Lotm Rogue-like across worlds.

After comparing the last message, I finally got the full coordinates of the Raftel. The long search came down to one point. I wasn't going to delay — time has become an essential resource. All that remained was to get to the end of this path, hoping that the story hidden on the last island would bring me something that neither artifacts nor records could give me: the key to digesting the third sequence and completing the ritual.

Status

Current name: Kuro Miyago

Paths: Fool(3), Scientist of the Past(44%)

Ritual: Bring back a piece of history that was left behind and has survived to our era.

The goal: To swim to the island of One Piece, before the main character. ( Canonical events have begun ) Reward: 1 meta point

I've been thinking about this ritual for a long time. The option I came up with in my thoughts was to take the Skypians to the moon, but that was impossible with my current abilities. Even with all the power of the projections of the past, I could not touch that distant goal. Raftel, on the other hand, was real. Physically achievable.

Understanding history and studying it brought only crumbs. Little fragments dripping from the millennia that I put together into a picture that never became whole. Right now, just digging into the "current" history was meaningless. It was necessary to touch more sources of these mysteries.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Our ship, lifted into the air by Kaido's forces, hovered for a second before surging forward. The wind punched through the sails, carrying with it the tart smell of salty moisture, and the silence of the celestial ocean responded to the ribs with a slight pressure, as if depriving everyone inside the ship of the usual sense of time.

Soon we approached Elbaf, and the Leviathan's speed noticeably decreased — not by order, but as if the structure itself had decided to linger. From a height, huge houses, like bones bleached by the sun, were piled on green hills stretching away to rocky cliffs. The great village of the giant people was a network of stone walls and roofs that narrowed upward, turning into pointed towers.

On the training grounds, the figures of giants moved like patterns on a cloth. Their footsteps, even visible from afar, seemed to shake the air. One of them swung an axe the size of our ship's keel beam and hit the target, a wooden structure that split into a dozen pieces. Splinters, almost like flocks of birds, flew apart. At the very edge of the village, women in long light-colored robes carried pitchers that looked like ordinary barrels from our perspective. Somewhere between the hills, a red spot of a bonfire flared up, on which the carcass of a bull was slowly spinning. The Leviathan tilted slightly in one place, allowing us to catch a glimpse before the wind picked us up again.

Next was the Island of Birds. Its outlines seemed blurred due to the lively movement - thousands of winged creatures circled above the ground, hidden by a forest of feathered nests. Our ship slowed down, as if it had become alert, afraid to disturb the sky. The cries of birds pierced the space, long and rattling, like ragged threads. With one sudden movement, they scattered into crowds that rose above the treetops and formed strange geometric shapes in the air.

Below, in the undergrowth, there were silhouettes of nests the size of a two-story house. Every now and then new birds appeared, wide, with lowered beaks, gliding towards their chicks, carrying fish or massive stalks of grass in their claws. One of them rose so close to us that the sails billowed on the surface of the Leviathan, and the cabin shook from the impact of the wind. Moving smoothly, we lifted off the ground again, leaving the bird island behind us.

Finally, the Island of Laughter appeared. The Leviathan slowed down again, and the crew, barely moving, looked down. There, the streets curved in spirals, crisscrossing into patterns that could be seen even from a height. The houses bent as if following someone's unknown idea - the roofs came in waves, the walls twisted like sparkling ribbons. Figures were moving in the central square, in groups, in pairs, in chaotic and continuous dances. They threw up their arms and jumped up, as if something invisible was pushing them up.

The streets were empty except for these people, their shadows stretching out at odd angles, running away to the edges of the city alleys. Someone was sitting at the very top of the leaning tower, dangling his legs and swinging them to the beat of the silent music. Leviathan hovered for a moment, as if we, too, were drawn into this silent rhythm. Then the ship moved smoothly forward, leaving the crooked roofs and dancing figures behind.

Sailing through the air made every moment of the journey monotonous, as if frozen in eternity. The crew members were more silent than usual. They understood that this was the end of the road — for someone in the literal sense. The protracted war, the escape from Totto Land, and the disappearance of the former might of the Beast armies had burned them out from within. Even the loudest of the remaining ones were silent now, only occasionally looking at the horizon with empty eyes.

Quinn, despite losing his arm, continued to make calculations on the map, constantly checking the mechanisms. He was muttering to himself, the only sound that could be heard amidst the quiet booming breathing of the ship. King stood at the very stern, peering into the fog passing behind.

—Soon," I said shortly, breaking the silence. The words sounded like a fact.

We spent several days in the air. At night, I thought about the ritual, about Raphtel, and also continued to relentlessly study genetics from Quinn.

And then one morning, the fog that had been shrouding the horizon lifted. The last island lies in front of us, the Rafting island. At first glance, it looked... deceptively simple. No golden gates, majestic ruins or monumental buildings. There are only stone slabs and old columns entwined with roots, on which time has left its marks.

"Is that all?" Quinn's incredulous mutter came from behind.

Our ship came to a standstill near the shore. I stood on the bow of the Leviathan, looking at the island. His simplicity was amazing. There was nothing to suggest that this was the target of the greatest pirates and a secret that generations had been killed for. But I felt it. There was something in the air, like the echo of a long-forgotten voice.

I didn't wait. He jumped off the boat and landed on the sandy shore. The stones crunched underfoot. There was no one around, no sound except the soft murmur of the waves. The island was empty, but this calmness seemed feigned, like a frozen beast in ambush. I took a step forward, and suddenly —

White. The world flashed as if thousands of white ribbons had closed their eyes, filling all vision and thoughts. The sound collapsed as if cut off. I couldn't hear the sea, or my own breathing. The space around me disappeared, and even my spiritual threads, which were always felt on my fingertips, dispersed, as if they had dissolved into this white radiance.

It appeared in front of me. The glow of the interface, almost mocking, blurred before my eyes, slowly forming into text.:

The goal: To swim to the island of One Piece, before the main character. (Completed)

Congratulations on completing the first mission.

Additional tasks: 

1. Achieve Divinity for the first time (2nd sequence of any path) Reward: 5 meta points (Failed)

2. Turning Point (Save Whitebeard and Ace) Reward: 1 meta point (Completed)

3. There are 5 yonko and 7 Shichibukai at sea (Becoming a Yonko before the canonical events begin) Reward: 2 meta points (Failed)

"Damn," were the only words that came out of my mouth.