A Celestial Dragon's Treasury Had Caught My Eye

Rektol stared at the pure-gold domed building guarded by heavily armed troops.

The tip of his tongue slipped out and licked his cracked lips. He tasted a little of the sea's salty bitterness.

The sea breeze carried moisture as it blew his short pink hair backward.

He withdrew his gaze and jumped down from the Fine Steel ram at the bow.

His boot soles slammed heavily onto the Wapometal deck with a dull boom, sending ripples through the puddles around his feet.

"Everyone, get over here." Rektol shook his aching wrist.

Katakuri came first.

The wound that had just scabbed over across his back was pulled taut. He sucked in a breath of cold air. Cold sweat rolled down his forehead and dripped onto his thick scarf, but he forcibly kept his back straight.

Cracker still held half a piece of hardened bread in his hand, crumbs clinging to the corners of his mouth. He jogged over while chewing.

A dozen captains from the affiliated pirate crews followed behind, all with their heads lowered and their hands pressed against their trouser seams. None of them dared look around.

Rektol wasted no words.

He raised his right hand and spread his five fingers.

"Buzz."

The heart in the left side of his chest suddenly contracted. Two hundred million volts of electricity leaped across his palm.

Immediately afterward, his second heart gave a muffled throb. The gravitational field crashed downward, pierced through the steel hull, and reached straight into the deep sea.

Dozens of meters beneath the surface, countless black grains of iron were forcibly extracted from the silt.

The iron sand burst from the water and climbed onto the deck like a thick black serpent.

The water droplets evaporated instantly under the lightning's heat, giving off pungent white smoke and filling the air with the smell of rust.

The iron sand gathered and compressed in midair before Rektol, producing a grating metallic screech.

A few seconds later,

a rough three-dimensional sand table of God Valley hovered in midair.

Some areas had not been packed tightly enough. Fine grains of iron sand pattered down onto the military boots.

Rektol pointed at the gap at the very front of the model.

"This is the main harbor. That mad dog Rocks will bite into it soon."

He crooked a finger and flicked the patch of iron sand representing the harbor.

With a bang, the iron sand shattered and scattered across the deck.

"Let them take the general's cannons head-on." Rektol lowered his hand. "We aren't taking this route."

Several affiliated captains exchanged glances.

A bald captain rubbed his stiff, frozen hands. His Adam's apple bobbed twice before he swallowed audibly.

"Young master... If we don't charge in head-on with the flagship, what if the Marines surround us from the flank..."

Rektol turned his head and glanced at him.

The bald captain's voice caught in his throat. His legs gave out, and his knees struck the iron plating with a dull thud. He bit his lip hard and did not dare cry out in pain.

"Cracker." Rektol looked away.

The chubby Cracker hurriedly stuffed the bread into his mouth. He choked so badly that his eyes rolled back. After pounding his chest twice, he forced it down.

"Big brother, I'm here."

Rektol's finger traced across the model before stopping at the island's far side.

It was a steep cliff.

"The warships will break away from Rocks's main fleet and dive through this reef zone."

He jabbed forcefully at the model of the cliff.

"When we get there, use your magnetic force to control the Fine Steel drill at the bottom of the warship."

Rektol looked at Cracker.

"I'll use the Float-Float Fruit to remove gravity. We'll carve a tunnel straight in from the base of the cliff."

Katakuri frowned.

He rubbed his chin with a finger wrapped in a bloodstained bandage.

"The rock strata beneath the cliff are very hard. If the disturbance is too great, it'll draw God's Knights over."

Rektol let out a cold laugh.

"They're fighting a chaotic battle up top. Who's going to care about tremors hundreds of meters underground?"

He extended his left hand and crushed the lump of iron representing the pure-gold dome at the center of the model.

Iron sand leaked through the gaps between his fingers.

"The Celestial Dragons have plundered this island for eight hundred years. All their accumulated wealth is in that treasury."

Rektol's voice sounded exceptionally cold and hard amid the sea breeze.

"Inside is a Mythical Zoan, the Azure Dragon Fruit."

At the words "Azure Dragon Fruit,"

Katakuri abruptly raised his head. His breathing instantly grew heavy, like the pumping of bellows.

His eyes locked onto the pile of scattered iron sand. His bandage-wrapped fist clenched until his knuckles cracked, and fresh blood even seeped through.

That was what his big brother had promised him.

Rektol turned around and swept his gaze over the shivering affiliated captains.

The pressure crashed onto their heads like leaden weights.

"I've paved the road. I've told you the target."

He casually picked up the brass band around an empty wooden barrel beside him.

His five fingers exerted force, kneading the sturdy band into a lump of scrap metal like a strand of noodles.

With a clang, the scrap metal slammed into the deck and dented it.

"If anyone drops the ball while digging, or makes any noise they shouldn't,"

Rektol pointed at the churning black seawater. The waves pounded against the hull, producing a thunderous echo.

"I'll crush every bone in his body and throw him into the sea to feed the fish."

The bald captain nodded frantically. Sweat streamed down his forehead and splattered onto the deck.

"Understood! Rest assured, young master. There definitely won't be any mistakes!"

The others hurriedly echoed their agreement, their teeth chattering with faint clicking sounds.

The arrangements were complete.

Rektol waved his hand and dispersed the gravitational field.

The iron sand hovering in midair lost control and crashed down with a roar, covering more than half the deck.

The smell of engine oil mixed with rust, making the air extremely choking.

Cracker hurried toward the control room, preparing to take over the drill at the bottom of the warship.

He ran too fast, slipped on a patch of iron sand, and fell flat on his back with all four limbs in the air.

He did not even dare cry out in pain. He scrambled up with hands and feet and sheepishly slipped through the hatch.

Katakuri remained on the deck.

He took a deep breath and began regulating his breathing. The blood and energy within his body stirred bit by bit in rhythm with his heartbeat, storing strength for the battle ahead.

Rektol walked toward the railing.

The sea wind grew stronger and stronger. The dark clouds on the horizon hung incredibly low, as if they might collapse at any moment.

He placed both hands on the cold iron railing.

Just as Rektol finished laying out the route and was preparing to order the warships to turn,

the heart in his chest suddenly skipped half a beat.

Rektol turned his head.

The All-Knowing Eye's sensory net had been spread across the surrounding waters like radar.

A glaring red ripple violently tore through his sensory net.

It came with a harsh, savage peal of laughter.

The laughter did not travel through the air. Instead, it slammed directly into the domain of his Observation Haki through sheer mental power.

The impact left Rektol's eardrums tingling faintly.

He narrowed his eyes. His gaze pierced the layers of rain and turned toward the sea horizon on the left.

At the storm's center, towering waves surged into the sky.

A pirate ship flying dark-red sails was being pushed by the violent currents, heaving wildly atop the crests.

The skull flag atop the mainmast bore two exaggerated black mustaches.

The wooden hull creaked sharply under the waves' savage pounding, as if it would fall apart the next second.

But the ship had completely deviated from its original course.

Like a bull gone out of control, it was being swept along by the raging wind and currents, charging straight toward Rocks's enormous flagship.