Five hours ago;
"Ten Years of your life!"
"From the life that you would otherwise have lived from this day forth. I will take ten years and use it here, Straw Hat Boy."
Luffy looked at Ivankov and slowly closed his eyes.
"Alright!"
"However, even with those ten years subtracted from your life, I cannot see that you will be saved. All that this will do is boost your chances of survival from zero percent to twenty percent."
"Most of that possibility comes from your strength, but even so, it is not enough. From there on out, whether you ultimately live or die depends upon your own Willpower."
"If you die, that means the poison prevailed. If you live, then it is you who prevailed."
"I won't die."
Luffy gritted his teeth and continued.
"I will see you soon, Iva!"
Hearing that, Ivankov was surprised but shook his head and said.
"Well, then enjoy your trip!"
[Emporio: Healing Hormones!]
At this moment, Luffy felt a strong vitality flowing through his body. This vitality came from his lifespan.
It was something that released a massive life force into his body, accelerating his healing power, and he started recovering his body.
'If I want to recover quickly, I need to activate the power of my fruit.'
He opened his red eyes and stuttered.
"I…Iv…Iva… don't let anyone know this!"
As soon as he finished saying that, a strong heartbeat appeared on his body. This strong heartbeat gave Ivankov a flashback.
The time when his best friend used to dance, making similar noise.
Dakh! Dong!! Dong! Dong! Dakh!
Those beats! Those drums of music!
They were heavenly! Ivankov was captivated. Her eyes widened when she saw Luffy's change.
His hair started turning white like flames, his clothes turned white, and a strange cloud appeared around his body.
'Awakening! He is the user of Mythical Zoan Fruit.'
'Wait a minute! Myth! That's it! The mythical figure that Kuma used to pray to. The myth figure that many slaves used to pray to.'
'Nika! The Sun God! This boy ate the fruit of the Sun God. A Mythical Zoan!'
Ivankov immediately realized just how terrifying this news was.
Because the Sun God could be said to be the most powerful enemy of the World Government.
He was truly the nemesis of suppression.
But he was just a mythical figure. An old legend! Until today!
'This boy… He trusts me so much that he is willing to show me such a secret. And from what he said before, he knows this should be kept a secret.'
'No, I need to leave and lock this room.'
"Argh! Ahahhhhhh!"
Luffy couldn't stop screaming after that dosage of vitality. He wasn't just healing his body.
He was improving it. By using the vitality to enhance his strength, he was trying to get beyond what he could do now.
Five Hours Later;
"He's been screaming like this for five whole hours? Straw Cha!"
Bon Clay clutched his head and asked.
"Willpower and Hormones, these two elements allow a human body to manifest its vital force."
"In other words, all that I have done is draw out the latent power of the Straw Hat boy's own immune system. Bolstering it to a level where it is capable of fighting against invading poison."
'Unfortunately, that's all I can say to you. This is a lie. He is using that vital to enhance his strength while using the innate recovery of Zoan fruits to heal his body.'
'That's why it's taking so long and so painful!'
Ivankov kept those words in his heart and continued.
"Right now, cycles of destruction and regeneration are taking place at incredible rates throughout his body. Only if he can endure this suffering, will his life be saved!!!"
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Suddenly, he came in front of Bon Clay and stopped him from looking through a small gap.
"You can't watch. This is a doctor's responsibility. As long as he is in there, I can't let you interfere. But, I can assure you of something."
"Do not take the power of life so lightly! Do you have any idea what it means to recover a life from certain doom? I am no good, no Buddha! Miracle Worker?"
"You people call me this, but not once have I saved the life of a fool who relies only upon the help of others. He doesn't need my help. I've given him what he needs."
"Miracles can only descend upon those with the Will to carry on! Do not take them so lightly!"
Hearing his words, Bon Clay nodded. He looked at Galdino and Buggy, who also nodded together.
"My abilities come from the Horu Hour No Mi. I am a hormone-creating being. Gender, body, temperature, pigmentation, growth, emotional state… I am an engineer of the human body with the power to remodel people."
Ivankov sat down on a chair and started drinking from a large wine jug.
"Unlike your two friends, you strike me as a natural Newkama to begin with. But all my candies, the people you see here around you, have truly transcended gender."
"Those whom you see as men may originally have been women. Those whom you see as women may once have been men… Yes! Nufufufu! Truly, this is a land of miracles!"
"Whoo ooooo!"
Those behind her made a pose and shouted together.
"I see… So, it was your hormones that turned man into woman…! But this sounds more like a dream to me."
At this moment, Ivankov slapped him on the face and said.
"This is no dream.. This is a Land of Dreams."
"You see my candies over there? Once, they were all wandering prisoners. They found their way to this place purely by chance."
"For it has many entrances. From the field of needles, coated in blood, to the lair of wild beasts. From the roaring inferno to the resting place of the dead."
"In other words, we can use these connections to procure supplies all through the jail. And, the jailers never realize a thing! How could they begin to guess that a paradise like this exists in the Bowl of Hell?"
"We, on the other hand, can monitor the going on outside as we wish. We have one of the same monitor den-den mushi that they use in their monitor rooms down here as well."
"So, all the information from outside gets passed straight through to us down here. We steal newspapers from trash-cans so we know all about the outside world as well."
"And, as for your escapade with the jail's first-ever intruder, the Straw Hat Boy. You can be sure we enjoyed every minute of it. It was a top-class entertainment."
Hearing this, Bon Clay asked.
"But where are you hiding in a place like this? How do you have all this space?"
"Yeah, we want to know too." Buggy and Galdino nodded together.
"Well, of course, this place never existed to begin with. A long time ago, there was a prisoner with a Devil Fruit which gave him the power of tunneling."
"It is said that he was the original founder of this prisoner's paradise. Like a great big ant's nest in a gigantic piece of rock. This place exists in the space between Level Five and Level Six. Smack Bang In Between!"
"Level Six! That's the floor where we need to go."
Bon Clay shouted.
"Yeah, if we want to save Ace, we need to go there as soon as possible. But without Luffy, we can't go out."
Galdino nodded.
"So, you know about Level 6, huh?" Ivankov nodded.
"Well, we don't know much. Straw Hat told us that his brother is being kept there. He doesn't know the way inside the prison, but for someone who doesn't know it properly, he knows your existence and Level 6."
"It is quite confusing, isn't it?" Buggy asked while looking at Galdino.
Ivankov thought.
'He knows about me and Level 6. He couldn't be from Revolutionary, right? Monkey D Luffy. Monkey D Luffy. Monkey D Dragon!'
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
But before he could think, Bon Clay asked.
"But can you tell us more about this floor? We know nothing about it."
Hearing that, Ivankov was disturbed. She desperately wanted to know their connections.
But she didn't say much. She had been partnered with Dragon for a long time, but even she didn't know that he had a son.
'It seems like I can only ask him about it later.'
Ivankov thought for a moment and spoke.
"So, you want to know about Level 6, huh? That's right, you want to go there. So, naturally, you are curious about it."
"Level 6 is a place where dangerous prisoners are kept. Every one of them is either a death sentence or a life sentence! Level six, the Eternal Hell."
"Those prisoners have caused truly inhuman incidents that the government has seen fit to cover up completely!"