The sea was eerily calm. Linda and Ren navigated their primitive ship with ease, but neither of them could stave the anxiety in their hearts.
They were about to face the most dangerous and deadly fight they had ever fought. Linda was constantly skipping around and shouting orders while Ren was almost mute, both signs of their distress.
"Are you sure it's around here?" Ren asked, finally deciding to speak out.
"Yes. I am positive, Siry says it's here, so either it's wrong or the thing is just hiding and waiting to strike at us. Probably the latter." She said with a grim face.
Ren couldn't help but sigh. "This is a terrible idea..." He murmured before creating a barrier in the air and jumping on it. The barrier-cum-platform floated up high in the air, far from the crippling disease that was saltwater.
Linda stared up at him, somewhat stupefied. "You can do that? Since when?"
Ren smiled but didn't respond. Linda rolled her eyes and stopped the ship before sitting down at the tip, staring into the water.
Squinting her eyes, she tried to pierce the absence of light in the water and see what was below. Two red eyes stared back.
"Jesus Christ!" She screamed in surprise, swiftly jumping away from the ship. Two huge maws soon crushed the ship before returning to the water.
Before Linda could land in the water, Ren formed a barrier under her, allowing her to remain safe in the air.
"What... What is that thing?" She asked Ren, her heart pumping. That thing had scared the living hell out of her.
"That's definitely not the kind of Sea King I know. I've seen a couple, and while they're big, they're nowhere near that big and strong." Ren commented, feeling shaken as well.
As the water began to boil and a shape rose from it, Ren carried the two of them over a hundred meters in the air, just to make sure they were safe.
A beast, easily over 300 meters long, rose up, displaying its mighty power with an earth-shaking roar. It looked like a snake, however, it's mouth was more like that of a crocodile, and it was far too big to be a snake.
"So... This is the king we're supposed to kill?" Ren asked sarcastically.
"Yup. That's him." Linda said, licking her lips seductively. "I can't wait to chop its head off and watch as it spasms like a dead chicken." She added.
Ren rolled his eyes but said nothing. It was a do or die situation at this point, and they couldn't back out, and the more time they wasted the bigger the risk he wouldn't be able to hold his barrier.
Seemingly agreeing, the giant let out a blood-curdling roar and charged at them, it's jaws large enough to swallow ships whole.
Linda tensed up and leaped towards the incoming beast, roaring out as well. The two met in an epic clash of titans, and as was easily predictable, Linda got flung back pretty far.
However, considering her small but dense mass against a large but much less dense mass, she delivered quite a serious blow. The scales of the beast's forehead had cracked, and it was bleeding quite a bit. Nothing serious for something of such immense size, but impressive nonetheless.
"Double sledgehammer!" Ren yelled as two cube-like barriers formed on both sides of the beast's giant head and smashed against each other. The beast quickly moved away, but it was still hit pretty hard.
Just as the beast was about to recover and attack the semi-defenseless Ren, Linda jumped out from the water and punched the snake's torso, sending it back into the waters.
Ren quickly formed a platform under Linda's feet and brought her up to where he was. She was breathing hard and one her arms was bent the wrong way. She snapped it back into position with a slight grimace.
"That was fairly easy. What kind of abilities is it gonna pull out of its ass now?" Linda asked rhetorically.
"My bets are on laser beams from the mouth," Ren predicted, and sure enough, a laser beam of destruction broke through the water, aimed straight at them.
Ren swiftly formed a huge barrier in front of them, and the mighty beam slammed against it. The barrier cracked, but it held long enough for the two of them to move out of the way. Only then did the barrier give in and shatter.
"Alright. You won that bet, if we survive this, tonight you get to choose the position." Linda said as she threw herself down against the emerging giant monster.
"Now's not the time for that!" Ren yelled, embarrassed. He quickly got back on track and he soon joined Linda on their adventure of whack-a-mole, where the mole was a giant snake of doom.
After a full hour of this, both parties retreated back to their safe grounds, about equally injured. The sea king retreated into the deep sea, many of its scales broken and even suffered a severe injury in one of its vital organs.
Linda was breathing raggedly. She had been hit several times by the snake's lasers and head-butts, hence suffering severe burns in multiple places as well as a lung rupture, which wouldn't be lethal but was certainly annoying and painful. Annoyingly painful.
"This is going nowhere. I won't be able to hold us up for much longer, I'm at my limits already." Ren stated. He had continued to slam hammers, swords, spears, and anything he could create using his barriers to deal most of the damage. Since Linda couldn't fly and struggled to deal any significant damage, he was the main damage-dealer.
Linda bit her lips. "I know... but what to do?"
Ren didn't have anything to say. Not that he didn't want to, he just had no solutions to their predicament.
Linda took a deep breath and clutched her chest, her lung flaring up in pain. She cursed loudly as an unexpected laser attack struck them from behind, not allowing Ren the time to shield them.
