The most important thing stored in this newly built town was, naturally, the collection of prizes prepared for the Hunter Exam.
A vast number of Devil Fruits had been gathered here.
To nearly everyone on the sea, a stockpile like this was an irresistible temptation.
Led by a Guild employee, Cyrus descended beneath the town to the vault where the fruits were kept.
The place had been constructed in a hurry, but its security and facilities were surprisingly complete.
"Wait here."
Cyrus waved the employee back, then opened the sealed door.
"Who's there?!"
A voice rang out as lightning suddenly illuminated the darkness.
"I'm surprised you managed to stay down here for so long."
Cyrus stepped inside.
Amid the lightning, Enel sat cross-legged atop a raised platform. He froze when he recognized Cyrus.
"Why couldn't my Mantra sense you?"
Enel leapt down and landed in front of him.
"If your Mantra keeps improving, you'll eventually be able to do the same."
After answering, Cyrus looked Enel over.
"So I just need to keep getting stronger?"
Enel nodded eagerly.
Unlike before, he now understood how vast the world truly was. Still, he had not lost his confidence.
"You know what my position on Sky Island is like," Enel said when Cyrus continued staring at him.
"Besides, I'm now the Hunter Guild's honorary vice-chairman. Since the Guild entrusted such an important place to me, I can't allow anything to go wrong."
He lifted his chin proudly.
"Honorary vice-chairman?"
Cyrus smiled and nodded without commenting further.
Crocodile had almost certainly invented the title to coax Enel into guarding the vault.
Still, it was only a title.
If it made Enel more enthusiastic about his work, there was no harm in it.
"You've done well."
Cyrus gave him a word of approval.
"Of course. With me guarding this place, no one would dare steal these Devil Fruits."
Enel waved one hand, and the entire underground chamber lit up.
Rows of enormous wooden shelves emerged beneath the lights. Nearly every shelf was packed with boxes.
There had to be more than a hundred of them.
"Chairman, aren't these things supposed to be extremely valuable?"
Seeing Cyrus study the shelves, Enel walked up beside him.
"They're treasures of the Blue Sea, aren't they? Are we really giving all of them away?"
Cyrus smiled and approached the nearest shelf. He casually opened one of the boxes.
Inside lay a banana-shaped Devil Fruit covered in strange spiralling patterns.
"They're only Devil Fruits. If I wanted, I could obtain dozens of them at any time."
The only cost would be dozens of Devil Fruit users.
"Huh?"
Enel looked surprised.
"There used to be barely a dozen fruits here," he said. "Then recently, more suddenly began arriving. New ones are delivered almost every day."
From Cyrus's words, Enel assumed Cyrus had personally collected them.
"It's because there are more Devil Fruit users now, and the sea has become increasingly violent. When more ability users die, more Devil Fruits naturally reappear."
Cyrus was not surprised.
Putting aside the prisoners who had escaped from Impel Down, the recent fighting across the sea must have killed many ability users.
The number of known Devil Fruits was fixed.
When more fruits had users, fewer uneaten fruits could be found. Conversely, when more ability users died, more fruits would reappear somewhere in the world.
Many had been discovered by Guild Hunters before anyone else could find and eat them, then delivered here.
"Crocodile mentioned giving some of them as rewards to the Hunters who are already in the Guild."
Enel thought for a moment before bringing it up.
"That's fine, but wait until the exam is finished."
Cyrus waved his hand.
"Understood."
Enel nodded repeatedly, looking unusually invested in the matter.
He truly seemed to consider himself part of the Hunter Guild now.
Crocodile deserved considerable credit for convincing him so thoroughly.
"Deer-Deer Fruit, Model: Reindeer."
Cyrus returned the fruit to its box and read the label outside.
"Most of the fruits here are Zoans," Enel said. "There are quite a few of them, including several based on aquatic animals."
"Aquatic animals?"
Cyrus paused.
"Yes, though there aren't many compared with the others."
Enel merely stated the fact without seeing anything strange about it.
Cyrus found it somewhat amusing but did not dwell on the matter.
