Over the long years, even the books here had died...
Watching the book crumble to ash in his hands, Sakazuki gently set it down.
He reached for the next one, patiently searching through them one by one.
At last, he had gone through every book, but found nothing...
Only scraps of paper littered the floor. Not a single book remained intact.
Time... Sakazuki sighed.
He left and headed toward the next room. The owner of these ruins must have built this place for his own use.
It resembled a private basement, with no space wasted.
The study had contained only a desk and chair, while the room with the murals had held nothing else at all.
Carol was still in the first stone chamber, admiring the ancient murals.
Enel followed Sakazuki, looking around.
The next two rooms yielded little: one contained tools, the other gold ornaments.
The fourth room was clearly different from the others.
Its door was larger and more ornate than the previous ones.
Creeeak!
Rusted metal scraped as he pushed the door open.
A vast bedroom came into view. To the left stood a three-meter-long table.
A two-meter-long model warship sat on it.
To the right was a large bed, though it had already collapsed. Shell-like objects hung on the walls.
Directly opposite the door stood a desk, a chair, and... a skeleton slumped over the desk, still holding a pen in one hand.
Sakazuki ignored the skeleton for now and headed toward the model on display.
The huge model was made of gold and rested on a golden base.
Two ancient characters were engraved on the base. Though they differed from modern writing,
he could just make out the words "Ark Maxim."
A large drawer sat beneath the base. He pulled it open, revealing a thick stack of blueprints.
Sakazuki's eyes lit up. He carefully picked them up. They had not deteriorated.
The paper was clearly made from a special material. Every sheet bore a number.
The first sheet showed a sketch of the model.
As he turned the pages, each showed detailed drawings of individual components and where they belonged.
Even without any grounding in machinery, as long as enough people were available,
these detailed blueprints alone would be enough to build a warship.
He reached the final page. It held no components, only a picture.
The enormous Ark Maxim flew through the sky, overlooking an island below.
Endless black vapor poured from the top of the Ark Maxim, joining the pitch-black sky.
Amid countless lightning bolts connecting heaven and earth, a black sphere of lightning larger than the island plunged toward it.
There was no need to guess the island's fate from that picture.
Or the power of this warship.
One shot to annihilate an island.
Sakazuki straightened the blueprints and set them on the floor.
He also took down the Ark Maxim model and placed it on the floor, leaving only the golden base on the table.
He placed his hand on the base, and his arm turned into scorching magma that surged outward.
It engulfed the golden base.
As he pulled with both hands, a gold carrying case over a meter long took shape.
He set it on the table to cool.
Then he walked over to the desk facing the bedroom door.
The person who had become this skeleton had clearly been writing in a notebook before his death. A large black stain covered the middle of the page.
He must have already been gravely wounded, then coughed up a mouthful of blood and died while writing in his journal.
Sakazuki gently drew out the notebook. It did not crumble. He read its contents.
"Fate? Eight hundred years from now? Utterly ridiculous!!!"
"One word-fate-and an entire kingdom was doomed."
"Handed over without a fight!!!"
"I cannot understand it! I cannot understand it!! I cannot understand it!!!"
"Idiot!!!"
"Damn you, Joy Boy..."
"..."
"...I hate this!!!"
Most of the middle of the page was obscured by black stains. These were the only legible words.
Sakazuki considered what he had read. Joy Boy, fate, eight hundred years from now, and... the Great Kingdom.
Still... submitting to fate really was laughable.
He flipped back through the notebook. Clearly, it had not been used for daily entries.
Instead, its owner seemed to have recorded memorable events at different stages of his life. There were not many pages.
The first page, for instance, was covered in crooked handwriting.
"Father told me about our people's history today. I never knew we had once been so glorious."
"Endless Vearth, the ability to give little mechanical people life at will, and those gigantic super warships."
"Were our ancestors gods?"
"I'm a descendant of gods!!!"
"Hehe, I've decided! Someday, I'll build a flying super warship and travel to that place with endless Vearth."
"So, today's goal! Learn how to convert kinetic energy!!!"
The handwriting on the second page had begun to grow neater.
"Today, I went out and met someone from another of the peoples Father told me about."
"They have things on their heads that look like two antennae. So strange. I wonder whether they're hair or part of their bodies."
"Apparently, there are four different peoples, but the other two moved to the distant Blue Sea."
"I really want to meet them."
By the third page, the handwriting had developed a proper form.
"Our ancestors' wisdom is truly incredible. Even after studying for all these years, I still feel there's no end to it."
"I also learned why our ancestors migrated."
"Both the living mechanical people and the gigantic super warships consumed far too many resources."
"No wonder the moon's surface has those enormous craters. Its interior may already have been mined hollow."
"I'm going to design a warship that doesn't consume so many resources."
"But Sky Island has too few resources."
"So... off to the Blue Sea!!!"
By the fourth page, the handwriting had grown sharper.
"Before I knew it, fifteen years had passed since I left."
"During my years traveling the Blue Sea, I've found not only the materials I need, but also members of the other two peoples."
"How extraordinary. A city made of gold. How many warships could I build with it?"
