The salty sea breeze carried fine grains of cloud-sand as it swept across the dock. Black smoothed the white stand-up collar that had been ruffled by the airflow, while the sapphire-inlaid scepter in his hand tapped lightly against the quartz ground, producing a crisp sound.
Following the Summit of the Western Heaven, the sanctuary had once again arrived at a Sky Island.
The architectural style here was clearly different from other Sky Islands and even from the Blue Sea itself.
Rather than a typical Sky Island, it resembled something closer to Vegapunk's Egghead Island.
However, the technological creations here were dim and weathered, carrying a heavy sense of age and history.
The city consisted mainly of gray-white stone structures, their walls carved with numerous wing-shaped symbols.
"Your Highness, something feels wrong here."
Mandy stood beside Black with one hand resting on the hilt of her sword, her gaze vigilantly watching the Sky Islanders who were rapidly approaching.
One of them stepped forward with an unfriendly expression.
"Birka does not welcome outsiders. Leave immediately!"
Black raised an eyebrow.
The commanding tone made him slightly uncomfortable.
However, after hearing the name Birka, he could not help glancing around again at the surroundings.
"So this is Birka? It's quite different from what I expected."
Black slowly pulled a golden pistol from within his coat.
Bang
A bullet hole instantly appeared in the man's forehead.
He collapsed to the ground.
The sudden scene shocked the surrounding Sky Islanders, and even Mandy beside Black looked momentarily surprised.
Black ignored their reactions completely and instead spoke calmly to the CP agents standing behind him.
"Remove them from my sight."
The two CP agents immediately stepped forward.
Each punch and kick sent a Sky Islander flying across the plaza.
Black was not normally someone who enjoyed killing.
But he would never tolerate being provoked.
It was understandable when the Giant Kingdom of Degalt declared that outsiders were not welcome.
After all, if a real battle broke out, the people aboard the sanctuary would not even be enough to challenge a single tribe of giants without Black intervening.
But Birka?
A place that would one day be destroyed by Eneru?
What right did they have to refuse his presence?
Speaking of Birka, its architectural style was both unexpected and unsurprising.
Originally, Black had imagined Birka to resemble the Sky Islands that appeared in the original story.
But thinking more carefully, a high-tech city like this also made sense.
The origins of this civilization dated back more than 1,100 years.
At that time, the Lunarians descended to the world and began trading with kings from various regions.
Those kings provided slaves to assist the Lunarians in mining gold.
In exchange, the Lunarians shared advanced technology with them.
This technology from the moon propelled the civilization of the world forward dramatically.
However, the technological gap between the two sides was enormous.
Human society leaped almost directly from a primitive hunting civilization into something resembling an industrial civilization.
As a result, a new form of energy appeared Mother Flame.
This energy could serve both as a powerful fuel and as a devastating weapon.
Humans, foolish as they were, could not control such power.
Wars soon erupted between kingdoms.
During this time, the enslaved people who suffered under oppression began to pray to the forces of nature.
From those prayers, Devil Fruits appeared, granting the slaves power to resist.
When the Lunarians witnessed this development, they realized that even the will of the world itself seemed to be responding with anger.
Sensing that disaster was approaching, they prepared to leave.
Using spacecraft similar to the one Eneru would later use, they departed toward the moon.
But the "God of the Earth" at that time became furious.
"You Lunarians were the ones who started all this!"
"And now you think you can simply pack up and leave?"
"Dream on!"
Thus the Red Line was raised, blocking the Lunarians' path.
The land was shattered into islands of various sizes scattered across the seas.
"If you people fight because your civilizations develop too quickly and interact too much…"
"Then you simply won't develop anymore and you won't communicate either."
By separating the kingdoms and isolating them across the seas, the so-called God of the Earth attempted to create eternal peace.
Some of the Lunarians who remained stayed upon the Red Line and gradually became the Lunarian race.
Others were separated and sent to the Sky Islands, eventually becoming the Sky Islanders.
Judging from Birka's current state, it must once have inherited a large portion of Lunarian technology.
But for unknown reasons, most of that knowledge had gradually been lost.
While Black was immersed in these thoughts, the two CP agents had already finished dealing with the Sky Islanders.
They returned and knelt on one knee before him.
Black waved his hand.
"Alright. You two stay here and guard the ship. I'll explore the island."
"But Saint Black…"
The older CP agent hesitated.
"These commoners show no reverence. What if they offend you?"
Black glanced at him coldly.
"With your pitiful abilities, you're not even as useful as my slaves. What would be the point of bringing you along?"
"Now hurry back and guard the ship."
"…Yes."
The CP agent hesitated for a moment but eventually stepped aside obediently.
Now that Black knew this place was Birka, he had important matters to deal with.
How could he possibly bring two walking surveillance cameras with him?
When Aramaki had been recruited earlier, there had been an entire kingdom full of witnesses.
Ordinary people on the Grand Line might not realize it.
But the higher authorities of the World Government would certainly know that Aramaki had become Black's subordinate.
Because of that, Aramaki could only handle tasks openly.
Among the future Supernovas, aside from Urouge and Bege, the others were still too young.
And Black did not fully understand Urouge's personality.
As a Sky Islander, there was no guarantee he would willingly serve a Celestial Dragon.
Bege, on the other hand, was a typical ambitious opportunist.
Entrusting him with truly important matters would be too risky.
Therefore, before arriving at Birka, Black had already decided that he would recruit Eneru.
Eneru was eighteen years old this year.
His talent was quite outstanding especially his potential in Observation Haki.
His personality also contained both arrogance and cowardice, making him relatively easy to control.
Black planned to entrust certain unsavory tasks to him.
As the group entered the port, Perona bent down to pick up a metallic fragment lying on the ground.
Robin quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
"Don't touch things carelessly."
"This might be the remains of an ancient civilization."
Black's gaze drifted toward a half-buried mechanical device at the end of the street.
He began silently considering the possible location of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
There was no rush to find Eneru.
Eneru was a living person Observation Haki would easily locate him.
But the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was different.
A Devil Fruit could not be sensed by Haki.
It could only be discovered by following clues.
From the dialogue in the original story, it seemed that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit had disappeared from the Grand Line for more than three hundred years.
That meant that after the previous user died, the fruit might have been reborn somewhere within Birka and remained hidden there for centuries.
Considering Eneru's past experience of being ostracized by others in Birka, the fruit was likely located somewhere few people ever visited.
However, Birka was only a Sky Island.
It wasn't particularly large.
Was there really a place that could remain unnoticed for three hundred years?
Black began reconstructing the possible conditions under which Eneru discovered the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
First, the location had to be remote—somewhere even curious children would rarely visit.
Only then could it remain untouched for centuries.
Second, it could not be a strictly forbidden area.
Otherwise Eneru would never have been able to enter it.
Third, judging by Eneru's strength before obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the location itself could not have been extremely dangerous.
Black glanced toward Perona.
A bold idea suddenly appeared in his mind.
"How about…"
"Leaving her in Birka for a while and seeing which places she hasn't explored yet?"
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