Beneath a dense shroud of artificial thunderclouds, the unified continent of Merveille glided through the lower atmosphere at four thousand meters, casting an invisible, drifting shadow across the southern seas of Paradise.
Standing at the forward observation rampart of the citadel, Arthur looked downward through a calculated aperture in the cloud envelope.
Below lay Little Garden.
From the sky, the island resembled a forgotten world ripped from the dawn of time.
Dense, suffocating canopies of giant primeval ferns and towering cycads blanketed the jagged terrain.
Two colossal, dormant volcanoes pierced the skyline like broken black fangs, their calderas ringed with hardened basalt.
Even from several miles above, Arthur’s enhanced Kenbunshoku, harmonized with the electromagnetic perception of the Goro Goro no Mi, registered the violent bio-electric pulses of the island’s inhabitants.
It was an uncorrupted crucible of apex predators.
Massive reptilian beasts moved through the emerald canopy; the deep, resonant roars of Tyrannosaurs and the earth-shaking thuds of Brachiosaur herds reverberated across the coastlines.
“An untouched sanctuary of prehistoric biology,” Arthur murmured, his golden-flecked eyes analyzing the terrain with cold precision.
“The ideal foundation for our lower reserves.”
Behind him, Wyper stood at strict attention, flanked by his lieutenants—Kamakiri, Braham, Genbo, and Laki.
Each was clad in the newly forged black composite armor produced by Buggy’s foundries, their Dial-equipped boots and specialized restraint cables secured at their waists.
“Wyper,” Arthur commanded, not looking back.
“The Vanguard’s first live-fire trial begins now.”
Wyper slammed his fist against his breastplate.
“Your orders, Sovereign?”
“Descend through the southern corridor,” Arthur instructed.
“Target the apex carnivores and heavy herbivores.
Tyrannosaurs, Triceratops, and ancient raptor packs.
Employ Breath Dials for vertical mobility and Impact Dials for pacification.
You are not to slaughter the beasts; you are to capture them alive.
We require viable breeding populations to seed the lower reserves of Merveille.”
Arthur raised his right hand, gesturing toward the ancient jungle below.
“I will secure the flora and provide heavy containment through vector manipulation.
Let me witness whether four hundred years of Shandian combat bloodline translates into imperial discipline.”
“The Vanguard will not fail you,” Wyper stated, his voice hard as iron.
He turned to the five hundred aerial troopers assembled on the launch deck.
“Vanguard of the Heavens—deploy!”
With practiced, mechanical precision, five hundred warriors engaged their Breath Dials.
Like a swarm of hunting hawks descending from the storm, the black-armored aerial division dropped from the belly of Merveille, slicing silently through four thousand meters of open sky.
Arthur did not remain idle.
Extending both hands over the rampart, his mind engaged the terrifying, continental authority of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi.
The air around Little Garden warped.
Invisible gravitational vectors surged downward like divine fingers, penetrating deep into the primeval jungle.
With surgical control, Arthur bypassed the ancient bedrock and seized massive clusters of prehistoric vegetation—sprawling cycad groves, towering ironwood trunks, and medicinal mosses untouched by modern civilization.
Rumble!
Tectonic groans echoed across the island’s southern basin.
Entire acres of living prehistoric soil and flora were cleanly sheared from the earth, rising serenely into the air like inverted emerald mountains.
Guided by Arthur’s will, the massive botanical islands ascended toward Merveille, docking seamlessly into the hollowed, subterranean reserve biomes prepared within the floating continent’s lower tier.
Below, the jungle erupted into chaos.
Wyper and his warriors moved through the canopy with terrifying coordination.
When a thirty-meter Tyrannosaur burst from the thicket, its jaws snapping with enough force to splinter ironwood, the Vanguard did not scatter.
Kamakiri vaulted off a fern branch using a Breath Dial burst, planting an Impact Dial squarely against the beast’s temple, while Braham and Genbo fired heavy steel-cable harpoons anchored with Weight Dials.
