Loran came to a stop before a tunnel far wider than any they had passed before. The lantern in his hand swayed gently, casting flickering shadows across the stone walls covered in ancient carvings.
Loran: "The Kingdom of Ferro did not fall because of war." Everyone immediately turned toward him.
Robin: "Not because of war?"
Loran: "In the end, dozens of kingdoms formed an alliance. They didn't come to trade... They came to seize the Metal-Metal Fruit." Loran lowered his head. His eyes drifted into the darkness ahead, as though he were gazing upon a past he had only ever known through the stories of his ancestors.
Loran: "The war lasted for months. Mountains once filled with thriving mines became battlefields. The finest steel ever forged by the Kingdom of Ferro... was turned against the very blacksmiths who had created it." Loran slowly clenched his fist.
Loran: "Our king made the decision to eat the Metal-Metal Fruit. In the end... he drove every invader away. Not a single kingdom escaped his wrath." His voice grew quieter and without realizing it, tears slowly began rolling down Loran's cheeks.
Loran: "But that victory came at an unbearable cost. The king was mortally wounded. Before the war had even ended, most of the people had already fled, the mines collapsed, and the kingdom that had stood for centuries... finally lost its reason to endure."
Baby-5: "Then... what happened to the Devil Fruit?"
Loran: "Before drawing his last breath... he ordered that if the Metal-Metal Fruit ever returned to the royal family, it was to be hidden somewhere that even his own descendants would never know." Loran let out a long breath.
Loran: "His final words were...Let the fruit choose its own king." He smiled faintly.
Arthur: "A good decision... but not the best one." Arthur merely smiled faintly and silently engraved those words into his memory.
They resumed walking through a tunnel that grew narrower and increasingly difficult to traverse. Several minutes later... The cramped passage suddenly came to an end. Standing before them was a gigantic steel door nearly fifteen meters tall. Loran stopped in front of the enormous gate. Its surface was covered with interlocking gears, mining rails, and the same hammer-and-crown emblem they had seen carved throughout the ancient kingdom.
Loran: "Beyond this door... lies the Kingdom of Ferro's final treasure." Loran exhaled softly.
Arthur: "This isn't an ordinary lock." Arthur examined the ancient inscriptions engraved across the center of the gate.
Robin: "It says...Metal shall submit only to those who are not enslaved by it." Robin gently brushed her fingers across the carvings.
Arthur quietly studied the entire mechanism before the gate. Dozens of gears were connected by mining rails extending in every direction. He crouched down and placed a hand on one of the rails that had somehow remained intact. A faint gleam appeared in his eyes.
Arthur: "This isn't a door meant to be broken. It's a machine." He slowly stood.
Loran: "No one has managed to open it since the kingdom fell." Loran nodded.
Arthur began examining each gear one by one. Some still moved freely. Others had been frozen in place by centuries of dust and rust. He slowly rotated one gear.
CLACK...
The rail beneath their feet shifted slightly. Arthur immediately turned another gear.
CLANG...
The sound of steel echoed throughout the tunnel.
Robin: "Arthur... the sequence follows the stages of steel forging." Robin's eyes suddenly lit up. She had noticed the pattern hidden among the carvings.
Arthur nodded slightly. One after another, the gears began rotating in the proper order.
The ancient mechanism, dormant for more than a century, finally came back to life.
GRRRRRRRR...
The massive steel gate slowly opened. A wave of warm air drifted out from within. Everyone fell silent. The chamber beyond was filled with mountains of gold, jeweled chests, ancient weapons, magnificent suits of armor, and countless rare metals that still shimmered despite having been buried for decades.
Baby-5: "This kingdom was unbelievably wealthy..." Baby-5 unconsciously let out a whistle.
Loran: "Everyone who ever made it this far...always stopped here." Loran smiled bitterly.
Yet Arthur never even glanced at the treasure. His gaze immediately settled upon a lonely corner of the chamber. There rested nothing more than a plain old wooden chest. Arthur walked straight past the mountains of gold. Robin smiled quietly. Hancock immediately understood. For Arthur... Gold had never been the destination. Arthur stopped before the weathered chest. A thick layer of dust covered its surface. He slowly lifted the lid.
CREAAAK...
The instant Arthur touched the chest... A loud click echoed beneath it. At the same moment, every passage leading toward the piles of treasure suddenly released clouds of deadly poisonous gas. Massive steel barriers slammed shut, sealing the treasure chamber completely and trapping anyone foolish enough to chase after the gold.
Robin: "A trap..." Robin immediately understood.
Loran: "Those who choose gold... will die with it." Loran smiled bitterly.
The poisonous mist spread only throughout the treasure chamber. The narrow path leading to the old wooden chest remained completely untouched.
Arthur: "King Ferro was far wiser than I expected." Arthur smiled faintly.
Inside the weathered chest... There was only a single Devil Fruit. Its elegant spiral patterns were silver-gray, resembling overlapping plates of polished metal. The moment Arthur laid eyes upon it... The small compass in his hand suddenly stopped spinning. Its needle pointed directly at the fruit.
Arthur: "Finally..." Arthur smiled faintly.
Loran: "After all these years... our kingdom has finally found its rightful heir." Loran stared at the fruit for a long moment.
Robin: "Those who seek gold shall inherit only wealth. Those who seek strength to protect... shall inherit steel." her gaze toward the final inscription carved beneath the chest. She slowly read the ancient words aloud.
Silence filled the chamber once again. Arthur carefully lifted the Metal-Metal Fruit with both hands. At that exact moment... Every gear throughout the chamber gradually came to a halt. The entire mine trembled gently. Dust that had clung to the ceiling for centuries slowly drifted downward. Not because the ruins were collapsing... But because it felt as though the ancient mechanism itself was breathing its final breath. The ancient kingdom had finally fulfilled its last duty.
Loran: "At last...the Kingdom of Ferro no longer has to wait." Loran slowly closed his eyes. A faint smile finally appeared on the old miner's face.