One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed Island of the Devil Fruit Gods ❯ Blasphemer ( Chapter 35 )

Chapter 35: Blasphemer

 

The souls of many that had taken refuge on the Thousand Sunny were all watching the battle between Luffy and Kurotenshu, cheering on Luffy. Now that their bodies had expired, they were all free from Kurotenshu's control and were looking for an opportunity to help him. “Stay back!” Luffy warned them. “I don't want anyone getting hurt again because of me!”

That amused Kurotenshu. “Isn't it ironic, Straw Hat? The very people you are trying to help are suffering because you had to interfere. Believe it or not, I once thought like you. I was the hero, trying to save my people from disaster and tyranny. I got so sick of it one day that once the opportunity to seize power presented itself, I took it, and never looked back.”

“What the hell makes you think I care about that? I don't care if you were ever a good guy, what you are now is bad and that means I'm going to kick your ass!” Luffy took up a fighting stance.

“You've used up both of your Gear techniques already. You can't seriously still expect to be able to fight.” Kurotenshu shook his head.

“I've gotten out of worse before.” Luffy spat. “And all because of my friends! Who do you have helping you, cheering you on? Nobody!”

“Wrong, fool. My Shinigami are all…” Kurotenshu paused, and looked as though he was about to be sick. “Oooohhhh…” he groaned, and tears of blood began to stream from his left eye. “Who failed…which miserable puke could have fallen against these worthless…ah, of course. Tomoshibi. Well, she is of no consequence. She never was, really. I'll collect her essence now that she is no longer useful…”

He began breathing in deeply, and a small white orb shooting through the air like a rocket found its way to his mouth. “That's better. Waste not, want not.” He licked his lips.

“You just…ate your own nakama?” Luffy trembled, disgusted.

“Of course. She was a pawn. Why let her die in vain after such a miserable performance? At least now she can give back some of the power I let her borrow.” Kurotenshu explained.

“I don't get how you can do all this.” Luffy shook his head. “I never heard of wizards or gods or anything when I was growing up. All I know that can do these things are Devil Fruit, and you just have too much weird stuff inside you for it to be just one. But if you eat more than one, don't you die? How are you still alive?”

“You really want to know? It's been a long time. I haven't even told my Shinigami this story. Very well, I shall impart this knowledge to you. More memories and knowledge inside your head will make your soul very ripe indeed once I consume it.” Kurotenshu agreed. “It's a story about a Devil Fruit…the most powerful Devil Fruit in the entire world.”

“Just one?” Luffy couldn't believe that so easily.

“Yes. Just one. Have you never heard of…single-use Devil Fruit?” Kurotenshu grinned. “Watch and listen carefully.” Kurotenshu's eyes began to glow, and a projection was displayed before Luffy, who was too curious now to raise his fists against Kurotenshu in this seemingly vulnerable moment.

 

“My story begins a little over 1,000 years ago…

 

“I was the leader of a band of rebels in our once-great Kingdom. Our greedy Emperor spared no expense in keeping his castle well-defended while pirates and poverty destroyed the rest of the people's lives. It was time to make a stand and we were so very close to dethroning that monster. But alas, he also had his own army, a band of mercenaries. They slaughtered the entire capital, the innocent men, women and children, along with all the pirates and criminals. Most of my rebel forces were wiped out as well.

“I knew something was amiss so I did not go there myself, though I did regret the loss of life of my brave men. It was then that I knew I had to kill the Emperor no matter what, even if we did not succeed in bringing peace and stability to the Kingdom. I had heard from our spies that the Emperor had fled the castle secretly to avoid being caught up in any of the mercenaries' chaos. I traveled to his other castle to find him with the last remaining soldiers I controlled. Even if we were to die, we would take his head in the attempt.

