Pluton tore through the starry sky, temporarily leaving the chaotic Planet Faras and its CP0 pursuers in orbit behind. Sabo ordered several short, irregular space jumps to completely confuse their tracks before finally stopping deep in a relatively desolate asteroid belt and entering a state of silent lurking.
Inside the core control room, the group, still shaken, finally breathed a sigh of relief, but the atmosphere remained tense.
"The appearance of CP0 is no accident," Sabo said in a deep voice, pulling up a star map near Planet Faras. "Their target is very clear: that animal hide scroll. This means that either our whereabouts have already been exposed, or... the importance of that scroll exceeds our expectations."
"Luckily, we managed to snatch it!" Luffy leaned closer, looking curiously at the box Robin had taken out. "What's written on it? Is it a clue to ONE PIECE?"
Robin carefully opened the box and took out the tattered ancient animal hide. It felt supple yet exceptionally tough, exuding the aura of age. The writing on it was indeed not the common language of the Poneglyph, but a more ancient, distorted system of symbols resembling the trajectories of stars.
"This isn't the text of the Poneglyph..." Robin examined it carefully, her brows furrowing slightly, "But the material and the ancient aura it exudes... there's no mistake, it also comes from that lost, Great Kingdom era, or perhaps even earlier."
"Can you decipher it?" Ace asked.
"It will take time, and it will require comparison with some extremely ancient language fragments in the Pluton database." Robin placed the animal skin scroll on an analysis platform and connected it to Pluton ' mainframe. The Whispers of All Spirits seemed to be attracted by the scroll as well, becoming more active, and some extremely obscure fragments of knowledge were incorporated into the database to assist in the comparative analysis.
Allen stepped forward, a faint ripple of Power of Time swirling around his fingertips as he gently brushed across the scroll's surface. A wondrous thing happened: stimulated by the Power of Time, the blurred symbols seemed to be briefly "restored" to a clearer state, even faintly emitting a glow.
"It works!" Robin exclaimed with delight, diligently recording and analyzing those fleetingly clear symbols.
Time ticked by. Finally, after several hours of effort and with the help of the Pluton database, Robin let out a long breath, raised her head, and her eyes gleamed with shock and understanding.
"It's deciphered... This isn't a historical text, but rather... a star map, and a warning."
"A star map?" Nami immediately became interested. "A warning? A warning about what?" Jinbe voice.
Robin projected the deciphered information onto the main screen. The star chart pointed to a very distant constellation region, never before marked on any current planetary chart, with extremely complex coordinates. The warning text beside it was alarming:
"...' Cradle ' is forbidden... The guardian has betrayed...' The Final Dogma ' must not be touched... Those who covet the ' Domain of God ' will surely meet their end..."
The text is fragmented, but the keywords are unsettling.
"' Cradle '? ' Final Dogma '? ' Domain of God '?" Sabo repeated these unfamiliar words. "This sounds like..." "Something Imu might be interested in," Allen interjected, the Power of Zhulong making him particularly sensitive to words involving "forbidden" and "divine realm".
"So CP0 went so far as to storm the Faras black market to retrieve this..." Tesoro stroked his chin, "This means that the place the star map points to either holds what Imu wants, or something that can threaten him!"
"Where does this star map point?" Sabo asked.
Robin operated the system, overlaying and comparing the animal skin star map with the ancient star map stored by Pluton. After a series of complex calculations and calibrations, a final coordinate system was locked and magnified.
It was an absolutely forbidden star system located at the edge of the universe, known as the " Eternal Mist." Legend has it that it was the end of the world, where spacetime was completely chaotic, and any spaceship that attempted to enter would be lost forever. Even Pluton's database contained very few records about it, only some vague warnings.
" The Eternal Mist..." Sabo's expression turned grave, "... a place even more dangerous than the Lethe Stream."
"But Imu seems very interested in that place." Allen pointed to the warning, "'The Guardian has betrayed us,' which might suggest that there was originally some kind of protective power there, but now it may have gone wrong, or... been controlled by Imu? ' The Final Dogma,' ' The Domain of God '... this might touch upon the source of his power, or his ultimate goal."
"Shall we go?" Luffy asked directly, his eyes filled with a sense of adventure.
"The risk is extremely high," Sabo analyzed, "But this could be a shortcut to Imu's core secrets. If we can figure out what the ' Final Dogma ' is, or stop him before he achieves his goal..."
"It's worth a try," Ace stated. "It's better than passively waiting for him to come knocking on our door."
Allen nodded. "The spacetime there is extremely chaotic. It's a dead end for others, but perhaps... it's an opportunity for my abilities." The Power of Zhulong might have unexpected uses in that environment.
"More thorough preparation is needed," Sabo decided. " Pluton needs to be fully repaired, and we need to gather more information about the ' Eternal Mist,' even if it's just a legend. At the same time, we must closely monitor the World Government's movements. Imu will not let the CP0's operation go unpunished."
He looked at Robin and Nami: " Robin, continue studying the scroll more closely and see if you can discover any more details. Nami, study the known (even legendary) astronomical data of this star system, looking for any possible patterns or safe paths."
"Understood!" "Leave it to me!"
Just then, Franky, who was in charge of monitoring external communications, suddenly shouted, "Hey! Look at this! The World Government's top-level announcement!"
The main screen switched to the World Government's official channel. On screen, a stern-faced spokesperson was reading:
"... In view of the increasingly rampant activities of the Space Pirates Monkey D. Luffy and his cronies, who have repeatedly challenged the authority of the World Government and endangered space security... it is hereby officially announced that, one month from now, at Marine Headquarters New Marineford, the extremely serious criminal ' Fire Fist ' Portgas D. Ace will be publicly executed! This is to demonstrate our Absolute Justice and to serve as a warning to all lawbreakers!"
Next to the image, there is a picture of Ace imprisoned in the lowest level of Impel Down, covered in wounds but with an unyielding gaze!
"What?!" Everyone was shocked! " Ace?!" Luffy grabbed the screen, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets! "Impossible! Ace right here!" Chopper screamed.
Ace himself was stunned, then flew into a rage. "Damn it! Where did they get these fake images?! Trying to lure us out with such despicable means?!"
This is clearly Imu's open scheme! A vicious and precise trap aimed at the Allied Forces, especially at Luffy and Ace!
The joy of obtaining a new clue was instantly shattered by this sudden bad news. On one side is the " Eternal Mist," which points directly to the core secrets of Imu but is fraught with danger; on the other side is the urgent situation of having to save his brother, who has been publicly executed, even though he knows it's a trap.
Pluton has once again arrived at the crossroads of fate.