Teach had already locked onto the Ark Maxim's location. With every passing moment, the closer he drew, the clearer his perception became.
At last, the Ark Maxim revealed itself in full.
Everyone froze.
A collective gasp rippled through the group.
In their imagination, the Ark Maxim had been a large sky vessel, perhaps impressive, perhaps imposing. None of them had expected this.
It was a true behemoth.
The Ark stretched for nearly a thousand meters from bow to stern. Even from their current vantage point, its height was estimated at over two hundred meters. Standing before it, one could not help but feel painfully small.
Only now did the name "Ark" feel appropriate.
It resembled the Ark Teach remembered, but the difference in scale was staggering. Dozens of times larger.
Enel had traveled alone, bringing only a handful of subordinates. This Ark, however, was clearly built with a different purpose in mind.
Birka had intended to bring all of its people back to the moon.
That was why it was built on such a scale.
Arks could vary in size, expanded or reduced according to need.
Noah was even larger.
That Ark was nearly half the size of Fish-Man Island, capable of carrying every resident from the ocean floor to the surface. That was its purpose. Yet for unknown reasons, it had failed and now lay dormant beside Fish-Man Island.
Still, this could not be the Noah spoken of by the Skypiea god.
The original Noah should have been destroyed long ago, lost to the passage of millennia. The one resting near Fish-Man Island was most likely a later reconstruction, built by Joy Boy after obtaining the original blueprints.
After all, if Maxim had blueprints, then Noah must have had them as well.
If that was the case, there was a real possibility that Noah possessed an energy reactor.
Given its immense size and the crushing pressure of the deep sea, it would have been impossible for it to rise from ten thousand meters below the surface through physical force alone.
Even with a coating, the same problem applied.
That said, this was only speculation.
Poseidon, the one who could command Sea Kings, could simply order them to haul Noah to the surface.
If that was the case, then Fish-Man Island's Noah might not share the same core technology as Skypiea's Ark Noah.
Regardless, Teach had no intention of testing it.
Countless super-sized Sea Kings lurked around Noah, guarding it. Deep-sea Sea Kings were far more terrifying than surface-dwelling monsters, rivaling world-class powerhouses.
Teach had no desire to provoke them.
The Ark Maxim, on the other hand, was an asset of undeniable value.
At the edge of Birka, near the outskirts of the town, a figure ran endlessly.
It was Enel.
His test was simple.
Run.
"Run around the entire town," Wallace had said. "Keep running. Let us see where your limit truly is."
The word "limit" was chosen carefully.
Running revealed many things. Endurance. Willpower. Physical foundation. Mental resilience.
Crew members gathered to watch.
Running, despite its simplicity, was one of the most demanding disciplines.
An hour passed.
Enel's stamina plummeted. His breathing became chaotic and strained. Sweat drenched his body.
It was obvious. He had never trained like this before.
His foundation was weak.
Enel had always fought alone, trained alone, relying on instinct and talent rather than systematic conditioning.
Now the sun beat down on him mercilessly.
His back hunched. His lungs burned. Every breath felt heavy, oppressive.
"Nelson," Wallace said calmly. "Give him some guidance."
Everyone could see it. If Enel continued like this, his body would collapse long before his will broke.
That was not the purpose of the test.
"Heh. Leave it to me," Nelson replied, already stepping forward.
Enel staggered as he ran, his limbs feeling heavier with each step. His abdomen tightened painfully. Not sharp pain, but a crushing discomfort.
Breathing felt like dragging air through water.
He had never imagined running could feel like this.
"Running like that won't work."
The laughter came from his side.
Enel's mind buzzed. The voice cut through the fog clouding his thoughts.
He turned his head slightly. His vision was blurred, but he bit down on his tongue, forcing clarity back into his mind.
It was Nelson.
Enel remembered him. One of Blackbeard's executives.
When did he get here?
Enel had not sensed him at all.
The realization sent a chill through him, but he had no energy to dwell on it.
He kept running.
"Adjust your breathing," Nelson said evenly. "Find your rhythm. Without rhythm, you're just wasting stamina."
He did not explain how to breathe.
