"To all of you who have traveled thousands upon thousands of miles to reach this place, congratulations…"
"You fell for it!!!"
Robin's hand rested against the Poneglyph, its surface marked by the passage of countless years. Yet the moment she opened her mouth, the words she spoke made every member of the Straw Hats freeze in stunned disbelief.
"Huh!? What!?"
Luffy, who had been brimming with excitement, suddenly went blank. His eyes widened as he stared at Robin.
Robin herself, equally astonished, abruptly stopped translating and looked around at the Straw Hats with a bewildered expression.
Red was the first to recover. After drawing in a deep breath, he said calmly,
"Keep going, Robin."
"This kind of thing doesn't really matter to us, does it?"
Perhaps because he had read far too many theories before, Red was not all that surprised.
After all, he had even seen people claim countless times that Buggy would become Pirate King in the end—and he had even seen many people seriously analyze that possibility…
From that moment on, he had understood one thing.
What the ending of One Piece was no longer mattered.
What mattered most was that it actually got an ending at all~
"Mm."
After recovering from her surprise, Robin nodded. Then, sentence by sentence, she began translating the Poneglyph before her.
The Poneglyphs placed here were not only vast in number, but the contents recorded upon them far exceeded any Poneglyph Red and the others had seen before.
With such a massive amount of text, even Robin spent a full day and night before she finally finished translating all the Poneglyphs.
At the same time, the Straw Hats came to learn of a grand and absurd historical drama.
Rather than saying these Poneglyphs recorded a story of the past, it would be more accurate to say they were a letter and a story left behind by Joy Boy for the free people of later generations.
And the origin of this story had to be traced back to an era even more ancient than the Void Century…
The primeval age!
According to Joy Boy's account, the world of the primeval age was one dominated by continents, with the oceans only playing a supporting role.
In that era, countless races stood side by side in the world: the fish-men, the dwarves, the Mink Tribe, the giants, the demon race, the Kuja race…
In order to fight for more and more survival resources, wars often broke out between the various races.
And in that era, weak humans had no power with which to oppose the other races. Their status was extremely low. In most cases, they were slaves or servants under the command of powerful races.
No one knew how long such a situation continued.
Until one day, a race with wings, capable of releasing scorching flames, descended from the heavens and beat every foreign race into submission.
Those races either fled the continents and hid within the sea, or, like humans, became dependents of this race.
The name of the race that unified the land world was none other than one still heard even today—
The Lunarian!
Fortunately, the Lunarian were not a cruel race.
Furthermore, they saw in humans a shining point that distinguished them from the other intelligent races—
Desire!
For some purpose, the Lunarian not only provided humans with sufficient protection, but also made heavy use of some human elites. By having humans govern humans, they ruled this world from on high.
And the reason the Lunarian did this was because they needed vast numbers of living beings to provide them with wish power!
That was right. Wish power did not seem to be a force unique to Blue Star. To the moon people, it was also an important source of energy!
It was precisely because they had mastered the use of wish power that the moon people were able to obtain all kinds of powerful abilities and technologies in an era when civilization had not even formally taken shape.
And the Lunarian, who had split off from the people of the moon, were themselves a powerful race among the moon people. Their strength far surpassed the other two moon races.
The reason such a situation had emerged was because the Lunarian possessed a mysterious treasure known as the "Solar Crystal"!
Its ability was similar to that of the Sunstone in Elbaf's Heaven World.
However, the power of the "Solar Crystal" was countless times more terrifying than that of the Sunstone!
As long as the Solar Crystal absorbed enough wish power, it possessed omnipotent power!
Crossing the stars, manufacturing weapons, creating technology, granting souls and intelligence to non-living robots…
It could be said that as long as something could be imagined, there was nothing the Solar Crystal could not do.
Yet it was precisely because of the Solar Crystal's omnipotent power that the thoughts of the moon people became increasingly rigid.
Because their own civilization had never truly been born, because their horizons were narrow, and because no foreign enemies invaded them…
Over time, the people of the moon became more and more satisfied with the status quo. As a result, their desires grew smaller and smaller, and the wish power they could provide to the Solar Crystal also became increasingly scarce!
