Chapter 246: Chapter 246: The Essence of the Room of Flowers! The Contract Between God and the Twenty Kings!

Chapter 246: The Essence of the Room of Flowers! The Contract Between God and the Twenty Kings!

Watching Marco’s figure transform into a phoenix and fly away.

Roy’s gaze followed him into the distance, only withdrawing once he had completely disappeared.

“Teach…”

He murmured the name to himself.

Marshall D. Teach, or rather, Davy D. Teach.

This man weighed on him somewhat.

It all came back to the earlier question—what was the ’Great Power’ that Rocks had told Teach about?

And when had Rocks told him?

Undoubtedly, Roy already had a certain inclination in his mind.

From the original story, it wasn’t hard to see that Rocks cherished his wife and children deeply—in fact, the God Valley Incident itself was a ’Trap’ set by the World Government, using Rocks’ wife, children, and family as bargaining chips to force him into going.

Rocks must have realized it was a trap at the time, yet he still decisively chose to go.

That fact alone proved that this great pirate cherished his family.

Under such circumstances…

“After surviving God Valley, would Rocks really not go to see his wife and son?”

It wasn’t until today that the Star Lord had considered this possibility.

Before heading to the Sky Island, before going to the Abyss, before going to Elbaf, and before going to his death—before all of that.

The very first thing Rocks likely did was return to the Lulusia Kingdom to see his wife and son.

In other words…

“Teach very likely knew of the Star Lord’s existence long ago… His ambition and the shift in his goals also stemmed from that unexpected realization.”

Every change must have its source.

And the source of the changes in Teach was highly likely to have originated from the ’Star Lord’ himself.

Then…

“Could the ’Great Power’ he mentioned also be connected to the ’Star Lord’?”

Roy speculated.

Of course.

Since the information currently available was still too sparse, he couldn’t even confirm how exactly Teach had managed to survive.

Therefore, Roy didn’t dwell on it too deeply.

Moreover, compared to Teach—whose allegiance remained ambiguous—

Roy now had another, far more important truth to confirm.

That was…

“…”

He turned his head and looked at Toratora (Tiger).

Toratora didn’t hesitate either. He raised his hand and expelled a paw-pad-shaped mass of air.

That was exactly what Toratora had extracted from Doflamingo’s body right before delivering the killing blow.

That was…

[Memory · Doflamingo]

This was a matter of course.

To be honest, Roy felt a measure of admiration for Doflamingo’s cunning.

Admittedly, Doflamingo’s calculations had been very thorough.

From learning about the tree root from Caesar, to confirming the reason behind The Zodiac’s actions, and then to his subsequent plot against that God—using the entire island as the foundation for the ’Abyssal Magic Circle’ and the citizens of all of Dressrosa as fodder for the abyss.

His shrewdness and resourcefulness were worthy of a true architect of chaos; he was absolutely a standout among the Celestial Dragons.

But…

“You still lacked power, little brother.”

Just as Imu had evaluated Doflamingo, Roy gave the exact same assessment.

Power is the true key to establishing a foothold on this sea.

Relying on schemes and cunning might win some advantages, but in the face of absolute, overwhelming power, they were still nothing but fragile clay.

Even so, although Doflamingo’s plan had failed.

“He knew of Imu. He even knew Imu’s current state, as well as that ’National Treasure’ of the Celestial Dragons…”

These greatest secrets and memories of the world were naturally precious treasures to the Star Lord.

“…”

Roy silently raised his hand and reached into that fragment of Doflamingo’s memory.

Then…

VMMM!

The surrounding scenery shifted once again.

In an instant, the Star Lord found himself standing in an entirely new place.

Massive pillars and a magnificent castle materialized around him.

This was… Pangaea Castle.

Roy’s perspective was constantly shifting through the air.

It was a young Doflamingo, ceaselessly swinging and maneuvering on his ’Strings’.

He was evading the patrolling guards below, his heart pounding violently from tension and simmering rage.

As mentioned before—the young Doflamingo had wanted to restore his status as a Celestial Dragon but was rejected, so he sneaked into Pangaea Castle, intending to secretly meet the Five Elders.

But he discovered that deep in the night, the Five Elders had privately left the Room of Authority and headed deep into Pangaea Castle—which was why he trailed behind them.

He followed the Five Elders to the outside of the smallest, most secluded room in all of Pangaea Castle.

That was…

The ’Room of Flowers’.

Once the Five Elders entered the Room of Flowers, Doflamingo naturally didn’t dare to follow them inside.

