Trials of Upper Yard

Satori was angered at Lucas' carefree attitude!

He hopped on top of an orb cloud and kicked it!

Though it seemed as if he wanted to send the cloud to Lucas, it actually hit another orb cloud, then another, then another!

In a few seconds, Lucas' surroundings were surrounded by orb clouds moving about unpredictably!

Lucas knows that various things are stored in those clouds which could either be harmless or deadly. But that didn't matter as long as it doesn't hit him.

He can simply will the clouds to move away but...Lucas wanted to train his Observation Haki more.

Lucas closed his eyes and began to feel his surroundings.

The area he can sense continued to expand.

At first, it was a measly 2 meters.

But now...he can reach up to 5 meters around him! And it is still growing as he continued to train!

Lucas grinned.

Just as he thought...this place is the perfect place to train Observation Haki!

Satori being here just added more in the difficulty!

As Lucas continued to dodge the orb clouds while his eyes were closed, Satori's face was grim.

He didn't think that Lucas' mantra is so formidable! Even he can't keep up mantra for this long and accurate!

Seeing as the situation isn't getting any better for him, Satori decided to attack as well!

Lucas grinned when he sensed Satori send another palm strike at him and easily dodged that as well.

Not only that, he grabbed his arm and smashed him at an incoming orb cloud!

With Satori's mantra, he naturally sensed what Lucas would do and tried to dodge but it was as if Lucas still knew where he would dodge and still end up catching him!

Satori's face fell! How come this guy is so adept at Mantra!?

Lucas swung Satori on an orb cloud which exploded into flames!

"What's wrong? Isn't the survivability rate of this trial only 10%?"

"Grr! You bastard! Orb Dragon!"

Satori was truly angered!

Suddenly, a bunch of orb clouds stuck to each other and at the head of it, a dragon mask was placed…

Lucas sighed and opened his eyes.

"Well, this is no longer fun."

"Huhuhuhuh! How is it!? Want to surrender now!? Huhuhuhuh!"

"Nah. I just thought I'd end it here and proceed."

Lucas waved his hand and the orb dragon suddenly switched direction!

"W-wha-!?"

"Goodbye, priest Satori. Hope you ascend to heaven or something."

*BOOM!*

A huge explosion covered the forest!

Lucas quickly guarded against it by controlling some orb clouds to shield him!

After a while, the dust cleared and revealed a huge crater!

At the center...Satori lay there unmoving!

Lucas sensed him for a while before sighing.

"Well, guess he didn't die. Lucky him."

He shrugged and continued on by following the cloud road.

Lucas sped up and soon reached a huge clearing.

All over the plain, there seemed to be stakes with skulls placed on top of them…

This where the Trial of Iron should be…

"Is it you? The one who defeated Satori?"

A bald man with pointy sunglasses appeared and spoke to Lucas.

Beside him was a big whitish-yellow dog. Lucas remembered that this should be Holy, a dog who knows martial arts...

"So what if I am?"

"I am Ohm. And this is my Trial of Iron. You are met with bad luck...the survivability rate in this trial...is 0%!"

Lucas grinned.

"Are you talking about your survivability?"

"Impudent. Today, you will die!"

As he said that, something shot out from the ground in the area around them!

Looking closely, what shot out where...white barbed wires!

White-barbed Iron Deathmatch!

Ohm didn't waste any second and slashed his sword made from iron cloud!

"Eisen Whip!"

The sword bent like a whip and shot towards Lucas!

Still, Lucas didn't bother to dodge much and simply tilted his body to the side!

Truth is, Lucas didn't need to dodge as the whip would simply pass through his body but Lucas still wanted to use this opportunity to train in Haki.

Seeing this, Ohm's expression froze for a second before returning back to normal.

"You know mantra...so that's how you managed to beat Satori. But that is not enough for you to leave this place alive!"

Ohm waved his sword again and it changed into a long spear that shot towards Lucas!

"Eisen Fleuret!"

"Woof!"

Holy, who originally didn't want to do anything, charged over from the side and sent a flying kick in concert with Ohm's attack!

