[134] Allegiance

[3560 words]

Here is some canon info: Over 20 million islands are in the One Piece world. So, take that as context when it comes to purging a couple dozen insignificant islands—a drop in the ocean.

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Two weeks went by as hell arrived in nineteen islands throughout the world, all at the hands of pirates!

According to reports, these infernal individuals were claiming territory in the name of the Rocks Pirates—an offering to be recruited under their unholy banner.

To control this chaotic stream of terror, the invincible Admiral Basara had led nineteen excursions and purged all forms of tyranny alongside the islands themselves! 

In the name of the innocents, the Navy had struck a deal with the Underworld, using their ships to evacuate the islands on behalf of the benevolent Government.

Some forces smelled the stench of a cover-up, but even the liberated World Economy News Paper had confirmed it, leaving them no choice but to accept the justice employed by the World Government.

The hidden truth behind everything went down in a snail call between the Commander-in-Chief Endou and the 'Devil's Architect' Fulcrum, leaving the seas ignorant.

...

[No Man's Land]

A lone Damien stood at the center of the chaotic and damned No Man's Land. He had long become used to the absurd surroundings over the two weeks he'd been here.

"The Pulverize-Pulverize Fruit can not only crush things apart," a calm voice echoed through the hellish lands, "but it can also reconstruct crushed things back to their original appearance."

"Be that macroscopically, microscopically…"

He played around with palm-size rocks, sporting the appearance of an angel from hell. First, he crushed it into coin-sized pieces and reformed it. Then Damien turned them to a size smaller than the naked eye could see.

And once again, it reformed.

Finally, the young pirate mobilized his powers to break the reconstructed rock into smaller and smaller pieces.

From the size of a coin to grain sand to the size of common bacteria.

*Viz* Another round of pulverization reached a truly miniscule stage.

The limestone, reduced to around 1000 nanometers, and the very molecules that built up the solid were all that remained.

The crimson energy continued to seep deeper and deeper, turning the individual molecules into that of a checkered pattern and dividing them further!

It broke the ionic bonds of the molecules. At the young man's discretion, even the gases that happened to be near the rock were stripped of their covalent bonds.

"... or even atomically."

The sound of pixelation echoed through the nearby land; the atomic dismantling was done precisely, reducing the rock to its atoms!

Oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium were the elements that remained, all moving at the command of the demonic winged figure, staying afloat in the middle of endless hell.

*Purrup* Out of nowhere, a current of crimson energy burst out. It formed a small, uniform hexagonal prism that appeared around the dusted rock, floating in the young man's hand.

The shape was made of tens of triangles—the most durable shape in reality. It was stable, entirely encircling the palm.

[Prism Image (in Discord)]

.

"Atomic Modeling."

.

The hexagonal prism lit up with an eerie crimson glow, slowly spinning. Within a moment, it disappeared into a mist of red energy that attached itself to the loose elements from before.

"..."

A moment later, a rock materialized into the palm of the pirate's hand. It was the same rock, left in the same position, still the exact same size and shape, seemingly untouched from before.

Simply put, it had gone through atomic dismantling and was remodelled into its original appearance, completing a circle of life: creation to destruction!

Boom!

The winged demon began to transform. The wings receded, and the armour disintegrated. The loose energy was returned, unveiling the satisfied face of the Sin Incarnate.

His crimson eyes shone brighter than ever, filled with certainty. A surge of power ran through the young pirate's veins, a new feeling blossoming in his mind and heart.

It felt liberating… like a newborn breathing its first breath, expanding its untouched lungs. Damien breathed in the ruined atmosphere of No Man's Land, a thin smile etched on his face: "It's finally done," he clenched his fists in triumph. "My Devil Fruit has Awakened."

...

The feeling of wanting to test the extent of his powers was strong—Damien soon found himself in the den of beasts.

...

[Ring of Untold Horrors]

"So, you're just gonna run wild?" A surprised Solomon questioned. He had tailed his soon-to-be boss once he came out from No Man's Land.

"I'll bring down their population to a more manageable number," the pirate answered, fully locked in.

Solomon blinked and scratched his head: "But there are tens of thousands of them…"

"Tens of thousands of test subjects for me to fully realize my new abilities."

The frank reply left the Spirit of Fear speechless. He looked at the endless confidence in the eyes of the outsider and cautioned, "All right… but I gotta warn you, too much noise on this island, and you might end up drawing out worse things."

…

The duo of Damien and Solomon had begun to venture through the regions of Extinction Valley. Although most of the creatures inhabited the Ring of Untold Horrors and the Savage Lands, the other areas had their goodies.

Solomon was mainly a side character. He would watch and study Damien's techniques and Haki usages, trying to break out of the simpler and primal fight style that worked only against mindless beasts.

