The members of the CP units woke up groggy—their memories intact but a bit weary. They found themselves each in their respective cabins—somehow they'd appeared back on their ship.
To them it happened in the blink of an eye—one moment they were on the island, inside the City Of Sin, next—they were inside their ship waking up from a dreamless sleep. Amongst them, Nyx and Raze were the first to make their way towards Kaizen.
His figure loomed at his usual spot—the figurehead. The very presence of his entire being twisted as he stood tall and regal. Almost as though his existence contested with the very shackles of this reality.
But that wasn't possible—right?
So they thought and so they reasoned. They ignored the feeling—approaching him in steadied but somewhat hurried steps. Kaizen sensed them ages ago. His large frame turned slightly—just enough for his head to align with theirs. His gaze connected with the pair.
"The City Of Sin—was no more than a puppet. There was no artifact there—merely remnants of a forgotten Era. Questions? Go back and ask them yourselves. Though I doubt you'll be able to make it any further than last time." His voice was heavy—not simply because it sounded so but also because his words were absolute and harshly truthful.
Their heads dropped, anchoring slightly as they reminisced how they were disabled without much effort by the sudden flare of pressure. Raze gritted his teeth—his nails dug into his palms. "W-What now?" He questioned, almost uncertain of how they should move along now.
Nyx could only deal with her struggling internally—she wielded no such strength at present to voice her frustrations. Kaizen stared at them—analyzing their fatigues, their faces and their emotions.
He turned back to face the sea once more. "What else can we do but advance? Nyx—begin mapping and journaling our finds as of now. Raze, notify the others. Let them know from now on—we approach Stillreach differently. Treat it as you would the outside world. Do not panic. Do not fear. It senses everything within." His words reached them far too late yet somehow the momentum of their weight seemed twice as heavy.
Raze turned immediately on his heel—he did not delay any further, wishing to relay this crucial information immediately. Nyx on the other hand nodded with a determined expression. She, too, turned around and headed for her cabin.
Little by little—they didn't realize it but they were slowly falling to Kaizen's rule. He saw this yet said nothing much of it. If they wished to follow him into the future he would not refuse them—but if they opposed him however, he'd make sure to make a lesson out of them.
As his thoughts trailed off—he remembered Annihilation, he remembered the people forgotten. His mind lingered in a single place. The City Of Sin. How could he have told them what really occurred after they were blasted into wonderland?
Kaizen did not trust them with such crucial information—he simply decided to tell them a half-truth, a lie that hidden within itself a piece of truth.
Even though he doubted that the Five Elders could even tamper with Stillreach—there was still a certain individual that he could not just ignore out of the equation.
Imu—
The true bearer of the Empty Throne.
His views of this world had previously been shattered—Imu as the being was—it was already a mysterious one. Now with the introduction of Forbidden Zones, Artifacts and Concepts? He couldn't help but think that Imu was far surpassing the ceiling levels set by this world.
So his plan? To continue exploring Stillreach. To find an artifact that would serve as a decoy for their mission—for his. One that would buy him some time. His goal was simple. Prepare for the path of defection.
They continued to sail forth—or what felt like it. But Kaizen knew. He knew that their ship had changed its route more than enough times already. The atmosphere changed continuously, it was the norm here. Kaizen looked into the distance—his Observation Haki locking onto a growing shadow that sat atop the sea.
An island.
A very strange looking one.
And what was even stranger—was the colossal forestation that stood behind the shore.
It was clearly mutated.
This island had its terrain growing out in spirals—the material shifting from gold to iron and from iron to stone in a continuous pattern. The sand of the shore seemed white from afar. But Kaizen already figured out what it was.
Snow.
Orbiting the island was a strange object—it looked like a globe of some sort. As they got closer—Kaizen finally saw the effects of that very same orbiting globe. It rotated the island slowly—like how planet earth would rotate slowly.
A heavy gravitational pressure was constantly released from this sphere, the pressure slowly crushing down upon them from a distance. The members came outside one by one as they felt the shift in the air.
Looking ahead is when they saw it. But their eyes also fell on the water surrounding the island. It looked pressed in—as though the gravity around it was trying to flatten it further.
A collective of gasps were released. They were heard a second too late. Kaizen's Conqueror's Haki flared—Annihilation Energy then flowed into his aura as it merged into something terrifying.
His intent was then projected out in a straight, wide path. The increasing gravity was suddenly severed in a clear path—the water straight ahead in this narrow path no longer looked flattened like its surroundings. This was the effect of his newly obtained Annihilation powers merged with his Conqueror's Haki.
Kaizen however did not utilize much—he was not willing at the moment to have this destructive energy wreck his body just because he was eager to test his limits. It was not the time for that—not yet. That time would arrive soon, for now—he needed to continue forward.
They entered the narrow path paved for them. Kaizen and the others observed their surroundings cleanly. Remember I said there was a colossal forest behind the white shore? Yeah—they finally remembered that it was among the first things they'd notice when closing in on this island.
