Crocodile's roar echoed over the little boat, startling a few passing seagulls into the air.
Kael looked at him, at that expression like his entire worldview had just been smashed to pieces and rebuilt, and merely dug a finger in his ear. Then he yawned lazily.
"Yeah. That's right."
He admitted it as if he were confirming the weather.
"…"
A meaningless rattling sound came from Crocodile's throat. His brain felt like it had completely crashed.
Donquixote Doflamingo… was also this salted fish's subordinate?
One Doflamingo. One him. The world's greatest swordsman, Dracule Mihawk. Gecko Moria…
In Crocodile's mind, the outline of a subterranean empire so vast it suffocated began to take shape.
And the emperor of that empire was currently stretched out in front of him, complaining the orange juice wasn't cold enough, muttering about kidnapping Navy candidate admiral Kuzan and forcing him to work as an ice machine.
Absurd.
It was too absurd.
Crocodile silently picked up the cigar that had fallen, lit it again, and took a long drag.
Through the curling smoke, that perpetually gloomy face of his finally showed a hint of resigned calm.
Fine.
Following a monster like this… didn't seem so bad.
…
Meanwhile, on Skypiea.
"Shishishishishi… so this is Skypiea? What a fascinating place."
Gecko Moria stood on the soft Island Cloud, curious as he stomped experimentally. His massive body sank in, then bounced back up, and he let out his signature eerie laugh.
Beside him, Gild Tesoro looked utterly stunned.
He lifted his head toward the boundless sea of clouds, breathed in air that felt completely different from the Blue Sea, and a light he couldn't suppress flickered in his eyes.
Gold. Wealth.
He'd seen more of that than most people could dream of.
But scenery like this, straight out of myth, he was seeing with his own eyes for the first time.
So this was the kind of world Lord Kael lived in?
Even a legendary place like this could be reached as easily as taking a stroll.
"This way, please."
An old man in armor descended from the sky riding a winged horse. It was Skypiea's "God," Gan Fall.
He studied Moria and Tesoro with a mixture of curiosity and caution. But when he learned they served Kael, his attitude warmed noticeably.
"So you are Lord Kael's men. My apologies for any discourtesy."
In Gan Fall's mind surfaced a memory from decades ago, the young man who had come to Skypiea with the Roger Pirates, black hair, golden eyes, laughing like the world belonged to him.
"How is Lord Kael these days? Back then, he helped us more than once."
"He's doing great," Moria answered casually. "Every day he just sunbathes and drinks juice."
Gan Fall blinked, as if he hadn't expected that to be the current state of the boy from those days.
Maybe that was good.
A quiet retirement, enjoying life, far away from the killing and chaos of the Blue Sea.
Poor Gan Fall didn't know that the "retired, unemployed middle aged pirate" in his imagination had just captured Sir Crocodile in the desert and added him to his collection.
He guided the two into the Shrine, served them Skypiea's local drink.
After a round of pleasantries, Gan Fall's expression turned heavy.
"To be honest, the Upper Yard is facing a terrible crisis."
He explained how, over these past few years, a man calling himself "God," Enel, had arrived with his priests, constantly invading the Upper Yard, seeking to seize the throne.
Moria listened with little interest. Another self-proclaimed god. Boring.
Tesoro listened intently, catching the key detail at once.
"So this Enel has lightning powers, and he can hear the entire Skypiea?"
"Yes." Gan Fall nodded, worry written across his face. "His Mantra keeps expanding. Nothing we do can escape him. And his lightning… it's like divine punishment. We can't resist it."
After leaving the Shrine, Moria and Tesoro walked along the Cloud Road.
"Tesoro, what's your plan?" Moria asked. He didn't like thinking, but he knew the key to this job was the glittering man beside him.
"Senior Moria, the situation differs a bit from the intel Lord Kael provided." Tesoro's eyes were bright, his expression sharp.
"That Enel doesn't seem as unbeatable as Lord Kael described. His Mantra's range is wide, but its precision appears limited. His lightning is powerful, but it's nowhere near the level of freely reshaping itself and moving at the speed of light."
"So he's half baked?" Moria's interest sparked.
