Mouad_ML

Five years before Monkey D. Luffy sets sail to become the King of the Pirates, another name stirs the seas with fear and ambition.

Born on the brutal Noctis Island, Raizen D. Crow witnessed firsthand the cruelty of a lawless world. While others dreamed of freedom, Raizen dreamed of domination. Armed with the forbidden Kuro Kuro no Mi — granting him the power to control living darkness — he vowed to unite the seas under a single iron rule.

Gathering a fleet of the most dangerous outcasts, assassins, and fallen marines, Raizen wages a silent war against the corrupt forces of the world. His mission is clear: seize the ancient weapons, crush the chaotic pirate era, and forge an empire where peace is enforced by absolute power.

As he clashes with rising heroes, secret government agents, and even future legends like a young Crocodile, Raizen’s ambition casts a long shadow across the seas — one that even the World Government cannot ignore.

But far away, a boy with a straw hat is preparing to set sail… and the age of dreams is about to challenge the age of control.

Before the dawn of a new era... there was a storm.

One Piece: Shadows Before Dawn

The stars began to flicker — not from distance, but from fear.

Far beyond the boundaries of maps, beyond the reach of time and tide, a pulse stirred in the heart of the Void. It was not light. It was not darkness. It was the Endbringer — the last god, the silence that follows creation.

And now, it had begun to wake.

A pressure in his bones. A shiver in his memories. Dreams that unraveled the moment he woke. The further his crew sailed into the Void, the more reality frayed: colors blurred, gravity shifted, and even time itself began to bleed backward.

"We are trespassing in the graveyard of beginnings," Solas whispered."And the grave is stirring."

In the obsidian skies above the Silent Reef, they saw the first sign: a tear in the fabric of the world, pulsing like a wound. Through it, echoes emerged — twisted imitations of people Raizen had lost. Loved ones. Enemies. Even himself.

These phantoms carried no flesh, only memory. They spoke in voices that weren't quite right.

"You failed them," one said, wearing the face of a fallen friend."You'll fail everyone else."

To fight them was to fight doubt itself.

As the crew navigated the Oblivion Sea, the echoes grew stronger. They whispered truths and lies, feeding on emotion. Some crew members broke. Others vanished. Even Raizen began to question whether any of this was real — or if he had already been consumed.

But then they reached the Threshold: a spiraling chasm of cosmic light, locked at the edge of all things. There, they saw it — not a creature, but a presence.

The Endbringer was formless.

A pressure.A hum.A truth that rejected existence itself.

It spoke not in words, but in thoughts Raizen had never had — as if it had always known him.

"Creation is a mistake," the Void said."The Crown is a wound. You are the infection."

The artifact pulsed violently, lashing out, wrapping Raizen in visions of what could be — worlds that never were, futures never born, a universe where peace had a price: everything else.

Raizen collapsed, bleeding not blood, but memories. The Crown had shown him its final truth:

The Endbringer was not destruction.It was mercy.

It offered him peace — oblivion, without war, without pain, without choice.

But as the echoes screamed and the Void trembled, he remembered: pain is proof of meaning. Struggle is the price of freedom. And so he rose, his eyes burning with defiance, and whispered:

"If you are the end, then let me be the last voice that denies you."

And for the first time in countless ages… it noticed him.

Chapter 8: Echoes of the Void