The Fight for the Treasure 11

Koby POV - Blue Star, Grand Line, Nanatsu Islands(Na) - 20 GAP 

After Zabal's defeats at the hands of Alvida-san, I can't help but notice the enraged expression on Simon's face, but what is strange is that he isn't looking at us, but he is staring at the downed figure of Zabal as he mutters, "That fucking useless failure..."

Simon's words, even if he uttered them in a low tone, can clearly be heard by everyone present in the area which makes Gad, Rubis, Saphir, and Emeraude look at him with clear shock and surprise written all over their faces, very likely because this is the first time they have seen their captain act this way.

Meanwhile, Simon continues his speech as his voice gets louder and louder, "This is enough... I can't stand this anymore... trust me I tried, but you all continue to test my patience with your silly behaviors and failures, and in the end, I have to be the one to fix all your messes one way or another. It happens again, and again, and again, and again, and again! It is enough now! If you can't even serve me well, then I will have no need for you in the world I'm going to create under my rule!"

After saying that, Simon raises his hand pointing at the downed figure of Zabal, and such action makes Gad exclaim, "Simon-sama! Wait-" but Simon ignores him and with his gaze trained on Zabal, he yells, "Sefer Ha-Bahir (Book of Brightness)!"

Simon launches from his open palm a single sheet of paper which quickly flies toward Zabal, as the sheet of paper flies, I briefly catch a glimpse of some kind of shining symbol drawn on the paper, but I don't have the time to take a good look at it, as the sheet of paper quickly touches Zabal's body and starts to shine brightly for a brief instant before exploding into a fiery ball that turns Zabal's body and a good part of his surroundings into ashes leaving behind only the charred ground.

As Gad, Rubis, Saphir, and Emeraude look at this scene in horror, I can't help but be stunned by what I just witnessed, 'What was that!? That sheet of paper exploded like some kind of bomb! That's impossible! Shouldn't he only be able to create, control, and transform into pieces of paper at will? How can he make it explode? Is it a totally different power? Can he do more than simply make his sheets of paper explode? Is he like those truly rare people that Jayr-san told me about who can consume multiple Devil Fruits? No, wait! I have clearly seen a strange symbol shining on that sheet of paper, could that be the reason behind that explosion?' 

While I'm thinking that, Gad snaps at his captain while asking, "Simon-sama! How could you do something like this!? Zabal was a loyal comrade who just like us only wished to help you in becoming the King of the world so that you could finally bring peace to this chaotic world! A world where everyone can live in peace no matter their race isn't that our ambition!? Then why did you kill Zabal for no reason at all!? How can we trust you after that!?"

At this point, Simon starts to float higher as countless sheets of paper wrap around the sack and the jar in the Précieuses' hands and bring them close to his body together with the cocoon that was in Gad's arms.

At the same time, Simon starts to laugh loudly as he says, "Fuhahaha! How foolish can you be! My ambition is still the same! I truly wish from the bottom of my heart to become the king of the world and bring a lasting era of peace as it is my birthright as a superior being! And once I become the king of this world I will naturally achieve peace and equality for all! After all, everyone will equally serve and worship me!"

After saying that, Simon looks down at Gad and the Précieuses with clear disdain on his face as he declares, "I never wanted nor needed your trust, only your blind servitude! But at this point, now that I'm so close to taking Shushibaruba's powers for myself, I don't need to endure your annoying presence anymore! After all, once I have Shushibaruba under my control, I will have an entire world full of slaves ready to worship me and fulfill my every whim, need, and desire! I don't need you anymore! So you can all die here! Fuhahaha!"

While Gad and the Précieuses are devastated by Simon's betrayal, I don't hesitate anymore and take advantage of his focus on them to quickly light up the doused cloth wick of my rudimentary incendiary bomb using a matchstick and quickly throw it toward Simon using all my power.

Simon notices the incoming incendiary bomb but instead of worry or agitation, he simply snorts out loud and comments, "Fool... such simple trick won't work against me..." then he generates countless sheets of paper from his body that quickly form a wall in front of him, at the same time, I notice that on every single sheet of paper, the same strange symbol is drawn, but it looks different from the exploding one.

Soon, the glass bottle that makes up the incendiary bomb breaks against the paper wall, but surprisingly, the most strange scene appears, the fire generated by the incendiary bomb doesn't spread all over the paper wall as expected, but instead, it gets absorbed by the sheets of paper that make up the wall, or to be more precise, by the symbols drawn on them.

Seeing that, I can't help but look in shock while realizing, 'Wait! Those strange symbols allow him to nullify fire! Doesn't this mean that he can counter his own weakness to fire!? How can we win against him then!? The only way is to buy enough time for either, Eri-san, Nikita-san, or Jayr-san to come to our rescue!'

