Zesu of Birka was in a miserable state.
His white hooded robe was torn and stained, no longer bearing any trace of dignity. Seastone handcuffs locked his wrists, suppressing all strength and reducing him to a helpless prisoner.
A defeated god was no longer a god.
"Laffitte," Marshall D. Teach asked calmly, "does your ability work on someone like him?"
The former temple had become an open ruin. Its roof had collapsed during the Birkan god's final attack, crushed by the backlash of his own power. Compared to the sunken ground around it, the structure itself had survived relatively intact. The walls were built from Iron Cloud, a unique Skypiean material far sturdier than ordinary cloudstone.
After a brief cleanup, the Nightfall Pirates had taken over the temple completely.
By now, everyone in Birka understood what that meant.
The Nightfall Pirates were the new masters of the island.
The thunderous battle had been impossible to ignore. With pirates occupying the temple inside and out, the outcome was obvious. The people of Birka did not dare resist. Facing these brutal Blue Sea invaders, fear was their only response.
The remaining seven hundred Divine Guards had lost their backbone the moment their god fell. The pillar that supported their faith had collapsed.
Led by the High Priest, they surrendered without hesitation.
They all died anyway.
During the Nightfall Pirates' occupation of Birka, Teach ruled absolutely. These Divine Guards bore the mark of the temple, and Teach had no need for them. He only needed his own people.
The Nightfall Pirates did not take prisoners.
After the god's defeat, the Divine Guards were helpless. Their surrender was nothing more than a plea for survival.
There was no burden in killing them.
Kaguya personally carried it out.
Countless sharp bone spikes erupted from the ground, impaling the Divine Guards in an instant. None survived.
Enel witnessed it all.
Kaguya was three years younger than him, yet already an officer of the Nightfall Pirates. His ability slaughtered hundreds in a single moment, clean and merciless.
As for the High Priest, his end was no better. Pouf pierced his chest with a single sword strike. Though the man possessed Observation Haki, it meant nothing against the Nightfall Pirates. He barely lasted a moment.
Corpses piled across the temple grounds. The air was thick with fresh blood.
Some Birkan civilians dared to glance toward the temple. The moment they saw the bodies, they covered their mouths and lowered their heads, retreating indoors without another look.
Fear had taken root.
Facing Teach's question, Laffitte immediately understood his meaning.
Teach wanted to know whether hypnosis worked on someone as strong as Zesu.
Against ordinary people, Laffitte's ability was effortless. But he had never demonstrated it on a powerhouse like a former god.
Laffitte adjusted the brim of his hat and smiled.
"Of course, Captain."
"My hypnosis isn't that fragile."
His confidence was absolute.
Laffitte knew his task well. He needed to pry every secret from this fallen god.
Hypnosis was a rare and specialized discipline. How it worked, how it was trained, and how far it could go were things only Laffitte truly understood.
"Then I'll leave it to you," Teach said, nodding.
Hypnosis was something Laffitte had never abandoned. At its highest level, it was terrifying, effective even against powerful individuals.
After consuming his Devil Fruit, Laffitte's hypnosis had evolved further, reaching a completely new stage.
The rest of the crew watched with open curiosity.
It was Laffitte's stage now.
He walked slowly toward Zesu, who was bound to a chair, unable to move.
Laffitte partially drew his cane sword and licked his lips.
The slender blade pierced straight through Zesu's right foot.
"Ahhh!"
The scream echoed through the ruined temple. Blood poured down as pain ripped through Zesu's nerves, forcing his consciousness awake.
He gasped violently, his mind painfully clear.
Too clear.
Laffitte withdrew his blade.
It took Zesu a long moment to process reality.
He was captured. Defeated. Reduced to a prisoner.
His gaze instinctively fell on Redyat beside Teach.
Though the kick had been too fast to see clearly, aura did not lie. Zesu remembered that presence vividly.
Fear flickered in his eyes.
"Heh heh," Laffitte chuckled. "Since you're awake, take a good look at this."
He stepped directly into Zesu's line of sight.
Holding his cane horizontally in one hand, Laffitte produced a golden pocket watch with the other. With a flick of his finger, the chain slipped free, and the watch dangled gently.
It began to sway.
Back and forth.
Slowly.
The watch was not the hypnosis itself. It was bait.
Focus was required before the real process could begin.
Zesu's eyes locked onto it.
They stopped moving.
"Hmm?" Several crew members noticed something was wrong.
The watch had not even swayed three times.
And yet it had worked.
This was nothing like what they imagined hypnosis to be.
Teach, however, noticed something else.
A subtle power flowed from Laffitte's body into Zesu.
It was not energy in the conventional sense. Ordinary people would never sense it.
Teach did.
With his advanced Observation Haki, he detected ultrasonic vibrations, faint electrical waves interfering directly with Zesu's brain.
These waves alone would not have been enough.
Strong individuals instinctively resist foreign intrusion. Forced interference usually triggered backlash or violent rejection.
Something else was at work.
Teach's gaze dropped to Zesu's bleeding foot.
His intuition sharpened.
Pain.
Shock.
That injury had created a brief opening.
Teach turned his head toward Redyat.
Redyat met his gaze and nodded.
He had already seen it.
His eyes could peer into the heart and mind. Laffitte's method was now clear.
"Heh heh," Laffitte said softly. "The Nightfall Blood Bat."
"Besides ultrasonic interference, it produces a mental toxin."
"This toxin spreads instantly through the body. It doesn't harm the flesh, but it paralyzes the mind."
Fear. Emptiness. Numbness.
Once the mind was paralyzed, resistance vanished.
The door was wide open.
That was when Laffitte's hypnosis took hold.
Zesu was completely defenseless.
Even Laffitte had not expected it to succeed this quickly.
"Captain," Laffitte said proudly, "you can ask whatever you want now."
"How long will it last?" Teach asked.
"About a day," Laffitte replied. "He won't wake up."
After that, he would be useless.
Everyone understood what that meant.
Teach stepped forward.
"Tell me everything important you know."
His voice echoed in Zesu's mind like a bell.
Zesu raised his head slowly.
His thoughts moved sluggishly, bound by Laffitte's control.
"Tell me about the Ark Maxim," Teach added.
Zesu nodded faintly.
"This is the greatest secret of Birka. Passed down through generations of gods. A legend believed to be a dream."
"But it is real."
He paused, gathering his thoughts.
"Our ancestors came from the boundless land. The moon."
"There, we built an advanced civilization. The Ark Maxim was one of its creations."
"Some ancestors left the moon and came to this world. Some landed on the Red Line and perished. Others arrived in Skypiea."
"Over time, we forgot our origins."
Teach's eyes narrowed.
The moon.
Resource depletion. Collapse. Survival branches.
The ancient weapon Uranus.
It all fit.
"The Ark Maxim is enormous," Zesu continued. "Its systems are complete. But it cannot be powered by human strength."
"It requires an energy reactor."
"When fully charged, it can sail the sky for a year."
"But the reactor technology is incomplete."
"We cannot charge it."
"It lies dormant."
Teach felt his heartbeat quicken.
"Is the technology completely lost?" he asked.
"No," Zesu replied. "Only part of it."
Teach smiled.
That was enough.
With scientists, with time, with the right Devil Fruit…
The Ark Maxim would fly.
And the sky would no longer belong to gods alone.