But through the crack in the door, he still managed to glimpse what lay within.

It was an unimaginably vast ’Room’.

No—to be exact, it wasn’t a room at all.

“…”

At this moment, even Roy, observing the scene as a bystander through Doflamingo’s memory, couldn’t help but be stunned.

Because in his vision.

The entire Room of Flowers was, in its very nature, an unimaginably massive tree canopy.

Every single leaf on that canopy emitted light, as if the trajectory of all things in the world could be glimpsed within them.

Every branch and every leaf radiated starlight as they drooped down, as if connected to the heavens themselves.

Its sheer scale was so immense that Roy couldn’t even see where it ended—each of its leaves appeared to be the size of a mountain.

To be honest, he found it completely inconceivable that Pangaea Castle could contain such a massive tree canopy.

“The Room of Flowers… this space is wrong.”

Roy immediately realized this.

The Room of Flowers was not ordinary.

Although it existed in the deepest part of Pangaea Castle, the space within it had clearly been ’Shaped’.

This wasn’t surprising.

Now that he understood the nature of the Source Energy of Lineage Factor, Roy had long since known—in theory, this power could accomplish ’Anything’.

But clearly, that wasn’t the key point.

The key point was…

VMMM!

There was no sun inside Pangaea Castle, yet sunlight fell within.

Throughout the entire Room of Flowers, there were countless ’Cocoons’, large and small.

And at every moment, cocoons were constantly breaking open—from within them, butterflies tore through their bindings and fluttered up into the air.

All the splendor of the world seemed to have been claimed by that colossal entity.

With just one glance, Roy could confirm it.

That incredible creation was unmistakably…

“The Pillar of the World…”

He concluded.

Yes.

The Pillar of the World—that Tree of Creation depicted in the murals—still existed.

And just as Roy had guessed, it was in Imu’s possession, right in Mary Geoise, right inside…

“Inside the Red Line?”

Looking at the massive tree trunk faintly visible beneath the canopy—although he couldn’t see the whole picture, he was certain that a trunk of this size likely pierced through the entire Red Line.

No, considering the nature of the Room of Flowers, Roy thought the tree might not literally be ’rooted’ in the Red Line in any physical sense.

“The entire Red Line is just a barrier, meant to hide the existence of this tree?”

Roy murmured quietly to himself.

But this wasn’t the only remarkable thing about the Room of Flowers.

For instance, right now, Roy could see it clearly.

Around the Room of Flowers, there were clearly traces of two enormous slashes.

Those two slash marks were clean and colossal, cutting through the surrounding tree roots and exposing what lay behind them, acting almost like two giant ’Windows’ within the room.

And through the gaps of those two windows, Roy could catch a glimpse of what lay beyond.

Inside the left ’Window’, the ruins of a magnificent structure were visible—giant pillars and a building resembling a temple.

“The Domain of the Gods, the ’Knights’ Temple’ Shangrila?”

Roy immediately made a judgment—that place should be the headquarters of the God’s Knights, the Knights’ Temple Shangrila.

Furthermore, through the gap, he could even see that at the very top of that temple, a knight’s sword and what appeared to be a set of armor were enshrined.

As for the right ’Window’, it was far more thoroughly obscured.

He could only make out through a sliver of a gap that inside the window, there seemed to be a massive rectangular object, resembling…

“A coffin?”

Roy frowned deeply, his mind flooded with questions.

For example—what was the story behind those two giant slash marks? Who had left them?

Also—the headquarters of the God’s Knights being connected to the Room of Flowers further confirmed that the ’Space’ inside the Room of Flowers was distorted, and had likely been reshaped by Imu.

And lastly—whose coffin was that?

But clearly.

He didn’t have the luxury to ponder this in depth.

Because right now…

From Doflamingo’s perspective, the Five Elders had already walked into the Room of Flowers, prostrating themselves fully on the ground with their foreheads pressed low in the utmost reverence.

Then…

VMMM!

The Star Lord saw that from within the shadows of the giant tree canopy.

A figure quietly emerged from the tree.

The figure was not tall—slender, almost like a woman.

Standing beneath the shadow of the giant tree, the figure appeared as though they were a part of the Pillar of the World itself.

That was—Imu.

And it was exactly at this moment.

Roy finally noticed it.

At the place where Imu had appeared, right on the bark of that giant tree.

There was clearly a square mark, artificially carved, resembling a Poneglyph.

That massive square mark looked almost like a door upon the trunk of the giant tree—and Imu had clearly walked out from that door.