At the same time, the wall made of sheets of paper splits open revealing Simon's figure as he laughs out loud while saying, "Fuhahaha! You fool! Do you really think that a superior being like me would have such a silly and obvious weakness!? Heh, I stopped fearing fire a long time ago when I realized the true potential of the abilities I was born with! No matter how much you inferior being try, nothing that you'll do will be able to even slightly harm me. I'm invincible!"

After saying that, the floating Simon spreads his arms wide as he declares, "Now, it is finally time for all of you to die here... Eh? One of you is missing, where is the tall beauty!?" but just as he is about to make his move he realizes that Alvida-san that was standing right next to me is now missing. 

At the same time, I notice that Alvida-san took advantage of the fact that my attack with the rudimentary incendiary bomb blocked Simon's sight to quickly move around him unseen and climb on top of a tall tree positioned behind his current position which makes it possible for her to launch a surprise attack by jumping down that three.

The next moment, as Simon is looking around searching for her, Alvida-san pulls out her rudimentary incendiary bomb, takes off the soaked cloth wick, and the bottle's stopper, and then quickly pours the content of the bottle on her heavy, spiky Iron Mace and uses her matchstick to light it up on fire.

After that, she doesn't hesitate and jumps down to the tree to attack Simon with her flaming Iron Mace, unfortunately, the sound of the ignition of her Iron Mace gives away her position and Simon quickly turns around and exclaims with a confided smirk on his face, "There you are!" then with a simple movement of his hands, he controls the same sheets of paper that formed the previous fire absorbing wall to create a giant hand made of papers which quickly grasp Alvida-san's Iron Mace absorbing the flames on it and easily stopping Alvida-san's attack. 

Quickly after that, Simon looks at Alvida-san, who is hanging in mid-air as she still hasn't let go of her Iron Mace which is still grasped by the giant hand made of paper, and with a smirk he says, "Now that I think about it... Zabal's attack slips off your exposed skin, isn't it? That means that you are another of those imperfect, a Devil Fruit User, right? You are just like those fakes that try to attain my perfect magnificence by eating those cheap Devil Fruits! What luck, another one of you just literally threw herself at me! You will be a perfect sacrifice for Shushibaruba's awakening!"

After saying that, Simon makes a grasping motion with his hand, and in an instant, the giant hand made of paper disperses into countless sheets of paper that wrap around the powerless Alvida-san enveloping her body in a cocoon of paper just like the other ones floating around Simon, implying that in those there are other Devil Fruit Users that he needs for some kind of sacrifice.

As Simon captures Alvida-san, Rubis snaps out of her shocked state and angrily exclaims, "Shit! Saphis! Emeraude! We can't let him kill us like this without even fighting back! We have to make him pay for fooling us and Gad! Let's show him the power of the Précieuses!" 

Her shout wakes the other two Fish-women as Saphis giggles a little and says, "Ne, ne! That's right, even if he is Simon-sama, he will pay for playing with our feelings! Let's unleash our ultimate attack!" which is followed by Emeraude who shyly nods and comments, "T-That's true! We have to fight to protect our and Gad's life!"

Soon after yelling that, the three Fish-women take a deep breath, hold their white spears tightly, and quickly summon spiraling columns of water with different colors which envelope their bodies, then they thrust their spears in perfect synch while yelling, """Archange Tricolore (Archangel Tricolor)!!!"""

In response to their thrust, the three spiraling columns condense and merge together into a huge blue, red, and green spiraling vortex of water that swiftly heads toward Simon sweeping away everything in its path.

Seeing that, I can't help but nod while thinking, 'That's right, this attack should work! Simon is still a Devil Fruit User which means that just like Alvida-san, he is also weakened by water and can be hit by it. Moreover, this attack is on a whole other level compared to what they have unleashed before, it is like comparing the power of a slingshot to that of a massive cannon!!'

But just as I'm thinking that I see Simon once again calmly raise his hand and launch from it countless sheets of paper that once again form a massive wall just in front of him, and once again, I can't help but notice that there is another strange symbol drawn on each one of those papers, something that instantly gives me a very bad feeling.

As soon as the tricolored water vortex touches Simon's paper wall, the thing I was fearing the most happens, the tricolored water vortex gets absorbed by the paper wall just like the flames produced by my rudimentary incendiary bomb, and seeing that, I can't help but internally complain, 'Come on! Physical attacks won't work because his Logia Type Devil Fruit, using fire won't work because he is able to nullify it in some way, and the same is true for water too! Is there anything that we can use to harm him besides Haki!?'

At the same time, Simon once again dispeses his paper wall laughing, and says in a tone full of disdain, "Fuehehehe! What power? It is useless! Useless! Useless! No matter what you inferior beings do, you won't be able to even touch me! Your only fate is to serve me or die!!"

