Chapter 205: The Death of Roland, Card Virtue

In the sky behind Luffy, the time illusion created by Ubik continued to persist. Within the desert kingdom of Alabasta, a dying Roland was covered in blood. He looked on in despair as his teammates turned into Scarlet Drop Cards; the 【Hope Morning Star】 had fallen just like that. He watched the 【Egg of the Conqueror】 that had appeared in his hand out of nowhere, and due to the violent palpitations of his heart, the Egg of the Conqueror hatched rapidly.

Following that, the Youjie descended. Amidst immense sin, Roland became a God Hand, and Guts, who had rushed over in a hurry, watched this scene in despair.

Guts painfully lowered his 【Dragon Slayer】, his expression one of both weeping and laughing. It turned out he had never escaped the mockery of the 【God of the Abyss】. Following Gelifisi, yet another of his close friends had activated the 【Egg of the Conqueror】 as if by fate.

When that new Eclipse fell, Guts calmly accepted everything. He did not resist again. After leaving behind that pitch-black Dragon Slayer, Guts voluntarily jumped into the vortex of the Youjie and vanished.

Subsequently, 【God's Hand Roland】 eroded everyone on the Sky Island, until the Black King Luffy descended, killed everything, and ended this tragedy.

The real Roland should have died back then, but his obsession made him a target for the 【God of the Abyss】 to use—or rather, even Roland's obsession was within the 【Causality】.

Precisely because Roland was an extremely idealistic, purely good person who held the wish of wanting everyone to have a happy ending, he plunged headlong into the 【Berserk Derivative World】, wanting to give Guts a good ending, which was why he was targeted by the 【God of the Abyss】.

Because he leaned toward goodness, he was coveted by evil;

Because he hoped, he ultimately fell into despair.

The one who did not escape 【Causality】 was not Guts, but himself...

Roland revealed a smile of realization, but that smile was more painful than weeping.

Luffy watched this kind, good person reveal such an expression, the veins on his forehead bulging one by one. This damn space, those damn worlds, always made these good people bear the suffering, while those evil ones, even in death, had no regrets.

A strong aura of malice appeared on him. On 【Black King Luffy】, one could no longer see even a trace of his former innocent and pure appearance. The boy who had laughed loudly and wanted to become the freest person on the sea had died in countless worlds; what remained was only a King of Vengeance who wanted to destroy everything with violence.

More vicious than a Reincarnator, more brutal than a Reincarnator.

With a cold snort, Luffy turned his head, and amidst the swaying of his pitch-black long hair, Conqueror's Haki once again coiled around his body.

Roland watched Luffy, who was leaving him behind. He recalled again that on the Sky Island, after the other party killed him, he had also left with such resolution. Perhaps, in the heart of this former boy, after experiencing countless losses, every loss was another knife-slash across his heart.

And his own refusal to stay dead, his ugly desire to live, and his persistent wish to slash that blade at the 【God of the Abyss】, in a sense, was also repeatedly stabbing at the other party's heart.

He was forcing Luffy to kill his friend once again.

"Ha..."

Roland looked at his own pitch-black Spirit Body. The cloth covering his head was his hometown, the burial shroud that covers the body of the deceased before they pass. Looking down, his Spirit Body was already riddled with holes, eroded beyond recognition by the God Hand.

The 【God of the Abyss】 would not directly control him; It simply saw all his possibilities, so It knew what kind of choices he would make based on his personality. Therefore, the 【God of the Abyss】 only needed a little arrangement to make him achieve Its goal while he thought he was acting according to his own heart.

Roland looked at those Youjie demons and the already shattered Skuld Island, and he suddenly realized that he had once again caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Counting the nearly ten million people who disappeared in Alabasta, he was perhaps even more vicious and brutal than the Reincarnators who had once done those terrible things to Luffy.

Roland looked at his own hands, feeling only that they were already stained with blood.

