One Piece: The Devil Fruit Collector-Chapter 260: Beneath the Sea Surface, the Serpent of Hellfire
Chapter 260: Beneath the Sea Surface, the Serpent of Hellfire
As everyone knows, when the Grand Line was not yet called the ’Grand Line’, but was merely known as the most dangerous sea route in the world—
The last known island with a ’magnetic field’ on it was named Lodestar Island.
That was the convergence point of all paths on the Grand Line, and for a long time, it was considered the ’end’ of this route in the world’s common understanding.
However, twenty years ago—
This common understanding was shattered—a man named ’Gol D. Roger’ reached that island.
That true... final island.
He named it—’Laugh Tale’.
"Go find it! I left everything this world has to offer there!"
His words drove everyone to the sea, and countless people began to chase after that island.
Where is it?
What is on it?
What exactly is ’everything this world has to offer’?
Countless people were curious about this, countless people thirsted for it.
And now—
Right in front of Hebi.
The Pirate King’s right-hand man told him the answer.
Twenty years ago.
The giant ship ’Oro Jackson’, built from the Treasure Tree Adam with a pair of mermaid figureheads on its bow, was sailing across the sea.
"Hey, hey, Captain Roger—is it really okay to leave Shanks and Buggy on the island?"
A large helmsman wearing a sailor hat and biting a pipe, ’Donoch’, said this.
"Hahaha, it’s fine! After all, Buggy got sick—and that kid Shanks probably wants to reach the final step on his own in the future!"
Beside him, a man wearing a captain’s hat and a red captain’s coat laughed heartily.
"Yeah, after all, he is the ’son’ you raised yourself, Captain!"
"What are you saying? I’m going to have a son of my own too!"
"Hahaha, we think your biological son might not be as much like you as Shanks is!"
"Stop joking—my son will definitely be an outstanding kid, definitely better than Shanks... well, no! Gaban, anyway, he will definitely be more outstanding than your son!"
"Ha? Roger—do you want to fight!?"
The man who would come to be known as the Pirate King and his companion argued until they were red in the face over a trivial topic that couldn’t be proven at all, and then they started fighting.
The crew on the ship laughed loudly at this scene, not finding it strange at all.
Because this was the style of the Roger Pirates—being serious and earnest didn’t suit them; laughter was the norm.
Even knowing that their captain didn’t have much time left to live, it was still the same.
"Speaking of which, the entire sea has been very calm since half a month ago—I’m so not used to it."
"Even the clouds in the sky have become so stable."
The bandana-wearing sailor ’Sunbell’ muttered this, looking at the sky.
At this moment, the treacherous and unpredictable weather and the occasionally appearing dark clouds of the New World were gone.
In their place were clusters of circular stratocumulus clouds overlapping each other, like cotton candy.
"Isn’t that normal? After all, according to the route, we’re actually closer to ’Paradise’ now than the ’New World’."
Intelligence officer ’Spencer’ glanced at the sea chart in his hand.
"But then again—does that island really exist in a place like this?"
"The final island where nobody knows about it, storing everything the world has to offer and its hope."
What Sunbell said at this moment was also a fact that any rational person would doubt.
Yes.
The Roger Pirates had already passed Lodestar Island, the end of the Grand Line.
And just as mentioned before—the so-called Grand Line was essentially a circle. The first half was ’Paradise’, and the second half was the ’New World’, connected head to tail.
After following the guidance of the four Road Poneglyphs and crossing the end of the New World, the sea area they were currently in was actually closer to ’Paradise’.
But precisely because of this, they became increasingly doubtful of what the Road Poneglyphs recorded.
"Not to mention anything else—if the ’everything this world has to offer’ and the ’hope of the world’ that Joy Boy spoke of refer to ’treasure’ sufficient to allow people to oppose the World Government, then it must be a massively vast fortune, right?"
"For a treasure of that level, the island storing it must naturally be enormous!"
They voiced reasonable deductions.
That was also the reason why no one in the past truly believed the ’final island’ existed.
An island with a massive amount of wealth, whether it stored gold mines or treasures—the island itself must inevitably be huge.
But if it was a very large island, it couldn’t possibly go unrecorded on sea charts.
Moreover, in terms of probability, over such a long period of time, in such a calm sea area, someone would have eventually passed by that island—the treasure might have already been taken away long ago.
