At that moment, far away ito Land waters, on the ruins of Cake Isnd, a colossal figure—t like a mountain and rge enough to blot out the sun—emerged.

  Only half of its body surfaced above the ground, yet the entire nd heaved.

  Shattered houses and rubble were buried deep beh the earth, crushed us massive presence.

  “Tsk! That’s ridiculously massive!”

  “If that thing threw a single punch…”

  “This entire isnd might crack open in an instant!”

  “That enormous size is terrifying just to look at!”

  “Hehehe~ The Stoone Fruit’s ability sure is eous...”

  “And I bet this isn’t even Saul’s true limit!”

  From the skies above, aboard the massive floating fortress Atntis, members of the Fallen Angel Pirates—including Nef, Moss, and Rock—gazed at the titanic figure of Saul on Cake Isnd with awe and astonishment.

  Even the giant warriors Helen, Lonz, and Hajrudin, who were of the same race as Saul, couldn’t help but look on in shock.

  “El-sama,” said Tsuru, Totto Land’s Chief Strategist, her expression serious as she gave her report, “Even with Saul, a Giant Stoone Fruit user, accelerating the process, this project will require a massive amount of bor and time.

  “The full restru of the city will likely take at least three months.”

  She paused before tinuing, “Fortunately, Barry and his team’s spoils are signifit. While they didn’t breach the Wover’s treasury, they plundered an enormous amount of wealth from the private estates of the Celestial Dragons. Funds are not an issue—we have enough resources to rebuild dozens of Cake Isnds if necessary.

  “However,” she added, “this presents a good opportunity to repn Cake Isnd’s yout. For a capital city of the Totto Land Kingdom, the current Cake Isnd is far too small.”

  El nodded with a smile. “Let Saul use his powers t up sand and stone from the seafloor and expand Cake Isnd’s nd area by at least tenfold.

  “Additionally, raise the foundations of Cake Isnd and every isnd in Totto Land by at least 30 meters. Then proceed with the inal pn to build massive bridges eg all the isnds in Totto Land, uniting them into a siity.”

  El wasn’t just expanding Totto Land’s territory—he reparing for a potential attack from the Wover.

  Raising the isnds’ bases by 30 meters or more recautionary measure to mitigate the destructive potential of a ons. By doing so, he also sent a subtle message to the Wover: I know the power of your on and have already ated for its effects.

  If they recklessly used such a on, it could lead to rising sea levels across the world, and he had already prepared defenses against it.

  “Tsk-tsk, that’s an enormous uaking…”

  The stist Ryan chuckled. “Assuming Saul isn’t treated like a mae and allowed time for rest and recovery, with an average workday of about eight hours, this project might take years to plete.”

  “No rush,” El replied, waving dismissively.

  “It’s a big job, but progress is made step by step. Unless something ued happens, the initial pns won’t need major adjustments.”

  El had plenty of patience for the stru and development of Totto Land and wasn’t in a hurry.

  Moreover, with Lillian, a Three-Eyed Tribe girl who could foresee the future ahrough anything, there was little that the Wover would suddenly activate an a on.

  As a precaution, most of the embers rarely gathered in one pce, spending much of their time on the drifting aerial fortress Atntis or operating separately.

  “El, stantly having to guard against the Wover isn’t a long-term solution...”

  The t Gerd, retly brought back from Elbaf by El, spoke seriously. “We need some effective termeasures to deter and front them.”

  “Mamahahaha, don’t worry about that, Gerd,” Linlin interjected with a grin. “El-onii already has a pn!

  “Sebastian and Jien are currently leading a team to Fish-Man Isnd!”

  “Fish-Man Isnd?” Gerd’s curiosity iqued.

  “I heard there’s someone named Vander De there. Their family has somehow passed down the power of the Mark-Mark Fruit feions...”

  El stated directly.

  He uood well how broken the Mark-Mark Fruit’s abilities were and wasn’t about to let such a resource slip away.

  Over the years, Fish-Men rescued by the Hell Trading pany from the bck market had been gradually deployed to Fish-Man Isnd to track down Vander De VII (or whatever geion he was).

  Two days ago, news had finally e in. Their agents had located Vander De’s ghost ship deep beh the sea and covertly pced a Vivre Card there to mark its location.

  Now, Jien the Sea Tiger had been dispatched with a team to Fish-Man Isnd to subdue and bring Vander De back so his Devil Fruit power could be harvested.

  “The Mark-Mark Fruit?”

  Gerd, Nef, Moss, and others were intrigued. From the name alohe ability sounded like it might rete to shooting or sniping.

  “What? That’s the ability?”

  Uhe others, Tsuru, who had memorized the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, was taken aback. She excimed in disbelief, “Isn’t that the ability that allows the user to mark a target with a touch, then throw anything at them with unerring accuracy?”

  “That’s correct,” El said with a cold smile. “And it gets even crazier. Even objects as rge as mountains or isnds be thrown, as long as they’re not fixed in pce.

  “Onething is thrown, it will tioward the target no matter the distance—whether the target is a world away ht door.

  “Uhe ability is deactivated, the user loses sciousness, or the object is intercepted or blocked, the projectile will op until it hits the target.”

  “What!?”

  The room fell silent. Everyoared in shock.

  This seemingly unremarkable Paramecia-type Mark-Mark Fruit was this powerful?

  “Once we bring him bad obtain the Mark-Mark Fruit’s power...” El crossed his arms and spoke pinly:

  “We have Saul use the Stoone Fruit to shape ten or more isnd-sized boulders from the sides of the Red Line near Mariejois. Then, the Mark-Mark Fruit user hurl those massive stones directly at the Holy Land.

  “If the Wover dares attack us, we’ll immediately unch a retaliatory strike. We even have Ryan manufacture some colossal bombs and toss those at them as well.”

  As for marking targets? That would be trivial.

  Kidnapped Celestial Dragons could easily serve as marks.

  Alternatively, small, inspicuous Homies like mice, birds, or pangolins could sneak into Mariejois and hide in a er to act as markers.

  Another option would be to have Uthan’s ability covertly bring the Mark-Mark user into the Holy Land. They could mark seemingly harmless objects like telephone snails or pets to ensure precision targeting.

  With both sides capable of ung devastating attacks on each other’s strongholds, mutual deterrence would be established.

  Even if the Wover wao activate an a on, they’d first have to weigh whether they could hahe sequences.

  Just as they could threaten Totto Land, the Fallen Angel Pirates could strike back.

  There would always be pses in vigince, and during one quiet night, a few well-pced “fireworks” rge enough to level Mariejois could bee an unfettable dispy.

  “Tsk—”

  Bleam