Having defeated the guardians, the Straw Hat Pirates was finally able to observe the intricate and ancient time machine up close. It rotated silently, the transparent crystal at its center flashing regularly, like a sleeping heart.
"This thing... is it the culprit that slowed down time in the entire ruins?" Usopp looked at the device with lingering fear. "What should we do with it? Destroy it?"
"No." Allen stepped forward, placing his palm on top of the device, using his spacetime powers to carefully sense its internal structure. "Forcibly destroying it would cause the accumulated time energy to explode instantly, with unimaginable consequences. This isn't a weapon; it's more like a... 'shelter' or a 'seal'."
"A shelter? A seal?" Nami repeated, puzzled.
Robin discovered some ancient inscriptions around the device's base, which she carefully deciphered. "... To avoid the ' Temporal Devourer '... the ' Eternal Ark ' was activated... freezing civilization in an instant... awaiting a future restart..." She looked up, her eyes filled with shock, "It seems that the survivors of this civilization activated this device to avoid a catastrophe called the ' Temporal Devourer,' nearly freezing time for the entire civilization and this land, hoping to revive it at some point in the future after the disaster."
" Temporal Devourer?" Luffy tilted his head. "What's that? It doesn't taste good."
Ace's expression turned serious. "It sounds like a monster that can devour time?"
Zoro, holding his sword, said, "So, we almost destroyed someone's life-saving device?"
"But, is this near-eternal stillness truly living?" Sanji exhaled a smoke ring, looking at the deathly silence around him. "No change, no growth, no future... This is more cruel than destruction."
Sorrow also etched itself on Brook's skeletal face. "No music, no laughter, only eternal silence... It's so tragic."
Allen's senses penetrated deep into the core of the device, making contact with the transparent crystal. In an instant, he seemed to see the final moments of this civilization: panicked crowds, desperate prayers, and then, in a dazzling white light, everything froze... He also sensed deep within the device, the faint "prayer" belonging to the collective consciousness of this civilization—not for eternal death, but for the hope of survival.
"The device's energy is slowly depleting," Allen said, withdrawing his hand. "At this rate, it might completely fail in a few thousand years. At that time, if the threat of the ' Temporal Devourer ' still exists, this civilization will be powerless to Resistance. And if the threat is gone, they will face true annihilation upon awakening—the flow of time will instantly return to normal, but for them, frozen for countless years, their bodies and souls may not be able to withstand such a drastic change."
"Then what can we do?" Chopper asked anxiously, his compassionate heart as a healer compelled him to stand idly by.
Allen pondered for a moment, his gaze sweeping over his companions before finally settling on the device. "I have an idea. Since we can't forcibly stop it, perhaps we can... 'adjust' it. Adjust this 'near-static' state into a slowly flowing ' Time Acceleration ' state. Let time within these ruins flow at a speed many times faster than outside."
"Accelerate time?" Nami exclaimed in surprise. "Wouldn't that make them age even faster?"
"For those frozen in time, time is meaningless. Accelerating time is to allow them to 'quickly' experience the long years that should have passed in stillness, until the device's energy naturally runs out. When the device stops and the flow of time synchronizes with the outside world, their 'point in time' will be basically the same as the outside world, avoiding the shock of drastic time changes. This is equivalent to... letting them have a long dream, and then waking up at the right time," Allen explained. "Of course, this requires extremely precise control; it can't be too fast, otherwise their civilization's consciousness will dissipate in the torrent of time, nor can it be too slow, or it won't achieve the desired effect."
This is undoubtedly a bold and risky plan.
"What do we need to do?" Luffy asked directly, trusting Allen's judgment.
Ace nodded in agreement. "It's better than letting them sleep forever."
Allen placed his hand on the device again and said to Franky and Brook, " Franky, I need your help to stabilize the device's energy circuit and make sure it doesn't collapse while I adjust the core. Brook, your soul music can soothe those dormant consciousnesses and protect them from being swept away by the torrent of time when I accelerate it."
"Super~ Leave it to me!"
"Yohohoho~ To awaken the sleeping beauties (maybe there are some), I will do my best!"
Surrounded by everyone, Allen closed his eyes. The Power of Zhulong circulated at full force, the rules of spacetime manipulated in his hands like delicate threads. He cautiously infiltrated the core of the device, guiding the vast temporal energy from its extreme "slowness" to a controllable "speed"...
The device emitted a soft yet bright light, its rotation speed noticeably increased, and the pulsation of the central crystal became more powerful. The entire ruins trembled slightly, and the frozen cloud beast fossils and dilapidated buildings seemed to be enveloped in a flowing halo.
This process lasted for a long time. When Allen finally withdrew his hand, his face slightly pale, the device had stabilized in a new state of equilibrium. It could sense that time inside the ruins was flowing quietly at a speed hundreds of times faster than outside.
"It's a success..." Allen breathed a sigh of relief.
Franky flashed his classic pose. "Super~ time adjustment!"
Brook also stopped playing; Soulfire seemed a little tired, but full of a sense of accomplishment.
The Log Pose stopped twitching and steadily pointed downwards, meaning that the "anomaly" here had been resolved.
The Straw Hat Pirates quietly left the hall, departing from the Cloud Ruins that were about to awaken in the Time Acceleration. They didn't awaken anyone, nor did they take any treasure; they left behind only a hope for a future reawakening.
The Thousand Sunny plunged into the White Sea once more, returning to the Blue Sea. Looking back, the Sky Island ruins, bathed in sunlight, seemed less desolate and more imbued with an indescribable "vitality."
They altered the fate of a civilization in a way no one knew. And perhaps that is one of the true meanings of adventure.