__________ POV Narration __________
Vegapunk's satellites and original body could feel their spines fill with sweat.
They had no way of knowing what kind of thoughts would be running through the Emperor's head. He clearly knew who Xebec was, he clearly knew who Francisco was.
Hell, Francisco was reportedly alive and well, working under Enel...
Enel looked at the floating bodies of the Xebec clones from around him. With a blank expression, he raised a palm towards one of them, and Shaka immediately jumped in front of him.
The Satellite's train of thought was relatively simple...
'I can't let him destroy the Seraphs... They are the next evolution for humanity, the rebirth of the Lunarian Race... I need to talk him out of it...'
The Seraphims were not simply a tool for the World Government and the Genius Scientist to use. No, they were an attempt at the revival of an ancient species...
A species said to be the natural enemy of the World Government.
The Government found quite a bit of pleasure in creating genetically modified slaves of that race, but Vegapunk's mind was set on something else.
Something bigger than some play on power dynamics... So he couldn't allow Enel to destroy what they were building, not when they were so close to success.
"Enel, please reconsider! They are far too important to simply kill off!" The Satellite shouted as his arms spread open in front of him, taking a selfless stance as he defended the Seraph behind him.
"... Important? These things may as well be our downfall..." Enel scowled a bit at Vegapunk.
'Who in their right mind would think giving these things to the World Government is a good idea?!'
If the Seraphs got the chance to mature before the war started, then Enel had no doubt that his army would lose.
The Seraphs combined with the forces already under the government would simply crush all of the powers Enel had gathered...
So the obvious solution in the Emperor's mind was to nip it in the bud. Get rid of the Seraphs from as early a stage as possible.
"No! They are our future! Think of them as the last nail in the coffin for the World Government even..." Shaka was unshaken as he stood in front of Enel's glowing palm.
He met the Emperor's cold gaze with one of pure conviction.
"Last nail..." The Emperor's face morphed for a few seconds.
'Are they planning to tweak the authorization settings or something?...'
"I can tell what is on your mind right now... And yes, we do plan to have proper control over them. At least of a higher priority than the Elders..." Stella, the original, spoke out as well, talking up to the tall emperor and patting him on the leg.
"... Aren't they going to be able to test and notice that rather easily?" The Emperor raised an eyebrow as he looked at the other Satellites as well.
Vegapunk seemed completely adamant about protecting the Serpahims, to the point where Lilith had even pulled out a strange, futuristic rifle.
"We will make a temporary adjustment to get over their tests... After that, everything should go fine... If they don't get rid of us anyway..." Shaka sighed as he looked back at the Seraphims which were still growing within their test tubes, unperturbed by the outside disturbance.
"... So you suspect they will still kill you?" Enel raised an eyebrow at that, unsure if the Government was really willing to kill off the greatest mind within its employ.
Inadvertently, the Emperor also lowered his glowing hand, giving the Satellite in front of him some room to relax.
"We are almost 95% sure of it... We made many moves behind their backs, moves that they've been pretending not to notice for a long time..." Shaka said as he finally let his arms fall to his sides and took a deep breath.
"... Figures... I'll send some help your way, just give the word..." Enel shook his head and turned around, still looking at the clones surrounding him.
"We appreciate the offer... Any help will certainly be needed... Who exactly are you planning to send? If you don't come yourself, that is..." The Vegapunks could finally take a breath and relax as the Emperor seemed to have given up on destroying their greatest creations.
"... I'm still deciding between Shanks and Whitebeard, each accompanied by their crews, of course...
Most likely both. This is a rather important thing, keeping you alive that is...
We'll see... It seems the Seraphs still need a few months in the oven at the very least..."
All of the Satellites, and Stella, couldn't keep their mouths from trembling slightly as Enel casually spoke of summoning two of the strongest Emperors of the Sea and their crews casually.
They calmed down rather quickly though, as they realized that was just the type of man they were speaking to.
