"Or rather, who is he planning to make his next deal... with?"
When Yas's cold, oppressive voice rang out through the Den Den Mushi, Gildo shuddered violently where he lay on the reef. A chill even more piercing than when the lightning and tsunami had engulfed him shot from his soles straight to the top of his head.
He knew he was finished.
Completely and utterly finished.
Half an hour later, on the deck of the Leviathan.
Soaked through and bound tightly in Seastone chains, Gildo was tossed at Yas's feet like a dead dog.
The arrogance and swagger had vanished from his face, leaving only ashen despair.
"Talk."
Yas looked down at him from above, his voice as level as if he were asking about the weather.
"Where is 'Captain' John now?"
Gildo trembled, his lips quivering, but he dared not utter a word.
If he betrayed "Captain" John, he would die.
But if he kept silent, he would suffer a far worse death.
He glanced at Yas's ice-blue eyes, devoid of any emotion, and the obliterated Ghost Ship and Golden Island swallowed by the sea rose unbidden in his mind.
Weighing the two, he made his decision in an instant.
"I... I'll talk!" Gildo managed, his voice as harsh as a cracked gong. "L-Lord John... he's leading the main fleet to the 'Fallen Sky Islands'!"
"The Fallen Sky Islands?" Brannew's expression shifted slightly at the name, and he immediately began searching his portable nautical chart.
"Found it! Captain Yas!" Brannew reported, pointing to a specially marked area on the chart. "The Fallen Sky Islands lie near the 'MADS' waters of the New World. It's an extremely dangerous field of Sky Island wreckage! Legend has it that many years ago, a vast cluster of floating islands fell from ten thousand meters up for unknown reasons, creating the complex, bizarre terrain those waters have today!"
"The magnetic fields there are chaotic, the currents strange, and thunderclouds and thick fog shroud it year-round. It's one of the Grand Line's seven devil seas! According to Navy records, almost no ship has ever returned safely from there!"
Brannew's expression grew graver. "What is John going there for? There's nothing there but rocks and danger!"
"N-no... that's not true..." Gildo said, trembling. "There's... there's something Lord John wants to trade for there! He's going there to make a secret deal... with someone else!"
"With whom?" Yas pressed.
"Someone... someone working for the 'Golden Lion'!" Gildo practically shouted the name.
The Golden Lion!
The moment the name left Gildo's mouth, the atmosphere across the bridge turned ice-cold.
One of the Rocks Pirates' three core officers, a legendary pirate whose fame rivaled Roger's and Whitebeard's-"Golden Lion" Shiki!
"Lord John plans to trade ten rare Zoan Devil Fruit users we've rounded up from all over the world for something from an officer under the 'Golden Lion'!" Gildo spilled everything in a torrent.
"What is it?"
"It's... it's 'IQ'!" Gildo said, his voice trembling. "A terrifying drug that makes plants mutate and evolve at incredible speed! It's the greatest creation of Dr. Indigo, the 'Golden Lion's' personal scientist! Lord John wants to use it to breed stronger combat creatures and build his own Beast King Army!"
All the intelligence lined up.
The Rocks Pirates were far from united. These ambitious officers had already begun preparing their own future power bases.
"Very good."
Having obtained the information he wanted, Yas nodded in satisfaction.
He glanced at Gildo, who lay at his feet with no further use, and waved to Bullet.
"Give him a dignified end."
"Yes!"
After a brief scream, the world was quiet again.
"Captain Yas, now we..." Brannew looked at the Fallen Sky Islands, marked "extreme danger" on the chart, his face filled with worry.
"Full speed ahead."
Yas delivered the order, leaving no room for question.
One day later.
The Leviathan slowly entered a strange, oppressive stretch of sea.
Thick, leaden thunderclouds blanketed the sky. From time to time, purple lightning tore across it, illuminating the bizarre scene below.
Enormous, mountainlike island remnants floated in midair in defiance of gravity, some tilted, others upside down.
Huge, smooth cuts remained along their broken edges, as though something sharp had sliced through them.
Beneath these floating islands, the sea was strewn with still more fallen island fragments, shattered by impact into a tangled, mazelike sea of rocks.
"So this is... the Fallen Sky Islands?"
The Navy soldiers aboard the Leviathan gazed through the windows at the apocalyptic scene, each feeling shock and unease from deep within.
"Attention, all units! Activate the Anti-Gravity Stabilizer! Be careful to avoid those floating island fragments!"
Brannew directed them nervously as the Leviathan threaded carefully through this deadly maze like an agile fish.
Yas, meanwhile, had already activated his "Mantra Haki," his immense perception sweeping every corner of these waters like radar.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Yas frowned slightly.
His Observation Haki had caught dozens of powerful life signatures within the chaotic magnetic fields.
They were hiding in the enormous wreckage of an island that had crashed into the sea ahead, forming a cleverly arranged encirclement.
It's a trap!
"There's an ambush."
Yas spoke calmly.
"What?!" Brannew was startled and immediately ordered the entire ship to its highest state of battle readiness.
But it was already too late.
The instant the Leviathan entered the encirclement, dozens of oddly shaped pirate ships surged out from behind the enormous island remnants amid bursts of arrogant laughter, surrounding the Leviathan on all sides.
"Hahahaha! To think Navy idiots actually dared come here!"
"Kill them! For Lord Shiki's conquest!"
Without exception, these pirates all wore the "Golden Lion's" sinister pirate flag, depicting a skull with a ship's wheel embedded in it!
On the lead warship, shaped like a giant swan, a tall, thin man in a Japanese kimono, his face thickly painted like a geisha's, waved a folding fan as he watched the surrounded Leviathan with interest.
He had a distinctive long nose and held a katana that radiated an ominous aura, its scabbard engraved with the words "Sakura Ten" and "Kogarashi."
He was none other than "Golden Lion" Shiki's most capable chief officer, the mad scientist Dr. Indigo!
"Oh? Isn't this the latest toy from those old men at the Navy Science Academy, the 'Poseidon-class' experimental ship?" Dr. Indigo recognized the Leviathan's origins at a glance, a flicker of greed crossing his eyes.
"Perfect. My laboratory could use some interesting experimental materials. Take that ship apart! Don't leave a single person inside-capture them all and bring them back as my test subjects!"
Indigo let out a shrill, owllike laugh.
Yet Yas paid him no attention at all.
The moment Indigo appeared, Yas's gaze had been drawn to the sword in his hand and the peculiar aura emanating from him.
It was a famous sword.
More importantly, for the first time, Yas sensed from Indigo a pressure unlike Armament Haki or Observation Haki, something more metaphysical, more intangible, yet undeniably real!
That pressure came not from the strength of his power, but from an intimidation rooted in the soul, in "will"!
It was Conqueror's Haki!
Faint, but unquestionably there!
Noticing Yas's gaze, Indigo stopped laughing. He narrowed his long, slender eyes and regarded Yas with amusement, his lips curling into a cruel smile.
"Brat, I really don't like that look in your eyes."
He slowly drew the famous sword "Sakura Ten," its blade reflecting a chilling gleam in the dim daylight.
"You know what? The last person who dared look at me like that got cut in half, ship and all!"
Indigo raised his sword high. Incomparably sharp sword energy began gathering at its tip, making even the surrounding air give a mournful hum.
"Now it's your turn!"
"Let's see which is tougher-your ironclad ship, or the edge of my slash!"
Before you continue