Saying that, Simon thrust his hand forward pointing at us, and under his command, all the sheets of paper that previously made up his defensive wall, now shoot towards us with the clear intent of micing us into very small pieces.

Seeing that, calculate the best way to pull away from the danger zone Gad and the Précieuses using Soru, when all of a sudden, Gad steps forward, proudly stands in front of the trio, and says, "I won't let anyone harm my Précieuses, not even you Simon-sama! I'll make you remember why I'm called the Whirling Tide!!" 

Quickly after saying that, Gad starts to spin his massive weapon, a long polearm with the head of a hammer at the end, in a circular motion with great speed and power so much that a small twister forms around himself, then, once he gathers enough power, he swings his weapon toward the incoming razor sharp sheets of paper while yelling, "Kaze Funka (Wind Eruption)!!" generating a powerful horizontal cyclone which sweeps away everything in its path.

But as the cyclone is about to reach Simon, I see him smirk as he comments, "How pitiful... this is a laughable attempt at best... You should know best that everything you try is useless against me."

Then he raises his hand and generates countless sheets of paper that quickly form a circular wall in front of him as he calmly declares, "Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation)."

I quickly notice that another of those strange symbols is drawn on all the sheets of paper that form that circular wall and that those symbols are currently shining brightly.

At the same time, Gad's powerful cyclone finally reaches him but as soon as it clashes against the circular wall, I see his attack being blown away and dispersing as if it clashed against an impenetrable steel wall.

Right after that, Simon declares, "It's time to end this farce once and for all. I don't want to waste any more time with you bugs!" while spreading his arms wide.

At the same time, from all over his body a truly staggering number of sheets of paper are launched in the air, and under his control they start to quickly rotate around us forming what is basically a tornado of paper with I, Gad, Emeraude, Rubis, and Saphir standing in the eye of the cyclone.

No matter where I look, all I can see are the moving sheets of paper, at the same time, I hear Gad mutters, "Damn, this is bad..." as he tries and fails to blow away the spinning wall of paper around us to create an opening to escape, but the number of these sheets of paper is just too massive. 

Seeing that no matter how much Gad and the Précieuses try, they aren't able to scratch this death trap, I can't help but think in despair, 'What is going to happen now? Is this the end!?'

At the same time, I hear Simon's fading voice in the distance as he yells, "Time for you all to die in a blast of divine light! Sefer Ha-Zohar (Book of Splendor)!!"

Instantly I notice that the same strange symbols once again shine brightly on all the paper sheets that make up this cyclone that traps us, which gives me a hint of what is going to happen, and realizing that, I close my eyes and brace for my incoming painful death. 

But right at that moment, I hear Jayr-san's calm voice right next to me as he makes a wolf-whistling noise and says in admiration, "*Twit twoo*! This is for sure quite the deadly technique, a little bit of an overkill for my tastes, but one has to admire the ingenuity of it."

Hearing that, I calm down and open my eyes, and in an instant, I'm baffled by the dreadful sight that greets me, all I can see around us is just a truly scary mix of silent fire and lightning explosions which constantly happens all around us, that seems to devour and erase everything but a small spherical space around Jayr-san whose boundaries are visible thanks to a light green aura. 

This space is big enough to also include Gad and the Précieuses under its protection, who are still hugging one other tightly waiting for death as they still don't realize that they are completely safe now.

Seeing that, I release a huge sigh of relief, before saying, "Jayr-san you are finally here! I truly thought that I would die!" but then seeing the bright smile on his face a strange suspicion quickly makes its way into my mind, so I look at him in the eyes and ask, "Jayr-san... can you please tell me just how long have you been here?"

As expected, Jayr-san smiles brightly as he candidly replies while giving me a thumb up, "Since the beginning!" which makes me sigh out loud while thinking in defeat, 'As expected... this is another one of Jayr-san's "Let my pupil face some hardships to help him grow" moments... One of these days he is going to kill me... But what scares me the most is that if that truly happens he is going to resurrect me soon after that with the same smile on his face while telling me something absurd like: "Experiencing death at least once will make you stronger. I too kinda died a couple of times and became way stronger after that experience!" God! Now that I think about it, Jayr-san is truly capable of pulling something like this off! I remember hearing something about how Jayr-san resurrected Oscar-san and Miledi-san!!'

While I'm going through that small internal crisis, Gad and the Précieuses finally realize that they are still alive and also notice Jayr-san's presence, making Gad question him, "Who are you!? And what is going on here?" 

Jayr-san looks at them for a few moments, before he says, "Hello there. My name is Pucci Jayr, I'm Koby's teacher and the one who saved your lives from your deranged captain. Nice to meet you."