A total of two weeks passed by as the pirates went on a massacre, cutting up the Forsaken beasts like they were made of clay, going around the entire Valley that spanned hundreds of kilometers.

The undying pirate spent the days polishing the array of powers he had attained. What Damien learned was that his Awakening was far, far more than simply atomic-level pulverization. 

It also worked incredibly well with his Life Return technique. 

What followed his crusade were the deaths of the Forsaken, thousands by the night; their blood was sucked into the soil, even staining the air with a red hue. The Extinct celebrated as their nights grew quieter and quieter, a sense of peace gracing their hectic lives.

That was until Damien ran into a fascinating creature. A creature that stood out even amongst the terrors of Extinction Valley.

It was a nightmarish creature that stood around 6 feet tall and had a grotesque and otherworldly appearance. Its body was made of a web-like, organic substance riddled with holes and tendrils. 

"SKRRREEEEEAAARRRGGGHHH!"

Damien winced under the deep, guttural growling, echoing with an unnatural, bone-chilling resonance. The endless tiny holes that covered the monster were singing the horrifying sound from all angles and frequencies. This symphony came together in an unholy union that would strike fear into anyone who heard it.

"Oh shit!"

The pirate's eyes shot to the side where a shaken Solomon stood. He was carrying some dead animals for food, only to run into the nightmare that was forced to kneel before Damien.

The pirate glared at the shirtless, tattooed man with confusion.

Solomon felt the deadpan stare and woke up from his reverie. "W-What, that's a freaking Malvora!" He protested to preserve some dignity.

In his haste, he gave another look at the growling creature and gagged right away, "D-Dammit, all those holes make me queasy."

Damien was left without words—the man who could manipulate fear was now doing his absolute best not to look at the tiny Malvora.

[Malvora Image (in Discord)]

With a wave of a hand, the creepy thing was atomically dismantled.

"Each day, you make me question your title of the 'Spirit of Fear.' First, it was the sand, now a creature with holes."

Solomon sighed in relief at the dusted abomination and turned to his Captain: "Hey, don't put it like that!"

"..." Damien was unamused, prompting the Zoan user to continue, "Malvora are like the creepiest things out there…" Solomon's voice grew venomous as he finished his plea: "...as for sand, I just hate it!"

The dark-haired brute's eyes sharpened while a boom of thunderous Haki stretched itself to the ends of the visible earth, leaving tears and cracks in its wake.

Damien narrowed his eyes at the growling Solomon, recalling what he said a few weeks ago: "My mother was torn apart from the sandworms. I still remember coming across her ripped-apart corpse! We lost everything because of what that man damned us with!"

"Blaming yourself for her death won't solve anything, you know?" the pirate questioned.

The words broke Solomon out from his anger and forced his eyes to the ground: "What do you know…"

"I know."

Solomon looked to his Captain absently, feeling the somberness in his crimson eyes. 

"..."

"You won't get anywhere until you embrace those powers," Damien finally responded, having read the Extinct like a book from the past two weeks. "They aren't a curse."

"So, why don't you tell me what happened to you all those years ago."

Solomon once again looked away, growling at the memories resurfacing. His mind drifted back to a night long ago when everything changed...

…

[Twenty-One Years Ago]

Bated breaths echoed through the endless forest of the Ring. A young child with dark hair and eyes rushed through the green while his bare feet left bloodied footprints behind. His young heart was pounding in his chest.

Fear, exhaustion, panic, despair—the five-year-old was in a broken state, aimlessly running through the thick of night.

"Solomon!" a voice called out from behind. The lad gnashed his teeth, ignoring the woman's cry and continued his sprint.

The sound of rusting trees and distant monsters boomed in his ears, slowly driving away the woman's voice from behind. A smell of rain and humidity assaulted his nostrils, mixed in with some other gases released from the giant plants and trees.

But it wasn't just the fear of the unknown that drove him. It was anger—anger at the life he was forced to live, a life of constant hunger, of gnawing desperation, of watching his people eat scraps and rotting food just to survive another day. He was sick of it, sick of the hopelessness that clung to the air like the humid mist of the forest.

…

"Why do we have to live like this?!" Solomon had screamed earlier that evening, his tiny fists pounding against the rough walls of their shelter. His mother had tried to soothe him, but the frustration and exhaustion had boiled over.

"We're strong! We shouldn't have to eat filth and hide from monsters!" he had shouted, his voice trembling with the emotions he couldn't fully understand.

When his mother's gentle words couldn't calm the storm within him, Solomon had done the only thing he knew—to run. Run far away from the misery and despair that seemed to swallow his people whole.

