scowl on his face as he launched his fist forward, and I raised an eyebrow as his hand began turning to thunder clouds and enlarging third gear style.

Wilson roared savagely, beating his chest with his lower hands as he charged towards the fist, igniting in flames from the air friction as he did.

The raring for armed gorilla hybrid met the gigantic thunder cloud fist with his own flaming fist and charged through it towards Lokni.

Although Wilson managed to disperse the thunder clouds with his sheer strength, even his monstrous endurance had to come to an end halfway through the giant cloud arms as the lightning kept sapping him of his stamina and burning him. Still, Wilson transformed into his original gorilla form through gritted teeth, resuming the charge without stopping.

"What do you hope to achieve?" Lokni asked with a frown as he watched Wilson charge through his attack. "Even if you reach me, you won't be able to harm me," he added in a confused and annoyed tone.

"Even if you endure this attack, more will come," he reasoned, his frown deepened as Wilson merely grinned without replying. "Just die already," Lokni concluded as he began increasing the intensity of the attack, pouring more and more thunderclouds.

Wilson roared one final time, and his roar reverberated through the entire island as he kept pushing forward, finally reaching Lokni.

"As I've said, you can not harm-,' and that was all Lokni could say before Wilson punched right in the nose with his Haki-covered fist, breaking it with a sickening crunch as blood began spraying in the air from the pirate captain's nostrils.

Wilson's punch and the unfamiliar feeling of pain and taking damage seemed to have stunned Lokni into a state of speechlessness and thoughtlessness as he stood there frozen in place with eyes wide in shock.

Wilson grinned as he took advantage of Lokni's stunned state, barraging the latter with a shower of Haki-infused punches all over his body, forcing the pirate captain out of his trance.

"Enough of your insolence," Lokni shouted with an enraged tone, releasing ungodly amounts of thunder from all over his body in a loud, blinding explosion that sent Wilson flying backward.

"I don't know how, but you've made me bleed," Lokni said as he wiped his bloody nose, bringing his hand in front of his eyes. "You will pay for that!" he concluded, taking a strange silver Dial from his pants.

'Oh, he finally snapped,' I thought with some amusement. 'Still, this could be bad,' I concluded as I tensed my body, preparing to step in at any second to save Wilson's already injured ass.

"I refuse to dirty my hands with you people anymore," Lokni said as he pushed the button on top of the Dial, and suddenly strange loud noises came out of the god's palace.

One of the palace's half-spherical domes split open, revealing a giant canon that promptly emerged as soon as the dome split open. "Now die!" Lokni exclaimed, clicking another button on the Dial, causing the cannon to begin crackling with thunder.

The cannon quickly lined itself in Wilson's direction with loud screeching noises and began emitting bright purple lights, causing me to move swiftly towards Wilson to get him out of there before it was too late.

"It's too late," Lokni said as he returned to his calm, indifferent expression. "Your friend will die, and you will be next," he concluded, and I could see the faintest of smiles on his face as he spoke.