30 Chapter 030 – Answers - Epilogue
[A/N: So it's finally here the ending, the reveal, the answers. Some of you may not like, and some of you may like it, but with this chapter Lupin's journey comes to an end. I had my difficulty ending this story, but now that it is finally finished, I am just glad that I did it anyway. So, I hope you all enjoy these last few lines of my story!]
Finding the island the Log Pose was pointing at and locating the last Road Poneglyph according to Shanks' words, took less then three days.
And as Lupin stood before the ancient obelisk, the words on it slowly unraveling themselves before his eyes, he finally understood how to find Laugh Tale in the vast ocean.
Using Lodestar Island as a fixed point on the map, the four Road Poneglyphes described how to naivgate the sea afterwards to reach Laugh Tale.
Crushing the now-useless Eternal Log Pose in his hand, Lupin directly set off towards Lodestar Island.
…
Massive Sea Kings, impossibly destructive storms and sky-high waves crashing down on the sea made the journey to Lodestar incredible ardous and dangerous for normal pirates, but Lupin didn't care.
Uncaring for whatever obstacle that was thrown his way, he crushed them all with overwhelming strength.
Walking over the ocean, as if it was flat ground, while his massive wings shielded himself from the rain and hail, nothing could stop his march forward, as the pendant around his neck urged him to find answers to his questions.
Finally he reached Lodestar Island, though he only stopped to quench his thirst and hunger, before setting off again, not willing to rest until he found Laugh Tale.
Walking over the sea according to the Road Poneglyphes' instruction, was like following instructions for a maze without seeing the walls of the maze itself.
Days passed, as this journey couldn't be rushed and he had to take every step carefully.
It was on the eight day of his journey, when he entered a foggy area of giant proportions. The greatest problem the fog presented to Lupin, was that his Observation Haki was blocked because of it.
He couldn't sense his surroundings at all.
Lupin could only rely on his limited eyesight and the map in his head. When another few days passed and Lupin was starting to believe that he may have lost his way, something changed.
Lupin began to hear whispers and murmurs in his head, something that had never happened before.
He tried to ignore tham and follow the directions from the Poneglyphes, but the voices only started to get louder and louder.
Until finally the fog vanished from one moment to another and a small island appeared before his eyes.
The island was of average size, but the atmosphere was idyllic. Vast forests, great waterfalls and lakes, while both flora and fauna seemed to be striving in the bright light the sun gave off.
Lupin stopped dead in his tracks, as memories rushed into his head and replayed themselves.
He could almost smell the lavender scent of his mother's hair, as he remembered her fleeing with him in her arms from the exact island before his eyes.
Suddenly he understood what the voices in his head represented and nearly uncontainable wrath bloomed in his mind.
Darkness descended onto the island under the weight of his anger, as dark blue lightning pierced through the sky. Every living being on the island immediately fell unconcious under the pressure of his will and the voices in his mind were silenced.
Taking a deep breath, Lupin reined in his Conquerer's Haki and approached the island, as the sunlight once again illuminated his way.
He walked in slow steps, tracing back the way his mother had taking through the dense forest, as he savoured the memories of a time where she was still alive, no matter how painful they were.
Lupin eventually reached the abandoned cave she had been imprisoned in, before he moved towards the village he sensed nearby.
Unconcious bodies were strewn all over the large village, but Lupin paid them no mind, as he approached the one presence he sensed that was still awake.
Appearing in front of a great temple-like structure, Lupin pushed open the doors, as he walked in with measured steps.
What greeted his eyes was a Poneglyph at least five-times taller than any he had ever seen, also different was its pure golden colour in contrast to the normal metallic blue or dark red one.
Seated in a lotus position in front of the Poneglyph was a man, who didn't fall unconcious under his Conquerer's Haki.
Having already sensed the aura of the golden Poneglyhp, Lupin knew that the man had shielded himself from his Haki by using the special aura exuded by the golden Poneglyph.
It was also the obelisk that prevented a mental connection between Lupin and the man, as Lupin sensed it somehow blocking his race's ability for telepathy.
Lupin didn't need the man to speak, as he already knew who he was thanks to his inner wolf clawing and fighting against its restraint, the moment Lupin had laid his eyes on him.
Thie man was the leader of the Quileute Tribe and the man who had forced his mother onto the path that lead to her death. That man was his grandfather.
"You should read it. As you have the my bloodline that should pose no problem to you. Maybe then you will be able to understand why I did what I did.", the middle-aged man before him spoke in an aged voice.
Surpressing his violent impulses, Lupin did what the man said and finally got the answers to his questions.
…
Four Clans had once ruled an Ancient Kingdom: The Devil Clan, The Fish-Man Clan, The Human Clan and the Wolf Clan.
The Devil Clan members were inherently born with incredible magical powers, that earned them a position among the Four Great Clans, while the Fish-Man Clan relied manly on their ancient weapon Poseidon to secure their position.
The Human Clan though were creative and inventive, having developed incredibly powerful weapons, that made the other three Clans acknowledge them as one of theirs.
The Wolf Clan's people however were different from the other three Clans, as while they were born with the power to shapeshift into fairly powerful wolves, their true power came from the incredible physical and spiritual talent they were born with. Time was the only necessity for their members to grow into beings capable of confronting the other's Clan's top powerhouses and weapons.
The Clans all had possessed incredible power, but they were not warmongering people. They were content with what they had, their wealth already being immeasurable.
That was until one day twins were born into the Devil Clan with their father being a member of the Wolf Clan. The twins were born with an incredible power – longevity. And while one of them was of benevolent nature, the other had ambition in his heart.