The colossal dinosaur crashed to the earth, dazed and immobilized.
Within seconds, Arthur’s gravitational aura enveloped the beast, lifting it smoothly upward into the ascending sky-pens.
In less than three hours, the operation proceeded like an imperial harvest.
Over a hundred apex dinosaurs and countless specimens of ancient plant life were harvested and integrated into Merveille’s lower biosphere, forever establishing a self-sustaining prehistoric ecosystem beneath the sovereign’s castle.
Then, a deafening detonation shattered the afternoon calm.
BOOOOOOM!
The central volcano of Little Garden violently erupted, spewing a towering pillar of black ash, fire, and molten rock into the heavens.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed slightly as he felt two immense, unyielding presences awaken on opposite sides of the island.
“The duel begins,” Arthur murmured.
From the western coast, heavy, rhythmic footsteps shook the trees as a towering giant clad in blue armor and an iron horned helm marched through the forest, carrying a colossal longsword.
Dorry the Blue Ogre.
From the eastern shore, an equally massive warrior adorned in red furs and a round helmet strode forward, a gargantuan battleaxe resting upon his shoulder.
Brogy the Red Ogre.
For one hundred years, the dual captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates had met at the foot of that smoking volcano whenever it erupted, trading blows in an endless, sacred contest of strength whose original cause had long since faded from memory.
Arthur stepped off the observation rampart into empty air.
He did not use wings.
Through the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, he descended like a falling star, shrouded in a thin, crackling veil of azure plasma.
Within seconds, he hovered silently seventy feet above the designated dueling grounds, dropping onto the clearing where the two giants stood twenty paces apart.
“Gegyagyagya!” Dorry’s booming laughter shook the leaves.
“One hundred years, Brogy!
Today, my Terry Sword will finally sever that stubborn neck of yours!”
“Gababababa!” Brogy roared back, raising his massive battleaxe with both hands.
“Keep dreaming, Dorry!
My Bruiser Axe will cleave your horned helmet in half before the sun sets!”
The two titans launched forward, their boots gouging deep trenches into the bedrock.
The Terry Sword descended in an overhead vertical chop capable of splitting a galleon in twain, while the Bruiser Axe swept horizontally with the force of an oncoming tsunami.
Between them, a streak of blue lightning struck the turf with the sound of a thunderclap.
Arthur materialized dead center between the converging titanic weapons.
He did not draw his twin Meito.
Instead, Arthur raised both arms.
His forearms coated in a pitch-black, mirror-like sheen of Advanced Armament Haki, layered beneath an invisible, outward-projecting barrier of concussive force.
Simultaneously, a dense, high-frequency aura of crimson-black Conqueror’s lightning erupted from his skin.
CLANG!
The impact detonated with the acoustic force of a seismic bomb.
The shockwave sheared the top fifty feet of the surrounding jungle into splinters.
Dorry’s colossal greatsword struck his left palm; Brogy’s massive battleaxe slammed against his right.
Neither weapon could touch his flesh, halted dead in their tracks by the invisible barrier of Advanced Conqueror’s infusion.
Dorry and Brogy stared down in paralyzed disbelief.
The veins on their massive arms bulged, but the two-meter human stood like an immovable mountain between their hundred-foot weapons.
Arthur pushed outward with a sharp flex of his Conqueror’s Haki, throwing both weapons back and forcing the twenty-meter warriors to stumble three heavy steps in retreat.
“I am Arthur Pendragon,” his baritone voice rang across the clearing.
“Sovereign of Merveille.”
Arthur walked slowly forward, his eyes locking onto the two titans.
“One hundred years,” Arthur spoke coldly.
“Two legendary captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates, whose names once terrified the four seas, reduced to rotting on an uninhabited rock.
And for what?
A contest over the size of a Sea King caught a century ago, an argument you no longer even remember.”
Dorry’s eyes widened.
Brogy dropped the head of his axe against the turf, his jaw slackening as the buried memory rushed back with humiliating clarity.
“A…
fish…?” Dorry murmured in disbelief.
