"Shiki! We must obtain more of this blood! I feel that a bright future is within our grasp! If my hypothesis is correct, the new IQ serum could be applied to the human body. Shiki, your aging body might even regain some youth after taking the new IQ serum!"
Indigo, his face flushed, slapped Shiki's shoulder repeatedly as he exclaimed loudly.
Shiki was taken aback and asked in surprise, "Didn't Kittakimo bring back a whole ship full of strange fish yesterday?"
Indigo wore an awkward smile on his face and chuckled, "They're gone. I used them all up in experiments last night. Actually, I didn't use that much, because the blood had to be extracted and purified. And that bastard gorilla consumed sixty percent of the blood, along with a large stock of the latest IQ medicine."
Shiki nodded. "Oh, then I'll have Kittakimo make another trip later to bring back more strange fish."
Indigo quickly waved his hands.
"That's not what I meant, Shiki. Listen to me—this blood definitely doesn't belong to the strange fish themselves. If I'm not mistaken, this blood must come from some special creature. For some reason, after this creature was injured or died, its blood was consumed by the fish in that sea area, causing them to mutate. I even suspect that this might be the blood of the legendary walking sea kingdom, the giant elephant Zunesha!"
Only then did Shiki understand, slapping his forehead.
"You want us to go together and capture this prehistoric giant beast?"
Indigo nodded. "That's pretty much the idea."
"But what if you're wrong? It might just be the blood of those strange fish," Shiki added.
"Then there's nothing we can do but capture the strange fish from that sea area in large quantities. And I've discovered that not all the fish Kittakimo caught contain that special blood. Catching one or two shiploads is useless. We need a massive, truly enormous amount of blood to complete the final research!"
Indigo said fervently, "So this time, the entire Flying Pirates will mobilize. Either we capture the giant beast Zunesha, or we catch every single strange fish in that sea area that contains this blood!"
As they were speaking, the red-furred giant ape Scarerdo, howling at the moon, suddenly had its enormous eyes turn blood-red.
A violent aura surged from its body as if it had gone mad, roaring and charging at the two of them.
Indigo showed no intention of dodging, calmly watching the terrifying giant ape.
"Scarerdo, stop messing around! You're deafening me with your noise!"
"Lion's Might—Earth Roll!"
Shiki raised his hand toward the sky!
The ground in front of them instantly churned like waves, roaring like thunder.
Terrifying lion heads, dozens of meters tall, opened their mouths and let out deafening roars.
Composed entirely of churning earth and rocks, they exuded an overwhelming sense of pressure.
The poor red-furred giant ape, its massive hand just about to reach Shiki and Indigo, was instantly buried and submerged by endless earth and rocks.
Shiki clenched his right hand into a fist, and the roaring earthen lions transformed into thick streams of mud and stone, coiling and twisting around the giant ape, squeezing and binding it tightly before sealing it within the earth.
Then, with a heavy compression, it turned into a towering stone pillar that pierced the clouds.
Shiki's body gradually rose, floating into the sky.
He looked down with a complex expression at the vast land beneath his feet, gazing toward the blue sea in the distance.
That was the sea of the New World, the place where the Golden Lion had lived most of his life.
"Over ten years have passed, and I never thought I'd return to the New World again. Jihahaha, this will be the last time!"
Over the skies of Verwey, Shiki's laughter echoed through heaven and earth.
"Why is Captain Shiki so happy?"
On the floating giant sky island, pirates of considerable age emerged from their dwellings, looking up at the golden-haired man floating in the sky.
The pirates appeared dazed as they listened to that man's arrogant and domineering laughter.
At this moment, it was as if time had reversed, returning to several decades ago.
Back then, they too had followed such an arrogant and domineering Shiki, recklessly charging through various seas without restraint!
How powerful, how insolent had their Flying Pirates been back in those days?
It could be said that since the dissolution of the Rocks Pirates, they were the pirate crew with the most formidable influence in the New World.
Even the Whitebeard Pirates and the Roger Pirates couldn't compare to the Flying Pirates in terms of influence, numbers, and prestige!
They could freely enter any sea, disregarding ocean currents or depths of ten thousand meters.
When displeased, Shiki would even lead them to hover over the Holy Land Mary Geoise, just to annoy the World Government.
"Golden Lion..." a white-bearded pirate suddenly murmured in a daze.
"Golden Lion!"
A pirate shouted hoarsely, his voice aged and raspy.
"Golden Lion!!"
One voice after another rose, converging into waves of sound that seemed to respond to Shiki's heaven-shaking laughter.
"Jeehahaha! Men of the Flying Pirates! Follow me, Golden Lion Shiki, back to the New World!"
Shiki spread his arms wide as if embracing the entire world.
"Woooh!! Back to the New World!"
On the floating islands, all the pirates instantly burst into tears, cheering and leaping with joy.
Some veteran pirates embraced each other, tears streaming down their aged faces as they wept and laughed simultaneously.
"All sky islands, rise!"
With Shiki's roar, the islands suspended ten thousand meters high, which had been floating for over twenty years, began to tremble and slowly descend!
More than a dozen massive islands that blotted out the sky uniformly descended toward the seas of the New World!
Their terrifying volume blocked the sunlight, casting shadows stretching hundreds of miles across the New World's ocean.
In an instant, a vast area spanning hundreds of miles, including Wano Country, was plunged into darkness.
.....
Wano Country, Udon.
Ulti and the others, who were searching for Kuma's whereabouts in the ruins, suddenly changed expressions and looked up at the sky in unison.
"What's going on? Why did the sky suddenly turn completely dark?" Page One asked in confusion.
Ulti frowned, gazing at the distant sky but could see nothing except a dark, lightless curtain.
However, Kiku shook her head and said, "This sea around Wano Country is sometimes like this. For some unknown reason, it occasionally falls into darkness like this. Didn't you already know about this? There's nothing to be surprised about."
Black Maria sighed, "It's mainly because of the terrible things we've experienced these past couple of days that we've become more sensitive. Now encountering this bizarre darkness, it's hard not to let our imaginations run wild."
But soon, the expressions of all four began to change!
"What... what is that?"
Page One pointed toward the depths of the dark sky, where massive black shadows, like thick ink, were slowly emerging!
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