Silence.
A deathly silence.
Everyone on Coin Island stared in stunned disbelief at the countless cannonballs suspended above their heads.
Gulp...
They swallowed hard, eyes filled with utter shock.
"The shells... they're just hanging there in the air..."
"What the hell is going on...?"
"This... this is unreal..."
"Was that the Marine's doing?"
"What the hell did he do!?"
...
And it wasn't just them.
Aboard the Flying Pirate Fleet, countless pirates stood frozen on their decks, their faces filled with disbelief, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.
"Damn you, Marine brat!! What did you just do!?"
Shiki suddenly roared in fury.
He had never seen anything like this in his life.
Sengoku was equally stunned.
Though he had long known the nature of Daren's Devil Fruit ability, this was the first time he'd seen him control cannon fire on such a massive scale.
"Take them back."
Daren let out a cold chuckle.
His open hand clenched into a fist.
The next instant—
The countless cannonballs hanging in midair all paused.
Then, under the push of a spreading magnetic field, they reversed course with blinding speed—firing back along their original paths toward the flying fleet of pirate ships in the sky, as the stunned pirates looked on in horror.
A torrent of shells as dense as locusts ripped through the air, the sight delivering a visual impact like no other.
Sengoku's heart surged.
Shiki's terror wasn't just in his overwhelming personal strength, but in the dominance of his flying fleet.
Airborne and armed with relentless, wide-area bombardment, they were a nightmare even for a Marine Admiral to handle.
Sengoku's own Devil Fruit, a Mythical Zoan rarer than any Logia, gave him immense power—but even he had no easy counter for that kind of aerial assault.
But now... Daren had caught that very assault single-handedly.
In a flash, faced with their own cannonfire hurtling back at them, the Flying Pirate Fleet's crew instantly felt the same crushing pressure the people on the island had moments earlier.
"Shit!! The shells are coming back!!"
"Take cover!!"
"There's no time!!"
"There's too many of them!!"
Panic spread across the ships as pirates scrambled in chaos, faces twisted in fear.
Once their ships were airborne, the rudders were little more than decoration—the entire fleet's controls lay in Shiki's hands.
Even aboard their own vessels, the pirates were helpless, forced to watch as a wave of cannonballs came screaming toward them.
"So... it's a metal-controlling ability!"
Shiki's pupils narrowed sharply, then a twisted grin spread across his face.
"Marine brat... don't you dare underestimate me!"
Gripping both his swords tightly, he soared to the front of the fleet, charging straight into the incoming barrage. His twin blades flashed.
"I am Shiki!!"
Slash!
Roar!
With a blast of force, his two famed blades— Oto and Kogarashi—swept forward in unison.
A howling storm of blade winds erupted, slamming into the incoming wave of shells.
BOOM BOOM BOOM...
Explosions ripped through the sky as countless cannonballs detonated midair, bursting into massive fireballs, black smoke billowing skyward in thick plumes.
"Hell yeah!!"
"Captain Shiki is incredible!!"
"We're saved!!"
"Hahahaha!!"
The members of the Flying Pirate Crew erupted into cheers, their eyes locked on the golden-haired figure hovering ahead, wild and untamed like a god descending from the heavens.
As long as Captain Shiki was there, they believed they were invincible.
"Jiihahahaha!! You see that!?"
The roaring wind shredded through the smoke as Shiki gripped his swords and threw his head back in manic laughter.
"You think you can destroy my fleet? You're decades too early, you brat!!"
"Is that so?"
Daren's cold voice echoed up from the island below.
Shiki's eyes narrowed.
The wind scattered the thick, swirling smoke.
And finally—he saw the ground clearly.
The sight that greeted him made his pupils shrink to pinpoints.
Click... click...
Somewhere on the island, a pirate suddenly heard an eerie, unnatural sound.
"What... what is that...?"
He turned instinctively toward the noise.
Beside him, a building made entirely from stacked coins suddenly began to shift—as if it had come alive.
The coins, under the control of some strange force, rapidly reassembled and stacked.
In mere moments... they had formed a massive cannon.
It stood three meters tall, with a pitch-black barrel nearly half a meter wide, its muzzle pointed directly skyward.
The pirate's throat bobbed nervously.
The surreal sight made him stagger back a few steps.
And then—his back hit something cold and solid, like metal.
He spun around, heart pounding wildly.
What he'd bumped into wasn't a wall.
It was another cannon.
Click... click...
The unnerving, insect-like skittering echoed from all directions.
The pirate's eyes widened in terror, like he was staring into a nightmare.
And it wasn't just here.
All across Coin Island—in the trade port, on the commercial streets, atop luxury buildings, and amid the ruins of the auction house...
Every place embedded or paved with coin or metal began to reshape itself.
To Shiki and his crew high above, it looked like the entire island was... awakening.
Land, buildings, roads—everything began to reconstruct, rotate, combine, and stack.
A vast network of heavy cannons took form, unfolding like a cascade of dominoes.
Barrel after barrel emerged, each one upright, packed tightly across the entire island like the unblinking eyes of some monstrous war machine—all aimed squarely at the flying pirate fleet.
There were too many to count.
Everyone stared in horror at the island's transformation, and then—all eyes turned to the Marine Commodore.
Sengoku stood stunned, the corners of his mouth twitching despite himself.
"This is... absurd."
King muttered, eyes wide with disbelief.
"He turned the entire island... into his arsenal."
...
Daren knelt on one knee, one hand pressed against the cold, metal-laced earth as crackling arcs of lightning flickered around him.
He looked up, defiant, and smiled coldly at the frozen expression on Shiki's face in the sky.
"So... how are you going to stop this?"
As the words left his mouth,
A red gleam flashed in his eyes, and a surge of blue lightning exploded outward, sweeping across the island in a blinding wave.
"This is my battlefield!"
"Electromagnetic Entanglement: Ten Thousand Cannons!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Ten thousand cannons roared at once!!
The ground shook with apocalyptic force, sending countless pirates sprawling, covering their heads in terror.
They stared in disbelief as the entire island lit up with artillery fire, faces pale as death.
In that instant—
An endless stream of shells, propelled by electromagnetic force, burst skyward like a furious storm.
Their speed was monstrous—at least three times faster than conventional heavy artillery, far too fast for the naked eye to follow.
Each shell trailed blazing red streaks, painting the dark sky with the rising paths of falling stars.
"Damn it!! How is this possible!?"
Shiki's bloodshot eyes twisted with fury as he swung both swords wildly, trying to slice the barrage from the sky just like before.
But this time, the density and speed were on another level. Not even he could block them all.
Despair began to creep into his crimson-tinged gaze.
He tried to steer the fleet away—but the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi wasn't built for speed.
...
And so—
Amid Shiki's furious roars,
Amid Sengoku's thunderous cry, fists clenched tight,
Amid the wide-eyed panic of pirates gripped by terror,
Amid the earth-shaking roar of ten thousand cannons...
The fleet of ships floating in the sky... erupted into flame.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!
Chain explosions lit the heavens one after another, bursting across the fleet like a sky-born firework barrage.
Black smoke towered, fire bloomed, and the thunder of destruction echoed endlessly above Coin Island.
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
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