The air pressure over the stone plateau did not merely drop; it collapsed.
Before the dust from Arthur’s awakening had settled, the sky above darkened.
Descending through the rift in the storm clouds was not a falling stone, but a man drifting through the air as if gravity itself were an obedient servant.
Thud.
The impact was heavy, metallic, and deliberate.
Standing ten paces away was a living monument of the old era.
Wild golden hair cascaded down his back like a lion’s mane, reaching the heels of two master-crafted swords fitted as his prosthetic legs.
Deep within his skull sat the weathered timber of a ship’s steering wheel, and his dark eyes burned with the unyielding authority of a man who had once fought Gol D.
Roger for dominion over the Grand Line.
“Golden Lion” Shiki.
“Jahahahaha!” Shiki’s laughter boomed across the plateau, carrying a weight that made the surrounding air vibrate.
“A boy standing tall against the sea wind!
You ate a dragon fruit, whelp?
That crimson lightning wasn’t just reptile breath—that was the will of a king!”
Arthur did not answer with idle banter.
A military commander measured an enemy by the speed of his blade and the density of his guard.
Step.
Arthur closed the distance in a fraction of a second, his boots splintering the stone.
Drawing upon the grandmaster martial instincts of his past life and the explosive brute force of his new two-meter frame, he drove a straight right fist directly toward Shiki’s solar plexus.
Crimson scales surged across his knuckles, cleaving the air with a supersonic crack.
Shiki did not even shift his stance.
With a lazy, fluid flick of his left leg, the master-crafted blade Oto swung upward:
“Zanpa!”
CLANG—!
The collision sounded like an artillery shell detonating against an iron bulkhead.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
The blow felt as though it had struck an immovable mountain of solid steel.
An invisible, hardened barrier of Armament Haki coated Shiki’s sword-leg, neutralizing Arthur’s physical kinetic force completely.
Before Arthur could pivot, Shiki’s leg twisted, the flat of the blade snapping outward against Arthur’s chest.
BOOM!
The concussive shockwave launched Arthur backward across the plateau.
His heavy boots carved two deep, smoking furrows through thirty yards of solid rock before he arrested his momentum, his breathing heavy, his ribs throbbing beneath his coat.
Arthur looked down at his knuckles.
The obsidian scales were intact, but his internal organs ached from the penetrative force of Shiki’s Haki.
The reality was stark: a Rear Admiral’s physical foundation was formidable, but against a titan who had clashed with Garp, Sengoku, and Roger, he was currently nothing more than a fledgling.
“Jahahahaha!” Shiki grinned, casually resting his hands inside his striped kimono.
“Good speed!
Heavy bones!
But your strike is raw, brat.
You have the shell of a dragon, but your spirit doesn’t know how to bite!
If you step onto the Grand Line like this, the Marines will hang your skin in Mariejois within a month!”
Shiki stepped forward, the edge of his blade-legs clicking softly against the stone.
“Tell me, boy,” Shiki said, his voice dropping into a low, predatory rumble.
“Do you want to die as a nameless lizard on these rocks, or do you want to learn how to tear the heavens apart?!”
Arthur straightened his spine, wiping a trace of dust from his dark coat.
His golden-amber eyes remained ice-cold, unbroken by the physical disparity.
“I am not here to die on rocks,” Arthur said calmly.
“And I am not here to bow to the World Government.”
Shiki stared into those amber eyes for three heartbeats, then threw his head back and roared with pure delight.
“A proud one!
I like your eyes, Arthur!
Come!
Let me show you what true power looks like!”
With an upward flick of Shiki’s fingers, the stone plateau beneath their feet began to rise into the sky.
High above the sea, hidden behind perpetual storm clouds in the stratosphere, lay the floating archipelago of Merveille.
For the next two years, that aerial kingdom became Arthur’s forge.
Progression in the New World did not arrive through miraculous shortcuts; it was bought with blood, torn muscle, and relentless discipline.
Shiki did not teach like an academy instructor.
He tossed Arthur into the untamed jungles of Merveille, where genetically mutated apex beasts roamed, and subjected him to brutal, life-and-death combat every third day.
After Six Months: Arthur’s physical body fully adapted to the draconic strain.
