The Serpent Of Hellfire, Explained

One Piece chapter 1138 dropped some absolutely incredible reveals one after the other, and fans were mesmerized by the mural Oda shows through the character of Franky, and am the reading of the Harley text through the character of Robin. The absolutely massive amount of lore drop from Oda in One Piece chapter 1138 was sensational and sparked many interesting theories already.

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Undoubtedly, one of the main talking points in One Piece right now is the Serpent of Hellfire, who appears in the Mural drawn by a Giant child long ago, and is spoken of in the Harley as well. The Serpent of Hellfire remains to be a very interesting point of discussion, given that it doesn’t seem to currently exist anywhere in the One Piece world, at least not on the surface level.

The First World And The Serpent Of Hellfire

• The First World Existed Long Before The Void Century
• The First World Appears To Be A Very Modern World

Depending on which translation of the Harkey text the fans read, the Serpent of Hellfire can mean different things. But, one thing that is quite clear is that this creature, or structure existed long ago before the Void Century. To figure out the identity and the purpose of the Serpent of Hellfire, fans need to first go through everything that happened in the First World. First things first, the fire was found on Earth. Of course, some might interpret it as literal fire, that is, the earth being covered in flames, but that is likely not the case here.

The statement refers to the eternal flame, Mother Flame, that Vegapunk ended up creating recently in One Piece. Vegapunk clearly started in Egghead that in the past, the Mother Flame was a massive part of the world that existed and that they even had their own sun, the powers of which puts to shame every single invention of his own. The Mother Flame itself is incomplete and Vegapunk has not been able to turn it to not the Sun that he desires, at least not yet.

Coming back to the First World, when this power was first created, mankind obviously wanted to use it for their own good. They touched the Mother Flame and attempted to destroy and conquer. This is what led to wars, and undoubtedly, slavery as well. Slaves were likely used to mine the Mother Flame and it is in these mines that they prayed for the Sun God. Eventually, the Sun God appeared, likely from the moon itself. But, soon after, the Earth God grew angry and with the Serpent of Hellfire, destroyed everything. This eventually caused the doom of the whole world. It is interesting to note that the translations vary for the Earth God and the Serpent of Hellfire.

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The first thing to note is that the Serpent of Hellfire is intrinsically linked to the Earth God. These two work simultaneously, no matter which translation one looks at. The Earth God could be a representation of the person who ruled the world, which would make sense because the arrival of Sun God Nika would’ve surely upset them. The Serpent of Hellfire could very well be a creation of theirs, or perhaps, an ancient deity that existed long ago. It all depends on the translation that one reads. Either the Earth God had a partner during their battle against the Sun God Nika, or it is possible that the Earth God themself was the Serpent of Hellfire, as is implied by the official Viz translation, which even Japanese fans seem to agree with.

The Identity Of The Serpent Of Hellfire

The Serpent Of Hellfire Could Be An Ancient Deity

The identity of the Serpent of Hellfire is a rather interesting issue at hand, because there are two ways Oda could’ve gone about their. Either the Serpent was a metaphorical one, meaning the serpent of hellfire might’ve actually not been a serpent, but actually, a creation using the Motherflame that ended up sinking the world, or, in other words, a weapon of mass destruction. This idea would make some sense, given that the world ended up getting destroyed, and Nika died as well, as did countless lives. This battle marked the end of humanity as we know it.

But there is another interpretation, which is more literal. The Serpent of Hellfire being a real serpent isn’t out of the question at all. After all, in the Skypeia arc, which is one that Elbaf lore heavily connects to, fans saw Nola, an absolutely massive serpent, called the Master of the Sky. Nola is over 200 years old and continues to grow still. The size of this creature is over 400 meters, which is far more than even the biggest of Ancient Giants. But, even more interesting is the fact that Nola’s grandparent, Kashigami, was even bigger. And surely enough, Kashigami was worshipped as a God in Skypiea by the Shadians, who, as is known already, are allies of the Ancient Kingdom and fought in the war against the 20 Kingdoms. If they worshipped the giant snake as a God 400 years ago, there must surely have been a reason for it. The reason could’ve been the existence of an even bigger snake, the Serpent of Hellfire, Jormungandr, which is taken straight from Norse mythology, and once again, connects directly to Elbaf.

If Kashigami was way bigger than Nola, and that was only 400 years ago, then during the Void Century, there must’ve been even bigger versions of the Kashigami. And long before that, which can be anywhere between hundreds to thousands of years, when the First World existed, there could easily have been an even larger snake, big enough to be called the Serpent of Hellfire. This Serpent of Hellfire could’ve fought alongside the Earth God. If the Serpent of Hellfire was truly colossal, then, its eventual death could’ve led to it enveloping the entire world, becoming what later came to be known as the Red Line. This fall of the Serpent of Hellfire could’ve resulted in the destruction of the giant landmass, akin to Pangea, and split it into multiple parts. More importantly, it would’ve created a giant snake passing through the earth, which over time, could’ve fossilized and become the Red Line as we know it today. The entirety of the ocean, or the All Blue, would’ve been destroyed there and then, and the world would’ve been divided into two parts at least.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1139, is set to be February 9, 2025.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)

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  Akemi Okamura

  Nami (voice)

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