"Eh? How can there be two suns in the sky?"
Luffy widened his eyes and exclaimed, "How amazing!"
"That's not two suns."
Crocodile stared at that spot, his expression uglier than it had ever been.
With his eyesight far beyond that of ordinary people, he could still make out more details, "Only one of them is the sun. The other is a palace floating high above the sky. The light it gives off is almost as bright as the sun itself."
That palace was bathed in endless holy light. Even he could not make out its full shape clearly.
But even across that enormous distance, he could clearly feel it.
From there came an oppressive presence that made it hard to breathe, along with a sense of supreme holiness.
It was as if that place were the dwelling of a god.
"That's the Celestial Palace," Sanji, a cigarette hanging from his mouth, casually gave them the answer, "It's the old man's residence."
To be honest, he had personally set foot there before.
But when he had been inside it, there had instead been an unreal, hazy feeling, as if the entire palace floated among the clouds.
It was far less striking than looking up at it from far below and seeing it so clearly, so shockingly.
That holy majesty, competing with the sun and sharing the light of the sky, had even made someone as calm-minded as him feel an urge to bow down in worship at the time.
And a miraculous sight like this could not be seen from the Four Seas.
Only by climbing to a height like the Red Line could ordinary people barely catch a glimpse of the holy visage of the Celestial Palace.
In other words, when an ordinary person from the Four Seas endured countless hardships and finally climbed up the Red Line, believing that they had already stepped through the gates of heaven, only then would they suddenly realize at this moment.
Just how high the true heavens really were.
"Almost as bright as the sun..."
Yet amid all the shock and pressure filling the ship, the corners of Shanks's mouth slowly curled into a smile.
Far from being shaken by the Celestial Palace hanging high above the heavens.
Instead, an excited light rose in his eyes.
"But don't forget..."
He turned his head toward the straw-hatted boy at the bow, who was grinning foolishly at the two suns, and his voice was low, but every word rang out clearly, "Rosse merely compares himself to the sun."
"But the Nika that Luffy carries..."
He looked at that small, somewhat foolish-looking back, which nevertheless seemed to contain endless vitality, and said each word with absolute certainty, "That is the true Sun God."
Luffy's future.
Would not lose to any sun in this world.
"You're just saying that out loud like it's nothing. Aren't you afraid I'll turn around and tell on you?"
Sanji helplessly took a drag from his cigarette and glanced sideways at Shanks, who was laughing heartily beside him.
Talking openly about something as outrageous as overthrowing the World Government, right in front of Rosse's eldest son.
Should he say, as expected of Shanks?
"Hahahaha!", Shanks laughed loudly without a care, "You're not going to tell on me, are you? Besides, I don't believe for a second that what I just said could escape Rosse's ever-present eyes."
He raised his head and looked toward the Celestial Palace hanging high above the heavens and shining alongside the sun, a teasing smile on his face.
It was as if, across those vast reaches of sky, he were staring straight at those eyes that looked down upon all living things.
After all these years, whether they had clashed openly or secretly, or merely passed each other by, they had encountered each other so many times.
Even the dullest person should have figured out that man's temperament to some extent.
With Rosse's personality, he would absolutely not waste even a little thought on such trivial remarks.
If he really intended to act, he probably would have done so many years ago.
That man was simply that arrogant.
So arrogant that he simply could not be bothered to take these words of his seriously.
As if, in Rosse's eyes, no matter how those ants jumped around, they were nothing more than a few pieces on his palm for him to play with.
"No wonder the old man has never killed you."
Sanji shrugged and slowly blew out a smoke ring, "To be honest, I'm actually a little curious to see just how far you guys can take this in the end."
After saying it, he himself felt somewhat speechless.
Half of those words really were what he thought.
But the other half was his troublesome idiot of a little sister borrowing his mouth to convey her own thoughts to the outside world.
Still, at least she knew where to draw the line.
Every time she wanted to speak through him, that girl would at least symbolically ask him in his mind first.
'Forget it, forget it.'
'Who told us to be family?'
Sanji shook his head, pushed that helplessness to the back of his mind, and put his cigarette back between his lips.
The Going Merry adjusted its course, pushed through layer upon layer of drifting clouds, and steadily sailed toward the island of Skypiea.