"Oh my god!" Linda screamed as Ren lost control of his devil fruit and the barriers sustaining them disappeared, giving them a free high-dive from hundreds of meters above the surface.
Linda quickly grabbed Ren and shielded him with her body, taking the brunt of the impact with the water. Whoever says that it is better to slam against water than against ground, is a complete and utter idiot -Linda
A column of water rose on the spot where the water and Linda made contact, her robust body tanking the majority of the hit, however, her shoulder was shattered and her spine almost broke.
She wheezed at the pain, and gathering the last remaining parts of her strength, threw Ren as high as she could in the air. He caught on to what she was doing, and the moment he stopped rising and was about to fall back down, he created a barrier under himself.
He had no chance of surviving in the water. Linda had... almost none, but that's better than 0, right? At least those were Linda's thoughts as she floated down.
'This was a terrible idea...' Linda thought as she saw a titanic shadow approach her.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
She knew this was the end. Her body refused to listen to her, 75% of her bones had been broken, the majority of her blood had been lost and she was running out of air.
In short, she was going to die.
The thought struck her like a thunderbolt. She didn't want to die. Not yet.
Despite that thought, she felt numb. Almost like the whole world revolved around her in third person. A familiar sense, in a way, and one she refused to go through again.
She struggled with all her might, trying to force herself to move. However, she was no main character with plot armor (...).
Just as she saw the jaws of death closing in around her, a small screen appeared in front of her eyes.
Do you wish to sacrifice everything to survive? Y/N
Without thinking about it, she mentally shouted 'Yes! I don't want to die again! Let me live a life worth living!'
The moment after, darkness overtook her and her consciousness fell into the deepest depths of the abyss known as sleep.
----------------------------------------
"Linda! Jump out, QUICK!" Ren yelled at the top of his lungs. It had been 2 minutes since she fell in the water, and the giant figure of the sea king was quickly approaching the spot Linda had fallen in.
Despite not being a devil fruit user herself, Linda wasn't indestructible. She had taken far too many hits, and now she couldn't swim.
Ren felt tears well up in his eyes. Why? Why must this world be so cruel to him?
First, they took his family. Then, they took his freedom. Then, they took away his youth. Finally, he thought he had gained something, a friend, a loved one. And now, they wanted to take it away again?
"CURSE YOU, YOU FUCKING SNAKE! CURSE YOU AND THIS FUCKING WORLD!" Ren roared, manifesting his wrath into a single attack.
A titanic spear-like barrier appeared over his head, over 20 meters in length and reflecting an evil light.
"Die!" Ren roared as he threw the spear down against the sea king.
However, at that moment, something borderline magical happened.
The impervious sea king was suddenly thrown out of the water, it's nearly 300-meter long body thrown away like a useless ragdoll. A couple of seconds later, a loud splash resounded as a huge wave was formed by the snake's landing. (you could also say... watering...)
Then, like a god rising from the deepest parts of the world, the sea slowly parted as Linda rose up, flying.
"No... That's not right..." Ren's eyes widened as he looked at 'Linda'. No matter what, the woman he was seeing was not the Linda he knew.
Her eyes which used to contain an eternal fire and will to struggle were replaced by cold, dead eyes. Her movements seemed almost mechanical, and a strange radiance spread out from her body.
Meanwhile, the robot-Linda looked at the scared sea king, who had swum a good distance away, re-evaluating its opponent.
"Initiating termination of system-supported aid. Protocol 'Final Sacrifice' has been confirmed." The robot-Linda stated in a mechanical voice with no emotion whatsoever.
"Choosing most fitting devil fruit for the host... Fruit found. Initiating consumption."
A strange devil fruit suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the robot-Linda's hand. This fruit looked similar to a regular apple, however, it contained many tentacle-like drawings, all spreading from a central figure that resembled a jaw.
Then, in a somewhat anti-climactic manner, the robot-Linda shoved the fruit down her throat.
In a less anti-climactic manner, clouds suddenly appeared in the sky as a cold wind picked up.
"What... What's going on? Linda! Come back to yourself!" Ren tried shouting, but to no avail. He wisely chose to keep out of this, as he felt something was off... very off.
"Consumption successful. Awakening devil fruit... Awakening successful. Initiating erasure of hostilities..."
As the sea king heard this, it's manor completely shifted. If before it seemed more like a robot, only making cold decisions and acting rationally, now it seemed to return to its primitive state of mind.
It let out a mighty roar that shook the ocean as it charged at the robot-Linda. However, her expression didn't change at all as she extended her right hand towards it.
Her flesh seemed to suddenly turn into a slime-like form before it began extending and contorting into a huge net-like form.
Just before the sea king could viciously trample and devour the robot-Linda, her hand expanded in a strange mist of weird, pinkish-red flesh, even larger than the huge sea king.
The monster cried out in fear and tried to retreat underwater, but the flesh fiercely grabbed it, confirming it to certain doom. Before Ren could realize what had happened, the sea king had been completely enveloped by this weird flesh and somehow, sucked back into robot-Linda's arm.
