"The essence of the sun?"
Admiral Sengoku and Great Staff Officer Tsuru frowned slightly, their seasoned instincts vaguely sensing that something was terribly amiss.
"Why bother listening to him?!" Garp suddenly bellowed.
A wave of Conqueror's Haki, almost as suffocatingly dense as York's, erupted from the Marine Hero. Clenching his right hand, Garp's signature 'Fist of Love' blackened with Armament Haki. He kicked off the ground, charging at York like a runaway train.
Watching Garp barrel toward him, the smile on York's face only grew brighter.
Garp's speed was genuinely terrifying. Even without a Devil Fruit, his physical explosive power allowed him to move close to the speed of sound.
But in York's eyes—in his newly forged Mythical Zoan: Ra Form—Garp might as well have been a snail.
FLASH!
York didn't dodge. He simply vanished, instantly reappearing a hundred meters in the air.
BOOM!!
Garp's punch hit empty space. The sheer kinetic shockwave pulverized a massive section of Water 7's abandoned warehouses, reducing the stone buildings to dust.
Sengoku and Garp's advanced Observation Haki immediately locked onto York's new position in the sky. Tsuru was a fraction of a second slower.
York looked down at the Three Giants, and then at the hundreds of Marine soldiers who had stubbornly refused to evacuate the perimeter.
"The essence of the sun... I'm sure you wouldn't know the scientific answer, so I'll just show you directly!"
After a slight pause, York slowly raised his arms to his sides, adopting a posture as if embracing the heavens.
"The essence of the sun is Nuclear Fusion!!"
As soon as the words left his lips, an apocalyptic wave of extreme light and heat detonated from York's body.
The pure white light transformed into a rapidly expanding, miniature sun.
The terrifying, absolute high temperature didn't even need direct contact to kill. The heatwave washed over the shipyard. Instantly, the crisp white uniforms of the Marines spontaneously combusted.
"AAGGGHH!!"
Screams filled the air. Marines with insufficient Haki began to violently lose all the water in their bodies. In the span of a single heartbeat, they were scorched into charred corpses, reduced to ash, and entirely annihilated by the blinding light.
The cobblestone ground itself began to melt like lava, crystallizing into glass under the sheer thermal pressure.
In the nick of time, just before the giant sphere of light fully expanded to consume them, Sengoku activated his Mythical Zoan.
BZZZZT!
He instantly transformed into a giant, towering golden Buddha. Foregoing any offensive attacks, the Admiral immediately hunched over, using his massive, indestructible golden body to shield Garp and Tsuru beneath him.
Under the Buddha's shadow, Garp and Tsuru desperately coated their entire bodies in the thickest layers of Armament Haki they could muster. Garp punched the melting ground, trying to anchor them against the devastating shockwave.
It was already the dead of night across the first half of the Grand Line.
But a brilliant, blinding sun was rising over the sea.
The entire archipelago of Water 7 was swallowed by the light. Hundreds of miles away, the citizens of Alabasta stepped out of their homes, shielding their eyes as they watched a second sun rise over the distant horizon.
Ten thousand meters in the sky, the view from Skypiea was even clearer. A massive, pure white sphere had suddenly exploded over the dark blue ocean below.
Gloriosa, Stussy, Shakky, Kuma, Ivankov, and Ginny—the core of the Crimson Harvest Pirates—stood at the edge of the White Sea, staring down at the blinding light. They were completely rendered speechless.
Somewhere over the vast sea, Dragon, in his Wind-Wind form, was flying at full speed toward Skypiea. He suddenly felt the sky behind him brighten as if it were noon. With a heavy premonition, he turned to look back.
He clearly saw a pure white sun rising over the ocean.
Not far from Skypiea, Kaido, who was currently using his Flame Clouds to hold up the massive new 360-meter flagship, stared in absolute shock.
"Is this... York's Devil Fruit Awakening?!" Kaido roared, his reptilian eyes wide.
…
High atop the Red Line, Mary Geoise was thrown into chaos.
The sudden daylight startled all the Celestial Dragons. Panic erupted in the pristine streets. Saint Figarland Garling immediately rushed to the edge of the cliff, looking down toward the Grand Line. A pure white sun was violently rising over the sea.
Inside the Room of Authority within Pangaea Castle.
