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There was no doubt about it. Unless this was some unheard-of technology, that colossal ship soaring through the clouds ahead was the work of a Devil Fruit.

The lion's head prow, roaring at the sky—was lifelike and terrifying. Combined with what Arthur's Mantra showed him, the identity was unmistakable.

It was the flagship of the Golden Lion Shiki, the Flying Pirate, lifted into the sky by the Float-Float Fruit.

"A man discarded by the era," Arthur sighed, his voice a mix of mockery and genuine pity. "A legendary pirate driven mad because he couldn't accept Roger's capture."

Make no mistake, the Golden Lion's power was terrifying. Even with a ship's steering wheel lodged in his skull, he had fought Garp and Sengoku for five days and nights, turning Marineford into a river of blood.

His ambition matched his strength. Before the Great Pirate Era began, he had come closer than anyone to truly ruling the New World.

In the eight hundred years since the World Government's founding, no one had ever truly conquered the New World. Shiki was the first to come close.

Roger became the Pirate King, standing above all other emperors, but he lacked Shiki's sheer, dominating force, that desire to swallow the world whole.

But fate was cruel. When news of Roger's capture broke, Shiki's ambition vanished, replaced by a singular, consuming hatred for the injustice of Roger's fall.

To view Roger as a lifelong rival meant he could never accept such a man failing.

When Arthur first entered the New World, Shiki had heard his name and even sent subordinates to recruit him.

Back then, Arthur had felt a sense of tragedy. Roger stirred the winds and clouds, the true child of the era. Whitebeard was the world's strongest man. Redfield roamed free and alone. But Shiki, the man who once threatened to devour the world, was fading along with Roger's era, his fighting spirit buried in the new age.

The higher you climb, the harder you fall. To plummet from the peak of glory into the abyss, to be crushed twice in succession, to become nothing more than a stepping stone for Roger's ascent…

Who could bear such a drastic change? It was the ultimate injustice.

A man like this deserves a death that shakes the world, a funeral that commands the attention of history.

"The Golden Lion is already dead inside," Arthur mused, plotting the man's final act. "Mary Geoise might be a fitting burial ground."

Better to go out in a blaze of glory than to linger on, gasping for breath. Let him burn bright one last time in the most spectacular event the world has ever seen!

"I'm heading to the World Government to settle things with Dragon anyway. Such a high-profile stage won't disgrace the name of the Golden Lion!" Arthur decided. He would send Shiki to Mary Geoise.

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On the flying fortress, a platform in front of the main palace.

Shiki, Dr. Indigo, and the gorilla Scarlet were engaged in a bizarre, frantic dance, completely ignoring the terrible weather.

Although Shiki had lost his legs, the famous swords Oto and Kogarashi served as perfect prosthetics. They didn't hinder him at all; he walked steadily and danced without a hint of awkwardness.

A large crowd of Flying Pirates watched from the sidelines.

Suddenly, a pirate ran up in a panic, interrupting the dance. He rushed straight to Shiki. "Boss Shiki! Someone's flying towards the ship! It's…"

Shiki stopped dancing, chomping on his half-smoked cigar. He cut his subordinate off, babbling incoherently. "Ah, I'm a big rooster? Jieahahaha!"

He laughed maniacally, seemingly not hearing a word. Cruel and ruthless to his enemies, he was completely unhinged with his own crew.

Indigo facepalmed, sighed, and started pantomiming with his hands. After a long moment of silent charades, he finally spoke. "Someone has come to our ship!"

"You can talk??" Shiki acted shocked, as if discovering Indigo's voice for the first time. Then he turned back to the sweating subordinate. "Who is it? Is it that Hawkeye brat again? Or another one of those annoying sea groupies calling themselves pirates?"

"It's…"

"It's me!"

Arthur's figure slowly materialized before the Golden Lion and his crew. Vegapunk followed behind, floating on a slab of steel.

"I've heard much about you, Golden Lion. I am Arthur!"

"The experiment was a success? Jieahahaha!"

Shiki looked surprised, laughing with his mouth wide open. "Who are you again? Here to join my crew?"

"Sigh."

Arthur didn't know whether to feel pity or annoyance. The nonsensical rambling might not be intentional; perhaps the steering wheel in his brain affected his thoughts, or maybe he was just always like this.

Indigo stared at Arthur for a moment, as if recognizing him. He walked over, pantomimed again, then leaned in and whispered everything he knew into Shiki's ear.

Unlike Shiki, Indigo wasn't ignorant of the current state of the sea. He knew of the New World's overlord, the Thunder Emperor.

"So it's you? The fanboy brat from this laughable era. I heard it's almost your era now, after Roger? Ruling over a sea of fanboys?"

Even as enemies, Shiki genuinely respected Roger. His words implicitly acknowledged Arthur as the one who had surpassed him, the leader of the era following Roger's.

"A laughable era?" Arthur dismissed the idea of leading an era, though it seemed unavoidable.

Pirates were the rulers of the sea, and among the new generation, he held almost absolute power.

"Alright, fanboy. State your business. Or I might have to show you, a brat raised in this warm, soft era, the true terror of the old days!" Shiki's patience was wearing thin.

"Still drowning in the glory of the past, unable to pull yourself out?" Arthur's voice dropped. "The new era is indeed soft. I despise the trash that sails under a pirate flag these days. But… do you think the current you is qualified to show me terror? Golden Lion!!"

Arthur shouted, striking first.

A sleeping lion had no business going to the World Government. He needed to wake the beast up.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!"

Ripples distorted the void as a domineering, kingly aura crushed forward. A wind born from nothing swept away the moisture in the air.

King against King.

Conqueror's Haki was the best conversation starter.

Almost instinctively, Shiki unleashed his own Haki. His golden mane danced wildly in the wind, and for a split second, he seemed to return to the man who once threatened to swallow the world.

Dark red lightning crackled in the collision of their wills, spreading across the sky like a massive web.

The churning thunderclouds above were forcibly torn in two by the invisible clash, revealing the blue sky beyond.

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