Zoro's mind painted a grim picture—countless craters scattered across the land like scars, each one a testament to some brutal, forgotten battle.
Sanji's brow furrowed, a flicker of something close to fear deep in his eyes as he scanned the unnatural landscape.
"If I'm not mistaken," he muttered, his voice low and trembling.
"There used to be an island here. A whole island. But something happened... it was bombarded, so mercilessly that the entire landmass was literally wiped off the face of the sea."
"Wha—?!" Nami's pupils shrank
. The image that flooded her mind was one of pure, apocalyptic horror.
A storm of cannonballs raining from an unseen sky, the terror of the people with nowhere to run as their home was obliterated beneath their feet.
"My god," she gasped, her heart pounding with a mixture of shock and a cold, rising fury.
Who could have done this?
"Damn it!" Luffy gritted out, his fists shaking with a barely controlled rage.
"Who the hell would destroy a beautiful island like this?! I won't let them get away with it!"
"This is terrifying," Chopper trembled, his voice quivering with fear.
"What kind of power could do something like this?"
Yet, Usopp, defying expectations, leaped onto the ship's railing with a smug grin.
"Foolish pirates," he declared, "This was clearly the work of the great Captain Usopp! Back in the day, I commanded eight thousand men—"
Before he could finish, Nami's fist connected with his skull, leaving a large, throbbing lump.
"Stop fooling around at a time like this and go fix the ship!" she barked.
...
With their vessel stabilized, Nami immediately took charge.
"The Log Pose will take a full day to reset here. We're stuck until then."
"A whole day? Ugh, how boring!" Luffy complained, slumping over the railing like a deflated balloon.
Just then, Usopp, who was supposed to be working, spotted a lone, shimmering light in the sky.
"Huh... what's that?" he pointed. "A shooting star?"
In the distant, blue sky, a single point of light was streaking diagonally downward, trailing a long, magnificent tail of golden radiance.
It was beautiful, but there was something unnatural about its slow, deliberate descent.
"Wow! Let's go check it out!" Luffy cheered, instantly re-energized.
*****
Back on Sky Island, three minutes earlier, Jozu was completely immersed in a state of unprecedented excitement and concentration.
This wasn't just a battle; it was a chance to finally test the absolute limits of his new power.
"Seventy thousand beams!" he roared, the muscles in his crystalline arms straining.
But that wasn't enough.
"One hundred thousand beams!!!"
In just a few seconds, he successfully condensed an impossible amount of light into a single, overwhelmingly powerful point of energy held precariously at his fingertips.
It was no longer a beam; it was a miniature star, a singularity of pure light and heat, so bright it hurt to look at.
The very air around it seemed to tremble and warp.
The others had already retreated to what they hoped was a safe distance, watching the spectacle with wide, terrified eyes.
The heat from Jozu's attack washed over their faces even from a kilometer away.
Ron watched, his expression calm but his mind racing.
The ability Jozu had just displayed gave him a profound, chilling sense of familiarity.
The sheer energy density, the visual signature... it wasn't just like a nuclear bomb from his old world.
In principle, it was one.
He was witnessing a man create and contain a nuclear detonation through sheer force of will.
.....
Ron stared at the scene, a cold knot of dread tightening in his gut.
The aura emanating from Jozu's arms while holding two miniature, unstable suns, now sent a shiver of genuine fear down even his spine.
His mind raced through catastrophic calculations.
An uncontrolled detonation of that magnitude would be far, far worse than the earlier blast.
Even with his own enhanced physique and a full-body coating of Armament Haki, survival was not guaranteed.
Whitebeard seemed stunned too, his usual boisterous confidence replaced by a silent, focused awe as he wondered if even he could withstand such a terrifying force head-on.
Enel, meanwhile, was completely paralyzed by a terror he hadn't felt even when facing the Whitebeard.
As a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, he could feel the explosive energy Jozu was commanding, and it made his own most powerful attacks feel like a child's firecracker.
He felt an overwhelming wave of gratitude that he had joined this crew.
"One hundred and ten thousand!" Jozu gritted out, the veins bulging on his forehead as he relentlessly channeled the power of the Glint-Glint Fruit.
His entire body had become a vortex of energy, his arms burning red from the scorching power, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
"Is this my limit?" he roared, more to himself than anyone else, his eyes growing wild with a resolute fire.
"Far from it!"
Seeing this, the others were utterly stunned.
Has this guy lost his mind? one thought, horrified.
Daring to challenge his limits at such a moment—what if something goes wrong?
Ron couldn't help but tense up, beads of sweat forming on his own forehead.
"Jozu, that's enough for now," he finally spoke up, his voice laced with a subtle, cautious concern.
To his dismay, Jozu only grew more determined.
"Ron, didn't you say we were testing my limits? I haven't reached mine yet!" His voice boomed powerfully, echoing across the island.
"One hundred thirty thousand strikes!" The energy surged, and the air grew oppressively heavy.
"One hundred fifty thousand!"
Ace felt his own Logia powers feeling insignificant in the face of this raw energy, instinctively cast a pleading glance at Marco.
"Is this really okay?" he whispered.
Marco, noticing his brother's anxiety, managed a reassuring smile, though his own eyes were fixed on Jozu with intensity.
"You're a Logia user, Ace, what's there to be afraid of?" he said, trying to project a calm he didn't entirely feel.
"Look, even the Vice-Captain isn't showing any fear."
"One hundred eighty thousand!" Jozu roared, and the very space around him seemed to tremble.
It was then that he let out a final, deafening bellow, a sound of both ultimate triumph and pure agony.
"T-tw... two hundred thousand strikes!!!!"
His face was flushed a deep crimson, the veins on his forehead bulging like winding snakes.
His breathing came in rapid, heavy gasps.
The sheer mental effort of controlling the intricate light paths while simultaneously maintaining the delicate balance of the apocalyptic energy in his palms had pushed him to his absolute limit.
His hands began to tremble violently, the light within them flickering and warping, threatening to break free.
Sweat dripped from his chin, hitting the ground with soft, sizzling sounds.
His eyes widened, a new kind of panic replacing his determination.
"I... I can't," he gasped, his voice a choked, desperate cry.
"I can't hold on anymore!"
-----------------------------
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