Marco's Adam's apple moved as he swallowed hard. His throat was so dry it felt like it was filled with sand—he couldn't force out a single word.
He stared intently at Lucian Thorn, his eyes wide with disbelief, the sheer shock in them almost spilling out.
"Straw Hat Luffy… defeated Kaido?"
Those seven words struck his mind like a series of thousand-pound hammers, smashing what little rational thought he had left into pieces.
That was Kaido!
The so-called "strongest creature across land, sea, and air" who reigned over the New World!
A monster so powerful that even Pops, Whitebeard, needed the full strength of their entire crew just to contend with him!
Straw Hat Luffy—the same reckless, fearless kid Marco remembered as merely having potential—had actually…?
Lucian calmly patted Marco's shoulder as he stood there looking like his soul had just left his body.
"I told you before."
His voice was light, but carried an air of absolute certainty.
"Straw Hat Luffy at his peak… won't let you down."
That sentence was like a bucket of cold water that yanked Marco back from the edge of pure shock.
He panted heavily, looking around at the battlefield, now nothing more than a wasteland—as if a god had plowed it through. Slowly, he began to accept the truth that had just shattered his worldview.
"Alright. No time for catching up."
Lucian withdrew his hand and looked toward a pile of rubble stacked like a small mountain.
"It's time to wake up our star."
As his words fell, he closed his eyes slightly.
A wave of energy rippled out—not the oppressive force of Conqueror's Haki, nor the searching pulse of Observation Haki, but something more refined, more gentle. A mental ripple, invisible yet precise, spread outward from him like a soft feather brushing across the ruins.
It gently reached into the depths of the wreckage and tapped on a sleeping door of consciousness.
BOOM!
Almost the moment the ripple touched, the rubble exploded!
Stone fragments scattered as a bandaged, battle-worn figure shot out like a spring, landing firmly on the ground.
His black hair was messy, steam rose faintly from his body, and his signature wide eyes now burned with the wariness of a beast.
It was Monkey D. Luffy, who had just finished a life-or-death battle and collapsed into exhausted sleep.
Luffy's gaze instantly locked onto Lucian and Marco.
His breathing was heavy, his chest rising and falling with effort, showing just how drained his body still was—but the fighting spirit radiating from deep within him hadn't faded one bit.
Of course he recognized Marco—the Phoenix of the Whitebeard Pirates.
But the Marco standing before him now… something felt different. His expression, his presence, even the subtle weariness behind his eyes—it all varied slightly from the one in his memory.
And then there was the other man. Someone completely unfamiliar, yet whose presence was as deep as the sea.
"You guys…"
Luffy's voice was hoarse. He clenched his fists, his body sinking slightly as he shifted into a stance ready to strike at any moment.
"Who are you?"
Marco stared at the overwhelming aura Luffy now gave off, momentarily dazed.
'Is this really the same kid who threw a fit over food while recovering on Amazon Lily?'
'This pressure… that look in his eyes…'
'He really did it.'
Lucian took a step forward, about to explain their purpose.
But just as he opened his mouth—
A cold, mechanical alert suddenly rang out in his mind, without warning.
[Warning!]
[Detected non-target presence with over-standard energy signature!]
[Coordinates locked: 37 meters southeast, beneath the rubble and grass!]
The words he was about to say caught in his throat.
His body froze for a split second.
His expression didn't change much, but his eyes turned razor-sharp in an instant.
'A fourth person?'
Even with his Observation Haki blanketing the entire battlefield, he hadn't sensed this one.
That meant the person's concealment technique had reached an absurd level.
Possibly even transcending technique—approaching the realm of 'nothingness.'
Both Marco and Luffy noticed Lucian's sudden change.
Luffy's wariness skyrocketed. He followed Lucian's gaze but saw only broken ruins.
Marco, on the other hand, looked confused. "Lucian, what is it?"
Lucian didn't answer.
His gaze locked firmly onto the location identified by the system.
What looked like an ordinary heap of grass and stones had, in his eyes, become the hiding place of a dangerous predator.
The air seemed to freeze in that instant.
The wind, the stench of smoke, the crashing of waves in the distance—everything was sucked out of the world.
Silence reigned.
Then Lucian's lips curved ever so slightly.
'Oh?'
'Interesting.'
'So someone's been tailing us in secret.'