"So this is the altar?"
Robin was the first to jump off the Going Merry, her eyes immediately drawn to the stone wall covered in faded carvings. The murals depicted scenes from a time so far back that even she, with all her archaeological knowledge, couldn't pinpoint the exact era.
As she studied the images, one figure caught her attention.
It wasn't particularly bright or rendered with special detail compared to the others. But its position made it impossible to ignore. And there was something else. While the other figures were crude and primitive in their execution, this one looked smoother.
The figure had fluffy, rounded hair that seemed to dance around its head. Flowing ribbons or bands wrapped around its body in a spiral pattern. In one hand it held a round shield, in the other a long sword whose design made her breath catch.
That sword looked exactly like the Shichiseiken Marcus carried.
"This..."
She reached out and brushed her fingers across the mural. Time and weather had eroded much of the wall's surface, leaving the stone pitted and rough. But when her hand passed over this central figure, she felt a distinct difference in texture.
This carving was newer. Someone had recarved it, probably centuries after the original mural had been created, but still long ago by any normal standard.
Her eyes traced the script carved beneath the image. "Worship of the Sun God... Nika."
In the scene depicted, this Sun God was shown thrusting the Shichiseiken into the altar. Around the base, countless smaller figures had their wrists slashed, blood flowing down to pool at the altar's foundation.
Her eyes unfocused slightly as she searched her memories. "Nika... I feel like I've seen that name somewhere before."
Marcus walked over and examined the mural himself. He was surprised to find it here. "So this artwork existed even back during the Skypiean era? That's older than I thought."
"Did you see this scene in the sword's memories?"
He placed one hand on the Shichiseiken at his waist and shook his head. "No, nothing like this showed up."
He studied the mural more carefully. "Skypiea and Jaya are connected. And this Upper Yard used to be part of Jaya before the Knock Up Stream launched it into the sky. If I'm not wrong, these two places should be deeply connected. Maybe... they were once a single island?"
Robin continued examining the rest of the mural, but the story it told could be summarized simply: A god named Nika. His sword broke, and a blood sacrifice was performed to restore it.
Marcus kept his hand on the Shichiseiken. The story might be fragmentary, but the sword itself was an ancient relic from an era long past. With his power stronger than ever, maybe he could glean something useful from it.
He channeled his Haki into the blade.
The Shichiseiken trembled in response. Ghostly energy flowed back into his hand, carrying fragmented impressions.
He frowned. The information was muddy at best.
"How is it?" Robin asked.
"Not great," Marcus admitted. "Before it met me, the Shichiseiken didn't really form clear memories. It has impressions and obsessions, but the details are vague. It remembers fighting against some kind of organization. During those battles, it broke multiple times. After that, there's just confusion. Centuries of being passed around, wielded by people who didn't understand what it was."
Robin looked back at the carved sword on the altar. "So the Shichiseiken was once the weapon of Nika. But that must have been before the era of the ancient kingdom... so afterward..."
She trailed off, muttering to herself as she tried to piece together the historical puzzle. She thought back to every text she'd ever studied. But she couldn't remember exactly where she'd encountered the term "Sun God Nika."
That meant one thing: the reference came from far back in her childhood, long before Arabasta. Probably before she turned ten. Maybe even earlier than that.
Back then, she'd been a child constantly on the run, hiding from Marine agents and bounty hunters. There had been very little time for proper study. The only possibility was that she'd seen it during her time on Ohara, before the Buster Call destroyed everything.
She sighed. "I must have just come across it while learning the ancient language."
She straightened up and looked toward the interior of Upper Yard, where the legendary City of Gold was supposed to be hidden. "There should be more information deeper in the island. It looks like visiting the ruins is necessary after all."
Marcus said nothing. He wasn't about to spoil what was coming. Robin needed to discover some things for herself.
He'd noticed that despite getting along well with the Straw Hats, Robin still maintained a certain emotional distance. She smiled and laughed with them, but there was a wall there that hadn't quite come down yet.