By the later stages, the wish power within the Solar Crystal was not even enough to provide basic energy for the "servants" it had created for them.
In the end, left with no other choice, the people of the moon chose to relocate their entire race. Guided by the Solar Crystal, they arrived on the vast Blue Star, preparing to absorb wish power on this planet.
And what came after that was the story Moria had seen in the secret chamber of Elbaf Castle.
The three races of moon people arrived on the rich and colorful Blue Star, each choosing a different way of life.
One group decided to give up their dependence on the Solar Crystal. They learned from the native inhabitants of Blue Star and relied on their own power to master the means of survival.
They did not want to be driven into a dead end when wish power dried up.
According to Red's guess, this group of moon people was very likely the ancestors of the present-day Shandia.
It was just that judging from the Shandia's current circumstances, this act of voluntarily giving up powerful strength was undoubtedly unwise—and a failure.
Without a stable cultural foundation to support them in the first place, the Shandia soon integrated into Blue Star's native world as time passed, thoroughly becoming part of the indigenous population.
They even forgot the glory of their ancestors' era.
The only thing they left behind was the "glory" belonging to the Shandia that refused to fade from their hearts.
But under the washing of time, even that "glory" changed as well. It became increasingly cheap, leaving behind only pride in their bones and slogans on their lips.
On the other hand, another group of moon people also had no intention of continuing to rely entirely on the Solar Crystal's power. However, they did not give up on the powerful energy source known as wish power either.
After settling for a period of time in the Heaven World at the summit of Elbaf, they used the power of the Solar Crystal to successfully develop something that could likewise store wish power…
That was the Sunstone that existed in the Heaven World today!
Although the power of the Sunstone did not reach even one millionth of the Solar Crystal's power, for this branch of moon people, it was still an excellent beginning!
They decided to delve deeper into this technology until they could create a second "Solar Crystal"!
In order to better devote themselves to their experiments, this branch of moon people took advantage of the circumstances and withdrew into the Sky Islands, where no intelligent life existed.
Using their newly developed technology, they successfully created various creatures in the Sky Islands that could meet their needs.
Tone Dials, Flame Dials, Water Dials, Light Dials…
As the varieties of Dials became more and more abundant, this branch of Sky Island moon people actually fell once more into the same situation they had experienced on the moon.
Once everyone's living needs were satisfied, their desires weakened again.
And in order to prevent the tragedy on the moon from happening again, this branch of moon people also learned from the races of Blue Star. They began creating classes and divisions to ensure that there would always be people who wanted to go somewhere better, and always be people who wanted to obtain more.
The seed of desire began to be planted in this branch of moon people, causing them to change from their innocent and kind nature into something greedy and difficult to satisfy.
And the price was…
Under the swelling of ever-expanding desire, civil war broke out!
In order to fight over the limited territory of the Sky Islands, these moon people actually erupted into an unprecedented war!
Only after they had decided upon a single "God" did this battle finally come to an end.
The term "God" was also something they had learned from the creatures of Blue Star.
Because they had learned that, in the eyes of Blue Star's living beings, the existence that stood above all others was called a "God"!
What this branch of moon people had never expected, however…
Was that their civil war would destroy the results of countless years of scientific research. Their culture also suffered a rupture, causing them to completely lose control over wish power.
Perhaps the "God" at the time realized that such a situation was more favorable for him to seize power. Thus, he actually took the initiative to abandon those powerful forces, using only the existing resources of the Sky Islands to begin creating his own divine kingdom!
The stories of the first two branches of moon people both spanned countless years—one could even say they continued all the way to the present day.
And while these stories were unfolding, the final branch of moon people—the Lunarian—naturally began their own actions as well.
Only, compared to the first two branches of moon people, who possessed some awareness of danger in times of peace, the Lunarian were much simpler and more innocent.
They still wanted to rely on the power of the Solar Crystal.
