Chapter 35: Tasting my Inheritance
[Nius POV]
'Heh, he went like that without preparing that much. Let's hope that the boy isn't so stupid to get himself killed while diving down.'
'I bet he will come after some minutes back to take another breath of air."
Then after Nius waited around five to six minutes, he commented in silence again, "Or maybe not.'
'Damn this boy, one hour passed already. What tooks him so long? Don't tell me, he really found something there and he spends his time exploring around?'
'There's footsteps coming towards me, probably some worker checking on me or the boy, otherwise I can't see guards coming so deep. I should fake myself working to have a good excuse for them.'
Someone finally came out. It was a young boy, around 14 years old from his height, who looked around the zone. Seeing Nius cleaning the walls with a chisel tool, the boy asked. "Old Nius why don't you come out, the others are wondering where you and Zagreus are?"
"Do they? I want to be a bit alone, boy. As for Zagreus, he went out going to find his roommates. Don't bother with this dying old man. That's just my wish to spend more time here, as I approach my end."
"Sir, are you sure you're okay? If you have any problems with climbing up, tell me I will help you out."
"No need, boy. Thanks anyway for volunteering to come here. I bet those bastards forced you to come check on me, but it's all fine, go eat something and rest. You'll need it for the next day."
"Okay sir, see you tomorrow. Don't force yourself here, if you have any problem there's plenty of people who care about you." With that, the young man left, walking away from where Nius was.
'Phew, that was close. It kind of feels wierd to fool kids like him, but that's to not make others suspicious. If there are guards coming down after that kid, I really wonder how I can fool them.'
'Kid, you better hurry up, otherwise, this old man will have to suffer from being questioned by all those annoying idiots.'
Nius's wishes were all in vain. He had to wait more than he expected and fool the guards meanwhile with different stories. Even the thought of cooking another story for a future guard annoyed him.
'What's with those guards today? Aren't they taking their jobs too seriously, going as far as climbing down here to check if there are people left. Screw them, I had to act as a poor old man so many times that even my mental state starts changing. And yet those arrogant fucks bought my stories on the plate, leaving me alone for some time. But how long will they act like that before getting suspicious of me?'
'Kid I swear, if you make me wait longer than what I did so far I will beat the shit out of you, regardless if you think I'm a weak old man. It's been already 2 hours and some minutes, get your ass out you smelly brat.'
Suddenly right on Nius's face, who was staring at the hole, a boy exited from the hole, splashing Nius' entire body with water. Gasping for air, the boy quickly turned to look at a small creature right beside him that seemed to be dead.
Without even bothering to look at Nius, Vlad started giving the little some gentle chest pushes to get the water stuck inside the little creature's body.
Nius saw everything from the side and wondered, 'What is going on, since when did the boy had a pet with him. Did I start having hallucinations? Oh shit, the boy doesn't know how to treat that drowned creature.'
"Come little guy, breath. It would be pathetic to die like this." said Vlad, a bit sad as he tried his best to massage the gryphon hatchling chest.
"Blow air in the creature mouth, lad, and later continue with the chest massage until he gives out the water inside on his body.
Listening to Nius's advice, he dropped on the ground and got his mouth close to the little creature and started to blow air for him and later massage his chest.
After some tense moments for Vlad where he almost thought that he killed Aerius, the lite guy finally give signs of life and pushed the water in his chest out. He was coughing hard the water that got in his chest.
After he was done coughing, the gryphon stared at the dark roof of the mine floor and said in a weak voice.
"Have I reached the underworld?"
'By the gods, this small creature can actually speak in human speech. What did the brat discover inside the hole?
"Not yet little guy. You're still to young for Hades to even notice you. You're inside Atlas, more exactly where I live."
The old man heard a familiar name he once saw in the royal library, Atlas. But I couldn't remember what the name got used for.
Still, before he could ask Vlad what happened, he heard the weird creature curse Vlad.
"Screw you Vlad. You almost got me killed, that's how you treat your Guardian God?" said Aerius while still affected by the drowning he experienced.
"Sorry. Good that you're still alive Aerius. I would really feel bad for your older self, if he would find that you died by getting drowned by me."
As Vlad said that, he checked the bag made from his shirt, which contained the small chest from the inner chamber and the rest of the fruits he picked up for the kids and old man.
Nodding his head, only after that, he turned his attention on old Nius.
"Long time no see old man, I got you a present in hand for you."
