Uchiha Puppet Master, Starting from One Piece

Chapter 238 The Throne of Heaven

When the light of the teleportation array shone on the land of Elbaf, the sky over the entire giant kingdom changed color.

It wasn't that dark clouds obscured the sun, nor that a storm whipped up waves; rather, it was that the sky itself—a sky that had maintained an unchanging blue since the existence of Elbaf—was suddenly torn apart from within by something. The blue began to fade from the very center of the sky, like ink being drawn from rice paper. The fading was neither too fast nor too slow; fast enough that everyone who looked up at the sky could clearly see the process, yet slow enough that everyone who witnessed it felt as if they were witnessing a disaster that would never end.

The blue of the sky didn't disappear; it was replaced by a new color.

That color doesn't exist in any of the songs of the bards of Elbaf, nor in any mural passed down through generations of giants. It's a color that the World Government has deliberately erased from the collective memory of the entire world, a color that, the moment you see it, will send an uncontrollable shiver down your spine.

The color of emptiness.

It is not black, not white, not gray, not any color you can describe in words.

If you insist on using language to capture it, you can only say that it is a colorless color, a color that does not exist in this world, a color that should not be seen by the eyes of any living being.

But your eyes did see it.

When your brain processes this information, it will tell you a conclusion more profound than any fear: you shouldn't see this.

You shouldn't see this, because no creature that sees it will live long enough to describe it to another creature.

On the land of Elbaf, all the giants who were looking up at the sky stopped breathing at the same moment.

It wasn't out of fear or shock, but because their bodies made a judgment at the most primal level, beyond consciousness and will.

The giant warriors have faced the most terrifying sea monsters in the world over the past thousands of years, confronted tsunamis capable of destroying a country, and witnessed lava erupting from underwater volcanoes that could melt everything, but their bodies have never felt such fear as they do now.

The light from the teleportation array began to dissipate after a few breaths, but it didn't truly dissipate, because that kind of void-like light never belonged to the category of "existence." It merely left an impression on your retina that was clear enough to convince you that you had indeed seen something, yet blurry enough to make you start to doubt whether you were hallucinating.

After the light faded, a person appeared in the very center of the land of Elbaf.

No, not just one.

There are many people.

Once your gaze falls upon that central entity, you lose the ability to focus on anything around it. This is because your visual system has reached its limit in processing information about that entity, and your brain lacks the computational capacity to process any other information.

Im stood there.

It may be slightly taller than Kaido, but compared to the giants whose average height is over twenty meters, Im looks more like a child.

But at this moment, every giant near the teleportation array, including the elite giant warriors who were over twenty meters tall, felt as if they were looking up at Im.

It wasn't that they were looking up at it, but rather that their perception told them that the height of that existence could not be measured in physical units. Its height was the upper limit of the cognitive scale of this world, and their gaze had to pass through the highest point they could imagine to barely reach its feet.

Five people were standing behind Im.

All five elders.

Jaigolusia Satan stood on the far left, his eyes scanning the giant in front of him without any emotion, as if he were looking at something that couldn't speak, that didn't need to care about, or that wasn't even worth looking at for a second.

Behind the Five Elders, there are ten more people.

The Knights of God.

Not everyone.

There are ten people.

None of the Knights of God were wearing armor.

It wasn't because the armor would hinder their movements, but because for people of their level, the concept of protection was a joke in itself.

The leader of the Knights of God stood at the very front of the twelve.

These are people who cannot be found in any of the world government's public documents. Their names are known to only a handful of people worldwide. If you accidentally hear their names, it means you have been placed on a list of people who should not be alive.

The other members of the Knights of God were scattered behind Garin, forming a loose, seemingly chaotic formation, but each person's position was just right to cover all possible directions of attack.

Their presence.

Shanks stood behind Bai Yu, his left hand gripping Griffin tightly. The patterns on the hilt were embedded in his palm lines. That familiar touch did not bring him any sense of security at this moment, because the information his Observation Haki conveyed to him in that instant was beyond what he could handle calmly.

His Observation Haki is among the best in the world. His Observation Haki can detect the opponent's killing intent the moment it arises, can see the scene a few seconds or even ten seconds before the opponent makes a move, and can sense the aura, emotions, intentions, and vitality of all living beings within a radius of several kilometers when he closes his eyes.

But at the moment.

His Observation Haki was trembling.

Those scents.

The aura of the Five Elders was like five mountains that suddenly rose from the seabed, so high that they pierced the atmosphere, their tops completely free from the gravitational pull of this world, and entered some kind of space that did not belong to this world.

The aura of the Knights of God is completely different.

Shanks' face turned deathly pale in that instant. This deathly paleness was not a metaphor or a figure of speech, but a real, physical whiteness that appeared on his face after he had lost almost all of his blood supply.

Loki.

"White Feather."

He paused for a moment.

"You must leave now."

"Go?" Loki frowned, his eyes fixed on the area in the distance that was being enveloped in the color of the void, his anger seeming to burst from his eyes.

"Immediately, you are no match for them right now, but why did they arrive so quickly—"

Shanks' tone left no room for negotiation. His eyes didn't even glance at Loki and Bai Yu; his gaze remained fixed on the approaching direction. "While they're still here..."

"What else?"