"I think this will be it for my visit... This was all I wanted to check on. You already have a way of contacting Dragon and the others..." Enel ignored their slight shock and turned around to walk out of the room.
He gave the Seraphims one last glance, narrowing his eyes as he did.
'It's impossible to tell which one holds the original Xebec's soul...'
At the end of the day, the Emperor could only shake his head and hope for the best.
'If he's going to become a Seraphim, then he should be under Vegapunk's commands regardless... So technically he's on our side...
Even if not, then I doubt Xebec would side with the World Government in any universe or multi-universe in existence...'
In the end, the Emperor walked out of the room unperturbed, and disappeared, only waving goodbye to Vegapunk's satellites and original body one last time.
The Emperor reappeared on a cloud a few hundred kilometres away from the Island, lounging casually as he looked towards the technological wonderland with a conflicted gaze.
'That could've gone better...'
The Emperor felt slightly bad for putting Vegapunk in such a precarious position, he had no way of knowing how important the Seraphims were for the scientist and his satellites...
Even so, the Sky King's concerns were nothing if not well-warranted. Thankfully, Vegapunk assured him that proper measures to not allow the Government to control them were put in place.
At that point, the Emperor could do nothing but trust the man's genius. He was right after all...
Under the right circumstances, the Seraphims were truly going to be the final nail in the coffin of the World Government.
With them on their side, the only real concern left was IMU's power and ambiguity.
But upon further thought, Enel could also realize that the Seraphims were unlikely to grow enough to become too unmanageable a threat regardless.
They were essentially going to be child supersoldiers at best, powerful, but not overwhelmingly so, not enough to ruin Enel's plans...
So with or without them, IMU was really the only real threat to their almost assured victory.
'... I guess all that's left is for me and Luffy to awaken, and for the Third God to be found...'
The Emperor then turned around and pulled out a rather large folded piece of paper from a side pocket in his furry coat.
He unfolded it carefully and opened it up to reveal a large map of the world.
Without wasting any time, he mentally calculated and marked his position on the map, while also setting course for his next destination.
'Raijin Island...
Or, the Island of Eternal Lightning... The supposed grave of the former God of Lightning and originator of my power.'
Enel only blinked once, stuffed the map back into his coat, and turned into electromagnetic waves.
He travelled at the greatest speed he could, and before he even realised it... He overshot the island by a few thousand nautical miles...
'... I need to get used to this...'
The speed was hard to control, but it was also very disorienting having to find his position once more and set course towards the island again.
He didn't bother going full speed again, instead just using regular lighting speed to travel through the clouds and head for the island.
All in all, it only took him a few dozen seconds.
Enel didn't immediately approach the island though, he looked at it from a distance, judging it slightly.
'Purple lightning raining constantly on a seemingly barren and scorched land...'
The lightning storm was constant and plentiful, the bolts of lighting were so powerful that they surprised even Enel.
He immediately decided to approach the island with caution, and not from the clouds.
He doubted that he of all people would get damaged by lightning, but he preferred not throwing caution to the wind when faced with what seemed to be...
'Haki charged lightning... 800 years after his death, his grave is covered in Haki Charged Lightning... Maybe that's why IMU's eye hasn't nuked this island yet?'
Although Enel could sense everything in his surroundings, the centre of the island seemed to be covered in a strange fog in his 'sight'...
Looking with an open eye, the middle of the island had a lightning pillar constantly in place there, which seemed to be the one negating his 'vision'.
His radar was also ineffective, as his Electromagnetic Waves couldn't really penetrate the strange Lightning.
Even worse, they seemed to blend into the pillar and get lost in there, only serving to confuse Enel's senses to some extent.
'Is this the kind of power I will be capable of after awakening?'
Permanently transforming an entire island into a constant Haki Lightning Storm was simply a demented feat in the Emperor's eyes.
He could apply armament haki to certain attacks, he had done it before.