Brogy furrowed his brow, but after a moment of stunned silence, a savage, thunderous roar tore from the red giant’s throat.
“Gababababa!
So what if it was a fish?!” Brogy bellowed, his battle spirit flaring with explosive intensity.
“A century of blood cannot be washed away with mere words, human!
The gods of Elbaf demand an answer in steel!”
“Gegyagyagya!” Dorry roared in agreement, raising his colossal greatsword high into the air, his eyes blazing with ferocious warrior pride.
“If you wish to stand between the captains of Elbaf, little sovereign, you must prove you have the strength to conquer us!”
“Then let us cease speaking,” Arthur replied, his voice calm, dropping into a light, balanced stance.
“Show me the true mettle of the Giant Warrior Pirates.”
The battle erupted with volcanic violence.
Dorry moved first.
Despite his colossal size, the blue giant pivoted with terrifying agility, sweeping the Terry Sword in a wide, whistling arc aimed to bisect Arthur at the waist.
The displacement of air alone generated gale-force winds that tore up the roots of ancient trees.
Arthur did not back away.
With his bio-electric synaptic speed firing at lightning pace, Dorry’s swing appeared in slow motion.
Arthur leaned backward by mere inches, the five-foot-wide blade slicing through the empty space above his chest, before vaulting lightly onto the flat of the giant sword.
“What?!” Dorry gasped.
Before the blue giant could recover, Brogy roared and brought the flat of his colossal round shield crashing down like a descending meteorite, attempting to crush Arthur into paste against Dorry’s blade.
Arthur kicked off the steel with explosive force.
His body blurred into an azure streak of light, vanishing from beneath the shield just as Brogy’s blow slammed into Dorry’s sword with a deafening ring of iron.
Reappearing instantly above Brogy’s helmet, Arthur descended like a falling thunderbolt.
He did not draw his swords, choosing instead to test his bare physical leverage.
Coating his right heel in hardened Armament Haki, Arthur executed a lightning-fast axe kick directly onto the crown of Brogy’s horned helm.
BOOOOM!
The concussive shockwave rippled through Brogy’s twenty-meter frame.
The red giant’s eyes glazed for a fraction of a second, his knees buckling as the ground beneath his boots shattered into a crater ten feet deep.
“Brother!” Dorry bellowed, thrusting his colossal blade upward like a spear to impale Arthur in mid-air.
Arthur twisted his body in empty space, utilizing microscopic vector shifts from the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi to dance along the edge of the rising greatsword.
Landing on Dorry’s armored wrist, Arthur drove an open-palm strike into the joint, unleashing an internal pulse of Advanced Armament.
CRACK!
Dorry roared in agony as the bones in his massive wrist groaned under the internal concussive blast, forcing his fingers to loosen around the hilt.
Yet, true to their legendary reputation, the two captains did not break.
Brogy recovered with terrifying resilience.
Dropping his shield, the red giant wrapped both massive, calloused fists together and swung like a battering ram, swatting Arthur off Dorry’s arm.
Arthur crossed his arms, catching the colossal double-fist strike in mid-air.
The kinetic force sent him skipping twenty yards backward through the dirt, his boots digging clean furrows into the earth before coming to a halt.
Dorry shook out his aching wrist, his eyes burning with savage exhilaration.
Beside him, Brogy wiped blood from his nose, his grin stretching wide beneath his round helmet.
“Gegyagyagya!
You hit harder than a sea monster, little sovereign!”
“Gababababa!
But a warrior of Elbaf does not fall to mere bruises!”
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, the two legendary giants realized ordinary combat was meaningless against this man.
Their expressions turned dead serious, casting away all playfulness as they raised their weapons in absolute, terrifying synchronization.
The air around them grew heavy, suffocating under the sheer weight of their unified physical might.
Muscles coiled across their colossal backs as the Terry Sword and the Bruiser Axe were drawn backward, vibrating with a high-pitched, catastrophic hum that shook the valley.