"And then there's the Great Kingdom, where all the different races live together in peace."
"It's truly wonderful."
"In the Blue Sea, there's also a kind of fruit that grants people supernatural powers."
"The Blue Sea People call them Devil Fruits."
"I saw a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia at my good friend Joy Boy's place."
"It helped me find my next goal."
"The Rumble-Rumble Fruit, which could serve as an unlimited energy source."
"Unfortunately, I've already eaten a Devil Fruit, so my next goal is to figure out how to make an object eat one."
On the fifth page, the handwriting was mature but somewhat disordered, revealing the notebook owner's troubled state of mind.
"My Devil Fruit research has produced a few successful cases through extensive experimentation."
"I still haven't identified what makes those cases work, but I'm beginning to see some clues."
"But what troubles me most is my good friend Joy Boy's Great Kingdom."
"It's expanding far too quickly. I have an ominous feeling. His ideas are too far ahead of their time. He'll become the enemy of the world."
"What should I do..."
The strokes on the sixth page were deeply pressed into the paper, showing just how furious he had been while writing.
"I've given up."
"How did I spend more than thirty years being friends with an idiot like him!"
"He's always going on about fate."
"Why does that enormous, carefree grin seem so repulsive now?"
"The mood among the nations of the world has already turned."
"I need to prepare early. If there's no saving this, I at least need a way out."
The seventh page was the one he had read first.
Sakazuki closed the notebook. Its contents had revealed part of the truth about this world.
He felt some sympathy for its owner.
A carefree friend... who was always going on about fate... The last two pages were filled with bitter frustration at his failure to see sense.
Just then, Enel's young voice called out:
"Old man, there's a box here."
Sakazuki walked over and flicked him on the forehead.
He reached out, pushed aside the collapsed bed boards, and retrieved a square box trapped underneath.
Enel rubbed his forehead hard with both hands and shouted:
"What was that for!!!"
Sakazuki's voice drifted over:
"Do I look that old?"
Holding his forehead, Enel glared angrily at Sakazuki.
"Hmph! Old man! Old man!!!"
Sakazuki raised his left hand as if to flick him again.
Enel hurriedly ran aside in fright. The corners of Sakazuki's mouth lifted slightly, making Enel even angrier.
Sakazuki opened the box.
A strange fruit came into view.
It was a round blue fruit with blue lightning patterns on top and lightning symbols at both ends of its stem. Its skin was covered in countless small, spiraling lightning patterns, giving it the appearance of a dragon fruit.
With such distinctive markings, Sakazuki recognized it immediately. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Enel craned his neck, trying to see what was inside the box.
But he was not tall enough. Finally, unable to hold back, he asked:
"Old man, what's in there?"
Sakazuki took out the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
He casually tossed it into Enel's arms and said:
"A Logia, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. Eat it, and you can turn into lightning."
Enel held the fruit in both hands, at a loss.
He did not understand what "Logia" or "Rumble-Rumble Fruit" meant, but turning into lightning was clear enough.
Faced with such a precious fruit, Enel immediately grew nervous and held it tighter, terrified he would drop it and break it.
Amused by Enel's reaction, Sakazuki said:
"What are you so nervous about?"
Of course Enel was nervous. The fruit was so precious that he snapped in frustration:
"Take it back! This thing's too precious!!!"
Sakazuki said:
"Want to eat it? You found it, so it's yours."
Enel froze.
"You're... giving it to me?"
Sakazuki nodded. Enel stood there in a daze, thinking for a while.
Then he pattered out of the room and ran toward the mural chamber.
Sakazuki continued searching to see whether anything else was useful.
The mural chamber.
The lump of magma left there still kept the room brightly lit.
Carol, who was admiring the murals, sensed Enel approaching and turned toward the doorway.
"What is it, Enel?"
Enel held out the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to Carol. Carol took it and looked at the lightning symbol on it.
"This is... the Rumble-Rumble Fruit?"
Enel nodded and said, a little sheepishly,
"The old man said whoever found it could have it. It'd be wasted on me, so..."
Carol smiled and patted Enel's head, then crouched down and handed the fruit back.
"I don't need it. Eat it, and you'll have some power to protect yourself. Just remember, you can't go into the water afterward."
Feeling the warmth of that large hand on his head, Enel fell into a daze...
It felt like something he had experienced in a dream...
A dream he had while envying other people's families... That warmth felt like an older brother's, yet also like a father's...
He shook his head hard.
He pushed that thought out of his mind and looked down at the Rumble-Rumble Fruit in his hands.
Then he looked up again and met Carol's encouraging gaze.
Making up his mind, he bit down hard!
What was this?!!!
An indescribable taste shot straight from his taste buds into his soul, making him shudder!!!
Just as he was about to spit it out, a large hand clamped over Enel's mouth.
The huge palm pressed against his cheeks, leaving Enel no choice but to swallow.
Enel stared in despair at Carol's smiling face.
An illusion!
Everything just now had been an illusion!
He was definitely a demon!!! Definitely!!!
No!!!!!!
Before you continue