The sun began to set over Alubarna.
Smoke no longer rose from the palace. The cries of war had faded into stillness. Rebels and royal guards stood together in quiet disbelief as Crocodile's unconscious body was dragged down the broken steps.
Luffy stood beside Vivi, arms wide.
"WE DID IT!!"
Usopp jumped and waved a flag made from someone's cape. "Rex BLEW HIM UP!! TWICE!! WITH LIKE... LASERS!!"
Sanji leaned on his knee, panting. "He moved faster than light…"
Zoro watched Rex from a distance. "No. He moved like someone who already knew the ending."
At the Heart of the Ruins
Rex stood atop the shattered stone platform where Crocodile once ruled. He didn't move, didn't speak.
His hand rested on the hilt of the sword he had summoned.
Tensa form.
It was still humming — a vibration felt more in the air than the ears, like the world itself acknowledged its return.
Then it faded.
The blade vanished into light.
He looked up, toward the palace's old observatory — cracked and untouched for decades.
[…Magnetic trace of Poneglyph registered. Confirmed beneath northern vault. Entry sealed. Hidden mechanism: unknown. Probability of false floor access: 78%.]
Rex turned to Nami.
"I need one hour."
She blinked. "What?"
"I think there's something hidden beneath the palace."
Alubarna Vault – 40 Minutes Later
With the help of Cobra, Vivi's father, and the Straw Hats clearing debris, Rex found the narrow passage beneath the ruins of the palace's observatory — a sealed vault with a spiral stone floor.
Luffy squatted beside the lock. "Can I punch it?"
"No."
Rex knelt.
Placed his palm on the floor.
And twisted.
Click.
The stone shifted.
A hidden staircase spiraled downward, deeper than any had seen.
Even King Cobra stepped back, stunned. "That was never in the blueprints…"
The Hidden Chamber – The Poneglyph
The chamber was silent.
Smooth.
Untouched by time.
And at its center…
A Poneglyph.
The surface glowed faintly in the torchlight — indigo-black, carved with inscriptions in the Ancient Language.
But these weren't just names of weapons or cities.
These were instructions.
Rex stepped forward slowly.
Even Nico Robin — who had finally arrived, hiding in the shadows, unseen — paused in shock as she watched from above.
"…What is this?" she whispered.
The symbols weren't just history.
They were technique.
Forms. Motions. Spirals. Patterns.
Martial forms carved into the stone with precision beyond anything modern.
Rex raised a hand and traced his finger across one of the glyphs — a spiral wrapped in an open palm.
Rasengan.
Another.
A line through energy.
Chidori.
Another.
A wide circle enclosing a five-pointed pulse.
Kamehameha.
Nico Robin stepped into the torchlight finally, eyes wide.
"I've never seen this before," she said. "This isn't... history."
"No," Rex said quietly. "It's a warning."
She read aloud:
"To those who find this stone… know this:
The power you seek was not meant for kings.
It was forged for balance —
By those who walked without Devil Fruits,
Who shaped the wind with will,
And shattered tyrants with light."
"The Michaelers did not fall.
They vanished."
"Their legacy is not an army...
It is a choice.
If you awaken their path—
You walk alone."
Rex stared at the final glyph.
A circle with a tear through the center.
He didn't know why…
But it felt like a key.
A piece of something bigger.
Something that didn't just belong to him.
Something that belonged to the world.
Back in the Palace Courtyard
News spread fast.
Crocodile had fallen.
The rebellion had ceased.
But the name whispered through the streets wasn't just Straw Hat Luffy…
It was the Man Who Used the Techniques of Stone.
"The boy who moved faster than sand."
"The warrior who summoned light from his hands."
"The one written in the wall — the last of the Michaelers."
Elsewhere – On a Remote Island
A tall, cloaked figure stood before a cracked Poneglyph of their own.
They watched as an old Den Den Mushi projected a grainy image — the final moments of Rex's battle in Alubarna.
The light.
The energy.
The voice.
"…He's awakened it."
Another figure stepped forward, eyes sharp.
"Then the race to the One Piece just changed."
"Because the Michael Techniques… were never just a power."
"They're the map."