Lucas saw through both attacks and dodged easily.

"That's a nice sword you have there. It can even change shapes!"

He was actually quite relaxed!

Lucas dashed forward and sent a punch at Ohm who still stood there unmoving.

"Eisen Back."

The iron cloud changed form again and created a huge wall to defend!

A pity...that it was still made of cloud in the end.

A hole suddenly appeared from the cloud wall and Lucas' fist followed!

Ohm's eyes widened and tried to quickly dodge to the side but Lucas was still a step ahead of him!

He controlled the iron cloud and numerous spikes emerged and shot at Ohm in all directions!

"W-what!?"

Ohm was no longer able to dodge!

Lucas saw Ohm wounded and bloodied all over and turned to look at Holy.

Actually, he felt a bit bad hurting this dog since he used to have a pet dog previously…

As such, Lucas only knocked him out after fighting him for a bit.

Lucas thought for a moment while looking at Ohm.

"It seems...I have grown quite OP...or is it just that my abilities make me a really bad match to these guys who use clouds in their attacks?"

Lucas smiled wryly and picked up Ohm's iron cloud sword.

"This can prove to be handy...though I have to ask Usopp to fix up the appearance since this looks...weird…"

After deciding for a while, Lucas thought that it was time to get a weapon of his own. A changeable and hard weapon like this suits him just perfectly!

Lucas then continued.

As for this dome of barbed wires...it was pointless as Lucas simply passed through it.

Soon, he reached the Trial of String…

Before him was a man wearing aviator clothes and a weird pointy mustache.

There was also a big purple vulture-like bird beside him.

This should be...Shura and his fire breathing bird, Fuza.

Shura held his lance and pointed it at Lucas.

"I don't care how you defeated Satori and Ohm. But your luck ends here."

Shura no longer wasted on words as he hopped on Fuza and charged towards Lucas directly!

Fast!

But...Lucas already saw their move coming 2 seconds ago!

Lucas held the iron cloud sword and swung it!

Two flashes were made in that half a second they made contact.

However...it was still Shura and Fuza who fell while their bodies were covered in blood!

"These...string clouds you placed everywhere is very pointless to me. Count it as your bad luck for meeting me."

Lucas shook his head and didn't bother to look back.

The next trial was the Trial of Swamp.

A dark-skinned man with weird tentacle-like hairstyle appeared before Lucas with his arms crossed.

"Mmmm! Mmmmmmnn! Mnnnn!!!"

"...I don't understand what you're saying if you don't open your mouth…"

"Ah…"

Lucas knew who this is...Gedatsu...this oddest character in the Skypiea arc…

Frankly, his trial is also stupid. Survivability is 50% because...when it comes to it, it's just luck if you step in a swamp cloud or not…

Lucas no longer wanted to waste any time on this idiot and quickly ended him.

It was actually easy...he just sunk him in one of his swamp, and he dove deeper by himself when he activated the milky dial in his shoes…

"..."

Lucas didn't want to stay here any longer as he may catch Gedatsu's idiotness…

Like this, Lucas reached the altar of sacrifice which was surrounded by a lake…

Just in time, a strange shrimp appeared seemingly carrying something and tossed it on top of the altar.

"What is this!? Where are we!?

"We should be somewhere in the Upper Yard."

"It looks like a sacrificial altar…"

"There's a bunch of sky sharks beneath!"

Lucas blanked out for a while before smiling helplessly.

It seems...that these guys were still caught in the end…

Lucas stabbed the iron cloud sword on the ground and extended the length, causing him to propel forwards and onto the ship!

"Hey, I've only been gone for a few hours and you all got yourselves into trouble already!"

"Lucas!"

Nami, who was originally on the brink of collapse from her fear of the supposed god in this place, saw that Lucas had arrived and immediately jumped in his embrace!

Lucas was surprised as he didn't think Nami would do that so he only stood there for a while!

Inwardly, he was thinking how unlucky it was that Nami was no longer wearing her bikini top and instead, wore a shirt!

Zoro didn't care about them and asked.