"Hahahaha!"
Hearing his companions’ words, Roger, who had been beaten black and blue by Gaban, laughed heartily without a care: "That kind of thing—won’t we know once we go see for ourselves!?"
While laughing, he took a liquor bottle from his waist and moved to drink.
"Hey, Roger!"
Beside him, the ship’s doctor Crocus raised his hand to stop him: "Your body doesn’t allow you to drink—promising to let you keep the bottle so you can smell it is already the limit of what I can allow!"
"Ah... sorry, Crocus!"
Thus, Roger smiled sheepishly and put the bottle back.
"According to the records on the Road Poneglyphs, we’re almost there... oh!?"
Halfway through his sentence, Roger paused.
His gaze narrowed, looking far into the distance.
And it wasn’t just him; the other members of the Roger Pirates also saw it at this moment.
At the end of the horizon, an object spanning the skyline could faintly be seen.
Because they were still at a considerable distance, the crimson object didn’t appear huge.
But everyone in the Roger Pirates naturally knew what that object was.
"It’s the Red Line!"
A smile spread across Roger’s face.
Yes—that was the Red Line.
Only, unlike the half where the Holy Land ’Mary Geoise’ was located—
What appeared at the end of the Roger Pirates’ vision was the other half of the Red Line.
At the top of this continent, the currents converging from four directions could faintly be seen.
"That is..."
All the members of the Roger Pirates revealed nostalgic expressions.
"It’s Reverse Mountain!"
That was the starting point for all pirates on the Grand Line, and also the starting point of the entire Grand Line—the place where the four seas converged, Reverse Mountain.
They were already about to complete their voyage around the world, arriving at the ’back’ of Reverse Mountain.
So even though they had experienced countless adventures, they couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
At that time, in that moment—that was their starting point.
And at this time, in this moment—this was also their end point.
"Hahaha, I suddenly miss my wife a bit!"
"I miss my kid too. Since the Captain decided to start over... well, I haven’t seen him for several years!"
"I only miss my treasure, hehe... I hid it in a very secret place!"
"A lot of things have happened over these years."
"Let’s not talk about this first—it’s almost noon. When are we eating?"
They sighed with emotion like this.
And hearing their words, the smile on Roger’s face grew even bolder.
"Yeah..."
Everyone had things they cherished—and so did he.
And now—
He laughed loudly and raised the treasured sword named ’Ace’ at his waist: "Boys—this is the final voyage of the Roger Pirates!"
"You all better cheer up. We’re going to the ’final island’."
"And then..."
His white teeth shone under the gradually rising sun.
"Each of us will return to the sides of the people we cherish, to protect them... go live a free life!"
The words fell.
"Ohhh!" (×N)
Then, cheers erupted from the Oro Jackson.
"Why say something like that? You’re obviously an old bachelor yourself!"
"Hey hey, Captain Roger—you don’t really have a wife and kid, do you?"
"Stop talking nonsense—speaking of which, we’ve already seen Reverse Mountain. Where exactly is the final island?"
Accompanied by the crew’s voices—
The ship crossed another wave.
At this moment, the man who hadn’t spoken since earlier looked in a certain direction.
He wore a kimono, stepped on geta sandals, and had two swords at his waist.
He was ’Kozuki Oden’.
"We’re already here."
"It’s right there!"
He called out in a low voice, looking at a certain place to the east.
That was a sea area without any landmarks.
But Oden knew—that was where the ’final island’ was located, the place pointed to by the four Road Poneglyphs they had collected.
That was...
"The place where the truth of the world lies."
He clenched his fists.
Thus, the entire ship fell silent.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward that sea area.
And sure enough—
An island slowly appeared in their vision.
But...
"So small..."
This was the first reaction of everyone in the Roger Pirates.
Yes—the island that appeared before them on the sea was very small. It looked like it could only be considered a minor island at best.
On the sea, this island was the type that would be overlooked if one wasn’t careful... In fact, if not for Oden’s reminder, most of the Roger Pirates’ members would have actually missed it entirely.
The structure of its island body was very special. The base below was large, and the bottom of the base presented a certain special crystal structure.
The further up it went, the thinner the island’s structure became. In the center of the island, there was a mountain standing tall—compared to the island itself, this mountain had considerable height.