"You could put it that way." Tesoro's mouth curled slightly. "And that means opportunity."
"An opportunity… to maximize our profits."
Under Tesoro's scheme, neither of them moved immediately.
They used Moria's shadow duplicates to gather more detailed information across Skypiea, while secretly observing Enel and his priests.
They even used certain methods to "help" Enel, accelerating his conquest of the Upper Yard.
Gan Fall: Who was it? Who brought the devils into my village?!
For example, Moria's shadow quietly sabotaged traps Gan Fall's men had prepared.
And Tesoro used a small amount of gold to bribe one of Enel's greedy priests, obtaining the next attack plan.
Soon, with the two of them "nudging" events forward, the Upper Yard's situation deteriorated rapidly.
Enel's priest corps advanced like a blade through paper. Gan Fall's forces retreated again and again.
Just as the Upper Yard was about to fall completely and despair gripped everyone…
Moria and Tesoro finally made their move.
Moria didn't even step forward. His shadow split into countless bats, and in an instant, hundreds of Enel's divine soldiers collapsed.
Tesoro raised a hand and forged an unbreakable wall of gold, halting the priests' storm of attacks.
The monstrous strength they displayed gave Gan Fall and all Skypiea's people hope.
That night, Gan Fall came to them again, his attitude as respectful as it could be.
"Please. I beg you. Help us drive Enel away."
Tesoro sighed as if it pained him. "Lord Gan Fall, it's not that we refuse. It's just that we came on Lord Kael's orders to observe Skypiea's customs and landscapes. If we clash with the 'God' of this land, it may delay Lord Kael's proper business…"
He "accidentally" linked the words "orders" and "clash" in the same breath.
Gan Fall was no fool. He heard the meaning instantly.
We need to pay more.
Struggle flashed in his eyes, but the resolve to protect his home won out.
"You two!" He bowed deeply. "If you can drive Enel away and protect the Upper Yard, then the legendary City of Gold, Shandora, all of its gold, we are willing to offer it!"
At an angle Gan Fall couldn't see, Tesoro's lips curved into a satisfied, perfectly planned smile.
…
The next day.
The sky was spotless blue, cloud sea rolling.
A colossal ark, so huge it blotted out the light, drifted in and finally hovered above the Upper Yard, casting a massive shadow.
Enel stood at the prow, his earlobes hanging long, arrogance on full display.
He looked down on the Skypiea people waiting with weapons in hand, and his disdain was naked.
"Yahahaha! False god Gan Fall, today is your end! Hand over the throne, and kneel at this god's feet!"
But the panic he expected never appeared on Gan Fall's face.
The crowd parted, and two figures stepped forward.
One was abnormally tall, pallid and strange, like a demon given flesh.
The other wore a tailored suit, golden adornments flashing sharply beneath the sun.
Enel paused, then sneered with that familiar expression.
"Oh? Too scared to come out yourself, false god? So you sent two clowns from the Blue Sea to die?"
He lazily raised a finger and pointed at Moria and Tesoro from afar.
"You two. Kneel and accept the blessing of God. Then I might consider letting you die a little quicker."
The veins at Moria's temple bulged one after another.
"Shishishishi…" he laughed, anger forced down into the sound. "It's been a long time since I've seen a brat this cocky. If Kael wanted you dead, I'd stuff you into my shadow box right now."
Enel's haughty, life-is-dirt posture also stirred something visceral in Tesoro.
That look, that entitlement, that casual arrogance of deciding other people's fates…
It was carved from the same mold as those disgusting Celestial Dragons.
Tesoro slowly lifted a hand, voice turning icy.
"God?"
"Who do you think you are?"
Boom!
The instant the last word left his mouth, above the sky, within the clouds, an endless golden flood surged forth.
Liquid gold gathered into a monstrous wave that swallowed even the sun's light, crashing down toward Enel's ark with unstoppable force.
Standing before that golden deluge, feeling the Goru Goru no Mi resonate with an ocean of gold and pour power into his veins, Tesoro's pride and exhilaration erupted.
He spread his arms and laughed so loud it shook the heavens.
"Me, Tesoro… I've never fought such a well funded battle in my life!"