Chapter 17: Twilight Isles, Finale

I couldn't stare in horror at what just occurred, everyone around me is also dead quiet. The scene in front of me isn't something I wanted to witness at all, especially after what we been through.

"V-VI!"

Right in front of us, with a sword pierced right through him from the gut, Vi stood firm as he grasps his hypnotised sister's arms with blood spewing from his wound and forming a growing puddle under him.

"G-Got you…!" He breathlessly chuckles, "I'm not letting…! you go…! this time…!"

"No, Vi! He got shish-kabob-ed!" One of the soldiers screamed.

"What are you doing, Vi!?" Another of them cried out.

"Quick! We need to get him free!" One soldiers bravely prepare to run up to them.

"No! S-Stay back!" Vi shouted at them, stopping the soldier in his tracks, "L-Leave this…! t-to… m-me…!

"The kid's nuts!" Tok stated in utter shock, "Why would he take the sword through the gut like that!?"

"He cares too much for his sister…" Deuce pointed out, "He'll do anything for her…! Even if…"

"Yeah, but that's crazy!" The gear-themed pirate cried out, "Even then, is he really planning to break her out of the hypnotism like that!? That trance should be unbreakable!"

"S-Sis… Please…!" He coughed out, staring into the blank stare of his sibling who is already struggling to get out his grip, "You have to… snap out…! of it…! You can't… let that man… control you…! Please, Desiree…! Please…! I can't… afford to lose you… like this…!"

"…Vi…?"

"D-Desiree…!?"

"W-What!? That's impossible!" Tok cried in shock, "Reggy's hypnotism should be unbreakable!"

"Their bonds…" Ace muttered, "Her connections to Vi manages to overpower Reginold's control!"

"Vi? What's going on? Why–!" Her eyes widen in shock as she realised something, "Why… are you…?"

"Hehe… damn it… you took so long to… wake up…" He coughed out, "But I'm glad… to have… you… back…"

With those last words, he collapsed onto the ground in front of her, blood continues to spill out of his wound.

"V-Vi!?" She screamed as she kneeled next to him, looking at the familiar sword in his gut in horror, "Did… did I did this…!?" Without must hesitation, she pulls the sword out of him, took off her vest and pressed it against his wound as hard as she could, "D-Damn it! It's not stopping!"

We could only look on in both horror and pity as the sister desperately tries to save her dying brother. This isn't right… this isn't how it supposed to go, damn it!

Then, Luna runs up to them, kneeling next to the brother before doing something I didn't think she would do. She proceeds to rip into her skirt, pulling out ribbons of cloth which she then uses to dress the wound as best as she can.

"P-Princess?" Desiree is stunned silent at what is happening.

After witnessing her actions, I affirm myself and ran up to them as well. I took off my jacket and uses it with Luna's pieces of cloth to create a makeshift band-aid, not that it will do much with how severe the gut wound is. If we can't get treatment for it soon, Vi could still die.

It was then that sounds of heavy footsteps can be heard coming from the outside. I then saw Britt soldiers rushing into the room, armed to the teeth with muskets and sabres ready to be drawn, "Your highness!" The leader of this platoon called out, a man of great physiology and posing one heck of a moustache that puts the Armstrong stache to shame.

Like, damn! That is as masculine as any man can get!

"General Strongbody." Luna greeted, as I struggle to keep my laughter in check. Really!? His name is Strongbody!?

"I'm sorry for taking so long!" He saluted her, "We've just manages to capture the last of the rebels around the castle!" He then turns to the Latian soldiers and their leaders, "Are these the last ones?"

"D-Damn it…" Desiree cursed as she grabbed her sword. All the Britt soldiers quickly went for their sword and firearms in response.

"Weapons down!"

The soldiers could only look at each other confusion over their princess's orders.

"There will be no fighting here." Luna stated firmly, "We have a heavily injured casualty in need of immediate medical care. Get him to the doctors right now!"

"B-But your highness, aren't he part of the rebels?" The general asked confused, "Why are we helping out those terrorists? They are the reason the castle is in such a disarray!"

