The Compass of Time pointed toward the sky.
"Above us?" Sabo adjusted Pluton's observation equipment. "According to the records, there should be... a Sky Island above this airspace."
Luffy bounced excitedly. "Sky Island! There really are islands up in the sky?"
Ace gazed at the blue sky. "How do we get up there? Pluton can't fly."
Allen felt the pull of the Compass of Time. "There's an updraft caused by a spacetime anomaly. Pluton, calculate the best route."
"Calculating... abnormal energy fluctuations detected in the Cumuloregalis Cloud... recommendation: use the Knock Up Stream..."
The Knock Up Stream! The legendary natural wonder that blasted seawater ten thousand meters into the sky!
Pluton adjusted its course and headed for the designated waters. Even from far away, they could see the sea bulging unnaturally, as though some enormous creature were breathing in the depths.
"Hold on tight!" Allen warned. "Here it comes!"
The sea suddenly exploded! An enormous column of water shot skyward, piercing the clouds with tremendous energy! Pluton was swept precisely into the center of the column and surged upward with the current!
"Waaaaah!" Luffy yelled, his rubber body stretched by the acceleration.
Ace stabilized the ship with flames, Sabo calculated their trajectory, and Allen used the power of time to fine-tune their angle of ascent.
The sight took their breath away the moment they broke through the clouds-they had reached the sea of clouds! White clouds stretched out like land, and the outlines of islands were faintly visible in the distance!
"Sky Island... it really exists!" Sabo exclaimed in wonder.
But danger lurked beneath the beautiful sight. The Compass of Time shook violently and pointed deep into the island. "High-intensity lightning energy detected... matching the characteristics of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit..."
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck without warning! It hit Pluton's shield dead-on!
"Shield energy down twelve percent!" Sabo cried. "That kind of power..."
More lightning rained down! The entire airspace seemed to have become a prison of lightning!
"This isn't natural lightning!" Allen pushed his Time Perception to its limit. "Someone's controlling it!"
Above the clouds, a figure slowly descended. Lightning wreathed his body, wings formed from lightning glowed behind him, and his gaze was as cold as a deity's-
"Illegal intruders. Accept God's Judgment."
Enel! The user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit!
"God?" Luffy tilted his head. "Big talk!"
Lightning gathered in Enel's hand. "100 Million Volts: Discharge!"
A terrifying pillar of lightning blasted straight at them! Allen channeled the power of time. "Time Slowdown Field!"
The lightning pillar visibly slowed inside the field, but it continued pushing forward!
"I can't stop it!" Allen gritted his teeth. "Lightning has strong resistance to the power of time!"
Ace erupted in flames. "Flame Commandment!" The barrier of fire temporarily blocked the lightning, but it was clearly losing ground!
"Ignorant Blue Sea People," Enel said coldly. "Tremble before the power of a god!"
More lightning attacked from every direction! Pluton's shield fluctuated violently!
"We can't keep this up!" Sabo worked the controls frantically. "We have to find his weakness!"
Allen pushed his temporal perception to its limit, trying to predict Enel's attack patterns. But the lightning was too fast. Even with his perception accelerated through time, he struggled to track it fully!
"Gum-Gum... lightning immunity!" Luffy suddenly leaped out, and his rubber body actually deflected some of the lightning!
Enel looked slightly surprised. "Rubber? Interesting. But how much can you deflect?"
"200 Million Volts: Amaru!" He transformed into an enormous God of Thunder, his terrifying energy making all of Sky Island tremble!
"We're done for..." Ace's face went pale. "That kind of power..."
At that moment of despair, inspiration struck Allen! The power of time and the power of Zhulong combined in an unprecedented way!
"Time Weaving: Lightning Deconstruction!" Golden light blazed in his eyes as he pressed both hands down against the air!
Something extraordinary happened! The incoming lightning broke apart and dissipated along the way, like building blocks being dismantled!
"What?!" For the first time, shock appeared on Enel's face. "What did you do?!"
Allen himself was surprised. In that critical moment, he had instinctively used the power of time to "reverse-analyze" the process by which lightning formed, "deconstructing" it along the timeline!
But the process consumed an enormous amount of energy, leaving him on the verge of collapse!
"Big brother!" Luffy caught him just in time.
Enel's gaze turned dangerous. "An interesting ability. But how many more times can you use it?"