As the night closed in around him, the reality of his actions began to sink in. The fear that had fueled his rage was now feeding on his exhaustion, turning the forest into a maze of shadows and dangers.

"Solomon! Please, come back!" his mother's voice grew fainter, the distance between them widening with every frantic step he took.

But Solomon didn't stop.

…

"Mother…" Solomon whispered, waking from his mindless dash as the reality of his surroundings crashing down on him.

He was deep in the Ring of Untold Horrors. He'd damned himself by coming here—and maybe her too.

The boy's dark pupils jumped from tree to tree, plant to plant, cloud to cloud. After another ten minutes of backtracking, he was in an area that looked the same as the previous one.

'Never go into the forest alone,' Solomon recited the one rule of his people.

*Lub* *Dub*

He gulped. The boy could hear his own heart beating out of his chest.

"No… I have to find her," he told himself, clenching his hands in determination. The heightened senses of the Extinct came into play as Solomon pieced together his earlier dash.

Slowly but surely, piece by piece, he was finding his way back. No Forsaken beasts were jumping to gnaw on his flesh for whatever reason.

…

Two hours and he knew he was closer.

Solomon sniffed the air—smoke.

A sudden tearing sensation washed through the boy before he could approach the foul smell.

"Ugh!" he cursed, falling to his knees while clutching his stomach from hunger.

All that running was very demanding for an emaciated five-year-old. He wanted to rush back, but the adrenaline wore off, and every step grew heavier.

He needed energy to get him to rush back for the few hours it would still take.

"Squaw!"

"!!!" Solomon's eyes darted to the side, and he saw a tiny bird glaring at him. It was barely the size of his palms but all the more appetizing.

With speed that he couldn't imagine outputting, the starving boy grabbed the rather grotesque bird with both hands.

As the bird squirmed in his grasp, Solomon hesitated, the grotesque sight of its exposed bones and hollow, gaping holes making his stomach churn. 'It's disgusting… but I have to.' He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block the revulsion clawing at his mind. 'If I don't eat this, I won't make it back.'

[Bird Image (in Discord)]

With a grimace, Solomon forced the bird into his mouth, the sharp bones scraping against his throat as he pushed it down. The bitter taste of decay filled his mouth, and he gagged, nearly retching it back up.

His body trembled with every swallow, each more painful than the last. The creature was pecking at his throat and down his esophagus, ripping holes and tears along his food pipe.

The rumbling lasted a good two minutes before calming down, leaving the hungry child breathing heavily. 'It's done. I did it.'

"!!!" He felt it instantly—a burst of energy and strength he never knew existed within his slender, lanky frame.

The distant noises, the smells and even through the night, he could sense through it all. 

But he recognized another collection of shaken emotions immediately: "Mother!"

The child's eyes widened in haste as he exploded from his tired feet. The rush of energy was strange but welcomed. 

Boom!

A leap off the tree left it torn apart, while another was used to propel him ahead, toppling it as well.

…

"Mother!"

Solomon's voice was shaken and plagued with despair. He knew the endless possibilities that could have caused such a spike in his mother's heart. 

Finally, at the heart of the collection of fear, he made out the beasts—giant worms.

The monstrous sandworms slithered through the torn-down forest, their massive, segmented bodies covered in thick, grotesque scales that glistened with a sickly sheen. Their gaping maws, lined with rows of jagged teeth, pulsed and writhed as they moved, leaving trails of churned earth and rotting foliage in their wake. 

The air around them was thick with the stench of decay, making their presence even more horrifying and unnatural.

[Forsaken Sandworm Image (in Discord)]

'I lead her right to them!' he cursed, blazing through the darkness.

Solomon's heartbeat with untold courage as he dove into the group of beasts; an instinct deep within told him he could survive this.

But there it was.

"No…" the boy absently muttered, freezing in his tracks. The surrounding predators dripping with blood and spit were ignored as all but one sight in Solomon's eyes.

Even in the giant splatter of blood and fluids, he could make out the shattered bones. Some limbs were missing, eaten by the sandworms. The mangled clothes and dripping flesh were all topped with a head that somehow remained intact.

"..." The world around Solomon froze. He saw her eyes wide open, staring into the darkness where the boy stood.

They were lifeless; she had been dead for at least ten minutes. 

A shrieking roar exploded from the five-year-old, and then—darkness. One minute, he was standing there, staring at his mother's lifeless body, and the next… nothing.

…

[Present Time]

"Nothing?" Damien echoed. He found himself seated on the corpse of a Forsaken Alligator within a sea of trees, gazing at the troubled Solomon.

The forest was quiet and calm, a boon of their two-week-long excursion.

