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Chapter 10 - Chapter 10: Echoes of the Void

> West Blue – The Forgotten Island of Thryssa

No longer on maps. Scrubbed from history. Surrounded by a natural fog that scrambles log poses and turns compasses in circles.

Once called Archivus, the island was said to be the original home of pre-World Government scholars — those who studied the True History before Ohara… and vanished.

But Rael had found it.

The Obsidian Ark hovered above the fog as Rael floated downward, wrapped in gravity-null space.

Only Lysara and Shien accompanied him.

Vale stayed behind — too much information risked echoing back to Cipher Pol.

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🧭 Why Rael Came Here

According to coded etchings beneath Skypiea, Thryssa housed a vault built by an ancient civilization, said to be the first to study space-time phenomena.

Before the Poneglyphs.

Before the Void Century ended.

Rael wasn't here to destroy.

He was here to remember.

> "To rule the world, I must understand what it forgot," he whispered.

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🏛️ The Vault of Silence

Hidden beneath overgrown ruins, they found a chamber buried under petrified stone. Doors sealed with a lock requiring not key… but gravity calibration.

Rael reached out, adjusted the field of weight in the surrounding rock — and the door melted open, revealing a pitch-black tunnel.

At the center: an altar.

On it — not a fruit, not a weapon — but a black cube, humming softly.

Covered in ancient symbols. Neither Poneglyph… nor technology.

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🤖 The Voice from the Cube

When Rael approached, the cube glowed.

And then… it spoke.

> "Trinity Signature confirmed. Temporal density… unstable. Soul cluster identified. Inquiry accepted."

> "Hello… Rael D. Lior."

Lysara stepped back. "That thing knows your name?"

Rael didn't blink.

> "Let it speak."

The cube identified itself:

> "Designation: PROTOCOL-0."

"Function: Preservation and Judgment of World-State Integrity."

"Origin: Before the World Government. Before the Fall."

Protocol-0 was an ancient world-monitoring AI — created by the kingdom erased in the Void Century.

It was designed to evaluate when the world became corrupted enough to justify reset.

> "You are the first in 900 years to reach this vault," it said.

"Your convergence of three Devil Fruit signatures… marks the world as unstable."

> "The algorithm identifies you as an anomaly."

Rael asked one question:

> "Was the Void Century a war… or a cleansing?"

The cube paused.

> "...Yes."

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> "You are authorized to carry the Protocol Flame.

An override. A system key. You may now access the Final Archive."

From the cube emerged a ring of white fire, orbiting Rael's body. Not burning — humming. Stabilizing space around him.

It granted pre-Void access to weapons, records, vaults… and truths hidden even from Imu.

But as it bonded to him…

The cube issued a final warning:

> "You are no longer unseen.

Now that you possess me…

He will come."

Rael clenched his fist.

> "Let him."

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🐉 Meanwhile: Mary Geoise – Inside the Throne Room

Imu stood before a mirror embedded with star-metal.

It flickered.

For the first time in a millennium… the Protocol Flame had lit.

> "He found it," Imu whispered.

The Five Elders paled.

> "He's going for the Final Archive…

> "Then we must prepare Seraphim Omega.

No more agents. No more kings."

> "The Trinity Soul must die. Even if the world dies with him."

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