This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
The sheer, impossible absurdity of it all was why Rowen always felt the world of One Piece was teetering on a knife's edge.
The firing mechanism of Pluton was a violation of every known physical law. It wasn't merely powerful; it was fantastically, unscientifically insane. As someone who hadn't spent a life buried in engineering texts, he could only stare at the schematics and scratch his head: How could those relatively small cannonballs unleash a destructive force comparable to a modern nuclear arsenal?
Then there were the Sea Kings. They required no explanation. For every species of Sea King that swam the oceans, that was one more soldier in the boundless army under "her" command. Deployed correctly, a Sea King armada was the very definition of an invincible force.
And Uranus... it was essentially a bio-weapon, a terrifying viral plague capable of wiping out entire populations.
Any single one of these three weapons held the power to casually dismantle the world. Which brought them to the truly paralyzing implication: the Ancient Weapons were supposedly created by the Ancient Kingdom specifically to wage war against the entity known as the Mountain Ancestor.
What manner of horror, then, was this Mountain Ancestor?
The fact that even Im was willing to temporarily set aside her millennia-old prejudices and seek cooperation with the creature gave Rowen a chilling glimpse into its true nature.
And now, an issue even more immediate and deadly than the mere existence of these monsters had arrived. They were all either present or on the verge of making their presence known in the current era.
'Truly worth celebrating... how wonderful, how delightful…' Rowen thought, the sarcasm tasting like ash in his mouth. 'Yeah, right.'
Regardless, a contingency plan was already in motion. Rowen had discreetly tasked Dante and Fujitora with constructing a new aerial ark based on the current Ark Maxim blueprints. If the worst came to pass, they would initiate the Human Mass Migration Plan, a desperate attempt to preserve the final spark of civilization.
And the destination for this ark?
That unreliable, silent moon hanging above their heads.
The revelation left the entire office draped in a horrified silence.
"Until the very last grain of sand falls, we absolutely must not resort to that plan!"
Tsuru shot to her feet, her voice sharp with desperation. The sheer scope of the potential catastrophe made a cold sweat break out on her back. She instantly recovered, nodding her apology toward Rowen.
"It's quite alright, Vice-Admiral. I don't wish for that outcome either. That's why I called this meeting, does anyone have a viable alternative?"
The proverb goes, 'Three cobblers together are better than Zhuge Liang.' While Tsuru was certainly no mere cobbler, the combined minds in this room were undoubtedly more formidable than any historical strategist.
"Our core problem is locating the Sea King's position. If we can pinpoint her, we can minimize the necessary dose of Uranus… in fact, we might not even need to poison her at all, just force her out of the deep sea."
A pause hung in the air.
"At that point… perhaps I can be of use."
Aokiji, who had, as usual, been taking a discreet nap behind his sleep mask during the meeting, suddenly sat straight up and spoke.
"The Adrian Sea Trench isn't incredibly long, but it contains three mid-sized islands, each with over sixty thousand inhabitants. If we deploy Uranus across the entire area like a fishing net, they will all be killed as collateral."
"Hmph. Sentimentality." Akainu snorted, his eyes like glowing embers. "Compared to achieving peace for the entire world, what is the sacrifice of a few hundred thousand? They'd be hailed as heroes! We'll ensure their names are remembered!"
"They'd be made into heroes, Fleet Admiral. And I am certain those people do not wish to be heroes," Aokiji countered, his gaze unflinching. "Everyone has a right to live. Sacrificing one group for the peace of others, is that truly what we call Justice?"
"Yes, everyone has the right to live," Akainu sneered, leaning forward. "And everyone except those people also has that right. Tell you what, why don't we have Morgans announce it to the world right now, and let everyone with the 'right to live' vote on it? Let's see what the people want."
He emphasized the phrase "the right to live," dripping with venomous sarcasm.
The moment this proposition left his lips, everyone else in the room drew a sharp, collective breath.
Hiss…!
No one needed a vote on that! Human nature was fundamentally wired for survival and self-preservation. Even if some felt a twinge of guilt, how many would genuinely choose martyrdom when the Grim Reaper was knocking at their own door? The masses were inevitably mediocre; the self-sacrificing few, or the viciously wicked, were always a minority.