Specifically, he had developed an upgraded version of the original Enel's 'Thunder God' move. Turning it into the 'True Black Thunder God'.
Under that form, Enel was stress-testing his devil fruit and Armament haki to their limits. He had done it before his training, so he could likely do it with much more ease now.
But he was sure that using Haki on an attack like 'Sango', 'Mamaragan' or 'Raigo' to cover an entire island in lightning was not something he could do...
'I need to check out the centre of the island if my intuition is to be trusted, then that's obviously where the Tomb is located.'
"... How come there are more people on the island though?..."
The Emperor narrowed his eyes as his senses spotted an entire pirate crew walking around the edges of the island.
'Isn't that... One of the Supernovas... The Mad Monk, was it?'
The Sky King slouched a bit as he looked over at the strange man. A supposed resident of an unidentified sky island.
A large, hulking man almost the size of Kuma, with a permanent smile on his bearded face. His hair was black, short, giving his head a rounded appearance.
His clothes somewhat resembled those of a Buddhist Monk but with a much darker colour pallet.
He also wore a long string of prayer beads on his neck and carried around a large metallic pillar which he presumably used as a weapon.
He also held up a large umbrella, which seemed to stop the lightning from striking him and his crew.
It was a strange scene for Enel, to see the gigantic Mad Monk meekly following around a small, white-haired old lady.
'I guess I'll approach them and see what's going on...'
__________________________________________________________________
Hope you liked the chapter! Yesterday was a busy day, so I kinda gave up on going to the gym today instead so I could finish this one up :))
And yea, Seraphs get to live for now. Some ppl may not like this very much, but let's be honest.
Who actually thinks the mc wouldn't be able to handle a kid version of Xebec or even several if push came to shove?
Story Shoutout! : The Last Observer
Discord, again: https://discord.gg/xQTK8caFEQ
If u want to support me look up VeganMaster on Patre_on, you'd also get 15 chapters in advance (or 10/5 depending on tier)
__________ POV Narration __________
Vegapunk's satellites and original body could feel their spines fill with sweat.
They had no way of knowing what kind of thoughts would be running through the Emperor's head. He clearly knew who Xebec was, he clearly knew who Francisco was.
Hell, Francisco was reportedly alive and well, working under Enel...
Enel looked at the floating bodies of the Xebec clones from around him. With a blank expression, he raised a palm towards one of them, and Shaka immediately jumped in front of him.
The Satellite's train of thought was relatively simple...
'I can't let him destroy the Seraphs... They are the next evolution for humanity, the rebirth of the Lunarian Race... I need to talk him out of it...'
The Seraphims were not simply a tool for the World Government and the Genius Scientist to use. No, they were an attempt at the revival of an ancient species...
A species said to be the natural enemy of the World Government.
The Government found quite a bit of pleasure in creating genetically modified slaves of that race, but Vegapunk's mind was set on something else.
Something bigger than some play on power dynamics... So he couldn't allow Enel to destroy what they were building, not when they were so close to success.
"Enel, please reconsider! They are far too important to simply kill off!" The Satellite shouted as his arms spread open in front of him, taking a selfless stance as he defended the Seraph behind him.
"... Important? These things may as well be our downfall..." Enel scowled a bit at Vegapunk.
'Who in their right mind would think giving these things to the World Government is a good idea?!'
If the Seraphs got the chance to mature before the war started, then Enel had no doubt that his army would lose.
The Seraphs combined with the forces already under the government would simply crush all of the powers Enel had gathered...
So the obvious solution in the Emperor's mind was to nip it in the bud. Get rid of the Seraphs from as early a stage as possible.
"No! They are our future! Think of them as the last nail in the coffin for the World Government even..." Shaka was unshaken as he stood in front of Enel's glowing palm.
He met the Emperor's cold gaze with one of pure conviction.
"Last nail..." The Emperor's face morphed for a few seconds.