There was no fixed method.
Everyone had to find their own rhythm.
Nelson was only pointing the way.
Enel absorbed the words quickly. His breathing began to stabilize, falling into a rough rhythm. Almost immediately, the pressure eased.
He adjusted again.
And again.
Gradually, he found it. The rhythm that suited him best.
"Straighten your back," Nelson continued. "Lift your head. Look forward."
With that guidance, Enel's condition improved noticeably.
From a distance, Wallace and the others nodded.
This level of adaptability spoke well of his aptitude.
But this was only the beginning.
Without real performance, Enel would never earn the crew's recognition, even if Teach favored him.
Jealousy already existed within the crew.
Those personally chosen by Teach, Lafitte, Redyat, others, all wielded top-tier Devil Fruits. Rare. Ancient.
Though never stated outright, everyone understood where those fruits came from.
A powerful Devil Fruit dramatically raised one's ceiling.
And in this era, Devil Fruits were becoming scarcer by the day.
Ordinary Zoans now sold for two to three hundred million at auction.
Back in God's Land, Teach stood inside the former god's residence.
Books filled the room.
Nearly a thousand volumes lined the shelves, forming a small library.
"Collect all of them," Teach said. "We'll study them later."
These were records passed down for thousands of years. Lunar knowledge. History. Technology.
Redyat nodded.
A mass of black shadow spread beneath his feet, swallowing entire shelves in silence.
God's Land had been fully stripped.
The Ark Maxim would remain here.
Without power, it was nothing more than an enormous shell.
Afterward, Teach set off alone.
His goal was clear.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Even if he never ate it, it had to be in his hands.
This was an ability that could forge an Admiral-level powerhouse.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit possessed speed rivaling the Glint-Glint Fruit, with even greater mobility.
Its attack power rivaled the Mag-Mag Fruit.
Lightning was terror made manifest in any world.
It refined the body. Strengthened the flesh.
Destruction and vitality intertwined, offering even regenerative potential.
Heat. Electromagnetism. Control.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit was known as the strongest Paramecia.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was known as one of the strongest Devil Fruits.
That qualifier was temporary.
The World Economic News Agency had recently ranked known Devil Fruits.
Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit ranked first.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit followed closely.
The Dark-Dark Fruit ranked high as well.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit had been missing for centuries, yet it still occupied the top ranks.
Soon, it would be his.
Before departing, Teach had asked Baccarat to act.
Her luck could not bless him directly, but she could convert her own luck into favorable outcomes.
She had also predicted this journey.
Over ninety percent favorable.
Now, Teach's heart pounded violently.
This feeling, like a sudden premonition, told him he would not return empty-handed.
He had told no one his true purpose.
Otherwise, how could he explain knowing where a Devil Fruit lost for centuries would be?
He claimed only that he sensed a ship in the White Sea.
That was enough.
Teach flew.
Gravity bent beneath his feet as he skimmed the White White Sea, barely a meter above its surface.
Cloud beasts emerged, massive as Sea Kings, but they posed no threat.
Teach flashed past them in streaks of wind, dodging their ambushes effortlessly.
They roared uselessly behind him.
Then he saw it.
A massive, multi-deck ship loomed ahead.
Hundreds of meters long.
Larger than any vessel Nightfall had ever encountered.
It was ancient. Decayed. Covered in moss.
Silent.
A ghost ship.
Teach landed on its deck and pushed open the rotten doors.
Inside, the space was vast, like a cruise ship from his previous life.
Skeletons littered the floor.
Jewelry still gleamed on bones.
Some had been murdered. Others starved. Some bore signs of cannibalism.
The story was clear.
The ship had been swept upward by an ocean current. It survived the ascent, but not the aftermath.
Teach did not linger.
His Observation Haki guided him unerringly.
In a hidden compartment, he found it.
A blue Devil Fruit, patterned with lightning.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Teach stared at it.
Then a dark vortex opened in his palm.
A steel box emerged.
He sealed the fruit inside.
It vanished into a chaotic, crushing darkness known only to him.
Distributed. Hidden.
Because even Teach did not trust absolute certainty.
Not yet.