Just like that... The enemy they were just about to die to, had vanished. Ren couldn't believe his eyes. He had gotten used to weird things these past years, but this... This was another level.
Lightning started to roll off of Linda as her muscles visibly began to bulge and expand. Her whole body inflated as the strength of the most powerful beast of One Piece entered her, empowering her.
If the normal Linda had been around, although she wouldn't have died, she would have wasted 90% of the power due to misusage of her abilities. However, the robot-Linda was a perfect robot created by the weird system. Waste was not in its vocabulary.
"100% of strength absorbed... Energy powers absorbed... Storing for later usage. All requirements met: system shutting down...
Thank you for coming to this world, we hope you have a wonderful life. Please rate and subscribe during your next after-life."
Right after finishing the sentence, the weird entity seemed to leave Linda as she fell down from the skies, unconscious.
"Linda!" Ren cried out. He quickly formed a barrier under her and jumped over to her location.
Checking her heartbeat, he heaved a sigh of relief as he felt a steady pumping. He hugged her tightly to his chest as he stuttered, "I... I thought you were going to die..."
Feeling that his power would run out soon, he quickly jumped back to their boat, which had miraculously survived the huge battle. There, he wanted to patch up Linda but found that she was already in pristine condition.
As he laid her down and sat next to her, a voice suddenly whispered into his ear.
"Your time is up."
In that mere second, he felt his mind be flooded with information. He bent down and screamed in pain and denial at what he just received.
'You're just a puppet..."
"You have no worth..."
"You don't belong here..."
"You aren't real..."
"Return to us..."
"Wait... Just... Let me speak with Linda one last time..." Ren pleaded. He was close to crying, but he held it off.
"Yessss... Just three minutes. No more."
"Thank... Thank you..." Ren whispered and turned his eyes towards the sleeping form of Linda.
So many questions, previously unanswerable, now seemed so simple. Despite this... He felt content. He knew Linda had lied to him about many things, hid her true self from him, but he knew.
He knew she loved him. And he loved her.
What a tragedic ending, Ren snorted. If only he had been less block-headed. Sure, they had sex, but they never truly confessed. So many regrets, so many feelings.
As he felt her stir, he grabbed her hand and held it tightly. If before, she was like a mountain, hard and unconquerable, now she was steel. The sheer power of her body far surpassed anything he could imagine, but he didn't care.
Because what was inside, was weak and helpless.
As she opened her eyes, Linda seemed in a daze. She looked at Ren with tired eyes, asking: "Did... Did we do it?"
With a full-blown smile, Ren answered, "Yes. We did it."
She smiled back, "That's good..."
taking a deep breath, she was about to say something when Ren shut her up with a kiss. Her eyes shot open, and a second later, shot opened them even more as memories, and new information, flowed into her head.
She struggled to get free, but Ren didn't let her. Only after a minute did he let her go.
Again, before she could say anything, he took the initiative and spoke. "I know. I know everything."
Hearing this, Linda cried out, "Why? Why must it be like this!? Why must you leave me?? After everything I did, don't I deserve happiness?" She started bawling, grabbing Ren and holding him close.
"I... Don't know. It is not my duty to decide this." He said. For another minute, they held each other in each other's arms.
"Please don't go..." Linda pleaded.
It should have been obvious. Noob Island, Ren, the kings... Everything was made up by the system for her own enjoyment. And yet, wasn't this counterproductive?
It should have been obvious. How could Ren, a devil fruit user, and a weak one at it, survive a storm like that? How could he randomly find an uncharted island, that no one else can enter or even find?
"Listen to me, Linda." Ren held her hands as he smiled at her.
"Don't give up your dreams because of me. Do what you want, this is your life. I am not everything that is good. Go find yourself a real loved one. Go accomplish your dreams, don't dwell on me too much. Move on." Ren said as his body started to shine and small light particles floated away, carried by the wind.
"Wait... No! Please! I can't move on! I beg you, tell me something I can do for you, anything!" So I can move on, is what she wanted to add, but felt embarrassed to say.
Ren smiled and shook his head. "Alright... My life may have been fake, but that of my parents was not. This world is not fake, nor is the corruption within it. Linda." He called out to her and looked straight into her eyes as his body faded more and more away.
"Listen, the injustices that are occurring in this world... They cannot be stopped. They never will. However, I want you to punish this world for everything it stands for. The rot, the thing, it must all be washed away. Take the revenge I have always dreamed of for me. Can you do that?" Ren asked, his body now illusionary and starting to fade away.
Linda cried and nodded. As she felt Ren vanish from her very arms, her tears refused to stop.
Like that, she was left alone. Sitting in a boat, in the middle of nowhere. The island had disappeared, her food had disappeared, and most importantly, Ren had disappeared.
All that was left was herself, and a devil fruit with barrier-like symbols on it.