The wind moved across the western clearing, carrying the smell of crushed grass and ozone. Dust settled over the surrounding trees. The battle against Topman Warcury had become a cycle. The ancient boar charged, healed, and charged again.
Yamato stood near a broken tree trunk, breathing out cold air. Robin lowered her hands as pink petals scattered across the dirt. Oimo and Kashii rested their iron weapons on the ground, wiping sweat from their foreheads.
The group held the line.
The beast refused to break.
Footsteps sounded on the dirt.
Ben walked into the clearing.
The crew watched him approach.
Golden light began to radiate from his skin. The glow spread across his body as the spiritual armor of Thomas Andre formed over his clothes. His physical strength increased, giving his body the power to withstand Warcury's attacks.
Ben rolled his shoulders.
His neck cracked softly.
"Step back," Ben said.
Yamato grinned and lifted the wooden club as she moved away. Robin nodded and walked toward the tree line with the giants.
Warcury scraped a hoof across the dirt.
The boar lowered his head, aiming his four tusks at the new challenger. Steam escaped from his snout as he charged.
The ground shook beneath him.
Ben did not dodge.
He stepped forward and planted both boots into the ruined earth.
Black lightning erupted from his fists.
Advanced Conqueror's Haki crackled across the ground. Ben tried to control the energy, remembering Scopper Gaban's battle with Imu.
Gaban had not allowed his Haki to scatter.
He had concentrated his will into a single beam that could pierce defenses.
Ben wanted that control.
Warcury was the perfect opponent for the attempt.
Ben threw a punch.
His golden fist met the boar's hide.
The impact created a shockwave that flattened the remaining trees. Ben's boots dragged backward through the dirt, carving two trenches, before Thomas Andre's strength halted the beast's momentum.
Warcury squealed as his head snapped back.
Ben focused.
Black lightning crawled around his fist, but the energy remained unstable. He tried to force the Haki forward and condense it into a straight line.
It resisted.
The lightning spread outward instead.
The punch still carried enough force to bypass the hide and damage Warcury's internal organs, but the beam Ben wanted did not form.
Warcury recovered before landing.
The dark aura around him healed the internal damage.
The boar swung his head, sending a tusk toward Ben's ribs.
Ben caught it with one hand.
Golden energy flashed across his armor.
He adjusted the Haki flowing through his arm and drove a knee into the side of Warcury's snout.
The battle settled into an exchange of strength.
Ben attacked, studied the flow of his Haki, and attacked again.
Warcury absorbed the strikes, healed, and countered with charges that tore through the clearing.
The ground gradually became a crater.
Time passed.
The sun moved across the sky.
Four hours later, the western clearing had become a field of broken earth.
Grass was gone. Pits covered the ground where Ben and Warcury had fought.
Ben stood breathing steadily, his golden armor still visible. Black lightning continued to spark around him, but it refused to take the form he wanted.
Even against an Elder, Haki mastery could not be achieved in a few hours.
Across Egghead Island, the rest of the crew was showing the effects of the prolonged fighting.
In the southern forest, trees lay scattered in pieces.
Zoro stood on the frozen ground, breathing heavily. He kept his grip on the three swords, but his arms trembled from the repeated clashes. Sweat ran down his face.
The Moonlight style continued to keep Nusjuro occupied, but the skeletal horse showed no sign of slowing.
Dorry and Brogy leaned on their weapons. Frost covered their bodies, mixed with shallow cuts from the battle.
In the sky, the air smelled of burnt metal and feathers.
Sanji remained airborne with Sky Walk, but his movements had slowed. Burn marks covered his black suit. He pulled another cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a spark.
Nearby, the four Zords hovered.
The red, blue, yellow, and white machines carried scratches across their armor. Smoke escaped from the joints of the Red Falcon.
Merry and the others kept them flying.
On the eastern front, the mud had become a swamp.
Vivi hovered close to the ground, her glowing wings weaker than before. She leaned on the Vibranium-Uru spear.
Nami sat on a rock, her albatross wings hanging behind her. She held the Clima-Tact like a walking stick.
Brook remained standing, his Uru-coated bones keeping his body intact, though his magical output had slowed.
Chopper sat in the mud, panting as his Heavy Point form shrank back to normal.
Carue rested on the ground.
The repulsor boots had no power left.
Ju Peter continued to move.
The worm healed every burn, lightning strike, and deep wound.
At the center of the camp, Luffy bounced across the dirt.