"You were here this whole time?"

"Ah, yeah. I was out exploring and came here. Though, a bunch of these priest guys attacked me…"

Hearing that, Nami quickly separated and looked at Lucas in worry.

"Priests!? You met them!? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. As you can see, I'm fine. Look, I got this sword from one of them after I beat him. It can change shape at will! Isn't it neat!?"

Lucas showed them Ohm's iron cloud sword and changed it shape a few times.

Chopper's eyes shone and exclaimed!

"Awesome!"

"Hmm, this must be another form of dial that Conis mentioned."

Robin also looked at the sword curiously.

Even Zoro looked interested as it is a sword.

However, Nami's face was pale.

"Y-you beat one of the priests!?"

"Hm? Nah."

"P-phew...that's good…"

"I beat 4 of them."

"...We are so dead…"

Initially, Nami sighed in relief and thought they can still salvage the situation but Lucas' latter words made her cry.

She had seen what this God Enel can do...and she is utterly terrified of his divine punishment!

Lucas knew what Nami was thinking but didn't know what to say so he simply teased her.

"Don't worry. Aren't we already in heaven?"

"..."

Needless to say, he earned a knuckle to the head!

Goddammit! This woman really hits hard! Next time! Next time I really will turn to water!

Lucas sighed again.

"Right. Where are Luffy and the others?"

Lucas asked since only Nami, Zoro, Chopper, and Robin are here.

"They should be headed here to look for us for sure. But we can't just stay here and wait for them. Lucas, can you place the ship in the lake below?"

"I can."

"Good. We should set sail then."

Lucas waved the iron cloud sword and manipulated the shape in such a way that it scoops up the ship from below.

Watching me work, Zoro raised a brow.

"That thing's very convenient."

"Right?"

Soon, Lucas was able to land the ship to the lake below.

As for the sky sharks…as soon as they surfaced to attack, Zoro had already cut them in half!

Robin also broke their backs with her ability.

When the other sky sharks saw how strong they are, they no longer bothered the ship and simply swam away!

Before leaving, Robin asked to borrow Lucas' phone and took pictures of the wall full of engravings on the altar.

"This altar is at least 1000 years old. Seeing such historical remains...makes me quite excited."

"Haha, well, who knows. We may even find gems or treasures here."

Hearing that, Nami's eyes turned to belis again!

"What are we waiting for!? Let's go!"

"Nami? But I thought you were scared?"

Chopper asked.

"We're exploring history!"

Though Nami answered that, her eyes were still full of belis…

Lucas can only shake his head and turned to Zoro.

"So, any idea where to go?"

"God's on this island, right? I want to go meet him."

"...And just why would you want to meet someone scary like that!?"

Nami paled again when she heard Zoro's decision but Zoro just snorted.

"I dunno. That depends on him."

...Zoro is more arrogant than God…

As they began to set off, Lucas froze.

"Everyone out!"

"H-huh?"

Nami and the rest were confused as to why Lucas would suddenly scream like that but there was no time. Lucas didn't care about their reactions and quickly sent them all away to the forest!

"L-Lucas! W-what are you-!?"

"Nami! No matter what happens-"

Lucas didn't have the time to finish his sentence nor able to leave the ship himself.

A bright light appeared from the sky and then…

*BOOM*

A huge pillar of lightning engulfs Lucas along with Going Merry!

"Lucas!"

Nami and the others shouted!

When the light subsided...all they saw was a huge hole and the head of Going Merry beside them which seemed to have flung itself towards them…

Chopper's face went pale as he picked up the only remaining piece of Going Merry…

"No…"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Hearing his crewmate's tear-filled cry, Zoro gritted his teeth and clenched on his sword so tight that his hand bled!

Robin was also saddened. She was still holding onto Lucas' phone when Lucas pushed them away.

She looked at the phone in her hands and gripped it tightly…

At the side, Zoro saw the weird sword that Lucas had also by his side.

He picked it up and looked at the never-ending hole in front of them then walked away.

"Where are you going?..."

Robin asked.

"....I'm going to cut down God!"