C37 : Worldly Tribulation

• [Mary Geoise, on Red Line] {Year : 20.5} •

*woosh*

The moment their presence were gone, five figures appeared. They looked slightly confused and looked at each others. "Where is he?"

"I also heard the Guardian finally left his cave..."

"I wonder."

"Indeed, I hoped to see the Guardian again as well."

"That is not the point; the Solitary Pirate broke into the territory of Celestial Dragons. This will damage our reputation as the most safest and strongest fortress on Red Line if this information gets out." The oldest-looking out the Five Elders, wearing a white gi, said. He originally had his samurai weapon in his hand, ready to fight, but upon seeing nothing threatening now, he swiftly clinked it inside its stealth.

The bald man with large birthmark spots on his forehead with large white mustache sighed. "Let us hope that those World Nobles will not unreasonably demand from us again."

"Can not we ignore them at least once?" The tall and thin-bearded man frowned. He felt that they have been too... spoiling for them now. "They have finally seen true power after all the time being secluded within the Domain of the Gods. They are definitely afraid enough to demand his corpse."

The dreadlocks man with a scar on the left side of his face glanced around the destroyed assembly. His walking cane seemingly ordinary suddenly sent a burst of air. "Moreover, they just finished watching the Marines suffer, ruining the image of invincibility of World Government..."

The youngest-looking and blonde man out of the Five Elders simply frowned and stood, crossing his arms together. The white gi-wearing man noticed this and sighed. "Do you now understand? The famed Celestial Dragons are not what they originally were. They are not almighty and also not Gods as they proclaimed to be."

The blonde man with a scar over his chest huffed. "So what are we going to do about this? Cover it up?"

"Yes. We also need to do something with the Solitary Pirate..."

…

Elsewhere near the Red Line across the world...

On a large inhabited island, two figures appeared. They were the Guardian and Solitary Pirate, both facing each other. The silver-haired and large Guardian began. "Since I feel that I would get serious... Call me Kan instead of the Guardian."

"Ryu." The green-eyed Solitary Pirate replied, not really caring about names. He then took a quick glance around the island and noticed that there was no one on the island and around it.

Kan, the silver-haired and large Guardian, stretched and said. "I didn't think that someone like you would exist. Such a young man with far a lot of power... Aren't you a cheat itself?"

He slightly tilted his head in a direction before chuckling.

"Those old fogies would scream to the heavens of the unfairness if they knew. They and I have trained a lot to reach where we are..." Kan laughed for a moment. "...Only to be outshined by a mere young human."

Ryu propelled himself forward and rose his ordinary-looking sword in a swing movement. The Guardian sighed at his impatience but nevertheless moved to defend himself, knowing full well that it could be the move that killed him.

"Such impatient man." Kan shook his head as he rose his katana, instantly meeting Ryu's sword. "You shouldn't be thirsty for battles... you should take time to enjoy the nature of world."

*chin~*

The Solitary Pirate rolled his green eyes at that. "Who are you to speak? I heard from the Five Elders who appeared a bit afterwards; you've been inside a cave for a long time."

*chz*

"Oh... You heard that, huh?" The Guardian shamelessly chuckled. "I was enjoying the silence and darkness of the cave, it was quite comfortable, at least for me."

*czzz*

Ryu continued to use his sword against Kan's katana, while steadily rising his usage of combat prowess to near three/fourths of full-on. After a few more clashes of katana and sword, the Solitary Pirate finally jumped backwards.

He got into a piercing stance while crouching his knees. His ordinary-looking sword suddenly looked different from usual as Kan noticed. "Hmm..."

The silver-haired and large Guardian felt that this blow would be quite devastating enough to cause a huge crater in middle of the territory of the Celestial Dragons, in which he was glad to have brought both of them here. However, he knew that the Solitary Pirate could always return to the very top of Red Line and repeat the same action. He was not a fool and had seen countless deceits and trickeries to see through bluffs and reality. What Ryu was doing now, was something he could always repeat any time and place.

*WOOSH*

At this moment, Ryu casually yet accurately made a smooth and single-lined piercing movement from Kan. The Guardian however, immediately unleashed his own power through his katana. Using Observation Haki as the young people called it now-a-days, he swiftly dodged a invisible and life-threatening wind. The wind force from Ryu's casual attack could've bursted a hole in his body.

*POP*

Kan smirked. "I see. Such a strong strength and skill. Capable of accuracy and easily managing your muscles... Truly, you are indeed stronger than me."

"I don't know whether to be glad or not that you've aged in body and abilities; even though I could have managed to return you to your peak." Ryu shook his head as he stood up, lazily holding his sword. He knew that if Kan, the Guardian, had been at his peak, he would have gone 3/4th of his full to defeat him at start. "Say, you mentioned the others like you. Are there any stronger than you?"

