Chapter 176: The Golden Lion's Catastrophe! Floating Island Crash!
"There wasn't enough time to save everyone!"
Using Moonwalk, Gion carried Roy and sprinted above the out of control floating island, moving so fast it looked like she was truly flying.
As she ran, she used Observation Haki to read the island's atmosphere. Wherever she looked, ferocious beasts were fleeing in blind panic. Fortunately, she sensed no human presence here.
"That's good."
Shanks was moving just as fast, but at that moment, his expression tightened.
No.
It was not danger.
It was a strange aura.
The clouds were torn apart as one descending floating island after another plunged downward. After a night of fighting, dawn finally broke. Pale light spilled from the east, piercing the cloud cover and slowly illuminating the world.
Then Shanks saw them.
One presence after another, unbelievably faint, so weak it was almost hard to perceive at all.
Arriving with wings spread.
On the Golden Lion's main floating island, a large number of women from what had once been a village suddenly unfolded their wings and took to the air in stunning fashion.
If Roy woke up right now, he would discover that he was on the Golden Lion's main floating island, among those winged villagers.
Just like in the original story, at the most dangerous moment, the women and little girls left behind in that village spread their wings and learned to fly.
It was still early. The village men, who had been captured by the Golden Lion and forced into labor, seized the chaos and fled Shiki's territory in a desperate rush.
And in that same desperate moment, they took flight too, like fledgling eagles shoved off a cliff.
If anyone from Skypiea witnessed this scene, they would be shocked to realize that the small wings on Skypiea people's backs were not just decoration.
Maybe a new legend should be added.
Maybe the ancestors of winged humans could truly fly.
Maybe those ancestors came from the moon.
And Shanks had gone to Skypiea with Roger, so this sight would haunt the future Emperor for years.
Gion sensed that strange aura as well. Even while running, she kept glancing back.
In the growing light of dawn, humans with outstretched wings flew past one after another.
If someone placed halos above their heads, they would look exactly like angels.
"Wow! I'm flying!"
A cute little girl drifted by, wobbling in the air as she tested her wings.
A man who had clearly been oppressed by the Golden Lion for a long time flew closer, flapping hard as he asked Gion and Shanks, "Was it you who defeated the Golden Lion? Do you need our help?"
The moment he spoke, the winged villagers all looked toward them. Some glanced at Roy, covered in blood, cradled in Gion's arms.
"He's a hero," a little girl murmured as she flew.
"Yes. He is a hero," Gion said.
"Yes, he is a hero," Shanks said at the same time.
Both of them felt a little helpless. Roy had been around Luffy for too long. It was like he had caught Luffy's sickness.
That headbutt at the critical moment was reckless, but it was also everything.
It was so outrageous that he had actually managed to headbutt the Golden Lion into a state that looked like death.
"Please help us!" Gion called out immediately. "We have to rescue people from the Kingdom of Goa. They don't have wings. Please!"
"Where?" the flying villagers asked right away.
"Once we cross that floating island, we'll reach the Kingdom of Goa," Gion said, still moving forward. With one arm holding Roy, she pointed ahead.
"Understood!"
The villagers nodded quickly. Then the uncle who had escaped from the Golden Lion shouted loudly, "Everyone, follow me! We're going to save the people of Goa. Save as many as you can, to repay our benefactors!"
The villagers all agreed. One by one, they flapped harder and flew toward Goa.
They were in a life or death situation, and it was their first time truly flying, but their gratitude was burning hot. Someone had risked his life to defeat the Golden Lion.
So they would do everything they could to help.
As the clouds scattered, morning light poured through the gaps.
The cold wind still made people shiver, but at this moment, the dawn and the desperate effort of countless people brought hope to Goa's lower and middle class residents.
High above, backs lit by the sunrise, one winged figure after another, people once crushed under the Golden Lion's rule, flapped through the sky and appeared over Goa.
Gion and Shanks arrived as well.
Inside the city of Goa, chaos reigned.
The entire island shook and rumbled. The ground compressed and shifted as if something enormous was squeezing it from every direction. Houses collapsed. Cries of pain echoed everywhere.
The Marines, especially those who could use Moonwalk, did everything they could to grab as many residents as possible and get them away from the island.
Several members of the Red Hair Pirates had also learned Moonwalk during their battles with the Navy.
They snatched up residents from Foosha Village. Some grabbed Luffy and Sanji. Others carried Makino and the village chief. They moved frantically, saving whoever they could.
"Move!" Benn Beckman barked.
On Shanks's ship, Beckman tossed Sanji and Luffy into the cabin and left them to be watched by the others. Then he turned and began directing the crew.
The Golden Lion had lost control of the floating islands. Even the seawater he had deliberately touched, and the seawater he had lifted into the sky, churned violently, as if it could collapse and fall at any moment.
Beckman's plan was simple.
Build a giant umbrella shaped parachute and strap it to the hull.
The sky was far too high, and Goa had far too many people. Even the ships in the port, and even the small dock at Foosha Village, began using these crude parachutes with absolutely no technology behind them.
All Beckman could say was, "Now it's up to fate."
There were too many people. The few who knew Moonwalk could not save everyone.
And this altitude was terrifying. Even if someone survived the impact, they might still fail to use Moonwalk to descend gently, because it was simply too high. They would run out of stamina long before they reached the sea.
Moonwalk was not meant for endless long distance flight.
Before setting off, Roy had already instructed them and told everyone about this method.
So without waiting for pirates or Marines to carry them, most of Goa's citizens ran like mad out of the city, sprinting for the port with makeshift parachutes. They had looted cloth from every house they could and stitched together giant sheets, then dragged them toward the ships.
At the official port of Goa, they boarded and strapped the enormous crude parachutes onto the vessels.
Fortunately, most of Goa's nobles had been involved in commerce, so the port held many massive merchant ships.
Large enough to carry most of the lower and middle class residents.
After all, this was only a tiny country, about the size of a small town.
Then, in the next instant, the world seemed to lose its weight.
A huge amount of water splashed upward as the seawater Shiki had manipulated into the sky finally dispersed.
The island began falling toward the sea even faster.
People clung to anything they could on the ships and squeezed their eyes shut.
"I don't want to die, waaaaah…"
A small child curled in his father's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
The royal family and nobles of Goa were destroyed, but these people did not want to perish alongside those wicked rulers.
Life, in its most fragile moment, became something people clung to with everything they had.
"Look, what's that?!"
On the ship, the children shouted, like people on a doomsday ark catching sight of a new continent. In their despair, a spark of hope appeared.
"Is it an angel?" a woman whispered, staring in shock at the figures flying toward the morning light, wings spread wide against the sky.
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