As Arch and the snake-fox walked towards the desolate place, he now knew for sure where he was after 13 years of doubt.
When he was inside the underground, he met the mummified body of Ryuma; he didn't think much about it. When he saw the picture in the cabin, his theory was already forming, and when the system unraveled the writings, his theory rose to 80 percent that he might really be in Wano Country. Now that he was outside, he was one hundred percent sure that this place was Kibi, a region of the country of Wano.
He didn't know why he was here. He thought the world he was transported to was One Piece because of this place, but thinking about the "butterfly effect" and the changes occurring every single time, he was doubting the reasoning he had created inside his mind. "I'm really in another world," he sighed to himself.
They continued their walking, just passing everything. The truth is, they were lost, not just in direction but also in their minds; they didn't know what to do next now that they had gotten out. Arch wanted to do many things, but he couldn't focus on one. The snake-fox was just following Arch from behind.
After walking for a while, they stopped at the entrance of something like a shrine—an old, red, two-pillared gate was standing, and this gate was connected in the middle by a red, old log. They didn't enter the place; they checked their surroundings first just to make sure that they were safe.
Arch activated his Devil Fruit ability. He utters, "ROOM!" The blue, transparent sphere covered the entire shrine. Arch now can envelop an entire small island, but his stamina will drain slowly, so he just covered the entire shrine-like place. With his activated ROOM, he can feel every movement.
Then he sensed it: "A creature? What was that?" he asked himself. "What kind of being is that?..
He intensified his sensing skills to detect the creature. Inside the ROOM, he can sense anything, but he can't see its appearance; however, he can sense the form of the objects inside the ROOM.
When he intensified his senses toward the creature, he couldn't help but be amused and curious as to how a creature like that exists in this world. Disbelief, amusement, and for some reason, excitement flooded him.
"Gurarararara! Look at that! What a piece of art!" he said.
He then looked at the snake-fox beside him and nodded his head. The snake-fox understood the meaning of the nod, and they slowly entered the shrine.
When they entered the dilapidated shrine, the noise—even the air—was silent. For some reason, even their own breathing was silent.
Arch inspected the shrine. Thousands of red, old, standing logs were scattered everywhere on the red, clay-like ground of the shrine. These standing red logs took over the entire space.
But in the very middle of the red logs, there it was: a structure that looked more like an altar than a traditional shrine.
They didn't approach the altar, because beside the altar was where he had sensed the odd-looking creature. Based on the form of this creature he had sensed earlier, he couldn't imagine what it would look like when he saw it face-to-face.
They walked slowly toward the center where the altar was located, and still, everything was silent—the steps they made, the breath they took. Pure silence.
When they arrived near the altar, Arch began to get vigilant and show more seriousness. Behind this altar, a big stone tablet-like structure where offerings were made, the creature resided.
Arch didn't need to move on his own to see the creature behind the altar, because the odd-looking creature was already staring at them with its big black eyes
Would you look at that," Arch muttered to himself. A smirk spread across his face. He shoved his left hand through his long white hair, and he laughed: "GURARARARARARARARA!"
But somehow, the loud laughter was completely silenced.
Arch then looked at the creature staring at him and he asked, "Is this one of your abilities—to completely erase sound itself? Or is it just some of your tricks?"
The monster smiled with a creepy smile. It seemed to understand Arch, or perhaps the creature was just happy to finally fill its stomach.
The creature then laughed maniacally, but this time Arch heard its laughter: "KHUA KHUAAA KA KAYAK KHUAKAKA KAKA KHUAKKHAHA!"
.
-------- to be continued-----