Kong at Marine headquarters said, "Anyway, try your best to give it a shot. If it really doesn't work, wait until The Black Order arrives and let them handle the talks."
"Yes, we'll give it a try." Tsuru nodded.
The phone call ended after that. Tsuru looked out the window. The street that once had some people now felt empty and quiet.
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The king used communication devices across Alabasta to tell all the people about Aatrox coming. He also gathered a large army to help move civilians from the south. Some took boats and left Alabasta right away, while others were led by the army and Marines to the north.
The whole country was in chaos now, and the emptiness here felt very out of place.
People didn't know if they could beat Aatrox. In truth, even they themselves had no idea.
They said they were fully ready, but does full readiness even exist in this world?
Even if they prepared everything, Aatrox's power still felt so hopeless.
Many of them had never faced Aatrox directly because few who did survived. This meant a lot of people had no clear sense of his strength—they just knew he was strong.
Because of this second-hand knowledge, they split into two groups. One thought Aatrox wasn't that strong after all, and the other believed he was even stronger than the stories said.
But right now, these people clearly thought of Aatrox as even more powerful.
Even Garp, who had faced that demon lord himself, found it hard to say just how strong he was.
Thinking back, when they fought Aatrox before, it was him, Sengoku, Sakazuki, and many from Roger's pirate crew. That lineup wasn't the greatest ever, but it probably wasn't much weaker than the group gathered here now.
The only unknowns were Roger and Makima. Roger back then was nowhere near as strong as he is now, and Makima had always been a mystery. Her first move in Jaltzburg Castle had shocked everyone, so who knows what power she'd show this time.
"Let me talk to Lord Kuchiki Byakuya," Cobra offered.
In truth, Cobra had no idea they had planned to lure Aatrox here on purpose. He just thought Aatrox was heading to Alabasta, and the Marines had gotten word ahead of time to stop him.
So he felt like he should do his part for Alabasta.
"I'll go with you," Dragon said from the bed.
"What are you trying to prove?" Garp frowned. "Just stay here and rest like a good boy."
"No, I have to go," Dragon said stubbornly.
He couldn't quite explain why he needed to, but maybe he just wanted to get a full look at Kuchiki Byakuya, the one who had hurt him badly, and burn that image into his mind.
Or perhaps it was something he saw in the pyramid before that he wanted to see more clearly?
He had a feeling this whole thing wasn't as simple as it seemed.
"As long as we don't enter the upside-down pyramid area, it won't break the agreement," Cobra said. "But your injuries..."
"No problem," Dragon said softly. "As long as I can move, it's fine. I'm not going for revenge."
"Alright then..." Cobra nodded and didn't say more.
Garp saw Dragon's stubborn look and stayed quiet too. He didn't try to stop him—after all, his whole family was like this, and he was used to it.
With only one arm left, what could he do now anyway?
All he had left was...
the ability to fight Aatrox, right?
"I'll head to the Santo River and wait for The Black Order and Ah Xing to arrive," Tsuru said to Garp.
"Now it's just me again," Garp said with a shrug. "You all go ahead. I'll stay here, eat my donuts, and wait for your updates."
Dragon struggled to stand, his wound ripping open with sharp pain, but he held it back.
Cobra looked worried at his state, but Dragon said he was okay. In the end, Cobra could only take him along.
They left the inn where even the owner had fled, and went back to the pyramid. This huge pyramid was strange because the door was gone.
Dragon hadn't noticed when he left before due to his injuries, but now he saw the entrance he used was no longer there.
But when Cobra walked up, a strange force appeared in front of the pyramid, like ripples on water. A door reappeared.
Only the Nefertari family could open the pyramid's door?
No wonder they built a town around it without worry—others couldn't get in.
Dragon thought about that, then followed Cobra inside the pyramid again.
The pyramid was the same as before: dark upward, bright downward. But this time, Dragon didn't want to go down, because that led to the "upside-down pyramid" area, and entering meant the path to death.
This time, he mainly wanted to observe the world from a parallel view. The center was empty because there were spiral stairs leading down, but from the door to the other side, there was something like a bridge. And around it were many pillars.
"What's that?"
He suddenly pointed at something and asked Cobra.
Cobra looked where he pointed and saw it was the wall paintings on the pyramid.
They were on walls completely parallel to the two of them, circling the whole pyramid.
"This pyramid has three layers. The upside-down one below leads to the underworld, the one above to heaven, and the middle layer stands for the human world."
"It's symbolic, not real. At least, there's no heaven up there for sure," Cobra said with a smile.
But Dragon stared at the paintings, waves rising in his heart.
If you connected these paintings, they showed a world he had never imagined before.
It started with a primitive world like slavery, where people had no freedom and worked for their masters.
Then rough governments formed, people slowly put on the cloak of civilization, slaves were freed but appeared in new forms.
It was quite dark, and Dragon couldn't see it all clearly, but he could vaguely make out that the paintings showed the steps of civilizations. The oppressed changed from slaves to farmers, then to workers, and so on...
But at the very end, when Dragon looked, there was nothing.
He could faintly see it was close to a great civilized society, but there was just emptiness.
"What are you looking at?"
Suddenly, Kuchiki Byakuya appeared...
----
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