From beginning to end, they had only one purpose in coming to the Sky Island.
Find the Poneglyph sleeping in the City of Gold and see whether they could dig some secret out of those ancient, sealed-away words that could shake the World Government.
Especially with that pressing matter involving Jace hanging over their heads, no one had the leisure to linger over the beautiful scenery of this land among the clouds.
Even Luffy, who was usually the first to join in the fun, had unusually reined himself in at this moment. He merely looked solemnly at the island drawing closer and closer, his thoughts entirely occupied by the rescue thirty days from now.
The island of Skypiea was already within reach.
The luxurious palace standing in the middle of the primeval jungle, along with the lush greenery surrounding it, could now be seen clearly.
The Going Merry was just about to cross the invisible boundary of the island.
In an instant...
Bzzzz!
The entire sky suddenly changed color.
The azure, clear sky from moments ago was instantly swallowed by a layer of rolling black clouds.
A scorching electric presence suddenly filled the air.
The hairs on everyone's bodies all stood on end at that instant.
"Not good!"
Nami's expression changed drastically. She was the first to sense that destructive presence.
Rumble! Rumble!
Before she could even get her warning out, countless purple bolts of lightning as thick as giant pythons suddenly gathered from all around the sky above Skypiea.
They crisscrossed and tangled together, and in an instant, directly in front of the Going Merry, they wove themselves into a barrier of lightning stretching as far as the eye could see.
In the blink of an eye, an entire sea of lightning formed from countless bolts.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dense lightning poured down like a torrential rain, hammering the temporary steel armor reinforcing the Going Merry.
Blinding electric light instantly enveloped the entire ship, while scorched smoke rose in all directions.
"Wooooah! It's hot! It's numb! What the hell is this thing?"
Luffy was struck by a stray wave. His hair stood straight up with smoke rising from it, and he cried out as he rolled across the deck.
"Everyone, stay alert! It's trying to keep us outside!"
Shanks's expression hardened. He drew the sword at his waist with his one arm and leaped into the air.
He swung his sword, sending a slash tearing through the air and crashing toward the lightning barrier.
However...
Crackle!
The concentrated sword aura vanished like a stone dropped into the sea the moment it touched the raging lightning.
After merely wearing down a few bolts, it was completely swallowed by the endless lightning.
"Ha! Now this is interesting."
Shanks landed steadily back on the deck. Looking at the unmoving lightning barrier, his brow furrowed for the first time.
"Move!"
Crocodile shouted. He spread both arms, and a vast amount of sand surged out from his body, forming a huge, ferocious sandstorm beast that roared as it swept toward the sea of lightning.
"Sandstorm!"
Sand and lightning collided violently in midair.
Zzzzz!
With a dense, piercing series of explosions, the vast sea of sand was instantly scorched by the terrifying heat as soon as it touched the lightning, leaving behind scattered fragments of fused sand.
Yet the lightning barrier continued raging in place, steady as a rock, as if the attack that could have torn steel apart had merely scratched an itch.
"Damn it, what the hell is this thing?"
Crocodile's face turned livid.
He had fought all his life and prided himself on his sandstorms being unstoppable, yet the sea of lightning before him was like an invisible wall. No matter how hard he struck it, he could not move it in the slightest.
"Don't panic! Let me try!"
Yasopp raised his long rifle, his fingers moving rapidly.
A string of bullets, trailing long flames, shot toward the lightning barrier.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The bullets did not even manage to get close to the lightning before the arcs of electricity darting in every direction reduced them to ash in midair.
"Tch! You can't even touch the edge."
Usopp could not help mocking him when he saw this.
But in reality, it was not just Shanks and the others.
Everyone else's attacks poured onto the endless sea of lightning as well, yet they were like stones thrown into the ocean. They could not stir up even the slightest ripple before being swallowed completely.
Boom!
The lightning barrier did not budge in the slightest. Instead, it grew even more violent.
An especially thick bolt of purple lightning suddenly crashed down from the clouds, striking the Going Merry's mast dead-on.
Crack!
With a sharp sound that made everyone's hearts jump, the reinforced main mast was split open.
