Not long after Sakazuki's molten gold eagle took flight—
A thunderclap shattered the clear sky.
A brilliant bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens.
Chasing directly after Sakazuki.
A surge of electricity struck beside Sakazuki, who stood atop the molten golden eagle.
And transformed into Enel.
Only then did the booming thunder rumble from behind.
Enel sat cross-legged beside Sakazuki.
Raising both hands high, he stretched with a lazy yawn:
He lowered his arms, then looked over at Sakazuki.
"Hey, old man, what was so urgent that you had to call me here?"
"I signed you up for a remedial class."
Enel raised an eyebrow.
Sakazuki just smiled faintly and instead asked,
"What have you been studying and training lately?"
Enel leaned back, hands behind his head.
"Ah—same old, same old."
"Studying all kinds of knowledge while training body."
"Ever since Zephyr-sensei came to the academy, he's been super strict about physical training."
"Hahahahaha, that guy Borsalino always gets scolded."
"He's constantly being dragged out to spar with Zephyr-sensei."
Sakazuki frowned slightly upon hearing that.
"No training with your Devil Fruit?"
"Nope. Zephyr-sensei said it himself."
"Physical training and Haki are the foundation. We shouldn't rely too much on Devil Fruit powers."
"Even Grandpa Morris agreed."
"Is there a problem?"
Sakazuki nodded slightly.
"That statement is both correct... and incorrect."
Before awakening his own Devil Fruit, Sakazuki used to believe the same.
Enel perked up and sat upright.
"Physical training is the foundation of a person."
"Haki determines your floor."
"But the Devil Fruit power you possess..."
"That determines your ceiling."
Enel appeared thoughtful.
"Strong Devil Fruit abilities can easily reshape the world."
"Why was Byrnndi World called the World Destroyer?"
"Because of his Devil Fruit."
"He could effortlessly destroy islands and cause havoc at will."
"As for his physical power and Haki—he was mediocre at best."
"At the Battle of Skegli, Whitebeard's final strike before death..."
"The sea and sky turned upside down."
"That wasn't something physical power or Haki could achieve."
Enel recalled the earth-shattering imagery from that time.
That overwhelming sense of danger, as if the wrath of heaven and earth was descending.
It absolutely couldn't be replicated by physical power or Haki alone.
Then Sakazuki said something that left Enel utterly baffled:
"For eight hundred years, the World Government has never feared the countless Haki masters that emerge on the seas..."
"But rather a single... Devil Fruit."
Enel didn't fully understand, but it sure sounded impressive...
The four-winged molten gold eagle gradually descended.
The outline of the Karakuri Island below came into view. A powerful burst of Observation Haki swept through.
Instantly, Sakazuki found his target.
The crimson tail flames and thick smoke of the molten eagle slashed through the sky.
It flew toward the forest now surrounded by Marine soldiers.
Kingdom of Baldimore, outskirts of the sealed mechanical beast forest.
"What the hell is that?!"
"It's flying into the forest!!!"
"Something just fell from it!"
The Marines encircling the forest—
Stared at the massive figure blotting out the sun, hastily ducking away from the falling embers.
As the glowing fragments hit the ground—
The surrounding snow rapidly melted and began spreading outward.
Braver soldiers crept closer for a look.
Deep within the forest, at the Vegapunk Research Facility.
Everyone had mostly finished packing and now waited near a several-meter-tall iron gate.
As Vegapunk pressed a button—
The internal machinery of the facility began whirring and shifting.
A runway extending directly to the gate unfolded. From the rear, mechanical gears pushed forth—
A massive ship-like machine emerged slowly.
The enormous jet nozzle at the rear made clear: this was no ordinary ship.
As the massive machine was pushed to the iron gate—
"Prepare for launch."
Off to the side, Caesar Clown stared nervously at the huge nozzle on the back of the ship.
Looking uneasy, he muttered,
"Hey hey hey... this thing isn't going to kill us, right?"
Vegapunk snapped back,
"Then figure out your own way, idiot."
With that, he boarded the ship.
Caesar clenched his fists, glaring resentfully at Vegapunk's back—
Then followed aboard.
Once everyone had boarded—
Vegapunk instructed them to grip the nearest fixed handles.
Taking a deep breath, he pressed the power switch.
Then, he placed his hand on a massive red launch button.
The nozzle at the rear of the mechanical ship slowly glowed red, releasing heat—redder, and redder...
The giant metal gate began to open.
Everyone stared at the entrance, tense.
When the gate opened fully, it would be their cue to escape.
Vegapunk, hand poised on the launch button, also looked a little nervous.
Then, from beyond the half-open gate—
Sakazuki's calm voice rang out:
"I suggest you don't press that button."
A massive molten bird's head appeared at the gate—
Nearly filling everyone's field of vision.
Just from the portion they could see through the half-open gate, the creature's size was unimaginable.
Then the molten bird's head—
Let out a deep, ancient roar like some primeval beast.
It turned its head toward the ocean ahead.
As if signaling everyone to look in that direction.
Everyone aboard gulped and trembled.
Then, a blinding red beam shot toward the sea in the distance—
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!!!
A towering mushroom cloud rose from the distant sea.
It grew larger and larger...
Scorching shockwaves followed seconds later, sweeping through with ferocious force.
For the first time ever, the snowbound residents of Karakuri Island felt what heat really meant.
From inside the ship, the passengers could clearly see:
The frozen sea surface—once breakable only by custom-built icebreaker ships—was melting at high speed.
The vast snow-covered island began rapidly turning into flowing water, revealing the long-hidden black earth beneath.
Everyone onboard was completely dumbfounded.
These people, devoted to research, were facing for the first time—
What true power looked like.
After a long moment of stunned silence, Vegapunk slowly removed his hand from the launch button.
Everyone exchanged glances—speechless—and abandoned all thoughts of resistance.
Quietly waiting on the ship, many of them, for the first time in their lives, began to question their life's pursuits.
Could their research really ever reach such power?
Vegapunk, staring at the melting snow revealing black earth beneath, suddenly seemed to snap out of it.
He ran toward the gate and rushed outside.
Standing outside, he looked out over the island where he had grown up.
He gazed at the vast land now exposed and broke into a joyful smile.
Then he turned toward a distant mountain—
Where something he had once designed was slowly thawing.
A mechanical construct the size of half the island—
Once designed by Vegapunk to solve the island's heating problem: a massive furnace.
But due to budget and technical limitations, the project had been shelved—
Eventually buried in snow and ice.
Looking at the island now, rapidly shedding its frost, Vegapunk smiled in delight.
Then a massive shadow loomed overhead.
Only then did Vegapunk look up.
It was the enormous molten eagle.
Its head slowly lowered.
Atop it, Enel still stared blankly out at the distant sea.
That blast just now had served two purposes: a lesson for Enel, and a warning to the scientists.
Sakazuki descended from the eagle.
He looked at the young scientist and said—
"You are under arrest."
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