“We stormed the castle. Guards fell to our blades like nothing, the Emperor had lost all of his strongest men to my cause and he was left with nothing but weak amateurs. But there were so many of them, we became worn out and soon began to fall ourselves. I raced on to the Emperor's chambers to claim our vengeance, but his silver tongue got the best of me. He tempted me with the treasure of the Kingdom, not just the gold and jewels, but the ultimate prize, the thing he had promised the mercenaries in exchange for their service. A rare Devil Fruit, one that had been passed down from generation to generation in the royal family. I couldn't resist.

“I demanded he lead me to the treasure vaults to bring it to me. Any wrong moves and I'd have carved out his heart, but the coward knew too well that he had no other options. He opened the vaults and bolted the moment I laid eyes on his mountain of riches. He was of no consequence at that point. Once I had eaten it, I would have power unlike anyone else in the entire Kingdom. This was back in the days before they were as common as they are now, you see.

“His guards caught up to us at that point, however. They knew better than to tangle with a cornered fox, and just locked me in the vault with the Devil Fruit. Now I had no choice but to consume it and hope that whatever it could do for me, it would be something that could break me out of there. Oh, but it did so much more than that. Have you ever heard of…single-use Devil Fruits? They can technically be classified as Paramecia, but so much more…potent. A single instance of their power and yet some would say they are more powerful than a Logia elemental. And mine was the most powerful of all. Wisshu-Wisshu no Mi. The wish-granting Devil Fruit. I was able to have one wish granted to me, whatever I wanted.

“There was so much anger and vengeful thoughts in my mind, I very nearly gave into the temptation of merely wishing the Emperor dead. But I calmed myself as the voice in my head asked me to make the wish I wanted most. And so I did, after a few moments' thought. It wasn't a complicated wish, not at all. It was simple, it was something anyone born to be a ruler would want. Power. And it gave me all the power I could have imagined, and more.

“The vault doors turned to dust at my whim. The guards were forced to bow before me, unable to control their bodies in my presence. The cowering Emperor became an insect just before I squashed him under my foot. It was the time of my reign, and I was now the Emperor. I had all but forgotten my fallen comrades, for I was now a living god, and their sacrifices, I considered tribute to my glory. And so it was for decades, I ruled the land unchallenged. I now controlled the mercenaries and pirates, who sailed under my banner to bring women from all over for my harem, who ransacked other Kingdoms to increase the tributes to me and fill my vaults with unimaginable treasures.

“But it all went wrong. The tragic flaw of Devil Fruits is that inevitably they have weaknesses. Suddenly I was to be challenged by a traveling duo, an amazing pair who were said to slay evil all over the world. A great Knight who wore armor of Sea Stone and brandished sword and spear of that horrible mineral, and a young child with a Devil Fruit ability to seal the power of other users and use their powers against them. I thought nothing of them, having never encountered the slightest bit of resistance, but against them my powers were useless. They were invincible, and for the first time in decades I felt helpless. I tried one last attempt to finish them but the child reflected my attack back upon me. I was sealed inside a crystal, my powers rendered null and void, and I was cast into the sea.

“By lucky coincidence I drifted here and, beneath the waves and in the underwater caves, the heat of the magma was enough to break me free of that prison. Unfortunately as the crystal shattered and released me, it not only destroyed most of my remaining power with it, but also my physical body. I was now nothing but a spirit, and had no one to support me. I was still very vulnerable, though without a body I could not age and thus could not die.

“The abilities I retained were quite limited, but I could still speak to people from great distances. The more I used them, the stronger I seemed to get, as well, so I had to be careful not to be discovered until I grew strong enough to protect myself. Most importantly, I found within myself a new power I wasn't aware of before: that I could create copies of Devil Fruits. Mine seemed to be a progenitor, the first one ever grown, and so it carried the secrets of all the others. I could not eat another one myself or I could be risking my destruction. But I could get others to eat them and do my bidding. So that is what I did. And I found four very loyal, easily corruptible Shinigami, and one annoying little troublemaker who just met her end a short while ago. It is a bit strange, I should have felt her returning to me, but she has not. I do not sense the presence of her soul anywhere near this volcano. Well, no matter. No soul ever escapes me for long.

