More than half a month has passed since the battle that shook the heavens. Upper Yard, the land once feared as the forbidden "God's Island," is now radiating a vitality it hasn't seen in four hundred years.
"One, two, lift!"
Accompanied by rhythmic chanting, an ancient giant tree, thick enough to require ten men to encircle it, was uprooted. Incredibly, the ones carrying the left side were shirtless Shandia Warriors covered in totems, while those on the right were residents of Angel Island wearing guard uniforms and sporting small white wings.
These two groups, who for four centuries would have tried to tear each other apart on sight, were now working in perfect harmony to clear the ruins.
"Berserker" Wyper sat on a tree stump, his right arm wrapped in thick bandages. He took a swig from his canteen and watched the scene, a flicker of complex emotion passing through his eyes. There was no more oppression from "Gods," and no more frantic slaughter over the Vearth.
That man named Ace had used a single overwhelming display of violence and a series of undeniable commands to forcibly end four hundred years of bloody history.
Wyper looked up. Atop the tallest peak of Giant Jack, a massive pirate flag emblazoned with golden wings and an Eclipse fire ring flapped loudly in the high-altitude wind.
"As long as that flag is flying, no one on this island will dare harbor a second thought," Gan Fall said, leading his mount Pierre to Wyper's side. The old man's face was full of relief.
"Yeah," Wyper grunted, his voice tinged with awe. "Those guys are all monsters in human skin. Yesterday, I saw their chef, Leona, chase three giant sky-wolves through half the forest just to find the right seasoning."
Mentioning the daily life of the Eclipse Pirates, both former leaders of Skypiea's old era gulped in unison.
The Underground Grotto: The Shipyard
Just then, a burst of extremely irritable cursing echoed from the depths of the earth.
"You idiot with the long earlobes! I told you to output a stable thirty volts of DC power! Why the hell did your hand shake?! You've charred an out-of-print ancient gear!"
Inside the shipyard, Jeno, wearing heavy heat-resistant goggles and wielding a massive hydraulic wrench, was fuming at the man in front of him.
The once high-and-mighty God of Thunder—Enel—was currently wearing a dirty, ill-fitting industrial tank top, standing under the frame of the unfinished Ark Maxim with a dark expression. Although he wasn't wearing Sea Prism Stone, he felt more stifled here than if he were.
"A mere wild monkey from the Blue Sea dares to shout at God..." Enel gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. The violent lightning at his fingertips, usually enough to level a city, was currently compressed into an arc thinner than a hair, precisely welding a motherboard with millimeter accuracy.
"Shut up! In my shop, I am the only rule!" Jeno struck an iron pillar next to Enel with his wrench, sending sparks flying. "You can't even control fine output! This Logia fruit is a waste on you! Re-weld it! If it's off by another millimeter, I'm cutting off your meals tonight!"
"You!" Enel nearly spat blood. He instinctively wanted to summon a lightning dragon to blast this hunk of iron into dust.
But out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sabo leaning against the rock wall, eyes closed. That blonde young man seemed to be resting, but Enel's Mantra sensed that the terrifying power within Sabo—the flames and high-level Haki—was firmly locked onto him.
"Once I reach the Infinite Land, the first thing I'll do is turn all you Blue Sea people into grilled meat!" Enel cursed internally, but his body remained obedient. He gathered the tiny arc of lightning again, acting as a "fully automatic humanoid welding machine."
Enel hadn't noticed, but under Jeno's "torture," his fine control over the Goro Goro no Mi was climbing at a terrifying speed. He was learning to use lightning not just for destruction, but for surgical precision.
Outside the Grotto
Ace stood on a thick tree trunk, taking in the scene. Listening to Jeno's roars and Enel's suppressed breathing, he let out a steady, amused chuckle.
This was the kind of "recuperation" a pirate crew needed. Enel was a piece of rough jade; under the polishing of a mechanical madman like Jeno, he would eventually shed his flamboyant "divine" layer and become a truly lethal blade.
Ace retracted his Observation Haki and leaped from the tree.
BOOM!
A nearby thicket exploded. A mutant Skypiea boar the size of a small hill lay on the ground, limbs twitching violently.
"Done! Today's third high-calorie ingredient!" Leona strode out from the brush, carrying two blood-dripping cleavers. Her leather apron was covered in mud and gore, but her wild face was full of excitement. Several Shandia warriors followed her, looking at the female chef with pure admiration.
"Captain!" Leona performed a beautiful knife flourish and sheathed her blades. "The ecology here is incredible! The thin oxygen makes the beasts' physical stamina violent, and the fat distribution in their muscle is perfectly even!"
She pointed at the giant boar. "I found a specialty called a 'flame shell.' If I use it to control the heat with the local spices, I can improve this pork by another three levels!"
"I'll leave it to you, Chef," Ace nodded.
For the past half month, he had undergone rigorous Haki-weighted training, and his demand for calories was a bottomless pit. In the world of the Pirate King, nutrition was the ultimate medicine.
"By the way, where are Carina and Buggy?" Ace asked.
"The money-grubbing cat is at the top of the Shrine of God doing 'frequency band grooming,'" Leona laughed. "As for Red Nose, he's probably still being chased by Sky Sharks over by the Cloud River."
The comical image of Buggy's split body fleeing in the sea of clouds while screaming immediately flashed in Ace's mind.
He took a deep breath of the crisp air. There were still more than two months left. In this secluded base above the clouds, every member of the Eclipse Pirates was greedily absorbing the nutrients they needed to become monsters.
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