[General POV]
Seeing Vlad shirtless and with a made-up bag full of unknown things made Nius look with curiosity at Vlad and later at the small creature that was still tasting the aftermath of being drowned.
He still didn't change his mind and decided to teach Vlad a lesson.
"Ohh kid, let me ask you something. Do you know how much time you spent exploring the waters?"
Laying back, he said. "Probably 2 hours or a bit more than that. Why do you ask, old man, did it cause you any problem?" when Vlad ended asking back, he started slowly to get on his feet.
The old man who was getting closer to Vlad said sarcastically, "Problems for me? What do you take me for little Zagreus, I can deal with most problems." when he was near Vlad, he kicked the boy's butt. "Damn kid, you made me spend 2 hours looking after this place. So many annoying idiots came to disturb me. You should hurry your ass and tell me what the fuck is down there?"
"That's right gramps, teach that bastard a leasson for Aerius. Good, good. It's been a while since I've seen a Vermilion getting beaten like that. Go, go, old man."
Started the little gryphon cheering for Nius as he started kicking Vlad around.
"Ahh, why hit so hard old man? Did you smash your head on the ground while I was out? Wait, don't hit again, I'll tell you what I found down there."
But before Vlad ended saying that, old Nius suddenly turned to look at Aerius as if he was possessed and asked him quickly.
"Little friend, what did you just said now, Vermilion?"
"That's right old man, you're beating the future king of Atlas, Vermilion Vlad." said Aerius in a relaxed manner.
When Vlad heard the little guy spilling the beans so fast, he facepalmed himself and only said. "Aerius, can't you even keep between us some things?"
The little gryphon ignored Vlad's words and only said, after sniffing the old man around for a bit saying to Vlad. "No worries Vlad, the old man smells just like Charles when he was young. Tell me old man, are you by chances called Galeon?"
The old man's face turned serious and looked deeply in the eyes of the small creature. "That's indeed true, my name is Galeon Nius. Who you might be little guy?"
"Me? I'm called Aerius, the Gryphon King. From what Vlad told me, my older self calls himself as such. People of Atlas should be more familiar with my title the Guardian God of Skies."
"Impossible!? I finally remember what that Atlas meant. After losing the great war, the Sun King got his once-great kingdom called Atlas destroyed overnight. People of Atlas have been killed indiscriminately. Only the oldest families of Atlas, together with the royal family, survived by hiding for hundreds of years before resurrecting the former Atlas under a new name Kaysang.
Guardian God, by the records, you should have been killed by the enemy. You died in battle together with your other brothers Guardian God of Seas and of the Land, not lastly his Majesty The Sun King Vermilion Louis.
As Nius assaulted small Aerius will all short of new information, Vlad took over and said to the old man. "I should be able to explain to you a bit of what happened at that time. Don't get to excited with this little guy. He's suffering the side effects of great powers that let him stay alive in a stone like state since the great war of the old era. In short the little guy only remembers the memories of that small form of his. Surprisingly he grew up with Louis, my ancestor."
"Your ancestor? Kid, this is your secret? You're in fact a Vermilion, are you really Lucius son?"
"Hmm, I don't know who this Lucius is, but I'm a Vermilion since I passed the test placed by Louis in order to get his inheritance. Also the small guy can smell the blood of people he knew, such as you and me. I even meet your ancestor old man."
Old Nius didn't expect much from this exploration that Vlad took. Still, the assault of all news coming in his direction gave him a headache, and so he dropped down next to Aerius. He would steal some looks at him, but mostly he was focused on Vlad's face, who placed a shirt full of fruits that also contained a small chest.
Vlad took that chest in hand and started to observe the lock on the chest. It seemed that the chest wasn't even locked, making it easy for Vlad to open the chest after removing the chains on it with a pickaxe.
'Let's see what's inside this chest that Louis would go so far to place it for the next board player.'
With that in mind, Vlad slowly opened the chest and found inside a small crimson apple with weird patterns.
Aerius looked confused at that fruit. He felt something weird about that fruit as if it had his own spirit.
Meanwhile, when Nius saw that fruit inside the chest and how ready Vlad was to eat it, he wanted to check.
"Boy you know what is that right? That's a devil fruit that will give you immense powers, but at the cost of losing your ability to swim."
"Yes, I know that. Louis already told me everything I should know. This is my inheritance old man, don't worry. Why would the old ancestor scheme me, after he failed and died?"
As he said that, he took a large bite out of the fruit and gulped it down without any hesitation.