In front of them was the strange geographical phenomena that freakily welcomed that very same monstrous forest.
The trees were thick, too thick. As thick as towers—they shot into the sky, some even piercing the clouds as branches and leaves coiled and fell back down to the island with a deep dark shade of blue—the barks were of black as night. They didn't look like trees. They looked like pillars.
Coiling around some of these 'trees 'were literal titanic reptiles—snakes as big as the legendary Titanaboa—they rested as though the gravity had not affected them at all.
The members instinctively tightened their grips on their weapons as they took in their slumbering colossal figures. Kaizen raised his hand slightly—he warned the others that they shouldn't do anything reckless like flaring their auras to wake these monsters.
They slowly lowered their hands—cold sweat soaking their respective figures as they released a held breath.
Kaizen then turned to a team of CP members, his voice low yet audible.
"Deploy the anchor and drop the bridge. We'll have to leave the ship here as it's the weakest point of gravity suppression.
Raze, Nyx and the rest of CP7—you three move with me. CP4 and CP3 will remain behind, guarding the ship and standing by if needed.
Am I clear?"
His words weren't suggestions.
They were his orders.
The members gave a decisive nod—agreeing to his plan. Ever since they'd entered The Margin—and then Stillreach, Kaizen had been leading them effortlessly. It was because of his judgement that they were able to make it this far without losing a single member.
Soon, the ship was docked and the bridge was unraveled. Kaizen took the lead, his footsteps light as he shot forth in hurried steps. CP7 followed neatly behind him—keeping a few meters off, enough to guarantee adequate combat space.
The snow beneath their feet felt cold yet wasn't soft, it felt like gravel yet made no audible sound. Kaizen noted all this—Observation Haki had long since been projected. Yet, all he received back was literally static—basically nothing.
He reeled it back in as his pace slowed—within the forest it was no different than noon. It looked dark yet light was still apparent. Where was the light coming from if these trees were literally blotting out any and all light sources? No idea.
Kaizen and the others tensed their bodies—he looked ahead of him and there he saw it. A large nest made and shaped by geographical terrain that suited many of the gathered creatures up ahead. They weren't on all fours though—no they were bipedal, standing upright with large frames. Many stood taller than Kaizen.
Around them were the very same obsidian like trees that were thicker than pillars. However these looked different. They had grown out of the vertical ones—adopting a more swirling horizontal effect. Holes were embedded into the horizontal ones and windows were roughly carved out alongside them.
Upon first glance one knew, these were homes.
The creatures male and female—goat heads with cheater legs and bison torsos or some looking straight up like giant werewolves. Some even looked like different crossbreeds of multiple animals.
Kaizen and the others crouched low at this point—observing them from afar as they communicated with one another. Their language sounded ancient but they were able to decipher a bit of some conversations based off of their body languages.
"A civilization…" Nyx was the first to break the garnered silence. Her voice was nothing more than a whisper but, among them all who trained for missions like these—their hearing were exceptional.
"Yeah it seems like it. They look dangerous though, look at their frames. Though mostly chimera, they're already bigger than Kaizen here. That's gotta say something about their strengths, right?"
Corvin said in a somewhat nervous tone.
"Looks can be deceiving—" Raze followed up. "Kaizen in his own right is a monster by himself, you can't really compare others to him. Who knows, maybe they aren't as strong as they look."
His words were enough to consider. The others nodded as Kaizen had long since drafted up a plan. His hands rose slightly, he signaled to his teammates yet—WOOO!
Before he could even share that very same plan with them—a horn loud and tribal rang out as the Chimeras tensed.
"INTRUDERS! OUTSIDERS ARE UPON US!" An old and gravely voice bellowed out loudly as the Chimeras dove into their tree houses, returning a moment after with weapons of all kinds. Literally, all kinds.
Some had bazookas. Fucking bazookas—it looked strangely too advanced to be a regular one too. Not even modern day ones looked like that.
"Aw shit—" Was all Kaizen could say as two gigantic purple colored spheres of energy began concentrating at the mouths of the bazookas.
"DISPERSE!" He ordered frantically. He felt it—that energy wasn't meant to evaporate them. It was meant to crush them. Within the energy Kaizen felt a heavy level of gravity at its core center.
They were utilizing the orb's natural gravitational energy for their own creations. It was too advanced and too ingenious for such a backwater looking society!
THRUM!
Several large spheres of energy followed immediately, condensing like the previous two—then it shot out at that moment.
Kaizen and his men shot out in a burst of Soru and Doom Step respectively. Their shadows barely escape the combined level of destructive chaos that came with the spheres' arrival.
In the spot where they'd previously been, the ground itself tore open thirty meters wide and seventy meters deep. "H-Holy fucking hell man! They're tryna kill us for real—" Corvin shouted out frantically as he stood afloat using Geppo.
The others followed his example and also stood afloat with Geppo—taking cover behind the thick trees. Kaizen breathed out slowly, veins of anger slowly protruding his forehead.
'Fuckers…You wanna play like that? Bet.'
TO BE CONTINUED!!!