Chapter 225: Missing Pieces, Atlantis and King of the Beasts
_________ POV Narration _________
Enel cracked his neck as he looked over the piles of papers on his desk.
His gigantic ship was slowly approaching the atmosphere of the planet, braking through wasn't going to be an issue, but slowing it down and stopping it from crashlanding into the sea or the red line was going to be a bit more energy-consuming.
The journey from the moon to where he was now took him around a month. At least that was what the Automata that had been keeping track of time told him.
The Emperor was able to rest during the trip, the core he was carrying on the ship seemed to be enough to keep the ship floating in a straight direction for a few days.
He only rested a few hours each week anyway, most of his other time was spent on the papers that stood on the small metallic desk he had created in front of the throne.
The papers were essentially a thesis, a compilation of all the information he had gathered about the Moon People.
And it was... Extensive.
One thing was for sure, they hadn't stripped their city of history books, although their accounts were certainly one-sided and hard to trust.
They were, after all, one tribe among many. Maybe one of the bigger tribes, but still just one group that had plenty of enemies.
So they were never going to pain themselves badly under any circumstance, such was the pain of looking for history about a civilization in the archives of said civilization.
Enel still remembered having to compile different accounts to get a clearer picture of what happened back in his world.
But now there was no need for that. He only needed a basic idea of what had happened on the Moon and what tribes had reached Earth exactly.
And he got all the answers he needed...
The People of Birka were one of two tribes to reach the other world, while the others died on the way there.
The other tribe, however... They were the more interesting ones.
Their description immediately caught Enel's curiosity.
'A powerful combative race with a thirst for blood and control over fire.
Unlike our pristine white wings, they have dirty and impure black wings sprouting from their backs.'
They were said to gain their ability to control and produce fire because they were the tribe closest to the sun, but Enel had no way of verifying those claims, it was likely just tribal superstition.
It was obviously a description of the Lunarians, a race that Enel didn't think he would hear about on the moon.
'Weren't they supposed to be native to the Red Line? How long ago did the Moon People descend into the lower world anyway...'
The answer was certainly before the Void Century, they had ancient cities upon ancient cities. The world of One Piece still had many secrets.
But one thing was for sure... After coming down from the moon, the Moon People split up into the Skypeans, inhabiting various islands in the sky, and the Lunarians, inhabiting the Red Line.
Their politics on the moon were also rather complicated, most of the tribes that were destroyed were done by the war that occurred before they had even set out to reach the lower world.
There were apparently different types of moon people, with different types of wings on their backs.
It was rather strange to hear about pigeon and falcon people. But then again, the world he was in never really stopped surprising him. Its history was extremely vast and mystical, there was a place for everything there.
And Moon People were just one of many such surprises that one could come across when studying the history of the world.
Unfortunately, Enel wasn't able to find exactly what he wanted. He wasn't able to find anything about the Void Century, if anything, it seemed that the Moon People had descended into the lower world before that had happened.
But he did find another lead...
Apparently, there was a team of Ancient Birkans that had returned to their homes after the successful expedition to the world below.
They wrote of where most of their tribes had settled, as well as gave more details about what happened along the way.
They had lived their lives without leaving any offspring, and the Automata buried them in the mural built within the ancient city, before returning to their hibernation.
But the information from the 'Lower World' that they had left behind was what intrigued Enel the most.'
It spoke of a union between the two tribes that had descended, forming a great city at the precipice of the world's end.
'The World's End' was something Enel hadn't heard about before.
Thankfully, the ancient Birkans had left an explanation for him.
'A complete black void, water flowing into it from all sides, forming a ring of waterfalls. A scene from nightmares really.'
That was how they had described it.
In their words, it could've been nothing if not the very end of the world itself.
Falling down, meant falling off of the world to them, they were too scared to explore it. But in their hubris, they decided that the best course of action was to build their Grand City over it.
That was where Enel raised an eyebrow at first, not understanding where such a 'genius' idea could have come from.
But despite their technical genius, the Moon People seemed to be quite a superstitious civilization.
So maybe to them, building a city over that void meant plugging it and protecting the world.
Well, that was apparently their greatest mistake.
They named that city 'Great Atlantis', to Enel, it was almost an ironic twist of fate for it to be named that way, especially when considering the fate that had befallen it...
No one from the expedition that had returned to Ancient Birka knew what actually became of the city.
All they knew was that they were away for a few weeks, a grand Sea King fishing expedition to the Calm Belt.
And by the time they returned, the great city they had built was gone, alongside all of their families and compatriots.
Some jumped into the void, wishing to be reunited with their families.
Some took to the skies and the Red Line, reuniting with other remnants of their tribes.
Some even went ahead to form the 'New Birka' as a grand city in the skies of the New World, as far away from the void as possible.
Then there were those that had had enough of the cruel 'Lower World' and decided to return to their world and spend the rest of their lives in their ancestral homes.
They sought the help of the Thunder God Raijin to reach their homes once more, and he happily agreed to the support of the ones that were left behind in the Lower World.