“Behold the supreme spear of Elbaf!” they roared together, their voices shaking the very foundations of Little Garden.
“HAKOKU…
SOVEREIGNTY!”
With a unified forward thrust, the two giants unleashed their ultimate technique.
A colossal, cylindrical blast of pure, compressed flying air-pressure erupted from their weapons.
The beam was dozens of meters wide, tearing a gargantuan trench through the island’s bedrock, vaporizing the primeval jungle and hurtling straight toward Arthur with the unstoppable force of a divine executioner.
Arthur stood in the path of the cataclysm.
His golden-flecked eyes remained completely tranquil.
With a smooth, rhythmic motion, his hands fell to his waist.
Schwing.
The twin Meito, Oto and Kogarashi, slid from their scabbards.
The instant the O Wazamono blades met the air, Arthur’s presence erupted.
The ground beneath his boots liquefied under the crushing gravity of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi.
Deep azure plasma crackled across the length of the steel, while thick, violent ribbons of crimson-black Conqueror’s lightning wrapped tightly around the blades, hissing with the sound of tearing space.
He did not retreat.
He stepped forward into the oncoming storm.
“Twin Dragon Style…” Arthur murmured softly, crossing his blades in an inverted crescent before his chest.
“SOVEREIGN SKY-SEVER!”
Arthur slashed outward with both arms.
A colossal, cross-shaped flying slash of black-crimson lightning and blinding azure plasma tore from his blades.
It did not merely ride the air; it cleaved the atmospheric fabric itself, leaving a vacuum wake that shrieked like a dying gale.
KABOOOOOOOOM!
The cross-slash met Hakoku Sovereignty dead center.
For a fraction of a second, the world seemed to freeze.
The light of the afternoon sun vanished behind a blinding, apocalyptic dome of black and blue energy.
The pressure inverted, pulling the surrounding trees inward before detonating outward with tectonic fury.
Then, Arthur’s strike demonstrated absolute supremacy.
The Sovereign Sky-Sever cleanly split the giant cylindrical shockwave in two.
The severed halves of Hakoku Sovereignty deflected into the sky and the earth, tearing massive trenches across the landscape, while Arthur’s cross-slash continued forward without losing momentum.
CRACK!
The slash slammed directly into the crossed guard of Dorry’s greatsword and Brogy’s battleaxe.
The sheer concussive impact bypassed their guard via Advanced Armament Internal Destruction.
The colossal weapons were violently ripped from their massive hands, spinning hundreds of feet into the air before embedding into the mountain face.
The shockwave slammed into the chests of both giants, lifting their twenty-ton frames completely off the earth.
THUUUUD!
Dorry and Brogy crashed heavily onto their backs, skidding fifty yards through the dirt and leaving deep, smoking furrows in the island’s crust.
Silence fell over the scorched clearing.
The smoking crater between them was hundreds of feet wide.
Arthur slowly lowered his twin blades, the black lightning and blue plasma gently dissipating into the breeze.
With a crisp, metallic click, Oto and Kogarashi slid cleanly back into their scabbards.
He had not moved from his spot.
Not a single tear marred his black mantle.
On the ground, Dorry and Brogy pushed themselves up onto their elbows, groaning as bruised ribs and strained muscles ached.
They looked down at their empty, trembling hands, then looked up across the crater at the solitary, two-meter human standing before them.
There was no shame in their eyes.
There was only pure, unadulterated, religious awe.
To trade blows with them, shatter Hakoku Sovereignty head-on with pure swordsmanship, and overpower both captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates simultaneously…
“Gegyagya…” Dorry chuckled weakly, spitting a mouthful of blood and dirt onto the grass.
“What monstrous strength…”
“Gababababa!” Brogy laughed, clutching his aching chest as he sat up.
“A human who can cleave through the spear of Elbaf…
You are no ordinary king.
You are a monster born to conquer the heavens!”
The two giants slowly rose to their feet.
Without a word of command, Dorry the Blue Ogre retrieved his massive longsword from the stone, planting the point deep into the earth.
