For Robin, everything she had seen since arriving in the Abyss was far beyond anything she could have imagined.
Simply learning that the Twelve Zodiac had a headquarters was astonishing enough.
And now...
"Rocks D. Xebec."
Robin stared at the Mirage Shadow of Rocks created by the Abyss, watching as it recreated the movements, words, and actions of the former Overlord of the World.
She was so shocked she could barely speak.
Robin wasn't stupid.
From Rocks's few words, she could tell he was a descendant of Davy Jones, the original master of the Abyss.
And it was obvious that this Overlord of the World knew a great deal about the truth of the world.
But what mattered even more was...
"Skypiea."
Robin naturally remembered the Skypiea she and Youji had visited several months ago.
She remembered the Poneglyph they had found there, along with the message Gol D. Roger had left beside it.
At the time, Youji had told her that the Sea Kings' message mentioned Rocks.
"..."
Robin instinctively began connecting the dots.
'Rocks, the King of the World... Pirate King Roger... and Star Lord. Could they have known each other?
Could they even have had some kind of plan or understanding between them?'
'Rocks and Roger were the kings of their respective eras, while Star Lord existed during both their era and the present one?'
The more Robin thought about it, the more she felt like she was looking up at an insurmountable mountain.
She had long known that the organization she belonged to was mysterious and powerful. But only now did she feel she had finally glimpsed a fraction of just how powerful it truly was.
An ancient Ark from eight hundred years ago. The truth of the world. Two generations of kings.
And the mysterious Star Lord, hiding behind the scenes of the world, whose existence stretched back an unknown number of years.
"We're here."
Shinryu, of course, had no idea what was going on inside Robin's increasingly chaotic thoughts. He simply led her to their destination: the lowest level of the temple at the center of the Abyss.
"That's the mural. It's still just an illusion, so don't try to touch it." He pointed toward the mural floating before them. "Can you make out the writing?"
"Yes." Robin nodded without hesitation.
This was, after all, the original reason she had come here.
Shinryu had also mentioned that the Zodiac's official scholar was currently stranded somewhere due to unforeseen circumstances.
That was what interested Robin the most. She was curious about this scholar she had never met, but at the same time, she couldn't help feeling a bit competitive toward an unseen colleague.
By now, Robin completely considered herself a member of the Twelve Zodiac. Naturally, she wanted to be the organization's foremost expert in ancient texts.
As the sole survivor of Ohara, she certainly didn't consider herself inferior to anyone when it came to deciphering history.
"Flower-Flower Fruit: Eyes!"
She took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and closed her eyes.
A moment later, eyes sprouted above the illusory mural, and Robin began carefully reading the script.
'Why did she suddenly get so serious?'
Shinryu could only stare in confusion as Robin suddenly burst with competitive drive.
Still, thanks to her focus, it didn't take long for Robin to decipher the brief text on the mural.
The mural was divided into five sections, each with a corresponding passage of ancient text explaining the scene.
[At the beginning of the world, the Pillar of Creation gave birth to all things through the prayers of all living beings.]
This was the first section, a scene depicting countless people kneeling beneath a gigantic tree.
[The first cursed one awakened the Abyss. The Abyss made a pact with him, granting him power and a seed, making him the 'First King'.]
This was the second section, a small figure, who appeared to be Davy Jones, kneeling before the giant tree to receive a crown and a black sphere.
[The First King unified everything in the world. In God's Kingdom, he established a nation where all races could coexist. As rewards for their achievements, he granted blessings to the various races. The two races with the greatest achievements received the 'Wish' bestowed by the King.]
This was the third section, various races kneeling before the First King, with the Giants and Fish-Men receiving two small trees.
[The Twenty Oathbreakers secretly made a pact with the Abyss, betraying the King and all the races.]
This was the fourth section, a scene depicting twenty figures, seemingly the founders of the World Government, secretly approaching the giant tree to pray.
[War destroyed the Kingdom. The Sun of Freedom fell. The dying King removed his crown and fled into the mist, carrying with him the seeds of guilt and hope.]
This was the final section, a scene showing Davy Jones fleeing into the mist after the Great Kingdom was destroyed.
As Shinryu listened to Robin's translation, his expression grew increasingly serious.
The text revealed things he had never realized before.
For instance...
'That tree was called the 'Pillar of Creation.''