He mastered basic Armament Haki (Hardening), turning his arms and sabre obsidian black, while learning to manifest his hybrid dragon form with partial control over his wings and tail.
His Observation Haki awakened, allowing him to perceive attacks outside his direct line of sight.After One Year: Pushed to the brink of exhaustion by Shiki’s relentless aerial assaults, Arthur’s Conqueror’s Haki flared from dormant instinct into active control.
His Armament deepened, beginning to flow outward as invisible armor.By the End of Two Years: Arthur achieved the rare milestone of Advanced Armament Haki (Internal Destruction), allowing his strikes to bypass external armor and rupture targets from within.
His Observation perception sharpened into Incomplete Future Sight—glimpsing one to two seconds into the immediate future during moments of absolute focus.
Most importantly, he learned the rudiments of Conqueror’s Haki Infusion, coating his strikes in crackling black-red lightning, though the technique drained his stamina at a punishing rate.
His Mythical Zoan mastery reached sixty-five percent—lethal and imposing, yet still far from the realm of true Devil Fruit Awakening.
Sea Circle Calendar 1520.
Early Spring.
Upon the highest storm-swept peak of Merveille, the wind howled like a wounded beast.
Shiki stood against the gale.
Two years of intense clashes had taken an irreversible toll on the veteran.
His breaths came shorter, his weathered hands trembled faintly, and the steering wheel lodged in his skull pulsed with chronic, agonizing pressure.
The old lion knew his era had reached its twilight.
Across from him stood Arthur.
At twenty-two years of age, Arthur stood an imposing two meters tall, his shoulders broad and thick, his frame exuding the calm, suffocating gravity of an apex predator.
His tailored charcoal coat whipped in the wind over his white shirt, his hand resting on the hilt of a heavy naval sabre.
Fzzzt—!
Arthur shifted into his Hybrid Dragon Form.
Obsidian and crimson dragon scales rippled across his frame like interlocking plate armor.
Leathery dragon wings unfurled from his back, while crowned horns curved back from his brow.
His golden-amber eyes contracted into vertical reptilian slits, and dark red Conqueror’s lightning crackled along his blade.
Shiki’s eyes burned with savage ferocity.
He floated into the air, his golden mane thrashing as he raised both sword-legs high:
“Show me, Arthur!
Do not insult me with hesitation!”
Shiki kicked downward with terrifying velocity, unleashing his legendary flying slash:
“Shishi: Senjindani!” (Lion: Thousand Blade Valley!)
Dozens of golden crescent shockwaves rained from the sky like a falling guillotine, slicing the mountain cliffs into flying debris.
Arthur narrowed his eyes, triggering his Incomplete Future Sight.
A fragmented vision flashed across his consciousness: Left shoulder severed, ribs pierced.
Arthur lunged forward, beating his dragon wings to accelerate:
“Pendragon Style: Sovereign Flight – Sky Cleaver!”
Coating his heavy sabre in black-red Conqueror’s lightning and internal-destruction Armament, Arthur swung horizontally.
A massive, crescent-shaped crimson draconic shockwave detonated outward, colliding violently with Shiki’s flying slashes.
BOOM!
The sky above Merveille split in two.
The heavy storm clouds were torn open by the violent clash of their infused Conqueror’s Haki, revealing the clear azure heavens above.
Through the smoke, Shiki descended like a falling meteor, his sword-leg Kogarashi plunging downward with full killing intent:
“Gokusen Zanpa!” (Extreme Wave Slasher!)
Arthur raised his blade to intercept.
CRASH—!
The collision shattered the stone peak beneath their boots.
Arthur’s sabre groaned under the sheer weight of Shiki’s veteran Haki.
Blood dripped from Arthur’s lips as the bones in his left forearm splintered under the immense pressure, his black-red lightning flickering violently.
Shiki laughed like a demon in the gale.
“Is that all your dragon has, Arthur?!
You want the throne of the world, but you cannot even break past an old man’s grave?!”
Arthur’s golden eyes remained dead calm.
He had anticipated the disparity in raw Haki reserves.
In his past life as a battlefield commander, he knew that against a superior swordsman, victory was not won by out-fencing them—it was won by trading flesh for a fatal opening.