Brogy recovered his great battleaxe, setting its iron head against the turf.
Together, the two twenty-meter titans sank down onto one knee, bowing their horned heads until their iron helmets brushed the scarred soil before Arthur’s boots.
“The duel of Little Garden is finished,” Dorry rumbled with profound, absolute conviction.
“Before your blade, Dorry offers the strength of Elbaf.”
“Brogy offers his shield and his life,” the red giant bellowed, his voice carrying the solemn weight of an ancient blood oath.
“Lead us, Lord Arthur!
We swear our loyalty to the Round Table!”
Arthur stood before the kneeling titans, his crimson-lined mantle billowing in the rising wind.
“Rise, Generals of Elbaf,” Arthur commanded, his baritone voice echoing with sovereign authority.
“Your century in the wilderness is over.
Stand together as the vanguard of the Giant Faction, and claim the Second Seat of my Round Table.”
As Dorry and Brogy stood, towering over the clearing like two living bastions of iron and bone, Dorry looked at Arthur with deep, contemplative solemnity.
“Lord Arthur,” Dorry began, his deep rumble vibrating through the earth.
“You shattered our Hakoku through superior edge, overwhelming Haki, and sheer physical majesty.
But Hakoku is not merely a blunt thrust.
It is the sacred inheritance of Elbaf—the ‘Spear of the Nation.’ For a hundred years, no mortal has witnessed its true principle.”
Brogy nodded heavily, striking his massive chest.
“Gababababa!
That’s right!
If you are to lead the warriors of Elbaf, Sovereign, you should not merely defeat our heritage—you should inherit it!
The secret of the Spear does not belong to giants alone; it belongs to whoever possesses the will of a conqueror!”
Arthur’s golden-flecked eyes sharpened with intellectual curiosity.
“Speak.”
Dorry raised his colossal longsword, holding it horizontal before his chest.
“Most swordsmen launch flying slashes like crescents, Lord Arthur,” Dorry explained, his voice low and instructive.
“A crescent spreads its force wide across the air.
It cuts, but it dissipates as it travels.
Hakoku does not cut.
It pierces the world itself.”
Brogy raised his heavy battleaxe, aligning it alongside Dorry’s blade.
“The secret lies in the convergence of breath and outward-flowing will.
You do not let your Armament disperse into the blade’s edge.
You gather the shockwave into a singular point at the weapon’s tip, compressing the air until it becomes as dense as bedrock.
Then, you release it not with a sweep, but with a straight, concussive piston thrust.
When two warriors strike in resonance, the two spirals of compressed air lock together, forming an unstoppable cylinder that punches through islands.”
Arthur stood in silence, his analytical mind dissecting their words with terrifying speed.
A non-dispersing cylindrical vortex, Arthur analyzed.
Standard flying slashes rely on air displacement through edge friction.
Hakoku is hydraulic pressure applied to the atmosphere—compressing the air ahead of the blade using Advanced Armament Emission, then firing it as a solid kinetic projectile.
The giants required two people to achieve the rotational resonance of Hakoku.
But Arthur was a Daikengou who wielded two Meito, commanded the gravitational vector manipulation of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, and possessed the boundless physical leverage of the Imperial Pendragon.
He did not need a partner.
Arthur stepped to the edge of the crater, facing the secondary volcano towering miles in the distance.
He drew Oto in his right hand and Kogarashi in his left.
Dorry and Brogy leaned forward, their eyes widening in astonishment.
“Lord Arthur…
you intend to attempt it now?!”
Arthur did not answer.
He closed his eyes.
He adjusted his stance, widening his footing by two inches.
His draconic nervous system fired at the speed of lightning.
He drew a deep, rhythmic breath, synchronizing his heartbeat with the ambient electromagnetic current of the island.
Along the twin blades, a jet-black sheen of Advanced Armament Haki flowed smoothly, not coating the edge, but pooling toward the tips of the steel.
Simultaneously, thick ribbons of crimson-black Conqueror’s lightning coiled tightly around the blades.