The Five Elder Stars stood in a neat line by the massive window. They stared in the direction of the rising sun, their ancient eyes filled with disbelief and horror.
"That direction..." Marcus Mars muttered.
"It aligns perfectly with Water 7," Topman Warcury gritted his teeth.
"Sengoku and Garp just received orders to go to Water 7 to capture York..." Shepherd Ju Peter said, sweat beading on his forehead.
"Which means..." Jaygarcia Saturn gripped his cane tightly.
Deep within the Room of Flowers.
The sanctuary was completely sealed, and no natural light from the outside could penetrate the thick stone walls. Yet, the mysterious sovereign of the world, Imu, instinctively raised their head, their sharp, ringed red eyes piercing the darkness, turning to look precisely in the direction of Water 7.
…
The extreme light and an earth-shattering roar occurred simultaneously.
In an instant—truly just a fraction of a second—the entire island of Water 7 was annihilated. It simply ceased to exist under the expansion of the giant sun.
When the blinding light finally dispersed, only a massive, boiling crater remained where the City of Water had once stood. The surrounding ocean, having lost the physical obstruction of the island, rushed into the glowing crater with a thunderous roar.
RUMBLE!!
A colossal whirlpool formed over the ruins of Water 7.
York floated silently in mid-air, chest heaving as he breathed heavily. He watched the surging, boiling waves below. The dark flame Hagoromo behind his head flickered and vanished. His pure white, flame-like hair slowly began to return to its normal black color.
"Heh... I'll spare your lives for now," York panted, feeling his stamina completely bottom out.
Dragging his nearly exhausted body, York raised a finger. He shot a single, pure white beam of light into the sky, tracing the exact path Kaido had taken.
The white light hit a cloud in the distant sky, forming a glowing, reflective node—a technique functionally identical to Kizaru's Yata no Kagami (Eight-Foot Mirror).
FLASH!
York used light speed to instantly teleport to the node. He quickly fired another beam, creating a new node, and repeated the process. Bouncing through the sky at the speed of light, he finally reappeared right in front of the massive Azure Dragon holding up their ship.
"Yo, Kaido," York rasped, his eyes heavy. "I'll leave the rest to you."
Having said his last words, York completely dropped his Mythical Zoan transformation. Unconscious, his body fell out of the sky like a kite with a severed string.
Kaido hesitated for a fraction of a second. His immense pride as a conqueror didn't want him to be mistaken for a mere mount.
But looking at York's falling, exhausted figure, Kaido clicked his tongue. He twisted his massive serpentine body and actively moved his horned head beneath York to catch him.
Thud.
York landed securely on the dragon's hard scales.
Miraculously, York hadn't completely lost consciousness yet. Realizing he had landed on Kaido's head, he forced a tired smirk.
"I thought... you'd let me sink into the sea..."
"Hmph!" Kaido snorted, annoyed but respectful. "Don't compare me to trash like Wang Zhi!"
"Hahahaha..." York let out a weak, genuine laugh. Then, he closed his eyes peacefully, finally letting exhaustion take over, and fell into a deep sleep.
When Kaido finally returned to Skypiea and deposited York onto the island clouds, the entire crew immediately swarmed them.
"How is York?!"
"Is the Captain alright?!"
"Was that apocalyptic blast the Captain's ability?! It was terrifying!!"
"That giant white sphere... it was literally the sun!!"
"Captain?! Captain York?!"
The concerned calls and excited questions instantly morphed into a deafening, chattering chorus.
But seeing York lying there completely motionless, the crew began to panic.
"Is he—" Ivankov started.
Suddenly, York impatiently cracked one eye open.
"Quiet. Let me get some good sleep," York grumbled. "That move drained every ounce of my stamina."
With that, he closed his eye and began snoring softly.
The crew froze for a second, then collectively let out a massive sigh of relief.
Gloriosa quietly walked over to York's side. She gracefully sat down on the soft island cloud, straightened her legs, and gently lifted York's head, placing it onto her lap to make him more comfortable.
York noticed the softness beneath his head. He adjusted his posture slightly, burying his face deeper into her lap. Smelling the faint, familiar fragrance emanating from Gloriosa, he fell completely asleep.
Stussy and Shakky, seeing this tender scene unfold, were secretly annoyed that Gloriosa had beaten them to it. But they both knelt down beside him, one on each side, quietly and fiercely guarding their sleeping Captain.
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