Hearing Indigo's frantic, joyous confirmation, Shiki threw his head back and laughed heartily, a sound of pure, unadulterated triumph.
"JIAHAHAHA! So you believe me now, don't you, you skeptical fool!"
Shiki laughed maniacally, basking in the stunned silence of his crew.
He then briefly answered their unasked questions.
"Hmph! Listen well, you fools! I had an earth-shattering, tear-jerking, miraculous encounter!" His voice was filled with a flair for the dramatic.
"Out there on the turbulent seas, the gears of fate suddenly turned, and I met a young man named Ron. It was from that moment onward that my destiny completely changed!"
He paused, letting the anticipation build, before delivering the bombshell.
"I consumed an extremely rare Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit—the Phoenix! It successfully healed all the accumulated injuries I've suffered over the years! Jihahaha!"
Everyone stood there, utterly dumbfounded, listening in stunned silence.
Their eyes flickered with a profound confusion and bewilderment, as if they were hearing an unbelievable story from a madman.
Having been trapped on these floating islands for so long, with almost no contact with the outside world, how could they possibly know about something as world-shattering as a Dual-Fruit ability user? In their limited understanding, while Devil Fruit powers were formidable, each person could only consume one.
"You ignorant fools!" Shiki frowned, unable to bear seeing his subordinates' clueless expressions.
He then patiently, and with great relish, educated his crew about the existence of Dual-Fruit users and briefly mentioned the widespread rumors about Ron's "Enchantment" abilities that were causing a stir across the seas.
As Indigo and the others listened to Shiki's words, they felt their scalps tingling as if countless ants were crawling over them.
Their minds were in complete chaos, unable to process the information.
They simply couldn't comprehend it.
How could someone eat two Devil Fruits without exploding? According to all known common knowledge, attempting to consume a second fruit would inevitably trigger a violent physical reaction, leading to an explosive, agonizing death.
"This must be fake! Absolutely fake!" Indigo couldn't help but mutter to himself, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, his eyes filled with a scientist's doubt.
Seeing his subordinates' deeply skeptical expressions, Shiki immediately became displeased.
He had just been healed, restored to his full glory, and his own crew didn't believe him!
He decided, with a surge of theatrical pride, to demonstrate.
"Watch closely, all of you!"
As he spoke, he suddenly stood up straight, his entire aura sharply intensifying.
In an instant, golden, ethereal flames ignited all around his body, burning fiercely and illuminating the entire hall with a bright light.
The flames leaped and rolled, but strangely, everyone felt no scorching heat.
Instead, they sensed a peculiar, comfortable, life-giving warmth.
As the flames surged, a pair of massive, magnificent golden wings slowly unfolded from Shiki's back.
These wings were as splendid as golden clouds, every single feather burning with an eternal, divine fire.
Then, something truly shocking happened.
Shiki's body began to transform, his human features melting away, replaced by the majestic, avian form of a golden immortal phoenix.
"This, my crew," his voice echoed, now carrying a strange, trilling quality, "is my second ability—the Phoenix!"
Everyone was stunned.
Completely, utterly numb.
The scene before their eyes was too shocking, too impossible, forcing them to finally believe.
Their captain, the Golden Lion Shiki, had truly become a Dual-Fruit ability user.
Not only were all his injuries healed, but his aura… his very presence… it had become incredibly, terrifyingly formidable.
That powerful, revitalized presence seemed to solidify the surrounding air, making it hard to breathe.
"It's true… it's actually true!"
Finally, one of the affiliate captains snapped back to reality and shouted excitedly.
"A Dual-Fruit ability user! I knew our captain would have great fortune after surviving such a disaster!" another person cheered along.
"Hahaha! It's finally our turn! We're going to unify the East Blue!"
Everyone shouted enthusiastically, their eyes sparkling with a new, fanatic excitement.
They could already envision the future scenes of victory—under Shiki's restored, and now upgraded, leadership, they would conquer the entire East Blue and become the rulers of those seas!
"Unify the East Blue?" Shiki, now back in his human form, narrowed his eyes slightly, murmuring to himself with a trace of unconcealed desire in his gaze.
It was his old, deferred dream.
It didn't sound too bad.
But right now, the most important thing was to complete Ron's mission.
The East Blue could wait.
"Alright, my men, enough talk! Let's move!" Shiki stood up, his voice booming with a renewed sense of purpose.
"R-Really, Captain?"
"Are we… are we all going to become subordinates of that kid, Ron?" Another subordinate shook his head in disbelief, still trying to process the news.
"That's really terrifying. I never thought we'd have connections with the Whitebeard Pirates," someone muttered quietly, their tone filled with awe.
The Whitebeard Pirates! And now their Flying Pirates were, however tangentially, connected to them!
"Captain is truly unfathomable! And he's a Dual-Fruit user now!"
"Hahaha, the era of our Flying Fleet is finally coming!"
"Our Flying Pirates are the most powerful crew to conquer the entire sea!"
Shiki quite enjoyed his subordinates' long-overdue admiration, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly in a smug expression.
But he knew this wasn't the time for complacency.
They needed to quickly improve their own strength.
"Gather all your money!" he suddenly roared, his voice cutting through the celebration.
"Everything you have! I'll see how much we can scrape together, then I'll go ask Ron for a few Devil Fruits. I'll make you all Logia users!"
The entire group froze at these words, their eyes widening as if they'd just heard some impossible fairy tale.
They stared blankly at Shiki, momentarily speechless.
After a long, stunned silence, a trembling voice finally spoke up.
"C-Captain… did I hear you correctly? Even we can become… Logia users?"
"That's the power of the Admirals!" someone else chimed in, their face pale with shock and excitement.
"Aokiji, Kizaru… their power is beyond our imagination!"
In their understanding, Logia users stood at the very peak of the power pyramid.
Such existences were simply unreachable for people like them.
"Hiss…! If we can really become Logia users… I'd follow Shiki-sama for the rest of my life!"
"..."
High above where no one could see, a cluster of massive, floating sky islands, veiled by clouds, slowly began to change course.
Under the command of their returned master, they started their long, silent journey toward the coordinates of the former Jaya Island.