Then, Arthur engaged the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi.
Instead of manipulating external objects, he applied microscopic gravitational vectors directly to the air enveloping his swords.
The atmosphere around the twin tips warped inward, forming a tight, shrieking gravitational vortex.
Dorry’s jaw dropped.
“The air…
he’s compressing the atmosphere before he even thrusts!”
“Impossible…” Brogy whispered, trembling.
“He’s creating the resonance alone!”
Arthur’s eyes snapped open.
There was no sound.
The wind died.
The ambient roar of the volcano ceased.
Arthur thrust both blades forward in a straight, violent puncture.
“IMPERIAL HAKOKU!”
KABOOOOOOOOOM!
The detonation was not a slash; it was a rail of pure, unadulterated annihilation.
A colossal, swirling cylinder of black-crimson lightning and compressed gravitational air-pressure erupted from the twin tips of his swords.
The beam was thirty meters wide, tearing a smoking, polished trench through the bedrock of Little Garden at blinding speed.
It obliterated miles of jungle in an instant, screaming across the valley and slamming dead center into the massive, basalt wall of the distant volcano.
CRACK-BOOM!
The beam did not explode against the mountain face.
It punched straight through.
A clean, circular tunnel thirty meters in diameter was bored through millions of tons of solid volcanic rock, piercing the entire mountain from front to back and blasting out the other side into the open ocean, parting the clouds and the sea for leagues beyond the horizon.
Arthur exhaled a thin plume of draconic heat.
With a crisp, metallic click, the twin Meito slid back into their scabbards.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Dorry and Brogy stood frozen like stone statues.
Their eyes bugged out of their iron helms, their mouths hanging open so wide a dinosaur could have walked inside.
“In…
in a single breath…?” Dorry choked out, his hands trembling as he stared at the mountain with a hole clean through its center.
“That technique…
took the two of us fifty years of training in the warrior halls of Elbaf to master!”
“Gababa…” Brogy’s laugh failed entirely, replaced by pure, stupefied awe.
“He didn’t just copy it…
he used twin blades and gravity to create the resonance of two giants by himself!
Lord Arthur is a god of war!”
Arthur turned back to his new generals, his expression serene and sovereign.
“The Spear of Elbaf is formidable,” Arthur said calmly, as though he had merely tossed a pebble.
“It will serve well when we descend upon Marineford and shatter the execution scaffold.”
Dorry and Brogy shuddered at the sheer, casual audacity of his ambition, yet a savage, bloodthirsty grin split their faces.
A king who aimed his blade at the headquarters of the world was a king worthy of Elbaf.
High above, through the gravitational power of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, the clouds parted.
Massive sky-platforms descended from Merveille, gently lifting the two legendary titan warlords and their ancient encampments into the heavens.
Upon arriving at the central courtyard of Merveille, Arthur summoned Wyper before the dais of the throne room.
The Shandian berserker knelt, his black combat armor covered in scuffs from the dinosaur harvest.
“Wyper,” Arthur said, his voice echoing in the hall.
Behind the sovereign, a gilded mahogany chest rested upon a velvet pedestal.
Merry stepped forward, opening the brass latch to reveal a bizarre, swirling fruit covered in jagged, lightning-bolt patterns, radiating a subtle, concussive static.
“This is the Shock-Shock Fruit,” Arthur stated, his golden eyes resting upon his Vanguard Commander.
“A prized Paramecia claimed from the central vaults of Merveille.
For your entire life, you have fought with Impact and Reject Dials, tearing your own bones and lifespan apart to generate concussive blasts.”
Arthur gestured toward the fruit.
“Consume it.
With this power, your body will become the very conduit of shockwaves.
You will absorb, store, and release catastrophic concussive force without harming a single fiber of your flesh.
Become the living battering ram of the Vanguard.”
Wyper stared at the fruit, his breath catching.
He knew the price and sacred nature of a Devil Fruit.
He looked up into Arthur’s eyes, seeing not charity, but imperial investment.
