For someone like Crocodile, a scheming man who prefers to operate in the shadows, the Op-Op Fruit could grant him eternal life. He would have all the time he needs to strategize ruling the world. This is an even more maddening power than the Grand Treasure!
"Joyboy… the Liberator…"
"Because sealing the Goddess of Rabbit consumed power and couldn't unseal her, he infused his will into the Devil Fruit…"
Nico Robin was paying closer attention to the Liberator's name. Her brow furrowed as she pondered: "This liberated Freedom Fighter was so strong that he participated in sealing the Goddess of Rabbit, and could even infuse his will into a Devil Fruit. Now, who is the one who has been liberated from the Devil Fruit and this world?"
"And the D Clan…"
"Once divine servants of the Goddess of Rabbit… persecuted by Imu, forced to hide their names… concealing the divine servant's surname D…"
Nico Robin recalled the D Clan that once stirred up storms on the sea, and she remembered Saul, who saved her during the destruction of her homeland O'Hara.
Saul...
A member of the D Clan...
Was he also a descendant of divine servants serving the gods?
And Monkey D. Luffy, who was defeated by Crocodile, his surname also bears the hidden surname D. These people are descendants of the divine servant serving the Goddess of Rabbit…
But…
This history quickly reached its end.
Because what remains of the story is very pointed.
"One among them realized his grave mistake… dared not reside in the divine place… and no longer dared use his hidden surname… he hid Pluto…"
Crocodile muttered the content of the stele while leisurely interpreting its deeper meaning: "It seems this member who realized his mistake was likely the King of Alabasta of the past, which is why the Alabasta royal family did not enter the Holy Land Mary Geoise to become Heavenly Celestial Dragons. Looks like we found the right place…"
Pluto!
Finally, the whereabouts of Pluto have surfaced!
The owner of this Golden Stele was Pluto's previous master!
Crocodile showed no special joy upon learning Pluto's whereabouts. The information he gathered from these steles was even more shocking than Pluto's whereabouts.
However…
Pluto is indeed a necessary tool for him to achieve his goals.
Now Crocodile is more eager to override the World Government, and even wants to dethrone the King of the World Imu hidden within Mary Geoise!
Then…
He would sit on it himself!
Crocodile felt a bit fortunate for seeing the stele here; he discovered that the secrets hidden by the World Government and Heavenly Celestial Dragons were just a group of impostors occupying the Goddess of Rabbit's throne, not the grand treasures he anticipated…
"Pluto is hidden within the Poneglyph…"
Wait…
What is going on with this stele…
Why does it mention that Pluto's whereabouts are hidden within the Poneglyph?
The Poneglyph says Pluto's clue is in the Golden Underground Palace.
The Golden Underground Palace says Pluto's clue is in the Poneglyph.
What?
Playing a matryoshka game, pushing responsibility onto each other?
Are the Golden Stele and Poneglyph shirking responsibility across eight hundred years to make Pluto's clues disappear without a trace?
What nonsense!
These are dead items; surely there's a problem!
Crocodile couldn't decipher the content of the Poneglyph; he only understood the writings on the Golden Stele. He keenly sensed that Nico Robin had deceived him!
"Nico Robin!"
Crocodile's face gradually turned grim, his gaze slowly fell upon Nico Robin, feeling deceived!
"Nico Robin!"
Crocodile stared intently at Nico Robin: "This stele mentions Pluto's clues are hidden in the Poneglyph, yet you told me the Poneglyph states Pluto's secret is hidden within the Golden Underground Palace…"
"..."
Nico Robin remained silent.
The archaeologist quietly observed the records on the stele, even discovering information about the origin of the Poneglyph, the measures taken to ensure its inheritance, and hiding the historical presence of the Goddess of Rabbit to prevent Imu—who could also understand ancient writings—from knowing. Even within, they hid the existence of the Goddess of Rabbit...
In the Poneglyph...
It isn't true history either…
Nico Robin felt her brain was a jumble; her mind kept looping, pondering over what all this meant?
If…
The Poneglyph doesn't mention the Goddess of Rabbit…
Then what is the significance of the painstaking historical research she and the sacrificed scholars of O'Hara conducted? Just a history that has been altered!
Nico Robin's heart throbbed painfully!
Could the history studied by the sacrificed scholars of O'Hara, from their destroyed homeland at the hands of the World Government, be fake?
No…
No, it isn't…
It's not like that!
Surely the Poneglyph's content is genuine, right?
Could this stele be fake? This stele has too many flaws; none of the creation myths mentioned in the more ancient history are recorded during the blank century!
Yet the owner of this Golden Stele, the King of Alabasta, mentioned choosing to hide the Goddess of Rabbit's existence in the Poneglyph to evade Imu's detection and prevent the destruction of Pluto's clues hidden within the Poneglyph…