[50] A World on Fire
[2210 words]
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[Five Months Later]
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"Ice Block: Partisan!"
.
Two sharp spears of solid ice spawned at the drop of the words. They glistened with light-blue luster, reflecting a chilly shine from the afternoon sun.
*Fwoo* *Krrr*
The projectiles shot out ahead and a freezing sound followed as the air in the atmosphere froze alongside their trajectory.
Damien, who stood tall at the center of the attack area, simply glanced at the coming attack. He swung his left arm in a horizontal arc, shattering both the spears without difficulty.
However, these few moments gave the young attacker time to flicker behind Damien.
Kuzan tapped the famed pirate's back with a look of relish struck to his young face.
.
"Ice Time!"
.
The creaking of ice went off as Damien's trench coat began to solidify and freeze together. The fabric became hard and fragile as the chill spread onto the skin hidden below.
Kuzan smirked, though his smile turned upside down as he saw the effect. "Hah? How come my ice doesn't affect you?"
Instead of an answer, he was greeted with a swift punch to the cheek.
Bam!
The boy flew through the air, his body bursting through a sea of trees, eventually meeting a large hill.
The body slammed onto the hill, exploding into innumerable shards of ice.
.
"Kuzan-kun, are you okay?" a soft voice came from the side.
The creaking of ice went off once more as the young boy reappeared from the broken icy shards coming together.
"Haa, huuh," he breathed heavily. "Man, that Haki kicked me out of intangibility and almost made me turn into a bloody paste on that hill!"
He then spat out a wad of blood and exclaimed, "That, that could have killed me!"
Toki, who was naturally the one who came to check up on him, calmed him down, "I think your body is a lot tougher than you think, Kuzan-kun."
The boy blinked, he examined his body once more—all he felt was a dull ache in his face and the rest was negligible.
Toki saw his look and gave him a bright smile.
"Well then, I think Damien-san wants us to attack together now," she said.
Kuzan nodded and the two of them shuttled toward the awaiting Damien.
*Whizz!* The ice boy appeared in front of the Sin Incarnate.
*Hiss*
His body was fuming with white vapour as the water molecules in the air could not help but freeze. Every breath created its frozen display as the very ground beneath had turned frosty.
Kuzan leaped into the air, his arms crossed into an X-shape. The boy's breathing hitched as he put every ounce of his energy into the next attack.
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"Ice Ball!"
.
It was a thick current of pure frost. The ice horizontally streamed onwards and met Damien's towering body. The burst of white calmed down, leaving a giant sphere of ice, the Sin Incarnate frozen at its core.
Kuzan saw the display but had a feeling that Damien could easily have dodged the attack.
*Thud* Toki landed on top of a tall tree while tracking the fight. She saw Damien's immobilized state and began her attack, her hands taking the motion of that of an archer.
"Time Bow."
At the drop of her words, green-coloured energy materialized around her fingers, a bright green bow formed with an equally green bowstring.
The weapon glowed brightly as tens of green arrows formed, cocked into the weapon.
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"Nullity Rain!"
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Tens of arrows shot out at the same time, creating a volley of green-coloured projectiles. They swished through the air, a foreboding sound left in their wake.
The volley of arrows rained onto the ice ball, piercing the frozen statue.
*Szzz*
One of the arrows that had hit the ground remained in shape as its target began to deteriorate. Sizzling sounds resounded throughout the region as the entire mass of land below began to decompose and turn to dust.
It was as if it had been aged to its very death!
Conversely, the ice sculpture took only but a few seconds to turn from ice to water to broken and stray atoms, eventually turning into heat and dissipating into nothingness. The ground soon spread out in a circular motion, eating up a large chunk. Simply put, the arrows rendered the entire area null!
[Attack Images (in Discord)]
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Kuzan felt a chill on his back as he saw the corrosive display. "Wait, I'm an ice-human, how can my neck feel cold?" he muttered.
Then his mind clicked. "Oh, he's right behind me, isn't he?"
BAM!
The boy soon fell to the ground, clutching his aching dome, his eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets.
.
Damien ignored the child rolling in pain and saw the area of attack.
