"This is the place…"
Jin stepped into the shadow-heavy chamber, his eyes scanning the strange and eerie layout of the house. Behind him followed Ilensa and Maya, their expressions solemn as they clutched at their prayer charms.
The two young women were shrine maidens. By calling upon the "gods," they could summon divine blessings, erect barriers, and resist the malignant aura of the Seven Star Sword.
Especially Maya.
She was the most gifted prodigy their tribe had ever recorded in its history.
Words such as "gods" and "barriers" might sound like fantasy to an outsider. But after witnessing what Im and the Five Elders could do with their unfathomable powers, and recalling the ancient mechanical soldiers of eight hundred years ago….was it really so far-fetched?
The world was stranger than any tale sung by wandering bards.
Jin studied carefully. He discovered that the Seven Star Sword had been sealed away by three distinct layers.
The first was the outer barrier.
The second was a smaller magic array carved within the house itself, anchored by three radiant gems that served as its "core."
The third was the stone coffin forged of seastone. Its surface was etched with countless marks, but after centuries, the runes had dimmed, their clarity lost to the erosion of time.
Jin knew the fate that lay four years in the future.
A boy named Saka, chased and bloodied by pirates, had stumbled here. His blood had spilled upon the Seven Star Sword. That blood contact awakened the slumbering demon sealed within, cracking the coffin open. Saka's will was devoured, his mind consumed. The demon had then used him as a pawn, indirectly seizing control of a Marine training base. That calamity had nearly ended in a massacre.
"Both of you… go outside. Stay far away."
Jin turned to the shrine maidens, his face calm but resolute.
"I'll handle it. Alone."
He gestured for Ilensa and Maya to retreat. If their wills faltered and the sword's malice infected them, things would become infinitely worse.
Maya's eyes lingered on him, anxious. "Be careful, Jin!"
Ilensa whispered, "We will pray for you from outside. But… if you should fall under its control…"
"That won't happen," Jin cut her off with a confident grin. "Trust me."
Even Zoro, at his weakest, had once destroyed the Seven Star Sword, despite the ties of friendship and emotion that shackled him. That alone proved how much the sword's power had waned through the years.
Reassured, the two shrine maidens obeyed and withdrew.
Jin exhaled slowly, then placed his hands on the heavy coffin lid and pushed it open with deliberate care.
The first thing to greet him was the sword's pommel, a jewel-encrusted orb that glimmered faintly.
Then came the rest.
The hilt, patterned with scales like those of a white serpent, stretched nearly a foot in length. The guard was octagonal, jagged like a star. The blade was double-edged, straight and tapering into a viciously sharp tip.
The ridge of the blade was carved with dense patterns, half like a ritual circle, half like the twisted spirals that appeared on Devil Fruits.
This was no curved katana like those wielded by Zoro or Mihawk.
When a sliver of light spilled across its surface, Jin's gaze met the gemstone, and faint green radiance pulsed from within. The glow rippled outward in tendrils.
"Take me up…"
The whisper was faint yet insidious, echoing through Jin's skull. A voice without source or form, enticing him to claim the sword.
"Pathetic trick."
Jin's mind was perfectly clear. To his supernatural body, the sword's whispers were nothing.
So he stretched out his hand and grasped it.
Buzz…
A surge of emerald flames burst from the weapon. They crawled along his arm, searing, clawing their way toward his brain.
From within the sword surged the will of the "demon," carrying with it an ocean of resentment, agony, and malice, battering against Jin's consciousness.
If he faltered, if he allowed the wave to drown him even for an instant, his awareness would be devoured. Then his body would become the demon's vessel, its tool of resurrection.
Uta herself had once been seized by an awakened devil's will born from the Sing-Sing Fruit, driven to destroy an entire nation.
Flashes of carnage, endless deaths, collapsing cities, anguished wails, and vengeful roars roared through Jin's mind. They were not illusions. These were the memories carved into the Seven Star Sword, the tragedies it had witnessed and embodied.
A torrent of despair and fury surged around him.
Yet…
Jin's body and spirit were like a black hole. Every image, every scream, every shred of torment was swallowed into the void of his being.
"You picked the wrong man to control!"