Hearing that, Gad quickly says, " Ah! Is that so... Thanks..." followed by Rubis, Saphis, and Emeraude, who also thanks Jayr-san for saving them, then Emeraude asks, "So... what are we going to do now? We joined Simon-sama because we believed in his ambition and desire to create a better world where everyone could live in peace despite their race... But it is clear that he fooled us and that Simon-sama- Simon is no better than the people that currently rule this world..." making Gad and Saphis fall into silence while Rubis curses out, "Fuck that bastard! We have to make him pay!"

At this point, Jayr-san says, "Don't worry about Simon, I'll take care of him for you." but Gad quickly says, "No! Simon-sam- Simon is way too powerful! He is a superior being whose powers we can't even understand! We can't let you risk your lif-" before he can finish his sentence, Jayr-san interrupts him and says, "Simon isn't a superior being! He is simply a human who ate a powerful Devil Fruit and chanced upon a very rare knowledge! This world is full of people way stronger than he is... and I'm one of them, after all, I saved your lives against his lethal attack with little to no effort on my part! The proof is in front of you!"

Listening to Jayr-san's words, Gad and the Précieuses start to focus on what is going on around them and finally realize that while Simon's attack is still going on, we are all here calmly talking under the safety of Jayr-san's protection, and then Jayr-san speaks once more as they focus back on him, "As for what can you guys do? Well, you have a lot of choice, you can stay here on the Nanatsu Islands for some time to help these people recover from the chaos that the Simon Pirates caused. You can search for a better way to create the world that you desire. You can also return back to your homes. You are free to choose whatever suits you best."

Hearing Jayr-san words, the four fall into silence as they start to seriously think about their future, then Jayr-san looks at me and says with a proud smile on his face, "I have to say that while I'm surprised by your team-up with Alvida, I'm also impressed with how you acted! You showed me just how much of my lessons you have digested and how you can apply them to real-life situations. You had an almost perfect grasp of your surroundings, made perfect use of the information available to make a sound plan against stronger enemies, you were even able to react well to sudden situations and changes like your comrade fucking up your attack plan." 

After saying that, Jayr-san puts his hand on my shoulder and says, "I'm truly proud of how you have acted, and I want to tell you that you would have been successful if it wasn't for the fact that Simon is a Magic User making him a way trickier opponent to face!" 

Hearing that, I can't help but look at him and question, "Magic User?" making Jayr-san nod as he explains, "That's right. While the powers that Simon's Devil Fruit grants him are strong and versatile, there is no way that it enables him to do all this."

While saying that, Jayr-san points at what is happening outside the barrier as the tornado of lightning and fire still continues to ravage the surroundings, but I also notice that it is quickly losing power the more time passes probably as all the sheets of paper that Simon used to launch this attack get consumed.

Then Jayr-san continues with his explanation, "Those strange effects that his sheets of paper have are all granted by those symbols drawn on them. Those symbols are some kind of written language of power which once written correctly are able to affect the world so that the user can achieve a variety of effects or abilities... while such power is quite versatile, powerful, and cost-effective, it also has a few weakness, the most common is that those symbols usually have a time limit or energy limit, plus they have to be correctly drawn to work, moreover, if these symbols are damaged in any way then they become useless, depending on the method used to write these symbols even something as simple as paint can be used to damage them."

After Jayr-san finished his explanation, he looked outside the barrier he created to protect us, and commented, "That technique finally ended... My goddess, five minutes of constant explosions of fire and lighting, that technique is comparable with Konan's Kami no Shisha no Jutsu (Paper Person of God Technique)! Anyway, stay here, I'll go to save Alvida and take care of Simon! See you later!" 

Quickly after saying that, Jayr-san completely disappeared from my sight, moving so fast that I couldn't even perceive him, showing me once again just how strong he was. 

Then I quickly look around and as expected everything in the area around us is totally devastated by Simon's attack, the only green I can see is the small patch of grass that was protected by Jayr-san's barrier, the rest is only charred earth, and ash flying around for more than 300 meters all around.

Just as I'm checking the damage that Simon's attack caused to the surroundings, I hear Saphis's voice as she asks with genuine curiosity in his tone, "Uhm... Ne, ne, Koby-chi, right? I'd like to know exactly how strong that handsome guy is, can he really defeat someone like Simon-sa- Simon?"

I turn my head and look at her and notice that Gad, Rubis, and Emeraude are also curious about that, so I reply, "To tell you guys the truth, I don't exactly know just how strong Jayr-san is... But I truly can't image him losing to anyone or anything else... to give you guys an idea of what he is capable of, I will tell you this. He was able to easily destroy an island the size of Mu Island in a sparring match against Dracule Mihawk of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and that while he was holding back..." 

In response to my words, I watch as they all open their eyes and mouth wide open in shock as they exclaim in perfect sync, ""He did what!?"" while thinking, 'And considering the fact, that Kharna-chan, his almost 1 year old child is able to do the same I truly can't imagine what her father is able to do when he goes all out!'