Chapter 17
One Piece: Legacy of the Pirate King
A cold wind blew over the seas as the Straw Hat crew descended from the floating skies of Birkan. The First Time Pillar had been stabilized, but time itself had grown more erratic—nights lasting too long, tides changing before the moon rose, and creatures aging decades in a blink across Grand Line's wilder zones.
Cymos stood at the helm of the upgraded Sunny, the golden compass in his palm vibrating violently.
"The second Time Pillar has awakened. And it lies within the deepest prison the world tried to forget."
Robin stepped forward, her voice tight with memory.
"The Tomb of Saint Dromaeus. A Celestial Dragon who ruled before even Imu. He died centuries before the Void Century—yet the World Government still fears him."
Luffy cracked his knuckles. "Then we go wake the dead."
Their journey led them through the Black Cleft, a fissure between tectonic plates near the Red Line. There, hidden beneath crushing pressure and a maze of illusions, lay a structure built of star-metal and sorrow.
The Tomb of the Fallen Dragon.
The outer gates were guarded by stone statues fused with living time—some smiled, others wept. As Luffy passed, one of the statues opened its mouth and hissed:
"Only the blood of 'D' may enter."
Luffy smirked. "Good. I brought a lot of that."
Cymos, Robin, Lian, and Hancock entered with him. The others stayed behind to guard the ship.
Inside, the tomb pulsed like a sleeping creature.
Stairs twisted like DNA strands, leading downward through layers of ancient architecture—half One Piece, half alien. Murals showed dragons with halos, children with time-locked eyes, and one chilling image:
A man with Luffy's face… crucified in reverse time, screaming while the world aged around him.
Lian stared at the image, shivering.
"That's not you," Hancock whispered, wrapping her arm around him.
"No," Cymos replied grimly. "That's who he might have been if he failed the last trial. This tomb doesn't remember the past. It remembers possibilities."
Deeper in the tomb, they found a massive circular chamber.
The Second Time Pillar pulsed in its center—this one broken, flickering wildly between past and future. Bones surrounded it—some fresh, others fossilized, and a few… yet to decay.
And before it stood a figure cloaked in blue and gold.
Enel.
Alive.
Smiling.
And far more powerful than before.
Lian gasped. "He was supposed to be on the moon."
Enel turned, lightning dancing across his metallic arm.
"I was. And I learned things even gods shouldn't know. I saw the gears of the sky. The truth of Imu. And the beast locked behind the seventh pillar."
Luffy stepped forward. "If you touch that pillar, I'll punch you so hard your ancestors'll feel it."
Enel laughed, pointing at Lian.
"Oh, I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to offer him a deal."
He turned to the boy.
"Join me, Lian. Your father is chained to love. I offer you freedom. No more burden of destiny. No more weight of Joy Boy's legacy. Just power. Just choice."
Lian looked at his father.
Then stepped forward.
The room fell silent.
Luffy's fists clenched, but he didn't speak.
Lian stood in front of Enel, staring up at the false god.
And whispered, "I already made my choice in the Mirror World."
He punched Enel.
The impact was small—but behind it came a pulse of Chrono Haki that shattered Enel's shield and sent him skidding across the marble.
Luffy laughed. "Atta boy!"
Enel growled, lightning spiraling around him.
"You want a war, brat? Then see the faces of those you'll fail to protect!"
He struck the Time Pillar.
The chamber exploded.
They were pulled into a Time Rift—an artificial zone of fractured moments.
Lian saw Hancock lying broken.
Zoro dying at Marineford instead of Ace.
Robin taken by CP9, never rescued.
Sunny burning in Wano.
Luffy aging into a king—but all alone.
Each vision struck him like a knife.
"No…" Lian whispered. "These aren't real!"
Then one version of himself appeared.
Eyes empty.
"I let it happen," the false Lian said. "And it was easier."
Lian screamed and unleashed everything inside him.
Chrono Haki, awakened.
Reality snapped.
Time reset.
And they were back in the tomb—Enel flung backward, his arm cracked.
Robin rushed forward and began decoding the glyphs on the second pillar. Cymos stabilized its pulse using a time crystal pulled from his chest.
Luffy turned to his son.
"You good?"
Lian nodded, shaking.
"Yeah. But those futures… they felt so close."
Luffy crouched.
"That's what makes you strong. Not that you fight 'em. That you don't become 'em."
Enel coughed, rising slowly.
"You may have won this one," he snarled. "But you're already too late."
He vanished in a thunder flash.
Robin looked up from the glowing glyphs.
"He's right," she said. "The third pillar has already begun to collapse."
Cymos stared at the compass.
"The Third Pillar… is in Impel Down."
Far away…
Imu stood at a balcony in Mariejois, watching the world spin wrong.
Beside him, the Final Cipher Admiral approached.
"It's happening."
Imu smiled.
"Let them run. When the seventh pillar falls, there will be no time left to run in."
End of Chapter 17
Next Chapter Preview:
The crew journeys to Impel Down, where the Third Time Pillar lies sealed within Level Zero—a layer even the world forgot. But deep within, they find prisoners who were never meant to live… including the very man who forged the Straw Hat long before Gol D. Roger wore it.