Chapter 418: All Set, ready for All Out War?!

Tap… Tap…

In the Totto Land Kingdom, deep underground in a hidden sea region, there sprawls an immense and spacious research base.

Rows of blank-faced Pacifista, all in uniform, patrol back and forth.

"Are you really sure about this?"

Beside him walks Gerd, who maintains the same youthful appearance she had five years ago. Thanks to the somewhat 'cheating' synergy of her Soul-Soul Fruit and her own mastery of Life Return, she's managed to condense her once-giant frame (over ten meters tall) to a size closer to El and Linlin's. Casting a worried look, she continues:

"We both know the first half of the Grand Line is still under the world government's thumb."

It's not that she's concerned for Thor and Sif, that eldest son and daughter of the family—both of them can more than protect themselves.

What she does worry about are somewhat less-powerful siblings like Willie, Eden, and Frey, and especially the newly-turned-fourteen Arcas. Although he's too strong to be considered "weak," he's still very young. Given the state of the world now, with the government basically a cornered beast, any mishap to even one of El's children is absolutely unacceptable.

"Ma-ma-ma-ma, Gerd, don't fret so much…"

Strolling at El's other side is Linlin, who is even more strikingly tall and beautiful than before, her expression bright:

"Those kids definitely aren't pushovers. Even if all five Elders attacked at once, they might not be able to do anything. Besides, we're always keeping an eye on them. If something did go wrong, we could rush over right away."

Indeed, El and Gerd aren't joining in person this time. But it's hardly just one or two folks heading out. Apart from their fifth child Medusa—who is busy as Amazon Lily's Empress and frequently leads the Kuja Pirates—everyone from Thor and Sif down to the Eleventh child, Arcas, is going. Each one is mighty enough to look after themselves. Surely even if the world government made a move, it wouldn't be an easy victory against them. In any case, they could hold on until all the adults arrived.

"A Paramecia Dark-Dark Fruit… I never expected it to show up in the first half of the Grand Line,"

chimes in Sally, the "Hundred-Faces Witch," smiling:

"I hear not only has Fleet Admiral Sengoku moved out, but even Black-Arm Zephyr, who quit the Navy long ago, turned down our offers, and formed his own guerrilla fleet with those ex-Marines who followed him—they're all on the move too!"

"All hatchlings have to learn to fly; that's the only way they'll truly soar the skies…"

El gives a small laugh:

"As parents, we've already taught them everything we can. Now it's up to them and their own encounters and choices."

He knows perfectly well how strong his children are and doesn't worry. He leads the group—Gerd, Linlin, Sally—through the huge corridor in an electric transport car, shuttling them swiftly along. Past one massive lab after another, where researchers come and go through vast steel doors, they occasionally glimpse large cylindrical canisters of nutrient fluid. Within those containers stand giant humanoid figures, each more than twenty meters tall, all with closed eyes and numerous tubes plugged in.

Their faces vaguely resemble that of Saul the Giant.

"Those… are clones of Saul, right?" Linlin asks curiously. "Roughly how many?"

"Yes," Sally confirms, nodding with a smile:

"Considering that, once we unify the world, we'll need a lot of manpower and resources—erecting giant bridges to connect every island, reconstructing those with partially sunken island-bases, allowing commerce and communication to flourish—it's all a massive task. Also to ease our ruling and prevent rebellions, of course."

"With Saul's consent, our research team extracted his Lineage Factor, and they've cloned over a thousand copies of him at some cost!"

"They'll then undergo modification and be granted a synthetic Paramecia Stone-Stone Fruit," adds Gerd with a slight chuckle.

"Well, that'll free Saul from having to work so tirelessly," Gerd remarks, recalling how he'd complained about constantly being called in to rebuild whatever the kids (or El himself) had wrecked.

"Ma-ma-ma-ma," Linlin titters. "If he hadn't wanted to lighten his workload, he wouldn't have so readily agreed to letting us mass-produce a thousand clones of him!"

"In truth, we've got a really good relationship with the Giants; the current army has three hundred giant warriors. Strictly speaking, no great need to do it this way," Sally says candidly. "But since we want to push our next-phase plans forward, we had to. Although it takes over five years to cultivate each giant clone to maturity, and the cost is huge, at least in mass we'll have some serious muscle once we unify the seas."

El seems unbothered:

"Exactly. Even after we unify, we'll probably still need to make more giant clones, each with the Stone-Stone Fruit, to rapidly link all the islands into one landmass. Not to mention, an entire squadron of giant Stone-Stone Fruit soldiers would be a formidable force on the battlefield—an ideal siege unit, unstoppable for any fortress. It'll definitely speed up our campaign to unify the world."

"Quite exciting indeed," Linlin and Gerd smile.

"So… are we finally about to begin our all-out campaign?" Linlin asks, licking her lips with an ominous grin. "Those government dogs have jumped about long enough!"

"Yes, the time's about right." El gives a small nod. "I've already ordered the Navy to prepare. Once Thor and the others come back from their mission, we should be set."

In these five years, Totto Land's progress has soared. Outwardly, its forces have grown faster than anticipated, and behind the scenes, hidden powers have also matured. Not only is there the cloned-soldier Army and the Pacifista Army, but they've produced over ten thousand standard-issue artificial Zoan Fruits, forming a genuine synthetic Zoan army.

"We're more or less all set," El concludes.