Chapter 527: King of the Heavens
"Sorry, Rayleigh, Shakky," somewhere on Fish-Man Island, Brett said quite apologetically. "Though I said I'd properly receive you, looks like there's no opportunity now."
"I know," Rayleigh said understandingly. "Business comes first."
"Not to mention, it's Shanks and that thing."
"Yeah, I can't hesitate in the slightest right now. So," Brett nodded. "I'm departing."
"Bon voyage!"
Brett departed.
The current situation was indeed extremely urgent.
Everything still had to be traced back to long ago.
At God Valley over thirty years ago, a battle that shook the entire world erupted.
At that time, Roger, not yet called Pirate King by people, together with legendary Navy Vice Admiral Garp, defeated the Rocks Pirates who'd attacked the Celestial Dragons there, thereby completely ending that crazy era of evil.
That battle had now almost been erased from history by the World Government. Aside from that battle's participants and a few well-informed individuals, many people across the sea fundamentally no longer knew of that battle's existence.
The reason was that within this battle actually hid tremendous upheaval unimaginable to people across the sea.
The reason that evil legion's ruler, Rocks D. Xebec, attacked God's Island wasn't because he'd gone insane wanting to kill Celestial Dragons to demonstrate his authority, but because tremendous power was hidden on that island.
God's Island—this island was the Celestial Dragons' symbol, the breeding place for the monster called King of the Heavens.
Though called one of the three ancient weapons possessing world-destroying power, like Poseidon, Uranus didn't possess long life.
Eight hundred years ago, precisely because of Uranus's death, Joy Boy and his companions had quite rough times for a period.
Even after being seized by Imu, Uranus's lifespan didn't increase accordingly. After a period of time, Uranus would lay an egg, then its own life would end. Cycling like this, generation after generation inherited.
God's Island was where Uranus died and was reborn.
Back then, Rocks somehow heard of this. He seized the opportunity when Uranus had just laid its egg but before it hatched, launching a surprise attack on that island.
He'd almost succeeded. Unfortunately, he encountered Roger and Hero Garp's joint obstruction.
The final result was the Rocks Pirates vanishing into smoke, an era thus ending.
But the Government didn't successfully recover Uranus's egg.
That ancient weapon's egg was obtained by Roger.
Besides the egg, Roger also picked up a baby while robbing treasure. That baby was the future Red-Haired Shanks.
After the Roger Pirates disbanded, Roger entrusted that egg to his most trusted Rayleigh for safekeeping, because having reached the final island, he clearly knew that egg was an important existence related to the future.
Rayleigh also performed his duty well, properly protecting that egg. Then until a certain later moment, he entrusted that egg to the already gradually maturing Red Hair.
Or rather, this was Roger's intention from the start.
Shanks's background and origins weren't simple. Over these eight hundred years, his family had endlessly complex connections with Uranus.
From then on, Uranus had always been preserved with the Red Hair Pirates.
Brett had also only heard Shanks mention this at Laugh Tale not long ago. Could only say old man Rayleigh knew how to keep secrets. He hadn't told even his closest disciple about this.
So actually, the three ancient weapons had already completely assembled. Shanks was someone who inherited Roger's will. He naturally also stood on Brett's side.
Just waiting for Fish-Man Island's Pluton construction to complete, war could immediately begin.
But now, Shanks seemed to have encountered big trouble.
Imu had found him.
His target was Uranus.
Whether stumbling upon it accidentally or truly already confirming Uranus was in Shanks's hands—either way, it no longer mattered. Now everything was exposed. Brett absolutely wouldn't allow Uranus to fall into Imu's hands again.
Eight hundred years ago, Joy Boy had been defeated like this. Eight hundred years later now, Brett absolutely wouldn't allow the same thing to repeat.
Brett flew through the deep sea, already directly entering awakened state. Steam-like ribbons coiled around his body. Terrifying power made him lightning-fast even in this deep sea.
It didn't take long before he'd already rushed from the ocean, charged into the sky.
After escaping the ocean's restraint, his speed became even more astonishing. One second still at this side of the sky, the next second had already crossed the horizon like lightning, directly appearing at the sky's edge.
In the blink of an eye, Brett had already swept across the sky, continuously flying forward.
Shanks was bringing Uranus toward Fish-Man Island's direction. Meeting him head-on should successfully encounter them. If worst came to worst, they could still contact via phone.
Brett rushed forward like lightning. His Observation Haki was already deployed to its limit, constantly monitoring any movement in the sky.
It didn't take long. Brett noticed that in the distant sky, a ray of light swept diagonally across the horizon, finally disappearing at the horizon's far edge.
That was it.
Brett slightly adjusted direction, charging toward the distance in one breath.
Soon, two astonishing auras had already consecutively entered Brett's Observation Haki coverage range.
The rear one was easier to identify. Wasn't the first meeting anymore. Both aura and sound were familiar—the floating ship that was Imu's trump card.
The key was the one leading the charge toward here. That was a massive creature spreading wings and soaring through the air. In terms of volume, it wasn't particularly huge—just several hundred meters level, not even as large as Brett's good brother, the Warrior Shrimp Alexander.
However, its aura was truly extraordinary. That was the most powerful Brett had ever encountered in his life, possessing dimensional difference from Emperors and Admirals.
Of course, since he couldn't directly sense Imu's aura, there was no way to compare the two.
However, he could compare with himself.
The aura was much stronger than his current self. Fundamentally not a level normal people could touch.
This was the realm of monsters!
And that was indeed a monster!
A massive head, vicious horns, thick scales, stout limbs, a pair of wings on its back like sky-covering clouds.
This was a giant dragon soaring through the sky!
This was once the Celestial Dragons' symbol, the dragon soaring through nine heavens. The third of the three ancient weapons created by Joy Boy and others back then—Uranus, King of the Heavens!