(Beginning A/N)
To those who have not watched One Piece: Yes, Robin can, in fact, sprout body parts from nearly any surface. And if there are other things you're wondering about, the One Piece Wiki is hella useful.
To those who have not played Overlord: The prongs on the Arcanium helmet are ridiculously tall. Seriously.
Readers, remember! If you leave a review, it tells me what you think of the story on the whole, or about a particular section. It helps if you let me know what parts seem stiff, or if some parts move too quickly or slowly, etc.
(End Beg. A/N)
The Lord of Evil may not have the best memory, but he certainly did not recall the island being quite so huge when he had been in the sunlight. It certainly didn't take him more than a few minutes to walk across the top, yet he'd been trudging in the dark for quite a while now, following the gentle throb of magic that lay ahead.
His lantern seemed to be running out of fuel; its light was gradually getting dimmer. Glaring into the darkness, the Dark One accelerated. He also had the strange feeling he was being followed, but he couldn't hear anything over the noise of his armor.
If she could have, Robin would have let Steve know she was following him; but with the dim light and rocks strewn all over the floor, she was having enough trouble matching his pace without trying to call out to him.
"Captain, we are supposed to be at-"
"I'm aware."
"But, sir, your-"
"I said, I'm aware!"
"Y-yes, Captain, sir..."
His gut a-tingling, Vonvarr narrowed his eyes and adjusted the course slightly. Nobody makes ME look like a fool! Not a pirate, nor a bounty hunter- and ESPECIALLY not a goddamned flying SWORD!
With a low growl, the Marine officer gripped the helm even tighter.
With a low grunt, the Evil One raised the lantern to the wall. He'd reached the end of the cavern, and found... a wall. The only thing that made this particular section stand out was the fact that there was a hole in it, over markings that Steve could barely distinguish. But, the throb of magic was definitely beyond this wall.
But it was a wall.
He was about to try following it to find a door, when he heard the sound of a rock being bumped not far behind him. Whirling around, the Overlord held out his left hand, channeling mana and scouring the dark, looking for any sign of an aggressor.
After a moment, the archaeologist walked out of the shadows, breathing heavily.
Steve barely prevented the Fireball from launching- and then the pain hit after a moment.
Note to self: learn how to cancel magic without clamping your fist on the spell.
Clutching his steaming hand and trying to remove the scorching hot gauntlet, the Peasant Pyromaniac grumbled incoherent words to himself while pacing rapidly. Meanwhile, Robin paid him no heed, took the dropped lamp, and examined the markings on the wall with an archaeologist-like obsessive interest.
"Place... no, insert... tool- hmm... not tool, totem..."
"Bloody-frikkin'-hell-spawn-in-a-conniving-pit-of-demonic-dragon-babies...!"
"Declare- recite? Chant? Ah, proclaim..."
"Twisted-up-the-left-buttock-with-the-horn-of-a-unicorn-set-ablaze...!"
"The rest is that other language... hey, can you read this?"
"Yanked-through-the-facial-orifice-by-the-tongue-loosener-made-of-BONE" Dropping his gauntlet on the ground, the Overlord continued pacing and waving his singed hand through the air.
"Steve?"
"Shoved-down-the-throat-of-a-dozen-infant-tribbles-"
"Steve!"
"What?"
The woman put a hand to the markings below the hole. "Can you read the rest of this? I can only figure out 'insert totem and proclaim thy title whilst' before it goes to the other language."
The Dark One had to kneel to get close enough to read the worn carvings, and then cease another string of nonsense instigated by his reflexive placement of a certain hand on the ground. "Impotent-midget-halfings- ahh... huh. One moment." Steve reached towards his belt pouch with his free hand, only to find that one unburnt right hand could not get close enough to the drawstrings on his left side.
"... Would you like help?"
"If you wouldn't mind." Greatly shamed, the Most Overconfident Master gestured at his pouch. "There is a key I need."
She withdrew it with a considerable amount of deft speed. That didn't help Steve's mood.
Once the key was in his good hand, the Overlord pushed it into a small slot just under one of the Arcanium thigh plates; following a small burst of mana to override the a explosive Anti-Pilfer System, Steve turned the key and opened the cover of the physically tiny compartment in his armor, revealing a magically enhanced spacial distortion chamber that housed a considerably thick volume.
He had to give Gnarl credit for the idea, the secret compartment in the thick section came in quite handy. Especially when he needed a place to store water during the trip in the Ruborian desert.
Quickly pulling his mind away from the memories of the overheated sand-hell, Steve withdrew the book and set it on his knee and flipped through the pages (still waving his other, burnt hand around), trying to find a particular section.
"Does your armor have many of these?" Next to him, the archaeologist was curiously probing the still-open chamber in his leg.
