...
Due to Uta's complete loss of control, the entire dream world began to shake violently.
Terrifying purple cracks appeared in the sky, and the ground flickered in and out of existence, as if it could shatter into fragments at any moment.
If CP0 agent Blueno hadn't promptly activated his Doa Doa no Mi ability to open escape passages in the collapsing areas, they would likely have been buried here.
"Hurry!" Blueno's voice carried rare urgency.
Luffy reunited with the Straw Hat crew amid the chaos.
Robin quickly shared the key information obtained from the stone guardians:
"Tot Musica is not only the legendary Music Demon King; it is more accurately a dual existence that can simultaneously inhabit both the 'conscious world' and the 'real world.'
Once fully awakened, it will become the anchor connecting the two worlds, permanently solidifying the dream world Uta created."
She paused and looked at everyone: "But there is also a way to break it—as long as attacks are launched simultaneously against Tot Musica's main body from both the dream world and the real world, severing its energy connection, the passage between the two worlds will close, and everyone will awaken."
"The problem is—who's in the real world?" Sanji lit a cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and said calmly: "Are we supposed to rely on the Marines? They're barely managing themselves…"
"Shanks will come back to stop her…"
Gordon wheeled out from deeper shadows in his wheelchair.
The haggard man lifted his head, gazing at the turbulent sky, his voice hoarse: "There is one person… who can truly stop Uta."
Hearing about Shanks, Luffy immediately became extremely interested. He looked curiously at Gordon—he had already sensed something off from the earlier conversations…
Gordon remained silent for a very long time—so long that everyone thought he wouldn't answer—before slowly uttering the name: "It's him… one of the Four Emperors, Red-Haired Shanks."
"What do you know?"
Robin keenly detected the deeper meaning in Gordon's words: "About the truth of Elegia?"
Gordon closed his eyes and shook his head, saying no more.
Luffy watched Gordon's hesitant expression and irritably scratched his head. He hated this kind of "you know but won't say" situation the most.
"Fine!"
Luffy took a deep breath, then suddenly turned, stretching his rubber arm to grab a distant building: "I'll go ask Uta myself!"
"Wait, Luffy!" Nami tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
Luffy shot forward like a cannonball toward the stage.
The Straw Hat crew exchanged helpless glances, then followed without hesitation. That was their captain—once he decided something, not even ten Sea Kings could pull him back.
At this moment, the stage area had become a bizarre ocean of multicolored lights.
Purple musical notes flowed across the ground, and countless people turned into toys floated in the sky.
Uta stood at the center, like the solitary queen of this sea of madness.
Seeing Luffy charging toward her, there was no surprise on her face—only a complicated smile.
"You're here? Sore-loser little brat~"
Uta forced a smile, then snapped her fingers. Countless musical note soldiers surged out, weapons in hand, rushing toward Luffy.
"Gomu Gomu no… Gatling!"
Luffy's fists turned into afterimages, each strike whistling through the air. The musical note soldiers shattered one after another under the storm of punches, dissolving into light particles.
He broke through the obstacles and arrived in front of Uta, his attack raised high…
But in the end, it stopped in midair.
Uta quietly looked at him—no defense, no evasion, not even summoning more guards.
Because she knew Luffy would not strike her.
This was her last trust in her childhood playmate…
"You're wrong, Uta!"
Luffy's voice trembled as he slowly lowered his fist: "This isn't a new era! This is a prison!"
"Then what is a new era?"
Uta countered, her eyes full of stubbornness: "Let pirates keep burning, killing, and plundering? Let Celestial Dragons keep trampling lives? Let more places like Elegia turn into ruins?"
"But you can't lock everyone up!" Luffy roared: "Everyone has their own dreams! Their own freedom!"
"Freedom to struggle in pain?"
Uta laughed—a very desolate laugh: "Luffy, you're too naive. You don't know how cruel this world really is…"
Outside the light curtain, the observers in God Valley fell into their own thoughts.
Some Marines from poor backgrounds who had endured war whispered among themselves: "Actually… a world like that wouldn't be bad, right? No wars, no hunger, just happiness every day…"
"Yeah, reality is too bitter… If we could really live in 'paradise'…"
But such voices were quickly drowned out by louder refutations.
"Nonsense!"
A pirate raised his pistol and shouted: "Without freedom, what's the difference between living and being dead?
