February, 1497, by the Sea Circle calendar.
The seas were as turbulent beneath the surface as ever.
The strong preyed on the weak, and killing, plundering, and pillaging happened every day.
An entire kingdom could be wiped out by a single pirate crew.
Individual might was one of the factors that had thrown the world order into disarray.
Ten thousand meters above the sea, on God Island Apis.
In a lush forest, the vegetation was dense and extremely resilient. The thickest trees took more than thirty people holding hands to encircle, and the harsh environment had made them as hard as iron.
Rumble, rumble~
The entire forest suddenly shook. In the distance, a golden mountain fifty meters tall rose and fell. The sight alone was enough to make anyone tremble in fear.
From the palace plaza, Gan Fall gazed toward the direction of the golden mountain.
By now, his old face showed no surprise at all; his eyes were filled with admiration.
"998."
"999."
"1000."
Beneath the golden mountain, Chaos did push-ups with his upper body bare. Sweat drenched him, and veins stood out across his solid, powerful muscles. The ones around his neck bulged especially prominently, making him look incredibly fierce.
"Thud!"
Chaos tossed aside the golden mountain and collapsed onto the ground. The surrounding mountains all seemed to jump!
Lying there, he took a moment to catch his breath. His damp bangs clung to his head, and he was thoroughly exhausted!
Just then, birds and beasts took flight in the distance. Large swathes of grass and vegetation snapped and flattened, as if some prehistoric beast were stampeding through the forest. In truth, it was indeed a giant beast.
"Crack!"
A giant tree snapped and crashed to the ground as a terrifyingly huge snake's head burst out of the forest. It was at least as big as a house!
Following the snake's head downward, its body stretched into the forest until it vanished from sight. If it lay still, someone might mistake it for a small mountain range. Its size was terrifying.
"Hiss, hiss!"
The enormous snake slithered up in front of Chaos and raised its upper body, blocking out the sunlight. Its blood-red eyes held none of the cold-blooded menace one might expect. Instead, they showed a hint of ingratiation—and even fear.
That was right: this was the same Nolan Python who would be known as the Lord of the Sky twenty years later. When Luffy and the others entered its mouth, they thought they were going into a cave, and they brought out gold worth 300 million berries.
Seven months earlier, when Chaos had first arrived on Sky Island, he had subdued Gan Fall and the others with overwhelming strength.
Chaos hadn't tried to seize the throne or drive Gan Fall from his position to become the island's god himself.
This little patch of land might have seemed like the whole world to Enel, but Chaos had no time to play god on some remote island. If he was going to become a god, it would be over the sea below.
Sky Island was, at most, a place for him to rest. Once he established his forces, perhaps he would use it as a second base.
At present, if Chaos gave the word, Gan Fall still wouldn't dare disobey. He could only carry out Chaos's orders obediently and respectfully. The residents of Sky Island simply didn't know about it.
All the priests and warriors on God Island had accepted the situation.
Fortunately, Chaos had made no unreasonable demands. At most, he asked for food!
He hadn't run amok on Sky Island or slaughtered innocent people, either. For seven whole months, he had done nothing but train.
As for Nolan—the giant snake—the first time the two of them met, Chaos had nearly roasted it. At the critical moment, Gan Fall had begged for mercy, and Nolan had pleaded pitifully, so Chaos had shown mercy and let it go.
After that, Nolan had become Chaos's little sidekick, just like Little Tiger, Little Lion, and Little Jaw. From time to time, it would keep Chaos company while he trained.
"Come help me test out my new move!"
Chaos stood and stretched. His wet hair had grown long and looked somewhat messy and unkempt.
He had no idea how long it had been since he'd had a haircut. He rarely even went down from God Island.
He stretched out his right hand toward the golden mountain and grabbed at it from a distance. One-fiftieth of the gold separated and floated into the air. With a clench of Chaos's hand, it burst like fireworks, showering the area in golden powder and turning everything around them gold!