Within the carvings upon that door, there was dense, closely packed text.

Roy could not read those lines.

But…

“!!!”

At this moment, the ’Doflamingo’ he was experiencing reacted differently.

Upon seeing those writings, the blood flowing through Doflamingo’s body seemed to tremble.

The young Doflamingo gritted his teeth, his legs trembling involuntarily as if they wanted to kneel—and Roy, witnessing everything through the memory, could almost feel Doflamingo’s inner struggle.

Upon seeing the contents carved on that door, the bloodline within him seemed to surge, granting him the ability to decipher what was written on that special ’Poneglyph’.

[With the Pillar of Creation as witness, we twenty establish a contract here]

[We shall become the new kings, never betraying, submitting and serving God]

[We shall, with our own desires, bring pain to the world, cause the tree to wither, grant God freedom, and offer God nourishment]

[God shall grant us and our bloodlines eternal power and authority]

[Establishing this contract here, our descendants shall move to the Holy Land and be forever blessed]

[Even if the sea swallows the world, and all things are annihilated in the abyss, this contract is eternal]

And at this moment, Doflamingo’s gaze instinctively fell to the very bottom of the contract.

At the bottom, twenty names were carved.

Beneath nineteen of those names, a symbol was engraved—the symbol of the Abyssal Sea Contract.

And Doflamingo could read one of those names.

[Donquixote Huli]

That was his distant ancestor, one of the twenty kings who shaped the world, the true name of the founder of the Donquixote Family.

“I see…”

In that moment, Roy’s mind was suddenly illuminated.

Clearly—the text he was now seeing carved onto the Pillar of Creation was the ’National Treasure’ Doflamingo had spoken of.

It was the contract established between the founding Twenty Kings and the God bound to the world.

At the same time, looking at its form and purpose, this was very likely the prototype for the Poneglyphs that Joy Boy and Davy Jones created later.

“So even though the Celestial Dragons have become this thoroughly incompetent, and the God’s Knights are clearly largely ineffective, Imu still has to make use of them…”

“Because this is the contract the twenty founding kings established with Him and the Pillar of the World.”

The content of the contract was simple.

The kings would give God freedom, and God would grant the kings and their descendants eternal authority.

In other words—this contract was the cornerstone of the World Government’s existence, the very legal basis for the Celestial Dragons to stand above all living beings.

However, one thing still puzzled Roy…

“Cause the tree to wither… is that the method to free Imu from His bindings?”

The Star Lord didn’t find this entirely strange.

Clearly—Imu was the shadow of the Pillar of the World; this tree was both the source of His power and the cage that confined Him.

If the tree withered, Imu could likely take its place and become the new ’Pillar of the World’.

But the problem was…

“No matter how you look at it, this tree doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to withering.”

Looking at that tall, lush, and vigorously thriving canopy, the Star Lord muttered to himself.

Clearly, although the contract had been established.

Imu had not obtained freedom—just as Doflamingo had said, what He obtained was only ’Restricted Freedom’.

So, what was the reason?

The answer lay plainly within the contract.

“Twenty kings, but only nineteen symbols.”

The Star Lord’s gaze fell upon the names on the contract.

Clearly—among the twenty kings who signed the contract with Imu, something had gone wrong with one of them.

And who that king was required no further explanation.

After all, among the twenty families that created the world, only one had not moved into Mary Geoise to become a Celestial Dragon family.

“The one who never fully signed the contract was Queen Lily of the Nefertari Family.”

The Star Lord had his answer.

To confirm this, his consciousness began to detach from Doflamingo’s perspective, attempting to move closer to read the names on the contract clearly, and perhaps catch a glimpse of Imu’s true appearance.

But…

Just as the Star Lord’s consciousness extended into the Room of Flowers.

He saw it—deep within the shadow of the giant tree, the motionless Imu.

Without any warning, He slowly raised His head.

That gaze, wearing a crown and veiled in shadow, felt as if it could freeze time and space itself.

It pierced accurately through the veil of memory and looked at Doflamingo—or rather, looked at ’Roy’, whose consciousness had only just begun to extend into the Room of Flowers.

“Star Lord…”

His voice was hoarse: “You dare enter… Mu’s divine domain?!”

In that instant, a terrifying presence and will—unlike anything before—began to spread along the memory link.

So the next moment…

“!!!”

Seeing this, Roy decisively severed the connection with the memory.

His consciousness snapped back to reality.

And right before him…

BOOM!

That fragment of memory belonging to Doflamingo shattered into pieces.

☆☆☆

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