They had only extended the world's existence...
By seven days?
A heavy atmosphere pressed down upon everyone, draining the sweetness from their victory.
Zero had suddenly appeared over thirty years ago, vanished for decades, and now returned. What was his goal? What exactly was he?
Had he appeared because of Aatrox?
Careful consideration showed that it was entirely possible. Aatrox's presence had unquestionably appeared in Alabasta, and he had most likely escaped from the entrance to Hell.
Zero appeared shortly after his escape.
Could another group of demon worshipers exist somewhere beyond their knowledge, like those once found in the Jaltzburg Kingdom?
That possibility could not be dismissed...
The demon worshipers of Jaltzburg had all died during the sacrificial ritual, but followers of Aatrox could still exist elsewhere. No one had ever claimed that only one Pandora's Box existed.
Therefore...
Zero's reappearance was not impossible.
That thought allowed them to relax somewhat.
Sometimes, an opponent's strength was less frightening than not knowing what that opponent was!
However, this theory could not explain Zero's earlier words.
Zero had said, "This power belonged to us from the beginning." He had presumably referred to the Thunder Angel's ability. How could demon worshipers who followed Aatrox possess such tremendous power?
They did not know, but one of their superiors had already learned the answer.
Not Makima, but Ann.
.......
Inside Alabasta's dark abyss, the blackness below seemed endless, as though the chasm led directly into Hell.
"Look."
Belit pointed toward the wall. Despite the darkness, all three men were masters among marksmen. They could see in dark environments and possessed exceptional night vision.
They stood inside an opening along one side of the chasm, approximately four or five kilometers below the surface. Even at that depth, they could not determine how much farther it descended.
How could such a bottomless abyss exist beneath Alabasta?
But Usopp was currently more astonished by the murals carved into the chasm's walls than by its depth.
Although the images were somewhat blurred and they could not see the true beginning, they still produced an enormous impact.
The murals seemed to extend upward from below. At their current position, they could see only a portion.
Starting from the lowest point Usopp's vision could reach and connecting the visible scenes...
The first showed five winged angels descending from the heavens.
A vast number of people stood before the five angels. There were so many that the artist had probably intended them to appear infinite.
The next mural focused on the resentment, terror, and fury upon the people's faces, emotions that transformed into hope and devotion after the angels descended.
The angels then appeared to tell humanity something, and the humans agreed.
The next scene shifted to the earth, where equally innumerable demons waged war across human nations. They ran rampant through the land and laughed wildly amid humanity's anguished cries.
Suddenly, light descended from the heavens.
The radiance swallowed every demon in an instant, but consumed humanity as well.
In the end, all humans and demons vanished from the earth.
That was the extent of what Usopp could see from his current angle and at the limits of his vision.
The meaning completely escaped him.
"Who's there?"
Belit suddenly sensed something and spun around, firing a bullet at the same time.
A crisp clang rang through the dark, empty surroundings, as though the bullet had struck a sword.
Usopp and Koza immediately turned around, their bodies tense as they watched the direction from which they had come.
"I mean no harm."
Yachiru stepped out of the darkness, her gaze primarily focused on Belit.
This man was no ordinary fighter.
Ever since reaching Alabasta, she had sensed powerful undercurrents within the country.
Unfortunately, her division from Ann and her lack of specialization in Observation Haki prevented her from determining everything with absolute certainty. Still, she knew that many powerful individuals were secretly waiting for something in this country.
If Ann herself had come here, she would undoubtedly have identified them.
The man before Yachiru was not an ordinary person.
Belit likewise watched Yachiru nervously, keeping his gun aimed at her heart.
"Believe me, I came to solve the problem." Yachiru sheathed Black Blade: Dark Moon and spoke softly.
The motion shocked Usopp. "Is that Dark Moon? Why do you have Zoro's sword?!"
"Zoro? You mean that green-haired brat? Don't worry. He's fine. I'm only borrowing his sword," Yachiru replied.
Borrowing it?
"Enough. What you were saying interests me. Could you..."
Yachiru had no desire to keep wasting time with Usopp. She looked at Belit and finished gravely, "Explain it in detail?"
Belit carefully examined her in return. "You truly don't possess an evil aura..."
"Very well. You can listen if you wish. I'm not your match."
He admitted it freely, without showing the slightest resentment over being inferior to her.
Koza was shocked instead. His teacher had always been the strongest person in his mind, yet now he said he was weaker than a girl?
Judging from her appearance, the girl was not even an adult!
Belit could naturally see Yachiru's youth, and she was even younger than Koza imagined. But inferior was inferior.
His honesty raised Yachiru's opinion of him. Not everyone could face their own shortcomings. Sometimes, even when people knew they had made a mistake or were weaker than someone else, they still refused to admit either fact.
Especially...
When it meant admitting inferiority to a little girl.
"You're too modest. Defeating you wouldn't be easy, even for me." Yachiru approached as though she had completely lowered her guard.
Belit did not take the opportunity to attack. He turned back toward the chasm.
"I was once drawn toward the bottom. I descended as though under a spell," he said. "By the time I regained my senses, I had no idea how deep I'd gone."
"What was below?" Yachiru had also seen the visible murals depicting angels, humans, and demons.
