Chapter 793: The Descending Uranus
Pushing the time back a little, on the Calm Belt's Amazon Lily, the female warriors there were originally going about their daily chores and training.
However, no one knew who noticed it first, but soon many on the island saw a huge dark cloud drifting over from the distant horizon... No, to be precise, it seemed like a shadow!
This phenomenon was very unusual. You see, on the sea surface of the Calm Belt, the climate is at its best. Due to the lack of air currents, it's rare to see windy or rainy weather. So when this shadow appeared, many people were looking up, shading their foreheads to see the spectacle, laughing and discussing what it could be.
But soon, no one was laughing anymore, because as this massive shadow rapidly approached, the female warriors of the Kuja finally saw clearly that it wasn't a dark cloud at all, but a creature of immense size!
A giant dragon! And in the high sky ahead of this dragon, there was also a flying ship full of oars, seemingly being chased by the dragon.
When they discovered this, alarm bells immediately rang throughout the entire Amazon Lily. Regardless of what the dragon in the sky and that flying ship were, they were heading straight for Amazon Lily. Sensing the danger, the female warriors of the Kuja sprang into action. They dropped what they were doing, and the snake companions coiled around their bodies transformed into bows, which they grasped in their hands as they rushed out!
"What's happening?" Inside the palace on the island, the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock heard the alarm bells signaling an enemy attack and stepped out onto the balcony, gazing up at the sky.
"What is that!?" Even she couldn't help but be startled at the sight of the dragon flying through the sky, and then a surge of immense anger followed!
Due to her hatred for the Celestial Dragons, Boa Hancock had always disliked dragons. So even when she saw this legendary creature with her own eyes, she couldn't help but feel hostility.
"Snake Princess!" Boa Hancock's personal guards asked worriedly, "If that ship and the dragon get close, should we attack?"
Boa Hancock bit her nails and said, "Be on guard first! If they dare to land, then we strike!"
Thus, with her command, the warriors of the entire Amazon Lily stood ready, countless arrows imbued with Haki all aimed at the sky.
However, although the women of the Kuja were unafraid of any battle, as Uranus continued to approach, its enormous size increasingly exceeded their understanding, causing the warriors' hearts to pound with uncertainty, wondering what this thing was and whether it was related to the thunderous roar they had heard earlier...
Amazon Lily was located on the Calm Belt, so information was scarce. In fact, no one on Amazon Lily knew about Uranus's attack on the Beast Pirates. There were no live broadcasts here, so even Boa Hancock had no idea of the true origin of this giant dragon.
And because of that massive explosion, the sound had traveled across the sea. Amazon Lily wasn't too far from the Red Line, so the sound had reached them, making the people of the Kuja hear a thunderous noise, but they were clueless about its cause.
Fearing the unknown, the Kuja warriors actually hoped that the dragon would just keep chasing the flying ship and fly right over Amazon Lily...
But sometimes, fear truly brings about what you dread. Just as the flying ship in the high sky was about to enter the range of Amazon Lily, the pursuing Uranus seemed to finally grow impatient with the chase. Flapping its wings, it opened its mouth again and shot a ball of light toward the front!
Since the flying ship was also moving forward, the light ball didn't hit it, but it exploded directly in mid-air!
Another intense flash, like a small sun, burst forth. The female warriors of Amazon Lily below all screamed out at that moment, instinctively turning their faces away. But in just an instant, many were blinded by the intense glare.
What followed was another violent explosion. The flying ship of the Golden Lion Pirates needed no further explanation—no matter how fast the ship was, it couldn't outrun the blast wave. It was snapped into several pieces in mid-air, tumbling down toward Amazon Lily.
On Amazon Lily, large swaths of forest trees were blown flat in the same direction by the cascading blast wave, catching fire. Weaker trees were snapped in half or even uprooted. The residential buildings on Amazon Lily also collapsed one after another.
The female warriors on the ground were sent flying wildly through the air. In the fierce blast, they couldn't even scream. Many were blown from one end of the island all the way to the sea on the other side!
This was a catastrophic disaster. The iconic nine snake-head statues on Amazon Lily also cracked and were swept away by the blast wave...