Suddenly, instead of the sweet taste of an apple that he envisioned, a rotten taste entered his mouth. It was so bad that even dirt could taste better than the fruit in question. With a disgusted and wrinkled face, Vlad started to spit the leftovers of the fruit.
[*Blood. The power to control your blood and others.*]
"Argh, this fruit really is disgusting. Those dead people couldn't even bother telling me this? Still, good that the rest of the fruit just a simple apple."
Saying that he eat the rest of the apple casually as if the first reaction of his never happened.
Seeing the intense gaze of Aerius and Nius, he said especially towards the old man. "It's as the ancestor said. The power I gained are of a Blood-Blood fruit. It gives me the power to control my blood and others."
"Interesting, so the Sun King also had this power. Lad, you become a Blood Human. For you to know, around the 4 seas there are not many devil users. I'm referring to people like you, who got to eat devil fruits. Most of them are on the Grand Line, abusing their newfound powers or protecting people from the same abusers."
"I see, so that's how it is. But how do you know about all this stuff old man? Sure you might be one of Charles descendants, but this doesn't change the fact that you're just a miner working most of your old days here?"
Laughing at Vlad's question, he smiled, saying. "A man of my age is required to know about many things. So what if I know about devil fruits, it's not like it is a forbidden knowledge also I can die peacefully anyway. Knowing about this information will not change my future of not eating a devil fruit. However, you'll find out once we reach famiy talk"
"Still, what is done is done. Take the good parts of this ordeal. You can become more powerful with the devil's powers than without one. Also, you have to remember one thing regarding those devil fruits. There's never a bad devil fruit, only bad users.
"Besides, did the founding king really described his devil fruit? Then it means you really hit the jackpot kid."
"You think I hit the jackpot or that I made up all this stories? You don't even know how shit my powers must be right now. The dead guy even specified that I might get angry that my powers will be weak at the start. I need training and knowledge. Quoting his words."
"Right, hey Aerius, did you got better from the drowning." asked Vlad while looking at the small gryphon who was lying on the ground as if it was a cat.
As in response, Aerius got on his feet and jumped on Vlad's head, anchoring himself around Vlad's long hair.
Seeing that the little guy was fine and dandy, he turned towards the old man and asked him.
"So old man. Our families are even more closer than I expect, but before we get to talk about family are you interested to find what's inside the hole?"
The old man, still seated on the ground, gave a slight chuckle while looking at the interesting combo of Vlad's jet-black long hair that was flowing over his shoulder and back which had a cat-like creature hanging around on top of his head.
"Sure, we got some time on our hand. Let me hear what's inside."
"Okay, old man, I will keep it as simple as possible." said Vlad looking Nius in the face. Noticing the old man giving his approval, he started narrating.
"So all started when diving down, everything there is swallowed by waters. Going forward, I noticed that I was inside a large pathway leading me somewhere. I swam underwater until almost all my air resources got depleted. Luckily I managed to find an opening to breathe some air. While I was there, I noticed the statues of two giant human guards facing each other with their spears. Those statues had a message on them that I tried to descifrate, that contained only the works await and worthy."
"After that, I started going forward, passing the stone guards and entering a smaller pathway. It had the walls covered with pictures of different creatures from average to big, as large as the wall was, so those images were depicted. But that's not everything. The most imposing image was of a temple standing tall on the wall alone. It was the carving that had the most detail imbued into it. One thing is for certain old man, the place I entered suffered a lot under the wrath of time.
After leaving the pictures carved on the wall, I entered the staircase section going to the surface. It was right there, old man, that I almost lost my little life. Still, it went well. I managed to get to the surface of the body of water. What to expect? The water body was looking close to a lake filled by some large waterfall spilling its waters into it. Getting out of the lake, it waited for me a dense forest, so green that I couldn't imagine such scenery existed. I went forward. There were all kinds of birds out there, even talking ones. Have you ever heard of talking birds, old Nius?" stopped at that point Vlad to ask Nius about the weird birds.
"That's a species that used to live in our lands, they are called parrots in other places. Also from what I know, those parrots can only copy what the one speaking to them says. But this is still fascinating boy, your story so far is worth millions of bellies if it is told to the world." Commented old Nius on the bird Vlad was referring to.
"Indeed, those parrots bird can only mimick what we say so they can trick others with our sound. We found out after using Aerius to talk with those birds.
"The little guy can talk with animals?" asked Nius, a bit disturbed.
