The Great Revenant, an one piece fanfic

The Great Revenant

Prelogue

A beautiful field, covered in lush flora and colorful fauna. At the outskirts of some forest that met the field, he was playing with his daughter as his wife looked on. She had died long before he had, and he was so very happy to finally get to see his two great loves again. He had forgotten his name. He had been in the heavenly realm far too long to remember such earthly possessions. The only names he needed to remember were when his wife called him dear and his little girl called him daddy. Every day went on like this for what seemed a blissful eternity. He was well aware that he had died long ago; couldn't really remember why or how and didn't really care to

His morning routine was perfect:

Wake up

Kiss the wife good morning

Wake up the little one

Race her to an amazingly cooked breakfast

Spend the day playing and laughing together

Fall asleep counting the stars and telling stories

Repeat.

Things seemed to go on this way for as long as he could care to remember. Then slowly, gradually, it all started to change. Every day the sky got a little greyer, fading slowly from its usual brilliant blue. The breakfast got a little colder and diminished just so in quality that he was able to notice. His little girl would be harder and harder to get out of bed until she would end up missing breakfast altogether, something that he started to consider doing himself more and more as the days went on. He would go out into the decaying field trying to catch his daughter who seemed to actually be running from him rather than just playing some game. His wife would be nowhere to be found at times, randomly showing up out of nowhere with an increasingly sad look in her eyes.

It wasn't long before he awoke alone one faithful day to a sky that looked as if it was about to unleash a typhoon. He went to the field, now full of soggy, deathly brownish and grey clumps of grass at the outskirts of some burnt down forest that met field. He saw his wife holding the hand of his little girl and both of them had their backs turned to him. He ran to them and grabbed his wife's shoulder and spun her and his daughter around. They were both sobbing and spoke only one phrase through their tears

"We will be waiting for you"

All at once some unseen force shot him away from everything he had once known. The field whizzed by, the forests and quaint cottages flew past him as he went flying by. The sky, the ground, the food, the smells, the sights, the feelings, the memories; everything was dragged out and away from him almost quicker than he could comprehend.

He was met with blackness. An all-consuming blackness that overwhelmed all of his senses. Very far off in the distance, he could hear something. What was it? As it got louder he could tell it wasn't really a sound so much as the same sound being repeated over and over again. Was it some sort of machinery? Was it a waterfall? It kept getting louder and louder. He could make out a voice, now more than one, now many voices. They were all saying something, saying it together it a language he didn't understand. They were chanting this phrase over and over again, always louder and louder still.

Ooo aaaaahh, ooo kahh, Kohh keshhhh

Ooo aaaaahh, ooo kahh, Kohh kesh!

When he opened his eyes again, the light blinded him. His body was racked with pain as he struggled to look around and see where he was. His eyes adjusted and he realized the room was illuminated with a many candles of varying hues of red, purple, and black. They were in some sort of old structure. It looked very familiar, and the illustrations that covered the walls seemed strangely nostalgic to him. They were very heroic, showing a man defeating a great many large beasts, giants and mythological creatures.

Even with the candles it was still very dark in the room he was in. The chanting had now ceased and he noticed that all the dark hooded figures were now looking at him in fear and awe. As he sat upright, they all jumped back and a few shrieked in terror. As he continued looking around, He noticed that he was in the center of a very intricate symbol that had been drawn on the ground of which neither the figures nor the candles intersected. What every the symbol was drawn with was glowing a red-ish purple, and he had some odd sixth-sense that leaving this symbol would be impossible for him. As the figures slowly regained their postures, a few of which were still noticeable trembling, a stout figure with a darker robe than the rest let down his hood. The sight of him was terrifying. Scars littered his face and seemed to go down his neck, possibly covering the rest of body. His hair was a silvery grey and very long. He was bald on his crown except for a very thin mohawk that joined with the rest of his hair. His left eye was the color of pus and his right one as beady as a rodent's. This one was clearly the only experienced figure here as his face shone with joy as he looked on at the spectacle before him.

"Fetch me the fruit!"

He said in a voice that did not match his appearance in the slightest. He spoke with the commanding tone of a well-seasoned warrior, a voice full of vigor and grace. One of the other figures returned with something on a small pillow that was covered by a cloth, both of which were the same color as his robes.

"Great hero, my name is Starch and I hold in my hands a great power,

one which you will use to help us in our goals.

You have been entered into a contract that you are

Obliged to accept lest you wander the

Earth a rotting corpse forever. By eating

this fruit, you agree to be my slave and

do my bidding. When I sever the contract,

you will be laid to rest."

