Lucian Thorn heard Marco's trembling question, but he didn't answer it directly.
He only asked:
"How does it feel?"
"Feels like..."
Marco lowered his head, slowly sensing the new power flowing through his body.
It took him a long time to squeeze out a few words.
"Feels like I could solo an Admiral."
And he wasn't exaggerating.
The power within him had changed completely.
It was no longer the blue flame that could only heal.
The old blue fire had only been useful for regeneration.
But this new golden fire—not only could it heal—it now held devastating destructive force.
"Hahaha. Solo an Admiral? Come on, set your sights higher."
Lucian laughed.
That laugh had the tone of someone quite satisfied with their own masterpiece.
He raised a hand and pointed toward the distant horizon.
There, rising alone, was a massive volcano.
A dead volcano—its black rock surface barren and steep, over a thousand meters tall. So sheer, nothing could grow on it.
It stood there—silent, lifeless.
"You see that mountain?"
Lucian's tone was calm.
"Use the strongest attack you can think of... and destroy it."
Marco followed his finger, and the corner of his eye twitched hard.
He had already noticed that mountain long ago.
Back in the day, even if he gave it everything he had, the best he could manage was scratching the surface or blowing off a piece of the cliffside.
Destroy the entire thing?
Not a chance.
But now...
Lucian was seriously telling him to go destroy it?
A surge of uncontrollable excitement exploded from inside Marco!
Yeah!
What am I hesitating for?!
Just how strong is this power I've just awakened?
Only one way to find out!
"Yes, Lucian!"
No hesitation.
The usual laziness in Marco's eyes vanished. Replaced by razor-sharp focus and determination!
He leapt back with a burst of air.
And in midair—BOOM—his body erupted in golden light!
"Screeeech—!!"
A cry like a divine phoenix tore through the heavens!
The sound was piercing, regal, sacred—like something pulled straight out of myth, filled with the authority of divine judgment!
From the golden light emerged a majestic Golden Phoenix, more godlike than ever before.
Bigger. Brighter. Mightier.
Each feather looked like flowing molten gold, with sacred radiance coursing along their surfaces.
When he flapped his wings—it didn't stir wind.
It stirred heat waves so intense they distorted light.
The Golden Phoenix circled once in the sky. Its gaze locked on the thousand-meter-tall mountain in the distance.
This time—he didn't even consider using his claws.
He opened his golden beak wide.
Humm——
A single point.
A tiny dot of golden light, brighter than diamonds, appeared in his mouth.
And then—every speck of light from the sky and earth rushed toward that point.
The dot grew—into a golden fireball!
It floated there, eerily still, radiating no heat—yet the space around it shook, collapsed inward, as if reality itself was about to break.
Even Lucian, standing nearby, nodded in approval.
Not bad.
That bit of Divine Flame essence wasn't wasted.
This power… has begun to touch divinity.
"Let it go," Lucian said softly.
The Golden Phoenix's burning eyes locked onto the target.
"Screeeech—!!"
Another sky-splitting cry!
The golden fireball in his mouth didn't explode.
Instead—it transformed.
Into a thick, radiant golden beam of flame!
A divine spear cast down by the heavens!
BOOOOM!!!
The beam shot out.
There was no deafening explosion.
Only the terrifying sound of air being instantly erased.
Where the beam passed, the land split open—a trench carved so deep it was impossible to see the bottom, with walls smooth like glass!
That golden divine punishment moved faster than the eye could track—crossing kilometers in a blink—
And struck the mountain.
Dead center.
Time seemed to slow.
On the Moby Dick, every crewmember froze in shock, staring at that golden pillar in the distance.
"Wh-what the hell is that?! Did the sun fall out of the sky?!"
"It's Commander Marco! My god! This power… this power!!"
Whitebeard stood at the bow of the ship, his now-sharp eyes locked onto that beam. Wrinkles lined his face, but in that moment, he smiled like a madman.
"Gurararara…!!!"
"Yes! YES! My son!!!"
"That's what it means to be the First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates!!!"
Back on the island—
There was no sound.
The explosion everyone expected—never came.
No rumbling.
No debris.
Only one thing—
Evaporation.
The moment the golden beam touched the mountain, that thousand-meter tall monstrosity—formed from the hardest volcanic rock—just…
vanished.
Like a block of ice tossed into the sun.
Yes.
Ice.
It didn't even resist.
The moment the beam touched it, a hole appeared—out of nowhere.
And then, without warning, the hole expanded rapidly!
Rock, soil, everything within the mountain…
That massive thing—countless millions of tons in weight—disappeared before Marco's stunned eyes.
Gone without a trace.
As if it had never existed.
The golden beam dissipated.
And in its place—
Was a crater.
Over a kilometer wide.
So deep it was impossible to see the bottom.
Its inner walls were mirror-smooth, reflecting a blinding light under the sun.
That wasn't rock.
That wasn't earth.
That was a thick layer of glass, formed by the instantaneous incineration from extreme heat.
A vast, smooth, still-smoldering glassy pit.
Marco's massive phoenix form froze in midair.
Those once-mighty golden eyes—now full of blank disbelief.
Slowly, he lowered his head.
And looked—
At that enormous, bowl-sized crater.
Then at where the mountain used to be.
Nothing. Empty.
"I…"
"I did that?"
His mind blanked.
In the next second, the golden flames withdrew into his body. He returned to his pineapple-headed human form—
And his legs gave out.
He nearly dropped from the sky.
He staggered to the ground, wobbling, then collapsed onto the scorching rock.
Eyes unfocused. Mouth ajar.
"No way…"
"It's gotta be a hallucination…"
"Did I just... erase a mountain?"
He reached down and pinched his thigh—hard.
"Ow—!"
Not a dream.
It was all real.
He really just wiped a mountain off the face of the world.
He was still reeling, questioning reality, when a voice spoke beside him—calm and smiling.
Lucian had walked over at some point and patted him on the shoulder.
"So, how does it feel… Envoy of the Sun God?"
Marco's head snapped up.
And when he saw Lucian's calm face, the shock in his eyes exceeded even what he'd felt seeing the mountain vanish.
"I…"
He opened his mouth. His throat was dry.
A thousand words clogged in his chest.
But in the end, only two came out.
Simple.
Heavy.
"Thank you."
Lucian just smiled and shook his head.
He helped him up.
Looking into Marco's eyes—now burning once again with golden fire—he said:
"Don't thank me. This is what you deserved. It was your will that seized the moment."
"From today onward, remember this—"
"Your flame is called Inextinguishable Divine Flame."
"It can heal all things. Let life be reborn from ashes."
"But it can also purge all evil. Burn every stain clean under divine light."
"You are no longer just the Phoenix of the Whitebeard Pirates."
Lucian smiled—a bit mysteriously.
"You are now…"
"The Sun God's Envoy."