But one thing was certain:
"What ’everything this world has to offer’—no matter how you look at it, this island doesn’t look like it has any treasure, right?"
"Did we go the wrong way? Hey, Oden—are you sure you didn’t misread the Road Poneglyph?"
"Hahaha, Captain Roger, it looks like we’ve been fooled again!?"
The members of the Roger Pirates muttered like this.
"No..."
But the next moment, they heard their captain’s words.
Roger’s gaze was scanning the surroundings.
"It’s right here."
He said firmly and excitedly.
"I can hear it—there are voices of ’freedom’ and ’hope’ here."
"This is the final island Joy Boy spoke of!"
His words fell.
The crew members were stunned, and then their expressions instantly became solemn.
They all knew their captain’s ability—that ability to ’hear the voice of all things’.
What he judged wouldn’t be wrong.
"This is the final island?"
Looking at the surrounding island that had nothing special about it, they vaguely understood—why for so many years, this final island had never been discovered by anyone.
Because it was completely inconspicuous.
Its geographical location at the ’back’ of Reverse Mountain determined that anyone who could reach here must be ’great heroes of the sea’ who had traversed the entire Grand Line and crossed Lodestar Island.
The number of such people was extremely small in any era.
And for these great pirates, this island couldn’t even be considered one worth docking at.
Even fishermen wouldn’t stay at such an island, and no sea chart would record it.
Moreover...
"The special ocean currents that draw the waters of the four seas to Reverse Mountain determine that crossing the Calm Belt from the four seas to reach here is also nearly impossible..."
The more they analyzed, the more the members of the Roger Pirates realized—this inconspicuous island really might be the final island.
"Roger, the location of the voice is at..."
So at this moment, Rayleigh also asked softly.
"Over there..."
Roger didn’t hesitate, looking toward the top of the mountain in the center of the island.
His eyes, slightly tired from long illness, were shining brilliantly.
"Everything this world has to offer... is right there!"
Soon, Roger and the others reached the very top of that mountain peak.
Then they saw—
"...That kind of crystal stone again?"
At the top of the mountain peak, there was still nothing.
There were only a large number of crystal stones similar to the island base, scattered across the ground in the center of the peak.
"Is it ice?"
"The temperature is very similar, and the height of this mountain is tall enough, but such a soft thing..."
Rayleigh squeezed those crystal stones—they were very elastic, and no matter how you looked at it, they didn’t resemble any ore structure.
"...A bit like rubber?"
"Could this stuff be the treasure?"
The members discussed animatedly, and Kozuki Oden even stepped on his geta sandals, bouncing and hopping on the crystal stones.
But exactly at this moment—
"...Hey, Oden."
Roger, who had also approached the crystal stones, asked thoughtfully: "How was it recorded on the Road Poneglyph again?"
Kozuki Oden didn’t hesitate: "When the sky and the sea connect, the final island will reveal its true face, and the Sun God Nika will bring freedom to the world."
After deciding to investigate the truth of Wano Country’s history, he had long memorized everything on the Road Poneglyph by heart.
And on the Road Poneglyph, besides recording the coordinates of the final island, only this one sentence remained.
"When the sky and the sea connect... Sun God..."
Roger murmured.
"Oh?"
He thoughtfully raised his head and looked at the sky.
"?"
Seeing this, the other members of the Roger Pirates also instinctively followed their captain’s gaze upward.
At this moment, the time was exactly noon—the sun had reached the highest point in the sky!
Its brilliance shone through the gaps in the calm cloud layers of this sea area... spilling down.
VMMM!
Those were crepuscular rays of sunlight shining through the clouds—an incredibly normal sight on the sea.
They pierced through the clouds, spilling onto this island and the sea surface surrounding it.
"!!!"
Thus, everyone in the Roger Pirates felt a shock run through them.
"The sky and the sea connect!?"
They looked at the sunlight spilling from the sky, illuminating the sea surface.
Weren’t the sky and the sea connecting right now?
And soon, they discovered a greater anomaly.
"The light is wrong!"
Rayleigh said in a low voice.
Yes—everyone could see it now.
As the pillar of light from the sky spilled down near this island, its rays seemed to truly materialize, becoming solid.