"Even so!" The princess glares at Strongbody, who flinches under it, "They are still people that needed help! I would not have someone die if I can do anything to save him!"

"B-But–"

"But nothing, general!" She shouted, "When my grandfather founded this kingdom, he made it clear that we would not be as the very enemies we've fought! If there's someone in need of saving, whether or not they are once our greatest enemies doesn't matter!"

"…you're right. You're absolutely right." The general nodded with a firm salute, "Your orders are received, Princess Luna! Men! Escort the injured to the medical bay! And have the doctors prepared for surgery!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

With that, the soldiers all rush towards the injured, with one of them gently carries Vi to not worsen the wound any further. I could only look in awe at the speed the soldiers performed their medical assistance. Talk about efficient!

"…Why…?"

Luna turns to Desiree who could only look at her with stunned confusion, "We've hurt your people… we have caused so much destruction… so why are you helping us!? Don't you hate us!?"

"…I would be lying if I say I didn't." The princess stated, "But even so, you were used by Reginold like the rest of us. Not only that, you've lost your family due to him as well."

"So, you pity us then…?" The rebel leader growled.

"No, not pity." She stated, "Just… empathy. My grandfather has taught me that people would sometimes do bad things for bad reasons. But that doesn't mean they deserve the worst of fates. An eye for an eye would turn the whole world blind, you know?"

"Eye… for an eye…" Desiree chuckles, before blowing up into laughter, then slowly descends into sobs as she hugs herself, "Damn it… why didn't I…?"

I found myself a third wheel of this situation, unsure of what to do next. This is really awkward for me… I'm technically an outsider in this whole debacle, so I'm not sure where I'm fitting in.

"*Sniff* Oh, this is so touching…!"

The awkwardness is replaced my irritation when our captive pirate captain starts opening his damn mouth.

"Ace, can you–"

*WHACK*

"BUARGH!"

"Thank you!"

"Not to spoil the mood, but we still have to deal with Reginold." Deuce point out, "He still have the king."

"Ah! That's right!" I realised. Due to the situation with Desiree and Vi nearly dying, I've completely forgotten about that crucial fact. Damn it! That bastard has to be a long gone by now! And we don't even know where this 'vault' thing he is looking for.

"Vault…"

Luna's musing got our attention, the princess seems to be deep in thought, "Vault… I think I remember seeing a vault somewhere before…"

"Really!? Where!?" Ace asked.

"Hm…" She thinks for a moment, before snapping her fingers in realization, "Ah! The tomb!"

"Tomb?"

"Yes! My grandfather has built a tomb under the castle where his late companions are put to rest! I remember him bringing me down there when I was younger! There's a large door close to it, one that he has told me that it shouldn't be opened at all cost!"

"And do you know where this tomb is?" I asked.

"I think I do!" She nodded.

"That's great! You think you could you lead us to it!?"

"Yes, I can!"

"I'll stay behind." Deuce informed us, "It's not much, but I should be able to help out some of injured."

"Got it." Ace nodded, "I'll punch Reginold once for you." His first mate gave him a nod in response.

The three of us then book it to the exit, but I stopped when I saw a familiar weapon on the ground. Vi's sword is lying on the ground with blood staining its handle and the underside of the hilt. He must have dropped it when he collapsed…

"…"

"Hey, Rein! Hurry up! He'll get away if you don't move!"

"Ah! R-Right!"

The traitorous Reginold grimaced as a drip of water from the stalactites above him.

After leaving the throne room with his hostage, he has his 'king' lead him towards the vault that he has heard so much about. His blade is still drawn and placed at Solaria's neck, making sure the old man doesn't get any funny ideas. 'Just a little more. Once I've got the treasure, I'm going to be richest man in the East Blue! Then, I can finally ditch this place and live out the rest of my life in luxury!'

'And all thanks to my dear old dad's little scheming plans…'

His father, one Ronald Steward Hufflepuff, was once a noble among the royal court of the Latian Kingdom. He was in-charged of the R&D department in the military, tasked with creating weapons of war against their uprising commoners, in where he was raised in status with the founding of hypnotising soldiers to be loyal and unfeeling killing machines.

