Golden Lion

"It’s in that direction. It shouldn’t be far."

In the sky, Yota dragged Ryuma along as they sped forward like a meteor.

Before long, several black dots appeared in front of him. As they drew closer, the dots gradually expanded, turning into several small islands floating in the air.

"Sky islands. So this really is Golden Lion Shiki’s territory!"

Just as Yota and Ryuma were about to reach the islands, a burst of "Jiehahaha!" laughter rang out from above.

Yota narrowed his eyes slightly and casually threw Ryuma toward the place where the laughter was loudest. Then he turned into a streak of lightning, flashing to the edge of the island.

Very quickly, Yota heard the sounds of battle coming from where Shiki had just laughed.

"Blond old man, I’m back! Take this slash!"

Thunderous booms rang out one after another, and the entire island began to tremble. Yota picked out the direction and walked over at an unhurried pace.

When he reached the battlefield, Yota did indeed see Golden Lion. However, what surprised him was that Shiki had quite a few bloody wounds left by blades across his body, and they had clearly just been bandaged.

Obviously, although Ryuma suffered from acrophobia, Golden Lion had not sent him plummeting from the sky without paying a price.

"You damned bastard, how did you come back again?" Golden Lion raised a leg in the air and kicked out a Flying Slash, blocking Ryuma’s attack. He then frowned and spoke.

"I brought him here." Yota stepped onto the battlefield and addressed Golden Lion. "Senior Golden Lion, I’ve heard of your great reputation for a long time. But now that I’ve seen you, you’re not as impressive as the rumors say."

Golden Lion barely paid Yota any attention. He had been in the sky for so many years that his information was terribly outdated. How could he know who Yota was?

What was some nobody doing, evaluating the great figures of the world? Was Golden Lion someone he could judge?

"Shishi Gami—Earth Scroll!"

Golden Lion’s response to Yota’s words was a massive lion-shaped tidal wave!

Yota sneered and threw a punch. With a thunderous boom, the earthen lion was instantly punched through, and the terrifying Havok shot straight toward Golden Lion.

Only then did Golden Lion recoil in shock. Blade light flashed repeatedly beneath his feet as he barely sliced through the Havok, though he was still forced back several steps. His expression darkened as he began using his ability again.

"Shishi Gami…"

"Black Hole – Chibaku Tensei."

Yota had no intention of indulging him. Black energy flickered in his hand, forming a sphere that emitted endless black mist as a terrifying suction force erupted in an instant.

Although the Float-Float Fruit could easily lift objects into the air and make them float freely without consuming much strength, it also had a major weakness: nothing was anchored beneath them, making them easily affected by external forces.

During that naval battle years ago, a major reason Golden Lion had been so easily defeated was precisely because the Float-Float Fruit was vulnerable to outside forces.

Thus, these floating islands were even more easily drawn by gravity than land, islands, or seawater on the ground. The several islands Golden Lion had raised were like small boats caught in a whirlpool, directly swallowed by the black hole.

Even Golden Lion himself, despite struggling desperately to break free, could not escape the Float-Float Fruit’s inherent weakness and was sucked straight into Dark Space.

Ryuma, on the other hand, leaped and bounded about while continuously slashing out Flying Slashes. He narrowly managed to escape the range of gravity.

However, once Golden Lion and his islands had been absorbed, Ryuma felt the ground vanish beneath his feet. Looking down at the sky below, his legs went weak, and he immediately let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.

"We finally got down from the sky. For the rest of my life, I never want to fight anyone who can fly again!" Ryuma said with lingering terror, letting out a long breath.

"With your strength and physical toughness, if you didn’t have acrophobia, you could probably just step on the air without any problem, right?" Yota said, rolling his eyes.

"What do you know? The moment I look down from high in the air, both my legs go completely weak. Forget stepping on air," Ryuma said somewhat agitatedly.

"Then there’s nothing to be done. You could use Haki to tough it out. Generally speaking, from a height of one or two thousand meters, with your level of Armament Haki, you shouldn’t be seriously hurt, right?"

"Uh… but the farther I fall, the more panicked I get. I can’t even gather my Haki…"

Yota was utterly speechless. He had heard long ago that acrophobia was an illness unrelated to whether someone was normally brave or not. Still, he had never expected that even in the One Piece World, powerful people could suffer from it.

"By the way, did you really take out that Golden Lion just like that? He still felt like a pretty troublesome opponent to me," Ryuma asked after coming back to his senses.

"You could call it ability suppression…" Yota nodded directly. Golden Lion’s current strength was far weaker than it had been in the past. Besides, even at his peak, he would never have been Yota’s opponent. With their abilities countering each other, it was hardly strange for him to be instantly defeated in one move.

"I remember there are quite a few people on Golden Lion’s islands, aren’t there?" Ryuma asked with a frown.

Yota answered directly, "Don’t worry. They were only sucked into Dark Space. When we find a suitable place, I’ll just release those islands."

As for anything more, such as returning the islands to their original locations, Yota had no way to do that. Fortunately, ordinary commoners in this world rarely left their home islands anyway, so even if the islands had been moved, it would not cause too much trouble.

This was also because Yota had not directly used Planetary Devastation’s gravity to compress the islands into stone spheres. Otherwise, probably not a single person on them would have survived.

Still, Yota had not come away empty-handed this time. Golden Lion’s Float-Float Fruit perfectly suited the Azure Dragon’s ability to ride clouds, command mist, and resonate with the heavens, so it could naturally become part of Yota’s Fruit fusion.

Obtaining a top-tier Paramecia Devil Fruit like the Float-Float Fruit was a considerable boost to Yota’s strength, especially his mobility and aerial combat ability, both of which had improved enormously.

Yota would not have minded facing another ten or eight opponents like that!

Afterward, Yota found an area with relatively high terrain and shallow seawater. Aside from the islands Golden Lion used to produce IQ and create rare beasts, he released all the other islands there.

In addition, Yota directly controlled some of Golden Lion’s years of research materials and technical personnel using Electronic Chips and Kotoamatsukami. He then sent them to Punk Hazard to carry out research on their own.