The golden light of dusk filtered through the eternal clouds of Skypiea, bathing the Sky Island in a serene, untouched glow. In the distance, the golden bell stood imposing, a symbol of buried eras and forgotten promises. The massive structure gleamed as if the sky itself revered its silence.
Riser stood before the Poneglyph, his golden eyes fixed on the ancient stone. His presence contrasted with the ethereal purity of the place—an intruder who didn't beg for passage but reigned by right.
The wind whispered in gentle spirals. The clouds beneath his feet compressed, reverent to his presence. His fingers faintly traced the symbols carved into the monolith. He didn't read—he felt. As if the ancient words revealed not facts, but intentions.
'Poseidon… Joy Boy… the lament of a sunken kingdom.'
His mind wandered through possibilities and hidden paths, but none truly moved him.
Then, he stopped.
His eyes suddenly turned upward, beyond the layers of clouds, beyond the visible space. His golden pupil dilated.
'What is that…?'
A nearly imperceptible tremor rippled through the air. The breeze ceased. The sky—moments ago painted in hues of gold and amber—froze. Literally.
Nothing moved.
Silence.
But not a normal silence. A silence heavy with something… primal.
Something was falling.
Riser furrowed his brow. His Observation Haki screamed in alert. The air above the island seemed to… bend. As if it were being pressed by something so immense that even the atmosphere couldn't contain it.
He took a step back.
The Poneglyph trembled. The bell creaked. The clouds vibrated.
'This isn't lightning. This isn't a common weapon.'
A light appeared in the sky.
At first, it was a tiny speck, like a star too eager to shine.
Then… it grew.
It grew far too fast.
A sphere of luminous energy, white and golden, materialized in the firmament—colossal, silent, without sound, without warning. A gravitational halo surrounded its core, distorting light, bending reality itself around it.
Riser didn't move immediately.
His eyes were fixed on the celestial abomination descending in slow motion.
'This will erase everything.'
For the first time since stepping into One Piece, his body felt something different. Not fear. But urgency.
He activated his Observation Haki at full force. The world around him slowed. The vibrations of the bell, the rotation of light particles, even the pulses of the cosmic energy above—everything became clear.
And in that moment, he knew:
Nothing in Skypiea would survive.
Not the skies.
Not the people.
Not the memories.
Not the legends.
Nothing.
His body vanished.
FWOOSH!
The cloud he stood on compressed violently, exploding outward. The sound of his displacement echoed seconds later.
Riser appeared on the other side of the island, already hundreds of meters from the bell.
'Speed won't be enough. This is planetary scale.'
He glanced back one last time.
And then, it happened.
The light touched the top of the golden bell.
For a fraction of a second, there was nothing.
No sound.
No wind.
No movement.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!
The explosion of light wasn't a detonation.
It was an annihilation.
The sky blazed like a thousand suns colliding in a single beat.
The bell shattered into golden particles, each fragment vaporized before touching the ground. The Poneglyph, indestructible by nature, was swallowed by a luminous rift that tore through the fabric of reality, sucked into a wave of pure gravitational energy.
The impact spread like a tsunami of light, crushing clouds, reducing villages to dust, disintegrating trees, temples, and everything that breathed.
Static electricity sparks raced in all directions, but there was nowhere to flee.
It was as if the very concept of existence was being erased.
Riser didn't run.
He moved with mathematical precision.
His speed was absurd—each step teleported his body through dimensional vortices, leaping between empty spaces fractions of a second before the wave of destruction reached him.
He spun through the air like a weightless phantom, his black robes floating amid absolute disintegration.
Rifts opened in the clouds around him. Entire pillars of energy descended like divine columns, erasing every corner of Skypiea.
And yet, he escaped.
'Is this… a punishment? Or a test?'
He didn't know.
It didn't matter.
Upon reaching the final edge of the celestial plateau, the cloud beneath his feet vanished.
He fell.
And the sky behind him…
Exploded.
A circle of light expanded upward like an inverted flower, its edges burning space with pure energy. The shadow of the impact pierced the atmosphere, reverberating across the entire blue sea.
From the ground, no one would see.
But in the sky…
The throne of the gods had been erased.
Riser spun in the air, his arms crossed over his chest.
His body entered free fall, piercing through layers of clouds like a black arrow fired from divine wrath.
Above, the sky trembled.
Up there, only silence remained.
His body passed through layer after layer of clouds. The fall wasn't desperate—it was controlled, cold, as if he were merely stepping down from an empire no longer worth his time.
The atmosphere compressed around him again, heavy, denser. The clear blue of the heights gave way to a diffuse gray. And then—the sea.