More lightning gathered, this time more concentrated and more resistant!
At that critical moment, the Compass of Time suddenly flew up and projected a hologram-a figure who resembled Enel, but was far more ancient.
"Stop, descendant," the projection said. "These people are the visitors foretold in the prophecy."
Enel fell to his knees in shock. "Honored ancestor!"
The projection turned to Allen. "Master of Time, please forgive my descendant's offense. Our Thunder God Clan has guarded the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Sky Island, awaiting your arrival."
He explained, "The Rumble-Rumble Fruit is not a natural creation. It is the core of a weather controller manufactured by the Ancient Kingdom. We need your help to repair it."
Allen struggled to stand. "Repair it? Why come to me?"
"Because only the Master of Time can reverse the fruit's energy decay." The projection pointed deep into the island. "Please follow me."
With Enel reluctantly guiding them, the group arrived at an ancient temple deep within Sky Island. At its center stood a crystal wreathed in lightning, with a strange fruit sealed inside-the actual Rumble-Rumble Fruit, though cracks had already appeared on its surface.
"As you can see, the fruit is decaying." The projection sighed. "Once it collapses completely, Sky Island will fall, and the weather system will spiral out of control."
Allen scanned the fruit with his Time Perception and indeed saw its energy rapidly draining away. "What can I do?"
"Use the power of time to reverse the decay process. But a warning-this will be extremely dangerous. Failure could trigger a spacetime thunderstorm."
Without hesitation, Allen placed his hand on the crystal. The power of time slowly flowed into it, beginning to analyze the fruit's spacetime structure.
It was work that demanded the utmost precision. He had to pinpoint every point of decay and reverse them one by one along the timeline without affecting any other part of the fruit.
Sweat soaked his clothes, and blood flowed from his nose again. Several times, he nearly made a mistake, almost sending the lightning out of control!
At the crucial moment, the Compass of Time emitted a gentle glow, stabilizing the flow of time. The power of Zhulong supplied the necessary energy.
For three full hours, Allen remained completely focused. When the last trace of decay was reversed, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit shone with dazzling light, and its cracks healed completely!
"It worked!" Enel could hardly believe it. "Even my honored ancestor couldn't..."
The ancient projection nodded in gratification. "The prophecy has come true. In return, the Thunder God Clan will pledge its loyalty to you, Master of Time."
He looked at Enel. "Descendant, give the Thunder God's Orb to the Master of Time."
Enel hesitated for a moment, but still removed a lightning-wreathed orb from his chest. "This orb can store and release lightning, and it can also increase its user's resistance to lightning."
Allen accepted the orb and immediately felt a strange connection form with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. The power of Zhulong activated on its own and actually began absorbing lightning energy!
"This is..." To his surprise, he discovered that he could now control lightning to a limited extent!
The projection explained, "The Torch Dragon is the master of light and darkness, so naturally it can command lightning. Consider this an additional gift."
By the time they left the temple, peace had returned to Sky Island. Enel's attitude had clearly changed. "Master of Time, should you have need of us, Sky Island stands ready to answer your command."
On the way back to Pluton, Luffy asked curiously, "Allen, can you discharge electricity now?"
Allen tried raising his hand, and tiny arcs danced on his fingertips. "A little, it seems, but nowhere near Enel's level."
Sabo looked thoughtful. "The power of time plus the power of lightning... that combination is terrifying."
Ace looked at Allen's pale face. "But it takes a lot out of you, too. You nearly collapsed back there."
Indeed, although he had gained a new ability, Allen felt more exhausted than ever before. Every use of the power of time was overtaxing his energy.
Pluton departed Sky Island and returned to the Blue Sea through another downdraft. When they saw the blue sea again, everyone felt as though a lifetime had passed.
Yet one crisis followed another. The Ark Core suddenly blared an alarm:
"Spacetime anomaly detected... multiple timelines are converging... anomaly location: Marine G-1 Base..."
The Compass of Time also pointed in the same direction, trembling violently.
"G-1 Base?" Sabo pulled up the information. "That's the Marines' main stronghold in the New World."
Allen extended his Time Perception, and his expression suddenly changed dramatically. "This is bad! Something terrible is about to happen! Full speed ahead!"
Pluton raced toward G-1 Base at full speed. Everyone felt the oppressive sense of an approaching storm.
