The Last Stone Tablet
The fire in the scene turned the sky above the entire city orange-red.
The allied forces had planted their flags in the city's inner ring, and the Great Kingdom's defenders were making their final stand on every street.
The Sky Screen's camera followed White Robe, the king, through an underground passage. Its walls were rough rock, and water dripped from the ceiling. Firelight shone in from the entrance, but the farther in he went, the darker it grew.
At the end of the passage was a stone chamber.
The chamber was small, roughly the size of an ordinary room. Its four walls were bare, and its floor was smooth rock. At the center stood nine blue-gray monoliths, each taller than a person, arranged in a semicircle.
Nine Poneglyphs.
When White Robe, the king, entered the chamber, people were already at work inside.
Three people dressed like craftsmen knelt before the tablets, using glowing tools of some kind to carve words into the stone. They worked quickly, yet every stroke was extraordinarily precise, cutting the characters deep into the stone.
White Robe, the king, stopped before the ninth tablet.
The tablet was still blank, with the text half-carved across its upper surface and the lower half entirely empty.
"How much longer?"
White Robe, the king's voice echoed through the chamber.
One craftsman looked up. His face was covered in dust and sweat, and a wound on his forehead had already scabbed over.
"There is too much to carve, Your Majesty."
"It will take at least three more days to finish it all."
"We don't have three days."
White Robe, the king, placed his hand on the tablet, his palm against the cold stone.
"The allied vanguard has already broken through the fourth line of defense. They'll be here in six hours at most."
The craftsman's hand paused for a beat.
"Then we can only choose the most important parts to carve."
"What is most important?"
White Robe, the king, was silent for three seconds.
The ground was shaking from the shock waves of buildings collapsing in the city above.
"Carve the information about the Ancient Weapons on three tablets and send them in different directions."
"Carve the kingdom's history and ideals on two. Leave one on Laugh Tale and give the other to Fish-Man Island."
"As for this remaining tablet..."
His finger traced a line across the blank stone.
"Leave it to me."
Here, the Sky Screen showed a close-up of White Robe, the king's profile.
His face was divided in two where the firelight met the chamber's shadows: one half illuminated, the other hidden in darkness. The wound that was still bleeding crossed the line between light and dark.
There was a curve at the corner of his mouth, so faint that it would have gone unnoticed without the close-up.
A line of text appeared on the Sky Screen.
[Before the Great Kingdom fell, its last king scattered nine Poneglyphs across the world]
[The one bearing the complete truth was sent to the final island, Laugh Tale]
[He himself stayed behind and carved what he wanted to say on the last tablet]
The scene shifted.
It was the same stone chamber, but the light was dimmer. The firelight at the passage entrance had turned a deeper red, mingled with thick smoke.
White Robe, the king, was the only one left in the chamber.
The craftsmen had left with the other tablets, transporting them in different directions through underground waterways dug in advance.
White Robe, the king, knelt before the last tablet, carving with one of the glowing tools in his hand.
He carved slowly.
It wasn't because he lacked skill. He was thinking as he carved, pausing for a second or two before cutting each character, as though checking again and again what he wanted to say.
The Sky Screen translated his words as he carved them, at the bottom of the image.
[We lost]
[The alliance of twenty nations was stronger than us, not because its military might was greater]
[But because they were willing to do things we were unwilling to do]
White Robe, the king's carving tool paused against the stone for a beat, then continued.
[They enslaved their own people to serve as soldiers]
[They ruled through fear]
[They regarded those of different races as inferior]
[These things gave them strength we did not have]
When the Sky Screen reached this point in its translation, a stir arose once again in Ryugu Palace on Fish-Man Island.
Moisture glistened in Shirahoshi's eyes.
"What they said was true."
Her voice was so soft that Neptune had to turn an ear toward her to hear it clearly.
"Eight hundred years ago, there were already people doing what Mother wanted to do."
Neptune said nothing. His hand gripped the shaft of his trident, squeezing the calluses on his knuckles white at the edges.
The translation on the Sky Screen continued.