Whoever ate those fruits would be rather unlucky.
Even if the fruit transformed them into an aquatic creature, the user would still lose the ability to swim.
The animal's greatest natural advantage would become useless, leaving only the physical enhancement and any special traits it granted.
Then again, Kaido had eaten the Fish-Fish Fruit.
There was no reason similar fruits could not exist.
"The Paramecia fruits are farther in. At the very back, there are also several Logias."
Enel began showing him around when Cyrus did not react further.
"What Logias do we have?" Cyrus asked casually as he continued walking.
"Swamp, Vines, Mud, Ice, Earth, and Gale."
Enel recalled the list.
"Hmm."
Cyrus nodded.
Used properly by a capable person, any Logia could have tremendous value.
But those final three caught his attention.
"Ice, Earth, and Gale?"
Cyrus glanced at Enel and headed deeper into the vault.
"The Ice Fruit shouldn't be as powerful as the one used by that Marine Admiral," Enel explained as he followed.
"You know that?"
Cyrus looked mildly surprised.
"Yeah. The Ice Fruit user was a pirate surrounded and killed by Guild Hunters. He could only create ice weapons and freeze a small area. He couldn't freeze the sea like that Admiral."
Enel paused.
"Maybe the user was simply too weak. Crocodile was the one who said that."
Perhaps it was an inferior version of Kuzan's fruit.
Cyrus nodded thoughtfully.
Although a Devil Fruit did not completely determine its user's strength, there did seem to be superior and inferior fruits.
That did not mean the user of the supposedly weaker fruit would inevitably lose, of course.
Still, those three fruits had obvious potential.
Especially the Earth Fruit.
Cyrus had never heard of it appearing before, but if its user developed it to an advanced level—even without reaching the level of Cyrus or the three Admirals—it could still become enormously useful.
If the soil it created did not dissolve after coming into contact with seawater, the possibilities would become even greater.
It might even be capable of creating islands or entire stretches of land from nothing.
With those thoughts in mind, Cyrus reached the six boxes at the deepest part of the vault and opened them one by one.
Each fruit possessed an unmistakable appearance.
The Ice Fruit looked as though it had been carved from crystalline jelly.
The Earth Fruit resembled a yellow-brown pineapple, while the Gale Fruit was blue-green and covered in patterns like swirling wind.
Cyrus picked them up one after another before returning them to their boxes.
He had already confirmed that there was no limit to the number of Devil Fruits he could consume.
Even so, none of these three would help him much.
"Do we have any Ancient or Mythical Zoans?"
"There are several Ancient Zoans, but only one Mythical Zoan."
The instant Enel finished speaking, his body transformed into lightning. He vanished and reappeared with a box in his hands.
"Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Three-Headed Wolf."
He handed it to Cyrus.
"Three-headed wolf?"
Cyrus shook his head and opened the box.
The round fruit had three raised sections resembling wolf heads.
"Use it as one of the prizes."
One glance was enough for him to lose interest.
"Most of the Ancient Zoans are dinosaurs. There are a few prehistoric beasts as well."
Enel sounded dismissive.
Having eaten what he regarded as the strongest Devil Fruit in existence, he naturally looked down on them.
"Organize everything later. Once we know the exact number of candidates, we'll decide how many fruits to distribute."
"I'm not handling that."
Enel immediately shook his head.
That sounded like a troublesome amount of work.
"Let Crocodile deal with it."
"Chairman!"
A voice came from outside.
"Whitebeard is here. He wishes to see you."
The speaker's voice was completely emotionless.
"Bring him down."
Cyrus answered, and the voice disappeared.
"That man isn't easy to handle. I'm not certain I could beat him."
Enel's expression became serious at the mention of Whitebeard.
"That's normal. If you could defeat Whitebeard, there would be very few people on the sea capable of dealing with you. Perhaps only I could do it."
Cyrus looked back at him.
Whitebeard might be old, but his strength had not fallen far from his prime. Without his failing health, he would have been even more dangerous.
Enel had never endured many true life-or-death battles.
