...
"The ship looked just like a turtle…"
Edam was quietly floating crossed legs in the air as he looked at them with a smile.
Everyone grew up since last time, and they were now grown-ups.
"You…You…?" Everyone's eyes lit up with a very surprised expression.
"You got a problem with turtles...!?" The four brothers yelled in anger.
"The ship's name is Kong, a King among beasts, since when did it turn into a defending turtle…?" Edam mustered a deadpan expression and said.
"What are you even doing here?" Zaz asked, quite surprised.
"The old geezers asked me to save your ȧsses…" Edam explained and then sighed regretfully.
"Sigh, this unit was supposed to dominate the seas and seal evil away… what a pathetic sight…"
"Grrr, are you here to help or not…!?" All of them couldn't help but grumble a bit.
"And before that, explain what is going on and who are those guys…"
And so, the crew recounted everything that happened and who was this guy that was chasing after them.
…
"And since then, he pursued us for three days straight…" Kuina was the one to explain. "So, what should we do…?"
"... being chased around for whatever reason sure wasn't funny… I will give you a push…" Edam said with a faint smile.
"What?"
"...?"
"What do you mean…?"
"I mean, your only problem was that you couldn't go up isn't it?" Edam looked up as his gaze pierced the clouds to see the floating islands and floating ship.
"Well… yes…" Zaz answered back and nodded.
"Alright… let me remedy..." Edam said and quietly flew toward the ship's edge.
"What? Wait! What do you mean?!" Zaz said having a bad feeling about all this.
The others too weren't feeling good either.
"Hopefully, it's hard enough…" He said as he took a hold of the border with his right hand while his eyes lit up eagerly.
"O- Oi what do you mean by that Edam…?"
"Captain…?"
"Just hold on tightly…" Edam simply said as his black eyes turned pale golden while from him, the growling of a Savage Beast resounded out and was heard by them all.
And, although he didn't use his Ki, they all could make out from the sounds he released the shadow of the huge Titan Ape which was also the figurehead of their ship.
Crack!
His grasp on the ship tightened even more, while some of his veins pulsed and surfaced up showing the tension currently exerted on the ship.
"Up you go!" Edam exclaimed and with a large movement…
Crack! Boom!
SWOOOSH!!! The ship that weighed about a hundred or even thousands of tons was shot flying in the air as if it was a softball being thrown up, easily covering a hundred meters per second.
"Waaaaaaahhh!!!"
"We're gonna die, we're gonna die!!!"
"Dammmn you Edam!!!"
*Meanwhile on the said floating islands...*
Bam! A man barged into a huge room where a blue-haired man and a golden-haired man were speaking.
"S- Sir! The ship that you asked to sink is approaching Merveille at a tremendous speed!"
"...? What do you mean…?" The golden-haired man that was surely the leader turned around and revealed himself to be an old man with lion-like hair. On his head, the wheel of a ship seemed to be stuck on top.
"We're not sure but it seems that the ship was like flung into the air…" The man said with a doubting expression. That sentence in itself was strange and unbelievable.
"Flung…? We're 6000 meters over the seas… Was it a knock-up stream?" The blue-haired man next to the golden-haired asked.
"No no, we didn't see or even detected such a phenomenon, it is unlikely to be that-...?" The man was interrupted halfway by a Den Den Mushi that rang out as he picked up the call.
"Boss! The Navy invaded Merveille! I repeat, the Navy invaded Merveille! We're waiting for your orders!"
"Huh??" The Golden-haired man exclaimed along with the blue-haired.
"Jihahaha! That's interesting! Send the troops as well as the beasts! Let's see if they were worth twenty years of our life!" The golden-haired man said with an excited expression.
"That's perfect! Having a piece of the Minks tribe would be perfect for my research in fact! Pirororo!" The blue-haired said.
...
*A minute ago.*
"Haha…" While they were cursing his name, Edam was happily watching them fly to these floating islands.
"Well, it was heavy…" Although he could already lift this much before, it was even easier now.
But the difference was that he didn't even need to enhance his body with Ki or Haki anymore to lift something this heavy. Relying on his fleshly power alone was enough.
"Well, let's go up too…" Seeing that the flying ship was slowing down before even reaching the floating islands, Edam's body first burst with energy as he rushed into the sky.
Swish!
The flying ship that was slowing down was then suddenly flung up again in the sky by Edam to rapidly reach the biggest floating island where a massive and long mountain could be seen. The place they landed was just in front of what seems to be a huge fortress on a snowy island.
