As long as I obtain Pluto, I too can build such a palace from the world's gold to showcase my great achievements in the future!
However...
As Crocodile slowly walked deeper into the palace, his steps gradually halted, for he saw a golden stele and a statue kneeling in front of it, with a silhouette very much like that of Princess Vivi of Alabasta.
"It's not a Poneglyph?"
Nico Robin walked to Crocodile's side, looking incredulously at the gold-constructed stele. She also saw the content recorded on the stele.
"This is..."
"The origin of humanity..."
Nico Robin's brow furrowed deeply, her expression growing ever paler, as if she was seeing a history capable of overturning her lifetime's understanding!
"Sky People, Land People, Fishmen..."
Nico Robin was deeply struck by the history, whispering, "The three human races endlessly cycling between extinction and survival, all having the same ancestor. How fragile humanity once was before Nature?"
"..."
Crocodile's brow furrowed, his eyes fixed intently on the golden stele. He wanted to obtain Pluto, yet he couldn't help but be drawn in by the content of the stele!
Among other things...
It recorded the origin of the Devil Fruits!
And even the truth about One Piece, as well as a god who once created the world!
"The Goddess of Rabbit descended..."
"Sealed away the world's calamity... created the Red Earth Continent... even created the Windless Zone... sealing all disasters within the Grand Line..."
"Did that deity create this world?"
Crocodile squinted his eyes, unable to imagine the extent of such power: "To be able to directly create the Red Earth Continent and the Windless Zone, thus forming the miraculous Grand Line, what kind of power... could that possibly be..."
"I feel something's not quite right..."
Nico Robin furrowed her brow, voicing a bit of her doubt: "Some history exists from a hundred years of blank records, and that history seems somewhat inconsistent with what's recorded here. That history doesn't mention the Goddess of Rabbit's creation tale..."
But...
Soon after, they saw what was written further down.
It quickly mentioned why the Goddess of Rabbit disappeared.
"At the height of humanity on the Red Earth Continent... the prosperous city of Mary Geoise was built..."
"...The Holy Land of Mary Geoise where the Goddess of Rabbit resided..."
"Was that Goddess of Rabbit the first owner of Mary Geoise?"
Crocodile, with a cigar in his mouth, disdainfully snorted as he puffed a smoke ring: "No wonder those Heavenly Celestial Dragons living in Mary Geoise dare to call themselves gods and creators' descendants. It turns out the Holy Land Mary Geoise really was once a god's dwelling, thus they dare to claim themselves as such..."
The emergence of the Holy Land Mary Geoise...
Signified the peak of humanity's worship of the Goddess of Rabbit.
Sadly, humanity's worship of the Goddess of Rabbit was only a fleeting moment.
"Humanity can't tolerate a god..."
The shock was evident on Nico Robin's face. Unbelieving, she read the following history nearly word for word: "The Twenty Kings... with the liberator... sealed the Goddess of Rabbit... in Laugh Tale..."
"!!!"
Crocodile's pupils widened abruptly!
What a joke!
Crocodile had witnessed the execution of Pirate King Gol D. Roger with his own eyes; he heard Gol D. Roger claim that the Grand Treasure was placed at the end of the Grand Line, Laugh Tale!
But...
In this history's account...
Laugh Tale turned out to be the sealing place of the Goddess of Rabbit!
Fear suddenly surged in Crocodile's heart, terror creeping in that his years-long goal of becoming Pirate King, reaching the Pirate King's end, was related to a deity...
What is sealed inside Laugh Tale is indeed a true god, a god who once created the world, not those Heavenly Celestial Dragons who boast of being gods!
"Laugh Tale..."
Nico Robin's heart also trembled.
The Grand Line's end has always been shrouded in extreme mystery, and unexpectedly, as recorded in this golden stele's history, it's actually the sealing place of the Creator God, the Goddess of Rabbit!
It's said that the legendary Twenty Kings, together with a liberator, participated in sealing the Goddess of Rabbit, thereby gaining the power to rule the whole world!
"Before the Goddess of Rabbit was sealed..."
"She cursed those who obtained divine power..."
"So that those endowed with divine power would lose it by touching seawater..."
Crocodile, frowning tightly, seemed to understand something: "From then on, the divinity's fruit turned into the Devil Fruit, no wonder Devil Fruit users like us lose our power when we touch seawater..."
"There's something even more shocking..."
"One among those who participated in sealing the Goddess of Rabbit used the power of the Op-Op Fruit... to obtain eternal life... and called himself Imu... claiming the Void Throne..."
Nico Robin read one line, almost trembling, as if she couldn't believe her eyes: "One of the Twenty Kings, actually lived to this era..."
"Imu..."
Crocodile's face also darkened; he was more interested in another matter: "Can the Op-Op Fruit really grant eternal life?"
This matter...
Undoubtedly intrigues every ambitious person on the sea!
Even the strongest man, Whitebeard, would grow weak as his life neared its end, but acquiring eternal life would mean having endless time to achieve any ambition!