Curious of that, the Solitary Pirate asked. If there was, he was sure to have an fun time in the world of battles. In the world of life, he already had his shares of it—traveling around the world and meeting far a lot of different people.

The silver-haired and large Guardian chuckled, grasping his katana tightly. "Of course there are. As far as I remember, there are few beings stronger than me. I'm not sure if they're still alive though."

He sighed in sadness before continuing.

"There were five Guardians including me, but they all passed away from age or incurable disease. I am now the sole living Guardian of the Domain of the Gods."

*woosh*

Kan abruptly swung his katana upwards, in the direction of Ryu's body. An sharp wind arc was immediately manifested and went towards the Solitary Pirate. He used a lot of strength and pressure to create one which showed how difficult it was for even him to do such action. The sharp wind arc projectile slowly grew and enlarged into at least three feet larger than before.

"A mere demonstration." The Guardian flashed a small smile directed at the Solitary Pirate, whom rolled his eyes in response. "Try blocking it."

"Whatever." Ryu was already moving to block it instead of dodging. He felt that it would still follow him if he moved away, so he faced it. "It doesn't seem difficult..."

*SSSSS~*

The moment it was about to arrive at its target, Ryu, the sharp wind projectile suddenly spiraled when he moved his sword to it. It spiraled in middle of its shape and had an absorbing effect as Ryu felt his body slowly resisting it.

"I call it an Spiral Slash." Kan stated and watched Ryu with interest. He was curious how the Solitary Pirate actually could stand before it while resisting its intense absorption. They'd normally be immediately moved towards the Spiral Slash and suffer several deep cuts manifested by the wind projectile's sharpness. "Ah, you even trained your body as well...?"

His curiosity of Ryu's true power grew after learning that fact. Since Ryu's body was strong enough to even resist his Spiral Slash, he felt that he could even fight against those stronger than him.

Kan's large body suddenly looked blurred and slowly shifted weirdly. "I have deemed you worthy of my full power. It is unfortunate that I will still be defeated, but at least it will be done while fighting all out."

He slowly became larger and his skin became a skin full of blueish scales as his forehead grew two goat-like horns. Both of them slowly became a foot long and swirled towards his back. His even-larger body with blueish scales and two goat-like horns between his forehead and silver hair made him resemble an monstrosity seen in hell — demons.

The Solitary Pirate, Ryu, was extremely surprised to see such transformation, but remembered that Devil Fruits existed and so did other races in the world. "Wow, what race are you?"

"Heh, in the humans' word, my race would be called Demons. But that's just them, not others. My race..." Kan's smile grew into a large grin showing his sharp teeth. He rose his hands and showed his sharp claws donned as nails. "...We are known in the Void Century as the Havoc Bringers. My race used to cause huge destruction anywhere they went. Just one Havoc Bringer is enough to destroy a small island in the... what was it called again... ah, Paradise of Grand Line."

Kan chuckled. He remembered that pirates who went to New World and fled to the first section of Grand Line, called it Paradise due to their weakness and the extreme circumstances of New World. The Havoc Bringer himself found this humorous because the Void Century made New World look a heaven instead.

"Anyways, there are far a lot of races in the world. My race, Havoc Bringers, isn't even near the top-tier level as few other races are. Those top-tier races are mostly hidden in the New World, as the younglings has called it, either in slumber or simply watching the world go on..." The sole living Guardian, Kan, stated. He felt it was a pity for the world to have changed this greatly but that was simply him being bored. Compared to his time back in Void Century, the current period was quite pathetic. "I find it ridiculous that the countless organizations and beings assume that there are three sides in the world: Pirates, World Government, Outsiders."

Ryu allowed Kan to continue speaking as he was intrigued in learning such. He knew that this One Piece World was not the original timeline, but a parallel timeline. The original universe of One Piece was always unhindered and will never be by others. Beings, far stronger than anyone in the current world and had abilities to create universes, could only create parallel versions, making them appear as if they were original but with their special spices into it.

However, as Ryu listened, he found that the one who created this parallel version, purposely added an incredulously in-depth history of the One Piece World. Although he took the time to learn more, his guard was not down as Kan's transformation put him in defensive mode with his Sword Aura already activated.

Several invisible and intangible swords were already hovering around Ryu and Kan's circular range, ready for their owner's orders. The blue-scaled, long-nailed, and silver-ponytailed Guardian of the Domain of the Gods finally took notice of this. He chuckled in mirth. "My, aren't you being too cautious? You know that I would easily die if you were to go all out..."

