Driven by Roy's Telekinesis, the Ark Maxim continued to rise.
As the ship passed through the last layer of clouds, the white air currents it stirred up cascaded down to both sides like a waterfall, refracting a rainbow of colors under the sunlight.
On the deck, everyone wrapped themselves tightly in their clothes, feeling the chill brought by the sudden drop in temperature.
Yamato shivered, moved closer to Pea, and muttered, "Why is it suddenly so cold?"
Roy stood at the bow of the ship, his Telekinesis Field silently expanding to envelop the entire vessel.
The biting cold outside was kept out, and the temperature on the deck slowly rose.
He glanced back at the crowd and said, "It'll get colder up there. Hold on tight."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ark Maxim accelerated abruptly.
The ship began to tremble, initially just a slight shaking, but soon turned into a violent rocking.
Yamato grabbed the mast, Pea tied herself to the railing with vines, Jesus Burgess's burly body was also shaken from side to side.
"Captain!" Tesoro shouted, "Won't this ship fall apart?"
Roy ignored him and expanded his Telekinesis Field to its full extent.
A semi-transparent protective shield emerged from the surface of the ship, quickly expanding into a double-layered structure—the outer layer resisting high temperatures and the inner layer insulating against cold.
At that moment, the temperature of the outer layer of the ship's hull rose sharply.
The moment it broke through the atmosphere, the surface of the Ark Maxim glowed with a scorching red light.
The entire ship resembled a burning meteor, streaking into deep space with a long trail of flame.
The light changed from red to orange, then from orange to gold, and finally transformed into a seven-colored tail flame, leaving a dazzling ribbon of light behind it.
The color of the sky is changing rapidly.
Deep blue -- violet -- jet black.
In just a few breaths, the familiar blue sky overhead vanished completely, replaced by a deep, suffocating blackness.
Thousands upon thousands of stars densely covered the entire sky.
The starlight was cool and pure, unreflected by the atmosphere or obscured by clouds, and presented itself nakedly to everyone.
Yamato was the first to throw away his spiked club, then lay face down on the ship's railing, head tilted back, mouth agape enough to fit a fist.
She counted a few stars and then gave up, turning back to Roy and shouting, " Roy! There are so many stars! I can't possibly count them all!"
The Pea floated in mid-air—or rather, was lifted up by weightlessness—clinging frantically to the railing, its eyes fixed on the starry sky above, murmuring, "The books only show a few hundred stars... there are at least..."
"Several hundred million."
Olvia's voice came from inside the cabin. She was holding a notebook, her glasses reflecting starlight, and her tone was filled with barely suppressed excitement.
"Every star here is a planet."
Enel's body was enveloped in spontaneously surging Thundercloud, subtly resonating with the light of a distant nebula.
He squinted, sensing the energy fluctuations emanating from the depths of the universe, and whispered, "The lightning clusters here... are different."
Hawk Eyes, unusually, put down his Black Blade.
He stood on the ship's railing, gazing up at the Milky Way stretching across the sky, and remained silent for a long time.
The Red Count walked to his side, leaning on his cane, a childlike smile appearing on his aged face:
"Having lived all these years, this is the first time I've felt that the world is much bigger than I imagined."
Bullet swore as he walked over. "The biggest scene I've ever seen in my life is fighting Whitebeard— "
Before he could finish speaking, he saw the blue planet below.
The Ark Maxim has flown a long enough distance that the blue planet that nurtured everyone now floats silently in the black sky.
The outline of the continent, the color of the ocean, and the texture of the clouds are all clearly visible.
Bullet's voice was stuck in his throat.
"That's..." He swallowed hard. "That's where we came from?"
Roy stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the blue planet that was growing smaller and smaller, a feeling he couldn't quite put his finger on.
In his past life, he could only see such images on a screen.
Now, he watched as the Earth shrank in his field of vision, becoming a blue marble, suspended in endless darkness.
"Captain," Tesoro leaned closer, his voice trembling slightly, "Are we really flying to the moon?"
Roy nodded. "Scared?"
"I'm not afraid," Tesoro scratched his head, "It just feels... a little unreal."
Roy didn't say anything more, turned around and went into the cabin.
The stored compressed air is released through a circulation system, creating a breathable environment inside the protective enclosure.
Everyone then felt their breathing become easier, and the previous feeling of stuffiness gradually disappeared.
The confusion caused by weightlessness continues.
Yamato crashed into the mast again, rubbing his head and cursing.
The Pea tied themselves to the railing with their vines, drifting back and forth like kites.
Jesus Burgess's burly body also lost control, and he flailed his limbs frantically.
Enel, Tesoro, and Crocodile were the first to adapt.
The three of them almost simultaneously transformed into elementals, traversing the deck completely unaffected by weightlessness. Tesoro chuckled, "So this is one of the advantages of Logia?"
Enel chuckled, " Logia is really good."
Hawk Eyes stood rooted to the spot, completely still, as if weightlessness had no effect on him.
The Red Count tapped his cane lightly, each step perfectly timed, as elegant as a dance.
With a slight movement of his Telekinesis, Roy created a stable gravity zone on the deck.
Those staggering fellows finally regained their footing, Yamato breathed a sigh of relief, "I almost thought we were going to float into the sky."
"We're already in the sky," Pea whispered.
Just as everyone was gradually adapting to the space environment, Red Count's Observation Haki suddenly issued a warning.
He suddenly looked up at the pitch-black void in front of him.
"Something's coming." His voice was calm, but everyone sensed the gravity in it.
Roy simultaneously activated his Observation Haki, sensing that dense energy reactions were rapidly approaching the area ahead.
The next second, everyone saw it.
Meteorites of all sizes are hurtling in from the depths of darkness.
The small ones are only the size of a fist, while the large ones are as big as an island.
They carried with them the deathly stillness and destructive aura of space, covering everything in an overwhelming, dense mass, like a silent downpour.
"Holy shit!" Bullet cursed, "How do you dodge this thing?"
Roy had no intention of hiding.
" Tesoro!"
"Clear!"
Tesoro leaped out of the protective barrier, spreading his arms wide. Lightning surged around him, and golden arcs of electricity were particularly dazzling in the darkness.
" Mamaragan: All Fired at Once!"
boom--!!!
Countless bolts of lightning shot out from his palms, making no sound in space, only dazzling flashes.
The smaller meteorites were struck by lightning and instantly shattered into fragments, turning into a fine dust cloud.
But the bigger ones are still pushing forward.
Upon seeing this, Hawk Eyes drew the Black Blade Yoru, and a green slash shot out across the sky.
With no air resistance and no gravity, the slash was so fast it was almost invisible, striking precisely the largest meteorite.
A silent explosion.
The meteorite, the size of an island, was cut in two with a single stroke, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.
The two halves of the wreckage slid past the sides of the Ark Maxim, the debris they kicked up being deflected by Roy's Telekinetic Shield.
The Red Count also waved his arm, and blood-red sword energy shot out from his cane, drawing strange arcs in space.
The medium-sized meteorites were sliced apart by the sword energy, breaking into small pieces like tofu.
The three of them worked together and managed to tear a passage through the meteorite swarm.