Ronald, however, is a very greedy individual. Through connections with the underworld and having a great sense in human trafficking trade, he has accumulated wealth that far outshines any other nobles of his time. So much that every noble in the royal court with exception to the royal family sucked up to him in hopes of getting even a tiny fraction of his fortune.

But despite acquiring such immense wealth, he still wanted more. He is so addicted to money and luxury, that he would do anything to get more. Which is when he found out about a secret 'vault' under the royal castle, where the fortune inside is worth at least several hundred of his own.

Being the greedy nobleman that he is, he schemed to find this vault and secured the fortune for himself, going as far as to kidnapped several individuals connected to the royal family and torturing them for information. Despite his best efforts, he could only confirm its existence but never its location.

And then, the rebellion won the war and secured the disbandment of the Latian Kingdom, paving the way to the founding of their own kingdom, the Kingdom of Britt.

Like many nobles that refused to accept their new rulers, he too was banished from the island and forced to live the remainder of his life as a 'filthy commoner'. Ronald couldn't even stand to live such a modest life, choosing to remain living out his luxurious life. In the end, he ends up bankrupt and is driven into a life of poverty, and ended up dead on the road somewhere.

Reginold was then born from one of his many sex slaves that were set freed after the war is over. His mother, however, was too broken after years of tortured and committed suicide soon after he was born, leaving him an orphan at the young age of three.

Since at the such a young age, Reginold possess the same greedy personality as his late father. As he grew up, he became more and more obsessed with the idea of acquiring so much money that he would never has to worry about being poor again.

Through his silver tongue that he has honed to perfection, he performed cons after cons, scamming people of their money and building his fortune step by step. He gotten so good, that a woman he conned into giving him her life savings still doesn't believe that she got scammed at all.

And then, when he too found out about his father's plans in the ruins of his old mansion, he plotted to take the fortune for himself as well.

"We're here."

His former employer told him as they exited the cave, and into a large rocky room with eight coffins lied down with armoured knights carved into their lid. For some reason, there's a large hole in the ceiling that let the sunlight shines in, illuminating the entire room. Grass filled the ground with a few flowers are planted around the coffins, their beautiful petals blooming under the bright afternoon sun.

"The royal… tomb…?" He turns to his hostage with anger in his eyes, "I said to bring me to the vault! Not to the resting place of some dead people!"

"You did, so I did." Solaria looked at him before pointing at another entrance on the other end of the room, "Through there is where you'll find the vault."

"Tch, then said so!" The traitorous man huffed in anger as he pushes his hostage along.

After passing through another cave, they came face to face with the very thing that Reginold truly desired.

In the large rock room, illuminated by the sunlight coming in from a small gap in the ceiling, there is a large gate carved out of rock locked into the stone wall, covered in moss and several artistic carvings of sorts. The wall it is in is covered from top to bottom with strange symbols carved into the stone.

"This… this is it…!" He laughed as he tosses his hostage and weapon aside and rushes towards the door with a maniac look on his face. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes! After so long, I've finally found it! The treasure, oh, the fortune! I can almost smell it behind this gate!"

His maniac smile dropped when he saw no way of opening the gate. No keyhole, no lever, no nothing. He then turns to the king and asked, "How do you open this!?"

"Who knows?"

"What do you mean by that!?"

Solaria got into a more comfortable sitting position, "When dad shown me this, all he told me about it is that this gate should never be opened at all cost. He never said anything about how this can be opened."

Reginold let out a growl as he searched the wall frantically for a way in. 'There has to be something here! A switch? A hidden mechanism?'

Unbeknownst to him, Solaria has got back on his feet, picked up his captor's weapon and is slowly sneaking towards him with sword raised to kill. Once he got close enough, he took a deep breath and slashes down at his former advisor with the intention of beheading him right then and there.

