The Ark Noah plummeted from the heavens.
The sky above Fish-Man Island seemed on the verge of collapse.
The shadow of death loomed over every heart—despair spreading like a flood.
And yet—
At the final moment, a light pierced the darkness.
In that abyss of hopelessness, a single radiance shone, illuminating the deep sea and the trembling hearts below.
Hope appeared.
When the sky itself seemed ready to crush Fish-Man Island—
A man stood tall, like a god descending to the mortal realm,
His colossal hands holding up the heavens above the island!
"Ohhh! Ohhhhhh!"
Gasps turned to cries, then to a deafening roar of awe.
Every citizen stared upward, stunned by the sight of the towering figure keeping the sky from falling.
"Look! Look—the heavens! A god! A god has appeared!"
"It's the god sent by the sea itself to save us!"
"He stopped the ark—he's holding back Noah!"
"Praise the gods! Long live the gods!"
Throughout the island, millions of merfolk fell to their knees, cheering, crying, and bowing toward the colossal figure above.
"No… that's not a god," said a trembling voice from Mermaid Bay.
Madame Shyarly, the fortune-teller of Mermaid Café, gazed upward in astonishment.
"That's Fairy Tail! It's the president of Fairy Tail!"
"The president—Sugisawa Yuuto! Princess Shirahoshi's fiancé!"
"It's a human! A human is the one saving Fish-Man Island!"
The realization rippled through the crowds.
The one they had rejected—the human they had cursed—was now the only one standing between them and annihilation.
"How… how could this be?" murmured a radical merman who had once protested the marriage. "A human… holding up our world?"
Without that man, Fish-Man Island would already have been wiped from the sea.
"The one holding the sky… is not just a god. He's our savior!"
"President Sugisawa Yuuto—our hero!"
"He's worthy of Princess Shirahoshi!"
Across the island, voices rose in a wave of reverence and gratitude.
"See? I told you—the president can handle anything!"
"As long as he's here, nothing can go wrong!"
"He accepted this commission—he'll finish it, no matter what!"
"Little Shirahoshi, you can stop crying now!"
On the deck of the Fairy Tail, the guild's girls all smiled proudly.
"That man… he truly looks like a god," murmured Prince Shark Star, awe-struck.
"This is the power of a king who rules the sea itself," whispered Jinbe, once again shaken to his core.
"Master Sugisawa Yuuto… my fiancé…"
Princess Shirahoshi's blue eyes glimmered with tears and admiration. For a girl her age, how could she not fall for the man who stopped the heavens?
"Now's not the time to daze off—we must act as well!"
King Neptune snapped to command.
"Shark Star, summon the Poseidon Army! The fate of Fish-Man Island shouldn't rest on President Yuuto's shoulders alone!"
"Yes, Father!"
In moments, the royal army was mobilized.
Led by Neptune himself, they rushed toward the island's outer boundaries.
Meanwhile, on the Ark Noah's deck—
The New Fishman Pirates, led by Vander Decken IX and Hody Jones, were completely dumbfounded.
Just seconds ago, they'd been fantasizing about destroying Fish-Man Island and ushering in their new age of dominance.
But now—
Their dream was the first thing shattered.
"W-What's going on?!" Hody shouted, his gills flaring in disbelief.
They couldn't see the bow from where they stood—only feel the impossible weight that had stopped the ark's descent.
"Vander Decken! What are you doing? Make it fall!" King Squid Carlos cursed from the railing.
"No! It's impossible! My Target Fruit's curse should be absolute!" Decken cried. "How could it stop? The island's bubble can't resist this weight! What's going on?!"
"Captain Hody—something's wrong!" croaked Daruma, eyes wide in terror.
"What is it?!" demanded Dosun, the hammerhead shark-man, stepping forward.
Daruma clutched the railing, staring down. "It's… it's a human! A giant human is holding up the ark!"
"Nani?!"
"What did you say?!"
"That's impossible!"
"This is Noah—Noah, half the size of the entire island! Even we fish-men can't move it—how could a mere human lift it?!"
The next second, the ark shuddered again.
"Haha! I knew it—it couldn't—wait, what the—"
"Noah's… rising?!"
The pirates froze. Their grins vanished.
The massive ark was no longer falling—it was ascending, slowly but surely.
"That's impossible! This defies gravity!"
"Unless… unless someone's actually pushing it up—!"
Before they could finish, the sea itself roared.
Sugisawa Yuuto's giant hand pierced through the island's bubble membrane, gripping Noah's hull from below.
With a single motion, he lifted the ark and hurled it back toward the deep sea—away from the island.
The ocean shook. A thunderous boom echoed through the abyss.
When the waves finally stilled, the New Fishman Pirates could see him—
The colossal titan standing upright beneath the sea, his eyes glowing like suns through the water.
They froze.
Then, as one, the same thought struck every pirate:
Run.
But before they could move, the glint of steel blocked their path.
King Neptune, clad in golden armor, stood tall at the head of the Poseidon Army.
"Finally found you, Vander Decken!" Prince Shark Star bellowed. "For hurting Shirahoshi, for making our sister suffer for years—you're unforgivable!"
"Wake up, Decken! You're not getting away this time!" said Prince Ryuu Star, his tone cold as the depths.
Hody Jones glared at Jinbe, who stepped forward. "Hody… have you truly fallen this far?"
"Don't lecture me, Jinbe!" Hody spat. "You and Neptune are both corrupted by that fool Otohime's ideals—'peace with humans,' huh? Those ideas got her killed!"
"Shut your mouth, Hody Jones!" Neptune roared. "You're not worthy to speak her name! Everything Otohime did was for the future of our people!"
"For our future?" Hody sneered. "She was a disease! If I'd known, I'd have killed her sooner—she was the cancer of Fish-Man Island!"
Jinbe's eyes widened. "What did you say?!"
Shark Star, Ryuu Star, and Rolling Star froze.
"Was it you?" Neptune demanded, voice trembling with fury. "Were you the one who killed Queen Otohime?!"
Hody threw back his head and laughed. "Hahahaha! Now that you know, what's the point in hiding it? That's right—I killed her eight years ago! And today, all of you will die too!"
With no way out, Hody and his men reached for their trump card.
King Squid tossed several sealed pouches to the lieutenants. Each tore theirs open, revealing small crimson pills—the E.S. Poison.
They swallowed without hesitation.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The water pulsed around them as their bodies swelled with unnatural strength. Their eyes turned blood-red.
"That's the E.S. drug!" cried the Right Minister. "The forbidden medicine of our ancestors!"
The pill granted terrifying power—multiplying strength severalfold—but devoured life itself in return. It was a poison only meant to be used in the final moments of Fish-Man Island's survival.
Years ago, it had been stolen from the royal vault.
"So it was you, Hody!" the minister shouted. "You even stole the cursed medicine! Do you know what you've done?!"
Hody only laughed, drunk on power. "What do you old fools know? If every soldier took this, we'd crush humanity in days! Today, Neptune—you all die! From now on, Fish-Man Island belongs to us—the New Fishman Pirates!"
His laughter echoed through the deep.
And above them, Sugisawa Yuuto—towering like a god—looked down on the chaos below, the ocean itself bending to his will.