The sight of the fruit made his insides burn with hunger. The he realized he had not actually moved other than sitting up and moving his eyes to look around. He raised his hand to reach for the fruit as pain shot up his arm. He slowly rose to his feet as the his body screamed with pain from not having moved in so long. He limped closer to the fruit, arms outstretched when his hand bounced off something he could not see. The symbol glowed brighter momentarily as he did so.

"Oh, I almost forgot about that" Starch said cackling.

"No reason to keep the surprise hidden now"

He removed the cloth to reveal a very shiny metallic object. It had over lapping scales that resembled scythe blades. He couldn't understand why, but the Great Hero could feel that the fruit was something evil, something vile that could only cause pain and suffering. It was the key to getting back to the realm that he belonged and away from the one which he never should have returned to.

"This is a very special type of fruit, unlike any other" Starch said, cackling again

"This is the Legendary Reap-Reap fruit and it will turn you into a Reaper man,"

He tossed the fruit into the circle and the Great Hero's hunger forced him onto the fruit in an instant as he gobbled it down like an animal. As soon as he had, regret washed over him. He screamed aloud as the fruit intertwined itself with his DNA. He looked around at the cloaked figures in the room, the hunger now greater than before and so too was the pain. A few of the figures stumbled and were now shaking on the ground. To the Great Hero, they smelled of the most succulent meat and wine. The Hero looked at each figure individually, taking hint of the smell coming from each of them. He stopped at one who immediately fell to the ground when he met the Hero's gaze, who's moth began to water at the stench. It was at this moment that the Hero realized it was their fear he was smelling, because as soon as he looked at this poor sour, the stench overwhelmed the Hero and seemed to fill the room.

Starch took note of this and ordered the man to be thrown into the circle. He was done so kicking and screaming and begging for his life.

"I offer you a gesture of good faith. You can have this one now, and then maybe a few more later"

The Hero gazed deep into the eyes of this minion who was paralyzed like the mouse before the great Cobra. He instinctually put his hand on the minion's face. The delicious smell was overwhelming the Hero's senses now. Once he knew he had a hold of it, he reeled it in. From the minion's body, out came his soul, the Hero's fingers wrapped firmly around its head. He looked it in the eyes one last time before he swallowed it whole. As soon as he had done so, the Hero felt a great unexplainable sorrow. It was as if he had just taken something very important from the minion. Then there was a warmth that sprung from deep down inside the Hero. He looked down at his hands and could see that flash was rapidly starting to grow back onto his exposed rotting bones. He could feel the strength return to his limbs as the muscle and tendon started to regrow into them. He was still a zombie at best at this point, but he joints stopped hurt as much, and he was able to stand fully erect. He could smell how terrified everyone else in the room was now, all except for Starch who had a pungent that was befitting of his face as he watched the spectacle with joy.

"ha ha ha! Yes! THAT is the power of the forbidden Reap-Reap fruit! You now have the power to steal your enemies' souls! Ha Ha!" Starch said hopping around like a child who had just gotten a new toy. "Every time you do eat a soul, you get a little bit stronger, as I'm sure you've figured out by now"

The Hero felt a pit form in his newly grown stomach. He had just denied that minion a chance to an afterlife. He denied him a chance to visit lost loved ones in the next world. He remembered his wife and daughter and everything that had been stolen from him, ripped from his hands by this summoning. He screamed out in agony and tried once more to exit the circle, but even with his new strength, he was unable to break the seal.

"ohhh noooooo, you don't think I would just let you run around and whatever the hell you wanted to now do you? Hmm? No, you first must agree to my contract before I let you out of our summoning seal"

The Hero looked around at the other hooded figures. They still reeked of fear, but the smell got a lot weaker when they realized he couldn't exit the circle. He rested a loathing gaze back on Starch.

"and before you make your decision, you should know that if you refuse me, you will not die. You're already dead, so you would just stay in this little circle for the rest of eternity, rotting and getting hungrier and hungrier but never starving or wasting completely away" Starch flash a twisted grin at the Hero.

'This is worse than hell, this is worse than death. I either steal souls or sit here never to be reunited with my beloved and my little girl. Gods above please forgive me' the Hero thought

He bent a knee to Starch knowing that if his ducts had completely reformed, he would be weeping tears of sorrow and defeat.

"Ha Ha Ha! The strongest hero in history is now my plaything!

Welcome back to world of the living, my Great Hero Hercules!"