"Just the one. Got it so I could store water."
"I see... practical."
"I thought so... ah, here we go." Rising from his kneel, he held the volume next to the markings. "Let's see... that looks like... yes, 'channeling'... and that, if I remember right, was 'juju'..."
"What is that language?"
"Ancient Minion. Gnarl said I should carry the translation guide around, just in case." Steve hadn't given much thought as to why, though. He figured Gnarl was trying to free a space on a shelf. "'Into a sheep'? No, 'throughout'..."
"There it is!" Happily, the captain swung himself onto the ledge. Sure enough, there was a door-shaped impression in the rock face.
However...
"There's a rock in the way." The musician tapped the stone with a finger. "It seems sol-"
-WHAM-
Brook found himself tapping on air.
"Ooooh! A passageway!" Eagerly, Luffy hurried into the shadows.
After the surprise of seeing one of Luffy's attacks fly mere inches from his skull faded, Brook brushed several stone chips from his suit and followed.
-Flip flip flip flip flip-
Grunt.
-flitflitflitflit-
"Here we go. It's either 'unicorn' or 'core'."
The woman stared at the carvings. "The complete writing would be 'insert totem and proclaim thy title whilst channeling juju throughout thy unicorn'?"
"Does this realm have unicorns?"
"I don't think so. "
"Good, the fiends keep trying to gore me. It probably means 'core', then."
"Do you know why there would be a cave with 'Ancient Minion' written in it, in our dimension?"
"I'd normally say no, but... I am not supposed to be here." He hooked his gauntlet onto the same loop as his pouch, and closed the lid to the chamber on his thigh- he kept the translation guide out, though. Totem... maybe...
-Clink-
-Clank clank-
He slowly angled his eyes to his waist... and then frantically looked around.
"Is something wrong?"
"Maybe I dropped it when I nearly used Fireball on her..."
"Who nearly got Fireballed?"
"When did I last have it-" Steve halted as realization dawned, and he turned back towards the cavernous depths and shadows that he had recently traversed, to the distant speck of light coming from the ceiling.
Rocks, dust and darkness. That was all the swordsman could see, other than the hole that the light was coming from.
He was about to continue his quest for a nap location when he noticed a glint in the rocks that had fallen from the brand-new entryway. Curious, the green-haired individual approached the rubble and began shifting the debris.
This strange... tingly, uneasy feeling... like that of the...
His suspicions confirmed, Zoro pulled the 'Arcanium' weapon out of the pile of rocks.
His mouth agape under his helmet and face-rags, the Overlord made small choking noises. Twice now in this realm, he'd been without his weapon; back in his home dimension, the only time he'd been unarmed had been when he was comatose in a casket.
"You've been unresponsive at peculiar moments today."
"I feel... vulnerable..."
Something hit his backside with a -conk-
"You seem fine."
"... did you just kick me?"
"Who is this 'her' you nearly Fireballed?"
"Right, the uh, totem. Need a totem." Quickly avoiding the subject, Steve examined the hole above the markings. It has to be an item of significance; an enchanted weapon would probably be best, but something else may work... "Do you have something symbolic?"
"Such as?"
"I think the kind of totem necessary would be something we use, or need often; such as my weapon, or a different important item."
"All I have is the symbol of the crew, and my personal mark. And, it said 'juju'- that's a word for 'magic'."
A gauntleted finger traced the symbols. "True- then it would have to be something of mine; something I know the f-" An idea occurred. Carefully keeping his left arm limp, the can-man set the translation book on a nearby rock and removed his helmet before carefully setting it base first into the hole.
The archaeologist caught on and stood away from the wall. Steve was doing his magic-using concentration, and Robin didn't like being next to him when he did that.
The Duke of Domination set his hand upon the helmet's prongs poking out of the hole, and channeled mana through his body. Once he was satisfied, the Impenetrable One took a deep breath.
"Leader of the Minion Army!"
There was silence.
"Grinder of Goldo! Ravager of Rollie!"
Still nothing.
"Master of Arcanium Weaponry! Big Daddy! Vanquisher of the Funny! Giant Slayer! Prince of Persecution! Rude Awakener! Rescuer of the Distressed Damsel!"
Now, he was starting to feel a bit silly.
"... Most Overconfident Master?"
Much to his surprise, the DAMMIT went bonkers. Magic, previously too minor for even the DAMMIT to detect, erupted from the markings, covering a chunk of the wall he was in front of; it even began glowing.
Removing his helmet from the hole and nabbing the Ancient Minion book off its rock, he took a few steps backward and found himself beside Robin.
"So... 'Ravager of Rollie'?"
"Don't ask." Plonking his helmet back on, Steve watched as, with a low grinding noise, the wall split on a previously invisible crack and opened outward, revealing...