Ryu rolled his eyes. "When meeting an unknown, always be on guard as you don't know anything about the unknown yet. That's what someone I met long ago said before."

"Hmm... Quite an experienced person." Kan nodded in agreement before distancing his legs with one front and one behind as he crouched. His blue scales glittered slightly in the sun rays. "I'll stop talking a lot, it goes with age, haha."

*Kinz~*

The blue-scaled and silver-haired Havoc Bringer rose his katana and put its sharp edge against his other hand's nails. It had been awhile since Kan even went outside of the 'cave' he was in let alone transforming into his true form. Kan grinned and felt a circulating excitement going through his blood. Although he knew that Ryu could easily defeat him, at least he could go all out before being defeated. The last time he went full out was ages ago and that was only against the stronger being than him.

The handsome and green-eyed Solitary Pirate also rose his sword, with his defensive Sword Aura on hold. He wouldn't hesitate to kill the being in front of him if he desired to.

Both of them tensed.

Kan abruptly vanished and Ryu momentarily lost him until he looked up at the sky. In the sky was the blue-scaled Havoc Bringer and he was holding his katana as if it was a spear towards the Solitary Pirate. His katana slowly morphed into different shape and became a rough design of a twisted spear. From Ryu's view, it looked like it would have a lot of power when thrown straight, the curved twists on the rough spear made it easier for the wind to push the weapon into a spiral and increased speed. Kan lightly pulled back his right shoulder along with the twisted spear backwards, preparing to throw it.

"Let's see if we can continue this in the sky!"

*WOOSH*

With that shout, Kan swung his arm forward while letting go of the twisted spear near end of his action. The spear was hurled towards where they were on and spun while the wind blew through its gaps, giving it far more speed than before.

Ryu grinned and slammed one of his feet onto the island to propel himself forward to the sky, meeting the twisted spear. He raised his sword and clashed against it.

*CHZZZ~*

The spear that had been spiraling itself, was immediately stopped and became crushed. That itself showed Kan's weapon quality, weak compared to Ryu's ordinary-looking sword.

"Such strong material..." Kan muttered in slight disbelief. He knew that the weapon he obtained long ago better than anymore but its creator. The material used was far stronger than any current materials being used by the young beings even back in Void Century, yet it easily broke. "I've never seen anyone easily breaking it by then either."

Ryu kept going towards the Havoc Bringer and got his sword readied for attacking. Kan didn't stay still in the air either as his wings emerged from his back and flapped around the sky.

"All of Havoc Bringers has their own speciality in elements, guess what mine is?!" Kan shouted as Ryu neared him closer.

"Wind?" Ryu nonchalantly answered and used an similar technique to the World Government's Rokushiki : Geppo to stay in the midair.

"Wrong!" The blue-scaled Havoc Bringer grinned and charged into the sea below them, creating an large splash before Ryu frowned.

"Sea..." The Solitary Pirate chuckled. Had any Devil Fruit Users fought against Kan, they'd be raging against themselves for even fighting the Havoc Bringer whose element was Sea which was also their weakness. "Still, being in the sea wouldn't weaken me at all."

He then followed Kan into the large sea.

…

"Hmm...?" An extremely large and long shadow hovered over the floor that the sea was on. "What is going on? I feel an disturbance on my territory..."

"I felt it as well, Elder Scwon." A huge goldfish appeared beside the large and long shadow, reverently confirmed. "Is it possible that they have found us again?"

"No." The mysterious large and long shadow rumbled. "If any humans entered my territory without my permission, I would have known. However... this feels like a human did indeed appear here... with someone else."

"Elder?" The huge goldfish questioningly looked at it.

"It seems that I will have to personally investigate."

"But Elder Scwon, won't it cause you some trouble if you were to leave this shrine? Let me call some of our-"

A large red circle in shape of an eye suddenly opened. "Enough. I have said I will go... or are you saying you are trying to contain me in my own territory?!"

"N-no, Elder Scwon! I'm simply worried about the safety of your territory!"

"Hmph!" Elder Scwon's shadow fluttered and caused some rumbles around them before moving away.

The huge goldfish heaved a huge sigh of relief. 'I'll have to notify her about this event...'

It then also left into the darkness.

…

Kan swung his arms towards Ryu's form and watched as the sea twisted and harshly rushed against the Solitary Pirate.

Ryu didn't falter and allowed them to strike him, confident in his body cultivation. As expected, the sea barely did anything to his body aside from wet and slightly worn-out outfit.

The sea Havoc Bringer sighed and muttered to himself, capable of talking in the sea. "If he was serious, he would've ended this in one move..."

The Solitary Pirate swam further and was about to swing down his ordinary-looking sword near Kan's figure when an extremely large and long shadow abruptly appeared between them.