I'd rather be torn apart by storms on the sea than be a caged canary!"
"Dreams! Adventure! Freedom! That's what it means to be alive!"
The pirates' roars echoed through the valley.
To them, Uta's "new era" was not salvation—it was the most vicious curse.
On the stage, Uta waved her hand to summon even more musical note soldiers.
This time, they did not attack. Instead, they hoisted Luffy up, arms spread in an X shape, fixing him in midair.
The scene bore a startling resemblance to Roger's execution pose in Loguetown twenty-two years earlier.
"Roger opened the Great Pirate Era."
Uta's voice was ice-cold as she looked expressionlessly at Luffy: "And today, I will execute you, Luffy, to end this era."
As soon as her words fell, the light curtain scene suddenly switched…
Fragments of memory surged like a tide. Uta told Luffy what she had experienced.
Twelve years ago, Elegia was still a prosperous kingdom filled with song.
Young Uta hugged her toy bear, happily running around on the Red Hair Pirates' ship.
Shanks patted her head, Beckman taught her to read, Lucky Roux always secretly gave her meat…
It was the happiest time of her life.
But she didn't know why she fell asleep. When she woke again, Uta heard explosions.
She saw flames reaching the sky…
She heard the familiar mad laughter of the Red Hair Pirates—and the screams of Elegia's people.
The entire nation turned to ruins in the sea of fire.
Then the Red Hair Pirates turned and left, carrying vast amounts of treasure…
Leaving her alone in the burning ruins.
The memory ended.
Uta looked at Luffy suspended in the air, her eyes filled with twelve years of accumulated resentment: "I treated them like family, treated Shanks like a father…
But in the end, they just used me, then threw me away like garbage in the ruins."
"Twelve years of abandonment, Luffy… my heart froze and shattered long ago."
Hearing this story, Luffy was completely stunned.
He refused to believe that the man who, in Windmill Village, had lost his arm to the Lord of the Coast to save him, who had gambled his arm on the new era for his dream—Red-Haired Shanks—would do such a thing.
"Impossible…"
Luffy gritted his teeth, still defending Shanks' image even now.
"How long are you going to keep deceiving yourself?!"
Uta's expression twisted as she looked at Luffy still protecting Shanks: "I saw it with my own eyes! Heard it with my own ears! The entire Elegia can bear witness!"
"There must be some reason!"
Luffy roared. "Shanks definitely had his reasons! And…"
He stared straight into Uta's eyes, word by word:
"I believe he will come to stop you. Because you're his daughter! He would never watch you walk toward destruction!"
"Enough!"
Uta completely lost control. A small knife formed from musical notes appeared in her hand: "Since you're so stubborn… then end together with this era!"
After saying that, Uta returned to the real world. At this moment, she sat in front of the sleeping Luffy, holding a small knife.
Looking at the sleeping Luffy, Uta shakily raised the knife toward his heart. Just as the blade was about to touch Luffy's chest—
A broad, warm hand firmly grasped Uta's wrist.
Time seemed to freeze.
Uta trembled all over and slowly raised her head.
In her purple eyes reflected the figure she had resented for twelve years, longed for for twelve years, dreamed of and woken from in countless nights…
Red short hair, three claw scars, the missing left arm, the black cloak draped over his shoulders, and those eyes now filled with sorrow and guilt.
One of the Four Emperors—Red-Haired Shanks.
He had truly arrived.
"He's here…"
Whitebeard gripped Murakumogiri tightly, the corner of his crescent mustache twitching into a slight smile.
Even through the light curtain, he could feel the heavy, suffocating aura emanating from that man.
Kaido, somehow having found a sake bottle, took a big swig, his eyes sharp: "This Red-Hair finally showed up."
Once this man appeared, the situation would completely change.
Golden Lion Shiki narrowed his eyes, his expression complex beneath his golden mane: "Roger, this future apprentice of yours… really grew into an incredible figure."
In the Marines' camp, Garp stopped picking his nose.
Sengoku pushed up his glasses, his face extremely grave: "Red-Haired Shanks… which side is he on?"
Vice Admiral Tsuru said heavily: "No matter which side he stands on, his arrival means this war is about to escalate."
And Roger, holding little Shanks, looked at the one-armed man on the light curtain who had grown into an Emperor. His eyes were full of emotion and gratification: "I don't know why, but…"
"I also believe Shanks wouldn't do it!"
...