Riven stared at the key, letting the silence of the hideout settle over him. The hum of the island outside faded beneath the pounding of blood in his ears.
He didn't know what this key opened, but something deep in his gut twisted every time he looked at it. This wasn't just gold. It felt… old. Important.
He reached into the pouch again, checking the other things he'd swiped. A torn scrap of parchment, its color being yellow with age, was tucked between the gem bundles. He hadn't noticed it before. Carefully, he unfolded it.
It wasn't a map. Not exactly.
More like a diagram? Spirals, angular lines, and familiar symbols scrawled across the page in a hand that looked ancient. At the center, a sunburst emblem etched in ink so dark it looked burned in.
He'd seen these symbols before, a long time ago. His parents would write them and teach him their meaning.
Riven's breath caught.
He recognized the emblem.
It was the same one carved into the sewer grates beneath the mountain top manor, the manor ruled by the corrupt Lord Varn and his Marine lapdogs.
He had seen it once while fleeing a botched raid, slipping into the old tunnels to lose a patrol. He hadn't thought much of it at the time. Just another relic in a dying island.
But this...
This key. This symbol. This diagram.
They were connected.
Riven stood slowly, his mind racing.
The manor had catacombs beneath it, old, unused, and rotting from what the street whispers said. But what if that wasn't the whole truth? What if there was something older? Buried deeper?
He tucked the parchment away and gripped the key tightly in his palm.
Maybe this was it, the thing that could change everything. Not just for him, but for the whole island.
Maybe this was the secret the merchant had been protecting.
Something worth more than any bounty.
-----------------------------------------------
He left before dusk, cloaked in a patchwork scarf and torn hood. The manor loomed above the city on its crooked hill like a rotted tooth in a dead man's mouth. The iron gate was always guarded, Marines and the like kept this place. The Lord left a week ago and is due to return soon so this was the perfect chance.
Riven scaled the walls like a rat in the dark, slipping past shattered gargoyles and dead ivy, until he reached the rear of the manor. An old stone path, half consumed by moss, led to a crumbled servant's wing. He slipped inside through a broken window.
The interior was choked in dust. But he wasn't here for memories. He was here for the crypt.
He followed old floor plans he'd stolen months ago from a drunken architect, never really thinking they'd matter. Down through a cracked hallway, then a sealed door half hidden behind collapsed bookshelves. That's where the key fit. It hummed in his, more has he got closer to the door.
The lock screamed as it turned.
He pulled out the key as the door slowly swings open.
His hand gripped the key harder.
Then he descended.
The staircase wound downward for what felt like forever, carved from volcanic stone and lined with faintly glowing symbols. Riven touched one as he passed. The glyph shimmered warm beneath his fingers.
"Ignis in tenebris renascitur."
"In darkness, fire is reborn."
He didn't know how he could read this shit! But he could.
At the base of the stairs, the crypt opened wide into a circular chamber. The air was still, heavy, reverent. Pillars lined the edges, carved with murals of winged beings soaring through burning skies. Riven's eyes flicked across the images, warriors cloaked in divine flame, fighting shadowed beasts, kneeling before a titanic figure wreathed in sunfire.
At the center stood the Vault, a towering bronze door, engraved with celestial rings and the blazing crest of a sun.
Riven took a cautious step forward,
GRRRRRNK.
Stone shifted, and dust fell.
Two towering golems emerged from alcoves opposite the Vault. Their forms were carved from obsidian, plated in bronze and etched with those glowing glyphs he kept seeing. Their eyes flared like molten suns.
"Well that was dramatic" He muttered
One held a titanic greatsword. The other, a warhammer the size of a cart.
Their voices did not echo. They resonated.
"Praedones indigni."
"The unworthy shall be broken."
Riven froze, his face contorts. "Huh?"
Then the hammer golem charged.
He threw himself aside just as the weapon slammed down, shattering stone. The blast knocked him off his feet, ears ringing. He scrambled up, barely avoiding the greatsword golem's horizontal slash. Sparks flew as it sliced through a stone column like paper.
Riven darted behind another pillar, heart hammering.
He couldn't beat these things. Not like this. Not alone.
He pulled a throwing knife from his belt, hurled it with trained precision.
"THROWING KNIFE!"
Tink.
It bounced harmlessly off the hammer golem's chest.
"Of course…"
He ran.
Weaving between columns, diving through fallen stone, narrowly avoiding the crushing swings and slashes of the guardian constructs.
He dove behind a shattered statue, an old winged warrior with wings raised, palm extended skyward. Glyphs glowed across its chest.
"Sanguis solis, filius flammae."
"Blood of the sun, child of flame."
The words rang in his bones.
Suddenly he felt heat. Not from the golems, but from within.
His back burned.
His chest tightened.
Something was rising inside him, wild, ancient, and unstoppable.
Then the hammer golem barreled straight through the statue. Debris exploded around him. One massive arm struck Riven mid roll, sending him skidding across the floor, coughing blood, vision swimming.
He crawled to his knees, body shaking.
He should be dead.
He should run.
But something in his blood was roaring.
A scream tore from his lungs, not of pain, but of rage.
And then...
Flames erupted from his back.
A pair of flaming Black wings blazed to life, unfurling wide with a searing whoosh of heat. The fire wasn't like the pirates' torches. It was almost divine, scorching, and alive.
The golems stopped mid charge.
Their eyes flared brighter recognition? Or fear?
Riven rose slowly, the heat swirling off him in shimmering waves. His skin glowed faintly, embers crawling across his shoulders and arms like awakened veins.
He looked down at his hands. They were burning.
He grinned.
The sword golem moved first, charging forward. Riven burst forward, fire propelling him like a comet. He ducked beneath the blade, spun mid air, and slammed both flaming fists into the golem's back.
BOOM
He hit the ground rolling and leapt again, flames jetting from his heels, launching him toward the hammer golem. It raised its weapon.
He dove beneath it, skidded under its legs, and rose behind it, planting a burning palm against its spine.
"Burn! Baby! Burn!"
Flames exploded outward. The golem staggered forward, groaning in molten agony. Riven launched up again, wings flaring. He dropped like a meteor, both fists engulfed in fire, and crashed into the golem's chest with a roar.
It shattered in a burst of flame and stone.
The second golem charged.
Riven caught the blade with his bare hands, fire bursting from his palms. The steel hissed. His arms trembled, bones straining. But he held. Surprised by what he just did.
"What the fuck!"
He twisted the blade aside, leapt up, and drove a burning knee into its neck.
The golem stumbled.
Riven unleashed a focused jet of flame from his hands, point blank into its chest. Fire tore through the glyphs lining its body, ripping its core open from the inside.
The golem exploded.
Smoke. Silence.
He stood among the rubble, gasping, scorched and bloodied, but alive.
His wings spread out behind, obsidian and and larger then usual. Each wing spanning almost 6 feet. The flames on his skin dimmed to embers.
He looked down at his shaking hands then towards his wings. "Did my wings grow?"
And then he turned to the Vault.
The bronze door remained sealed, ancient and waiting. But above it, freshly illuminated by the fading glow of battle, the final inscription appeared.
"Caelus Titanus… exspectat."
"The Celestial Titan… awaits."
A/N: So I've deiced that Riven will be around Aces age. So at the start of Luffys journey he will be 20 years old, RN he is 14.