His Devil Fruit was extraordinarily powerful, but his experience, resolve, and raw combat ability were all considerably below Whitebeard's.
At best, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit might allow him to keep Whitebeard occupied for a while.
But someone of Whitebeard's level would certainly possess ways of dealing with a Logia user like Enel.
Enel was clearly dissatisfied with Cyrus's assessment, though he did not argue.
Instead, the desire to test himself against Whitebeard quietly took root.
Heavy footsteps soon echoed from outside.
The door opened, and Whitebeard entered.
He swept his gaze across the chamber and immediately spotted Cyrus and Enel in the distance.
"So what exactly do you plan to do with us?"
Whitebeard approached as he spoke.
"Have you really accepted your situation?"
Cyrus smiled when he heard the question.
"A loss is a loss. I'm not the sort of man who refuses to admit defeat," Whitebeard replied. "But what are you planning?"
He remembered Cyrus's claim that the sea was about to undergo a massive transformation.
Whitebeard wanted to see what the young man intended to create.
"The Whitebeard Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates are already gone. The age of pirates is coming to an end."
As Whitebeard stopped before him, Cyrus approached another shelf and opened one of the boxes.
Inside lay the Paramecia-type Magnet Fruit.
Its name was only slightly different from the Magnet-Magnet Fruit, but the difference in power was enormous.
"Gurararara! Cyrus, I admit you're strong, but the sea isn't something you can reshape with a few words. You sound very certain that you'll defeat the World Government."
Whitebeard looked at Cyrus, then at the fruit inside the open box.
Only afterward did his gaze sweep across the hundreds of other boxes in the vault, and surprise flickered through his eyes.
"Pirates won't disappear completely, but their era is already over."
Cyrus turned toward him, his voice unwavering.
"If I say it's over, then it's over."
"As for the World Government, I've never considered them a serious threat."
Whitebeard's expression stiffened.
He stared at Cyrus, recalling everything he had just said.
"No matter how strong you are, you can't suppress the entire sea by yourself."
"That's only because you weren't strong enough."
Cyrus smiled.
Whitebeard's eyelid twitched.
'Not strong enough?'
Yet he had lost to the man standing before him, so Cyrus was not technically wrong.
"That's how things stand. I never intended to rule the world, but giving most people a new way to live doesn't sound bad."
Cyrus closed the box.
"You expect the Hunter Guild to accomplish that?" Whitebeard asked. "Without you, they won't be able to maintain it, no matter how large the organization becomes."
Whitebeard admitted that Cyrus might succeed if he personally handled everything.
But if Cyrus stepped away, the Hunter Guild alone would never manage it.
"What if the Marines and the Revolutionary Army are included?"
Cyrus shook his head faintly.
"And if even that fails, then we'll see what direction they choose for the world."
"What do you mean by that?"
Whitebeard heard something unusual beneath his words.
"I probably won't remain in this world for very long. If you're still alive when I leave, then I won't kill you."
Enel stared at Cyrus with a head full of questions.
Whitebeard, however, understood.
Cyrus meant that if Whitebeard had not reached the end of his natural life before Cyrus departed, Cyrus would not take the Tremor-Tremor Fruit from him.
But what did he mean by not remaining in this world for long?
"That's enough of that. The three of you will have roles to play later. You'll be very important during the Hunter Exam."
Cyrus turned back with a smile.
"How does playing the great villain sound?"
"Fine by me. I don't care what role you call it."
Whitebeard had no objection to being labelled a villain.
Whatever Cyrus meant by everything else would become clear eventually.
Still, a trace of concern settled in Whitebeard's heart.
Cyrus's words revealed a distinct sense of detachment from this world.
That was dangerous.
Someone with Cyrus's strength feeling no true attachment to the world could one day bring about a disaster beyond anyone's imagination.
Whitebeard left the vault with a grim expression and returned to the place where the three former pirates were staying.
"That man is here."
After sitting down, he looked toward Shiki and Linlin.
"Forget whatever you're planning. If either of you tries anything, he'll kill you."
"Mamamama!"
Linlin looked at Shiki's dark expression and burst into laughter.