Chương 8: Changes
Calm Belts, Black Bay
On a vibrant Island in the Calm Belts, a sea of people gathered in the town square, their eyes fixed upward toward a colossal tv screen suspended in the sky.
The air buzzed with excitement as the atmosphere became charged with anticipation. The colossal display illuminated the dusk, projecting a larger-than-life depiction of a fierce, dynamic fight. The islanders, absorbed in the spectacle, cheered and gasped in unison, everyone on the island was here to watch the fight.
This Island is Black Bay, after many years of work, the island was renovated and its entire style changed, the houses, clothes and even transportation resembled a mid 20th century United States.
There were a diverse number of vehicles driving by, the infrastructure was also advanced with expansive highways, and development of an extensive road system.
Even Iconic structures like bridges and dams can be seen. The past 20 years from 1430 to 1450 saw a transformation in communication infrastructure, marked by the spread of television networks and the expansion of telephone lines all across the island.
But the concrete homes were empty at this time. Because everyone was in the town square watching the fight on the big screen that seemed to be occurring on another island.
…
On a random uninhabited island in the Calm belts, vibrations could be heard, and even the drones with recording cameras retreated further into the sky.
"One sword style - Bloom"
Ephon, who was in a long green and white robe with the insignia of a giant tree with long roots branded on its chest area, shouted as he sent a green moon shaped slash with his emerald sword at his opponent. Ephon still looked the same as he did 30 years ago, 8 feet tall, with slick back shoulder length black hair.
His opponent was Nolan, who looked to be in his 30s, with long blonde hair, black dress suit and pants, even as he was in a fight with Ephon he still exuded a noble aura.
From his young appearance it can be assumed that the aroma flower might also help in maintaining one's youthful appearance. But Nolan at this time was only focusing on the giant half moon shaped green slash coming towards him.
As he raised his cane like sword covered in haki above his head, blood seemed to be attracted to the sword as it completely enveloped it, Nolan didn't waste any time and slashed out with his blood red sword slash comparable to Ephon's.
'Humm'
'Bangg!!'
As the two slash met the sky was torn apart and the clouds were divided, the ground of the already destroyed island was cracked open in a zigzagged line. After their stalemate, both slashes started to slowly fade revealing Nolan and Ephon.
"Soru"
Both of them seemingly disappeared at the same time and appeared in front of each other with their swords covered in haki swinging at each other.
'Clin-ing'
Both their swords clashed sending a powerful vibration throughout the island, Ephon was pushed back one step and Nolan was almost sent flying backwards as he stomped down hard on the ground forcefully stopping himself from lifting off the ground.
"You're still a monster even if it's only swordsmanship, let's go and can still continue" Nolan said breathlessly looking at Ephon walking towards him with a smile on his face.
"Well I did say that I'm only gonna use swordplay to fight you, and you're not gonna use the awakened form of your blood blood devil fruit." Ephon replied.
Yes, Nolan has a devil fruit, and it is not a Paramecia, or Zoan but a Logia, he got this devil fruit between the time he ran away from home and the time he meet Ephon, and it functioned like any other Logia devil fruit with the ability to create and control blood. It is because of this devil fruit that Nolan would gain the name 'The Blood Collector' because one of its effects is its ability to suck the blood of anyone fully covered by his manipulated blood.
But the reason Ephon told him not to use his awakened abilities is because after its awakening, not only did Nolan gain the ability to turn his surroundings into his own blood domain, he also gained the ability to control the blood of anyone within a certain distance of him and even the ability to produce specific blood cells in his own body, like the stem cells, thereby slowing down his own aging.
'Soru' 'Shinng'
The two swords kept on colliding repeatedly but it was clear that Ephon was superior in terms of strength, and not only that, the weird thing about their fight is that it seemed that they were predicting each others move, and in the One Piece world, this can only be the result of advance observation haki.
'One sword style - Petals bloom'
'One sword style - Lunar Eclipse'
A green sword slash and a blood red sword slash collided canceling each other out, but while Nolan was gathering for his next attack he sensed an attack was gonna come from behind him aiming for his right chest.
'swishh'
Sensing danger, Nolan elementalized his body and divided it into two halves as an emerald green sword slashed in between the divided part of his body. While still transformed into the blood element as he regathered his body, Nolan raised his sword and slash behind him at where the attack came from.
'swishh'
But Ephon who had seen this coming ducked and as he retracted his sword, he slash downward horizontally at Nolan's feet. Nolan hurriedly jumped backwards avoiding the slash and sent a quick slash to slow Ephon down, while he regather himself.
'Clang!'
Seeing the slash coming towards him, Ephon met it head on, he already knew that Nolan wanted him to go around it to buy time to recover himself. But by the time he blocked the slash, what met him was a tsunami of blood heading in his direction. Ephon didn't panic and gathered his dark black haki covered emerald sword above his head, and slash at the tsunami of blood heading towards him.
'Bang!'
The clouds that had regathered had once again been divided revealing the bright shining sun, but the island seemed unable to bear this strike as it was almost divided in half. Even though he was not using his Conquers haki, some camera drones close to the island started falling to the ground.
