Foodsteps clattered against concrete halls. A audible wooshing of a blade gently slicing through the air. But it wasn't a thin blade, nor was it something light to be twirled. But a massive guitar with either strings being rolled by the wrist of a bone hand.
"So Boss- Whats it like being alone again after only being together for what- 3 months?" Vox said. Their vestige was one of only a few that was still within Eddie and had not 'Passed on' after the events of Hard Rock. Those that stayed behind were only a few. A drummer, a guitarist and chorus
Vox, Riff, Hook, and himself. The main members of the Sonorous. They looked basically the exact same now as they did in life. But the corruption of their Physical Corpses changed them to now have subtle features. Like Vox and the 'Tears' around their throat like tearing the skin of someone from the depths. It resembled almost Stretch mark scars.
Hook had horns now. But small subtle ones on his forehead. Riff had mutated but functional hands with long talons and pointed ears.
"I have no hard feelings whatsoever dear Vox." He said as he strut down the halls. Wires drooped from the ceiling like spiderwebs. Pipes coursing along them like exposed veins on the skin or vines on tree bark.
This island…Or what could be considered Islands-
Was known as Stacks. It was a Massive Island of concrete and processed products meant for construction and building structure. It started a long while ago when a supposed humanitarian philanthropist wanted to form housing for those that needed it from war torn countries.
Problem was, eventually it ran out of space. And then he had builders hired from amidst the population to begin building. He figured he was giving them jobs. But just because they had homes, didn't mean their issues disappeared.
It just made things harder. A band aid on a gaping festering wound.
They had to scrape by for money. There was no agricultural areas on the island until the second level was built. But that was not enough land to sustain people. Water needed to be extracted and boiled often by hand because the utilities and the machines that pumped it and filtered it often broke down far more often than not. All of this meant that families left behind would have others go off to other islands to work and then bring it back with the necessities to survive. Small forms of commerce did arise here and there from what people could do to try to gain some form of money, some profit. But quickly, crime began to arise.
Crime from selling Drugs in the Corridors to smuggling items in mass to the island before being swindled from the money and the sellers who bought them got very few. On top of the taxes from the Philanthropist that he deemed 'Fair' continued to spiral into disparity.
The main figured that it was just how life was. People dont have money sometimes. Figured they just needed to work harder for it. To a man like him money had to be every where. He worked very hard, in his mind, finding places and donating money and then getting big returns or having other people who dont have as much do it for him.
He genuinely thought he was being nice. And that meant he was succeeding as compared to those with worse personalities and attitudes.
He continued to pay for more and more extensions and floors. Eventually. He just had the process automated. There were committees for the floors and for the building that handled it all for him anyway. Eventually. The philanthropist died. But the Banks continued to funnel money into the island due to an accounting error. But once it was caught. The island was already thousands of feet into the air. It had become a sky island from how tall it had gotten.
So large in fact that just like the top, people constantly worked at the bottom to reinforce it more and more to support more and more of the weight above it.
Now. The island was under the influence and the West Blue crime family from the island of Al Island. A massive island that was split like a pie chart of territories and industries all lead by crime families, dons, mafiosos, and the like.
The Pelagia Family, known for their trade in Glimmer and other Drugs like Zircon, a crystalized form of Euphorium a Drug that induces Confidence, Adrenaline, Dopamine, and Serotonin in a massive boost of emotions for a quick peaking high.
Their gang controlling the middle floors.
They were in a constant war against the Thompson Family. Known for their explicit and public violence death. From assassinations to gang raids.
All across the rest of the floors the remaining families operated.
The Corleone Family Owned the Island. Having bought it out by the bank for some sort of strange gain of profit or a tax write off in the World Banking Leagues.
The Mercer Family Constantly being hired by a variety of Floors that want to protect their businesses. As the Mercers are Soldiers for Hire and Rackiteerers.
Steele Island Constantly selling more and more material to the leaders and organizers of the Island to continue building the island taller and taller and taller.
As for where Eddie fell into this? He was wondering. He was becoming a right true Grim Reaper. Stalking the compact halls, the alley ways, the patios that over looked massive drops between floors. That was his training. Going around and rending the souls from the Gangsters and adding their strength to his own.
"I learned Haki over a hundred years ago. Mixed with my soul sensing, I'm able to see where a variety of these thugs sit. Perhaps it'll allow for me to learn another form of Haki as well. I did only have the time to learn Observation. But not many of its wide variety of abilities."
"You could've just asked me." Hook said. "Forgot that I grew up on a martial arts island?"
"I- Oh yes…I wonder if now that I've absorbed you if-" Eddie stopped for a moment. Turning so that his jacket flutters for a moment as he scratches his skull in deep thought.
"Access his memories?" Vox questioned. "We can see yours for the most part. So I'd assume you can see ours?"
"Wait-" Eddie dropped his hands. "You can?"
"Yes. Including all those nights with vox-" Riff said only for Eddie to blurt "OKAY! I Understand!"
Vox began to giggle to themselves as Hook and Riff laughed with one another. "It truly is a Shame Captain." Riff said.