"There I got you…" Before it could violently fall on the island, Edam caught the ship and put it down as a heavy sound rang out.
Bam!!
…
…
"Cough! Cough!"
"You! Are you crazy?!" After settling down, they all cursed at him.
"My my, don't be like that, at least you made it up there didn't you?" Edam shrugged his shoulders and said plainly as he landed on the ship's deck.
"..." Although they still wanted to curse him a bit more, they had to say that he was kinda right too.
"But hey…" Edam suddenly said, drawing their attention as he turned to look around.
With his eyesight and spiritual senses, he could see the various floating islands each being different from one another.
A snowy island, a desert island, a forest island, a cherry three forest island, etc...
"These floating islands are beautiful… The landscape is gorgeous and the air is pure and fresh, it should feel so good to live up here… Merveille truly lives up to its name." Edam smiled faintly, having a few ideas crossing his mind.
Weng! Weng! Weng! A sort of alarm resounded out loud.
"Hmm, you've got a visit, guys…" Edam felt something coming from the other way.
"What?"
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The mixed sound of a multitude of light and heavy footsteps were first heard before they got to see what it truly was.
'What the hell…?'
When they looked at what was coming at them, what the hell was perhaps the best line to utter now.
Because at least, and it was at least… a thousand armed men were furiously dashing from the fortress and shouting to take their heads.
But, Edam could feel more than a hundred thousand more people waiting quietly inside the huge fortress.
"Sh*t! Is that their headquarters!?" Zaz exclaimed out loud. "How unlucky can we get…"
"Certainly…" Kuina replied quietly with a very wary expression.
However, it wasn't these thousand men that made Zaz and all the other's eyes go wide, not at all, if it was only that, all of them united could possibly wipe out a hundred of thousands of men.
No, what shocked them was the hundred of gigantic beasts coming from all directions!
From the air, a giant buŧŧerfly, a giant flying elephant, a giant yellow bird, a golden bat, a giant bee, as well as some flying dinosaurs and a lot of other flying beasts!
And on the ground, a giant Gorilla, a giant dog-rabbit, a giant mammoth, a giant tiger-wolf, a giant rhino, a giant fat lion, and a lot of other giant beasts too!
Every f*cking beasts were gigantic and strange as if they were mixed with other animals.
"What the f*ck is that…? Why would he have so many monsters at his command?!" Donny asked in shock.
"Does he want to go to war or something…?"
Seeing this Zaz rushed toward and shook Edam. "Hey hey hey, bring us down, we're gonna die if this continues… we're right at the center!"
And the way they were rushing at the crew was clearly showing how berserk and violent some of them were.
And the worst of all was that…
At the forefront, leading the army and floating in the air was Shiki the Golden Lion!
"Jihahaha! Who would have thought that you would succeed in coming up here, I'm curious, how did you perform that?" Shiki laughed and asked Zaz already knowing that he was the current captain.
"Hum? A new one?" While speaking Shiki's attention was for a reason or another suddenly drawn toward Edam.
"Hello… so you're that Shiki (Cheeky) guy…" Edam smiled faintly and waved his hand playfully.
"Jihaha! I guess you're the one who sent them up here? Impressive, you are…?" Shiki laughed with a light-hearted expression.
"Heh, my name is Monkey D. Edam, I recall that you should know my grandpa..." A smile made its way to his face as he said.
"Monkey D…? Oh, so you are Garp's grandson..." Shiki's face turned a bit dark and ugly at the sound of this name.
"So, that guy got himself a grandson who joined the Navy…?"
"Yeah, although I'm off-duty grandpa sent me to retrieve my crew…"
"Pfff, Jihahahaha! And what will you even do?!" Shiki laughed out loud. He at first wanted to give it a chance and recruit this young man but after hearing his background he did not anymore...
"Do you think that you can fight all my manpower alone?! Let me laugh! Jihahaha!!!"
"No…"
"...?"
"I mean against this army, I perhaps won't even need to lift a finger… "
"What…?" Shiki and his army as well as the seal's unit were taken aback by his boisterous claim…
"Cough cough, Edam, I and everyone appreciate your trust in us but…" Zaz said embarrassingly not thinking that Edam would have so much consideration for them.
But for real, Zaz knew that they couldn't do much about it, the difference in numbers was way too much…
"Didn't you say you only need to go up…?" Edam said quietly and calmly.
"Yeah but-..." Zaz was gonna reply but he was cut off by Shiki.
"Jihahaha! You look exactly like your grandpa, boy! Reckless and overconfident! But, that's enough talking! I was supposed to warn the Navy of my return soon but let's do this right now…!"