Gear Fifth remained active, but his jumps were shorter than before. The heartbeat continued.
Don. Da-da.
Luffy laughed while dodging Saturn's attacks, but his chest rose and fell with exhaustion.
Usopp sat behind a rock, replacing a magazine in the nanite rifle. His hands moved slowly.
Franky stood nearby, venting steam as he tried to keep his mechanical body from overheating.
The crew was reaching its limits.
The Elders were not.
Emeth noticed.
The ancient robot stood near the center camp, its golden eye scanning the exhausted pirates. Gears turned inside its frame as it stepped forward.
"The battle yields no result," Emeth said.
Its voice sounded like grinding stone.
"You grow tired. The enemy does not. I will open a path. You must leave."
Luffy stopped bouncing.
He stood on the dirt, wiping sweat from his forehead. He looked at Emeth and then toward the western clearing.
Ben walked from the trees, leaving Warcury behind for the moment.
The golden armor faded from his body, returning him to normal clothes.
Ben stood beside Luffy.
He remained silent.
The solution was already in his mind.
Rule Breaker, a dagger capable of severing magical contracts.
The Five Elders possessed their immortality through an ancient contract with Imu.
Ben knew that one strike with Rule Breaker could sever that connection and end their regeneration.
The battle could be over quickly.
But Ben kept his hands at his sides.
The great war still waited.
Revealing the ability now would expose one of his strongest advantages. The World Government would adapt, and the Elders would no longer believe themselves untouchable.
Their arrogance was useful.
Ben intended to preserve it until the day the throne fell.
There was another reason as well.
Ben wanted to see what Emeth would reveal.
"I can fight more," Luffy said, breathing heavily.
"The time for fighting ends," Emeth replied.
The robot raised a massive hand toward its chest.
"A friend left something behind. A tool for the right moment."
Emeth paused.
"The moment is now."
Luffy looked at Ben.
Ben gave a slow nod.
"We leave," Luffy agreed.
He sat down on the dirt.
Emeth reached a metal finger into a gap in its chest plating.
Inside was an ancient rope wrapped around a metal spool.
A complex knot held it in place.
The knot was not holding physical tension.
It held something else.
Emeth pulled the rope.
The knot came undone.
Nothing exploded.
No light filled the sky.
The atmosphere simply changed.
The wind stopped.
Grass flattened against the dirt under an invisible pressure. The air became heavy, and the clouds above Egghead began to separate.
Then Joy Boy's Haki spread across the world.
It was not a directed attack.
It was a declaration.
A sovereign will that had slept for eight hundred years returned to the world.
The pressure bypassed the physical body and struck directly at the soul.
Across Egghead Island, the fighters froze.
Yamato dropped to one knee, leaning against her club.
Zoro drove his swords into the dirt to remain standing.
Sanji lost Sky Walk and dropped to the ground, landing on one knee.
Usopp, Nami, Chopper, and Brook collapsed completely.
They could barely breathe.
Ben remained upright.
The Haki washed over him like the pressure of the ocean.
He held his ground and studied the flow.
The scale was enormous.
The density was extraordinary.
But the Haki lacked the focused control Ben had been trying to achieve. It relied on volume rather than precision.
The Five Elders reacted differently.
The pressure was not simply affecting them.
It was rejecting them.
In the western clearing, Warcury stopped.
The dark aura surrounding the boar flickered and disappeared.
The Elder released a gasp.
Black smoke rose from his hooves.
The summoning circle that had brought him to Egghead appeared beneath his body, rotating backward.
In the sky, Mars shrieked.
The giant bird lost its ability to fly. His wings folded as black smoke spread across his feathers.
He fell toward the trees, disappearing before reaching them.
In the south, Nusjuro lowered Kitetsu.
The skeletal horse buckled.
His freezing aura shattered.
Black fire consumed his bones, pulling him back through space.
In the east, Ju Peter stopped moving.
The giant worm sank into the mud.
It was not digging.
The summoning force was pulling it away.
The cavernous mouth closed.
Ju Peter vanished into smoke.
In the center of the camp, Saturn remained frozen.
The Haki struck him hardest.
His humanoid face twisted in pain as the dark aura disappeared.
Space warped around his legs.
Saturn was thrown backward, tearing through the boundary between spaces.
Then he was gone.
The enemies had vanished from Egghead Island.
The pressure lifted.
The heavy air disappeared.
Luffy fell onto his back.
Gear Fifth faded.
His white hair turned black.
His clothes returned to his red shirt and shorts.