SHHHHHHH!
The ocean water parted violently, swallowing his body in a rising column. But before the pressure could envelop him, Riser teleported.
FWOOSH.
---
The beach was deserted.
The sand, dark and cold. The vegetation, sparse. It was a random island, lost in some unexplored corner of the New World. No signs of life, no ships, just the salty breeze carrying tiny ashes through the air.
Ashes.
He walked slowly to the edge of the cliff. From the height, the sea stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance, white specks swirled in the air—remnants of the destruction above.
Particles of the sky.
Particles of Skypiea.
'Nothing's left…'
Riser's fingers closed slowly.
His Observation Haki expanded automatically. Nothing but wind, rocks, and silence. No souls. No living presence.
But that wasn't what he was searching for.
"System."
The word cut through the air.
[Connection to System Established.]
[Version 2.0 — Interface Active.]
The golden screen appeared before him, floating with its usual smoothness, indifferent to the chaos it had just witnessed.
"Tell me. What was that?"
[Processing…]
[Event Classified as: Class-S Celestial Annihilation.]
Riser remained still.
"Who did it?"
[Information: Unavailable.]
[Threat Classification: Beyond normal parameters.]
[Estimate: Power surpassing Yonko level.]
[Database suggests correlation with a hidden entity controlling the World Government.]
The response was dry. Technical. Almost cruel in its indifference.
Riser narrowed his eyes.
"Imu?"
[Behavioral pattern and lack of public record suggest possibility.]
[Confirmation: Unfeasible.]
He inhaled, his eyes fixed on the sea.
'So this world really is different…'
The memory of the interface appearing for the first time after his request surfaced. He had asked for a "more fun world," "with more freedom," "a place where he could relax and shape a new destiny."
And the system had granted it.
With a warning.
[This world will differ from the original work.]
[You will encounter surprises.]
[Some of them… irreversible.]
Now, it made sense.
Robin… was the only survivor of the original crew.
Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Chopper…
Luffy.
They were all in Skypiea when the Celestial Judgment was unleashed.
None of them survived.
Riser felt nothing for them.
His emotional absence was absolute.
But—
'Nami…'
For a moment, something like an echo passed through his mind.
A faint memory. Of her smiling sideways, pulling out the ship's map. Of eyes that reddened when vampiric instincts flared. Of silent devotion, of blood carrying the signature of his lineage.
It wasn't love.
It wasn't grief.
It was just… an inconvenient loss.
'I turned you. I gave you a path. And the world took you without asking.'
He sat on the rock. One leg bent, his eyes locked on the sky where the island no longer existed.
"Did you lie to me?"
[Negative.]
[Parameters set during world creation were upheld.]
[Note: Canon elements were restructured.]
[Reason: Unpredictability and Scalable Rewards.]
Riser rested his elbow on his knee, his fingers sliding along his jaw.
"So the destruction of that island… was part of this new structure?"
[Yes.]
[Adjustment Note: The One Piece world was modified to include hidden forces on a superior scale.]
[You are in a universe where global-impact events can occur without warning.]
[Reward: Equivalent opportunities.]
The silence was long.
He didn't react with anger. Or frustration.
He just analyzed.
As he always did.
"How many luck points did I gain for surviving that?"
[15,000 luck points added.]
[Total points: 76,500.]
A faint smile curved the corner of his lips.
"So you really think everything can be compensated with numbers."
[This is a system.]
[Utility is calculated. Emotions are not processed.]
[You remain the primary distortion factor in this world.]
[It is recommended that you leverage this status.]
Riser stood.
The breeze blew stronger, scattering sky ashes over his black cloak.
His golden eyes fixed on the empty sky again.
He didn't need to rebuild Skypiea.
He didn't need revenge.
But…
"Tell me. Was there more than one target in that explosion?"
[No.]
[You were the target.]
"Why?"
[Estimated Reason: Abnormal interference in the world's balance.]
[You are an external entity. The planetary defense system recognizes this.]
[Activation of destruction protocol was the automatic response.]
Riser didn't respond for a moment.
His eyes drifted to his palm, where the Phenex symbol still glowed faintly in gold.
'So that's how you respond to a threat. Wipe out the entire island.'
"Can I do the same?"
[At the cost of 50,000 luck points, you can request a retaliation protocol.]
[Target required: Specific coordinates.]
"Not yet."
He closed his hand slowly.
His eyes returned to the sea.
"Before that… I'll build something of my own."
The system remained silent.
Riser snapped his fingers.
A golden aura flared beneath his feet.
"Take me to an abandoned island in the New World."
[Confirmed.]
[Processing Teleport…]
FWOOSH!
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