“I dared not seek help at first, not even from the naïve natives who would probably believe just in hearing my disembodies voice that I was a god. I had to use gullible, selfish people, like children, to help me. They wouldn't question orders and would greedily accept whatever bribery I offered. So I engineered the shipwreck of a family who had drifted near enough that I could control the weather and ocean surrounding the island. Just as I did to your ship, and every other ship that's ever come too near here.

“Now that things were falling so perfectly into place, I felt confident enough to start flexing my power. As the children left the care of their parents to go play, I forced myself into the minds of every adult on the island and had them all sacrifice themselves to me. A delicious first meal that increased my power greatly, though that was only the beginning. The children who became my Shinigami agreed to help keep the rest of the children in line, making sure they grew up believing in the gods of the island and learning sacrificial rituals and proper ways to worship me.

“By then it was easy to ensure a healthy, steady population growth full of new sacrifices for me. I made sure the island split into two tribes so that there would be plenty of untimely deaths as well, by creating the great Devil Fruit tree and allowing only Zoan and Paramecian fruits to grow from it so that my Shinigami would be unchallenged by any of their powers if any of them started to actually have an intelligent thought of their own. It worked so well that nothing had come along to threaten that for the next thousand years. It would only have been a matter of months before the natives finally made enough sacrifices to me that I could resurrect my body and regain my full power.”

 

“Back to the present, this very moment, and you can guess how my story will end, can't you? The two of us fight to the death so that one of us will get what we want. Me, I want back my control of all that is and ever will be, and you…whatever silly little dreams your thick head has come up with. And I'm going to win. Do you know why? Not just because I'm smarter, stronger and more experienced. It's because I want it more, brat. And I've had centuries to plan, too. I will never be in a position again where I will be made vulnerable. I shall raise a continent up into the sky and create brainless golem servants to do my bidding. No filthy mortal human hands shall ever come near me. None shall ever challenge my reign again.” Kurotenshu concluded.

“You sound like Eneru, the guy on the floating island whose ass I kicked. He also thought he could never be beaten.” Luffy stood again, feeling slightly refreshed after a break. He was still feeling hungry, though.

“You've seen so many battles and yet you do not consider failure? To be so young and arrogant is to be truly foolish. Shall we continue our fight?” Kurotenshu invited Luffy to throw the first punch.

“Gomu Gomu no…” Luffy reared back to maximize the stretch of his arms.

“Close your eyes!” one of the souls on Thousand Sunny shouted.

Luffy barely managed to do so before Kurotenshu fired a burst of blinding light from his palm. Luffy saw a red flash through his eyelids, but it was nowhere near as bright as if they'd been open.

“Damn you!” Kurotenshu barked up at Thousand Sunny. “Whoever said that, you'll be eaten first!”

“Bazooka!” Luffy continued, launching his arms forward.

Kurotenshu saw this and caught both of Luffy's arms, preventing them from hitting their mark.

“Rocket!” Luffy didn't stop, using his still-outstretched arms to launch his body forward and try to deliver a body-blow to Kurotenshu. However, Kurotenshu smirked and suddenly vanished.

“Eh?!” Luffy cried, as he felt Kurotenshu let go of his arms. That threw off his aim, and he went crashing for yards before skidding to a halt. “Where'd he go?!” Luffy whirled around, unable to detect Kurotenshu's presence.

“Your friends are fighting my Shinigami, aren't they? Good for them. Even if they win…and that is not very hopeful either, it was a miracle they even defeated one…then their powers come straight back to me. The better your friends do, the stronger I become. And you'll only grow weaker as the fight goes on. I'm not satisfied that you're so stubborn, Straw Hat. I want to see you helpless, surrendering to me, begging for mercy. I can't stand that you're so foolish you still think you stand a chance in hell of winning!” Kurotenshu reappeared just long enough to deliver a powerful blow to Luffy's jaw, which sent the rubber man flying.

