God's Island, Upper Yard.
The scary sand storm and thunder had stopped long ago, meaning Rowan and Enel's fight was already over.
Led by Dalton, the people of the Four Seas Alliance went deeper, heading straight for the center of Upper Yard.
On the way, they suddenly heard a horse's whinny.
Whoosh!
Before the sound faded, a figure riding a pegasus suddenly came down from the sky, landing in front of them.
Crocodile stepped forward with a cold laugh, his five fingers together, forming a sand blade.
"Oh, someone's here to die."
Clearly, he was quite unhappy with the performance of the God's troops, and hadn't fought enough.
But the knight on the pegasus held out his hand, showing he didn't plan to fight.
"Wait!"
The person was the current God of Skypiea, the Sky Knight Gan Fall.
At the same time, a person jumped off the horse's back, the weather scientist Habu who had gone to deliver the letter to Gan Fall earlier.
Seeing Habu alive, Crocodile was clearly a little surprised.
"How did you survive?"
In a fight between natural power users, even the aftereffects are enough to kill ordinary people.
Habu being able to survive in that sky full of thunder and sand storms, and get the letter delivered, meant either he was really lucky, or he had his own way.
Crocodile never believed in luck, so he was very interested in Habu's method.
Habu scratched his head, organized his words a bit, "Nothing, I'm just very familiar with the weather of sand storms and thunderstorms, so, I walked through?"
His tone was not very confident, but the content of his words was quite confident.
It was a feeling of extreme trust in his knowledge.
But Crocodile clearly didn't believe that explanation, "Natural Devil Fruit - you people of Skypiea might not know, but this kind of power is far beyond your imagination."
"Devil Fruit... I saw it in my teacher's notes. Natural type, can it give people the power of nature?"
Habu took out the notebook he carried with him, made some changes, and asked casually, "Natural type... is it the weakest kind of Devil Fruit?"
"Weak?"
Crocodile frowned, turned into a sand storm and flashed in front of Habu, grabbed Habu's head with one hand, his face dark.
"Am I weak?"
"Very strong."
Habu nodded, repeating, "You, are very strong."
Crocodile then let go of Habu, frowning, "Then who are you saying is weak?"
"Natural Devil Fruits."
Habu rubbed his sore head, seemingly afraid of being grabbed again, and added in detail, "It's not that the natural type is weak, it's just that the special qualities of 'nature' itself are too obvious. This is very disadvantageous in battle, isn't it?"
"Obvious?"
Crocodile didn't understand Habu's words.
Habu continued to explain, "Like the lightning just now, if I wore a rubber cloak, maybe I could have walked faster - it's just a pity, there's no rubber on Skypiea."
Crocodile understood. "Obvious qualities," in Habu's words, referred to the "nature" possessed by Natural Devil Fruit users, unable to avoid the traits of nature itself.
Fire is hot, ice is cold, so it has always been.
But... does that have anything to do with strength?
Looking at Crocodile's eyes, Habu suddenly said, "You and Mr. Rowan, are sand?"
Crocodile nodded.
Habu stroked his chin, suddenly said, "Then you should have a special reaction to water... uh uh uh uh!"
Before Habu could finish speaking, Crocodile covered his mouth with one hand, and at the same time a sharp sand blade was put to his neck.
"Don't say any more, silence is best."
Crocodile's voice was cold, "If you don't be quiet, I'll silence you, got it?"
Habu nodded repeatedly, and only then was Crocodile release him.
...
On the other side, Gan Fall had explained his purpose in coming to Dalton.
Rowan had already explained the purpose of the Four Seas Alliance's trip to Gan Fall in the letter.
Now that Enel and the others had been defeated, and the Four Seas Alliance had no hostile intentions of invading, there was naturally no need for Skypiea and the Four Seas Alliance to continue fighting.
They joined forces and headed towards the center of Upper Yard.
"That is the ruins of the ancient city of Shandora."
Gan Fall introduced, "There are a lot of metals there, which seem to be called gold in the Blue Sea, and are very valuable in the Blue Sea."
...
Along the way, Crocodile was looking at Habu.
Most Devil Fruit users have absolute confidence in their abilities, and the truth is indeed so.
In theory, developing any Devil Fruit ability to its extreme can make someone a famous powerhouse.
The difference is that some Devil Fruits have a higher starting point and possess terrible power from birth, such as Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Crocodile was the same.
He never doubted his fruit ability, and wouldn't say stupid things like, "The Sand-Sand Fruit is not as strong as the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, so that's why I lost."
But now Crocodile heard a theory from Habu that he couldn't ignore.
The power given by the Natural Devil Fruit is essentially "nature."
- "Nature" itself, which is closely related to people and has always been with them since ancient times.
Flame, ice, sand, lightning, light, wind...
These forces that are closely related to the world are living in the bodies of natural power users.
Nature that can be controlled by personal will - this power is indeed scary, but it cannot escape the characteristics of nature itself!
Crocodile quietly kept this point in mind.
Knowing more things will always help in the future.
But then again, although Habu's view somewhat subverted Crocodile's thinking, it was only at the theoretical level.
As Habu said before, he is strong enough, and that's enough.
Everyone knows that the sea is a common weakness of Devil Fruit users, but so what?
Can that earth-shattering thunder really be defeated by mere insulated rubber?
Really?
...
The group moved forward and arrived at the "City of Gold" Shandora.
They were also shocked by the ancient city in front of them that seemed to be revived.
Rowan was sitting cross-legged on the ground, with his chin on his hand, deep in thought.
Crocodile walked behind him and asked in a deep voice, "Hey, where did that lightning guy go?"
"He probably ran away? It doesn't matter, Bikka's main force is gone. We can take over Bikka now if we want."
Rowan didn't care about this. Instead, he asked everyone to come closer and asked Gan Fall, "Old Knight, what exactly is in Shandora?"
Gan Fall was stunned, and replied in confusion, "There are many metals called gold here..."
"No, that's not what I'm asking."
Rowan turned his head, reached out and pointed in the direction below the ground, and said:
"What's buried under Shandora?"
"Or rather, what is Shandora built on top of?"
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