He looked at Luffy, who was preparing to walk toward Bai Cangshu, and suddenly spoke.

"Luffy."

Luffy stopped his footsteps. This name already made him feel somewhat unfamiliar. He remembered that only these friends and those partners from his past memories would address him this way.

Others, the former Navy and Pirates, called him Straw Hat Boy, and the later Reincarnators all called him "that guy," "that one from the Black King Society"...

He turned his head. Through the Youjie entrance he had broken open, under the illumination of that pillar of light, Roland seemed to have returned to his former appearance—that golden-haired, simple, and idealistic look.

"Apologize to the Captain and the others for me."

"This time, I have caused trouble for everyone."

Luffy's pupils trembled, his heart feeling that surge of warmth for the first time in a long while.

Roland was streaming with tears. At this moment, there were no longer those feelings of regret or resentment in his Spirit Body.

"Joining 【Blue Sky】, along this journey, I... have no regrets."

Hum!

Roland's Spirit Body elongated. On the other side, a white light suddenly shone from within Bai Cangshu's body.

Luffy realized the situation; his right arm instinctively wanted to lift, but he forcibly suppressed it again.

【A partner's determination, even if it is death, should be allowed to be carried through.】

In Bai Cangshu's sea of consciousness, Gojo Satoru watched the incomplete Spirit Body that had suddenly burst into white light. In an instant, he formed a seal with his hands, preparing to launch a Domain Expansion, but that white Spirit Body was already illusory, and at this moment, having just bloomed with light, it turned into white mist and dissipated on the 【Heart Throne】.

Bai Cangshu was hacking and slashing with pleasure when he suddenly discovered his body starting to glow. A strong soul Wave appeared. Turning his head, he found that the half of Roland's Spirit Body eroded by the God Hand had lunged at him.

Bai Cangshu's right hand lifted instinctively.

Pfft!

There was no need to cast any ability; he himself already possessed the Tese to touch and attack Spirit Bodies. The lunging Spirit Body had no defense; it opened its arms and let Bai Cangshu's right hand pierce through its chest.

Bai Cangshu's pupils shrank as he saw Roland reveal a smile of relief.

And through Roland's transparent Spirit Body, in the distance, that Black King, with long hair dancing and pitch-black Conqueror's Haki constantly impacting the surroundings, had a sorrowful look in his eyes and slowly closed them.

"You..."

Roland looked at Bai Cangshu, who had the ugly appearance of an Avatar, but said nothing before dissipating with the wind.

【You have killed Special Reincarnator Roland.】

【Special Cooperative Mission: Hunluan Zhuyan has been completed. All Reincarnators are beginning mission settlement.】

【Settlement complete. Your completion rate for this cooperative mission is: S+.】

【You have obtained A-rank Singularity *1, 12000 Dimension Points.】

【You have killed a Transcendent Creature: God Hand (Secondary Demon).】

【Special Trial: Supernatural Path progress updated. You have broken through the Spirit Extreme Value and obtained the Transcendent Feature: Active Spirit.】

【Active Spirit: Your Spirit possesses powerful invasiveness and infectivity. You can use Spirit power to intervene in and control weak creatures, and upon direct spiritual contact, cause erosion and infection effects on others' spirits. This ability's effect is influenced by the gap in Spirit power between both parties.】

【You have unlocked a new performance: Spirit.】

【Performance: Constitution (Flame Dragon Scale) · 1.8】

【Performance: Spirit (Active Spirit) · 1.7】

(Note: Performance represents the conversion efficiency of physical abilities. Currently, your Spirit attribute's conversion efficiency in terms of corresponding Instant Death Resistance, Spirit power, and immunity abilities is 1.7 times the default value of the First Tier.)

A card emitting white light slowly condensed on Bai Cangshu's right hand. It was the last thing Roland left in this world; his Reincarnator body had long since died, and not even a Scarlet Drop Card had appeared.

【You have obtained a Special Item: Card Virtue.】

(End of chapter)