He then turned his gaze to the girl who had jumped down from the tree. "Those arrows are pretty damn dangerous, you know?"
Toki panicked a little and stuttered, "I-I still can't fully control them!"
Damien smiled at her dread. "I'm just kidding, being dangerous is a good thing."
The words calmed the girl down, who could only return a pouty grunt in her embarrassment.
Damien's mind, however, was elsewhere.
'As expected, fast-forwarding powers are really fearsome. They should even be able to cancel out a Logia's intangibility,' Damien thought. 'But Haki remains their biggest obstacle.'
Meanwhile, some information filled his mind.
>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<
[Kuzan]
[Age: 8 years, 1 months, 14 days]
[Height: 7' 8"] (2.34 m)
[Status: Healthy]
[Devil Fruit: Ice-Ice Fruit (Initial Mastery) ↑]
[Fruit Rating: 6.5 Stars]
[Skills: Shave, Moonwalk]
[Strength: New World Pirate ↑]
>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<
[Amatsuki Toki]
[Age: 17 years, 5 months, 2 days (~790 years old by date)]
[Height: 8' ] (2.44 m)
[Status: Healthy]
[Devil Fruit: Time-Time Fruit (Intermediate Mastery)]
Fruit Rating: 7 Stars (Ultimate-Class)]
[Skills: Paper Body (Kami-e)]
[Strength: Paradise Pirate (level 5)]
>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<
It has been a little over five months now.
Kuzan went from a measly little Paradise Pirate (level 2) to the average New World fodder!
His Devil Fruit already made him relatively invincible in the first half of the Grand Line, in addition to his hellish training, the boy was doing great.
Toki, went from a negligible strength to the top of Paradise Pirates just from Damien helping her tap into her powers. Surely enough, they were quite broken.
"Both of you have improved very much, I'm impressed."
Kuzan, who was rolling in pain, jumped straight up with shining eyes. His gaze turned quite excited, practically those of a child after being complimented for doing something.
Toki also smiled brightly, her thoughts reflecting in her joyful mood.
She gave Damien a curt bow, "Thank you for everything, Damien-san."
Something about Wano customs being overly honourable with every little thing.
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Damien nodded at their thoughts and gave a merciful comment, "In celebration, I will cut your training times in half for today!"
Kuzan leaped ten feet into the air, his hands stretching out in his newly attained freedom: "Yes! He has a heart!"
Toki just returned a smile.
Naturally, Damien had given the girl a fitting training too. It wasn't as physical as Kuzan for obvious reasons, rather, he urged her into a more speed and reaction-based direction. Boring the fruit of the Paper Body of the Rokushiki.
The three eventually went off to the usual, five-times-a-day meal schedule. Eating over a cleaved stump of wood.
Toki's cooking improved. It was evident in not just the taste, but also the physical improvements to the two.
As Damien sourced all the meat from vigorous and powerful Sea Kings of the Calm Belts, their daily nutrition spiked to the skies especially so for the young girl.
Toki has already risen from a meager 6' 3" to 8' (1.9 m → 2.44 m).
Kuzan, who had already been eating very healthy, only went up two inches but it brought up the question: just how much he would shoot up in his growth spurt stage?
…
[Néa, Paradise Sea]
Unfortunately, things were not as peaceful around the sea as they were at Mortem Island.
"Kuwahahaha!" a young laugh resounded from a damp and broken-down home. "Finally, after five months of on-the-dot writing, I have received it!" Morgans remarked with pride.
Before the albatross laid a simple card.
[W.N.A. – Apprentice Reporter: Morgans]
It seemed Damien's 'persuasion' had begun to kick in: the Four Directors had reined in their hardass attitude and began to promote freer writing, ever so slowly.
"Kuwahahahaha!" Morgans thundered to himself.
His cackling was loud enough to send some stray cats outside into fright.
The boy then stopped his moment of pride and looked to the side as a piece of news made it onto his newly purchased fax machine.
"The Golden Lion kills six of the Angelic 16 in a single attack! This is BIG NEWS!" the young reporter roared in his childish voice.