More darkness.
Of course.
The archaeologist walked through the door before Steve could even get his armored self moving. As he clonked through the door, he remembered to tilt his helmet- in doing so, he noticed several old scars in the rock, from something continuously scraping the top of the doorway.
He felt a kindred spirit already.
Meanwhile, across the cavern, the navigator and marksman shuddered at the same time.
The navigator rubbed her arms uncomfortably. "Did you feel that?"
"Y-y-y-yes..."
The shipwright glanced at the two shudderers, much to the dismay of the medic currently checking his skull for dents.
"Feel what?"
"T-t-tingly..." The sniper looked around frantically.
"Like the feeling when we're near Steve, when he's using his magics..."
In his paranoid glances, Usopp noticed something. Rather, failed to notice someone. "Wh-where did Robin go?"
Nami glanced around the lit areas. "Maybe she went- where is Steve?"
The doctor finished his examination of Franky, and looked around the area. "He went somewhere that way, I think; maybe Robin followed him?"
They all considered the following: Steve, the evil mysterious guy that fell from the sky, and Robin, both out of sight.
Although they had gotten to know Steve somewhat, they didn't trust him that much. And he was self-proclaimed evil. And Nami vaguely recalled something along the lines of 'Wench Bane'.
"Roooobbiiiinn!"
"Did you hear something?"
The Overlord ceased his feelings of the wall, and listened for a moment. "I hear nothing."
"... peculiar... what are you looking for?"
"A torch, or something else I can use in its place."
"There's no magic way to activate a lighting system?"
"Oh, sure. Because they'd use magic to do something that other, easier-to-come-by materials could do. Of course, they wouldn't bother to take heed of the risks associated with having magic active for extended periods of time, as would be needed for lighting a building. They'd make it so that with a clap of their hands-" Steve gently clapped his hands together, not hard enough to hurt his burned hand but enough to produce a sound.
Immediately, the DAMMIT went haywire and light blazed into existence from torches set ridiculously high on the walls
"-the... lights... would... turn on..."
With an amused glance, the archaeologist turned to look at the rest of the room. The ceiling wasn't as high as the massive cavern, but it was still more than necessary for such a chamber. Her smile instantly fell as she got a look at the shelves carved into the walls, however.
While Robin wore a depressed expression as she looked through the rotten remains of ancient books, Steve tried to pinpoint where the magic he'd detected on the surface was originating.
After a few moments of walking and triangulating, Steve stood before a large sarcophagus-like stone box, in the center of a well-lit wall. Deactivating the DAMMIT, he flipped the Ancient Minion translation guide next to the carvings on the lid.
After several minutes, he deciphered:
Here lies: Leader
Born: Not long ago.
Died: Yestersun. Too soon.
Yoolahjee: Leader was great. Leader harmed things. Leader let Mins have sheepies. Leader great. But Leader dead now. Leader less great. But great in memory. So put Leader in big rock box. Also items Leader collected. Also Leaderess. She still alive. Objected to joining Leader. She hitting lid.
Box sealed with Jujuseal©. Jujuseal© expensive. But Leader deserve cost.
Once he finished translating the crude runes, Steve checked around the lid- assuming 'Jujuseal©' blocked the detection of magic, there must have been damage to the sarcophagus for the DAMMIT to have been able to receive anything- and sure enough, there was a small crack on one side and a shattered stalactite on the ground.
Then, a thought occurred to Steve: What the hell is a '©'?
Setting the ponderous endeavors aside for later, the Overlord went to one side of the sarcophagus and set his hands at the base of the rough, rocky, coarse, and heavy lid of the box, and lifted. Then his eyes began to water, followed by another round of pacing while clutching his left wrist.
"Insane-wasp-babies-violating-the-personal-space-of-a-bastard-dragon...!"
While a certain armored individual talked semi-nonsense to himself, the archaeologist resigned any hope of recovering the books and looked around the rest of the room for the first time. Seeing the stone casket between blockages of Steve pacing back and forth, Robin approached it. It required pinpoint timing, though; Steve moved quick. Even with nigh perfect estimation, she barely avoided being plowed.
"Infernal-turnip-truck-with-ejector-seats...!"
"What's this?"
"What? Oh." Blocking the pain from his hand, he dictated the writing on top of the casket. "I was about to try opening it, but... hand."
"I've got plenty, don't worry."
He may have recently hit his head, but Steve knew what he just saw. And now, the tomb was open. Because a frikkin' bunch of arms popped out of nowhere and forced the lid off?
"Buh... arms... from rock... not magic..."
"I didn't mention? I have a Devil Fruit. Allows me to sprout body parts on other surfaces."
"... oh." He placed that nugget of information in the 'To Be Pondered Later' category. Right now, there was a coffin to examine.
