In the Grand Line, somewhere in an unknown stretch of turbulent sea.
"Rumble—"
A deep, feral mechanical roar echoed across the gloomy sea, like the bellow of an ancient savage beast. Gale-force winds whipped up towering waves more than ten meters high, trying to swallow every intruder daring to challenge these waters.
Yet a medium-sized warship, black from stem to stern, barreled through the waves at a terrifying speed that defied every convention of sail-powered travel, tearing a snowy-white wake behind it.
Inside the Lower Deck, waves of heat rolled through the air. Two high-pressure Steam Boilers, crazily modified by Jeno, were running at full capacity. Coal blazed in their fireboxes as scorching high-pressure steam surged through precision brass pipes, driving the enormous Black Steel paddle wheels on either side of the hull. Those heavy paddle wheels churned the raging seawater like two giant meat grinders, smashing it aside and turning it into a steady stream of terrifying thrust.
At the very front of the warship, the dark Vermilion Bird figurehead ram, forged from Starfall Black Steel, gleamed with a cold, savage metallic sheen beneath the dim sky.
"Crash—splash!"
The sea ahead suddenly erupted as a nearshore sea beast, dozens of meters long, breached the surface. It hadn't even had time to open its gaping maw and let out a threatening roar before the speeding black warship slammed straight into it.
The ship didn't pause. It didn't slow down in the slightest.
The indestructible Starfall Black Steel ram was like a massive sword cleaving open the heavens and earth. Carrying the full momentum of the ship, it brutally ripped the sea beast's enormous body in half!
Blood rained down over the sea in torrents, and the stench of it spread through the air. The Eclipse burst through the waves, its