'Pure Gold?'
'Alchemi?'
Bazel was stunned for a good while, before a scene from the TV Special, 'Heart of Gold', suddenly surfaced from the depths of his mind.
'No wonder that girl looked very familiar.'
'Myskina Olga!'
'Her father, Acier, was the alchemy scientist who created Pure Gold.'
"Olga-chan, it's me, didn't we meet in Alchemi two hundred years ago? Your family hosted me warmly back then." Toki squatted down in front of Olga, pointing at herself as she introduced herself excitedly.
"You are…?"
Olga blinked, her expression blank.
"What a strange woman, but I feel like her face is very familiar. Hmm, I should think about how to escape first though."
"This bunch probably are just poor, mediocre pirates. They probably don't even have treasure or food. Tch."
Bang…
Olga crouched down with her hands on her head, "It hurts! What are you doing, you guy with bird wings?!"
Retracting his hand chop, King said expressionlessly, "You said what you were thinking out loud, idiot."
"Ah, is that so? Sorry."
After instinctively bowing in apology, a flash of inspiration went through Olga's mind.
She straightened up abruptly and looked at Toki.
"I remember now! It's you, Toki-nee! Long time no see!!"
"Ehehehehe~~~"
A strange laugh came from the girl's mouth.
As the two girls, one big and one small, hugged each other, King walked over to Bazel's side.
"Kaido-san, they're acquaintances. How should we handle this now?"
"What do you mean how to handle it? Of course they join the Beasts Pirates, Wororororo!!" Kaido, soaring through the sky, laughed heartily.
"My pirate crew is in a period where everything needs to be built up right now! This is exactly when we need people!"
"Kaido."
Bazel, who had been silent for a while, suddenly brought up the legendary object.
"I've heard the legends about Alchemi and Pure Gold."
"Ah, I know that legend too. That bastard Rocks even had designs on Pure Gold back in the day."
Kaido lowered his flight altitude to prevent the high-altitude cold from harming the only two females in the group.
"What, Bazel, are you interested in Pure Gold and infinite lifespan too?"
"No, Kaido, it's not something that boring that interests me."
"An endless lifespan is not happiness. For someone with infinite life, these seas and skies... are a prison of freedom." Bazel sat down cross-legged, a playful smile that King couldn't understand spreading across his face.
"Kaido, I remember you want to establish a pirate crew made up of Zoan-type users, right?"
The dragon head swayed slightly, "What does that have to do with Pure Gold?"
"That man was able to create Pure Gold, a treasure that exists only in legend. That alone is enough to prove his talent."
"There's something I've never been able to understand…"
Switching to a completely different topic at this point, Bazel paused thoughtfully before continuing.
"Kaido, you mentioned before that Rocks said Devil Fruits are treasure born from desire that exists only in fantasy, correct?"
Kaido affirmed this.
"Human desire gives birth to demons, and the tides of the era turn those demons into reality. If that's the case, can I interpret it to mean that Devil Fruits are actually the product of humanity's stubborn fantasies?"
"Occasionally, legends of the Warrior of Liberation spread across the New World..."
"I know this legend." King suddenly interjected, "I believe Kaido-san is definitely the Warrior of Liberation who will change the world!"
Bazel didn't argue about whether Kaido was the Warrior of Liberation or not and continued his explanation, "There are various theories about the birth of the Warrior of Liberation, but the one I heard was…"
"The Slaves, unwilling to accept their enslaved fate, prayed to the sun, hoping for a God to bring laughter, joy, and freedom. Thus, the Warrior of Liberation Nika was born."
"If this version is true, it also indirectly indicates that Devil Fruits are actually aggregates of the desires of a large number of humans."
"In other words, so-called faith."
"As long as people's faith reaches a certain level, the thing they pray for will transform into a certain Devil Fruit, and then bring change to the seas."
Listening to this talk that seemed completely unrelated to Pure Gold, Kaido couldn't help but ask doubtfully, "What does all this have to do with Pure Gold?"
