"You don't just smash down the front door of a military citadel," Cael said, staring at Luffy like the straw-hatted captain had grown a second head. "He has two hundred heavily armed guards, mounted ballistas, and reinforced ironwood gates ten feet thick!"
Zoro chuckled softly, resting his palm on the pommel of his katana as he fell into step behind Luffy. "Save your breath, Goldsmith. The idiot doesn't know what the word 'strategy' means."
"It's simple," Sanji added, taking a slow drag from his cigarette as he exhaled a plume of gray smoke into the sea breeze. "Luffy punches the big guy, Zoro slashes the door, and I clean up the trash so we can get back to the Merry before the citrus spoils."
Before Cael could process the crew's horrifying lack of tactical planning, a sharp voice echoed down the alleyway.
Nami burst into the ruined square, clutching a half-drawn map of the island. The moment the word "fortress" hit her ears, her eyes practically turned into shiny Berry symbols.
"Did I hear citadel vaults?!" Nami demanded, charging forward and grabbing Cael by his loose turquoise collar. "How much gold does this governor have stored up there?! Millions?! Billions?!"
"N-Nami, let the man breathe!" Chopper squeaked, trotting up behind her alongside Usopp, who was already trembling at the sight of the ominous fortress looming on the cliff face above.
"Technically, the total extracted wealth is classified," Cael wheezed, gently disentangling himself from Nami's terrifying grip and adjusting his rose-tinted sunglasses. "...But yes. It's an absurd amount."
"WE ARE GOING TO THE CITADEL!" Nami declared, pointing heroically up the mountain path.
Cael shook his head with a faint, incredulous smile. These people are completely out of their minds.
Ten minutes later, the group reached the base of the winding mountain road. High above on the citadel ramparts, heavy iron ballistas rattled into position as Vane's elite guard spotted the intruders.
"FIRE!" a commander barked from the walls.
A storm of giant iron-tipped bolts rained down on the path. Cael moved instinctively, stepping ahead of the crew and slamming both palms against the dusty earth. Golden veins shot across the stone like liquid lightning, erupting into a massive dome of Hardened Gold that absorbed the heavy barrage with a series of deafening metallic CLANGS.
"Whoa! Nice wall!" Luffy yelled, bouncing on his heels.
"Don't get comfortable!" Cael called out over the ringing metal, sweat glistening on his forehead. "Altering density this rapidly takes concentration—"
"Cael! Make me a spring! A BIG GOLDEN SPRING!" Luffy interrupted, crouching down with a wild, hungry grin.
Cael blinked. "A... spring?"
"DO IT!"
Cael gritted his teeth and focused his mind, rapidly shifting the molecular composition of the metal beneath Luffy's sandals into Elastic Gold.
A giant, coiled metallic mechanism surged upward out of the ground. Luffy planted his feet, stretched his arms back as far as they would go, and launched himself straight up into the sky toward the ramparts.
"GOMU GOMU NO... ROCKET!"
The reinforced ironwood gate exploded inward with a violent crash of splinters and screaming guards.
Zoro and Sanji casually strolled through the burning entry gap right behind the blast, leaving Cael standing in the middle of the ruined courtyard, staring up at the golden coil still vibrating softly in the wind.
"Unbelievable," Cael muttered, a low, genuine laugh escaping his lips as he recalled the gold back into three neat bangles around his wrist. "They really aren't normal..."
Smoke drifted through the courtyard as the Straw Hats pushed deeper into the citadel, leaving a trail of unconscious guards in their wake. At the top of a grand marble staircase stood Governor Vane, a rotund, gaudy man covered in velvet robes and dripping with stolen rings. His face twisted in fury as his eyes locked onto Cael.
"Cael!" Vane bellowed, his voice echoing off the carved stone walls. "You dare bring filth onto my grounds?! Guards! Break his legs if you must, but bring me the Goldsmith! He will turn this entire mountain into gold for me!"
Cael walked through the splintered archway, his loose tropical shirt swaying in the draft of the burning gate. He tapped the gold pendant hanging against his chest, letting a ribbon of liquid metal flow down his arm into his palm. "You still don't get it, Vane," Cael said softly, his pinkish-violet eyes glinting behind his dark brows. "You think having a mountain of gold makes you important. But all you've built here is a pile of dirt and broken lives."
A squad of heavy-armored enforcers charged down the stairs with massive iron shields. Cael didn't flinch. He snapped his wrist, reshaping the stream of metal into a fast-moving Golden Serpent. The metallic creature zipped across the polished floorboards, coiling tightly around the guards' ankles and sweeping them off their feet with a resonant metallic CLACK.
"Not bad, Goldsmith," Zoro grunted, whipping Wado Ichimonji through the air to parry a stray spear strike before sending three more guards tumbling over the banister.
"Leave the balcony snipers to me!" Sanji shouted, launching himself skyward. A blazing kick shattered a stone platform, sending Vane's elite riflemen scattering into the courtyard below.
Desperate, Vane scrambled toward a heavy brass cannon mounted at the center of the terrace. "Shoot them! Erase the whole room!" he shrieked, aiming the massive barrel down at Luffy and Cael.
Before the fuse could ignite, Cael slammed his palm against the floorboards.
The golden ornaments, chandelier chains, and gilded trim throughout the hall peeled away from the walls, flowing together like a golden river. Cael altered its molecular structure on the fly, transforming the mass into a dense block of Hardened Gold that sealed the cannon's muzzle shut.
BOOM!
The trapped blast backfired violently, blowing the cannon off its carriage and throwing Vane flat onto his back, his expensive robes covered in soot.
Luffy grinned, stretching his arms far up into the ceiling rafters. "Hey, Gold Guy! Pin him down!"
Cael flicked his wrist, sending two thin cables of Flexible Gold to lash around Vane's wrists, pinning the screeching tyrant firmly against the far wall. "All yours."
"GOMU GOMU NO... BAZOOKA!"
Luffy's palms struck Vane squarely in the chest, sending the tyrant crashing through the citadel's stained-glass window, sailing far out over the cliff face, and splashing helplessly into the distant sea below.