Chapter 558: Hades
Time continued to pass quietly. New Fish-Man Island's construction moved steadily forward. Once the initial rough housing had been completed, the residents began putting their own touches on their new homes, and the island grew livelier by the day.
During this period Brett's daily rhythm settled into something almost peaceful. He would take Shyarly for walks around the island, and occasionally carry her up into the sky so she could see what the world looked like from above.
The rest of his time went to the Seraphim.
Their rate of improvement was alarming. They absorbed everything Brett and the others gave them like a dry sponge dropped into water. In only a few days their combat experience had taken a leap that would have taken a human fighter years to accumulate. Even Brett was finding it genuinely difficult to dominate them in pure close-quarters exchanges anymore.
They had even awakened Haki, which pushed their strength to yet another level.
These were, in a physical sense, children who had only just been born. But they were growing stronger every single day.
Brett was pleased about this. Their side was getting stronger.
Then, on a certain day after all of that, the second piece of good news arrived.
Pluton was finished.
Franky came charging in to deliver the news personally. He was so worked up he was practically in tears.
"Brett! It's done! The greatest ship in the world! Our ultimate masterpiece is finally complete!"
When the words reached him, Brett's first reaction was a moment of blank stillness. Then elation came flooding in behind it.
The moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
The construction had taken an enormous stretch of time. Even after Vegapunk had joined the project it had gone on for what felt like an age. And now, at last, it was finished.
The joy rising inside Brett was something he could not have suppressed even if he had tried.
Finally done.
With this, every preparation for the war was complete. The final battle against Imu could begin. And this entire world could be taken back from his hands.
Brett followed Franky to the shipyard at full pace.
Vegapunk, Shanks, and Rayleigh had arrived ahead of them. The Seraphim training sessions had been running in the area, and the laboratory and shipyard sat right beside each other, so they had reached it first without difficulty.
"Brett." Rayleigh smiled as he greeted him. "Looks like the moment we've all been waiting for has finally come."
Brett gave a quiet nod.
He was too excited to say much.
"Come on, let's go see our ultimate warship."
Vegapunk set off first with great cheer. He had not contributed as much labor as Tom and his apprentices, but he had been a genuine part of this project and had played a significant role in it.
They went inside the shipyard, and the enormous shape revealed itself before them.
"I've seen it before, but even so." Shanks rubbed his chin and studied the vessel in front of him. "This design. I've never seen anything like it on the ocean."
What stood before them was not an ordinary warship.
The Pluton Brett had retrieved from Wano had already been exceptional by any measure. But this one was something else again.
Pluton as controlled by the ship's spirit was unmistakably different from the warships of the current era, but in terms of its basic form it came fairly close to what Brett knew from his previous life as a warship in the traditional sense. The word vessel fit it.
What stood before him now, he was not sure that word applied any longer.
It was considerably flatter than Pluton.
Both were painted in the same solid black, but where Pluton had been elongated, its lines running toward something sleek and tapered, this one spread wide and low, more like a bird in flight than a ship cutting through water.
It had wings. Not one pair. Two large wings forward, two smaller ones behind, and a single vertical stabilizer rising from its stern like a tail fin.
If Brett was being honest with himself, the word that came to mind was not ship. It was aircraft.
In the beginning the design had not been anything like this. Tom and his two apprentices had worked strictly from the blueprints. If everything had gone according to the original plan, this Pluton would have been nearly identical to the one Pluton's spirit commanded.
Then Vegapunk had joined the project, and everything changed.
The old man had taken one look at the vessel already taking shape and declared that building a ship in this day and age that simply sailed across the ocean was too boring for words. He had decided to build one that could fly.
Which was why, as far as Brett was concerned, the word aircraft fit better than ship.
"How about it?" Vegapunk's whole body bounced with delight. "Using the large and small thrusters mounted at the stern and across the hull, combined with wings capable of riding air currents, this ship can reach the sky."
"Now that is interesting." Shanks's eyes lit up. "So it can fight alongside Uranus in the air?"
"Maneuverability may not be its strongest point, but in terms of speed and firepower it is absolutely top-tier." Vegapunk could not contain his pride. "It has every capability needed to contest the sky with whatever Imu is carrying."
"I'm looking forward to seeing it."
Brett's mouth curved.
Pluton's firepower had never been in question. Its weakness was that its defense could not match the enemy's, and it could not fly, and it was slow. Without outside support, going head to head with Imu's weapon was simply not possible.
But the vessel Vegapunk had redesigned was a different matter.
It could genuinely fly. And from the look of it, it was not going to be slow.
"Has it been given a name, Master Tom?"
Brett stood quietly looking at the thing that did not quite qualify as a ship anymore. "If we only had one Pluton, we could call it that and leave it there. But now that the original is already spoken for, using the same name would cause confusion."
"You name it, Brett."
Tom smiled. "I was never much good at that sort of thing. And more importantly—"
I was only entrusted with its construction. You are the one who actually intends to use it to change the world.
Brett did not decline. He considered for a moment, then said, "Then let's call it Hades."
It was a strange inconsistency, wasn't it? Uranus for the sky weapon, Poseidon for the sea weapon, but Pluton for the underworld weapon. They drew from the same mythological tradition and yet they were not a coherent set.
Now that a new vessel had joined the family, this name seemed fitting.
"Hades." A calm voice spoke from somewhere in the ship. "Understood. That is my name from today onward."