As night descended upon the main plateau of Merveille, a canopy of cold, brilliant stars decorated the upper atmosphere.
A colossal bonfire crackled and popped in the center of the ruined palace square, the melting fat from roasting game dripping onto the embers to release a rich, heavy aroma. For the vanguard of the Eclipse Pirates, having the vitality of Ace's Vermilion Bird fire as a fallback meant that no matter how severe the muscle tearing or physical trauma faced during the day's drills, a single pass of the flame swept away the exhaustion, allowing the body to lock in the absolute margins of its structural growth.
Yet, while their muscles were tireless, their minds had grown taut after days of unyielding, high-intensity training.
Just as the crew sat gathered around the fire, tearing into the meat and trading sharp barbs, a melodious, ethereal violin progression drifted through the night air. The tune carried a distinct, chilling draft from the underworld, moving softly with the high wind.
Brook, clad in his tailored gentleman's suit, stood at the edge of the snow-covered cliff face. His skeletal fingers danced across the strings with elegant, effortless precision.
"My, everyone is burning with such commendable focus. But if you keep the string wound too tight, it will inevitably snap." Brook's empty eye sockets flared with a faint, ghostly blue fire as he drew the bow across the wood. "Let this arrangement serve as a palate cleanser for the evening. Music, after all, stitches the soul."
Hum.
Accompanied by chords that seemed to vibrate between the boundaries of life and death, an inexplicable wave of absolute stillness rippled outward across the courtyard. The raw tension in the crew's nerves—frayed by the continuous expansion of their Haki—dissolved under the cleansing influence of his Soul Requiem. Even the violent, mutated beasts held within the iron pens in the distance ceased their pacing, dropping their heavy jaws onto the frost as they drifted into deep snores.
"Incredible performance," Ace remarked from the head of the circle. He leaned back into his heavy leather chair, swirling a glass of dark rum. Brook's presence had cleanly settled the missing spiritual link within the warship's layout.
Just as the camp settled into harmony, a heavy thud broke the rhythm. The timber door of the makeshift laboratory bay was thrown open from the interior.
"Cough! Cough!"
Through a thick billow of chemical smoke, Chopper and Dr. Indigo stumbled into the snow, both coughing violently. The reindeer and the human looked equally absurd, their faces blackened with grease and soot while small sparks still chewed on the hem of Indigo's white laboratory coat.
"Another dead end! The equation refuses to balance!" Indigo ripped his charred spectacles from his face, dropping flat onto his back in the snow as tears of frustration ran through the soot. "No matter how I adjust the ratio, the moment we extract the core toxins from the SIQ stock solution, the active structural mutagen collapses instantly! The two components are mechanically locked; there is no chemical agent available to separate them!"
Chopper's furry ears drooped low against his skull, his blue nose smudged with black residue. His oversized round eyes were heavy with frustration.
"Ace... I'm sorry," Chopper whispered, walking slowly toward the captain's chair. "The genetic architecture of this medicine is far too volatile. The standard herbs we compiled simply lack the baseline properties required to neutralize the toxicity. My clinical knowledge... it isn't enough."
Ace set his glass aside, his large palm dropping onto the reindeer's pink hat to ruffle the soft fur beneath the brim. "No miracle of science was ever completed in a single afternoon. If the current lexicon is lacking, we simply look for older texts."
"But where?" Chopper looked up, his voice tight. "The Winter Island's library was cleared years ago."
"Carina," Ace called out, his eyes shifting toward the far side of the fire where the thief was polishing her rifle casing. "Check the grid. What do the records say about the South Blue's Torino Kingdom?"
"The Torino Kingdom?"
Carina paused, setting her tools down to rummage through her leather purse. She pulled out a dense stack of underworld intelligence ledgers, her fingers flying through the pages until her purple eyes caught a localized entry.
"Located. The Torino Kingdom—frequently designated as the Bird Kingdom. It's a highly isolated, primitive island deep within the South Blue sectors," Carina read, her voice climbing with interest. "The documentation states that a colossal tree, massive enough to pierce the cloud layer, stands at the center of the territory. Hidden within its trunk is an immense, ancient library of botany and medicine. It holds centuries of pharmacological data that has completely vanished from the outside world."
"An ancient medical library?!" Chopper's pupils dilated, his little hooves tightening as his breath hitched. "A sanctuary of lost texts?!"
"Precisely," Ace said with a nod. "Since the research has hit a brick wall, there's no use pounding your head against the stone. We turn the ship toward the South Blue, open that library, and extract every formula your project requires."
Sabo stepped forward from the shadows of the fire. "The Eclipse is primed. Do we clear the camp and move out as a unit?"
"No," Ace replied, looking out over the pitted, scarred terrain of Merveille, which had been thoroughly cratered by the week's drills. He shook his head. "The vanguard hasn't fully integrated their Haki upgrades yet. Moving the ship through standard waters would waste valuable training hours."
Ace pulled himself up to his full height. "The rest of you will remain here, pushing your limits in unrestricted sparring. If you drop into a bottleneck or capture significant movements from the Marines, relay the coordinates through the encrypted radio channels."
"I'll handle the navigation with Chopper and Indigo. The Eclipse is built for velocity; a round trip across the blue won't take long."
"Understood, Captain. We'll maintain the perimeter until the sky opens for your return," Sabo said with a confident smile. He recognized that this window was essential for the crew to solidify their grip on their newly awakened Conqueror's traits.
As the arrangements for the holding force settled, Ace looked up into the darkness of the southern sky. Beyond securing the texts for Chopper's laboratory, his mind held a personal ledger that needed to be balanced within the South Blue.
Baterilla Island.
"A pristine window to verify my mother's legacy," Ace murmured, downing the final drop of rum from his glass. A cold, dominant light flashed within his dark eyes. "If the speculation aligns with the facts... it's time to claim the steel that's been sleeping in the dirt for twenty years."
The following dawn, the silence of the clouds was shattered.
With a thunderous, industrial roar from the ventral vector matrix, the pitch-black warship lifted from the plateau, turning its sharp prow into the morning sun. Under the silent gazes of Sabo and the vanguard, the Eclipse transformed into a dark meteor, shearing through the mists of the East Blue as it set a direct, high-speed course for the South Blue.
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