Several key moments were missing, such as her near-death experiences, learning about the Will of D, and those times when Luffy had been on the brink of death and she'd saved him, or vice versa. The bonds that formed in the original timeline hadn't had a chance to develop the same way here.
Robin immersed herself in studying the mural, clearly lost in thought.
Marcus turned his attention elsewhere. His eyes settled on the cloud sharks circling in the sea of mist around the altar. Their biology was interesting. Unlike most fish, sharks didn't have the same kind of urinary system. They kept urea and other compounds in their bodies to balance salt levels with seawater. That process gave shark meat a faint ammonia smell, basically a piss flavor, that made it unpopular as food.
That was true both in his old world and here in the One Piece world. Same problem.
But cloud sharks? He had no idea if they worked the same way. The "sea" they lived in wasn't really water, after all.
"Let's catch one and find out."
He walked to the edge of the altar and looked down at the misty cloud-sea below. Within moments, one of the sharks seemed to sense potential prey and surfaced. Its dorsal fin cut through the white mist just like a normal shark's fin would slice through ocean waves.
Clearly, predatory instincts remained unchanged.
He didn't even bother drawing his sword. A pulse of ghostly energy was enough to knock the cloud shark unconscious. It flipped belly-up and floated to the surface.
He hauled it aboard and took a sniff. No ammonia smell at all.
"Interesting. The cloud-sea must not have the same salt content, so they can't use the same osmosis process. That means no piss flavor."
Of course, a single ten-meter shark wouldn't be enough to feed a ship full of people with bottomless stomachs. But it was a start.
He brought the cloud shark back to where Sanji was preparing a cooking station.
The chef took one look at the catch and got to work without asking questions. Cloud sharks were naturally flat-bodied with firm flesh, perfect for smoking, curing, or grilling. He decided on a combination of pan-searing and roasting to bring out the flavor.
As he worked, he kept glancing at the meat. Would cloud shark taste like regular shark? The color and texture seemed similar, but the cooking process was revealing differences. The flesh was denser somehow, more like tuna than typical shark.
After about fifteen minutes of expert preparation, the first portions were ready.
Luffy's eyes lit up the moment the aroma hit him. "Another one! We need more of these!"
And just like that, Marcus found himself hunting cloud sharks for the next half hour. One by one, the creatures that had been peacefully swimming around the altar ended up as ingredients. None of them stood a chance.
By the time they finished eating, everyone was full and content, picking their teeth and lounging around the altar.
"They still haven't shown up, huh?" Zoro took another swig from his sake bottle, looking bored. "What's with this priest... not making any moves at all."
"Should we... go check out the ruins?" Goliath suggested.
But before anyone could respond, Luffy stretched his arm back and launched himself forward into the forest.
"Yep, there he goes."
After a big meal, Luffy always needed to burn off energy. It was practically a law of nature at this point. Marcus wasn't surprised. He'd been planning to explore a bit himself anyway.
But just as he stood up, Kira grabbed his sleeve.
"Hmm?"
"Look over there." She pointed toward something in the trees.
Marcus turned and saw a pattern in the foliage twisting and shifting. Then he realized it wasn't just one spot. The pattern extended far into the forest, wrapping around trees and disappearing into the shadows.
A massive snake's head slowly emerged, easily the size of a small building. Its eyes locked onto the piece of roasted cloud shark Kira was still holding.
"Whoa! That's a huge snake!" Luffy called out from somewhere in the trees, apparently having noticed it too.
Marcus was surprised. The Master of the Sky, Nola, if he remembered right, had been drawn out by the smell of food? In the original story, hadn't this thing mostly kept to itself unless provoked?
Kira looked at the roasted cloud shark in her hand, then at the enormous snake. She waved the food back and forth.
Nola's massive head swayed in perfect rhythm with her movements, its eyes never leaving the meat.
"Is it... hungry?"