“I don't lose to ugly bastards!” Luffy stuck his tongue as he stretched his face. “After my friends get done with your servants, they'll be here and we'll all stomp you!”

Kurotenshu was turning red. “I will have you kneeling before me begging for your miserable life before this is through. Mark my words.”

 

It was dark. It was very dark. And cramped, and heavy, and hard to breathe.

“Oi…you still alive, cook-san?” Franky grunted.

“What do you think, baka-robot? Get your bikini out of my face!” Sanji snapped.

The two fighters were still very much alive under the mountain that Rikujou had dropped on them. Sanji was upside-down, holding on for dear life as he held himself up with his arms and braced the large rock threatening to crush them both with his legs. Franky was doing the same, his legs threatening to buckle as he held up the rock with his arms.

“What are we going to do now? It's all we can do to hold up this big boulder! We can't hold it up forever!” Sanji panted, sweating.

“I think I might have an idea.” Franky said uncertainly. “Do you think you can hold it up for a few seconds without my help?”

“As long as it's only for a few seconds…” Sanji hoped.

“Okay, get ready to hold it up without me…now!” Franky let go of his end of the rock and quickly reached into his stomach cavity to check his cola levels. He had enough to do what he needed, and began to prepare for what he was going to do to get them out.

“Hey! Hurry up!” Sanji groaned, his legs quivering.

“I'm almost done! Get ready to rock!” Franky aimed something between his arms and pointed it just above Sanji's head.

“Oi, crazy asshole, what do you think you're doing?!” Sanji cried.

“Coup…” Franky began.

“Are you insane? Don't even think about it!”

“De…” Franky continued, building up power.

“You're not serious! How do you know this is even going to work?!”

“VENT!” Franky cackled, and a deafening explosion rocked the entire ground beneath the cliff face staring over them.

Rikujou whirled around to see his two foes bursting out of the ground as though a geyser were erupting. The two shot up for what looked like a mile into the air, the rocks that shot up with them raining down below, the ground broken apart like a giant had stomped through there. “Impossible…” Rikujou gasped.

“Baka!” Sanji snarled, kicking Franky in the face as they began to fall back to earth. “We're going to go `splat' once we hit the ground, moron!”

“Hey, don't worry, I've got it covered!” Franky grabbed him, rather more roughly than necessary, and shoved Sanji onto his back piggy-back style. “Fresh Fire!” He roared, and a jet of flame burst forth from his mouth. Like a rocket engine, it kept them aloft slightly longer than normal, and slowed their descent back to the ground, until they were able to fall from a safer distance.

Sanji kicked him in the face again. “Don't EVER do that again!”

“Knock it off, dumbass! I saved our asses twice, be grateful!”

“Excuse me, I thought I killed the two of you! It's very rude of you two to still be alive!” Rikujou interrupted. “What do you say we try this again?”

“Suits me fine.” Franky cracked his knuckles.

Sanji stood in front of him. “No, he's mine. I owe him for putting us in that embarrassing position.”

“Fine…do what you want. I can save the last of my cola for when I really need it.” Franky crossed his arms.

“Two of you and you still want to fight one-on-one? As you wish.” Rikujou shrugged.

“Oh, not to worry. I've been saving something special for someone like you.” Sanji grinned.

“Need I remind you I just dropped a mountain on you? What makes you think you'll do any better this time? You barely survived that and I'm not hurt or fatigued at all.” Rikujou sneered. “Did you hit your head down there or something?”

“Nope. Actually it gave me a little time to think. See, I know of another guy who was able to control the earth a little bit. You're actually pretty weak compared to him, and your weakness has become a little more obvious to me. I think that once I expose your weak point, it'll be your turn to be six feet under.” Sanji grinned.