'Are they planning to tweak the authorization settings or something?...'
"I can tell what is on your mind right now... And yes, we do plan to have proper control over them. At least of a higher priority than the Elders..." Stella, the original, spoke out as well, talking up to the tall emperor and patting him on the leg.
"... Aren't they going to be able to test and notice that rather easily?" The Emperor raised an eyebrow as he looked at the other Satellites as well.
Vegapunk seemed completely adamant about protecting the Serpahims, to the point where Lilith had even pulled out a strange, futuristic rifle.
"We will make a temporary adjustment to get over their tests... After that, everything should go fine... If they don't get rid of us anyway..." Shaka sighed as he looked back at the Seraphims which were still growing within their test tubes, unperturbed by the outside disturbance.
"... So you suspect they will still kill you?" Enel raised an eyebrow at that, unsure if the Government was really willing to kill off the greatest mind within its employ.
Inadvertently, the Emperor also lowered his glowing hand, giving the Satellite in front of him some room to relax.
"We are almost 95% sure of it... We made many moves behind their backs, moves that they've been pretending not to notice for a long time..." Shaka said as he finally let his arms fall to his sides and took a deep breath.
"... Figures... I'll send some help your way, just give the word..." Enel shook his head and turned around, still looking at the clones surrounding him.
"We appreciate the offer... Any help will certainly be needed... Who exactly are you planning to send? If you don't come yourself, that is..." The Vegapunks could finally take a breath and relax as the Emperor seemed to have given up on destroying their greatest creations.
"... I'm still deciding between Shanks and Whitebeard, each accompanied by their crews, of course...
Most likely both. This is a rather important thing, keeping you alive that is...
We'll see... It seems the Seraphs still need a few months in the oven at the very least..."
All of the Satellites, and Stella, couldn't keep their mouths from trembling slightly as Enel casually spoke of summoning two of the strongest Emperors of the Sea and their crews casually.
They calmed down rather quickly though, as they realized that was just the type of man they were speaking to.
"I think this will be it for my visit... This was all I wanted to check on. You already have a way of contacting Dragon and the others..." Enel ignored their slight shock and turned around to walk out of the room.
He gave the Seraphims one last glance, narrowing his eyes as he did.
'It's impossible to tell which one holds the original Xebec's soul...'
At the end of the day, the Emperor could only shake his head and hope for the best.
'If he's going to become a Seraphim, then he should be under Vegapunk's commands regardless... So technically he's on our side...
Even if not, then I doubt Xebec would side with the World Government in any universe or multi-universe in existence...'
In the end, the Emperor walked out of the room unperturbed, and disappeared, only waving goodbye to Vegapunk's satellites and original body one last time.
The Emperor reappeared on a cloud a few hundred kilometres away from the Island, lounging casually as he looked towards the technological wonderland with a conflicted gaze.
'That could've gone better...'
The Emperor felt slightly bad for putting Vegapunk in such a precarious position, he had no way of knowing how important the Seraphims were for the scientist and his satellites...
Even so, the Sky King's concerns were nothing if not well-warranted. Thankfully, Vegapunk assured him that proper measures to not allow the Government to control them were put in place.
At that point, the Emperor could do nothing but trust the man's genius. He was right after all...
Under the right circumstances, the Seraphims were truly going to be the final nail in the coffin of the World Government.
With them on their side, the only real concern left was IMU's power and ambiguity.
But upon further thought, Enel could also realize that the Seraphims were unlikely to grow enough to become too unmanageable a threat regardless.
They were essentially going to be child supersoldiers at best, powerful, but not overwhelmingly so, not enough to ruin Enel's plans...
So with or without them, IMU was really the only real threat to their almost assured victory.
'... I guess all that's left is for me and Luffy to awaken, and for the Third God to be found...'
The Emperor then turned around and pulled out a rather large folded piece of paper from a side pocket in his furry coat.
He unfolded it carefully and opened it up to reveal a large map of the world.
