As calculated, Ash Thalos arrived at Jaya Island in less than a day.
From high above, Jaya looked exactly like it did in the original timeline, a half-island shaped like a skull's broken teeth. The log pose on his wrist pointed straight upward, confirming his destination without any room for doubt.
Ash did not bother searching for Mont Blanc Cricket, the descendant of Noland. There was no need. Reaching Skypiea was simple for him. All he had to do was keep flying upward.
The White Sea existed at an altitude of ten thousand meters, and Skypiea rested upon it.
The real reason Ash had chosen to wait for the Knock-Up Stream was not for himself, but for the future. He planned to use its massive force to send several small islands into the sky before the Diwen villagers arrived. With that, he could ease the growing conflict between the Sky Islanders and the Shandians over land, demonstrate overwhelming power to suppress unnecessary wars, and prepare living space in advance for the Diwen people.
Three goals, achieved in one move.
If Ash only wanted to reach Skypiea, he and a few Wind-element users like Pini could have simply stolen a couple of pirate ships and flown everyone up directly. There was no real need for all this extra effort.
He had even considered designing a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit similar to Golden Lion Shiki's Float-Float Fruit, one that could lift entire islands into the sky.
But he abandoned that idea halfway through.
The reason was simple. An ability on that level was too broken. It was automatically classified by the editor as an awakened Devil Fruit power.
By the time such a fruit awakened, Ash would probably be forging stars with his bare hands anyway.
And honestly, it made sense. Golden Lion Shiki was one of the three legendary pirates of the old era. How could his Devil Fruit not be awakened?
The real joke was that Monkey D. Luffy managed to defeat him in the movie. That version of Luffy was practically invincible. Forget Imu, even beings like Zeno or One Above All would probably get slapped if they wandered into that timeline.
After drifting above Jaya for half a day, Ash finally grew bored. There was still no sign of the Knock-Up Stream.
So he decided to deal with some minor issues first.
"Since the Knock-Up Stream is taking its time, I'll grab a proper meal and then clean up Mock Town. The noise when I head to the sky is going to be pretty big."
The original site of Mock Town was soon turned into a scorched wasteland.
Ninety percent of the pirates on Jaya had their ashes scattered by Ash's flames. The remaining survivors were those who happened to be away from town at the time. Ash could not be bothered to hunt them down individually.
His priority was food.
The lucky survivors had already wet themselves in terror. They did not even care whether their log poses were charged. They raised their sails and fled as fast as possible.
Ash sat cross-legged on a cliff, calmly watching a thousand ships flee across the sea, while waiting for his barbecue to turn golden.
Just as the meat reached the perfect color, a sudden tremor shook the entire island.
"Oh, come on."
Ash glanced at the perfectly roasted meat. Without even tasting it, he waved his hand and extinguished the fire, grabbed a massive leg of meat, and started chewing while flying toward the nearby sea.
That direction led to the three small islands he had dragged over earlier.
Eight days had passed since Ash's Iron Body reached Level 2. His Physique had now risen to 142.
His other attributes had also improved significantly.
[Host Personal Panel]
[Name: Ash Thalos]
[Age: 13]
[Physique: 142]
[Spirit: 61]
[Abilities: Iron Body LV2 (expandable), Armament Haki (expandable), Observation Haki (expandable)]
[Energy: 97]
[Devil Fruit: Zoan Type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Di Jun Form]
[Affiliated Abilities: Wind Element Control 180%, Lightning Element Control 120%, Ice Element Control 60%, Water Element Control 60%, Toxin Control 60%, Physique Amplification (expandable)]
[Status: Stellar Inner Containment / Physique Enhancement]
Physique 142 needed no explanation. Even if his Spirit had only increased by one point, growth was still growth. Ash believed in steady accumulation.
What disappointed him was the energy value.
It had risen from 21 to 97, which sounded impressive, but it was far below his expectations.
Aside from Dicken guarding Twin Capes and hunting pirates nonstop, plus the few Ash eliminated along the way, the main source of energy had come from the fire he set in Mock Town.
Unfortunately, none of those pirates were truly powerful. Devil Fruits were rare, and no big names were present. The energy gain was meager, not even enough to accumulate for a single Devil Fruit.
The biggest changes appeared in his affiliated abilities.
When they separated at Twin Capes, Ash had Pini bring back four Devil Fruits. The improvements clearly came from the Ji Meng Fruit and the Bai Shion Fruit.
As for why the two fruits given to the Daly brothers were not eaten, Ash had no idea. Maybe they wanted to eat them together, but one was missing, so they kept waiting.
Youki received the Ji Meng Fruit.
[Zoan Type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Ji Meng Form]
[Abilities: Flight, transformation into a divine beast with a dragon head and human body, control over wind, control over water, powerful physique, sun-attuned constitution]
Sali received the Bai Shion Fruit.
[Zoan Type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Bai Shion Form]
[Abilities: Flight, white lion appearance, single horn, lightning, ice, precognition, Voice of All Things, powerful physique, sun-attuned constitution]
However, the abilities of precognition and Voice of All Things did not appear in Ash's affiliated slot. The editor classified them as advanced Observation Haki, meaning they required either awakening or a much higher spiritual level.
Voice of All Things was actually one of Ash's original design goals.
He needed a way to distinguish good and evil among pirates passing through Twin Capes. Not every pirate deserved death. Some were forced onto ships, some were harmless adventurers, some were simply fools chasing dreams.
Ash did not want to become a machine that turned every living pirate into energy.
He understood that his powers were slowly turning him into something beyond human. In his mind, existence had three layers: beast, human, and god.
Beasts followed instinct without morality.
Humans had desire, but also conscience.
Gods saw all life as dust.
Ash did not want to fall entirely into either extreme.
Even with divine power, he still wanted to keep a human bottom line.
That did not mean he was soft.
Pure scum like the Wolf Pirates, the Giant Pirates of Small Garden, or the murderers of Mock Town deserved to be erased without hesitation.
But pirates like the Straw Hats had not yet crossed that line.
Before Enies Lobby.
Before Impel Down.
Before they released countless criminals into the world.
Ash would not judge them for crimes they had not yet committed.
He had principles, even if they were slowly being crushed under the weight of his own godhood.
Thanks to the Ji Meng Fruit, Bai Shion Fruit, and Dicken's Fei Dan Fruit, Ash's Wind Control reached 180%, Lightning reached 120%, and three new elements appeared: ice, water, and poison.
The hidden Physique and Spirit boosts from Physique Amplification were what truly made this journey possible.
As Ash reached the location of the three small islands, a massive bulge appeared on the sea surface near Jaya.
The Knock-Up Stream was coming.
Without hesitation, Ash fully activated his control over wind, earth, and water. The three islands were lifted directly into the air and dragged toward the epicenter.
The ocean roared.
A colossal current exploded upward, a pillar of water piercing the heavens.
The three islands were caught and launched into the sky.
Whether it was a Super Knock-Up Stream or not did not matter.
If the current was not strong enough, Ash would simply make up the difference himself.
He stood calmly on the central island, hands on his hips, laughing loudly.
"This is perfect. If I had dragged these islands up myself, I would have been exhausted."
"Now all I need to do is stabilize them, reduce the pressure, and maybe even speed this thing up."
His eyes burned with anticipation.
"Skypiea, I'm coming."
===
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