She knew angels existed. Religions had arisen because of them, and Acqua was a genuine saint. By somehow embodying the symbols of the Four Archangels, he had obtained his tremendous strength.
But angels had always remained deeply mysterious. Aside from Acqua's existence, there was almost no evidence that they were real.
These murals once again confirmed their existence.
Those five angels...
What did they represent?
Arranged in order, the murals appeared to show demons ravaging the earth, followed by angels descending into the human world. Humanity asked the angels to purify the demons. The five angels used some unknown method to destroy the demons, but humanity was annihilated with them.
Yachiru explained her interpretation and asked Belit about it.
What lay farther below?
Belit looked at her again before answering. "There were eight angels in total. They seemed to disagree over some issue and eventually divided into three factions."
"The first faction contained four angels, the second contained three, and the third remained neutral and consisted of only one angel."
"The first faction's four angels fought the second faction's three. Unsurprisingly, the three angels were defeated. They fell into the Lower Realm, and their bodies split into countless fragments."
"We fused with fragments of those angels, which is how we acquired our unusual abilities."
"Angel Fragments?" Yachiru raised an eyebrow and looked toward Belit, Koza, and Usopp.
Through her Observation Haki, she detected a very slight similarity among their auras. It was so faint that she would never have considered it significant without learning the truth beforehand.
Could they...
Be considered the angels' chosen followers?
Demons could infect humans with their power, gradually transforming them into demons. Such humans were called demonfolk.
What should humans who inherited angelic power be called? Demigods?
"So it was... the power of angels?" Usopp asked in confusion. "Or are people who inherit an angel's power called Quincy?"
Quincy?
Yachiru discarded the term "demigod" from her mind. Apparently, humans who inherited angelic power were called Quincy.
"But humans weren't the only ones who obtained the power of the Three Great Angels," Belit continued. "A considerable portion of the fragments were devoured by demons. Those demons acquired angelic power and became completely different from ordinary demons. Therefore..."
"They call themselves 'Angels,' and in many places, they impersonate true angels while committing demonic acts."
So the Thunder Angel was a demon that had obtained an angel's power. Everything made sense now.
Yachiru felt that she had finally connected many pieces, resolving much of her confusion.
A civil war had once occurred in Heaven, causing three great angels to fall into the Lower Realm and fragment into countless pieces.
Perhaps the civil war allowed demons from Hell, or the Demon Realm, to invade the human world. Once the conflict in Heaven ended, the angels triggered an Impact and destroyed the world occupied by demons.
This was the conclusion Yachiru derived from Belit's account, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and what Makima had told Roger.
Makima had said that this world had experienced two previous Impacts. The first ended the era of the Four Demon Kings, after which the later Four Great Demon Lords appeared.
The second Impact was the truth behind the Shikon Jewel's creation. While humans and demons fought, the angels triggered another Impact. Once again, they destroyed humans and demons together. But instead of simply killing them, they imprisoned them within the Shikon Jewel, ensuring that the demons could never resurrect again.
Yachiru did not know whether the civil war depicted in the murals occurred before the first or second Impact.
Moreover...
Even angels slaughtered one another?
It seemed that intelligence inevitably brought war.
"What happened afterward?" Yachiru asked.
"I don't know what lay farther below," Belit answered honestly. "I could feel my thoughts becoming rigid. I couldn't remain there for long, so I hurriedly climbed upward. When my senses fully returned, I had already come back here. I never descended again."
"...So you intend to go down now?" Yachiru frowned. The place was deeply unnatural, leaving even her uncertain what to do.
Belit had descended for no apparent reason. If he had not regained awareness partway down, he might have continued falling deeper, and no one knew what would have happened then.
Before Belit could answer Yachiru, another voice abruptly spoke.
"I... want to go down and look."
Everyone turned toward the speaker.
Usopp!
Although they stood inside a dark cavern, the other three could see in the darkness and clearly observed his expression.
The long-nosed man's face was unnaturally stiff. Even the way he spoke was wrong, completely devoid of emotion.
The voice sounded less like a human and more like a machine!
"Usopp, you said you want to descend?" Belit had learned his name on the way here and immediately turned to question him.
"Yes. I want to go down and look."
His voice remained emotionless.
Belit and Yachiru exchanged a glance before the former said, "Then we'll descend."
"We're really going down?" Koza was nervous. Belit had said that his thoughts became rigid during his previous descent and that something might have been controlling him.
"You cannot catch a tiger cub without entering its den," Belit replied without hesitation.
He had actually brought Koza and Usopp here because he intended to descend.
His primary plan had been to bring someone who could warn him. If he showed signs of being controlled, Koza was supposed to shoot him and, if necessary, kill him.
He had not expected...
Usopp to undergo a sudden change.
At that moment, Usopp possessed no other conscious thoughts.
He cared about only one thing: descending...
He had to go down. He absolutely had to!
Something strange happened the moment they decided to descend. A downward path appeared along the edge of the chasm. It consisted of step after step, but they were exceptionally steep and unlike an ordinary staircase.
It could perhaps be described as a mountain path.
"Be careful. These same steps appeared when I descended before,"
Belit warned.
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