Instead of retreating, Arthur deliberately dropped his defensive guard.
He allowed Shiki’s blade-leg, Kogarashi, to plunge straight into his right shoulder, driving deep through flesh and lodging firmly against the collarbone.
Shiki’s eyes widened in sudden shock.
He let me strike him?!
With Shiki’s leg embedded in his shoulder, the old pirate’s mobility was locked for a fraction of a second.
That single heartbeat was all Arthur needed.
Channeling the absolute remainder of his Conqueror’s Haki and internal-destruction Armament into his right dragon claw, Arthur roared his finishing strike:
“Dragon King Secret Art: Crimson Talon – World Pierce!”
Squelch.
The razor-sharp obsidian talons drove cleanly and mercilessly through Shiki’s chest, piercing the old lion’s heart from front to back.
Silence fell over the mountain peak.
The wind died down, and the crimson lightning slowly dissolved into the cold air.
Shiki looked down at the dragon claws buried in his chest.
Blood welled from his lips, staining his golden beard, but his face held no regret, no fear, and no sorrow.
Instead, a proud, ferocious smile split his weathered face.
“Jahahahaha…” Shiki coughed softly, his trembling hand reaching up to grip Arthur’s bloodstained shoulder.
“Cold…
calculating to the very end…
you traded your shoulder for my life…”
The old titan’s golden eyes looked toward the endless blue sky beyond the clouds.
“The world thinks…
the Roger era is dead…” Shiki rasped, his vision fading with every heartbeat.
“Take it all…
my territory, my ambition…
and tear this rotten world upside down…
Jahaha…
ha…”
His hand slipped from Arthur’s shoulder.
The Golden Lion’s head sank forward, his legendary life coming to its final rest.
Arthur stood in silence, his dragon scales and wings smoothly receding back beneath his torn, blood-soaked coat.
He withdrew his talons and gently lowered the veteran’s body onto the stone throne atop the peak, bowing his head in solemn respect.
For two years, Shiki had been his forge.
Then, Arthur knelt.
The divine gift of the Three-Core Vessel operated under strict, unyielding laws:
A core could only absorb a Devil Fruit once it was physically unlocked and conditioned through extreme bodily strain.The transfer had to occur within moments of the user’s death, before the devil’s spiritual essence dissipated into the world’s reincarnation cycle.The host had to personally defeat the user to align the spiritual resonance and prevent catastrophic core burnout.
Arthur placed his palm firmly over Shiki’s cooling chest.
Activating his second, unlocked life core, an invisible biological vortex formed within his chest.
The swirling, gravitational essence of the Float-Float Fruit was forcibly drawn out of Shiki’s vessel, entering Arthur’s heart.
Thrum.
A bizarre, weightless warmth flooded Arthur’s veins.
His second life core hummed with absolute stability, binding the power permanently to his soul.
Arthur exhaled a breath of steam, looking out across the floating archipelago.
In the lower estates of Merveille, Shiki’s old subordinates—the scientist Indigo, the beast tamers, and hundreds of low-tier pirate henchmen—were panicking, sensing the disturbance on the high peak.
Arthur’s eyes were cold and indifferent.
A sovereign had no use for weak, incompetent remnants who relied on chemical mutagens and circus tricks.
For his Knights of the Round Table, he would accept only apex combatants who commanded true strength and absolute resolve.
With a sweep of his newly acquired Float-Float power, Arthur detached the central sovereign citadel—a massive, fortified mountain island containing Shiki’s personal castle, the royal docks, and the deep underground vaults.
He left the surrounding outer islands and the weak old crew behind to drift and scatter in the skies, completely uninterested in carrying dead weight.
Descending into the vault of the central fortress, Arthur inspected his spoils:
Tens of billions of berries in gold bullion and jewels.Ancient navigational charts of the New World.
On the central altar, resting in velvet-lined titanium lockboxes, were three unconsumed Devil Fruits, plundered by Shiki over decades:
Ancient Zoan: Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Smilodon (Saber-toothed Cat)
An amber-gold, spiral-scaled melon with two pronounced, ivory-like ridges resembling prehistoric fangs.