With the skeleton at the top of the island and the markings in Ancient Minion all over the place, Steve wasn't surprised at what he saw in the sarcophagus; he had actually been expecting it. Under the much-smaller skeleton that was probably the 'Leaderess', lay a large body covered in armor that radiated old mana and Evil doings.
Undoubtedly, the armor of a former Overlord.
"Uncanny resemblance between the two of you." Robin reached into the grave and removed a bone of the 'Leaderess'.
"It's the eyes." Leaning partially into the coffin, Steve examined the helmet. Not Arcanium, nor Durium... experimentally, he scraped a finger on his gauntlet across a prong of the helm. Not a scratch on the old armor, but his finger piece was no longer pointy. Holy crap, this is stronger than Arcanium!
Once he got over the massive superiority of the old metal, Steve was able to look at the rest of the armor- and it wasn't pretty. The entire suit was riddled with dents, from tiny things to craters bigger than Steve's head. Scorch marks covered a majority of the front, and the plating on one leg had been crushed into an oval shape.
There was certainly no envy from Steve to the Dark One of long ago; with damage like that all over the armor, the wearer must have had shattered bones and considerable internal damage- and if that was all that he got with a far superior suit of armor, Steve couldn't begin to imagine what it would do to his own set and body. It would definitely be unpleasant, though.
"Roooooobbbiiinnn!" Still searching, Nami looked around another fallen rock.
"Rooooobbiiinn!" Next to her, Luffy also called out.
"Robin! Where are- where did you come from?"
The captain gestured towards a nearby shadowy corner, from which Brook was currently emerging. "Over there! Why're we looking for Robin?"
"We don't know where she or Steve went, and Robin may be in trouble."
"Maybe she's with Steve? I'm sure he can protect her for now!" This got Luffy a whack on the head.
"We're worried because she may be with Steve!"
While Luffy rubbed the back of his head, Brook took a look around. "Ah, my eyes have adjusted- but I have no eyes! Yohoho- yikes. Big cave."
While Steve examined the extensive damage to the armor, Robin set the skull back where it had been. By her estimations, the smaller body had been a woman in her early twenties. The archaeologist was about to take the skull from the much larger body, when something on its torso caught her eye.
Carefully moving the heavy arms from the long dead man's chest, Robin found another book previously concealed by the large hands- it hadn't deteriorated like the rest of the volumes in the room, though. It seemed to be in nearly perfect condition, though it lacked a title. It was held closed by a leather toggle; Robin was about to undo it, when a large burnt hand blocked her own.
"It has magic on it. Traps."
Gently taking the book from her grasp, Steve held it in his right hand and placed his left over it; several large sparks flew off the book, and writing un-faded onto the cover.
"More Ancient Minion?"
He shook his head to indicate a 'no'. "It's an old form of Common from my home region."
"What does it say?"
The Overlord undid the toggle and flipped to the first page. "'Records', by Leader of the Mins."
(Superlong Ending A/N Begin)
And so, I shall point out a few things that I want to make sure everyone knows, and the kind of things that I notice while you readers may not.
Q: In Chapter 1, it's written that it's morning aboard the Sunny- yet, Nami saw flickering sunlight. Steve was directly above, so he couldn't have done that! WTF, dude! A: That was Steve's sword; it got separated from him when he began falling. If you had guessed that, you get bonus points.
Q: If the Overlord has an aura thing going on, shouldn't he have the spikes growing from his shoulders? A: I excluded those for simplicity.
Q: Waiwaiwai, Zoro damaged the cave! Robin wouldn't allow anybody to damage history! WTF, dude! A: The ceiling doesn't have writing on it, and he didn't damage the pillar much. Besides, with all that the Strawhats have done for Robin, I kind of figure they all get one minor 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. Or a 'Not Having Your Spine Shattered Immediately But There Will Be A Severe Talking-To Later' card.
Q: Did... Zoro have a staring contest with Steve...? A: Pretty much.
Q: What's with all the poker references with Gnarl? A: In Overlord, when you talk to the enslaved servants, they say "If that Gnarl looks at me funny one more time, I'm going to hit him with a poker!"- so, I have him hit with pokers.
Q: WTF, dude! In (early chapter), you say this, but in (later chapter) it's contradicted! A: I pull most of this out of my arse as I go; there'll be inconsistencies. I'll try to keep them small, though.
Q: The lights turned on when he clapped his hands. Seriously. A: Yes. I'm calling it the Magiclapper.
Q: ... how could Steve snap his fingers when he's wearing a gauntlet? WTF, dude? A: He, uh, has gauntlets of, um, +3 Finger-snapping. Yeah. It allows him to snap his fingers through the Arcanium. But it does nothing to his enemies.
(Superlong A/N End)