Unfortunately, Reginold has noticed his attack and duck down the arcing attack, swinging out foot out and tripping the king. Solaria dropped onto the ground on his back with a loud thud, which his captor took advantage of and stomps onto the king's peg leg, smashing it into pieces.

"D-Damn…"

"Do you really think I wouldn't notice?" He asked as he kick away the broken peg leg, "Wood on stone is pretty distinct."

"You wouldn't get away from this!" Solaria shouted at him, "Even if you did get the treasure behind the vault, everyone knows about your betrayer by now! You could never escape!"

"Oh, but you're forgetting my little gift to your daughter." Reginold stated with a smile as he walked over and pick up his sword, "Desiree would kill everyone in that room, and then if anyone enters that room, they would die too. No one would ever know what I've done."

"You bastard…! Are you that obsessed with treasure!?"

"Yes, I am!" He proclaims proudly, "For you see, money is power, and power is strength, and strength is life! Money is the one truth in this world! Everything runs on money, and with enough money, I'll be able to run everything!"

"There's no way I'm giving the Britt Kingdom to you!"

"Oh, you misunderstand!" He tells his former king, "I have no desire to rule over anything! All I want is to have so much money that I'll be living the luxurious life that I want for the rest of my days. So much money that I wouldn't need to work for a day! That is all."

"And achieve that, you're willing to destroy an entire town, to manipulate innocents to committing treachery!? All for getting rich!?"

"I wouldn't call it manipulating." He stated, "It's more like… persuasion."

"You traitorous bastard!" Solaria growled, "I can't believe I've ever trusted you!"

"…You know what." He walks up to the king and steps on his gut, his sword aimed at his throat, "Now that you have no more information for me, I've no more use for you. No point in leaving behind a loose end."

"You'll never get away from this…!" The king growls, still ever defiant despite his position.

"You know, if there's one thing I've respected about you, it's your tenacity." Reginold confessed, "A shame, really. I've a feeling we could've been friends if the circumstances are different. Oh well. Say hello to the princess for me!" He raises his sword, prepares to pierce the windpipe–

"FIRE FIST!"

The moment we enter the second room after the tomb, which looks gorgeous by the way, we are met with the sight of the traitor ready to plunge his sword into the king's throat.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ace charges in and fires a Fire Fist at him. Reginold unfortunately dodges it, the flame blasting against the enormous stone gate on the opposite end of the room.

"Damn it, stop dodging!" The freckled pirate shouted at him.

"How!?" The traitor shouted at us, "How are you still alive!? Desiree should have killed you all!"

"She broke out of your control, Reggy." I stated with what I felt like the most savage grin I've ever did in my entire life, "With a little help from the power of bonds."

"T-That's impossible!" He stated in horror, "My father made it so that the hypnotism is unbreakable!"

"Everything is possible with the power of love!" I proclaimed happily, revelling in the cheesiness of my words. Hey, if there's a time for cheese, it's here.

"It's all over, Reginold!" Luna shouted, "You've lost! There's nowhere else to run!"

"No, no, no…!" He mutters in shock, "Not when I'm so close…!" He seems to get an idea and went to grab the king, lifting him up into a chokehold and raised his blade up to his neck, "No body move! Unless you want a headless man as your king!"

"Father!"

"You damn coward!" Ace shouted angrily, "Let him go!"

"Nah-ah!" Reginold smirks as he places the sword very close to the king's neck, "Not until I get what I want! Now, princess… tell me how to open the vault!"

"Huh?" Luna could only blink at the sudden question.

"You're wasting your breath, Reginold." The king tells him, "Not even Luna know how to open the gate."

"Shut up!" The traitor shouted as he knocks his sword's pommel against his hostage's head, getting grunt of pain in response.

"Father! Let him go, Reginold!" The princess commanded angrily.

"Then tell me! How do you open the vault!?"

"Like I said…" The king groans as blood starts dripping from the head wound that he has just gotten, "She doesn't know…!"

"And I told you to shut up–"

"I know how!"

Everyone is stunned silent at her sudden proclamation, her father especially looked extremely shocked. "Luna…? How do you…?"

