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Arthur remained completely absorbed in the vast ocean of medical knowledge he had acquired from Drum Kingdom. He paid no mind to the outside world, wholly unaware that Shiryu had already piloted their vessel to Jaya's shores.
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Meanwhile, the tempest of the new era continued to rage across the seas, growing ever more intense.
The Supernovas proved relentless, their survival instincts astonishingly powerful. Just when lesser pirates believed them broken by the likes of Whitebeard and the Golden Lion, they launched their second challenge.
Perhaps they had set sail with unparalleled resolve, having already abandoned all thoughts of mortality.
Sir Crocodile and Mihawk threw themselves tirelessly against their rivals, and their strength grew at a remarkable pace.
Whitebeard and the Golden Lion—whether from strange respect for their talent or some other reason—refused to kill them.
Doflamingo, for his part, had led the Donquixote Family to establish themselves firmly in the New World, expanding their illegal underworld trade while simultaneously hunting Devil Fruits for the Thunder God Pirates. His name circulated among all the great powers of the criminal elite.
The treasure hunter, Mad Treasure, had begun accepting commissions from both pirates and law enforcement, hunting treasures on behalf of others.
Gecko Moria had vanished. He had fled the New World and returned to Paradise, consumed by burning hatred for the man who had slaughtered his crew, and had begun researching the creation of an undead army.
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Skypiea, Upper Yard—in the Thunder God Palace.
A massacre was underway.
"BOOOOOOOOM!"
A violent explosion rocked the palace. A figure was sent flying from the smoke and debris, slamming against a golden wall.
The solid gold buckled, leaving a deep crater across its surface. The impact force was immense.
"Cough..."
The man slid down the wall, his eyes bulging. He released a violent cough, expelling fragments of his own internal organs.
It was the Skypiean officer, Constance. He was already old, and his training had not kept pace with the God's Guard. He had been eliminated by a single blow from the two figures who had descended upon the island.
His eyes burned with hatred as he stared at the two terrifying, demonic silhouettes emerging from the dissipating smoke.
"Lord Thunder God... will not forgive you... cough, cough!"
With those final, agonizing words, his body went limp. His bones and organs had been pulverized. He was dead.
The light in his eyes—the light of a man who had followed Arthur since the first conquest of Skypiea—faded into nothing.
"The strong live, the weak die. The world is that simple," a deep voice rumbled. "Did he truly mistake that brat Arthur for a genuine god?"
A wave of a hand dispersed the remaining dust, revealing two massive, powerful figures.
The man in the lead was enormous, a towering figure comparable to a giant. A wild mane of black hair fell across his shoulders, and a pair of massive horns jutted from his head.
He wore a long, black beard, and his upper body remained bare, revealing terrifying, explosive muscles that appeared indestructible. A scale-like tattoo covered his left arm, and a cross-shaped scar marked his right abdomen.
This was a man who resembled a demon god, his oppressive aura immense.
It was Kaido, he had somehow traveled from the New World to this sky island.
The man beside him, though not as massive as Kaido, remained several times larger than an ordinary person. He had a ponytail and two braided pigtails, a metal jaw, and two ivory-like tusks on his head and shoulders. He was covered in spiked armor and wore a feathered greatcoat.
It was Jack the Drought.
"Wuwuwuwu... Jack! Answer me!" Kaido suddenly roared, taking a deep swig from his gourd of sake before bursting into tears.
"Is that Thunder Emperor brat truly stronger than me? This dead piece of trash thought the Thunder Emperor was stronger than me!"
"Lord Kaido, you are the strongest in a One-on-one fight. Who in the world could possibly kill you?" Jack replied, his voice flat and indifferent. He was accustomed to Kaido's drunken mood swings.
"Hmph." The answer seemed to satisfy him. Kaido stopped crying and turned his gaze toward the God's Guard, who were frantically rushing toward Upper Yard.
"An island in Paradise, and it has this many Haki users? Kill them all. This sky island is mine now."
"Yes, Lord Kaido," Jack said with a savage grin, pulling the two mammoth-tusk scythes from his back. "A bunch of trash who remain trash even after learning Haki. I alone am more than sufficient."
He charged toward the God's Guard.
Kaido took another indifferent swig of his drink, no longer paying Jack any attention. He walked to the edge of Upper Yard and looked down at the sea of clouds below.
"Where is it?" he muttered to himself. "Where is the place where I can finally die?"
He had attempted every method of suicide, yet none had succeeded. His body differed from that of a normal person. He could not even consume a Devil Fruit; it was said that his very cells would reject the demon contained within.
He had been sentenced to hanging, but the chains had snapped. He had been placed on the guillotine, but the blade had shattered. He had been impaled with spears, but the spears had broken against his skin.
The man who constantly searched for a place to die had now set his sights on an island in the sky.
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"Captain. We have arrived at Jaya. Do you want to land?"
The shuttle-shaped steel vessel had stopped at a safe distance from the island. Shiryu's voice woke Arthur from his studies.
"Land?" Arthur rubbed his eyes and stretched, his gaze falling on the familiar yet distant scenery.
Mock Town truly was the gathering place for Paradise's pirates. One after another, pirate ships sailed in and out of the port. It was a lively scene.
Yet the jolly roger hanging from the tallest building in the harbor seemed somewhat familiar.
"So this is one of the Donquixote Family's territories now?" Arthur said with an indifferent smile. He looked upward, his gaze piercing through the blue sky.
He thought of the time he had spent on Jaya. It had been a frustrating period, yet it had also yielded crucial information. Still, to linger on the past—that was not his style.
"No need to land," he said, twisting his neck. "Let us go straight up."
He leaped from the deck, his body instantly transforming into a streak of purple lightning that shot toward the sky.
Shiryu flicked his cigar into the sea and followed close behind, kicking off the air, step by step, toward the sky ten thousand meters above—toward the miraculous sky island, the place where his captain's dream had first taken flight.
The two of them quickly entered the clouds, and before long, they saw it—a sea of white.
A smile touched Arthur's lips. His Observation Haki spread outward in all directions.
Then his expression changed.
Under the blanket of his senses, the white points of light representing the people on his island were disappearing at a terrifying rate.
Among the chaos, he could feel them.
Two familiar, terrifying auras, wreaking havoc in his territory.
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