"Yes old man, I can do many things. How can I a mighty gryphon not be able to do things?" started Aerius boosting from the top of Vlad's head with a proud face.
"That's great, little friend. But back to the story." asked Nius with an expecting face.
"Continuing from where I stopped. Passing the flock of birds I spotted a zone full with fruit trees, the same fruit I got in the shirt right now. But I digress with that. What awaited me after the fruit tree zone was a stairway climbing a high mound, you could see the full view of the waterfall from the top of the mound, while on the other side what was left hidden, covered in moss was the ruins of a temple. From the sides, the temple had the fragments of a head belonging to a snake-like creature. At the other side of the entrance was the head of a giant hippopotamus."
Old Nius listened quietly to Vlad's narration. Vlad did his best to describe the view he had, and for that, Nius couldn't retort one bit. The last part with the two creatures left him thinking of tales he used to hear when being a kid, but he scoffed at those initial thoughts.
Vlad continued narrating about how he cleared the way inside. "So, after removing the debris of rocks, I managed to create a path inside the temple. The only bad side was that I had to crawl. It went all good when getting inside, I had some problems with the narrow side, but I didn't mind that. Inside the temple awaited me, a pressure that washed over me. Not long after that, a staircase going down that had from all sides soldiers with stabbed swords on the ground. It led me to a chamber supported by columns ornate with all different carvings, and that's where the statue of your ancestor was. At the end of the chamber was waiting for me, a door guarded by a giant creature who seemed to be depicted in life-size.
Head of an eagle, body of a lion, four enormous wings, a very long feathered tail, and sharp talons. In short, that someone was the adult size of this little guy on my head."
"That's right. I'm really strong, so you better treat me with more respect, especially you Vlad." boasted Aerius again but was flicked again by Vlad.
"Shh kid, we know that you're strong and mighty. Let us continue our talk." said Vlad while giving Aerius a fickle with his long fingers.
Old Nius interrupted Vlad with a shocked face saying. "Let me guess, when you arrived there and touched Aerius' statue, the spell holding him lifted and the Gryphon King started testing you and talking to you."
"Indeed, he confirmed straight away that I had the smell of a Vermilion in me and later started talking about how he got scammed. Later he sent a message from Louis that was a bit confusing for me.
Such as me having to deal with the Great Priest or finding the successor of Joy Boy wills.
'Great Priest?? Could it be that forgotten person from the records? Joy Boy? This name doesn't ring a bell too.'
"Continue on with the story, we'll let those unknown things for family talk."
"Fine, old man. As Aerius finished his message from Louis, which placed a lot of sensitize about the fact that my era will be the one to end them all. They failed to win against the Great Priest and so they are only hopping on us poor descendants of his to help him out."
"Than as the message ended, the spell on his body started working, reversing Aerius' body and mind to his young self. That's temporary, but who knows actually when he will recover.
Then came a challenge from Louis generals, which were lead by your ancestor, that gave me a hard time winning over them.
I encountered some problems while fighting them, but everything turned out to be fine. He left a similar message, such as Louis, only that he placed the idea that I can also become like this guy if I get drunk on power.
Right, as I passed the test easily, the open to the rewarded inheritance room was also a thing. Entering inside, I spotted the giant statue of Louis, and I'll be honest with you, he looks really close to me.
"No kid, it's you who are looking close to him." replied Nius while grooming his white beard.
"Ahem, where was I. Right, on the center of the statue feet was the chest with the devil fruit. While on Louis' side was a big cube with weird writing inscription that neither me or Aerius managed to figure what it was. Charles said something about the cube being the work of the Kozuki clan."
"WHAT!? Hey kid, said again, what was at the side of the founder king?" asked Nius, seeming a little agitated.
"Well, inside the room guarded, was a quite large cube with a weird writing system that I couldn't decipher even after spending 20 minutes inside." spilled everything that happened while inside.
"FUCK! Why here? Why appear now? Damn kid, did you bring your bad luck towards me too?" said Nius pissed after understanding the situation he was in.
"What the fuck? Why say that old Nius? Do you know something about those cubes that you're so scared? Don't worry we'll figure out what to do in no time." Questioned Vlad back, not understanding why the old man was stressing so much over the cube inside the temple, especially when it held a message that might not even be of any help to him.
....
A/N: Finally, you guys have the reveal of the Devil Fruit. At first glance doesn't seem that much, but believe me guys this Devil Fruit is an abomination of a fruit SSS tier.
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