Without wasting any time, he mentally calculated and marked his position on the map, while also setting course for his next destination.
'Raijin Island...
Or, the Island of Eternal Lightning... The supposed grave of the former God of Lightning and originator of my power.'
Enel only blinked once, stuffed the map back into his coat, and turned into electromagnetic waves.
He travelled at the greatest speed he could, and before he even realised it... He overshot the island by a few thousand nautical miles...
'... I need to get used to this...'
The speed was hard to control, but it was also very disorienting having to find his position once more and set course towards the island again.
He didn't bother going full speed again, instead just using regular lighting speed to travel through the clouds and head for the island.
All in all, it only took him a few dozen seconds.
Enel didn't immediately approach the island though, he looked at it from a distance, judging it slightly.
'Purple lightning raining constantly on a seemingly barren and scorched land...'
The lightning storm was constant and plentiful, the bolts of lighting were so powerful that they surprised even Enel.
He immediately decided to approach the island with caution, and not from the clouds.
He doubted that he of all people would get damaged by lightning, but he preferred not throwing caution to the wind when faced with what seemed to be...
'Haki charged lightning... 800 years after his death, his grave is covered in Haki Charged Lightning... Maybe that's why IMU's eye hasn't nuked this island yet?'
Although Enel could sense everything in his surroundings, the centre of the island seemed to be covered in a strange fog in his 'sight'...
Looking with an open eye, the middle of the island had a lightning pillar constantly in place there, which seemed to be the one negating his 'vision'.
His radar was also ineffective, as his Electromagnetic Waves couldn't really penetrate the strange Lightning.
Even worse, they seemed to blend into the pillar and get lost in there, only serving to confuse Enel's senses to some extent.
'Is this the kind of power I will be capable of after awakening?'
Permanently transforming an entire island into a constant Haki Lightning Storm was simply a demented feat in the Emperor's eyes.
He could apply armament haki to certain attacks, he had done it before.
Specifically, he had developed an upgraded version of the original Enel's 'Thunder God' move. Turning it into the 'True Black Thunder God'.
Under that form, Enel was stress-testing his devil fruit and Armament haki to their limits. He had done it before his training, so he could likely do it with much more ease now.
But he was sure that using Haki on an attack like 'Sango', 'Mamaragan' or 'Raigo' to cover an entire island in lightning was not something he could do...
'I need to check out the centre of the island if my intuition is to be trusted, then that's obviously where the Tomb is located.'
"... How come there are more people on the island though?..."
The Emperor narrowed his eyes as his senses spotted an entire pirate crew walking around the edges of the island.
'Isn't that... One of the Supernovas... The Mad Monk, was it?'
The Sky King slouched a bit as he looked over at the strange man. A supposed resident of an unidentified sky island.
A large, hulking man almost the size of Kuma, with a permanent smile on his bearded face. His hair was black, short, giving his head a rounded appearance.
His clothes somewhat resembled those of a Buddhist Monk but with a much darker colour pallet.
He also wore a long string of prayer beads on his neck and carried around a large metallic pillar which he presumably used as a weapon.
He also held up a large umbrella, which seemed to stop the lightning from striking him and his crew.
It was a strange scene for Enel, to see the gigantic Mad Monk meekly following around a small, white-haired old lady.
'I guess I'll approach them and see what's going on...'
__________________________________________________________________
Hope you liked the chapter! Yesterday was a busy day, so I kinda gave up on going to the gym today instead so I could finish this one up :))
And yea, Seraphs get to live for now. Some ppl may not like this very much, but let's be honest.
Who actually thinks the mc wouldn't be able to handle a kid version of Xebec or even several if push came to shove?
Story Shoutout! : The Last Observer
Discord, again: https://discord.gg/xQTK8caFEQ
If u want to support me look up VeganMaster on Patre_on, you'd also get 15 chapters in advance (or 10/5 depending on tier)