Shiki made a grand gesture giving some sort of signal to someone or something.
"Guys, let the world witness the Golden Lion pirate's power! Jihahahaha!!!"
With that said, Shiki made a gesture for his men and beasts to charge forward as they immediately heard the order.
"The expression of someone losing all hope is always incredibly satisfying!"
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
Seeing this quite horrifying sight, the seal's unit faces paled somewhat while Edam's mouth turned into a faint smile.
"Your army is a bad match with me…"
His voice echoed faintly but enough for Shiki to hear him "...?"
Meanwhile, after uttering those bold words, Edam's eyes shone a bright and savage pale-golden light.
Behind him, the shadow of an entire black Titan Ape slowly arose from him as it reached a titanic height.
"Wha- what the f*ck is that?!"
"It's enormous…!"
Its two pupils were looking down upon everything in its sight and shining a violent bloodthirsty light, seemingly wishing to destroy anything in its reach.
Growl…!
Both its blood-red eyes swept past the entire army making for a reason or another every single beast completely stopped on their track and looked in fear at the shadowy Titan Ape, as they began to shudder like some frail tree leaves.
"...?" Shiki who saw this shot a glance at the beasts.
'Was that Conqueror's Haki? No, that's something else…" Shiki quickly thought and then shouted in anger at the beasts.
"Strike right now!"
The beasts that had stopped then started to move again but…
ROAR!!!
At the sight of these 'puny' living beings that dared to challenge him, the humongous Ape furiously released a heaven-shaking roar in the air and the entire island started to shake as if an earthquake was happening.
The roar was extremely loud and heavy and strident, piercing people's ears powerfully.
"Aouch!"
"My ears…!"
…
Meanwhile, on the side quite a bit away, Yamote's small frame could be seen observing this scene in silence.
"The Lord grew up well, his Saiyan's bloodline inheritance is still as incredible as ever…"
"Hmm, his divine powers should completely awaken soon too…" Yamote whispered to himself calmly.
"Your Master is giving me a lot of trouble, Small Priest…" a voice suddenly resounded from out of nowhere.
"...?" Yamote turned toward the voice. "Oh, so this plane truly developed a consciousness? What do you want?"
"I want your master and you out…"
"Impossible, my master fell in love with one of your creations…" Yamote simply said.
"Driving him away will only anger him, and I would advise you not to do so… the plane you nurtured for millions of years could reach its end sooner than intended otherwise..." Although he didn't say it clearly, his last line was indeed a threat...
"...Then just take her and go live elsewhere, the Saiyan races are troublesome for as few as they can be nowadays…"
Hearing this Yamote's mouth turned into a pouting one.
"My master doesn't even know how to create a divine realm yet… and are you sure you want to lose this girl? After having done the deed, her potential and her fate are going in a very interesting way…"
"..."
"Hmph, you should feel lucky, the previous was extremely overbearing and unreasonable, this one is still reasonable…"
…
…
While Yamote had his conversation, on the other side, Shiki's army was overturned upside down.
Indeed, after the Great Titan Ape heaven-shaking roar, Shiki's mutated beasts seemed to go into a frenzy as they began to attack the pirates.
"F*ck! F*ck! F*ck! What's going on!? You damn animals! Get yourself together!" Shiki who was floating in the air rage out.
Seeing that they didn't listen to him no matter what, Shiki shouted to his Den Den Mushi. "F*ck this sh*t! All of you come here too!" He called for all the rest of his pirate allies in the huge headquarters.
Seeing this Edam grinned while Zaz who was looking too was amazed at that and said. "Whoa, that's amazing…!"
"That's not enough… today is gonna be a one-sided slaughter…" Edam's eyes shone a bright light again as both his palms joined up and his eyes closed up.
[Heaven's pearl!]
Between his two palms, a white sphere of light slowly appeared as he muttered.
[Awaken and slaughter…] His eyelashes fluttered as he opened his eyes.
He slowly hurled the white sphere into the sky.
And as he did this, absolutely everyone was following this ball of light with their eyes, be it, Shiki's side or Zaz's side, their eyes were glued to it.
"Wha- what's that...?"
"A ball...?"
After reaching a certain height, the sphere halted as Edam's face drew a smile on his face.
[Moonlight!] A silver light akin to that of the moon shone down upon the snowy ground.
And then…
It was to Zaz's side that something was occurring. To be precise, all the mink races, that is to be Zaz himself, Cyera, Kyara, Nekoe, and Inue were stuck in place as they looked at the sphere…
Their eyes were turning blood-red…
…
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