Chapter 203: The Death of Roland, the Card of Virtue
In the sky behind Luffy, the time-illusion created by Ubik continued. In the desert kingdom of Alabasta, a dying, blood-covered Roland watched in despair as his teammate turned into a Crimson Drop Card. The [Morning Star of Hope] had fallen. He looked at the [Egg of the King] that had appeared in his hand, and as his heart seized, the Egg hatched.
Then came the Spectral Realm. Roland, in his great sin, became a God Hand. A desperate Guts, arriving too late, watched in horror.
Guts painfully dropped the [Dragonslayer], his expression a mask of pained laughter. He had never escaped the [God of the Abyss]'s cruel joke. After Griffith, another of his closest friends had fatefully activated the [Egg of the King].
As the new Eclipse descended, Guts calmly accepted it. He stopped fighting. He left the black Dragonslayer behind and voluntarily leaped into the vortex of the Spectral Realm, vanishing.
Afterward, [God Hand: Roland] corrupted everyone on Skypiea, until Black King Luffy descended, killed everything, and ended the tragedy.
The real Roland should have died back then. But his lingering attachment, his obsession, had made him a tool for the [God of the Abyss]. Or perhaps, even his obsession was part of the [Law of Causality].
It was precisely because Roland was such an idealistic, pure, good person, who held the wish for everyone to have a happy ending, that he had thrown himself into the Berserk derivative world to give Guts a good ending. And that was why he was targeted by the [God of the Abyss].
Because he strove for good, he was coveted by evil.
Because he was Hope, he fell into despair.
The one who never escaped the [Law of Causality] wasn't Guts... it was him.
Roland smiled, a smile of one who understood everything, but it was more painful than tears.
Luffy watched this kind, good person make such an expression, and the veins on his forehead bulged. This damned Nexus, these damned worlds... they always made the good people suffer, while the wicked died without a shred of regret.
A fierce viciousness rose from him. The [Black King: Luffy] no longer bore any trace of his former innocent self. The boy who laughed and wanted to be the freest man on the sea had died in countless worlds. All that was left was a King of Vengeance who wanted to destroy everything with violence.
More vicious than a Reincarnator. More brutal than a Reincarnator.
With a cold snort, Luffy turned his head, his long black hair whipping as Conqueror's Haki once again wrapped around him.
Roland watched Luffy leave. He remembered again how, on Skypiea, after Luffy killed him, he had left just as resolutely. Perhaps for this boy, who had experienced loss after loss, every new loss was another cut on his heart.
And his own ugly, clinging desire to live, his obsession to strike one blow against the [God of the Abyss], was, in a way, just twisting that knife.
He was forcing Luffy to kill his friend... again.
"Ha..."
Roland looked at his own blackened spirit, the cloth over his head. It was the burial shroud from his homeland. His spirit was tattered, corrupted by the God Hand.
The [God of the Abyss] never controlled him directly. It just saw all his possibilities, so It knew what choices his personality would lead him to make. It only needed to arrange a few things, and he would, believing he was acting on his own, fulfill Its goals.
Roland looked at the Spectral Demons, at the shattered Skuld Island. He finally realized he had caused the deaths of tens of thousands more.
Counting the ten million who vanished from Alabasta, perhaps he was even more vicious, more brutal, than the Reincarnators who had done those terrible things to Luffy.
Roland looked at his own hands, feeling they were stained with blood.
He looked at Luffy, who was preparing to walk toward Kaito Shirogane, and suddenly spoke.
"Luffy."
Luffy stopped. That name... it sounded foreign to him now. He remembered... only his friends, his crew from his memories, ever called him that.
Everyone else, the Marines and pirates, had called him Straw Hat. The Reincarnators... they called him "that guy," or "the one from the Black King's Assembly."
He turned his head. Through the opening he had torn in the Spectral Realm, in that column of light, Roland looked as he had before: golden-haired, pure, idealistic.
"Tell the Captain... and everyone else... I'm sorry."
"This time, I caused trouble for you all."
Luffy's pupils trembled. His heart, for the first time in so long, felt a jolt of warmth.
Tears streamed down Roland's face. In that moment, all regret and resentment vanished from his spirit.
"Joining [Azure Sky]... I... don't regret it."
Vmmm!
Roland's spirit stretched. On the other side, a white light suddenly flared from Kaito Shirogane's body.
Luffy realized what was happening. His right arm instinctively rose, but he forced it back down.
[A partner's final resolve... even in death... must be seen through.]
In Kaito's sea of consciousness, Gojo Satoru saw the ruined spirit erupt in white light. He instantly formed a hand seal, preparing to use his Domain, but the white spirit was already too faint. The moment it bloomed, it dissolved into a white mist, scattering over the [Throne of the Heart].
Kaito, who had been in the middle of a satisfying slaughter, suddenly found his body glowing. A strong spiritual fluctuation pulsed. He turned and saw Roland's corrupted spirit-half lunging at him.
Kaito's right hand rose instinctively.
Pff!
He didn't need to use an ability; he already had the trait to touch and attack spirits. The lunging spirit had no defenses up. It opened its arms, letting Kaito's hand plunge through its chest.
Kaito's pupils shrank. He saw Roland give him a smile of relief.
And through Roland's transparent spirit, he saw the Black King in the distance, his long hair flowing, his black Conqueror's Haki lashing out. His eyes were full of sorrow as he slowly closed them.
"You..."
Roland looked at Kaito's ugly, mutated form, said nothing, and dissolved into the wind.
[You have killed Special Reincarnator: Roland.]
[Special Cooperative Mission: Chaos Requiem is complete. All Reincarnators will now be scored.]
[Scoring complete. Your completion rating for this cooperative mission is: S+]
[You have obtained A-Grade Singularity *1, 12,000 Dimensional Points.]
[You have killed a Transcendent Creature: God Hand (Secondary Demon).]
[Special Trial: Path of the Transcendent progress updated. You have broken the Spirit Limit, obtaining Transcendent Trait: Active Spirit.]
[Active Spirit: Your spirit possesses powerful invasive and infectious properties. You can use your spirit to interfere with or control weaker creatures, and you can cause erosion and infection to other spirits upon direct contact. This ability's effectiveness is based on the disparity in Spirit between you and the target.]
[You have unlocked a new Efficacy: Spirit.]
[Efficacy: Constitution (Scales of the Flame Dragon) · 1.8]
[Efficacy: Spirit (Active Spirit) · 1.7]
(Note: Efficacy represents the conversion efficiency of your abilities. Your Spirit stat's conversion rate for resistance, power, and immunities is 1.7 times the default value of the First Ladder.)
A card, glowing with white light, slowly condensed in Kaito's right hand. It was the last thing Roland left in this world. His Reincarnator body was long dead; he didn't even drop a Crimson Drop Card.
[You have obtained Special Item: Card · Virtue]
(End of Chapter)
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