"Humm-!!"
A deep, resonant hum spread from inside the metal sphere, and the air throughout the cabin began to vibrate violently.
"It seems to be resisting merging with the wooden keel!" Olsen called out urgently, leaning over the hatch.
"On my ship, you don't get to resist!" Lorne growled, and the Conqueror's Haki within him erupted.
Black-and-red bolts of Conqueror's Haki coiled around the metal sphere like chains, forcing it into the groove in the Treasure Tree Adam keel.
"Boom!"
The instant it touched the keel, the silver metal surged outward like a flood bursting through a dam.
It seeped along the grain of the wood, turning into countless silver energy pathways that spread into every corner of the battleship in the blink of an eye.
"Look! The hull is glowing!" Carrot pointed at the Fearless from the shore and cried out in delighted surprise.
At that moment, the entire battleship seemed to come alive. Its hull rose and fell slightly with the pulsing metal pathways, like a giant beast breathing slowly after eight hundred years of slumber.
The tiny cracks left by battle rapidly closed at a speed visible to the naked eye as the silver liquid metal flowed over them.
"My goodness... self-repair! The battleship really has acquired the properties of a living organism!" Olsen waved his arms and stamped his feet in excitement, tears spilling from his eyes.
"This isn't shipbuilding at all! This is creating a miracle!" the old scholar shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Captain! It worked! The keel and the Soul of Pluton have completely fused!" Ryan poked his head out of the cabin doorway, his face filled with wild delight.
Lorne leaped out of the cabin and landed firmly on the deck, feeling the immense vitality beneath his feet.
"Move on