"...When I woke up, I was near the Haven. I saw the ruins of the Day of Reckoning. I listened from afar as the survivors talked about a towering, frightening creature driving away the beasts with a single roar."

Solomon sat on the grassy floor, slumping in confusion. "I know it was me lost in my powers… but twenty years later, and I still can't drive them away like I did as a kid."

Damien hummed in thought. The pirate glared at the lost Wendigo, piecing some theories together. 'Such intense emotion with the addition of awakening Conqueror's Haki in the state of starvation… then returning to see his home in ruins…'

'Must have been too much for a five-year-old to filter through,' Damien mused. 'His subconscious must have buried it not to face his most damning mistake that led to his mother's death.'

[But he's also burying deeper extents of his ability,] Sibyl interjected with her usual down-to-the-point attitude.

'He sees his powers as a curse. The same power which could drive away those Forsaken Beasts right after being eaten. He's chaining himself without even realizing it…'

Alas, nothing could be done right now.

"Damn, you need a therapist," Damien huffed under his breath, massaging his forehead. The pirate stood up with a sigh and offered Solomon a hand.

"Come on, we still got another stretch of the forest to clear."

The much taller man blinked at the gesture and quickly took it. 

Solomon exhaled a heavy breath, once again returning to his more brash self. 

…

The duo of a pirate and a Mythical Zoan continued to trek through the tranquil Ring, making their way to the core. They brought with them a sense of peace and quiet, which had been lost from Extinction Valley for almost half a century.

…

[The Haven]

"I shaved off the Forsaken's population by seventy percent," Damien explained to the old village chief. "The remaining fraction can be used as a good food source for your people."

Choro felt his mouth dry, unable to respond as he saw the young man before him. 

"I-I can't believe it. This air is almost the same as before the Day of Reckoning," he muttered. "I-I-I never thought I could breathe in such pleasant air!" The man teared up, his pale face struck with disbelief.

Solomon nodded at the side with a hint of disbelief, "It really feels quiet around here. I didn't think it was possible for our chaotic home to ever be this serene… It brings out the beauty of primal nature."

The tattooed man glanced at Damien with a grateful look.

In return, the pirate shrugged at their tearful faces, not just found on the two but even the hundreds of Extinct who surrounded him.

"I fulfilled my end of the bargain."

Solomon nodded, even smirking at the pirate's nonchalant demeanour. He spared a final look at the home he had wished to return to for the past twenty years. He breathed in the tranquillity of his home and people, and his eyes finally returned to the sole outsider responsible for the purge.

Suddenly, the much taller Solomon went down on a knee, lowering his head to Damien.

"Kneeling is something we, the Extinct, only do at the death of our parents or when swearing allegiance to someone else, aligning one's life under another," Choro explained, satisfied with his nephew's actions and clearing up the confusion.

Damien hummed with a curious look. He stepped ahead and extended a hand toward the Zoan user.

*Fwoo* A cup appeared in the palm while a gourd in the other. "We, as pirates of the seas, swear loyalty through saké cups," Damien explained, meeting the questioning eyes of Solomon.

"I'm not one for traditions or alcohol even, but this is the right time to bring it out. Here, just drink with me."

Solomon felt enlightened by hearing the pirate's tradition and even relishing its simplicity. With a grin, he stood up to grab the cup, holding it in both hands.

In a moment of seriousness followed by a firm nod, he brought the cup to his lips and gulped down the saké. 

*Gurrug* *Gurrug*

"Then, I guess that makes you my leader?" he mumbled, licking his lips of the alcohol. "Or should I go with Captain? Supreme Leader? Boss?"

Damien's smile twitched: "Just pick one and roll with it."

"Boss, it is!"

.

However, what happened next even surprised the pirate.

He saw Choro, the Village Chief, kneel alongside the other 200 or so people.

One by one, the entire population lowered their heads. 

"What's all this about?" Damien asked curiously, though he could naturally guess the answer.

Choro placed his cane flat before the pirate and spoke for the people.

"The Great Change left us both blessed and cursed. But you've freed us from these chains... You are our saviour. Lord Damien! "

The old man raised his pale face as his tendrils floated in subservience. A bloom of Haki and the kneeling folks' limbs glistened black with varying density. "Though few in numbers, every single one of us, ranging from the newborn to the old few, can utilize Extinct Plating."

"If you ever need our strength, we will raise arms for you!"

To Be Continued…

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Author's Corner. 

Damien will showcase his Awakening in the coming chapter. The Government also successfully covered up the purge of 19 islands with zero reported casualties. This chapter also finishes Solomon's official initiation. It shows some of his past while leaving hints for the future.

What do you guys think about Solomon and the Extinct?

Images are available on Discord alongside other niche details: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q