Dark-red flames rose around his back, swirling into clouds like a burning storm. It was the unmistakable mark of a Devil Fruit awakening.
The Paramecia-type: Munch-Munch Fruit, fully awakened.
There was nothing it could not consume. Matter, emotion, even fragments of soul itself. All could be devoured by its abyssal hunger.
After realizing his mysterious "bond" with the aircraft carrier, Jin had been training relentlessly, honing his control of that strange power of bonds while simultaneously pushing his Devil Fruit abilities further.
This was the source of his confidence.
Awakening against awakening!
Within the blade, the demon sensed peril.
The Seven Star Sword shuddered violently, trying to break free. The hilt burned fiercely, its green flames blazing hotter, threatening to sear his flesh.
"Too late!"
Jin's arm darkened, Armament Haki coating his flesh in obsidian steel. Ignoring the heat of the green fire, he clamped down harder upon the hilt.
Suddenly…
The sword twisted within his grasp. The flames stretched, warping into a monstrous shape.
In the blink of an eye, the weapon transformed into a crimson serpent of colossal size.
Its head was broad and crocodilian, its maw lined with twin fangs as long as sabers, gleaming like snowy blades of death. Its neck flared like a cobra's hood, its body scaled in scarlet, ringed with intricate cursed patterns that screamed of forbidden power. Its tail ended in a rattle that jingled eerily, each sound prying open the darkest desires buried in the hearts of those who heard it.
It was…
Jin's mind leapt at once to the ancient tale of the serpent that had tempted Adam and Eve into tasting the forbidden fruit.
This was no ordinary beast.
This was a Mythical Zoan: the Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Infernal Crimson Serpent.
The serpent hissed, the sound like the tearing of the sky itself. Its gaping jaws lunged for Jin.
Bang!
Jin's fist, cloaked in Armament Haki, crashed against its skull, knocking the monster sideways and sending it smashing through the stone wall.
Boom!
Outside, Ilensa, Maya, and the gathered tribespeople saw the serpent's head, massive as a house, burst from the ruin.
All were struck dumb.
"A snake?!"
"What is happening in there?!"
The serpent roared, wreathed in coiling green flames. Darkness and blood-red aura spilled outward, rolling over the ground in suffocating waves.
It had entered its awakened state, no longer mere flesh but a blazing manifestation of fire and aura.
Wherever the green radiance spread, those touched by it shivered violently. Their eyes turned crimson, their wills bent. Step by step, they stumbled forward, whispering.
"Kill him…"
Their voices were hollow, enslaved.
"Snap out of it!"
"Stop him!" Ilensa shouted, panic tightening her voice.
Jin appeared in a blur, his leg flashing out. With precise strikes, he knocked the enthralled tribesmen unconscious.
"Fall back. Farther!" he commanded. "Don't get any closer!"
Faced with the nightmare serpent, Ilensa and the others obeyed without hesitation, retreating swiftly.
Jin leapt high, twisting in midair. His kick, charged with Haki, slammed upward. Only such attacks could wound a devil-born being.
Boom, boom, boom!
Ruins collapsed, trees split apart, clouds of dust choked the air.
Jin fought with purpose. He wanted Ilensa and her people to witness the Seven Star Sword's terror firsthand, to understand just how dangerous and nearly impossible it was to subdue.
Otherwise, some fool might later claim that Jin had exaggerated, that the sword was not so terrible after all, and demand he return it.
The air vibrated with monstrous pressure. The serpent's fury and Jin's iron resolve clashed like storms. The tribespeople could only tremble, awed and frightened at once.
Maya pressed her palms together before her chest, lips moving soundlessly. She prayed with all her heart.
Unbeknownst to her, her spirit stirred. A ripple of unseen energy spread outward, touching the outer barrier, touching the three gems within the house.
Her mind resonated with them. It was as if she had turned a key, opening an ancient lock.
Buzz…
The ground shuddered. From below surged a force of "Haki," powerful and raw. It rose like a bowl-shaped dome, a barrier that descended and clamped over the serpent.
At that same moment…
The three gems shot forth, hurling themselves straight at the demonic beast.
"Stored Haki… from an ancient age?"