Without a single word of hesitation, Wyper seized the fruit and bit into it, swallowing the bitter flesh whole.
BZZZZZZT!
A concussive shockwave instantly rippled outward from Wyper’s pores, cracking the stone floor beneath his knees.
Air distorted around his fists, humming with latent, terrifying kinetic energy.
Feeling the power merge with his physiology, Wyper bowed his head until his forehead touched the floor.
“My life is your weapon, Sovereign,” Wyper swore, his voice trembling with fierce devotion.
“The Vanguard shall break every wall before you.”
Standing half a step behind Arthur’s throne was Laki.
Discarding her tribal garments, the fierce Shandian beauty now wore tailored, lightweight black-and-crimson combat armor, a refined Dial-rifle strapped across her back and two concealed daggers at her waist.
Having proven her absolute calm and sharp tactical perception during the Skypiea campaign, Arthur had selected her as his personal bodyguard and vanguard adjutant.
Her sharp, dark eyes remained fixed on every entrance to the hall, her presence silent, lethal, and unyielding.
Beside the throne stood two young women of Angel Island, their pristine white wings fluttering gently against the mountain breeze.
Conis, the gentle blonde maiden whose harp music had once calmed the skies of Skypiea, stepped forward holding a silver tray bearing a cup of freshly brewed highland tea, her serene, porcelain face radiating absolute peace.
Flanking her was another graceful angel maiden, both having been chosen to oversee Arthur’s personal quarters and domestic comfort alongside Makino.
Conis offered the tea with a graceful, reverent bow.
“Your tea, Lord Arthur.”
Arthur took the cup from Conis, taking a slow, contemplative sip as he looked out through the grand panoramic balcony of the citadel.
Around him, the empire was taking its true form.
At his side stood Laki, her hand resting vigilantly near the hilt of her daggers.
Behind him, Conis and her fellow angel attendant saw to the quiet elegance of his quarters.
Down on the parade grounds, Wyper stood as a living calamity, his body now humming with the concussive authority of the newly consumed Shock-Shock Fruit, while Dorry and Brogy united the ancient, earth-shaking might of Elbaf into a single, devastating pillar of the Round Table.
In the subterranean belly of Merveille, a primeval dinosaur reserve flourished, guarded from above by an impenetrable veil of thunderclouds.
Buggy approached the dais, adjusting the glowing three-dimensional projection of the Grand Line.
“Captain, the winds from the south lead straight to the desert routes of Sandy Island.
If we maintain this speed, we can reach the airspace above Alabasta in three days.”
“Change our heading, Buggy,” Arthur commanded smoothly, setting his porcelain cup down onto the silver tray.
Buggy blinked, his red nose twitching in confusion.
“Eh?
Change heading?
But isn’t Crocodile’s kingdom right there?”
“Crocodile’s rebellion in Alabasta is a fruit that has not yet finished ripening,” Arthur replied, his golden-flecked eyes shifting northward toward a frozen, snow-locked sector of Paradise.
“Furthermore, an empire cannot expand on steel and lightning alone.
We have armies, artillery, and food.
But our medical foundation remains in its infancy.”
Arthur’s gaze locked onto the coordinates of the Drum Rockies—an isolated winter island known across the Grand Line for having once possessed the finest medical technology in the world.
“Kaya possesses brilliant natural talent and unmatched dedication,” Arthur continued in a calm, calculating tone.
“Her Medical Academy will train hundreds of battlefield physicians for our Vanguard.
But she is young.
She requires a mentor who has stood at the summit of human anatomy for over a century.
A doctor who has defied time, laughed in the face of death, and unraveled the deepest secrets of human biology.”
Laki’s dark eyes flicked toward Arthur.
“A master physician, Sovereign?
Does such a person exist in these waters?”
“She does,” Arthur said, a faint, predatory smirk curving his lips.
“The ‘Witch’ of Drum Island.
Dr.
Kureha.
A woman who has walked this sea for nearly a hundred and forty years, holding knowledge of diseases, biology, and ancient legacies that the World Government has spent centuries trying to bury.
