What Is the Abyss Mark? Three Stages & Imu’s Contract
One Piece is getting interesting as they are progressing in the story now. Oda has introduced us to a new power system besides Haki and Devil Fruits, which is the Abyss Mark, or more precisely, Imu’s devil contract tied with the Five Elders and the God Knights. Finally, Oda has started to show Imu’s powers to us in recent chapters (Elbaph arc), and one of them is the Abyss Mark.
It comes with a question: how does the Abyss Mark work? What is the Abyss Mark? And that’s what we are explaining.
What is Imu’s devil contract or Abyss Mark?
So Imu shares their power or grants power by making a contract with a person, and an Abyss Mark appears on the person’s hand, indicating the person has made a contract. This Abyss Mark becomes the source of power. But the Abyss Mark has three stages, which are: the Shallows Covenant, the Depths Covenant, and the Abyssal Covenant. And in each stage, the person gains new powers and becomes stronger. A spoiler of this article is that they achieve immortality. Can you guess the scale of the Abyss Contract powers??? But at what cost? The answer somewhat lies in the phrase “selling the soul to the devil.”
The names of the contracts represent the depth of the sea, a small hint that Imu is a sea devil? Or does it indicate something else? What is Oda cooking this time, or will we know in the future?
Three Different Stages of Covenant in One Piece
The Shallows Covenant
The Shallows Covenant is the first stage of Imu’s contract. As stated, it represents just a trace of the bond between Imu, and it is given to low-tier members of the God Knights, called “A Devoted Blade of God.” Like Gunko started with a Shallows Covenant, as seen in the God Valley incident, and King Harald and Shanks also first became part of a Shallows Covenant.
Since it’s a beginner contract, Imu’s powers are minimal, and the person can travel through locations via the abyss with the help of the Abyss Mark placed on the hand of the person. It looks like the World Government symbol, and the main thing is that the person cannot directly defy orders if they are within the range of Imu, as stated by Shanks, and that is the reason he came to Elbaph to warn King Harald about the Abyss Mark powers.
The Depths Covenant
The Depths Covenant is the next stage of the contract, placed on the official members of the God Knights by Imu. It is revealed that there are 13 God Knights in service to Imu, and the strength of the God Knights is buffed. They can travel and access the abyss through abyss pentagrams, and mainly, they become immortal and gain the ability to heal their wounds. But it comes with a price of being completely under the control of Imu.
It’s far beyond simple manipulation, because Harald described that he was not being controlled forcefully; his thoughts were changing, and he wanted to fulfill Imu’s orders and become a different person, turning from a kind king into a living weapon.
The Abyssal Covenant
The Abyssal Covenant is the final abyss contract. In this contract, you fully submit to Imu, and it is highly possible that the Five Elders and some important members of the God Knights have the Abyssal Covenant.
The power of the Abyssal Covenant is similar to the Depths Covenant, but the person becomes a vessel for Imu to switch bodies and directly possess them, and Imu can physically appear with all his demonic powers. As seen in the manga, Imu has taken over Gunko’s body in Elbaf and took control of St. Saturn’s body during the God Valley incident.
Powers Obtained Through the Devil Contract with Imu
In the Egghead Island arc, we see the powers of the Five Elders, and currently in the Elbaf arc, we are seeing the God Knights and their powers. We know so far what powers are obtained by the Abyss Mark.
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Abyss Mark: Traveling between locations via dark magic pentagrams.
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Telepathy: The Five Elders communicated with each other telepathically, as seen in the Egghead arc.
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Regeneration: The ability to regenerate and heal all damage given by enemies as if nothing happened.
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Improved Strength: The Holy Knights’ strength is buffed once they accept a covenant.
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Immortality: The Five Elders have been existing for centuries, and the Holy Knights are immortal, as seen in the Elbaf arc. It is all due to the Abyss Contract.
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Submission of Will: In return for immortality and enhanced strength, the knights obey and follow Imu’s orders without any disagreement. The same is most likely the case for the Five Elders.
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Becoming a Vessel: Both St. Saturn and Gunko have become vessels for Imu to take control of.
Weakness of God Knights and the Abyssal Contract
The notable weakness of the Abyssal Contract and the God Knights is Supreme King Haki, also known as Conqueror’s Haki, as stated by Gaban and seen in recent chapters of the manga.
All the Characters Who Have the Abyss Mark in One Piece
We have seen plenty of characters with the Abyss Mark, so Senpai will list all of them shown so far in the series (will update in the future).
The Shallows Covenant
St. Figarland Shanks
The Depths Covenant
King Harald (Deceased)
St. Satchels Maffey
St. Rimoshifu Killingham
St. Figarland Shamrock
St. Shepherd Sommers
And the remaining God Knights most likely have the Depths Covenant, or else they may have the Abyssal Covenant.
The Abyssal Covenant
St. Saturn (Deceased)
St. Shepherd Ju Peter
St. Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro
St. Topman Warcury
St. Marcus Mars
St. Figarland Garling
St. Manmayer Gunko
conclusion
As the story progresses, we are getting to see the devilish powers of Imu, and each covenant stage represents a deal between Imu and the person, which can be described as follows:
The Shallows Covenant – The person sells a part of their body to Imu to gain power and strength.
The Depths Covenant – The person sells full control of their mind to Imu to gain more strength, along with immortality and the ability to teleport between places.
The Abyssal Covenant – The person sells their entire soul to become Imu’s vessel.
This theme of selling the soul or body to the devil makes the theory more believable that Imu is a sea devil.
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