The heartbeat slowed.
Don. Da-da.
Then the rhythm returned to normal.
Luffy stared at the sky, breathing deeply.
A grinding sound came from nearby.
Emeth stopped.
The ancient robot lowered its fist.
The golden eye flickered once.
Then again.
It went dark.
The gears stopped.
Emeth became still.
Luffy sat up and looked at the machine.
"What happened to the robot? It stopped moving."
Ben looked up at the towering figure.
"The robot runs on a specific energy source. It heard the drums of liberation. It heard your heartbeat in that form, and the sound provided power."
Ben paused.
"When you dropped the form, the drums stopped. The power source vanished. The robot went back to sleep."
Luffy nodded.
He patted the robot leg.
"Good robot."
Ben turned toward the crew.
The others slowly began getting up.
They brushed dirt from their clothes and checked their weapons.
The immediate threat was gone.
"Gather around," Ben ordered.
The crew moved toward the center.
The giants walked over and returned to human size with the shrinking magic.
The Zords landed nearby. Their pilots exited the cockpits, and the colored suits disappeared.
Ben snapped his fingers.
A large doorway opened in the air.
"Inside," Ben said. "Everyone."
The crew entered.
The giants followed.
The Zords flew through the portal.
Ben used Ruler's Authority to lift Emeth from the ground and carry the sleeping robot inside.
Ben entered last.
The portal closed.
Egghead Island became silent.
Far away, outside the island's deactivated barrier, the Marine fleet remained on the sea.
Joy Boy's Haki had crossed the shoreline.
It struck the ships with enough force to send soldiers to the deck.
Vice Admiral Doberman lay on the wooden planks, struggling to breathe. He gripped the railing and tried to stand.
Around him, hundreds of Marines were unconscious.
A crack broke across the deck.
Jaygarcia Saturn appeared in the air and fell onto the ship.
The impact splintered the wood.
Saturn no longer occupied his spider form.
He lay on the deck as an old man, breathing heavily and leaning on his cane.
Doberman looked at him in shock.
"The island," Saturn said, struggling to stand. "Sweep the island."
Doberman forced himself onto one knee and grabbed a Den Den Mushi from a fallen Marine.
He ordered the remaining scouts to search the island.
Twenty minutes later, the Den Den Mushi rang.
"Empty," the scout reported. "The island is completely empty. The pirates are gone. The residents are gone. The machines are gone. There is only broken ground and ruined trees."
Saturn closed his eyes and leaned on the cane.
He said nothing.
The failure was clear.
High above the clouds, Mary Geoise remained in sunlight.
Inside the Room of Authority, the air twisted.
Four magic circles appeared on the marble floor.
Warcury, Mars, Nusjuro, and Ju Peter fell through them.
The beasts disappeared, leaving the four Elders in human form.
Nusjuro dropped Kitetsu.
The sword struck the marble.
Warcury pushed himself onto his hands and knees, sweat running down his face.
Mars leaned against a bookshelf, holding his chest.
Ju Peter lay on his back and stared at the ceiling.
The Five Elders, rulers of the world, were exhausted.
They did not speak.
They remembered the pressure.
They remembered Joy Boy.
For the first time in centuries, fear was visible on their faces.
Far from the polished halls of the Elders, deep within Pangea Castle, there was a hidden garden.
The Room of Flowers was filled with lilies, exotic plants, and butterflies.
Soft sunlight entered through a high window.
A figure stood in the center of the room.
A long robe covered the body.
A crown rested on the head.
Imu stood holding a small watering can over a patch of blue flowers.
The Haki reached the room.
Only an echo of the force remained here, but the signature was unmistakable.
Imu stopped watering the plants.
A tremor moved through the fingers holding the can.
The ruler of the world did not speak.
But the body reacted.
Imu trembled.
The wooden doors opened.
A servant entered carrying a silver tray with a porcelain teacup and a pot of hot water.
The servant kept his head lowered.
"My liege," he whispered.
He took another step.
Then he noticed the trembling figure.
The servant had never seen Imu show anything but stillness.
Imu turned slightly.
A red eye with concentric circles appeared through the shadows.
The gaze carried fear.
The servant gasped and stepped backward.
The tray slipped from his hands.
It hit the stone floor.
The teacup shattered.
Hot water spilled across the garden.
Imu ignored the noise.
The ruler turned toward the window, looking out at the distant sea.
The trembling slowly stopped.
Fear became anger.
The echo of the drums had reached the empty throne.
The world would never be the same.