"Start?"
"What is he going to start?"
Both Gan Fall and his God's Guards, as well as Saka and his fellow Shandian warriors, looked at Roa with utter confusion. Was what this guy just said even human language?
Rumble!
At that moment, the island began to shake violently. The ground roared and trembled. Caught off guard by the sudden tremor, people fell to the ground.
This was not normal. Of course, it wasn't.
Gan Fall's head shot up. He looked at Roa in disbelief. The Island of Gods, supported by a giant vine, wasn't immune to tremors. On the contrary, the high winds meant that all the islands floating on the sea of clouds often shook.
But this was different.
Fine cracks were already appearing on the ground, and a thunderous sound of breaking rock echoed from beneath their feet.
"You... you... you..."
Gan Fall felt his entire body go limp. He had so much he wanted to say, but the words were stuck in his throat. Fear, panic, and despair, an unspeakable mix of emotions, gripped his throat like a giant hand, leaving him speechless.
"What did you do!?"
Saka, who also vaguely sensed what was happening to the island, roared at Roa with a mix of terror and rage.
"It's so hard to communicate with you people," Roa said with a helpless shake of his head. "You could at least thank me. I've worked so hard to mediate your dispute."
"Answer me! What did you do to this island!?" Saka's veins bulged on his forehead, and his face turned bright red. The shaking intensified, and large cracks began to tear the island apart! Feelings of unease, panic, and terror surged up, threatening to swallow their hearts like a dark abyss.
"I just made the island start to collapse, that's all," Roa said. "Don't worry, I've given you plenty of time to escape. My people are still collecting things."
"It's crumbling from the bottom, so you have at least another half-hour."
Below the Island of Gods, at its base deep within the sea of clouds, large chunks of rock began to crumble. Cracks spread from the base, extending across the entire island.
"..."
Gan Fall's legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground, staring blankly up at Roa.
"This... this..."
"Crumbling? Impossible! Impossible!" Saka shrieked in disbelief. He shook his head and stumbled backward, as if moving away from Roa could prove that this was all a hallucination. "How could anyone do something like this!?" he roared. "Don't think you can trick us!"
"Believe what you want," Roa said with a smile. "I've made my judgment. All you have to do is accept it now."
"Well, I hope you all get along from now on." With that, he gave a satisfied nod and prepared to leave.
"Why!?"
Just then, a hoarse, desperate cry came from below. Roa looked down at Gan Fall, who had finally found his voice. The God of Skypiea, in the prime of his life, looked up furiously and demanded, "Why did you do this!?"
"Why?" Roa thought for a moment. "If this answer will make you feel better," the young man's lips curled up, "let's just say it's for the sake of your peace."
"...Peace?" Gan Fall's head drooped, and he mumbled to himself. Peace?
"Go to hell!!"
Saka roared, having almost completely lost his mind. He activated the shell embedded in his hand, aiming it at Roa.
"If you don't accept the judge's ruling, you get the death penalty." As Roa shot into the sky, a bolt of lightning struck down, instantly incinerating Saka before he even hit the ground.
Gan Fall turned his head blankly, looking at Saka's charred body. When he looked up again, Roa was nowhere to be seen.
"God!!"
His priests and guards cried out anxiously. "What do we do now!? Was that guy telling the truth? Is the Island of Gods really going to collapse!?"
Was it true? Gan Fall's hand pressed against the ground. The intense tremors made his arm feel numb. The God of Skypiea closed his eyes in agony. He truly wished this was a lie, just a dream.
But...
"Leave!"
Gan Fall stood up unsteadily, gritting his teeth as he shouted the order. "Everyone, leave the Island of Gods now!!"
His priests and guards turned pale. Was this it for the island that the Angels had worshipped as a sacred place for four hundred years?
As he was about to lead his people away, Gan Fall looked at the bewildered Shandians. After a brief hesitation, he shouted to them, "If you don't want to die, get out of here now!"
The Shandians came to their senses. Many of them were crying.
"It can't be! This can't be happening!" they murmured. "Our homeland, our home, how could it just...?"
"Let's go!" one of them shouted. "Let's get out of here first and see what's going on!"
Meanwhile, Roa had returned to the cloud platform. He looked into the ruins and nodded in satisfaction. Doflamingo and Bege were efficient. They had collected most of the gold.
Just then, Teach said in a panicked voice, "Boss, what did you do!? The whole island is shaking!"
"I ended a four-hundred-year war," Roa said with a sigh.
The crew members all had a strange look on their faces. Ended? Not started?
At that moment...
"What's that!?"
Kozuki Toki, who was standing apart from the group and quietly admiring the island's scenery, suddenly screamed. She saw that the far edge of the island was starting to collapse!
"Boss! Did you do this?" King reacted almost instantly.
"The two groups fighting on the island were arguing over ownership," Roa said with a sigh. "So, if I destroy the island, they won't have anything to fight about anymore."
"..."
Everyone was speechless. The boss's logic was, as always, extraordinary.
Kozuki Toki bit her lip slightly. Although she didn't know the exact situation or the reason for the war, she knew that Roa was up to his usual crazy antics.
Ignoring his crew's reactions, Roa simply enjoyed the sight of the island's demise. It was a rare and magnificent sight.
He had to admit, he might have genuinely been a peacemaker this time. The Island of Gods was useless to the Angels. Its residents had always treated it as a sacred place for worship, and few were even allowed to set foot on it. The Shandians, driven from the island, hadn't been back in four hundred years and were living just fine in the sky. For both sides, this island was more of a symbol. Its loss wouldn't affect their lives.
