"I always... I always thought you were dead..."
Robin's voice was broken and incoherent; he buried his face in his fingers and cried like a child.
"Hey, come on~ Hehehehe!"
"How could I die?"
Saul whispered, tears streaming down his aged face and falling into the campfire at his feet with a hissing sound.
"I'll wait for you to find me."
After the bonfire dinner officially began, Elder Jarul, the oldest man in the tribe, walked to the fire.
Elder Jarul, watching the Straw Hat Pirates having a good time, began to tell them the story of Elbaf.
" Elbaf is a country that waits for the sun."
His voice was slow, like a stone dug out from the deepest depths of time.
Eight hundred years ago, the world was shrouded in darkness, and people lived in fear, unable to laugh or cry.
Later, the liberating warrior Nika arrived.
He rose like the sun, tearing away the darkness and returning laughter to the world.
Luffy was so engrossed in listening that he forgot to eat the meat in his hand.
"After Nika disappeared, Elbaf waited."
Wait for him to return, wait for the sun to rise again.
Jarul's gaze shifted from the fire to Luffy.
Some say Nika is a savior, while others say Nika is a destroyer.
Because every time Nika appears, the world's rulers tremble with fear, and the world is turned upside down.
All the giants turned their gazes toward them.
Luffy felt uneasy under their gaze. He looked around, then down at himself, and pointed to his nose. "Me?"
"Your Awakening form is so similar to the legendary Nika..." Jarul nodded slowly.
Luffy felt uneasy under the gazes of the giants and waved his hands repeatedly.
"I am who I am, not some Nika."
The giants looked at each other in bewilderment.
Luffy picked up the meat again and took a big bite:
"I want to become the Pirate King, that's my business."
It has nothing to do with the sun or anything like that.
Elder Jarul looked at the greasy-mouthed boy and suddenly laughed.
The laughter was low and hoarse, yet inexplicably conveyed a sense of exhilaration.
"Okay, okay. Let's not talk about Nika anymore."
Jarul paused, took a sip of his drink, and continued telling Luffy and the others the story of Elbaf.
The campfire crackled and popped.
Loki.
He was a royal child, with astonishing talent from a young age; no warrior of his age in all of Elbaf could withstand three of his moves.
But he was too unruly; he wouldn't listen to anyone and caused countless troubles.
"Later, his father, King Harald, died suddenly."
The cause of death is unknown, but all the evidence points to Loki.
He was convicted of patricide and tried by all the warriors of Elbaf before being imprisoned in the deepest part of the Underworld.
Luffy frowned slightly upon hearing this, but remained silent.
Six years ago, Loki escaped using some unknown method.
He caused a huge disturbance at sea, capsizing several islands, and eventually ran into the Red Hair Pirates.
Upon hearing the words " Red Hair," Luffy sprang to his feet, his eyes shining like sparks from a fire.
" Shanks captured Loki?" He rushed straight up to Jarul, his face almost touching the old giant's nose.
"Yes. Red-Haired Shanks helped the Titans defeat him and brought him back to Elbaf."
Loki is now bound to the Treasure Tree Adam, the deepest part of the Underworld, by Seastone chains.
"Where is Shanks now?!" Luffy stamped his feet anxiously.
Jarul shook his head:
"I don't know. Red Hair didn't stay long; he brought the person back and then left."
Luffy plopped back down on the ground, looking like a sliver of air had been sucked out of him.
But less than two seconds later, he sprang up again, his eyes even brighter than before. "I'm going to see Loki!"
"What?!" Nami and Usopp exclaimed at the same time.
"He was captured by Shanks!"
He definitely knows about Shanks! I'm going to ask him!
Jarul looked at Luffy for a while, and finally nodded:
"Let Hajrudin take you there."
But Loki, the Straw Hat Boy, is a dangerous person.
No matter what you hear, don't untie him.
"Okay, okay!"
Luffy answered quickly and ran to Hajrudin's side, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him outside.
" Zoro, Nami, come with me!"
The two exchanged a glance, both seeing the words "there's nothing we can do about him" in each other's eyes, and could only get up and follow.
The group left the campfire under the silent gaze of the giants.
·······
The journey to the Underworld was longer than anyone had anticipated.
Hajrudin walked at the front, with several members of the New Giant Warrior Pirates scattered on either side.
These people were all a size larger than the ordinary giants Luffy had ever seen. They carried weapons on their backs, and their heavy steps made the ground thud.
But the deeper they went into the island, the more tense the expressions on the giants' faces became.
"We've arrived. This is the final journey to the Underworld." Hajrudin stopped in his tracks.
Luffy peeked out from beside him, and in front of him was an enormous suspension bridge.
It's called a bridge, but it's really just a few vines thicker than boat ropes spanning between two cliffs, with a thin layer of wooden planks laid on top.
The length of the bridge is unknown; all one can see ahead is fog.
What's even more terrifying is the area under the bridge; the dark abyss stretches to the horizon, and occasionally something stirs in the depths, accompanied by a low, guttural roar.
Nami glanced at them briefly before shrinking back. "Can I wait for you here?"
Zoro tested the bridge surface with his foot, and the wooden planks creaked.
Luffy, however, walked to the middle of the bridge on his own.
He stopped and looked down into the darkness.
A gentle breeze lifted his Straw Hat, and he pressed the brim down, his lips pressed into a thin line.
"What's wrong?" Zoro asked from behind.
"There's a tough guy down there," Luffy said.
Seeing Luffy suddenly drawn to Loki's aura below, Hajrudin's expression changed slightly: " Luffy-- "
Before he could finish speaking, Luffy had already jumped over the railing.
" Luffy --!!!" Nami's scream pierced the abyss.
Luffy's body plummeted rapidly into the darkness.
The wind whistled past his ears, like someone was sanding his face.
He unleashed his full Observation Haki, found a landing spot on the cliff face, pushed off with his rubber legs, and changed direction like a slingshot, continuing to launch downwards.
The lower you go, the colder the air gets.
When he finally stepped to the bottom, what he was standing on was no longer soil, but black rock that had been eroded over the years.
It was pitch black all around, with only a faint white light in the distance.
Luffy followed the light.
The lights grew closer and brighter, and when he rounded the last giant rock, the entire view suddenly opened up.
There is a tree in front of me.
The trees were so large he couldn't describe them; their trunks were thick enough to fit dozens of Thousand Sunny side by side, and their roots arched up from the ground like bare mountain ranges.
The tree canopy disappeared high into the darkness above, its end nowhere in sight. The glowing parts were moss clinging to the bark, its eerie green light illuminating the entire tree like an underground moon.
There is a person under the tree.
The man was bound to a tree trunk by several chains, the surface of which gleamed with the distinctive grayish-white luster of Seastone.
Long, purple hair cascaded messily over her shoulders, and two striking demonic horns adorned her head. Her enormous body was even taller than that of an ordinary giant.
His muscles were like chiseled rock, and even though he was bound, he exuded an indescribable sense of oppression.