This time, Uranus's attack erupted at high altitude, so it was slightly better. But even so, the rolling flames that followed scorched the air over Amazon Lily. Some who had clung to objects and weren't swept away were instead killed by the heat first—their bodies instantly charred black and bursting into flames.
Boa Hancock was swept out of her palace and sent flying. Her Observation Haki was quite strong, so at the moment of the explosion, she sensed immense danger and desperately leaped out of the palace. But she was caught by the blast wave in mid-air, tumbling and rolling, landing far away in the sea outside. Fortunately, she was lucky. After falling into the sea, she was initially powerless, but the two fierce sea snakes of the Kuja Pirates' ship broke free after the ship was destroyed, dove into the sea to avoid the explosion, found Boa Hancock, and rescued her from the water.
Similarly, many Kuja female warriors who were blown into the sea also became survivors. It must be said that the strange customs of Amazon Lily saved them. The snake companions coiled around them also sensed the danger strongly. After falling into the sea, they dragged their masters further out into the water. So even though many were blinded, they managed to survive with the help of their companions.
"My... my country! My people!" About thirty miles away from Amazon Lily, Boa Hancock stood on the raised head of a sea snake, covering her face with her hands, unable to believe what she saw through her fingers as she looked at Amazon Lily from afar. The island was now engulfed in raging flames. The primeval forests that had existed for thousands of years were destroyed in an instant. Countless animals screamed pitifully as they fled the fire, only to quickly fall...
Boa Hancock covered her face and wept. Most of the surviving Kuja female warriors, though blind, could feel the devastation on the island and couldn't help but cry out in grief.
Just then, Boa Hancock noticed the sky growing dark. She looked up at the sky over Amazon Lily and saw the culprit behind all this—the giant dragon—circling the island, its altitude getting lower and lower.
It's going to land!?
Realizing this, Boa Hancock gritted her teeth and shouted to the surviving Kuja warriors floating on the sea, "All of you stay here! I'm going back to the island to fight that damn thing to the death!"
The pain of losing her home drove Boa Hancock a bit irrational. She never considered whether she could even match the dragon. Her mind was filled with nothing but revenge!
Just as Boa Hancock, gritting her teeth, ordered the sea snake to carry her back to the island, a group of people on Amazon Lily were also frantically searching for a safe spot to avoid the raging fire.
And this group was Golden Lion Shiki and Blackbeard Teach and his crew!
When Uranus first attacked the Beast Pirates, Teach had escaped. He was carried away by Lafitte flying!
The original five members of the Blackbeard Pirates—Van Augur and Burgess had already been killed by Ian, leaving only Lafitte and Doc Q. This time, in the emergency, Lafitte could only take Teach and leave, unable to bring Doc Q, resulting in Doc Q dying in the first explosion.
Having escaped with their lives, Teach and Lafitte didn't have time to confirm the fate of Kaido, Jack the Drought, and King the Wildfire. They fled in panic toward Mary Geoise, found Golden Lion Shiki, who had just finished his attack on Mary Geoise, and informed him of Uranus's appearance.
Golden Lion Shiki was now at a loss. He had brought many floating islands, planning to smash Mary Geoise to pieces. But with Uranus already on its way back, they had to abandon the attack plan and flee aboard the Golden Lion Pirates' flying ship, using the floating islands as barriers to block Uranus.
As a result, when Uranus chased them, it didn't bother spitting nuclear attacks at them. Instead, it used its massive body to smash the floating islands into rubble.
Seeing this from afar, Shiki and Teach could only desperately flee toward the other side of the Grand Line, and in their flight, they ended up in the Calm Belt...
This explosion was the second nuclear attack Teach and his crew had endured. However, since the flying ship was at high altitude, their ship was actually pushed away by the blast force rather than taking it head-on. So Teach and his crew weren't seriously injured. When they crashed to the ground from the high sky, they survived.
Surviving was lucky, but if they couldn't escape, they would still be burned to death by the fire on Amazon Lily. However, just as they were frantically searching for a way out of the inferno, they discovered that Uranus was actually descending!
What the hell is going on!?