Before their eyes stood an archway, measured with pinpoint precision to allow a single person to step through.
It was a spatial gate pried open by pure spatial authority—functioning much like Brûlée's mirror network in the Big Mom Pirates, whisking travelers across reality to wherever they desired.
This was one of Drake's newly unlocked masteries.
Following the conclusion of the overarching storyline, a wealth of esoteric abilities tethered to spatial authority had been bestowed upon him.
Right now, he had established synchronized anchor portals aboard the Demon Warder and within Weitian's private quarters.
In doing so, even if she made her home aboard his vessel, she could step across reality in the span of a breath to attend to her duties as Fleet Admiral.
As Drake walked her through the intricacies of the gateway, his thoughts drifted back to the exact moment he first unlocked the technique.
His immediate, instinctive reaction back then had been that this gateway could bridge the vast distances between them—ensuring that even if their duties drew them to opposite ends of the sea, they could still gaze upon each other every single day.
Perhaps from that very heartbeat, that woman had already laid claim to every corner of his heart...
"Take this. You must guard it with your life, understand?"
"What is it?" Weitian started to ask, only for her words to catch in her throat as a vivid crimson flush raced up her cheeks.
Resting within Drake's palm was a ring!
"Mm..."
In a single instant, the sovereign Fleet Admiral who governed the entirety of the Marines—the supreme commander whose lone decree could mobilize legions across the globe—spoke with a voice as faint as a dragonfly's wing.
An outsider would be hard-pressed to tell whether she had even parted her lips at all.
Weitian slowly extended her left hand, her face burning with delicate embarrassment.
Seeing this, Drake smiled warmly. Dropping to one knee, he slipped the band onto her middle finger—the enduring emblem of betrothal.
Long before setting foot upon this soil, he had forged this ring with his own hands. Selecting the rarest gem known to the world as its foundation, he had painstakingly carved and polished it with gossamer threads of spatial energy.
The phoenix motif coiled atop the band was modeled after the Mythical Zoan form Weitian once assumed; while not an absolute mirror image, it captured nine-tenths of its soaring grace.
Most wondrous of all, the phoenix seemed to breathe with life—delicate, animated, its gemstone eyes glistening with ethereal luminescence. With a single glance, Weitian grasped the boundless depths of Drake's devotion.
In pure economic terms, the raw materials alone were enough to stun the seas—surpassing ten billion Berries!
Yet its monetary worth was the least remarkable attribute it possessed.
"This ring also serves as the key to opening the gate. All you need to do is channel your Haki into the core like this. Naturally, you must commit the circulation pathway to memory." Drake patiently demonstrated the sequence required to awaken the spatial matrix.
"Mm!" Weitian nodded obediently, an overwhelming sweetness flooding her heart.
She had always assumed that given Drake's carefree, unbothered temperament, preparing a ring was entirely outside his nature.
Yet she had accepted his proposal without a moment's hesitation, harboring no stubborn fixation on trinkets—simply being by his side was enough...
Such had been her honest thought.
Yet the moment Drake slid the ring onto her finger, she felt herself to be the most blessed woman under heaven—a conviction that solidified the instant her eyes caught that breathtaking, living phoenix.
What she did not know was that the hidden authority sealed within the artifact was its truest treasure.
Bound within its core was an ultimate ward capable of shielding her life from harm, preserving her whole even if the sky were to fall and reality itself were to shatter.
Drake had poured an ungodly amount of sweat and blood into its creation; calling it a painstaking labor of love was an understatement.
Kenshin and the others had once thought Drake was genuinely possessed. He had locked himself within his quarters, neither eating nor drinking for days on end, entirely consumed with carving this diminutive relic.
He had remained sealed away for an entire week!
When he finally emerged, he had let out a long, ringing laugh before descending upon the galley like a ravenous wolf, devouring two days' worth of cold leftovers in a violent whirlwind.
And the moment the dishes were scraped clean, he had hollered at Bell, demanding a fresh banquet!
To a world-class glutton like Drake, a week without sustenance should have been a descent into purgatory.
Yet throughout the ordeal, Drake had felt not a single pang of discomfort, utterly lost in the meticulous craftsmanship of the ring, surrendering his very self to the art!