'Surely, you become like those you surround yourself with…'
'Akainu had actually picked up the art of playing mind games?'
The others cautiously glanced at Rowen.
Rowen frowned back. 'Why are you all looking at me? I didn't teach him that!'
Aokiji choked momentarily, feeling a familiar, barely restrained impulse to lash out.
"Cough, cough… we've strayed from the point," Tsuru interjected with a gentle cough, pulling the attention back to the table. "Kuzan, you said you had a way. What is it?"
Using the excuse to retreat from the verbal confrontation, Aokiji turned his head slightly so he didn't have to look at Akainu.
"If you throw a stone into the sea, what's more likely: that it gets crushed by the immense seawater pressure, or that it sinks all the way to the bottom?"
The odds of it sinking were obviously higher. Everyone understood the basic logic, but they still missed his meaning.
Glancing around the table, Aokiji simply shrugged. "My Ice Mass works the same way. It will also sink straight to the seabed."
"You intend to use a huge Ice Mass to stimulate an underwater volcanic eruption, no, that's impossible," Tsuru immediately hypothesized and then dismissed. At those immense depths, any explosion would be instantly dampened; magma forced out would cool and solidify barely a foot from the vent.
"You're right. That sort of eruption would only succeed in a lake or a shallow river," Aokiji nodded calmly. Then he continued, the crucial insight arriving like a bolt of ice:
"But what if there was only one possible escape route left for the magma?"
Seeing their continued confusion, he elaborated: "Three hundred years ago, geologists confirmed that all the volcanoes beneath the Adrian Sea Trench are active, connected by the same underlying magma layer. That's why eruptions used to be common, once, they continued non-stop for an entire year. But because the trench is so deep, conditions made thorough investigation difficult, and since nothing ever reached the surface, the research was abandoned."
"And now, that abandoned knowledge is precisely what we can exploit!"
"When all the volcanoes are active, if we were to seal off every vent but one… once all that concentrated pressure and magma rushes through the single open channel, the resulting power would be absolutely earth-shattering and heaven-alarming!"
"The Poseidon isn't Kaido. She isn't physically indestructible," Aokiji concluded, his voice certain. He had the scars to prove it. "Faced with such overwhelming natural force, if she doesn't wish to be annihilated, she will have no choice but to flee the seabed and avoid the impact."
His plan wasn't to melt the ice to create an eruption. It was to use colossal Ice Masses as plugs, forcing the magma layer to converge on a single exit and triggering an unprecedented, focused explosion. Large boulders were difficult to find, and metal plugs were harder still to forge, but Ice Mass? With Aokiji present, it was trivially easy.
Realizing the strategy, Rowen's expression became profoundly strange.
"So what do we call this? Reverse-exploding the fish pond?"
He'd seen people catch fish with nets, electrocute them, poison them, even use dynamite, but he had never once seen anyone attempt to roast a fish with a man-made volcanic eruption.
The world truly never ran out of novelty.
"It seems, Admiral Aokiji, that you have done quite a bit of homework."
Though beautiful in concept, the method was inherently full of operational hazards. The most immediate concern: How could they guarantee the eruption would be powerful enough to force the Sea King upward? Rowen trusted Aokiji wasn't speaking carelessly; he must have prepared for this.
"Lord Soryu (Azure Dragon) overpraises me. This is simply my duty." Aokiji offered a salute, then added the necessary requirements. "But I will require time. There are over forty known volcanic vents. It is paramount that we block them all simultaneously to generate the requisite pressure. Also… we may need some Dyna Stones to ensure the reaction is triggered."
"And how much time do you need?"
"Half a month."
"Then you have half a month," Rowen declared, his decision final. "But remember, Kuzan, you will have only one shot at this."
"Yes, sir! I guarantee the mission will be completed!"
Watching Rowen approve the plan, Tsuru finally exhaled a lungful of relief. Regardless of the difficulties ahead, at least they had a viable attempt that didn't involve the terrifying, uncontrollable consequences of a full-scale Uranus deployment. It was a terror even these hardened Marine commanders never wished to witness.
…
(End of this chapter)