The Altar

"Can you something else?"

Roger and Rayleigh delved deeper into the cave.

Then they stopped at the wall where the corpse they saw earlier leaned against.

They could only see the corpse clearly once they were close enough. It was a man with green skin, big eyes, and a body around a teenager's size. When Roger saw him, he frowned.

"No, but I do know this person."

Roger looked at the corpse that was half leaning against the wall and said to Rayleigh,

"Oh? You know him" Rayleigh was surprised. It was their first time coming to Galzburg, but Roger actually knew someone here? It simply didn't make any sense

"Didn't I tell you about Zero when I was fighting against Kraken? Zero looks very similar to this person, but much younger than him." Roger said in a deep voice.

Zero!

Hearing this word, Rayleigh was shocked. The information they had was far less than that of the World Government, but they also knew that Zero was definitely no ordinary guy.

Through the brief encounter while fighting Kraken, Roger had already considered him a threat. Although he had cut Zero in half with a single slash, he did not think that was the extent of Zero's power.

After all, Zero was still talking to him with a smile even after he had cut him in half. How could there be such a strange person in this world who would not care about his death?

Therefore, he had always thought that it was just Zero's clone, and now he actually saw a creature similar to Zero here!

"Could it be that their lair is nearby? Is this darkness Zero's doing?" Rayleigh asked.

"Well, we will know once we see it." Roger looked into the depths of the darkness and strode forward.

Since he was curious, he would just find out what was going on!

That was Roger and his crews' way of life!

Rayleigh glanced at the corpse that was half leaning against the cave wall and did not say another word. He just quickly followed Roger's footsteps.

The pathway was getting darker and darker, but it was no longer damp. However, the passage was getting narrower and narrower, from a few meters wide to almost not enough for the two of them to walk side by side.

Rayleigh had no choice but to walk behind Roger. They did not find anything peculiar along the way. If there was one, it'd be the cave wall that was a little reddish in color, as if it was dyed with blood for so many years.

"Be careful!"

Just as the passage was getting smaller and darker, Roger suddenly warned Rayleigh.

The cave was originally silent. Even the sound of their footstep was like drowned by the silence. But after Roger's warning earlier, the entire cave was echoing with Roger's voice. Rayleigh listened to Roger's warning and was on guard.

What did Roger see?

Rayleigh noticed that Roger's hand was on Ace's hilt. Was he ready to fight?

However, when Roger took a step, Rayleigh noticed that he had already lost track of Roger. He hurriedly followed Roger, but in the blink of an eye, he found himself in a completely different place.

It turned out there was a hole in front of Roger earlier, and both Roger and Rayleigh fell into that hole, but the strange thing was that this place was like a completely different place from the cave they entered earlier.

The darkness separated this place from the cave, so once they stepped foot to this place, it was as if they disappeared in the dark.

And the most shocking thing happened. There were so many corpses inside the cave, most of which were human corpses, and some of them were similar to the green-skinned man earlier.

The pile of corpses formed a square that was squeezed in the ditch. In this square ditch, there was a tall altar. There were also strange but sacred statues around the walls.

All of the statues' eyes were focused at the altar in the middle. There was a huge disk on the altar.

However, the disk seemed dilapidated. The golden disk was covered with black stripes, and the decayed corpses around it made it even more unsightly.

"Is this... the place where the ancient ritual of this country is held?" Rayleigh frowned and looked at Roger.

"Look, isn't that a Jewel of Four Souls' Fragment?" Roger pointed at a certain direction.

Rayleigh looked over and saw that there was a small Jewel of Four Souls' Fragment attached to the huge golden disc. It seemed that the disc could retain its color because of that Jewel of Four Souls' Fragment.

"After Jewel of Four Souls broke, the fragments seemed to scatter to every corner of the world, and some of them seemed to be drawn to some special power."

"This place has something to do with Jewel of Four Souls, so it drew the Jewel of Four Souls' Fragment." Roger said with a faint understanding.

"Then it should be a rather ancient relic," Rayleigh said.

At least in the current known history, there was no real information about demons or Jewel of Four Souls. The earliest known history of this world could be traced back to five thousand years ago.

Even taking the Void Century into account, Roger did not think that these demons' history began in that period.

Could it be...

Could this be the relic from thousands of years ago?

However, there was no way it could still stand this strong after thousands of years?

"Isn't this the adventure we want?" Roger could not help but laugh, "The sea is so amazing, so we pursue freedom!"

"Come on, let us see what is in this altar!"

Roger continued walking. The ditch was very wide, and there was no bridge. Roger wanted to jump over, but just as he was about to, he could feel a pressure came from somewhere.

Roger stopped in place for a moment. Rayleigh looked at him and did not know what happened. He was about to jump, but Roger stopped him.

"It seems we have to step on the bones to go to the altar, as if telling us that only the person who can trample everything may step into this altar."

Roger's Voice of All Things gave him some enlightenment, so he stopped Rayleigh who was ready to jump.

"Let's go!"