"T-Tell me!" Reginold suddenly shouted, "How do we open it!?"

"Okay first, you have to… um… let me think…" She posed to be deep in thought, slowly turns her head towards Ace for a moment, before turning to me and her eyes just that gestured forward to my confusion. Huh? Why is she…? I then looked at Ace, who gave me the same expression with a grin. Why is he–Oh. Oooh~! I get it…!

"Come on, hurry up!" The traitor shouted with irritation heavy in his tone.

"Let me try to remember… I think it has something to do with–NOW!"

With that command, my sword is drawn and my feet transformed into their dragon state, just as Ace fires a smaller version of his Fire Fist right at Reginold. The traitor saw this and quickly moved one side to avoid the fire attack, which means it's my turn to act.

With my dragon speed, I made it across the room within a single moment with my sword poised for a thrust while my other hand is behind my back in a typical fencing stance. With this, I unleashed my attack aimed right at his head.

"Dragon Sword Style, Third Form: Tail Spike!"

I stabs forward Nanashi like a fencing sword, adding a little curve due to the fact that I'm wielding a katana. My blade flew and strikes towards Reginold's head like a bladed dragon's tail. He is quick enough manoeuvre his sword and direct my attack off course with his hilt, causing my attack to miss completely.

Just as a smirk crept up his face from his assured victory over my attack, I pull out my hidden trump card from behind me.

Before he can react, I plunge Vi's gladius, which I've picked up from the throne room before coming here and has been hidden in my sash this whole time, into his shoulder blade as deep as I can get it in.

This elicit a loud scream from him as he is forced to let go of the king, which I took advantage and uses my tail to wrap around abdomen. I then pull out Vi's sword before retreating back to Luna with her father in tow, just as Ace came in with the finishing blow, as he proceeds to send a non-flaming fist to his face that sent him flying.

"You are quite the bluff master aren't you, Luna?" I stated as I put the king down on the ground gently.

"I'm just glad you managed to get my message." Luna stated with a sigh as she looked over her father, "Are you okay, father?"

"Y-Yeah… I'm fine…" The king assures the princess, before looking at Reginold unmoving body, "Is he…?"

"Nah, he's alive, I think." Ace stated, "I pulled my punch at the last minute."

"Why didn't you just use your Fire Fist?" I asked him.

"Punching the guy with my bare-fist is much more fun." His answer just got a face-palm from me, especially when he said that with such a straight face.

"Then… it's over?" Luna asked.

"Yeah." I nodded at her question, "It's finally over."

That got a huge sigh from the princes as she collapsed like a puppet who got its strings cut, falling onto her father's lap, "Finally…"

"You've worked hard, Luna." The king assures her, "I'm sorry I have to put you through all of this."

"No, it's fine." She tells him, "As the crown princess, it's my duty to fight for my kingdom, no matter the odds."

"…True, so very true." He nodded with a smile, "I'm just glad you are okay."

"But still…" Ace walked up to the large stone gate in front of us, "He did all that nonsense all for this? Kind of a wasted effort, if you ask me."

"Just out of curiosity…" I turned to the two royalty in front of me, "Is it possible to open this gate in the first place?"

"Well, grandfather said that this gate mustn't be opened at all cost." Luna stated, "So there must have been a way to open it. Sadly, he never told anyone before he passes."

"It's the same with me." The king nodded, "It just made me curious of why this vault shouldn't be opened at all. Not that I'll open it at all."

"…Hey! Come look at this!"

Ace suddenly calling out to us got us curious about what he found. We then slowly made our way to him, I having to support the king in my half-dragon form due to his broken peg leg. When we made it to the stone wall, the freckled pirate proceeds to wipe away at some of the moss on the wall to reveal something curious and strangely familiar on the wall.

"Well, this is peculiar…" The king noted, "Never saw that before."

"It looks like a keyhole." Luna stated, "And this slight indent… it kind of looks like a–"

"Clover." I concluded. I looked down at Vi's sword, turning the weapon so that I can view it from the front. Comparing it to the keyhole we found, I made an astonishing discovery.