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[The Angelic Sea, New World]
"Wuaaaah!"
"Euuuuugh!"
"Waaaaaah!"
A childish cry erupted in a ship sailing amidst a brutal war.
The Rocks Pirates were still fighting against the Valkyrie Pirates. Just two days ago, Golden Lion Shiki had delivered a single attack that cut apart all 6 of the Angelic Commanders who were on this front, greatly hurting the morale of the opposing side.
"Oy, Linlin! Have you popped your brat yet?" Shiki's voice bellowed over the seas as he drank some saké.
A calm yet evidently annoyed voice replied. "How impatient! You men won't know the pain of childbirth yet you complain so much."
"..."
"Jihahaha! You're the one who came to war pregnant!" he shot back.
"Hmph, Brûlée, Custard, Amande, look after your new brother," Linlin ordered her children while placing a freshly produced offspring.
"Yes, Mama!"
Custard then asked, "Mama, what's his name?"
Linlin thought for a second before deciding as she recalled her breakfast of hazelnut cake: "Charlotte Noisette."
The three girls nodded and took over their new brother; the Charlotte Family welcomed its 24th child!
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[Later That Day]
Damien was now alone, standing at the top of a mountain covered in snow. The howling winds were enough to take a full adult into flight.
*Rumble* Lightning fell from the clouds above, sparking through the skies carrying the anger of the gods.
Yet Damien remained stationary. He looked down from a height of around eight kilometers above sea level (~5 mi).
"Hopefully this does it," he muttered to himself while plunging to what most would consider certain doom.
His towering body leapt off the edge, shuttling through the blazing winds.
His eyes felt like they would come loose from their sockets while his skin was drilled with the powerful winds.
A quick chill went down Damien's spine as he forced a handicap onto himself. He had 'turned off' the Haki in his bones by using his Deprivation ability to get as much benefit from his free-fall training.
*Vvooo!* The winds grew angrier and more turbulent, threatening to rip the pirate's body apart as he neared the surface.
BOOOM!
A powerful tremor echoed through the island, shaking the nearby vegetation to its roots. The birds and other wildlife could not help but run from the earthquake-like vibrations.
The icy mountain suddenly began to tremble, releasing a giant avalanche of ice and snow, collapsing over the nearby land. The large, man-shaped crater hidden under the veil of dust was quickly filled with icy hell, sending chill into the air.
…
It took a few minutes for the dust and snow to settle, all the while a sole arm shot out from the ten-meter-tall blanket of white.
A body soon rose out, much like a zombie.
"I used to call Kaido an M, and here I am doing his favourite morning routine," a helpless voice resounded in the shaken-up region.
Damien patted the dust off his regal attire. As expected, there was no blood, just a dull ache in his body.
"I'm really turning into a monster," he murmured.
The Sin Incarnate then cracked his arms and back, feeling a new power surge through his core. "Hmm," he slowly grunted. "Looks like it worked!"
A deep breath exited his mouth as his very bones began to tremble. It took a few moments to calm down, but it was quite comfortable.
[{Black Bones} has reached the third stage.]
The notification came as expected, alongside a thin smile on the pirate's face.
"Now that's more like it."
"!!!" However, Damien's satisfaction was interrupted by the short quiver in his Inventory; something was afoot.
He could feel it: a tremble of uncertainty.
Damien narrowed his eyes while fishing through his inventory, only to bring out a blank sheet of white paper.
Oddly enough, the pure paper had caught on fire as it crackled with loose embers. They were like sparks floating outwards and sizzling into the snow below.
"..." A solemn look appeared on the young pirate as he watched the fire slowly but surely spread and cover a third of the paper.
The bright snow nearby dulled in response to the crimson eyes of the Sin Incarnate as he locked onto the paper of life, pondering over the turn of events. Without a doubt, it was a Vivre Card belonging to a bold assassin who had once tried to claim the reward on his head at Sabaody Archipelago; the flame signifying her grim situation.
To Be Continued…
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Author's Corner.
Fairly big timeskip which bore fruit for the entire party. Unfortunately, not every place can share the spirit of Mortem Island.
Naming Fodders giveaway: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q