Grand Line – Skypiea.
The Araryuu Pirates safely returned to the God Island of Apayado.
The moment they landed, Souta Kiryuu handed over the blood and tissue samples they had acquired to Dr. Vegapunk. His instructions were clear: extract the Paramecia-based "Green Blood," especially the bloodline factors of King the Conflagration, with his rare Lunarian lineage.
"Make sure the second batch of Seraphim cultivation begins immediately," Souta ordered with unwavering seriousness.
He inspected the progress of the Pacifista and Seraphim projects.
The dragon-themed Seraphim modeled after Souta had already grown to resemble children of four or five years old, their development astonishingly fast. Within a year, they would be ready for combat.
This time, the group had also acquired the powers of the Float-Float Fruit and the Gravity Fruit—both crucial elements for Souta's vision of the Six Paths of the Araryuu.
Vegapunk's satellites, however, seemed to grow even faster. "Edison" the thinker and "Pythagoras" the intellect-driven android had already been put to work.
Meanwhile, "Shaka" the embodiment of justice, "Lilith" the embodiment of evil, "Atlas" the embodiment of wrath, and "York" the embodiment of desire had almost reached maturity. Within a month or two, they would be fully operational.
Souta couldn't help but notice that Lilith and York had striking figures—but they were still only fragments of Vegapunk, avatars of the eccentric old man.
A pity.
Still, Souta knew precautions were necessary. Among them, York carried the highest risk of betrayal. In the original timeline, she had followed Vegapunk to Mary Geoise, where she had witnessed the Celestial Dragons' absolute authority and decadent lifestyle. That had sparked her ambition—to become one of them. She had even plotted to kill Vegapunk's true body, becoming the sole remaining self.
York, designed merely to handle Vegapunk's bodily needs, was dangerous in her desires. She would need firm control to keep her mind simple and focused.
Elsewhere, Kuma and Jewelry Bonney had relocated survivors of the Sorbet Kingdom. Some citizens were allowed to remain on Skypiea, while others were sent with Kuma to a Revolutionary Army-controlled island rich in resources.
Those from the north, whom Kuma had scattered with his Paw-Paw Fruit, were resettled across multiple islands he had marked before.
The Sorbet Kingdom itself was destroyed beyond recognition. For those who escaped, survival itself was already a miracle.
Beyond those slaughtered by the Knights of God, many more perished from the aftershocks of battle.
"Tch… what a shame I didn't get to shine in this war!" Bonney complained as she sat astride a freshly created elemental weapon—a white sheep-shaped island cloud. Her frustration was plain. Without exposure, her bounty likely wouldn't rise.
"Yahahahaha! This god's bounty is bound to skyrocket!" Enel roared with laughter. He had crippled one of the Knights of God—one who was also a Celestial Dragon—and even blasted both the Knights and the Red-Haired Pirates.
That record alone was heavier than Kuma's open declaration of war against the Celestial Dragons. His bounty would soar, perhaps even higher than Kuma's, who had spent the entire battle focused on rescue.
"That bastard Souta teamed up with Kaido of all people! That pisses me off!!" Moria bellowed angrily. Kaido was the one who had annihilated his crew, his sworn enemy. Seeing Souta cooperate with him left a bitter taste—even if this plan had used Kaido as a convenient pawn.
"If Souta hadn't drawn in Kaido, Big Mom, and the Golden Lion, our rescue mission would never have succeeded so smoothly," Trafalgar Law replied coolly. He also knew Souta had used Doflamingo as well, forcing him to spread word of the Sorbet Kingdom massacre across the world.
"Hohoho!! The Captain got Shiki the Golden Lion's blood, and Kuma left his mark on Shiki's floating island! The Float-Float Fruit is practically ours!" Lafitte laughed in excitement. With the Float-Float Fruit, their freedom would expand further. The thought of Souta's "Six Paths of the Araryuu" made him shiver with anticipation. It would become a force that shook the world.
"What an absurd war," Capone Bege muttered around his cigar. "Three Yonko appeared at once."
He remembered Souta's warning: Grow stronger, or you'll be left behind. If he didn't, the West Blue mafia godfather would be reduced to nothing more than a transport lackey.
"Yohohohoho! That was a historic battle, one unlike anything I've seen in my eighty-plus years of life!" Brook cackled eerily. He felt he had joined a crew far beyond his imagination. The sheer scale of the war had nearly made his knees rattle in fear. Fortunately, his role was only to rescue people—but even then, he had frightened more than a few.
"I'd advise all of you to start training seriously," Lafitte sneered with a strange laugh as he took to the sky. "Otherwise, Captain Souta will ignore you like background extras."
He had executed Souta's plan perfectly this time, spreading false rumors about the Pluton blueprints rather than engaging in direct combat. But he knew his strength couldn't fall behind. Even a strategist needed the power to survive.
Kuma, meanwhile, was still busy relocating Sorbet refugees, too focused to waste time in idle chatter.
Inside a Laboratory.
Boom!!
Souta's fist slammed squarely into Caesar Clown's face, leaving the Gas-Gas Fruit user black and blue.
"All you made was a damn island cloud shaped like a sheep?! Useless trash! It doesn't even attack! What's the point?!" Souta's face darkened as he glared down at him. The cloud couldn't even become thunderclouds—just float slowly. Nothing but a disappointment.
"Mercy, Boss! Please! It's hard enough fusing natural elements like wind, fire, thunder, and water with Devil Fruit abilities!" Caesar whined pitifully, his face swollen into a panda-like mask. "But if you want metals like gold, wood, or earth, I can make another element-based Devil Fruit creature right away!"
Ever since Souta captured him, Caesar had been beaten almost every time they met—by Souta, and often by others afterward. Forced to train in Armament Haki, constantly abused, his life was misery.
Why was Souta still holding a grudge? Sure, Caesar had almost killed him once, but Souta had survived in the end—and even gained deadly new powers of poison and invisibility.
Shouldn't he be grateful? Instead, Souta used him as a punching bag, as if venting endlessly. This wasn't fair—he was the world's second-greatest scientist!
"I don't care how you do it. Find a way. If you can't, go ask Vegapunk." Souta turned his back and left the lab.
He checked instead on the Tontatta dwarves, who were cultivating the first batch of artificial Devil Fruits.
The SAD and SMILE factors were produced by extracting lineage factors from countless normal animals. The resulting Zoan fruits were riddled with flaws—but that was Kaido's problem, not theirs. Souta didn't care about aftersales.
Vegapunk, however, had already created two near-perfect artificial Zoans using the lineage factors of Rob Lucci and Jabra. One Leopard Fruit, one Dog Fruit—though their final forms and mutations were still unknown.
Even King's Lunarian lineage factor would soon yield a prehistoric Zoan—an artificial Pterosaur.
The age of manufactured monsters was drawing closer.