Loki's voice suddenly changed, no longer his usual nonchalant, seemingly unserious tone, but serious.

Is it still not too late?

Shanks finally looked at Loki.

He saw in Loki's eyes something he hadn't seen in anyone's eyes for a very, very long time.

That kind of thing is called enlightenment.

It's not the kind of fleeting emotional impulse that arises when you're hot-blooded and dissipates after you calm down. Rather, it's something that takes root in the deepest part of your soul after a long, painful process of self-examination and self-torture, becoming as hard as bones, as powerful as muscles, and as unstoppable as the beating of a heart.

Loki—

'

"Shanks".

Loki interrupted Shanks, his voice calm: "Do you know how my father died?"

Shanks remained silent.

"You know that."

Loki laughed.

There was not a trace of warmth in that smile; only something chilling, something that had been repeatedly chewed over in the long darkness, a hatred that had transformed from an emotion into an "essence," from a feeling into a reality.

"A giant king who has lived for over a hundred years, a warrior possessing the world's most powerful Observation Haki, Armament Haki, and Conqueror's Haki, has been controlled by someone else!!"

Loki's voice turned into a beastly roar at the last moment, but his body made no unnecessary movements. His body was as steady as a mountain. This steadiness was not because he was suppressing his emotions, but because his emotions had become so intense that no action could bear them, no expression could release them, and no venting could alleviate them.

Loki raised his head, his eyes piercing through the sky of Elbaf, through the fading blue and the spreading void, through everything, and landing on the approaching presence.

"That's them."

Shanks' lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.

What does he want to say?

He wanted to say, "Loki, you don't understand. Those people are beyond your capabilities." He wanted to say, "Loki, I will avenge your father, but not now." He wanted to say, "Loki, only by living can you take revenge."

But he didn't say a word, because his Observation Haki had already given him an answer before he could even open his mouth.

Loki won't leave.

It wasn't because Loki didn't know how terrifying those people were; on the contrary, Loki knew even more about how terrifying they were than Shanks, because he knew just how powerful his father was, and that such a powerful father was controlled by the enemy.

Loki understood their horror better than anyone else alive in the world.

And it is precisely because he understands that he will not leave.

Some hatreds may fade, be diluted, or be transformed into something else over time, but some hatreds will not. Some hatreds will ferment, condense, and become a force that is stronger, purer, and more unstoppable than the original.

Loki's hatred is the latter.

Shanks turned to look at Shiraha.

He wanted to find some rationality, some calmness, and some help from Bai Yu to bring Loki back to his senses from this suicidal impulse.

But he saw something in Bai Yu's eyes that was the same as Loki's.

No, it's not the same.

Loki's eyes were filled with hatred, the kind of hatred that had been suppressed for too long and finally found an outlet, like a volcanic eruption, scalding hot, burning everything it touched.

There was no hatred in Bai Yu's eyes.

In Bai Yu's eyes was a calmer, deeper, and more like a decision made after a long period of thought, a pure decision untainted by any emotional fluctuations.

"White Feather."

Shanks' voice carried an emotion he himself was unaware of: "You're young, you don't understand those people, you have no idea—"

"I don't know what?"

"I don't know how strong they are? I don't know what I'm facing?"

Bai Yu shook his head.

"I know better than you do, Shanks."

For a fleeting moment, his eyes emitted a light that caused even Shanks's Observation Haki to momentarily become disordered.

"My eyes."

Bai Yu's voice was calm: "I saw a lot of things, the truth of this world, things that those sitting on the throne didn't want anyone to see, the truths that were erased from history by the World Government, sealed in the Void Century, and buried in Laugh Tale."

His gaze passed over Shanks' shoulder and landed on the distant, void-colored light.

"I saw their fear."

"The throne has been vacant for centuries."

Bai Yu's voice echoed across the land of Elbaf.

"Those scum who sit on Mary Geoise, who call themselves kings of the world, who enslave all the creatures of this world, think that the throne will always belong to them."

17

Bai Yu's lips curled up slightly.

That smile wasn't the same one Shanks had ever seen on Shiraha in any battle; that smile contained no anger.

There was no murderous intent, no pre-battle tension or excitement; there was only one thing in that smile.

Contempt.

An absolute, thorough, and unshakeable confidence stemming from an absolute self-assurance of one's own strength.

Absolute contempt and pure disdain for the opponent.

"I'll be here today."

Bai Yu's voice changed from disdain to a more grand one, as if the entire sky was speaking for him, as if the whole world was resonating with him, making you feel that you were not listening to a person speaking, but rather to fate itself issuing a judgment upon you.

"Today I will shatter their arrogance, today I will shatter their chains, today I will shatter the false order they have forged with centuries of enslavement and oppression."

Bai Yu slowly raised his right hand, his palm facing the sky, his fingers slightly spread, as if he were grasping something—not a weapon, not power, but something more abstract yet more real, something like destiny itself that could be held in one's hands.

"That throne."

"Today is its first day waiting for its new owner."

Shanks stood there, his lips slightly parted, his eyes reflecting Bai Yu's back.

That figure stood out exceptionally clearly under the sky of Elbaf, not because of good lighting or angle, but because that figure itself was the brightest, most conspicuous, and most impossible to ignore thing in that space.