It grants monstrous primal speed, tearing fangs, and the brutal kinetic force of an ancient apex predator.Paramecia: Tetsu Tetsu no Mi (Iron-Iron Fruit)
A dense, faceted, metallic-gray fruit as heavy as solid lead.
It allows the user to transform their body into high-density steel, manipulate external iron, and forge impregnable defensive armaments.Paramecia: Shokku Shokku no Mi (Shock-Shock Fruit / Kinetic Impact)
A deep violet, pulsating plum-shaped fruit with lightning-like grooves.
It grants the ability to absorb incoming physical impacts, storing the kinetic energy to release catastrophic shockwave counters.
Arthur closed the lockboxes with a satisfied click.
These three fruits were ideal rewards to bestow upon future members of the Knights of the Round Table.
Finally, Arthur retrieved Shiki’s legendary twin Meito: Oto (Cherry Ten) and Kogarashi (Wintry Wind).
In this world, a supreme warrior required blades capable of withstanding the immense strain of Advanced Armament Haki and Conqueror’s infusion.
Arthur spent hours in the master forge fitting the two famous blades with polished obsidian-and-gold hilts and tailored black leather scabbards, strapping them firmly to his left hip.
With Oto and Kogarashi at his side, his swordsmanship finally possessed the lethal conduits it demanded.
A soft azure chime sounded before his eyes:
══════════════════════════════════════════════════
STATUS Host: Arthur Pendragon Age: 22 | Height: 2.0m Lineage: Pendragon (Earth / Great Britain) Combat Tier: High Vice Admiral (Quasi-Admiral Peak)══════════════════════════════════════════════════
CONSTITUTION Three-Core Vessel (Marshall D.
Teach) • Core 1: Active (Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Imperial Pendragon) • Core 2: Active (Fuwa Fuwa no Mi Assimilated) • Core 3: Locked — Sovereign Authority RequiredDEVIL FRUITS [1] Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Imperial Pendragon (Mythical Zoan) Mastery: 65% (Advanced Hybrid Mastery) [2] Fuwa Fuwa no Mi / Float-Float Fruit (Paramecia) Mastery: 20% (Initial Integration) [3] EmptyHAKI & ABILITIES • Conqueror’s Haki: Advanced (Infusion: Unstable / High Drain) • Armament Haki: Advanced (Internal Destruction) • Observation Haki: Advanced (Incomplete Future Sight: 1-2 Seconds) • Martial Mastery: Grandmaster (Dual Meito & Sabre Combat)EQUIPMENT & WEAPONS • Twin Meito: Oto & Kogarashi (Equipped) • Attire: Tailored Charcoal Sovereign CoatTERRITORY & ASSETS • Sovereign Base: Central Citadel of Merveille (Floating Fortress) • Vault: 3 Stored Devil Fruits (Smilodon, Iron-Iron, Shock-Shock)══════════════════════════════════════════════════
KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE 1st Seat — Vacant 2nd Seat — Vacant …
12th Seat — Vacant
══════════════════════════════════════════════════
Arthur closed the panel.
His wounds throbbed, but his constitution was already stitching muscle and bone together with draconic vitality.
At twenty-two, standing at the peak of the Vice Admiral tier with two Devil Fruits, embryonic advanced three-color Haki, and Shiki’s legendary twin Meito at his waist, he had secured his operational foundation.
But he knew that to breach the true Admiral Class, reach the Emperor Class, and ultimately conquer the Sovereign Class, he needed further refinement, Devil Fruit Awakening, and twelve loyal monsters to sit at his Round Table.
After two years of non-stop warfare in the clouds, his body and mind required a period of sanctuary to heal and consolidate his gains.
Looking down through the cloud sea toward the coordinates of the East Blue, Arthur remembered the timeline.
It was now Sea Circle Calendar 1520.
“Merveille will remain here, cloaked in the stratosphere,” Arthur murmured.
Stepping aboard a sleek, two-masted schooner from the vault docks, Arthur touched the hull with his Float-Float ability.
The vessel lifted soundlessly into the air, gliding out of the clouds and descending toward the tranquil blue waters of the East Blue.
His destination: Foosha Village.