"..." There was an gap at its front, indicating that it either opened its mouth or made a hole on itself. Ryu didn't hear anything but Kan did as he responded.

"Ah, Scwon... Yeah, sorry about that... Well I thought that since your territory was mostly empty, I'd bring this human here since I knew he could create even more destruction than me..."

Elder Scwon's mouth continued to open and close as if talking and Kan spoke back as if understanding the being. Ryu frowned, unable to talk normally.

"Oh, this is Scwon, the 'owner' of where we are. He came to check out what the 'disturbance' was when he sensed us entering here." The sea Havoc Bringer grinned when he saw Ryu's discomfort of being not able to talk in the sea. He then pointed at the large and long shadow. "Scwon is strong but not further than me, but I respect him."

Ryu rolled his eyes and sarcastically thought. 'You respect him and yet you brought our fight here, where I could have wiped out the terrain... riiight~.'

"Eheh." Kan seemed to have guessed his thought and continued to grin shamelessly.

Elder Scwon chose that moment to speak. "..."

"Nono, he won't." Kan answered whatever question he was asked. The Havoc Bringer turned to the Solitary Pirate and asked. "Hey, Ryu, you mind delaying our fight for a bit later? Seems there's some issue with Scwon."

Ryu was about to shake his head and move when the blue-scaled and silver-haired Havoc Bringer, whom was originally grinning shamelessly, showed a abrupt grim look.

"Your Wano Country is in danger. You have particular connections with the country, do you not?"

"..." Ryu's eyes widened at this information. He was also confused why he wasn't told about this. 'Is what he's saying the truth?'

[...]

The Solitary Pirate frowned, what was going on with the system?

*ding~*

[Message received from God of Systems]

[Opening...]

[Young man, I'm sure you're confused on what's going on now. You probably already guessed the truth of this universe, but I'll say it: The universe is simply an parallel one to the original with an twist of its creator's hand. Right now, you are going through an tribulation in form of the worldly matters.]

"Hey, you listening?" Kan looked annoyed when he saw that Ryu didn't speak any further. Elder Scwon seemed to be too quiet than usual too, but he put that to the back of his mind.

[The original races were copied from the original universe, but there were more races created from other ones by the creator of this parallel universe as you already met one — Havoc Bringers. However, all of these things were created to be simply an tribulation to whoever was chosen to 'reincarnate' here. The creator of this parallel universe didn't feel like they would find an appropriate person and tasked me with such, so here you are.]

Ryu was silent. An tribulation? Was this an another way of saying that the One Piece Universe was simply created just to find an appropriate person for whatever desires they had for him? Also, there was 'eastern cultivation' system in the world in which he knew that the original One Piece Universe didn't have. He felt like he was in an 'eastern asian-based' world, not planet, but... an far larger universe than this small universe he was currently in.

[Your original life back in Earth was all real, yes, but from the moment I chose you, that was when the 'time' truly started for your life. Your time of life to ascend to the next realm... Right now, you are in Lower Realm where everything seems so weak as an ant for me. However, humanity was always known for its limitless potential even in the realm I am in.]

"Hey?!" The Havoc Bringer grumbled. He thought that the young Solitary Pirate would panic and worry about why his Wano Country was in danger. Truthfully, he didn't know of the danger until the world-shaking tremors from the user who held Tremor Tremor Fruit came. There were few stronger beings than him who went into an slumber for decades because of an prophecy told before Void Century yet carried through it. "Young man, why are you not doing anything?"

Before him, the young handsome man with green eyes and casual wear of everyday was simply allowing the sea to hold his body at still form. However, Kan did see the shocked and confusion faces that went through Ryu's face but suddenly went blank as if something made him recall.

"Scwon, you know what is going on?"

Elder Scwon tilted its front. "..."

"Oh?"

"..."

"Then how do you know if he's supposedly to be the only one who could 'hear' the words of gods?"

"..."

"Whatever, even if you refuse to tell me I'll try to figure it out eventually on my own." Kan rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he looked at Ryu with curiosity. What he was told by Elder Scwon was that the young man before them was currently listening to the words of 'Gods' who created the world and whatever.

He didn't believe in such thing. Kan only believed in 'power trumps all'. Ryu was far stronger than him, so naturally, the sea Havoc Bringer did not bother to interrupt whatever the young human was going through.

The thought of taking advantage of this moment to either attack the overpowered Solitary Pirate flashed through his mind momentarily before he crushed it down in disdain. Ryu was certainly overpowered and a living proof of a 'cheat', so why bother trying to do something that would literally sign their death contract. As they waited, Ryu continued to read the message shown from the system.