Chapter 6: An Unexpected Prayer

Dante had lived for nearly 7 months now in the world of One Piece. He enjoyed wandering around from island to island, witnessing the magical wonders of this fantastical world. Yet, right now, Dante stood in front of the weirdest of situations. Something he wouldn't even dream of.

Dante was currently sitting inside Sefirah Castle, sitting on his wooden throne at the head of the ancient table. The thing that confused him was the bright red star representing someone's prayer to him.

This wasn't the weird part, during the last seven months he did spread around his name, going so far as using multiple honorific names and aliases. No, the surprising part was the person who had recited the Fool's honorific name.

As Dante looked into the bright red star, the image of a young woman, around 20 years of age, had prayed to him. She had long silky, black hair framing her gorgeous face. She was standing in front of a giant stone cube engraved with words from a long-forgotten tongue.

"A poneglyph?! Did that one contain my honorific name?! What the hell is going on?!" Unsure of whether to answer or not, Dante decided it would be better to respond. He needed more information and Nico Robin was the only one that could decipher it. Of course, Dante could use his abilities from the Error pathway to decrypt the language but that would take a while and it would be easier to ask Robin to translate and use it as a basis for the decyphering later on.

Dante touched the bright red star, pulling Robin's consciousness into Sefirah Castle. To her, the world around her was lit in bright red light, soon followed by the sensation of falling endlessly until she opened her eyes inside an ancient hall covered in gray fog.

Her eyes analyzed every corner of the ancient hall, not recognizing from which era it hailed. Soon her gaze landed on the mysterious figure sitting at the head of the table hidden by a dense gray fog.

"Are you the Fool mentioned in the Poneglyph?!" Robin's astonishment overshadowed her fear and anxiety for a short while. Yet her intelligence and experience in surviving in dangerous surroundings quickly kicked in.

"I'm sorry for my rudeness."

Dante waved his hand, discarding her worries.

"Don't worry, child. I'm not petty enough to care for such trivialities. What I do care about is how you learned of my name?" Dante spoke slowly emphasizing each word with an air of elegance and nobility. Something he thought would suit a true deity like himself.

"I... I learned from Professor Clover about your existence. But it was the poneglyph I recently found that contained your honorific name." Robin chose to not speak too much and answered the questions with short and precise answers. It was after all the first deity she had ever spoken to and even then she was still unsure if she was in a dream or not.

"I see." What else did these 'poneglyphs' and that Professor Clover, mention about me?" Dante was genuinely curious, he had no idea why he was mentioned in the One Piece world but he sure as hell wanted to find out.

"Professor Clover talked about the great Fool being the beginning of salvation, that your presence would mark the time of revolution and freedom. The poneglyph however, speaks about the coming apocalypse and that your arrival heralds the end of an era."

'The coming apocalypse? Was there a setting like that in One Piece?! Is it speaking about the great war to come once Luffy reaches Laugh Tale? Or did that god's meddling change the story? Does that mean the other worlds also have mentions about me? Are there other differences from the original works? Fuck...'

Dante had wandered the One Piece world thinking that there wouldn't be anything able to stand up against him. But knowing that the ancient civilization somehow predicted his arrival fueled his anxiety. Besides, if they knew about him why would they say that there will be an apocalypse coming? What deviation exists in this world that could possibly threaten him?

Dante remained quiet and Robin didn't speak, afraid to interrupt the god's train of thought.

"I am a firm believer of equivalent exchange. The information you brought me was quite valuable. Tell me, what do you want for it?" Dante's voice broke the heavy silence startling the black-haired woman. She wasn't expecting a reward but if she could wish for something then...

"Friends... I wish to find friends... a place to belong to..." Her voice was barely a whisper, broken from the many years of torment and trauma. Despite that, she clung to Saul's last words to her for her to find her Nakama and her place in this world.

A cheerful chuckle took Robin by surprise. The heavy mood was quickly lifted by the deity's laughter.

"I can't grant you that wish, because it will happen even without my meddling." Dante scratched the nonexistent beard on his chin before continuing.

"Let's do it like this then. I'll give you a clue, a path to follow on which you will inevitably cross theirs. Since I don't consider that enough to repay the information, I'll another piece of information.

Is that acceptable?"

Robin took a second to ponder before nodding in agreement.

"Seek out the warlord Crocodile and join his organization. It might take years but should you hang on and push through, you'll be able to meet them."

Robin noted down Crocodile's name in her mind.

"On the red continent exists a king above kings. His existence perverting the truth of this world."

"A king above kings? What does that mean?" Robin was confused, the red continent was clearly addressing the red line yet she couldn't deduce the second part.

"Travel the world and you shall find the answer to it." Despite being hidden by thick gray fog, Robin could make out a smile adorning the mysterious being's face.

Sensing the end of their meeting approaching, Robin bowed down, thanking the Fool for his help, who simply waved it off.

"If you ever find yourself in trouble, recite my name again. I might be able to send you assistance."

Robin nodded, the future didn't seem as bleak anymore. The bright red light enveloped the black haired woman sending her back into the physical realm leaving Dante behind, alone on his throne.

"I'll need to change my plans a bit... If an apocalypse is truly coming, I'll need to gather strong people. And I'll need the Seraphim!

A strong body to be used as the base for it, huh... If I can't find a volunteer then a prisoner will have to do..."

Dante's mind strengthened his link with the vice admiral puppet outside of Sefirah Castle. The puppet vanished into thin air reappearing on a large moving island. It floated around the Bermuda Triangle, trapping incoming ships in its mouth.

He entered through the front door but despite that, nobody seemed to acknowledge him. He strolled past the guards, who didn't react the slightest.

He continued until he reached a certain samurai corpse lying lifelessly on an operation table. Beside it lay a black blade famous in all of the Grand Line.

"The black blade, Shunsui. The legendary samurai Ryuma's trusty blade."

Dante stretched his hand toward the corpse and blade, a thick gray fog spread out enveloping both and swallowing it into Sefirah Castle. Then his hand disappeared as if it entered a different world.

Dante grabbed a historical projection of both Ryuma's body and blade and placed them where the original had been before.

"They should last for roughly 15 years, I'm not too sure when Luffy will arrive here but it should be enough."

For a moment, he thought about sinking the disgusting island and its owner but he decided against it. There were already too many deviations, he at least wished to keep the straw hats intact. Not because he needed their strength but because Luffy was needed to unlock the secrets of Laugh Tale.