The Mother Flame was successfully installed, providing Pluton with a massive energy supply.
Pluton began to activate. This ship, over nine hundred years old and renowned as a battleship, had countless instruments lighting up.
The most critical core components were also activated, the immense energy awe-inspiring.
"Truly worthy of Vegapunk. Only he could create something like this," Blamenco exclaimed.
"It's nothing special," Queen scoffed.
"Can you do it?" Blamenco teased.
"Of course, I can!" Queen retorted angrily.
"Weren't you three once Vegapunk's colleagues? I don't see any connection between you and him," Blamenco mocked.
"Who says we're inferior to Vegapunk? Given time, we could research it too," Caesar argued.
"Research my ass! You can't even perfect Devil Fruits. You're worse than us," Blamenco shot back.
"Your technology came from Vegapunk too," Judge interjected.
"Doesn't that just prove Vegapunk is better than you?"
Blamenco single-handedly taunted all three of them.
Roy, meanwhile, focused on the machine. Vegapunk's Island Cloud production device had its flaws, it required periodic replenishment after operating for some time.
Simply put, the materials produced by the Island Cloud device were insufficient and limited. Wano, where they now stood, was the most suitable place in the world for producing Sky Islands.
"Enough nonsense. Test if the machine can start," Roy ordered the four.
"Right away, Big Brother!" Blamenco scurried over. Queen and the others also sprang into action, eager to collect data.
Pluton was a technological marvel from nine hundred years ago, filled with innovations worth studying, many of which they still couldn't fully comprehend.
As the massive machine roared to life, seawater was visibly sucked in.
The power of a volcanic eruption varies, not every eruption around the world can create a sky island.
Pluton's internal mechanism was essentially a device that absorbed energy from the sea. Once activated, it spewed out vast amounts of white clouds.
"It's creating a Sea Cloud!" Roy narrowed his eyes. Sky islands exist at an altitude of 10,000 meters, while the White-White Sea lies at 7,000 meters.
Sky islands are fixed structures, like bubbles, while the White-White Sea resembles an ocean capable of sustaining marine life.
What was being emitted now was the fluid cloud layer of the White-White Sea. Meanwhile, Pluton continued collecting minerals from the seabed, forcibly gathering and synthesizing them internally before launching them into the sky.
The process seemed lengthy, not as direct as Vegapunk's Island Cloud production device.
"Pluton is creating an environment suitable for sky island life, so it's producing the White-White Sea as well," Reiju observed.
"The ancients were thorough, considering everything needed to send people to live in the sky," Yonji laughed.
"It's taking a while," Marco remarked, squatting on the ground with a smile.
"Right now, it's producing the White-White Sea while simultaneously drawing energy from the ocean. Vegapunk's device prearranged all the materials needed for Island Clouds, but the cost was too high. Pluton has no cost, it only requires sufficient kinetic energy to produce everything from the sea," Roy explained.
"But it's absorbing an enormous amount of seawater," Queen suddenly noted.
"How's the data?" Roy asked.
If his guess was correct, Pluton's function was to absorb seawater energy and launch it into the sky to create sky islands, thereby lowering sea levels. Pluton had the ability to counterbalance the sea-level rise caused by Uranus.
Compared to destruction, restoration comes at a high cost.
Building a bridge might cost tens of millions, even billions, while destroying it requires only a fraction of that in explosives.
Destruction is cheap; restoration is expensive.
Unless the world could be restored to its state nine hundred years ago, nothing would truly change. If the sky were filled with clouds, blocking the sun, could life on the ground even survive?
The world faced threats from the sea, and humanity would have no foothold, forced to live on ships.
The Celestial Dragons were responsible for this. They resided in Mary Geoise, looking down on all of humanity, extracting resources from the world. To them, everyone else existed only to be enslaved.
Pluton accumulated energy for a full day and night, already creating a vast expanse of sky island clouds. Small fish were even carried up, adapting to the White-White Sea and evolving into sky island fish.
Finally, an egg appeared within Pluton, almost identical to the one Roy had seen years ago.
Memories flooded Roy's mind. Back then, they had encountered the Roger Pirates.
After a battle, he asked Roger about the giant egg on their ship.
"I don't know either. We found it in a ruin. At first, we thought it was an egg of some ancient creature, but later we realized it wasn't. There's no life inside. I suppose we'll find out at the final destination."
Recalling it now, the egg Roger had obtained was actually a sky island. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, it was never launched into the sky. Instead, the Roger Pirates kept it on their ship and brought it to Laugh Tale.
Now, Roy had obtained an identical egg, and the secret of the past was finally revealed.
"It's ready to launch!"
Following the machine's prompt, Judge announced.
"Then launch it. I want to see how large a sky island it can create," Roy said.
Judge pressed the switch. The three pirate crews and the people of Wano all turned their eyes to Pluton.
An egg was launched from the massive cannon mouth, soaring higher and higher until it disappeared into the clouds.
Roy silently willed himself to fly. Wings sprouted from his back, the first time anyone present had seen him use this ability. With a beat of his wings, accompanied by red lightning, he vanished in the blink of an eye, like a shooting star.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, stunned by the sudden burst of speed. Kaido and Charlotte Linlin wore expressions of shock.
"Kaido, did you feel that?" Charlotte Linlin asked.
"Yes. It was like facing a natural predator," Kaido nodded.
"What kind of fruit did he eat? Why did it feel like... a deep-seated fear, emanating from the fruit's power..." Charlotte Linlin murmured.
Whitebeard's face was filled with concern. He had already sensed something off about Roy even before he demonstrated his ability. Now, the sense of aversion grew stronger.
"Hit! Hit!!" Roy's daughter, Rein, waved her toy sword in her mother Whitey Bay's arms, directing it toward where Roy had vanished.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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