"How so?" Eddie questioned.
"Well those memories clearly show what it was that hung between your legs! I mean to loose such an asset it must be quite a trag-"
"ALRIGHT! SHUT THE FUCK!" He screamed! Voice changing to that Metal Screech that he took when he was singing on stage. Only for the rest of the Souls to explode into laughter.
Eddies shoes clopped against the stairs. A Massive spiraling mess and work of metal that lead downwards. Lower and lower. All around the dark flight, were flickering bulbs of pale amber luminescence. Pipes tangled like long locks of hair twisted and went up into the ceiling, riveted into the walls.
"I wonder what that Handsome fellow you now Call a captain is up to Ed." Vox said as Eddie walked past numerous people slumped against the walls. Needles, pipes, and other forms of administering Glimmer and Zircon. Eddie sighed in a sense of melancholy as he walked past them. Knowing there was nothing he could truly do for these people than to protect them from the Gangsters that tried to reach them again and again.
Within his mind. Eddie answered. 'I'm sure….He's in a dark place. Experiencing the very same emotions that I did for decades while drifting on that damnable blackened Sea. I have faith in that man. More than in any other I've seen in my life across all the seas we'd travelled.'
'That man…There is a fire inside him that burns so bright that I do not think there is a world that could possibly exist where it is not forced to be see from its brightness. He is like the Sun in that way. Shining as far and wide as it can possibly go.' He stopped at the end of a hallway. Shadowed by long stretches of black as if like paint on a canvas.
'But sometimes…Night must first come before it may shine brightest. Leroy is my Captain. And i will do all that I can to ensure that man becomes Pirate King. Move Heaven and Earth. I would return to hell and the underworld itself to make sure his embers are fostered.'
'So that they may burn it all down.'
"Hehehe…" Vox chuckled. "Dramatic!"
"Ya think so? I quite liked it. I'm proud of that one." Eddie said out loud.
"You really want to just wander the streets and this dank island. Ripping the souls out of people for four years straight?" Riff asked. Floating next to Eddie as he stepped up onto the railing and tipped himself forward before falling down dozens of floors a second before catching himself on another Patio around the 300th floor.
Gun fire could be heard. Flashes of light as red lights above flashed and spun from the emergency lights. His feet slowly pattering against the ground. People peaked out of their apartments that lined the walls. Only to see the skull of Eddie and his bright blue eyes before slamming the door shut.
"I dont see why not. One of these guys is about…1 one thousandth of that Knave Fellow back on Hardrock." Slam Slam Slam. Another set of doors as the reports of gunfire got closer and closer.
In an instant he stepped into the cross fire. Bullets whizzing past him as dozens and dozens of Gangsters all dressed in fancy threads that were scuffed and marred by dirt and grime of crime fire hundreds of rounds from automatic weapons, shotguns, and small arms.
"Oh fuck me! Its the Reaper!" One of them screamed. Utterly forgetting about the turf war he was in. Allowing a lucky bullet to pierce through his neck.
In a zip of speed, Eddie dashed to the side, swinging his guitar axe, ripping the souls from two dozen men all spaced feet apart in only a second flat before appearing back in the middle of the warzone. A tangle of souls writhing and wiggling in his bone hand as he lifted it up, opened his jaw, and allowed the souls to absorb through his mouth! Fear radiating through the men that saw it as if they were looking a certified demon in the flesh!
Or lack there of!
"24 Souls. About one Decent Marine. 500 more and I'll be stronger than ever! But I'll require more and more as I grow…So lets hope one of these families can bring a big man out to play!" He causally spoke to himself before Zipping back across the war zone! Slicing! Chopping! Cutting! Pulling soul after soul after soul and allowing his aura to grow more and more!
"If only you had your Scythe." Hook said as the soulless bodies laid around the men. Eddie didn't feel the best about just killing them. And it was currently taking a bit more than he'd like to pull it all out. So by taking only a partial amount. He left them with no ego to continue committing atrocities.
"If only…But that big bastard on the 666th floor fucked it up." A few weeks after he was on the Island, there was a Mafia Boss on that floor. He was huge, called Pelegia Ayumu. Controlled Chains like whips. He had used them for so long that they became an extension of his very being. Something that happened quite often to any fighter worth their salt. Allowing them to manipulate their weapon with supernatural precision, speed and dexterity.
The fight between them caused almost twenty floors of the island to collapse from their violence. It made sense. He had been the man that invaded the Iron Walled Kingdom of Esienschloss some time prior and steal its greatest treasure.
One of his chains, that were wrapped around his fingers like rings or the cross of a Marionette, the shattered the entire weapon. Leaving it as nothing but a pile of debris.
Eventually however. Eddie won. And absorbed the mans strong soul. It was why he had the reputation he had now.
Now- if only he could make it up to the top of the Island where all the Big Boys sit.
On the 1111th floor, sat the head leaders of the Mafia Families for this Island. One from each of the families. Essentially all on the same floor separated. Enacting bureaucracy and negotiations between each other as if watching the rest of the violence like entertainment. Happening hundreds of floors beneath them.