As he listened to Sakazuki issuing orders, Spandine's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
In a fit of irrational rage, flushed red and losing all sense of control, Spandine even drew his pistol and fired three shots at Sakazuki's back.
But the moment he pulled the trigger... he regretted it.
His cowardly instinct for self-preservation instantly took over.
Watching the three bullets that had pierced through the cloak of justice melt away completely in the magma, Spandine trembled uncontrollably from head to toe.
"Sa-Sakazuki! I-I came here on orders from the Celestial Dragons and the World Government!"
"Cancel the fire order immediately! Let us go ashore and investigate!"
Sakazuki suddenly turned around, his overwhelming height and murderous intent blanketing the clown behind him.
"Spandine, shut your noisy mouth."
Sakazuki reached out, grabbed the gun in Spandine's hand, and melted it completely into slag with his magma.
Spandine recoiled in horror, throwing the weapon away and backing off repeatedly.
"Hmph. A mere CP spy dares to think he can command me?"
"Don't tell me you actually believe your command authority is above that of Admiral Sengoku?"
"Even Admiral Sengoku doesn't have the authority to halt a Buster Call!"
"As for you... just wait. When I return, I'll file an internal complaint to the World Government for your overreach!"
"And now..."
"Fire!"
With a roar like a volcanic eruption, Sakazuki gave the order.
The ten warships deployed for the Buster Call unleashed a nation-destroying barrage of firepower toward Ohara!
The Tree of Knowledge—five thousand years old, once the greatest library in the world...
Was swallowed whole by the roar of cannon fire.
On that day, Ohara ceased to exist.
...
"Owow, owowow, owowowow, what a barrage!"
On an island just ten nautical miles from Ohara, Michael was currently flying in midair, witnessing the fall of Ohara firsthand through a telescope.
"Hey! Michael! What are you looking at over there?"
Olvia and Saul approached him with wry smiles.
Behind them was Garp, carrying little Robin on his shoulders like a horse ride or a kiddie ride.
The one calling out was, of course, old man Garp.
Ever since Ace was born, he'd completely lost all resistance to children.
It was hard to imagine that this doting old man would one day subject his grandsons to hellish boot camp training.
Michael descended from the air and raised his telescope.
"Of course I was watching to see if the Buster Call would proceed as we agreed with Sengoku—long-range bombardment only, no landing forces."
"I gotta say, Sakazuki's fiery temper actually came in handy this time."
"Through the telescope, I even saw that idiot Spandine get so scared by Sakazuki's glare that he wet himself—hahaha!"
When Michael mentioned Spandine, Olvia and Saul exchanged glances and relaxed noticeably.
After all, it had been Spandine and his CP9 subordinates who killed the archaeologists and hunted down the two of them.
Michael put away his telescope, turned to Garp, and asked:
"Have the villagers been resettled? No problems?"
"Nope. For the average Ohara citizen, this island... is a thousand times better than that one, which had nothing but a big tree."
Michael nodded.
Indeed.
This island was much larger than Ohara, and compared to the barely fertile land there, Ohara was basically a barren little rock.
Those villagers who were originally reluctant to migrate were more than satisfied once they saw what this island had to offer.
But how had such a high-quality island, located so close to Ohara, remained uninhabited all these years?
Later, Michael and Bogard led Navy soldiers to conduct a deep sweep of the island and discovered that it was crawling with wild wolves.
And these weren't just ordinary wolves. On nights when the moon rose high, their strength and speed seemed to increase...
According to Garp, these wolves were known as the "Moonwolf Clan."
This trait probably came from some distant, diluted ancestral connection to the Mink Tribe, many generations back.
But while the Minks had evolved into a full-fledged intelligent race...
The Moonwolf Clan remained little more than wild beasts with a few special abilities.
Under Michael's leadership, they quickly eradicated all the Moonwolves on the island.
The island then officially became the new home of the former residents of Ohara.
"Olvia, Saul... are you two leaving as well?"
"That's right. We're setting off too."
"Have you found a destination?"
"Not yet, but we definitely can't stay on this island," Olvia shook her head. "It's only a matter of time before the World Government finds us."
Michael nodded. Olvia wasn't wrong.
If they managed to uncover Ace's lineage back then, finding Olvia would be child's play.
"Alright, how about I point you in the right direction?" Michael glanced at Garp—still horsing around with little Robin—and then spoke in a voice only Olvia could hear.
"Go to Baltigo. Look for a man named Monkey D. Dragon. Tell him Michael sent you."
"He's in desperate need of justice warriors like Saul... and archaeologists like you."
"An archaeologist who can read the Poneglyphs."
Olvia froze for a moment, saying nothing, but pointed silently at Garp nearby.
Michael nodded. "Yes, he's Garp's son. He'll be your most like-minded ally."
"You're chasing the truth. Saul seeks inner justice."
"And Dragon... wants to overthrow the World Government."
Olvia trembled, her entire being reacting to those words. She looked at Michael with burning eyes.
"You're saying... he wants to overthrow the entire World Government?"
"It's not just him. Even me, standing before you, I'm working toward a similar goal."
Michael smiled gently at her and said no more.
At that moment, heads of various shapes and sizes peeked out from Garp's battleship. Among them, the most distinctive was Clover.
"Vice Admiral Garp! Commander Michael! All scholars from the Tree of Knowledge are aboard and ready!"
"When do we set sail?"
Olvia stared blankly at the scholars on the warship, then turned to Michael, unsure what to make of it all.
"Michael-san, they are...?"
"Oh, them?"
Michael shrugged and grinned.
"Just hitching a ride."
"They're heading out too—pioneers on the road to spreading knowledge."
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