342. Sea of Flame
Lodestar Island, the endpoint of Log Pose in the whole Grandline. The crew knew it is Lodestar Island because all 3 needles of their New World Log Pose are pointing at it. This island is their destination in their current journey and they will set a new destination after this.
The Lodestar Island is already in their sight, but it is still quite far. There is a long distance between them and the island. They just need some minutes to reach that island using their fastest speed.
However, there is a literal sea of flame that separate them from the island. Lodestar Island is surrounded by blue fire that burns on the sea. And the sea of flame is very wide, it spans around 10 km, which is the distance between sea and sky.
It is the last thing that prevents people from reaching Lodestar Island. After going through many types of crazy weather that can sink most ships, they need to cross a 10 km wide sea of flame. It's like the world itself tries to prevent people from reaching that island.
The strange thing is, there was no sea of flame when Roger Pirates reached this island in the past. They also didn't meet the previous types of weather, but other types with similar and more intensity. The Roger Pirates were blocked by massive snake-like currents that completely surrounded the island.
Those massive snake-like currents are very close to each other and the area was also very wide. Buggy doesn't know why and how it changed, but it's not something that he wants to think about. He only cares about how his crew will move past this sea of flame.
Roger Pirates passed the snake-like currents by riding them. Their helmsman was very skillful and their navigator was very smart, so they could find a way through without getting crushed by the currents. But now, he can't just enter the flaming area because his ship will get burnt.
His ship also can't fly past it using its technology because it's too far. They also don't know how hot the flame is and how high the heat effect is. After all, some fires can be so hot that the heat can reach quite high above it.
"Palu, Mantis, prepare a long rope and a big chunk of meat. We will test the heat of that fire," says Buggy while looking at the firey area.
Palu and Mantis nod before preparing what he asked. They tie a big chunk of Seaking meat on a very long rope. Then they throw the meat into the fire before pulling it immediately after entering the blue fire.
When the meat returns, they all get speechless because it's already cooked. It only touched the fire for a few seconds, yet it has been cooked already. They all know that blue fire tends to be hot, but not this hot.
"Damn, the fire isn't that big even though the area that gets burnt is very wide. But the heat is no joke," says Cricket.
"How will we move past that place? Even our upgraded ship won't be able to withstand that heat. And even if it can, we won't. We will get cooked as soon as we enter that place," says Mantis.
Everyone starts thinking and they propose some ideas. But everything gets rejected after the others point out the flaws of those ideas. In the end, they can't find any solution even after thinking thoroughly for hours.
So to avoid getting stressed out, they decide to eat & drink. They all eat until they're full and drink until they're drunk. All of them want to relieve their stress after going through some absurd types of weather and now they even need to cross a sea of fire that will surely kill them just by entering it.
"Hey Palu, why don't you pour water on that flame to put it off, Yahahaha," says a drunk Enel.
"I will do it after you touch that fire," says the drunk Palu while smirking.
"Don't bother, we just need Brook to freeze the sea using his cold death power," says the drunk Deon.
"Yohohoho, I will do it if I can, but I can't create ice as strong as Vice-Admiral Kuzan because it's not my main power. Also, we've talked about this and tried it, and it failed," says Brook, who's also drunk even though he is just a skeleton.
"Eyy, why so serious? We're just joking, you know, joking. Even Kuzan won't be able to freeze that place. His ice will melt instantly because of the heat," says Manba.
"Yeah, not even Whitebeard can solve this problem. The only one who can destroy that place is our Lord, Buggy," says another drunkard, Cricket.
"Gahahaha, how will our Lord solve this problem? His power is cutting, not fire fighting," says Magnus who's also drunk.
"Heh, you are underestimating our Great Lord too much. There's nothing that he can't solve with that cheat power," says Ruff.
"Hoho, I bet my broken shoes that he won't be able to solve it," says Magnus.
"Then I'll bet my unused Gauntlets for his success," says Cricket.
The others start to join the bet using their unused or worthless stuff to joke around. Buggy just watches them while sighing. He is the only one who still thinks about how to get through the sea of flame even though he is also drunk.
Buggy still can't find a solution when his drunk crewmates suddenly approach him. They ask him to cut the sea of flame and make a path for them. He refuses it because it's too absurd, but they start to get noisy, so he complies and goes to the front railing.
Everyone gathers on the front deck and some are climbing the masts because the front deck is packed with people. They all want to see Buggy's attempt because they all are betting on it. Only a quarter of the crew bets on Buggy's success while the rest are betting that he'll fail.
Buggy is quite pissed that they involve him in their game even though it's them who want to have fun. But he also wants to relieve his stress by releasing some steam. So he will go all out with his attack to release some of his full energy.
He takes out Pollux and charges it with his Haki energy to activate its Press power. Then he adds his awakened Chopping power and combines it with Pollux's Press power. He even adds his advanced Haki into his attack to make it stronger.
Everyone flinches & trembles when they feel the power of the attack that Buggy prepares and it sobers them up. They see Buggy raises his sword and his eyes become white as he swings it with full power. He aims a little to the left to not hit the island to avoid cutting it in case his attack reaches it.
The world becomes monochrome for a moment when his full-powered attack gets released. Everyone on the ship takes a step back unconsciously because they all can feel the power of that attack. It isn't aimed at them, but they can feel the horror of that scary attack.
Nothing happens for a moment, but then the sea around them starts to get violent. Then under everyone's widened eyes, the sea gets split into 2 sides, including the sea of flame. An empty part appears in the middle of the sea in front of them and now they can see the seafloor from the surface.
Everyone's jaw drops and they can't say anything, including Buggy who did it. No one there, even him, thought that he can do something like this. Buggy never did something like this, after all. He has cut the sea many times when he tested his power, but the result was never this amazing.
The most he could do was cut the sea into 1 km deep and 4 km long. But now he achieves something far beyond that. This only proves to him that he still has a lot of potentials to grow stronger than he thought. He just hadn't realized it yet.
The sea stays like that for a moment before seawater starts filling the gap that appears. It takes a moment before the gap gets filled and when it's filled to the full, a clear path appears in the sea of flame. There's no flame in that straight path that cut the circle sea of flame into 2.
Everyone gulps their saliva and Deon finally able to mutter something. "This.... *Gulp* A-All hail The Lord."
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