And when they arrived, the sight left everyone dumbfounded-
G-1 Base was enveloped in an enormous spacetime bubble! The flow of time inside was clearly abnormal, and the Marine soldiers' movements alternated between fast and slow, like a broken video recording!
Even more frighteningly, the spacetime bubble kept expanding, making everything it passed over abnormal!
"This is..." Allen pushed his Time Perception to its limit. "A sign of impending spacetime collapse!"
The Compass of Time projected a warning: "Temporal paradox energy detected... must be stopped within one hour... otherwise, a chain reaction will occur..."
Sabo suddenly pointed toward the center of the base. "Look over there!"
In the base's plaza, a familiar figure was fighting the Marines-it was actually another Allen!? But he was younger, with a more frenzied gaze!
"That's..." Allen was shocked as he perceived him through his Time Perception. "Me... a version of me from another timeline?"
The young Allen-the other one-seemed to be searching for something, wielding the power of time crudely and continually throwing spacetime into disorder.
"We have to stop him!" Allen leaped off Pluton. "You stabilize the spacetime bubble. I'll handle this!"
The instant he charged into the spacetime bubble, the tangled currents of time nearly broke Allen! He barely steadied himself and rushed toward his other self.
"Stop!" Allen shouted. "You're destroying the timeline!"
The young Allen turned, his eyes filled with madness. "Oh? My future self? Perfect! Tell me, where is the Poneglyph?!"
"The Poneglyph? Why do you want to..."
"To save Aunt Rouge!" the young Allen roared. "I'm going back to change history! To save Auntie!"
Allen was shaken to his core. So this version of himself came from a timeline shortly after Rouge's death and had yet to emerge from his grief.
"Listen!" Allen tried to reason with him calmly. "Changing major historical events will have catastrophic consequences..."
"I don't care!" The young Allen's power of time erupted. "If I can't even protect my family, what's the point of talking about the world!"
A battle erupted between two Masters of Time! The collision of their powers threw spacetime into even greater chaos! Acceleration, deceleration, loops, stasis... all kinds of anomalies appeared in succession!
"Stop!" Allen struggled to defend himself. "I understand your pain, but you can't..."
"You don't understand!" The young Allen attacked madly. "You've already moved on! But I haven't!"
As the battle reached a stalemate, the spacetime bubble suddenly became extremely unstable! It began contracting violently!
"This is bad! It's going to collapse!" Allen cried. "Stop now! Otherwise, we'll both die!"
But the young Allen had gone completely mad. "Then let's die together!"
In his despair, inspiration struck Allen, and he made a risky decision-rather than defend himself, he channeled the power of time at full strength and connected his timeline to the young Allen's!
"What are you doing?!" The young Allen discovered in terror that the power of time was flowing backward!
"Letting you see for yourself..." Allen gritted his teeth. "What will happen if you change history!"
Through the temporal connection, he sent the historical truth he knew-the catastrophic consequences that might result if Rouge survived-directly into the other Allen's consciousness!
The young Allen froze, shock flashing through his eyes, followed by pain, and finally despair. "How could it... be like this..."
The spacetime bubble began to collapse! Both Allens suffered a backlash and spat blood at the same time!
"Do you understand now?" Allen said with difficulty. "Some tragedies... we have to bear."
The young Allen fell silent for a moment before clarity finally returned to his eyes. "I'm sorry... I nearly..."
He took the initiative to stabilize the spacetime bubble. "Give me a hand! We'll repair it together!"
The two Masters of Time joined forces, their power operating with unprecedented efficiency! The collapsing spacetime bubble gradually stabilized, and the abnormal currents of time began returning to normal.
When the last anomaly was repaired, the young Allen turned transparent. "The timeline is rejecting me... I should go back."
He looked at Allen. "Take care of Ace... and that rubber idiot..."
His figure gradually dissipated, as though he had never existed.
Allen slumped to the ground, utterly exhausted. This experience had given him a deeper understanding of the dangers and responsibilities of the power of time.
When his brothers arrived, all they saw was G-1 Base restored to normal and an exhausted Allen.
"Is it resolved?" Ace asked with concern.
Allen nodded, his gaze complicated. "Yeah... it's resolved."
He gazed at the sky, the Compass of Time trembling slightly in his hand.
The path of the Master of Time was strewn with thorns. But he had to keep walking.