...
Not the end, yet an ending.
The brief silence brought by the darkening light curtain felt like the final calm before a storm—oppressive enough to suffocate.
The Five Elders secretly breathed a sigh of relief, their backs soaked with cold sweat.
The light curtain had finally stopped!
If it continued, the secrets of eight hundred years, the faint traces of the blank century… might all be shaken out by this eerie thing.
That would be a subversion more fatal than the Rocks Pirates.
Now that it had stopped—though it had already caused massive shock and an incalculable crisis of trust—at least… the most core secrets seemed untouched.
There was still room to salvage, cover up, and suppress.
Just at this tense, powder-keg moment…
The light curtain, which should have gone completely silent, lit up again—like a mischievous ghost—out of place and faintly glowing!
"There's more?!" Someone among the peers cried out involuntarily.
This time, the scene no longer focused on the ruins and gun smoke of God Valley but instantly crossed the boundless ocean to a completely different land.
Vast, rugged, desolate.
Huge rocks stood tall; ancient forests with trees piercing the clouds; biting cold wind carrying the unique scent of ice and snow.
"That's… Elbaf?!"
Brogy and Dorry exclaimed in shock—they hadn't returned to their homeland in a long time…
"The homeland of the giants!" Some among the Marine officers recognized it too.
Outside the light curtain, Rocks' body gave an almost imperceptible shudder the instant he saw this land.
A complex, hard-to-describe emotion flashed in his deep eyes—recollection, helplessness, and a rare… softness.
He almost immediately guessed what he would see next. An image involuntarily surfaced in his mind: that little giant figure always clinging to him, and those noisy yet persistent shouts.
"That brat?"
He muttered to himself. The corner of his mouth unconsciously curved into an extremely faint, almost undetectable arc—then turned into a barely audible sigh.
The scene on the light curtain was not one of Elbaf's usual villages but a deeper, more ancient place the giants called the "Underworld."
Jagged strange rocks, bizarre plants growing, giant creatures rare in the outside world inhabiting it—an atmosphere solemn and oppressive.
Yet at this moment, this Underworld that should have been silent was shattered by a heart-rending, endless-pain-and-anger-filled wail!
"Aaah!!!"
It was a child's voice, yet thickened and amplified by giant lineage!
The sound echoed like an injured young dragon's roar through the empty valley, shaking loose rocks from the cliffs in cascades.
Outside the light curtain, Elbaf's current king Harald jolted violently the instant he heard it!
His resolute face twitched, thick beard trembling slightly.
"Loki… is that Loki?!"
Harald clenched his fists. He recognized it—that was his second son…
The mischievous rascal with a pure, kind heart who always chased after Rocks!
The despair and breakdown in that cry was something he had never heard from his son before.
The light curtain zoomed in.
At the edge of the ravaged Underworld forest, a "relatively" small—yet gigantic to humans—giant child was frenziedly attacking everything around him!
His purple hair was disheveled, face streaked with tears and snot mixed with dirt and sweat.
His simple leather armor was damaged, exposed skin covered in scrapes and bruises—but he seemed to feel no pain.
"Boom!!"
He smashed his spiked club into a giant tree that would take several people to encircle; the trunk snapped with a crack, wood chips flying.
"Bang!!"
He kicked a rock as tall as a small elephant; it flew like a cannonball, shattering a distant small mountain peak.
"Aaah!!"
Loki swung his arms wildly, smashing protruding stone ridges, twisted vines…
Everything blocking his path was smashed, crushed!
He was like a rampaging beast that had lost all reason and direction!
Only wanting to vent the pain, anger, and sorrow swelling inside him—threatening to burst him apart—in the most primal way!
The giant beasts that usually ruled the Underworld now all cowered in distant shadows or behind boulders…
They peeked out, watching that "little one" with eyes full of fear and confusion.
These beasts instinctively sensed that this "little one's" sorrow was colder than the deepest Underworld winds.
"Because of… that news?"
Harald's heart clenched outside the light curtain.
News of the God Valley Incident had reached Elbaf through various channels.
Though versions differed and details were vague, the core fact—"Rocks D. Xebec is dead, his pirate crew destroyed"—could not be hidden.
Rocks… that man who once briefly stayed in Elbaf, stirring chaos and controversy yet also bringing a strange vitality and anticipation—really was dead.
And his own son Loki had clearly seen the news.
Outside the light curtain, Rocks silently watched the small figure on screen—collapsing in tears and madly destroying everything because of him.
His heart—hardened like "iron stone" after countless storms—now felt as if an invisible hand had gently squeezed it, sending ripples of aching bitterness.
He never imagined that he—a pirate branded "extreme evil" by the World Government, an ambitious schemer…
Could make a simple giant child grieve for him to this extent.
The current Loki was just like Luffy after Marineford—lost, helpless, in pain…
As if responding to Loki's cries and the crowd's confusion, the light curtain switched, showing past fragments.
It was on a cliff in Elbaf, with the grand giant village and distant icy sea in the background.
In the scene, Rocks was irritably waving his hand, speaking to a… "little one" in front of him.
That "little one" was the young Loki.
He tilted his small face upward, eyes wrapped in cloth, but his expression clearly showed worship and longing toward Rocks…
"You're here again!?"
Rocks' voice carried obvious impatience and a hint of helplessness: "I'm not letting you on my ship! How many times do I have to say it, you little runt!"
Rocks deliberately emphasized "little runt," though in terms of size, Rocks was the true "little runt" compared to young Loki.
But his matter-of-fact tone and overwhelming presence made everyone overlook the size difference—as if he were the one who should be looked down upon.
"You think I'd let a kid become my crewmate?"
Rocks curled his lip. He was getting annoyed; Loki kept noisily demanding to join, no matter how many times he refused, the kid would still come running…
"But… but I think you're 'Nika'! The 'Warrior of Liberation' from giant legends!"
Hearing Rocks reject him again, Loki didn't lose heart. As if thinking of something, he mentioned Nika once more…
"Nika? Warrior of Liberation?"
Rocks paused in the scene, then scoffed: "I'm no liberation warrior. I'm Rocks—the man who will become 'King of the World'!"
"My ship has no need for naive brats."
The scenes shifted.
Rocks and Loki talked about many things…
Like how Rocks kept trying to recruit Loki's father Harald onto his ship, or how Rocks wanted to find the legendary Giant Hammer Pirates…
These fragmented memories intertwined with young Loki's heart-rending cries in the Underworld now, forming a strange tableau…
A brief yet real bond between a cold, ambitious schemer and an innocent admirer.
...