In the Calm Belt, on a volcanic island—
Ryuen sat calmly on the blazing lava, fully focused as he absorbed the scorching magma and the blazing energy of the Sacred Flame.
At that moment, an indescribable feeling of comfort spread through his body, like every cell was being baptized by this powerful force.
As the energy of the Sacred Flame kept pouring into him, it started blending and merging with the strong fire power already inside him.
What surprised him was that this fusion slowly began to change in quality.
This strange change caused Ryuen’s flame power to grow at an incredible rate.
He could clearly feel that if he fully absorbed the Sacred Flame’s power, he might really be able to make a "nuclear bomb" with just his hands.
Of course, this wasn’t a real nuke like in the modern world—he meant the fire energy in his hands would be strong enough to match that kind of explosion.
But even that much power might still fall short compared to a single blow from the legendary Celestial King.
That’s why Ryuen started thinking to himself: once he finished absorbing all the Sacred Flame, should he go find the Celestial King in Im’s hands?
After all, if he could find it—
With his now-evolved flame powers, he might actually be able to activate and control the Celestial King, the most mysterious of the three ancient weapons!
While Ryuen was fully focused on absorbing energy, far away in the Whole Cake Island sea area, the atmosphere had suddenly turned tense.
The Big Mom Pirates had just received a major piece of intel: after leaving Wano Country, the Red-Haired Pirates were heading straight toward Whole Cake Island!
"Elbaf... Wano... and now my Whole Cake Island—mommommommom~ I get it now. These places must all have a Poneglyph!" Big Mom finally understood what Shanks was after.
Back when Roger came to Whole Cake Island, he secretly made a copy of her Poneglyph, and now the path the Red-Haired Pirates were taking looked exactly the same!
She was now sure that these Poneglyphs were directly connected to the path to Laugh Tale.
Right now, she had one, Kaido had one, and Elbaf likely had one too. What she still didn’t know was how many total Poneglyphs there were—or how many were needed to reach Laugh Tale.
"Send the order—have Katakuri and the others return to Whole Cake Island immediately. This time, I’m taking that Poneglyph from Shanks no matter what!" Big Mom gave her command without hesitation.
"Mama!" As soon as the words left her mouth, the hall fell silent again.
Meanwhile, in the sky above the Calm Belt, Nami and Kuina were getting ready to leave.
Now that the Red-Haired Pirates were almost at Whole Cake Island, it was time for them to head to Whole Cake Island and get the Poneglyph from Big Mom.
"Nami, one more thing. When you’re done, go check out Wano Country. The ancient weapon Pluton should be there," Robin said to Nami just before they left.
Nami paused for a moment, then nodded. "Got it, Robin. Kuina and I will stop by Wano."
"Mhm~" Robin nodded slightly.
Back in Alabasta, she had planned to keep that information to herself. At the time, there was no need for the ancient weapons.
Later, she did think about telling the truth, but by then it wasn’t necessary anymore.
Now that they were preparing for war with the Celestial Dragons, she thought it through carefully and finally decided to share the info.
If they could get Pluton, then along with Poseidon—Shirahoshi—they’d have a much better chance when the final fight began.
As Kuina and Nami flew off on the Flame Cloud, the others went back to work on Sky Island. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝙣𝙚𝙩
Two ships were sailing toward Whole Cake Island from different parts of the sea. One held two of Big Mom’s Sweet Commanders—Katakuri and Smoothie. The other was the Red Force, flagship of the Red-Haired Pirates.
"Boss, why aren’t we going to Zou first? Right now, everyone’s focused on Whole Cake Island," Lucky Roux asked Shanks, confused.
Plus, weren’t they making a bit too much noise?
"We were planning to go to Zou after getting the Poneglyph in Wano," Shanks replied, "but after what happened there, a lot of people are probably tracking us. Going to Zou now wouldn’t be a good idea."
"What’s wrong with that? We’re just trying to collect the Poneglyphs either way, right? Zou’s should be easier to get too," Bonk Punch asked right away.
"It’s not the same," Beckman explained. "If we go to Zou now, we’d bring danger to them. But if we go to Whole Cake Island first, everyone’s attention will be on us, and no one will notice what’s happening in Zou."
"But doesn’t that mean we’ll still have to... wait a sec—Boss, you sent Luffy and the others to Zou to train, is it because of the Poneglyph there?" Lucky Roux suddenly caught on.
"Our cook’s actually gotten smarter. That’s right, I already told Kuro from their group—he’ll take care of it for us," Beckman said with a smile.
Lucky Roux didn’t mind the joke at all.
"But honestly, Luffy and the others have really weak Haki basics. Even though he’s learned Ryuo, they don’t know how to use the basics properly," Lime Jones said, shaking his head.
"Well, it can’t be helped. No one expected them to go up against Kaido this soon," Yasopp said with a bit of helplessness.
He had also met his son this time.
He was actually pretty satisfied with how Usopp had turned out. At least he inherited his Observation Haki, even if his foundation was still weak.
"Let’s hope they can learn a lot in Zou," Shanks murmured.
The sea was in chaos now, and they didn’t have much time left to wait for Luffy to grow stronger. This time, they had to put an end to it all.
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