The ones that had returned to Birkan spoke of an upcoming war in the 'Lower World' one that they had no interest in.
But the Ancient Lunarians seemed to have a great interest in it. They took the side of the Thunder God in fact.
Although the Birkans didn't know what came of that either, as they weren't present for the war.
And it was when finding that information, that a clearer timeline of events formed within Enel's head.
The expedition had happened sometime either during or right before the Void Century. That much was clear from the presence of Raijin.
There were also a few other conclusions that Enel was able to reach.
For one, there was the fact that the Moon People had somehow built their homes on top of what was currently called 'Enies Lobby'...
At the very least they seemed to be describing the 'Waterfall Ring' of Enies Lobby in their writings.
'Great Atlantis' that they had built on top of it was also most likely sunken deep into the waters below, maybe even carried away by some underwater currents.
Regardless, it was safe to assume all of its inhabitants were dead... Or Enel had thought so at first.
But then he remembered hearing about a constantly moving underwater city from two different people he knew he could trust.
Once he heard about it from Francisco, in regards to the way Xebec had somehow preserved his soul in an urn.
Then the second time he had heard of it from the old Thunder God, who claimed to have learnt the ritual to preserve himself from the people of that city as well.
So there was a possibility for the residents of Atlantis to have survived a while longer. Although Enel still couldn't confirm it.
Regardless, the accounts he had found thankfully painted a good picture of some of the missing parts they had regarding the Void Century.
There were still missing pieces, but at the very least the picture was becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day.
'... Robin and Larthy are going to enjoy these findings a lot. Hell, Robin might even ask me to take her to the underwater city.
That might make for a nice date after all of this is over... But for now, I should concentrate on entering the atmosphere of the planet without the ship falling apart...'
Enel's figurehead, which was the head of a spiked dragon, was already piercing through the atmosphere.
The Automata had scrambled and taken cover, as the ship heated up and bent unnaturally around them.
But they weren't worried, they trusted their new master. And they were right to put their trust in him.
The ship didn't remain deformed even for one second. Enel's hand clutched at his throne as his lighting spread out, covering the entire ship and reforming it with ease.
The only thing he couldn't repair were the dials that had broken due to the impact of breaking through to the world's atmosphere.
But that was fine, now that they had air, Enel could form and use a set of powerful turbines to propel the ship forward.
For a second, the Emperor feared that he would crashland into the sea, but he managed to stabilize the ship by controlling a few clouds to break their fall.
It took a lot of compressed clouds, but he managed to do it in the end.
And the Automata were finally able to come out on Deck, finally able to take a closer look at the Lower World most of their masters had abandoned them for.
Enel's room was also deformed, the walls being absorbed into the ship as they travelled through it and formed turbines throughout the ship.
The Emperor's research files were attached neatly and held within a book he clutched to his chest as he sat down on his throne and crossed his legs.
"Finally home, huh?"
The Sky King muttered before searching the chest pocket on his coat and taking out a small piece of paper.
The paper started slowly crawling in his palm towards a random direction, and the emperor immediately steered the ship towards it.
'Time to go back home... I'll leave my findings there and then I'll visit either Wano or Big Mom...
I still need to see if LinLin wishes to actually form an alliance with me. Here's hoping she hasn't had a change of mind.
I should also call the people back at home and let them know that we have visitors... Now that I think about it, maybe I should've called them beforehand?'
The Emperor scratched his chin for a bit, looking to the side with narrowed eyes before his gaze turned upwards.
'Nah, I don't think I'd have that much reception in space. I'll just use that as an excuse.'
And just like that, the Emperer started slowly cruising back home, thinking of his next course of action as he waited.
Waited for his plan to be put into motion, and for Nika to mature a bit more before he planned out his awakening as well.
As Enel was contemplating that.
A gigantic, brooding man with a body covered in scars finally stepped into the shores of Wano, finally climbing his way up the island.
He only had one hand, covered in an orange scale tattoo, his chest had scars all over it, and he had only one horn growing from the side of his head.
That man was none other than Kaido, the Strongest Beast, having finally returned home...
'Hmph! This place seems to have maintained itself in my absence... Well, the true king is back. I should make sure none of the slaves grew complacent in my absence.'
The Emperor then walked forwards, uncaring for any fearful gazes he received.
'Francisco and that bastard, Whitebeard... I'll make both of them pay.'
His thoughts filled with revenge, but calm at the same time. He was no longer agitated, no longer anxious, and didn't even feel the need to drink in fact.
No, why would he ever feel stressed?
He had finally reached a new level. He had achieved something he thought near impossible in the past... He had awakened.
And he would show the world, the wrath of a true dragon. The true King of the Beasts.
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Hope you liked the chapter! Finally got back to writing huh? Yep, I'm still alive and all is relatively well.
Just busy lately, looking to move out as well and that's taking quite a lot of my free time too.
Story Shoutout!(if you have any suggestion for a new shoutout lemme know) : The Last Observer
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