We are going to recruit her to preside as Grand Chancellor of the Round Table Medical Academy.”
Arthur rose from the throne, his crimson-lined mantle sweeping behind him.
“Adjust the atmospheric envelope,” Arthur commanded.
“Set coordinates for the winter seas of Drum Island.
Let us see if the old doctor is ready to leave her mountain for an empire.”
The massive floating continent tilted smoothly against the tropospheric jet streams, pivoting northward into the freezing currents of the Paradise route, carrying the shadow of the Sky Sovereign toward the snow-capped peaks of Drum Island.
[Status Panel]
Name: Arthur Pendragon
Age: 20 (Year 1520)
Height: 2.00m (Human Form) / 6m (Hybrid Form) / 60m (Full Beast Form)
Classification: Great Swordsman / Sovereign of Merveille
Overall Combat Tier: High Admiral Class
Devil Fruit Cores (Vessel Integrity: 3/3 Occupied):
Core 1 (Mythical Zoan): Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Imperial PendragonMastery: 95% (Near-Awakened; Complete physiological integration, crimson armor scales, immense physical endurance, draconic thermal authority, 60m Full Beast Form fully unlocked)Core 2 (Paramecia): Fuwa Fuwa no MiMastery: 62% (Continental Levitation, Advanced Vector Control, Atmospheric Stabilization)Core 3 (Logia): Goro Goro no MiMastery: 25% (Acquired; Bio-electric synaptic acceleration, atmospheric electromagnetic perception, raw concentrated plasma discharge, hyper-vibrating plasma armor)
Haki:
Observation Haki (Kenbunshoku): Advanced (Future Sight: 3–4 seconds; integrated with electromagnetic Mantra resonance)Armament Haki (Busoshoku): Advanced (Internal Destruction / Emission / Hardening)Conqueror’s Haki (Haoshoku): Advanced (Haoshoku Infusion / Sky-Splitting Class; resonance with bio-electric plasma)
Swordsmanship & Secret Arts:
Rank: Daikengou (Grandmaster Swordsman)Equipped Blades: Twin Meito Oto and Kogarashi (O Wazamono Grade)Secret Arts:Twin Dragon Style: Sovereign Sky-Sever (Cross-slash combining Daikengou edge, Advanced Conqueror’s infusion, and Goro Goro plasma)Imperial Hakoku (Solo-wielded Elbaf Spear technique utilizing twin-blade gravitational resonance, Advanced Armament Emission, and Conqueror’s infusion)
Treasury (Central Vault Holdings):
Liquid Wealth: Remaining Shandorian Gold Reserves (Ancient bullion, architectural relics, and ingots valued at tens of billions of Berries)Historical Relic: The Shandora Poneglyph (Location of Ancient Weapon Poseidon & Roger’s Inscription)
(Note: Ark Maxim was dismantled into the continental power grid; Shock-Shock Fruit was consumed by Wyper)
Military & Retinue:
World Government Designation: “The Sky Sovereign”Bounty: None — identity unconfirmedMilitary Divisions:The Vanguard of the Heavens: 500 Elite Dial-equipped Aerial Troopers (1st Division Commanded by Wyper — User of the Shock-Shock Fruit)Titanic Vanguard: The Giant Faction (Commanded jointly by Dorry & Brogy)Round Table Seats & Retinue:1st Seat: Open (Reserved for Dracule Mihawk)2nd Seat: “The Twin Ogres of Elbaf” — Dorry the Blue Ogre & Brogy the Red Ogre (Joint Seat / Giant Faction)Seats 3–11: Open12th Seat: “The Jester” Buggy (Artillery, Dial Munitions & Micro-Segmentation Tactics)Personal Retinue:Personal Bodyguard: LakiPersonal Attendants: Conis & Angel MaidenInner Circle Ministers: Makino (Prime Minister of Domestic Affairs), Kaya (Chief Medical Officer), Merry, Gan Fall, Wyper (Vanguard Commander)9:26 PM