Swallowing It Whole

Chapter 4: Swallow it whole

The Red Line Continent.

This is a peculiar geographical feature, as famous as the Calm Belt.

With a height of over ten thousand meters, it, along with the Calm Belt, divides the entire Pirate World into four independent sea regions.

"As expected, no matter when you see the Red Line Continent, it's always so breathtaking!"

A colossal red rock face stretching as far as the eye can see, reaching ten thousand meters straight into the clouds.

This is the pinnacle of the world, a massive, peculiar geographical feature that splits the world in two.

The closer the pirate ship gets to the Red Line Continent, the more its immensity can be felt.

The wind fiercely whipped the pirate flags.

As Roy and the others rapidly advanced towards Mount Levius, the ocean currents beneath them grew increasingly violent.

Standing at the bow of the pirate ship, watching the red rocks draw nearer in the darkness.

Suddenly, a streak of orange-yellow light appeared on the black sea surface.

"It's Mount Levius's lighthouse, sir. We're almost at Twin Gorge now."

It wasn't surprising that Edwards was so excited. Roy and Bruno had promised to spare Edwards and his crew if they delivered the two of them to Mount Levius.

Roy paid little attention to the excited shouts of the waiter beside him.

He gazed at the approaching lighthouse.

"Echo Map!"

All objects within a ten-kilometer radius reflected back to Roy's ears as sound, forming a map.

What caught Roy's attention the most was the giant whale hidden beneath the sea and the old man resting inside the lighthouse.

The ability of sound was Roy's ultimate weapon in his search for treasure.

After all, Twin Gorge was so vast; if they relied solely on Bruno's Devil Fruit abilities to search bit by bit, who knew when they would find it.

But with the reflection of sound, it was different.

Based on the locations on the map, Roy could easily pinpoint the treasure's location.

The sudden approach of the pirate ship in the dead of night naturally drew the attention of the old man in the lighthouse.

After all, at this junction connecting the Grand Line and the Four Seas, pirate ships only ever departed from here; none had ever actively arrived from the outside.

"How rare! A ship arriving so late at night.

But you're out of luck. Laboon has been acting up again recently!"

The old man, with a feather stuck in his head, cast a pitying glance at the approaching pirate ship.

He turned and closed the window, as if he couldn't bear to witness the tragic scene that was about to unfold.

Roar!

A faint whale cry from the depths of the sea made Bruno, standing beside Roy, jump.

An bone-chilling cold surged from his tailbone to the top of his head.

As Roy placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling it was time to go.

A dark spatial door suddenly appeared before them. Just as Roy and Bruno were about to step into it.

"Hey, you're Edwards, right? Because you served us diligently along the way, here's a life-saving piece of advice: if you want to live, hurry towards that lighthouse."

After his words fell, Roy and Bruno stepped into the spatial door.

Edwards and his crew were clearly bewildered by Roy's parting words.

Roy and Bruno paid little attention to the whale that suddenly leaped up behind them.

Looking at the treasure map in his hand.

When Roy and Bruno reappeared, they were now in the middle of a cliff face at the Twin Gorge's tiered waterfalls.

Bang!

His Armament Haki-infused arm blasted a hole the size of a water tank into the hard rock face.

After finding a foothold, he spread out the map in his hand, and with the Echo Map unfurled once more.

The appearance of everything around them instantly reappeared in Roy's mind.

He meticulously checked and searched.

When Bruno shifted to three more locations.

He was already drenched in sweat, looking on the verge of collapse.

Using the Door-Door Fruit's abilities also required a significant amount of stamina.

Repeatedly searching over ten times in a short period.

This clearly made Bruno feel his strength rapidly draining.

"Found it!"

Roy quickly rolled up the scroll, using the positioning from the Echo Map in his mind.

Finally, about seven hundred meters above the lighthouse, he found the destination of their journey.

Although the spot had been scoured by the sea for over a hundred years, the shape of the mountain hollow was exactly the same as the icon on the map.

"No wonder it was so hard to find!

A hundred years of erosion had already smoothed out the sturdy contours.

And I should have realized, places on Mount Levius aren't easily reached by just anyone!

This not-too-far, not-too-near distance is precisely where ordinary strong individuals can reach!"

The initial thoughts of occupying the location had caused Roy and Bruno to suffer a major setback.

Bruno gritted his teeth and stepped onto the spot finally indicated on the treasure map.

A clear indentation.

Roy could see the faint outline of a fitting there.

Bang!

His Armament Haki-covered arm swung with an attack containing Roy's full power.

The explosive force directly collided with the hard Red Line Continent.

Debris flew everywhere.

Bruno, who barely stabilized his footing with Geppo.

While he was astonished by Roy's strength.

A dark hole appeared before his eyes.

The sound itself told Roy what was inside.

As he and Bruno stepped into the black hole, only about ten meters in diameter.

Drip, drip!

Water droplets from the rock ceiling fell to the ground.

This treasure cave was dark and damp. The innermost part stored common gold and silver jewelry, and on top of this corroded treasure, sat a small treasure chest made of gold.

"Heh, gold, I didn't expect this surprise!

But if we hadn't come.

It's likely that in another ten-plus years, this cave entrance would have collapsed from the sea too?"

Bending down to pick up the not-so-clean treasure chest, Roy knew this was the purpose of his journey.

"What could it be?

A Devil Fruit sealed for a hundred years, I wonder if it'll expire?"

Roy roughly tore open the golden chain on the treasure chest.

Bruno, holding a torch, came to Roy's side.

As the contents of the treasure chest were revealed.

A Devil Fruit, pure white as a cloud, appeared before both Roy and Bruno's eyes.

Gulp!

"This Devil Fruit..."

With almost no hesitation.

Roy, who had seen the Devil Fruit Pictorial Records, shoved it into his mouth and swallowed it whole.