"Myskina Acier, the alchemy scientist who created Pure Gold, proved the existence of desire with facts."
"Toki, you just told me about Acier's purpose for creating Pure Gold, right?"
Toki, who was holding Olga, froze, 'When had I told Bazel-kun about this? Why didn't I remember?'
But this silence was mistaken by Kaido as affirmation.
"Acier used the scientific technology of the time, along with his strong desire to cure his daughter's disease, to create Pure Gold, using it to suppress his daughter's illness."
"Wait!"
Olga suddenly shouted angrily, " man is not my father! That greedy guy didn't do it for me! And I'm not sick either!"
"Olga-chan, that's not true. Acier was a proper father!"
Toki sighed, apologized to Kaido and King, and then walked away holding Olga.
"I know a little about what happened back then. Actually, your father…"
…
After the two women had walked some distance away, Bazel continued:
"If something like Pure Gold can be manufactured, I want to know if he can create a machine that collects human desires."
"Collect human desires?"
King's brow furrowed deeply, "Bazel, what exactly are you trying to do?"
"No, Arber, I understand."
A glint of sharp light, mixed with even more excitement, flashed in Kaido's dragon eyes.
"Wororororo…"
"Bazel, you bastard, your guts are really something else, you…"
"You actually want to snatch part of the authority of those Gods?!"
'Snatch the authority…'
'of the Gods?!'
"Wait a moment!"
King's expression changed drastically.
In this world, the races that could be called... no, that already held the name of God were only two.
One was his own race, the Lunarians, the people of the moon.
The other was the current Celestial Dragons!
"At God Valley eight years ago, the Rocks Pirates weren't simply there to reclaim the treasure stolen by the World Government."
Kaido's voice grew lower.
"Whether it was me, Linlin, or Newgate, we all knew that."
"Rocks didn't tell us the real reason. He even disappeared quietly the moment we landed on God Valley."
"We didn't know what he was doing, which led to the final collapse of the leaderless Rocks Pirates."
"We scattered and retreated, forming our own pirate crews to collect treasure."
"But, I remember something Rocks once said when he was drunk."
A memory surfaced in Kaido's mind.
Rocks (drunk): "Listen up! Being the Pirate King is so boring! I'm gonna be the King of the World!"
"I'm gonna take everything from the King! I'm gonna rule this world"
"God Valley, in the West Blue! It has everything I want! Let's set sail! It's time to settle things with that so-called King!"
As his words fell, Rocks' eyes suddenly seemed to clear slightly, and he hurriedly added, "How dare they steal treasure from pirates! Let's show them the power of the world's strongest pirate crew!"
[The members of the Rocks Pirates cheered excitedly.]
…
The memory faded.
"...Rocks knew the King of the World was at God Valley eight years ago. We didn't know the source or the validity of this intelligence, but the Rocks Pirates mobilized."
Seemingly worried that Bazel might doubt it, Kaido quickly added a statement affirming Rocks' character.
"Rocks was a member of the 'D' Clan. He wouldn't lie."
"We didn't see any so-called King of the World, but I saw a demon. Linlin saw it too."
Remembering the old man he encountered when seizing the Azure Dragon Fruit, a shadow passed over Kaido's eyes.
The Five Elder, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn!
That demon who took Linlin's full-powered attack head-on but recovered completely in the space of a few seconds!
That monster who walked out of a dark magic circle inscribed with the number '5'!
"If the machine you mentioned, Bazel, that can collect desires, could truly be created, and if that machine could successfully transform human desires into reality…"
King's eyes widened to their limit due to extreme shock.
"Hey, hey, Kaido-san, if the World Government found out about this, we would definitely face the world's strongest forces hunting us down, right?!"
Kaido flew in silence for a good while before his uninhibited loud laughter rang out again.
"That's what makes it interesting, Arber! Wororororo!!"
"Bazel, go ahead and do it! I absolutely won't let anyone take you away!"
"It's time for this sea to change! What Rocks couldn't accomplish, I will!!"