To Drake's mind, there was no compromising on this point. When asking for a woman's hand, a ring was an absolute necessity.
Procuring a common commodity off the market felt, to the man he was today, entirely hollow and disrespectful.
This was his first time walking toward the threshold of marriage; regardless of the outcome, he had to offer nothing less than his absolute best.
Watching Weitian's radiant, blooming smile, Drake's lips curved upward. This alone made every effort worthwhile!
"Weitian, remember to laugh from the bottom of your heart in the days ahead, alright?" With that whisper, before she could process the words, he swept an arm beneath her knees and lifted her into his embrace. "Come, let me take you on your first journey through the gate."
Cradled securely against his chest, Weitian was carried straight into the spatial threshold.
The interior of the gate felt like a lucid dream. The instant they crossed the boundary, Weitian distinctly perceived the ambient temperature rising around them.
A comforting, enveloping warmth.
Just as she leaned into his embrace, closing her eyes to savor the sensation, Drake's boots had already carried them out the other side.
"Is my chest truly that comfortable? Comfortable enough to drift off to sleep?" Drake's sudden chuckle made Weitian's eyes snap wide. Realizing they had already reached the other side, she shot him an aggrieved, bashful pout.
Her gaze seemed to complain: You reached the destination and didn't even bother to give me a warning?
"Put me down, will you?"
Scanning her surroundings, Weitian felt an immediate pang of familiarity. She had set foot in this chamber before.
"This is my personal cabin," Drake offered casually.
Understanding dawned upon her; during her past stay aboard the Demon Warder, she had indeed stepped into this room.
Suddenly, her cheeks flared crimson, her pulse surging violently against her ribs.
Why did he bring me to his private bedroom at a time like this? Could he be intending to...
This...
Her thoughts tangled into an anxious knot. Though a full year had passed, their relationship had only reached this threshold today—wasn't this moving far too fast?!
What was she supposed to do?!
"What's wrong? Why is your face so flushed? Did you catch a fever?" Drake stepped close, raising an open palm to rest gently against her brow.
"Why is your forehead burning like this? That makes no sense."
With Weitian's tier of physical conditioning, succumbing to a common illness was practically an impossibility. Yet the trembling, unsteady posture she displayed right now was clearly genuine.
Could there be some overlooked, hazardous factor within the dimensional tunnel that caused adverse reactions in the human physiology?
Or had she crossed paths with an atmospheric element her body couldn't tolerate?
Pondering the matter with a furrowed brow, Drake stole another glance at Weitian, only to find himself even more bewildered. Why had her face flushed to an even deeper shade of scarlet?
"I-If... if you truly wish to do that sort of thing... I wouldn't stop you..." Weitian kept her gaze glued to the floor, her voice reduced to an imperceptible mumble.
Her words were so faint that Drake failed to catch a single syllable. "What sort of thing?"
"Ugh! You... you're simply insufferable! I'm not speaking to you anymore!" Weitian swept her arm out, batting Drake's hand away from her forehead.
Pouting, she sat down on the edge of the mattress, burying her head and refusing to look at him, leaving Drake entirely in the dark.
Only after turning the exchange over in his mind did the truth finally click. A knowing chuckle escaped his lips as he stepped smoothly before her. "Are you angry with me?"
Met with her stubborn silence, Drake extended a single finger, gently tilting her chin upward as a roguish smirk spread across his face. "Come now, little lady. Why not grant this lord a smile?"
"You!" Weitian glared at him, perched on the razor's edge of a volcanic eruption as she hissed, "Don't you go pushing your luck!"
She was sorely tempted to pummel him into the floorboards—how could this man be so infuriatingly shameless?!
"Alright, alright, I'll stop teasing." Drake withdrew his hand, suddenly gathering her into a warm, protective embrace. "You silly girl... that sort of thing should at least wait until our wedding night..."
Poised to strike, Weitian froze, the tension draining from her posture as she melted against his shoulder.
This man could always peer straight into the deepest corners of her heart. Beneath the armor of a sovereign commander, she had always been a traditional woman at her core.