And since the previous energy depletion had been caused by an insufficient number of people with desire, then all they had to do was increase the number of people who used desire!
Thus came the story of the Lunarian becoming a race of gods and ruling the world.
Unfortunately, they still underestimated human desire far too much. At the same time, their nature was too kind.
This led to the Lunarian suffering a backlash they had never imagined, one that nearly caused the entire race to go extinct!
Of course, all of that was already something that happened much, much later.
Just like that, under the rule of the Lunarian, the world underwent countless years of change.
After obtaining a stable life, humans unleashed unprecedented potential. Not only did they create divine kingdoms attached to the Lunarian, they also invented writing, giving civilization a way to pass itself down.
During this period, some races other than humans chose to surrender and live within the kingdoms.
Some races, however, continued to resist, attempting to return to the ruling class.
But the raging flames of the Lunarian would teach them how to behave.
In order to better absorb wish power, the Lunarian scattered their clansmen across the world to suppress the races that refused to submit.
And thus came that phrase—
"Upon the earth, there is flame."
What the Lunarian did not expect was…
The enemy came from within!
The ancestors of the Lunarian could never have imagined that the humans who worshiped them as the "Sun" and "Gods" would one day swing butcher's blades toward them.
And the cause of all this had to begin with the Lunarian's innocence.
Although, by relying on their powerful racial gifts and the abilities of the Solar Crystal, the Lunarian became the undisputed rulers of the earth…
Because the Lunarian disliked complicated matters, they delegated power on a large scale, handing authority to outstanding humans and letting them manage the land.
The Lunarian were like landlords who had divided their fields among tenant farmers, settling into a life free of worry.
And the abnormal change began from that moment.
At first, humans had only just regained their freedom. Almost everyone carried longing for life and hope for the future.
Everyone worked hard together, making no distinction between you and me, solely so that the human race could possess a broader world.
But as time passed and humans changed generation after generation, the situation began to shift.
The children of those who obtained high positions were no longer willing to bend their backs to work the fields.
Those who held power in their hands were no longer willing to let their descendants live difficult lives.
Certain things began to show signs of being inherited through bloodline.
Over time, a farmer's son remained a farmer, while the son of the powerful remained powerful.
As expected, classes appeared among humans, along with certain filthy things.
It was just that human minds were too clever, far too suited to playing with such things. So when the Lunarian saw that the wish power collected by the Solar Crystal had not decreased, but had instead multiplied…
They allowed certain humans to continue playing their games of power.
The status of "slave," which they had once finally escaped, once again formed an even sturdier shackle and bound itself around certain people.
Large numbers of humans were enslaved, losing dignity and freedom.
Large numbers of humans remained at the bottom, offering up their bodies and their lives.
And in the end, all of this existed merely so that the small number of humans closer to the "Sun" could live lives of unimaginable wealth.
Yet even so, those humans' desires were not satisfied.
One could even say that the more they enjoyed, the greater their desires became!
This was perhaps the most direct difference between humans and the moon people.
However, the power of the Lunarian was no empty display. Humans could not possibly possess the capital to oppose the "Sun" and the "Gods."
Thus, some people's gazes began to turn toward that true sun!
The supreme treasure of the Lunarian—
The Solar Crystal!!!
The restless foreign races outside the kingdom just so happened to create the perfect opportunity for humans.
As large numbers of Lunarian went to various regions of the kingdom to guard them, the royal court of the Lunarian as a whole became empty and undefended.
And at that moment, a human whose body had already been seized by desire secretly infiltrated the Solar Crystal's treasure vault, a place that had almost no defenses set up against humans!
After becoming "Gods," the Lunarian had basically satisfied all their material needs. Therefore, they had not used the power within the Solar Crystal for a very, very long time.
The reason they had continued allowing the Solar Crystal to collect wish power was merely because they feared the incident that had happened on the moon might repeat itself.
And so, a surge of wish power absorbed from all of Blue Star over hundreds, thousands, or even more years was touched by a desire-driven human harboring a demon in his heart.
True history officially opened its curtain from this moment onward!!!
(End of Chapter)