He really did a good deed today.
He wouldn't make a habit of it.
"Boss! All the gold has been collected!"
Behind him, Doflamingo and Bege, whose movements were a little awkward from having too much in his stomach, returned together.
"Excellent. Let's go."
Their destination was Birka.
Dylan spread his wings again and flew straight toward the east of the island. As he flew over the Island of Gods, Bege, who had once again stored everyone in his stomach, instinctively looked down.
The island below was crumbling. Rocks and soil were breaking away from the edges, and large fragments of the island sank into the white sea of clouds, disappearing without a trace after a brief ripple. The island's area was shrinking at a visible speed.
"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" Roa said with a laugh. He hoped there wasn't an island in the White Sea directly below, otherwise...
"It really is," Bege said with a serious nod.
Dylan flapped his wings and quickly disappeared from the sky above the island.
A while later, a number of ships bobbed on the white sea of clouds below, swayed by the restless currents. But the swaying of the ships was nothing compared to the turmoil in the hearts of the people on board.
The giant island was quickly falling apart. Soon, only the part connected to the massive vine was barely holding on, but even it was on the verge of collapse.
"It's really... really collapsing!"
The Shandians collapsed onto the ships, screaming, wailing, and crying. "Jaya Island! Our homeland is really collapsing!"
"Our home is gone! Where do we go now!?"
"What about the last wish of the great warrior Calgara? What about the promise with Noland!?"
Their homeland was completely destroyed, and they could never return. Four hundred years later, the Jayan people had become true wanderers.
Not far away, on other ships, Gan Fall and his priests and guards were also staring blankly. The only island made of soil and rock in the sky, their sacred place for four hundred years, was truly gone.
Still, they were in a better state than the Shandians. Their home, Angel Island, was still safe. Taking a deep breath, Gan Fall turned to look at the heartbroken Shandians. Such grief couldn't be just for a coveted island. So, was what they said true—that the Angels took the island from them four hundred years ago?
Gan Fall shook his head again. At this point, it didn't matter if it was true or not. There seemed to be no reason to continue fighting.
"Let's go back to Angel Island," Gan Fall said, his voice heavy with fatigue.
While the two groups grieved, Dylan carried Roa and Bege eastward. Soon, they arrived over another island. Like most of the islands in the sky—or, now, like all the other islands—it was made of white island clouds. Everything was white, with only a few scattered coconut trees, a signature of the sky islands.
A white town sat on the white island. Its area wasn't large, about the size of a small town in the Blue Sea, with a population of a few tens of thousands.
Dylan flew nonstop, carrying Roa and Bege over the island before suddenly diving down. He landed roughly in the center of the town, in front of what was likely the most luxurious building.
The sudden event instantly drew the attention of the surrounding people. What was that monster? They had never seen a pterosaur before and were completely dumbfounded.
Then, they watched as two people jumped off the monster's back, and the monster turned into a man. Even more astonishingly, the short, stout man patted his stomach, and a small door opened. One after another, figures emerged from within.
"Huh!?"
The simple sky island residents, who knew very little about Devil Fruits, were shocked beyond words.
"Is the entire island really made of clouds?" After letting everyone out of his belly, Bege patted the wall of a nearby building with some curiosity. "Even the houses are made of clouds! That's amazing!"
"Indeed." Teach, Moria, Doflamingo, and the others all looked equally astonished. Even Kozuki Toki couldn't help but look around.
"So, Boss, is there gold on this island too?" Dylan asked with a hint of curiosity.
"No, but," Roa said, looking at the bewildered sky islanders, "there might be something more valuable than gold."
"These people?" King frowned. Everyone around them was wearing wing-like ornaments, which made him feel a little strange.
And then, something even more shocking happened.
"Wait! Black wings! Brown skin! The flames on his back... he... he... he's!!"
People around him began to exclaim.
"Huh?" King was taken aback. Did people in this isolated sky know about the Lunarian clan?
"It's a god!!"
"The god! He has finally returned!"
The surrounding residents cried out in surprise. Many of them even bowed to King.
"What?" King was completely confused. The Lunarian clan had been called gods a long time ago, but these people actually worshipped him as a god?
"Oh?" Roa raised an eyebrow with interest. He didn't know about the other sky islands, but the Birka people must be from the same origin as the Lunarian clan. The name "Lunarian" of course came from the moon. And the Birka people also came from the moon. Enel's lifelong dream was to return home. So, were the Lunarian clan once the gods of the moon?
Kozuki Toki suddenly remembered that eight hundred years ago, the Lunarian clan did have a subordinate race! But they should be on the sea, so how did they end up in the sky?
"God? What are you all talking about!? Is that brat Enel causing trouble again?"
Just then, a tall, burly man came running out of the luxurious building, led by several guards. As he ran, he complained loudly, "I'm the one who's the god of Birka—"
He stopped short as he saw King.
Then...
"Wah! A god!!" The man who called himself a god shrieked. "It really is a god! You haven't gone extinct!?"
His face was visibly shaken, turning pale and then red. He stared at King, and then, as if finally mustering his courage, he clenched his fists and said loudly, "But your rule over Birka was ages ago!"
"I'm the god who rules this country now!!"
"That doesn't matter," Roa said, not caring about the island's ruler. "You just said 'Enel,' right?"
"Yeah ha ha ha ha! This god thinks he heard his name!"
A young, yet arrogant voice suddenly rang out, accompanied by a bolt of lightning that struck the top of the building. From within the lightning, a boy with long ears appeared.
Roa sighed helplessly. That kid has already eaten it.
It looks like I'll have to use you to settle the debt.