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Tall Momousagi leapt onto the ice surface.
At first, she felt nothing but a slight trembling sensation beneath her feet. Within seconds, however, her beautiful face contorted with concern.
"The frequency of these vibrations isn't right..."
Tea Dolphin stood up, lit a cigarette, and squinted his small eyes. "Is something wrong?"
"You fool, weren't you paying attention during your military academy lectures?" Momousagi gave him an exasperated look.
His expression quickly turned serious as he replied in a grave voice, "This is a special signal taught by Instructor Zephyr. It's used to communicate with comrades when you can't make sound or when the distance is too great!"
Momousagi wasn't the only one who noticed.
Several attentive Marine generals and officers had also detected the anomaly. Filtering out irregular noises, they interpreted the secret message being transmitted through the rhythmic vibrations in the ice.
"It's from Vice Admiral Aokiji..."
"The code indicates... Admiral Sengoku is in danger?"
"Admiral Sengoku facing a crisis? How is that possible?"
"Hey, are you joking?"
"No, I must have misinterpreted the sequence..."
"How could anything threaten someone as powerful as Admiral Sengoku?"
"But there's no denying that we've completely lost contact with the advance fleet!"
The faces of several Marine generals and officers paled dramatically, some visibly panicking.
Vice Admirals Dalmatian, Momousagi, and others maintained unprecedentedly serious expressions.
They quickly gathered to discuss the situation.
"This doesn't look good..." Momousagi said solemnly, her voice heavy with concern. "Though it seems unbelievable, we must notify headquarters immediately!"
Despite their absolute confidence in Admiral Sengoku's strength, they knew Aokiji wouldn't send such an alarming message as a prank.
"I agree. Without delay, we must report this news!"
"If our suspicions are correct, there's still fighting happening over there. We can't let them battle alone!"
"According to the original plan, we continue our advance!"
Meanwhile, on the distant ice...
The ship "Proverbs," which hadn't been floating in the sky with the pirate fleet earlier, was now frozen in place.
In a flash of lightning, Smoothie appeared and spoke quietly to Moria, Armand, and the others: "All of you, go down and follow the main force... I want to fully activate the 'ultimate weapon' on the Proverbs!"
"Oh?"
The two sisters, Strong and Snamon, who knew something about the ark's capabilities, raised their eyebrows. "Are you planning to use that technique?"
"Kishishishi~! Now that's something I'm looking forward to!" Moria cackled.
Armand raised an eyebrow and asked, "What exactly do you mean?"
Custard was equally curious: "Don't keep us in the dark, Smoothie!"
"It's a special ability that can only be unleashed in conjunction with the Goro Goro no Mi's powers to create a super wide-range attack, but I'm not certain it will succeed..." Smoothie shrugged. "After all, I've had the Logia-type Thunder Devil Fruit for less than six months, and I haven't properly tested it yet!"
She intended to attempt a massive area attack.
Her goal was to help Compert completely eliminate the enemies on the left flank in one decisive strike.
Then they could gather all the forces of the BIG-MOM Pirates to encircle and suppress the Marines attacking from the right.
But the technique required extensive preparation time, and success wasn't guaranteed.
"I see!"
Moria, Hancock, Browaier and the others nodded in understanding.
Mies Olive, who had once heard Wilhelm mention the functions of the Proverbs and knew about Smoothie's Goro Goro no Mi abilities, said to her: "Lady Smoothie, as someone else with Logia-type Thunder Devil Fruit powers, I may be able to assist you!"
"Then stay!" Smoothie nodded.
After Armand, Moria, Custard, Hancock, Yamato, Pato and the others had departed one by one, Smoothie activated the Proverbs.
"Boom..."
"Crack!"
"Woosh..."
The ice trembled.
Accompanied by an astonishing pressure wave, ice chips sprayed in all directions.
The enormous ark rose from the ground.
"Thud! Thud!"
Under the shocked gazes of the BIG-MOM Pirates and the Homies Legion, the Proverbs expelled an extremely powerful air current and soared directly across the sky to the left of their fleet.
It quickly moved beyond the fleet's range.
The vessel rapidly ascended to an altitude of thousands of meters.
And it continued to rise.
Smoothie wasted no time.
She went straight to the Proverbs' control room.
Pressing both hands against the charging sphere with its positive and negative poles, her eyes focused intently.
"Discharge · MAX · 200 Million Volts!" Astonishing currents poured continuously into the Proverbs.
Massive pipes protruded one after another from the ark's deck.
Dark, smoke-like cloud matter began to pour out from them.
To everyone's amazement, billowing black smoke rushed upward.
The already gloomy sky darkened further.
This was the Proverbs as improved by Dr. Hawkins. Its capacity for generating and releasing thunderclouds was several times stronger than the original design, greatly reducing the time needed to condense thunderclouds.
"Crackle... crackle..." The numerous thunderclouds originally summoned by Charlotte Linlin with her Soru Soru no Mi abilities proved convenient for Smoothie, as the constant turbulent black clouds merged together.
Powerful voltage was released.
Thunder flashed, lighting up the incomparable sky.
"Thundercloud!" Mies Olib transformed into a cloud.
Intertwined with strands of electricity, he rushed into the black mass.
Surprising volumes of cloud matter gushed from his entire body and mixed with the existing formation, causing it to expand at an accelerated rate.
A massive dark thundercloud gathered in the sky, constantly changing and expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye...
"What is that black smoke?"
"It looks like thunderclouds..."
"Does anyone else feel their scalp tingling?"
"What exactly is Smoothie trying to do?"
Throughout the BIG-MOM Pirates' fleet, countless people watched the distant ark high in the sky and the thunderclouds that kept billowing out, gradually condensing and expanding in scope, filling them with suspicion.
The ark and the billowing black clouds continued ascending to higher altitudes, appearing smaller and smaller.
Eventually, they completely disappeared into the dark clouds.
"Boom..."
"Crackle..."
Thunder and lightning roared deafeningly.
High in the sky, dark thunderclouds gathered and began to pulse with intense lightning.
One lightning bolt after another intertwined, filling people with trepidation.