> Amazon Lily – Temporary Hideout
Luffy lay in a hammock, barely conscious, recovering from Marineford.
Ace was safe, thanks to Jinbei and Law. The war had ended — but its scars ran deep.
Luffy's eyes fluttered. In his dreams, flashes of childhood swirled:
A pair of dark eyes watching from the forest
A boy older than Ace, silent and still
One moment… one voice…
> "You're not ready yet, Luffy. But one day, you'll need to choose what kind of world you want to protect."
He bolted upright.
> "Rael."
Jinbei blinked. "You remember him?"
Luffy nodded slowly.
> "He always said he wasn't like us. Not just free… but meant to rule."
---
📍 Setting: Rael's Mobile Fortress – The Obsidian Ark
Rael stood before a wall of glowing sigils — a genealogical map of the Celestial Dragons.
He pointed to one name:
> Saint Callas Figarland
A World Noble heir who had defected, believing he could reshape the world through technology and conquest.
Callas had begun building weaponized islands — floating strongholds for nobles, disguised as neutral nations. The world believed he was a reformer.
Rael knew better.
> "He wants to replace the throne, not destroy it," Rael murmured.
"That makes him more dangerous than a king."
---
🎯 Mission: Erase the First Line
Rael's agents moved fast.
Lysara infiltrated Callas's flying city: Cloudreign
Vale seeded false information through pirate networks to lure Cipher Pol away
Shien jammed World Government signals for 24 hours
Rael warped to the base of Cloudreign in the dark of night, cloaked in gravity.
He rose silently, folding the sky around himself, ascending toward a man who claimed to bring peace — by making everyone kneel.
---
🏰 Inside Cloudreign
Callas wore royal robes and neural implants — combining noble arrogance with stolen Vegapunk tech. His guards wielded artificial gravity weapons and anti-Devil Fruit mines.
> "I know you're coming," he said to the empty air. "You're the shadow. The ghost. The Trinity."
> "But I'm not afraid. I'm the future."
Rael stepped through the wall.
> "No. You're just another lie with a crown."
Callas fired a gravity cannon.
Rael caught it.
> "Don't insult me."
---
🌀 The Battle: Mind vs Monolith
Callas's cybernetic mind allowed him to bend physics using tech-enhanced haki. He warped metal, created pressure domes, tried to isolate Rael inside a reverse gravity field.
But Rael's mastery of the Sora Sora no Mi was organic.
He bent space around attacks
He inverted dimensions to reflect force
And when Callas tried to trigger a self-destruct failsafe…
> "Too slow."
Rael compressed the city's core reactor into a spatial pocket — and crushed it between his fingers.
The explosion never came.
Only silence.
Rael stood over the heir.
> "You used your bloodline to justify power. I use mine to erase it."
> "This is not revenge. It's realignment."
With a single look, Callas collapsed under gravity, his blood crushed into the stone.
Rael didn't steal the city.
He let it fall.
And in its place — he erected nothing.
> "Not every tyrant deserves a successor."
---
🕊️ Across the World
The World Government announced:
> "Saint Callas was assassinated by revolutionaries. The culprit remains unknown."
But pirate captains whispered:
> "Rael is erasing the gods — one bloodline at a time."
And in Mariejois, Imu removed a golden ring from a pedestal.
> "Then we bring fire to his shadow."