Nolan was now transformed into blood, floating in the sky as he looked down at the island that was slowly sinking. If the island sunk he would really be at a disadvantage because while he is a devil fruit user Ephon wasn't, and it's not like he expected to win, he knew he was no match for this monster.
But he was brought out of his thoughts as Ephone had now moon stepped and headed in his direction at a fast speed.
Seeing Ephon calm breath despite them fighting for almost a whole day, Nolan reinforced his thoughts, he thought that if Ephon only fought him in pure swordsmanship he could at least fight him to a tie even without using his awakening ability, but with the island sinking that would be impossible and he guess that he might still lose even if this island didn't sink.
"Brother Ephon! let's stop here, the island can't take anymore, and although it's sinking we can definitely save it if we stop now, although this is outside of our territory, destroying an island like this would really be a waste"
Nolan shouted at Ephon as soon as he was in range with a logical argument that was hard to refute especially for Ephon who was raised by an island.
"I know what you're trying to do Nolan, but I also I agree, we really shouldn't be casually destroying Islands, call a team over" Ephon responded as he landed on the cracked island.
…
"Okay everyone the Island is destroyed, so we can't continue the competition, but I'm sure you guys had fun right?" a voice was heard from the giant screen in the sky.
"What! It's over? Aww man Elder Ephon and Elder Nolan looked like they could still fight for another day"
"Yeah, but it looks like they didn't wanna destroy the island, at least I had fun"
"I wanna to fight in the Family's Decennium Competition when I grow up"
"Me too! I'm gonna join Elder Apollo's school of combat"
"I'm gonna join Elder Agnes Dojo for Swordsmanship, you saw that fight"
"Okay Johny, it's time to go home, we don't wanna miss the train"
Different voices of discussion were going on, some people were disappointed they couldn't see the end of the fight, some kids were inspired and wanted to become like Nolan and Ephon, some wanted to train with Agnes and Apollo.
But the conversation gave an insight into some of the changes that occurred in the past 20 years.
It was in 1431 that Nature's Family realized a problem, their territory needed rules, because after they did a population census of their entire territory by the command of Ephon, they found that Black Bay had a population of 10 million people and was estimated to reach 25 million after it had been fully revolutionized and occupied.
And the entire Nature's Triangle population had about 30 million people, this included Black Bay, and small populated islands within the triangle. That was the population then, now the Triangle has a population of about 50 million and the reason it is considered a paradise despite having so many people is because of its governing system.
Ephon proposed a Marxist Family System which is combined with a Democratic system, which at the time left his family members confused.
But they didn't doubt that whatever crazy idea he came up with would work. And lo and behold when they heard Ephon's explanation they couldn't help but feel shocked by such a simple yet genius system.
In Ephon's system, everyone living in the Triangle is considered a family member, and at the highest of the hierarchy is what Ephon calls the Five Elders. This includes Ephon, Nolan, Lola, Agnes, and Apollo.
Although Ephon is technically the Patriarch, he told everyone to refer to him as Elder, only the older people sometimes call him patriarch when he's not around. At the bottom of the Elders is what Ephon calls the President, any normal family member born within their territory can qualify for this position, with physical strength as just a minimum requirement.
The president will be elected by majority vote among the people in the Family's territory. And the president has the right to select a group of Family members to form a council, whether they are born within the territory or outside of it.
This council is responsible for the creation of the rules in the territory, but all decisions they make have to pass through the Elder group before it is applied to the territory, and if the people are dissatisfied they can strip the President of his authority by unanimous vote, and re elect another president with the permission of the Elder group.
And thanks to this basic system, the first thing the council did at the advice of Ephon was establish a Police force, which is responsible for order on all the lands of the Family's territory.
They also formed their own marine, with advanced ships and weapons thanks to Ephon's wood creation and the scientist inventions. The kids that grew up within this 20 year period almost all dream of joining one of these forces to defend their home from pirates that sometimes break into the Triangle, even WG sometimes whether purposely or on purposely can be found within the territory and was either arrested or killed.
And with the help of the Family's self created newspaper called Triangle Times, that came along with the little comics, which created heroes who defended the family, all the kids wanted to become defenders of the family when they grow up.
Not to mention land trains, thanks to the sea train that travels from Black Bay to all the other human populated Islands within the triangle, moving around couldn't have been easier.
But Ephon knew that although Stability was good, if they wanted to produce strong men, stability would be a stumbling block. So they started Nature's Family Decennium Competition(NFDC) in 1440, where all family members were eligible to participate in combat base fights. And the three prizes is what Ephon hoped would motivate the family members, 500 million berries, 1 devil fruit, and a bottle of Aroma.
And the family members went wild, unlike the people of the other seas, the newspaper in their territory, reveals things that would be considered a secret even to some pirates of the sea and marines, so they are aware of the value of each of these items. And to restrain the pride of the fighters, after the competition, two of the Elders would engage in combat, fully displaying to the family members the strength of the peak of the seas.
…
Author Notes
Leave some comments on how I should go forward with the story, 'Ephon has a son by the way'.
1.) Just adventuring in his own territory, witnessing its transformation
2.) Going to sea for adventure
3.) His Son becoming a Pirate/Marine and switching POVs between 1 or 3
?
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