"It's the same shape…! The gap is the size as the blade too!"

"Whoa, seriously!?" Ace cried, "Then, that sword is the key!?"

"Huh, that's quite an interesting set up." The king noted, "No one would expect a weapon to be a key."

"But is it really?" I wonders, "It could be just a coincidence that it's the same shape."

"No, wait…" Luna thinks for a moment, "I think I've read somewhere that all Latian royalty has two types of weapon. A longsword like the one the leader has, and a short sword like the one you're holding."

"Is it the same as this sword?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I believe so."

"Only one way to find out." Ace stated pointing at the keyhole, "Thrust it in, Rein!"

"That sounds… so wrong…" I muttered in embarrassment at the hidden sexual joke, before doing exactly that. The moment the sword is all the way in, there's a small click sound, before the sound of what seems to be gears turning can be heard.

The ground starts to the shake as the large stone gate slowly slides open in front of our eyes.

"No way…" The freckled pirate stares in awe, "It's actually opening…!"

"Is this a good thing… or a bad thing…?" I wondered out loud. We were told not to open it, after all. And yet here we are, opening the damn thing.

"I'm sure it's fine." The king assures us, "As long as none of you mention any of this to anyone else outside. If you do… there will be consequences, understand?"

"Y-Yes, sir!" I answered with a salute out of habit.

"Sure, no problem." Ace shrugged, "But if there's treasure in there… do you think you can let me take some? Just a little pinch–"

"KYAH!"

"Luna!?"

We all turned around, to see Reginold holding Luna in a chokehold with his blade near her neck in a repeat of what has happened to her father.

"Damn it, I thought I've knock you out!" Ace growled.

"No one move!" Reginold growled at us, "The treasure in there is mine, you hear!? MINE!"

"Let her go, Reginold!" The king shouted at him.

"Not until I get my treasure!" He shouted angrily, "Unless you want your daughter to be a headless princess, I suggest you back away from the vault and give… me the… trea…sure…"

I raised my eyebrow in confusion over why he suddenly trailed off. I then turned around to follow his sight and saw what he has saw.

Instead of mountains of shiny treasure that was promised, inside the vault is filled with rows and rows of bookshelves, each one packed to the brim with books of various colour.

"Books?" Ace wonders as he walked up to one of the shelves and pull a book off of it. Flipping through the pages, his eyebrow raised in confusion, "What the…? These books have doodles on them."

"Doodles?" I walked up to him as he hands me the book. I skimmed through the pages and realised to both my awe and horror over what was written in the book.

While I can't understand it, there's no mistaking the text of the Poneglyphs. Any true One Piece fan could recognised the writings with a glance. This both intrigued me and confused me, 'Why are there books written in the same language as the large indestructible stones that contains information about the Void Century? And why are they doing on an island in the East Blue of all places…? Unless…'

"Books…?" Reginold mutters out, letting go of Luna who quickly moved away from him, "All of that planning… all those years of waiting… for some BOOKS!?"

"It would seem to be the case, yeah." Ace nodded.

"Hehe…hehehe….hehaha…hahaha…" The small chuckles spill from his lips which escalated into full blown laughter. Soon afterwards, he stopped laughing and collapsed onto the ground, truly unconscious this time if his eyes rolled back into his head is any indication.

"…so, NOW, it's over?" Luna asked worriedly.

"…Yeah, I guess so." I nodded.

There're still many questions I have about the vault, about the books and what connection it might have to the Void Century. But for now, I guess it can wait.

Man, I need a nap…

…

To be continued…

Yup! Finally done! Arc is finally over! Man, this has been one heck of wild ride, and I'm grateful for the people who stick by me all the way through.

So, yes! Hidden vault and mysterious books! What could all of this mean? Why did Luna grandfather want it to be sealed? What are those books? All those questions will be answered soon!

With this, the Twilight Isles Arc has officially reached its climax. So next up, is the epilogue!

With that, I thank you all for reading this!