Through incredible patience and careful planing, the ambitious twin managed to get his hands on the Human Clan's greatest weapon by seducing the female leader of the Human Clan and convinvced her to support his ambitions.
The benevolent twin had realised his brother's plan, but knew he was powerless to stop it. He knew however the weapon would need time to be activated, so he used this time to hide 'seeds' of the other three Ancient Clans all over the world and ordered clues to be left behind on how to find them in the form of obelisks, before confronting his brother with the allied army of the three other Clans.
They failed.
The ambitious twin managed to activate the weapon and steal the Devil Clan's power, which he then passed on to the Human Clan to defeat the other two in a gruesome battle.
At the end the benevolent twin died at the hands of his own brother, though not before destroying part of the ultimative weapon and leaving behind a curse that prevented his brother from gaining even a iota of power, that an ordninary man did not have.
The curse though could not take away his inherent longevity and so he was forced to stay ordinary forever.
The Human Clan, now under the lead of the ambitious but cursed twin, began a crusade afterwards, using what remained of its great power to force most of the known world to kneel in submission at its feet.
Later on the remaining members of the Human Clan were titled World Nobles and started living in the Holy City, built by those they defeated in their conquests.
The brother's true names had disappeared together with the the name of the Ancient Kingdom and they were only remembered as Im and Joy Boy.
Joy Boy, the benevolent twin, hoped that one day someone would appear and end the Era of Surpression by using the clues he had left behind.
…
Lupin wasn't all that surprised by the revelations inscribed onto the Poneglyph, as he had guessed and theorized some of them on his own, though he finally knew about his own origins.
His mother's death however wasn't explained by the text on the obelisk.
"It is my duty to protect the 'seed' until Joy Boy's return. Any outsider that reaches this place through sheer luck, like your father had done, is a potential risk for the reemergence of our Clan. As were you. I had no choice, but to order you to be killed. I just didn't expect your mother to betray the Tribe and tr-"
*SHING* *Thud*
A single swing of Lupin's sword and his grandfather's head was seperated from his shoulders.
"The only one that betrayed his family is you.", Lupin said in a quiet voice, before looking at the golden obelisk, "And you, Joy Boy."
" *Sigh* So you noticed...", an aged voice echoed in Lupin's mind.
"How could I not? No piece of metal should be able to block my Conquerer's Haki … Also, I don't believe in fairy tales, and what's written on that Poneglyph is definitely one … Tell me, do you think my Haki will be strong enough to destroy the Poneglyph and kill your spirit hiding inside it?", Lupin asked with an icy calm.
" … What is it that you want? The truth? You want to know how us brothers worked together to destroy the three Clans, before my brother betrayed me and I had no choice than to plot against him for the last eight hundred years in hopes of getting my revenge? Or do you want me to tell you where I hid our Clan's wealth? Tell me, what is it that you want?", an erractic voice sounded out.
His fingers brushing softly over the pendant his mother made for him, Lupin answered quietly: "What I want, you can't give me."
*SHING*
"ARRGHH!!"
The next moment, the Inquisitor took on the form of a cross made out of black light, due to the amount of Haki Lupin's infused it with and he performed one devastating slash that turned the upper half of the golden Poneglyph and the temple housing it to dust, while a horribly shrill shriek echoed in his ears.
Soon silence returned to the surroundings, though the lower half of the Poneglyph had lost its golden colour and turned into a metalic blue, while Lupin had already vanished.
…
[Kaienreki Calendar 1517, August]
It was a normal day in August when suddenly world-shaking and earth-shattering rumbling sounds spread out from the Red Line.
The people on Sabaody were fearing for their lives as the whole Archipelago began to shake and enormous waves crashed into the shores. The same thing happened to the Marine Headquarters and Fish-Man Island, as they could hear and feel the shaking as well.
Fear spread, as the unknown sounds and rumbles continued, until something so unbelievable happened that all those witnessing it weren't sure that they were not dreaming.
The Red Line, a momument of indestructibility and grandeur, shattered.
Where once there was the Holy City and the Red Port, nothing remained but rubble, as dark blue lightning ravaged the dividing line between the two parts of the Grand Line.
All those watching the Red Line froze in horror, no matter their power, when they suddenly saw the one responsible the apocalyptic destruction.
A beast so gargantuan that it was as tall as the Red Line itself, the sky-shaking rumbling sounds being nothing more than the sounds of its breathing.
While every move of its abyss-black wings sent storms in all directions and every step of its claws caused dozen of meters tall tsunamis.
A massive black winged-wolf had appeared with dark lightning dancing across his form.
It had changed the landscape of the planet and ended the Era of the World Government with a single appearance.
While most still feared for their lifes or were simply too shocked to react, the mighty creature had already diappeared, as if it had never been there to begin with.
…
[Somewhere in the East Blue – Kaienreki Calendar 1518, January]
As Ina stepped off her small boat and walked onto the shore of the little island, she followed the guidance of the small piece of paper in her hand until she reached a small hut.
An old man was chopping wood outside the small hut, but stopped as he saw her apporach.
"Welcome home, girl.", Kindred greeted her with a grandfatherly smile, before he continued, "The boy's in the backyard, training. Though I don't know what for. God knows he doesn't need more strength … "
Without wasting another minute, Ina sprinted around the house and saw the one her heart had been yearning for, sitting peacefully in the grass, his blade laying next to him.
Suddenly Lupin opened it eyes, while he asked: "How does it feel, Ina?"
Unsure what he meant, Ina asked in return, her voice a bit shaky from the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her: "H-how does what feel?"
Smiling gently at her, he answered: "Finally catching up."