It continuously gathered, shining directly onto those crystal stones beside them.
"It’s rubber!"
At this moment, someone curiously reached out and flicked that beam of ’light’, immediately discovering—the light actually presented a highly elastic rubber structure, just like the crystal stones on the ground.
"It’s Joy Boy’s ability, right?"
So Roger grinned: "The most free ability... can actually do this kind of thing."
While saying so, his gaze also turned to those crystal stones illuminated by the sunlight.
It was also at this moment that they saw—as the sunlight shone into those crystal stones, the light inside actually began to continuously scatter.
In just a moment, the crystal stones all over the entire island began to ’shine’.
On the ’screen’ formed by the crystal stone in front of them, everyone could see images.
They could see swimming fish, they could see ocean currents, they could see Sea Kings and seaweed.
That was—
Far away, beneath the deep sea.
"Wait, this is..."
At this moment, the quicker members of the Roger Pirates had already realized the truth.
"This island is... is..."
"It’s a ’telescope’!"
Before he could finish, Gaban had already reached a conclusion.
"Or rather, an ’observation tower’."
Until this moment, he finally understood the special structure of this island.
Large at the bottom, small at the top, plus this pillar-like mountain, along with the island base below and these crystal stones in front of them—
What this entire island formed was a giant telescope!
Of course, in the extremely deep sea, a telescope normally cannot operate.
But clearly, this island was different.
The ’light’, ’lenses’, and even the entire ’island’ had clearly been ’transformed’ by Joy Boy using his ability.
The light it projected could travel through the deep sea, and even illuminate the—
"Tunnel?"
Looking at the ’tunnel’ leading to the deep sea formed by the gathered light, Rayleigh frowned.
Yes—the ’crystal wall’ where they now stood was the ’eyepiece’ of this telescope.
At the same time, it was also the entrance to that tunnel leading into the deep sea.
And whether it was the place the telescope peered into, or the place this tunnel led to—it was the same location.
"Judging by the direction, it should be the deep sea directly below Reverse Mountain."
As the navigator, Gaban had a clear sense of direction and distance.
At this moment, everyone fell silent.
They just quietly watched what this telescope, which had survived from eight hundred years ago to the present, projected—the thing that ’Joy Boy’ wanted them to see.
And soon—
In that endless deep sea, far deeper than even Fish-Man Island—
They saw... a hollow cavity.
Yes—directly beneath Reverse Mountain, at the very bottom of the known world, there was an unimaginably massive hollow cavity, almost as wide as the Red Line itself.
And within the cavity, they could see crimson, flowing magma in an extremely massive quantity.
It was like a giant serpent, continuously spreading within that cavity.
But at the same time, some invisible force seemed to contain it, preventing it from spreading beyond the cavity.
That was—
[Serpent of Hellfire]
But the key point was not this.
What mattered more was what the Roger Pirates could see beyond it.
The ’tunnel’ connected from this island, after reaching that cavity, actually continued downward still.
It seemed to pass through that magma—massive enough to burn the entire world—crossed an endless distance, and entered beneath the magma.
And beneath the magma—
The Roger Pirates saw an entirely new sight.
They saw a continent.
Yes—beneath the seabed, beneath the magma surrounding the entire world, there actually existed a ’continent’.
Its vastness was immeasurable, and upon it were massive numbers of ancient buildings too numerous to count.
In the center of the continent, there was also a hollow cavity—near the cavity were traces of tree roots and soil, indicating that it seemed to be a place where a tree once stood.
The Roger Pirates could clearly see that in the cavity where the tree once took root, countless things existed.
Gold, silver, gems, creatures, buildings, castles...
The Roger Pirates didn’t know how this wondrous sight came to exist.
But following their instincts, they could arrive at a subconscious answer.
"That is the ’World’—apart from the world on the sea surface we inhabit now, the ’Previous World’ that once existed."
Even though the Mother of Creation that birthed everything in the world was no longer there, even though the magma named ’Serpent of Hellfire’ and the seawater of the ’God of the Deep Sea’ had erased all traces of that world’s existence—
The traces of its past creations... still remained there.
Thus, everyone in the Roger Pirates naturally understood.
What the legend said was true—the ’final island’ did exist.
"Everything this world has to offer is there."
(End of Chapter)
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