"Never mind. This ability must have other uses. I'll figure out the details later. For now, I'll head to Fish-Man Island."
With that thought, Vladimir took a step forward. Instantly, a rift opened in the Shadow Realm. Stepping out from it, he found himself directly in the middle of the ocean.
The water around him pressed heavily against his body. Sunlight filtered down through a hundred meters of water above, appearing dim and faint.
"Illusion Manifest!"
He spoke softly, and immediately a transparent shield formed around him, enclosing his entire body and shielding him from the crushing pressure of the deep sea.
Without hesitation, he moved swiftly downward, heading straight into the depths.
To travel tens of thousands of meters deep solely with one's physical body—there was probably no one else in the whole world who could do that.
Perhaps only the Fish-Men and Merfolk were capable of such a feat.
…
While Vladimir was making his way to Fish-Man Island, the entire world was in an uproar.
News of the battle at the world's greatest auction house had spread far and wide, and everyone who heard of it was utterly shocked.
More than a hundred thousand people had gathered on the Sabaody Archipelago that day. But after the battle, only a few thousand remained alive.
Countless factions were wiped out. Even kings of nations had perished beneath the waves.
Powerful alliances formed by the greatest pirates were shattered in an instant, as easily as crushing an insect.
Even Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, had vanished without a trace; no one knew if he was alive or dead.
Kong, the Commander-in-Chief of the entire Navy, had also disappeared. Navy ships patrolled constantly around the archipelago, hoping to recover his remains, but they dared not venture too deep—for thousands of sea beasts dwelled below, making it far too dangerous.
All of this destruction had been caused by a single strike from Emperor Vladimir.
With one blow, he had sunk nearly half of the archipelago and defeated countless powerful figures.
The Illusory Emperor Vladimir!
Everyone understood: with two of the Four Emperors now gone, the era had changed. The future belonged to a new age, one ruled by a single supreme emperor.
But just as the whole world watched and waited to see what the Illusory Emperor would do next, he vanished completely. It was as if he had ceased to exist; no word of him was heard anywhere ever again.
A strange atmosphere settled over the world.
It was quiet—terrifyingly quiet. Even the Navy and the World Government remained unusually low-key during this time, as if waiting for something, or trying to confirm something important.
…
Putting all those events aside, Vladimir had spent a full day traveling and had finally found Fish-Man Island.
Under normal circumstances, a ship with favorable conditions could make the journey from the surface down to the island, ten thousand meters deep, in just a few hours.
But since Vladimir was traveling on his own power, constantly resisting the immense water pressure and often losing his way, it had taken him several times longer.
He now stood just outside the island, quietly observing his surroundings.
Above Fish-Man Island shone a massive source of light, radiating bright, clear sunlight.
"Eve, the Sun Tree…"
It was a colossal tree that stretched all the way through the ocean, capable of channeling sunlight from the surface all the way down to the seabed, completely unchanged.
Many scholars had studied it over the years, but none had made any real progress.
All they knew was that the tree absorbed sunlight up on land, and at the exact same moment, its roots glowed with light. What shone now, acting like a sun deep underwater, were those roots.
The tree also produced oxygen through some form of respiration—a truly mysterious existence.
Records showed it had been there since the very beginning of known history; no one knew exactly how old it was.
"I should have brought Gilgamesh along. With the Star of All Powers, he might have understood what this is. Maybe it holds secrets of this world… perhaps even something related to Devil Fruits."
Vladimir shook his head, pushing the thought aside, and moved toward the roots.
The closer he got, the brighter the light became, yet strangely, it did not feel warm at all.
"Huan, are you sure I can absorb its power?"
"Yes. It contains an immense amount of mystical energy—equal to forty or fifty Devil Fruits. Ordinarily, absorbing it all at once would raise a transformation ability straight to five stars."
"If I take its power, the sunlight over Fish-Man Island will disappear," Vladimir said. "It doesn't really matter either way, but… I'll give Neptune a choice."
Neptune was the King of Fish-Man Island.
"I can either move the entire island up to the surface and offer it protection under my name for one year… or I can create an artificial sun here on the seabed. But with my current strength, that would only last half a year at most—maybe just a few months."
The first option would be troublesome; the second was simple enough. It all depended on what Neptune preferred.
But no matter what he chose, Vladimir was determined to take the power of Eve, the Sun Tree. And he had no intention of notifying anyone beforehand.
"Alright then—I'm starting now. Absorbing this much power all at once is something I've never done before. I hope the result is worth it."
He stepped right up to the roots. Calling them "roots" hardly did them justice; even the thinnest tendrils were so thick it would take hundreds of people linking arms just to encircle one.
The larger ones were hundreds of meters in diameter—truly gigantic beyond belief.
Silently, Vladimir reached out his right hand, passing through the brilliant light, and placed it against one of the massive roots.
In the next instant, a vast stream of mystical energy—far greater than anything he had ever absorbed before—flowed into his body.
This power was completely different from that of Devil Fruits. It felt purer, gentler, warm and embracing, just like the ocean itself.
As he absorbed it, the light over the island quickly began to fade. What had been as bright as midday suddenly dimmed into twilight.
And in just moments, the deep sea was plunged into total darkness.
"All done. That went far more smoothly than I expected…" Vladimir murmured.
Suddenly, from inside the pocket on his chest, a bright orange-yellow light began to glow.
"What is this…?"
He froze for a moment, then instinctively reached in and took it out.
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