Nolan, looking utterly bewildered, was drenched in the powder. It coated its body, but strangely, the gold dust silently merged into it.
Before Nolan could react, its massive body began to rise uncontrollably into the air.
Nolan panicked. Its huge snake head twisted into a frantic expression as it hissed at Chaos over and over.
But Chaos ignored it completely. As he manipulated it with both hands, Nolan's enormous body shifted through all kinds of shapes in the air: A, B, C, D, Y, F, J, and even hearts, bows, and more!
Whether Nolan was flat or round was now up to Chaos.
After playing with it for more than ten minutes, Chaos shook the ground as he slammed Nolan back down. Nolan shook its enormous head and complained to Chaos. That had been a rough ordeal, and its back had nearly snapped.
But Chaos ignored it again. He rested his chin in his hand and stared at the sky, where countless specks of gold formed the three characters for "Golden Emperor." The words burst apart, then formed into all kinds of writing and even pictures!
Chaos had named the move Divine Control.
It was a copy of Gild Tesoro's Gold Splash: turning gold into powder, merging it into a living creature's body, then controlling the creature through the gold dust.
Just like Doflamingo's Parasite Strings!
"Sigh!"
Chaos couldn't help sighing. Over the past seven months, his Gold-Gold Fruit, Six Powers, and Two types of Haki had all grown considerably stronger!
But he still hadn't awakened his Gold-Gold Fruit, and he still hadn't mastered Life Return.
At first, he'd planned to train for five months. Before he knew it, seven months had passed.
Chaos felt like time was flying by, probably because he was so absorbed in training!
Before he knew it, he had been in this world for four years and two months.
It had been a long time.
It was about time to leave Sky Island and go looking for trouble.
How else could he raise his combat strength faster?
How else could he make the whole world learn the name of the Golden Emperor?
Chaos had also seen the words Roger had carved into the Golden Bell. He had even learned from Gan Fall that the Roger Pirates had left only a few months before Chaos arrived.
Chaos hadn't reached Demon Valley Town yet back then. If he'd arrived a few months earlier, he might have run into them.
In Chaos's eyes, Roger really wasn't a good person. He was a pirate as heinous as the Marines claimed.
No matter how rotten the World Government's rule was, it could at least maintain a certain degree of order.
From a broad perspective, the World Government's existence was necessary and important.
But after Roger ushered in the Great Pirate Era, pirates multiplied across the world. Countless families were left without fathers and husbands, while burning, killing, looting, and rivers of blood became commonplace.
And that went on for more than twenty years.
Whatever Roger's motives and intentions had been, good or bad, he was absolutely heinous for what happened over the next twenty years.
The innocent people who died because of him numbered in the tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions.
Chaos was looking forward to meeting this ruthless man.
"Golden Emperor, your meal is ready!"
A group of warriors pushed three carts of food over from the distance. Judging by how practiced they were, they had done this plenty of times over the past seven months. They were never a second early or a second late.
Nolan was the happiest of all. Its aggrieved snake face immediately lit up with joy. It opened its mouth, drooling so much that its saliva corroded the ground.
It was obviously poisonous.
It was so excited that it couldn't hold back its venom.
One of the carts was for Nolan, even if it could only fill a gap in its teeth and let it taste a little!
"Mm!"
Chaos nodded, then sat down cross-legged and began to enjoy the food.
There were all kinds of meat, fruit, vegetables, and drinks. It was quite the spread!
"Little guy, I'm leaving tomorrow."
Chaos gnawed on a meaty bone as he spoke, then glanced at Nolan.
Nolan, who had been happily enjoying its own food, raised its head and blinked repeatedly. It looked even happier.
This beast was finally leaving.
"You seem happy about it!"
Chaos narrowed his eyes. He'd thought they were friends after spending seven months together.
Shouldn't Nolan be sad to see him go?
"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"
That night, Chaos taught Nolan a lesson—one that was passionate and heartwarming!!
Before you continue