After finding the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and eating it, officially becoming Thor the God of Thunder in both name and reality, Thor was in an excellent mood.
Although he wanted to start developing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit’s abilities immediately, he didn’t have much time to waste right now.
Later, when he had some free time, he could find an uninhabited island and slowly experiment with his Devil Fruit powers there.
After the Viking Pirates raised their flag over Birka, the Naglfar returned to the sky island of Jaya—the enormous sky island where the City of Gold was located.
“Big Brother Shiki, what do you think about doing it this way?”
Thor discussed his plans for developing and constructing the sky island with Golden Lion.
After listening, Shiki nodded in satisfaction.
“Thor, you’ve got a pretty good head on your shoulders. Becoming a pirate is almost a waste of your talent.”
“Are you kidding? I’m going to become the king of Elbaph someday. Going out to sea as a pirate is just an Elbaph tradition. Am I right?”
“Prince Thor is absolutely right!”
The Giant warriors immediately joined in.
For once, Thor wasn’t even lying.
The king of Elbaph could not be weak.
The king of Elbaph had to be one of the strongest people on the seas.
When Harald was young, he too had formed his own pirate crew and sailed the seas, raiding wherever he went.
At least until he met Ida.
“We’ll do it your way. I’ve got no objections.”
“Good!”
After reaching an agreement with Golden Lion Shiki, Thor summoned the young god of Skypiea, Gan Fall, along with the warriors of the Shandia tribe.
When the Giant warriors conquered the sky island, they had naturally encountered the Shandia warriors as well.
They were the surviving descendants of Shandora and had waged war against the sky islanders for generations, seeking to reclaim Jaya, their ancestral homeland.
But in the face of the overwhelming strength of the Giant warriors, who cared whether someone was a sky islander or a Shandia warrior?
Beat them all down first.
After convincing everyone with force, Thor summoned Gan Fall and the chief of the Shandia before him.
“From now on, this place is my territory.”
“You either obey my orders, or you can get the hell off the sky island.”
“I don’t care what grudges you had in the past. From today onward, you listen to me. Consider everything between you settled.”
“You only have one task from now on.”
“Build a new city on Jaya.”
Gan Fall and the Shandia chief exchanged glances before smiling bitterly.
They had fought a war for four hundred years, only to end up conquered by Giants.
Fate truly had a strange sense of humor.
But in the face of the Giant warriors’ overwhelming strength, neither the sky islanders nor the Shandia had any choice but to bow their heads and submit, regardless of whatever grievances they still held.
And so, Thor personally took charge of the development of the sky island.
Golden Lion Shiki had no objections whatsoever.
Because he possessed absolute confidence—and an irreplaceable trump card.
The sky islands occupied an extremely unusual geographical position.
Only Shiki’s Float-Float Fruit could effortlessly transport people between the White Sea and the Blue Sea.
Because his advantage was impossible to replace, Shiki had no reason to worry that Thor would betray him.
And in truth, that was exactly the case.
The Float-Float Fruit was far too useful.
Unless some absolute conflict of interests arose, Thor had no reason to fall out with Shiki.
So what if he called him “Big Brother Shiki” a few times?
Giants in the One Piece world lived for centuries.
A few decades from now, when all these legendary pirates had become old geezers, Thor would only just be entering the prime of his life, young and strong.
The Viking Pirates remained on the sky island for roughly another week.
The Giant warriors spent most of their time aboard the Naglfar, where Golden Lion Shiki used the Float-Float Fruit to maintain sea-level air pressure so they could breathe and move normally.
That made Thor realize something.
The sky islands weren’t actually suitable as his main territory.
The environment ten thousand meters above sea level affected Giant warriors far too severely.
What had originally seemed like a treasure suddenly became something of a burden.
The only thing here that truly retained overwhelming value was Shandora, the City of Gold.
One week later, after Thor finished arranging everything that needed to be done on the sky island, the Naglfar prepared to depart and return to the Blue Sea.
“Thor, do you have anything else you need to do after this?”
Golden Lion suddenly asked.
Thor thought for a moment before answering.
“I’m planning to visit Little Garden.”
Little Garden.
One of the islands in the first half of the Grand Line.
Dorry the Blue Ogre and Brogy the Red Ogre, captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates, had once been asked an innocent question by a little girl— which of them had hunted the larger prey?
The two immediately fell into a fierce argument.
And that argument eventually became a duel that lasted an entire century.
According to Elbaph tradition, disputes between warriors were settled through duels.
And so, over the course of one hundred years, the two of them fought 73,467 times.
Not a single match produced a winner.
Even though there were still forty-eight years before the present era, Dorry and Brogy had already been dueling on Little Garden for fifty-two years. This chapter was taken from novelping . com without permission.
Thor could only marvel at just how ridiculously long Giants lived.
“The Giants of Little Garden, huh?”
Shiki nodded.
He had heard the story of those two Giant warriors.
Supposedly, two Giants lived on Little Garden, and every time the volcano at the center of the island erupted, the two would begin another duel.
As for the original reason they were fighting?
Even they had forgotten.
Their pride as warriors alone compelled them to continue until one of them finally won.
“In that case, after I bring the Naglfar back down to the Blue Sea, we’ll meet up at the Sabaody Archipelago later.”
“Oh? Where are you going, Big Brother Shiki?”
From the sound of it, Golden Lion intended to leave the Naglfar and go off on his own.
“I’m going to take Birka into the New World.”
“I’ve realized the sky islands are perfect as my territory.”
After spending a week in the sky, Shiki had discovered that this place seemed almost tailor-made for him.
Unfortunately, Jaya was the largest sky island and also contained Shandora, the City of Gold.
There was no way Shiki could expose Jaya to Rocks.
So he set his sights on Birka instead.
Birka wasn’t exactly small.
It also possessed a considerable number of powerful aerial warriors.
Those warriors had been helpless against the Giants, but their ability to ride enormous seagulls into battle made them practically born to become members of the Flying Pirates.
Shiki had taken a liking to Birka.
He planned to first develop the island into his own territory.
At the same time, it would give him something to show Rocks.
He could secretly develop his real base while openly establishing a secondary one.
Two birds with one stone.
“Good!”
Thor nodded.
“Then we’ll meet at the Sabaody Archipelago.”
“Fine! Once I’m done with my business, I’ll wait for you there. Don’t make me wait too long, brat.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll join you soon.”
Now that Thor possessed the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he was essentially a supercharged nuclear power plant.
And that meant something aboard the Naglfar could finally be put to use.
When Thor had first built the gigantic ship back in Elbaph, he had already considered installing an alternative propulsion system.
Now— it was finally time for that system to show what it could do.