"As expected… it really isn't easy to talk to."
Xiao withdrew his hand and gently shook his head.
The Poneglyphs were unquestionably among the most important elements in this world. They ran through the entirety of One Piece's storyline.
Especially the historical text before him—one that recorded the existence of Poseidon, the Sea King. Within the grand scale of fate, its importance was second only to the protagonist's own group.
But Xiao had no intention of giving up.
He took a deep breath and steadied his mind. With a crisp metallic scrape, he forcibly pried the historical stone tablet free from the base of the Golden Bell.
As the Poneglyph was removed, the surging waves of fate weakened slightly, like a retreating tide—but the remaining power stubbornly lingered in the air, refusing to fully disperse.
Xiao frowned, staring at the suspended strands of destiny.
"So… is the problem here?"
His gaze shifted to the inscription that had just been removed—the ancient message left behind by the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
For Robin, this inscription was of immeasurable significance.
After more than a decade of pursuing the Lost Century, her heart had been filled with betrayal, loneliness, and despair. She had long lost her will to live, even harboring thoughts of suicide.
It was precisely her obsession with uncovering the truth of history that allowed her to claw her way back from the brink of despair time and time again.
Yet reality was cruel.
The contents recorded on the Poneglyphs she had uncovered over the years shattered her final sliver of hope—
Weapons.
Weapons.
Weapons.
Endless references to destruction.
That meaningless repetition left Robin utterly disillusioned. She began to doubt whether the legendary truth even existed.
If Roger's final message were erased at this moment, then after discovering Poseidon, Robin might truly choose to end her life.
And if Robin were lost—
Then not only her life, but the entire trajectory of the world's fate, would be drastically altered.
Her value was comparable to that of a crucial guiding NPC in an RPG.
The reason was simple.
There existed four crimson Poneglyphs, and the information engraved upon them was nothing less than the precise coordinates of the final island—Laugh Tale.
Even more infuriating was the fact that across the entire world, only one person could interpret those inscriptions:
Robin.
From this perspective alone, her influence over fate was immeasurable.
Without Robin uncovering the truth behind the Poneglyphs, Luffy and his crew could only follow the path of the Four Emperors—
Slowly recording magnetic fields over time, stumbling forward through trial and error, hoping one day to reach the final island.
But such a journey would become endless.
So endless that even if Luffy grew old and died, he might never reach that destination.
Thus, if Xiao did not wish to completely wage war against fate itself, he at least had to ensure that Roger's message endured—so that Robin could continue walking along the preordained path.
Yet—
Xiao despised this fate.
Its very existence made him feel as though this world was nothing more than a pile of filth.
"You're still daring to struggle against me?"
"Do you really think you're worthy?"
"Fine. Let's see how far I can indulge you."
Without hesitation, Xiao erased the ancient inscription on the Golden Bell, seized the bell itself, and decisively turned hostile.
Boom—!
Thousands upon thousands of lightning bolts cascaded down from the heavens like torrential rain, as if the entire world were being drowned beneath divine wrath.
Fate had transformed into a raging beast.
Baring its fangs and claws, it wielded the authority of the heavens and launched relentless waves of annihilation at Xiao.
Thunder roared.
Lightning intertwined.
Hurricanes howled.
Flames raged.
Acid rain poured from the sky.
Countless apocalyptic phenomena converged, forming an inescapable cage of death around him.
Yet Xiao did not retreat.
He stood firm—like an indestructible mountain.
At the heart of the catastrophe, his body became a bottomless black hole, greedily devouring everything around it.
Thunder bombardments.
Raging winds.
Violent elemental surges.
None could escape the pull of that gravity.
All were swallowed whole.
The boundless natural energy transformed into Xiao's most precious nourishment—fuel for his evolution.
As the energy continued to pour in, Xiao's body underwent dramatic changes.
His muscles grew more defined and powerful.
His bones hardened like divine steel.
His blood surged like molten lava.
Every cell overflowed with vitality.
With the flawless coordination of [Energy Absorption] and [Strength Accumulation], Xiao's power rose at an astonishing rate.
His physical attributes skyrocketed—
On the verge of breaking through and entering the fifth level.
"So that's how it is."
Xiao raised his finger and pointed toward the massive cumulonimbus clouds above.
"You can only manipulate weather."
"Your true identity is the ancient weapon—Uranus, King of the Heavens."
Xiao finally understood the true nature of destiny.
He had always found it strange.
One Piece was clearly a science-fiction world at its core—yet once stripped of its mysticism, every so-called "miracle" was ultimately the product of technology.
And yet—
From this contradiction emerged fatalism.
A fate more tyrannical than even the Heavenly Dao of mythic worlds.
A "heaven" that existed solely to enforce narrative inevitability.
Destiny chose only Nika as its protagonist.
No one else was allowed.
Thus, under this fatalistic framework, the story of One Piece shifted—
From
"I want to become the Pirate King."
To
"I ate the Sun God Nika Fruit—therefore, only I am qualified to become the Pirate King."
Pirates who once pursued freedom ultimately became prisoners of fate.
They were denied even the freedom to die.
The boundless sea could not contain the wills of generals—let alone the ambitions of the Four Emperors.
From the very beginning, only the bearer of the Nika Fruit was deemed worthy of everything.
Everyone else's struggles—
Their efforts—
Their sacrifices—
Were nothing more than a joke.
Even if a dog ate the Nika Fruit—
If it were beaten repeatedly until it awakened the Nika form—
That dog would still inherit the fate of the world.
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