The entire Going Merry shook violently beneath that earth-shattering strike.
Large sections of the outer steel armor they had been so proud of broke apart, exposing the already scorched and cracked wooden hull beneath.
"Going Merry!", Luffy shouted.
"No! Charging through is a dead end!"
Nami clung tightly to the railing and shouted, "At this rate, the Going Merry will fall apart! Everyone, retreat immediately!"
"Retreat!"
Shanks made the decision without hesitation and waved his hand sharply.
Under everyone's frantic control, the Going Merry awkwardly turned around and hurried out of the range of the lightning, dragging along the still-smoking damage.
Only after they had retreated several hundred meters did the raging sea of lightning slowly calm and disappear like a beast that had finally had its fill, vanishing once again.
The sky seemed as if nothing had ever happened and returned to its clear blue.
But the deck was a complete mess.
Everyone was sprawled about, blackened and in miserable shape.
Even Shanks and Crocodile, who were usually composed, now looked grim, all traces of their earlier casualness gone.
And the battered Going Merry, its main mast damaged and its steel armor torn away, was making strained creaking sounds.
"This lightning barrier," Crocodile stared at the island of Skypiea, so close yet seemingly separated by an impassable gulf, and said heavily, "It's aimed at us."
It had appeared neither early nor late, but precisely at the moment they were about to set foot on the island.
And it had done exactly enough to crush all of their attacks.
This was no natural disaster.
It was clearly an iron gate specially made to stop a group of uninvited guests like them.
"Looks like..."
Shanks looked at the silent golden island and slowly sheathed his sword. The ease in his eyes had long since vanished, leaving only unprecedented seriousness, "Setting foot on this island and getting that Poneglyph is going to be much harder than I imagined."
Above the clouds, the City of Gold was right before their eyes.
Yet the door leading to the truth had already been firmly sealed by endless lightning.
This had never happened to him when he came here back then.
The lightning withdrew and the sky returned to peace, but a heavy feeling still hung over the deck of the Going Merry.
Everyone looked at one another, and for a moment, no one spoke.
Before coming here, they had assumed that Sky Island could not be that frightening.
And Shanks had been here before, even explicitly saying that there was no danger.
But that lightning barrier that kept everyone at a distance was like a loud slap in the face, scattering all the confidence they had brought with them.
The City of Gold, so close at hand, now seemed separated by an impassable gulf.
"Hey, hey, don't all look so gloomy."
The one who broke the silence was Yasopp.
He adjusted his hair, which had been knocked askew by the electricity, and raised his head.
"In my opinion, things haven't reached the end of the road yet."
Everyone's eyes immediately turned toward him.
"No matter how powerful that sea of lightning is, it can't possibly cover the entire island so perfectly that not even a single gap remains, right?"
Yasopp held out a finger and traced the outline of Skypiea in the air:
"We only charged at it from one direction just now. If we split up and break through simultaneously from the east, south, west, and north, we'll surely find a weak spot in its defenses and slip through!"
"You're just asking to die."
A mocking voice suddenly came pouring over.
Usopp folded his arms, looking completely unconvinced as he shook his head and argued, "Do you think that's some great place to go? Even if you get insanely lucky and actually manage to slip inside, what if there's some terrifying powerhouse waiting in ambush?"
"By then, you'll be all alone on the island, with the sea of lightning blocking the way behind you and a powerful enemy blocking the way ahead. Wouldn't that just be trapping yourself with no way out? I think you've gotten tired of living."
"You bastard, who are you calling a dog?"
Yasopp's face flushed from being choked off by those words, and he jumped up, "Usopp! You coward! How can a man have not even the slightest courage to go on an adventure? Bah! You don't even deserve to be my son!"
"You're the dog, I'm a human. How could I possibly be your son? Besides, I call this being cautious! It's called wisdom!"
Usopp refused to back down, sticking out his neck as he fired back with a snort, "It's you! All courage and no brains, charging around recklessly. Sooner or later you're going to lose that stupid head of yours!"
"Who are you calling stupid?"
"You, obviously!"
The two men, who looked about three parts alike yet had personalities as different as night and day, stood nose to nose and argued so fiercely that spit flew everywhere, neither willing to give the other an inch.
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