[But I do not regret it]
[If we won through slavery and discrimination, we would be no different from them]
[I would rather lose this war than become what I despise]
At that point, an explosion sounded outside the chamber, closer than any before it, close enough to send pieces of rock tumbling from the ceiling.
White Robe, the king, glanced up at the cracks in the ceiling. Dust from the fallen rock settled in his hair. He wiped his face with the back of his hand and continued carving.
[We carved the truth into stone]
[Stone does not rot, cannot be burned, and does not lie]
[Someday, someone will find them]
[Someday, someone will understand them]
[When that time comes, please tell this story to the entire world for us]
His carving tool cut one last mark into the stone.
Then he carved a symbol at the very bottom of the tablet.
The Sky Screen enlarged the symbol.
It was a letter.
D.
In the scene, White Robe, the king, laid the carving tool before the tablet, rose to his feet, and dusted off his knees.
He turned to face the entrance to the passage.
Firelight poured in from the other end, carrying heat, smoke, dust, and the increasingly close cries of battle.
The corner of his mouth was still curved.
The Sky Screen displayed its final lines of text.
[The Great Kingdom's last king did not flee]
[He walked out of the stone chamber and toward the allied forces]
[His remains were never found]
[But the letter in his name was passed down to countless people in later generations through some means that remains unknown to this day]
The image darkened.
It did not go black all at once. It faded slowly, like the last light of sunset disappearing beneath the horizon.
The entire world watched the scene in silence for a long time.
Then the Sky Screen's assessment appeared.
[Truth assessment: the core truth of the Void Century has been partially revealed]
[The World Government was founded on the devastating conquest of an advanced civilization]
[The Celestial Dragons' privileges came from victory in a war eight hundred years ago, not from any form of divine right]
[The D. Clan are inheritors of the will of the destroyed civilization]
Each line struck the foundations of the world order like a cannonball.
At Revolutionary Army Headquarters, Dragon stood before a window, his fingers resting on the invisible thread connected to Luffy's vital signs.
"Sabo."
"Yes."
"Write down every word that just appeared on the Sky Screen."
Dragon's voice had regained the calm and sharpness of the Revolutionary Army's leader.
"Don't miss a single word."
"This is what we've waited twenty years for."
Sabo was already writing, his pen moving so fast that it made a rustling sound against the paper.
"Mr. Dragon, if this information spreads, the World Government's legitimacy will collapse by more than sixty percent within three months."
"It won't take three months."
Dragon's gaze fell on the last line of text still glowing on the Sky Screen.
"The Sky Screen has already spread it for us."
"The whole world is watching."
New text began to appear on the Sky Screen.
[As the truth revealed this time concerns the world's core secrets, the system will carry out a special reward and punishment procedure]
[Reward recipient: Nico Robin, the Last Archaeologist]
[Punishment recipient: the World Government]
Aboard a ship somewhere at sea, Nico Robin watched her name appear on the Sky Screen. She gripped the coffee cup in her hands so tightly that a tiny crack appeared in its side.
She stared at the Sky Screen without blinking.
She had waited twenty years for this day.
Ever since the night Ohara burned.
The text on the Sky Screen continued.
[The reward will be announced shortly]
[At the same time, the system will reveal the second layer of truth about the Void Century]
[This layer of truth concerns: the true purpose of the Ancient Weapons]
[And why the king of the Great Kingdom also had information about them carved into the Poneglyphs]
When that announcement appeared, the entire world fell silent again.
Ancient Weapons.
Pluton, Sea Emperor, Heavenly Emperor.
The three names had nearly brought Water 7 to ruin, nearly caused Alabasta to fall, and driven the World Government to use a Buster Call to cover up their existence.
Now, the Sky Screen was going to reveal their true purpose.
In the tavern, Lin Qi watched the numbers on the emotional data panel climb wildly and opened his second can of beer.
"Well, damn."
He looked at the feedback data on the screen and whistled.
"The Void Century really was a trump card."
"Then the Ancient Weapons are a bomb within that trump card."
His fingers moved to the next editing box, and he began to type.