Soon, Ortoren arrived at the port together with Sakazuki and the others.
On the open ground by the docks, a gigantic battleship main cannon sat atop a specially constructed trailer, basking in the sunlight. The cold steel reflected a harsh glare, exuding the ferocity unique to an ancient weapon.
Many Marine officers had gathered around to watch, yet not a single one of them knew what it was.
"A cannon that big? It's almost as large as a warship, isn't it?"
"Not quite that exaggerated, but it's still massive. What is this thing?"
"No idea. Could it be the Admiral's trump card?"
"They're not planning to haul this up to the Red Line, are they?"
"The Admiral's here! The Admiral's here!"
As soon as Ortoren and his group arrived, the Marines crowding the area quickly dispersed.
Ortoren climbed onto the enormous trailer and personally placed his hand on the main cannon of the ancient weapon, Dark King Pluto. The surface felt icy cold beneath his palm.
Master Tom had already been waiting there for quite some time. He stepped forward and explained, "The energy furnace doesn't have much reserve left. It likely dissipated naturally over the past few centuries. I checked the blueprints. Based on the remaining energy, this main cannon can fire at most four times. But it's better not to be too optimistic. Planning for three shots would be safer."
"How strong is it?" Ortoren asked casually, patting here and knocking there, looking very much like someone pretending to know what he was doing.
His behavior made Sakazuki's heart skip a beat. Wasn't this thing capable of self-destruction? What was he doing randomly slapping it?
If he accidentally blew it up, the people up in Mary Geoise would probably laugh themselves senseless.
Unexpectedly, Ortoren's question left Master Tom momentarily speechless.
Master Tom's face twitched a few times before he finally said, "I honestly can't say. But if it's called an ancient weapon, and there are legends about it destroying the world, then a single shot should at least be enough to wipe out an island. Still, theory only goes so far. If we really want to know its power, we'll have to fire a shot to find out."
Ortoren nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. Practice reveals the truth. In that case, let's fire one."
Sakazuki: ???
Master Tom was also completely dumbfounded.
Wait a second. Didn't I just say it can only fire three or four times?
"Hey, Ortoren. If it can only fire three or four times, then we really shouldn't use it carelessly. It should be saved for a critical moment," Sakazuki hurriedly tried to stop him.
"That's right, Admiral," Master Tom followed up quickly. "The energy reserves are insufficient, and we've never operated it before. What if one shot drains everything? What then?"
Ortoren burst out laughing. "Energy? How does it recharge, exactly?"
Seeing this, Master Tom quickly pulled Ortoren over to the other side of the main cannon, where a massive energy furnace stood with an external interface mounted on it.
Pointing at the interface, Master Tom explained, "Admiral, this is the energy input port. It requires a large amount of energy to be fed in continuously at a stable output. From what we can tell so far, both thermal energy and electrical energy can be used. There's a conversion system inside that transforms the input energy into the special energy Dark King Pluto requires. However, according to the blueprints, the conversion loss is extremely high. For example, if we input one hundred units of energy, only about ten units end up being usable by Pluto. That's a ninety percent loss rate."
"That much loss?" Ortoren was genuinely surprised.
"Yes," Master Tom nodded. "Which is why charging Dark King Pluto requires a special technology. It was likely the energy technology designed specifically to match ancient weapons. That knowledge has already been lost, so recharging it now is extremely difficult."
"Could it be that Dark King Pluto also requires the Mother Flame Seed, Holy Mother's Blaze?" Ortoren thought to himself.
After all, the Mother Flame later developed by Vegapunk was itself a revival of ancient technology. There was a very high chance that Uranus, the Heavenly King, was powered by it.
As another ancient weapon, Pluto might very well rely on the Mother Flame Seed as well.
Judging from the absurdly high energy conversion loss, this was likely intentional. The people who created the ancient weapons probably designed it this way so that by controlling the Mother Flame technology, they could restrain Pluto and Uranus, preventing them from running rampant and ultimately destroying the world.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, Ortoren placed his hand on the energy input port and asked, "If I input electrical energy right now, would that work?"
The moment he said that, both Master Tom and Sakazuki froze.
Huh?
Wait… what?
That's right. Damn it. Ortoren is a Goro Goro no Mi user. In theory, as long as his stamina holds out, the amount of electrical energy he can provide is unlimited.
Sakazuki was the first to snap out of it. "You're seriously going to fire it?"
"Of course. Straight up into the sky. Might as well show those trash in Mary Geoise what we're packing," Ortoren said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
If his guess was right, Mary Geoise definitely had Uranus, the Heavenly King. And just like Dark King Pluto, it was probably shackled by the same problem: not enough energy to use it freely.
Still, in a final showdown like this, who knew? They might drag Uranus out and force it to run anyway. To head that off, Ortoren decided to put the World Government on notice first.
Don't think you're the only ones holding an ancient weapon. I've got one too.
Once Master Tom came back to himself, he looked just as fired up. "That's right! As long as you keep the electrical output steady, from here—"
Following Master Tom's instructions, Ortoren began to draw on his power in earnest. Lightning spilled from his eyes as he fed a massive, remarkably stable current through his palms and into Pluto's energy conversion device.
About half an hour passed. Ortoren felt like he'd poured an absurd amount of electricity into it already, and fatigue was starting to creep in, when a single green light finally flickered on inside the converter.
"It's on! It's on!" Master Tom shouted, practically bouncing. "The converter's activated! That means if you just keep outputting—"
He leaned in to check the readout more closely, then coughed and added a little awkwardly, "If you keep it up for three straight months, it should reach about ten percent charge…"
Ortoren almost lost his footing.
He was currently pushing out an enormous amount of electricity nonstop. In a fight, that was like chaining an energy-class finisher on the level of Bull of Heaven over and over again.
He could maybe keep that up for a day before turning into a dried-out husk. Three months? And that only got him ten percent?
No wonder. No wonder the World Government never tried to use an energy-type Devil Fruit to replace the Mother Flame Seed. It wasn't that they hadn't thought of it. It was that it was flat-out impossible.
Of course… there was also the chance Uranus's conversion device was damaged.
"I take it back," Ortoren said, his face twitching. "I got a little too loud just now. Forget firing this thing."
He'd honestly thought he could recharge Dark King Pluto like a fast-charging power bank. Turns out he was still too naive.
"Admiral! Admiral, wait!" Master Tom, who'd been the one urging caution a moment ago, suddenly grabbed Ortoren's arm, eyes shining with anticipation. "Admiral, that ten percent isn't ten percent for the main cannon. It's ten percent of the entire Dark King's operating requirements. Don't mix them up!"
"Hm?" Ortoren immediately perked up. "Oh? Then with ten percent, how many shots can we fire?"
"Uh… I don't know," Master Tom admitted quickly. "But with you here, we can at least charge it. That means firing one test shot is absolutely doable!"
Sakazuki seized the opening. "Yeah. Since we can charge it, we should try one shot. If the power's strong enough, it'll also boost morale."
Mostly, he was just curious.
Ortoren looked at the two of them staring at him like kids at a festival stall. After a moment, he clenched his teeth.
"Fine. We'll try it."
Sakazuki and Master Tom both lit up at once. Exactly. Just try it. Worst case, it's only Ortoren who'll suffer for it.