There was no doubt that this name lined up almost perfectly with Vegapunk's description of the "Blueprint of Life."
But something else mattered even more to Shinryu.
He finally understood what Davy Jones had received from the tree in the mural, and what the black sphere he carried into exile actually was.
'It's a seed.'
What kind of seed? Shinryu didn't know, but he had a bold guess.
'Could it be... a seed from the Pillar of Creation?'
He was almost certain. The artifact Rocks had taken, the object originally stored here, was very likely that seed.
There was something else, too.
The sections depicting the Giants and Fish-Men contained a detail that caught him off guard. The two small trees were never directly called Treasure Tree Adam or Sunlight Tree Eve. Instead, the inscription referred to them as...
'The 'Wish' bestowed by the King?'
Shinryu stared at the mural, his mind racing.
That still wasn't the whole mural, though.
"Lord Shinryu, there's another section. This part was carved later," Robin said, her voice trembling slightly beside him.
There was no doubt about it.
Compared to Shinryu, Robin knew far less about the deeper secrets of the world. Even so, as the one reading the inscription, she recognized that even if she couldn't fully grasp every detail, this was precisely what Shinryu had spoken of, the truth of what happened eight hundred years ago.
And she realized this final section had most likely been carved by Davy Jones after he fled, gravely wounded.
It was his dying message.
[I was the first cursed one, and I committed an unforgivable sin.]
[I was defeated by the Abyss and am about to die. I do not regret my actions, but I have no choice but to leave everything here and entrust it to those who come after me.]
[To whoever comes next: if you, too, must confront the Abyss and the cursed ones, remember this:]
[Only those who are unbound can confront the Abyss.]
[A free soul can strip away the protection of the deep sea.]
[A free body can shatter the souls that have not yet reached the abyssal sea.]
[A free Wish can make the souls of the abyss disappear.]
[Joyboy and I have made our preparations. When the promised era arrives, the newborn sun will gather everything in this world and bring about the destruction of the Abyss.]
There was no sorrowful lamentation in the inscription. Instead, it read like the solemn instructions of a dying warrior to his comrades, spoken with the lingering defiance of someone unwilling to accept defeat.
And it was the information in those final lines that truly changed Roy's expression beneath his Shinryu mask.
The first half wasn't particularly surprising.
Based on everything Roy currently knew, the entity now known as "Imu", which should properly be called the "Abyss", had most likely been awakened by Davy Jones long ago. Whatever the first cursed one's original intentions had been, he had undeniably committed an unforgivable crime against the world.
But the rest was what truly mattered.
'"A free soul"... Conqueror's Haki?' Roy murmured under his breath.
He remembered what he had heard in Joyboy's memories when he awakened Conqueror's Haki. Joyboy had explicitly stated that Conqueror's Haki was "the freedom of the soul."
'"Strip away the protection of the deep sea"... Does that mean Conqueror's Haki can break the invulnerability granted by the Deep Sea Covenant?'
It aligned perfectly with Davy Jones's final words.
From there, Roy naturally began connecting the dots.
'"A free body can shatter the souls that have not yet reached the abyssal sea"... In other words, possessing a "free body" allows one to truly kill someone who holds the Deep Sea Covenant?'
'"A free Wish can make the souls of the abyss disappear"... Does that refer to a way to kill holders of the Abyssal Sea Contract?'
'And as for that final sentence... is that referring to how to ultimately kill Imu?'
Roy kept piecing it together.
While the exact meaning of the final line remained uncertain, he already had a rough idea about the "free body" and the "free Wish."
Especially the former.
'A free body... that has to mean the Nika Fruit!'
Roy remembered it clearly. In the original series, after Luffy awakened his Devil Fruit and unlocked Gear 5, Kaido had described the Nika form as the epitome of absolute freedom.
'So an awakened Nika Fruit user, combined with Advanced Conqueror's Haki, can actually kill a Holy Knight who possesses the Deep Sea Covenant?!'
In fact, Roy had already suspected as much during his battle with Saint Pierre.
The World Government's fear of the Nika Fruit wasn't just because of its connection to Joyboy eight hundred years ago.
It was because the Fruit itself was an indispensable tool for destroying the World Government!
With that realization, Roy made up his mind.
'If that's really the case... I need to find the current Nika as soon as possible!'
(End of Chapter)
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