Raleigh and Enel used Geppo to soar through the air, overlooking the entire Golden City of Shandora.
Some structures remained intact, gleaming with an eternal luster, while others appeared to have suffered astonishing damage, with walls made of solid gold shattered and strewn across the ground.
Seeing these ancient buildings filled with a heavy historical atmosphere, Enel and Raleigh were momentarily speechless.
Judging solely from these remnants, Shandora's level of development centuries ago might not have been inferior to the present era. in fact, it resembled the technology of the current Blue Sea.
Compared to the current civilization on God's Island, Upper Yard, the ancient Shandora seemed even more prosperous and advanced.
Raleigh walked toward the central altar.
If he remembered the original plot correctly, the ancient people had recorded Poneglyphs in that location.
As expected, Raleigh discovered many scattered gold plates there.
Engraved with the same script found on Poneglyphs, none of it was decipherable to Raleigh—though he had no need to interpret these so-called Poneglyphs.
Beneath the majestic Golden Bell lay the true Poneglyph, documenting the location of the Ancient Weapon, Poseidon.
Raleigh wasn't clear about Poseidon's current whereabouts in this specific timeline, but he remembered from his knowledge of the future that Poseidon would be the mermaid princess, Shirahoshi.
Regarding the Ancient Weapons, Raleigh remained cautious, having never witnessed their supposed power firsthand.
As for Uranus, held by the Celestial Dragons and the World Government, he inferred from fragmented memories that it likely possessed the power to destroy an entire kingdom in one strike.
Pluton, the worst battleship in history, lay dormant underground in Wano Country, while Poseidon was reborn as the mermaid princess.
If possible, controlling these would be ideal—but if not, it didn't matter to Raleigh's ultimate plans.
Those who opposed the Celestial Dragons in the past had undoubtedly tried to collect Pluton and Poseidon, yet without exception, they all failed.
So much so that even their names were no longer heard.
Were it not for the era Raleigh found himself in, and his knowledge of the future, the name Rocks D. Xebec might have been utterly unfamiliar to him.
Each era has its own pirate overlords, but no matter what they accomplished, their reigns lasted only a decade or two. Once they died, they were quickly forgotten by the world.
Thus, Gol D. Roger was truly an anomaly in history—by reaching the final island, Laugh Tale, and becoming the Pirate King, then delivering his speech at Loguetown before his execution, he incited the entire world to take up piracy.
So no matter how others fade from memory, Roger, who ignited the Great Pirate Era, would never be forgotten by anyone.
"Raleigh-sama, I need some of these gold plates to craft weapons."
Enel seemed quite eager to obtain gold for his personal weapons. Raleigh nodded in agreement.
After all, Enel using gold as weapons would enhance his own combat prowess due to gold's conductivity, and this was Shandora—a place where gold was anything but scarce.
"Don't use these gold plates near the altar. They have inscriptions we can't decipher. We'll find some scholars to translate them later."
"There's plenty of gold in the collapsed dwellings surrounding the center. Just extract it yourself."
Enel nodded, then flew toward a ruined house and used the heat of his Rumble-Rumble Fruit ability to melt the gold, reshaping it to coat over his staff or fashioning new tools.
"I almost forgot—we still need a special propulsion device."
In truth, Raleigh had another motive for coming to Shandora: to search for blueprints related to the Ark Maxim.
Back on Enel's home island of Birka, Raleigh had used his Observation Haki to scour nearly every corner but found no trace of the so-called Ark Maxim schematics.
However, upon recalling the history of Shandora, Raleigh decided to return to Upper Yard.
Perhaps, from the very beginning, the Ark Maxim blueprints had been hidden somewhere in Shandora—it was just that in the original timeline, Enel found them here, while Raleigh had never discovered them during his first visit.
"Raleigh-sama, what kind of propulsion device are we looking for?" Enel asked curiously.
Rubbing his temples, Raleigh replied, "I've never seen the actual thing, but according to historical records, it's a ship capable of flying through the air, so it must be very different from the vessels we're familiar with."
"Moreover, its transmission system is made of gold and requires a substantial amount of it to conduct electricity. It shouldn't be too hard to find."
Enel nodded—this suited him perfectly, as he needed more gold anyway.
Naturally, he'd have to explore far and wide.
"Raleigh-sama, I'll search the western area. You take the east."
As soon as he finished speaking, Enel transformed into a bolt of lightning and shot toward the western part of the City of Gold.
"What an enthusiastic young man."
Though Raleigh praised Enel's swiftness, he himself had already dissolved into a wisp of wind and vanished into the air.
He needed to locate information about the Ark Maxim in even less time.
A long while later, Raleigh returned to the altar with a frustrated expression.
During that time, he had barely paused, using his Storm Fruit powers to channel winds through every corner of Shandora's ruins.
Through the feedback from the wind, Raleigh could survey his surroundings with exceptional speed.
Yet, even with such rapid efforts, failing to find what he sought was deeply aggravating.
"How could this be? It shouldn't be like this. That thing should appear in Shandora."
Unable to find the Ark Maxim blueprints, Raleigh's first thought was that the Ark might not exist in Shandora either.
However, after looking around and still not seeing Enel return, a glimmer of hope rose in Raleigh's heart, mixed with concern.
"No, I have to go check."
Raleigh waited for over ten minutes without spotting any sign of Enel.
Growing anxious, he decided to search for Enel in the western district.
Although no one had visited Shandora for centuries, Raleigh wasn't entirely clear whether there were dangers inside.
If Enel had encountered traps within the ruins and failed to send a signal, Raleigh might never know.
Raleigh's figure dissolved into a wisp of breeze, vanishing into the air and moving at nearly the speed of sound.
Shandora was an extremely vast city, and it seemed this place possessed a unique magnetic field that could suppress the range of Observation Haki.
Theoretically, Raleigh's Observation Haki could cover an entire small island, but now it had shrunk to about one-fifth of its normal range.
"Enel, where are you?"
Calling out while simultaneously sensing with Observation Haki, Raleigh quickly scanned through the areas Enel had searched until he finally detected Enel's presence.
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