57 Mad Man
Gan Fall watched the woman tear into the ranks of his soldiers, seemingly meeting no resistance, as if she could just as easily be taking a stroll through the courtyard.
He knew that his soldiers would not be able to stop this woman, this monster. She may as well be taking a stroll in the courtyard of the shrine, it would be just as easy.
He realized that nothing stood between them, but an illusion of security. So he stepped forth and acted against her.
Cherry sensed something from beneath her so she leapt upwards. The island clouds that had just been under her feet then parted, forming a hole that a few of the soldiers fell through, plummeting to the ground below.
A white streak slashed towards her, which she drew her sword to block.
*CLASH*
The sound of swords clashing together. Cherry followed the white ribbon of metal to its source, attached to Gan Fall's shoulder where his arm ought to be.
Seeing their God taking action, the soldiers removed themselves from the battlefield quickly, clearly frightened of getting caught in the middle.
"You're ready to stop hiding behind these weaklings now, are you Gan Fall? That's good because I was getting bored. It should be fun teaching you how high the heavens are..." Cherry finished, launching herself towards him.
Gan Fall's brows furrowed. He transformed both arms into white ribbons of cloud steel and lashed out like living whips. At the same time he disrupted the island clouds along her path to put off her footing and slow her down.
Cherry clashed with the white ribbon blades, as well as dodged and weaved around them.
She never seemed fazed at all by the disrupted footing, as if predicted how it would change in each moment, even avoiding the areas that open into holes.
Only a moment passed since their battle started and Cherry already reached Gan Fall. He brought his arms in front of him to guard.
*SLASH*
Cherry eyes flashed and her sword came down far faster than before with tremendous momentum. It cleaved straight the cloud iron of Gan Fall's arms and through his torso.
Gan Fall had a shocked look upon his face, but it quickly shifted into a mad smile as his legs flashed forward in the form of white ribbons.
Cherry dodged out of the way and put some distance between them.
"Fool, I am the clouds themselves. You cannot defeat a God no matter how you try." He clenched his teeth in a crazed expression that could not quite be called a smile.
Although Cherry appeared flustered, that was just a show she was putting on to keep his attention. She knew from the start that her attack wouldn't harm him, though just a little bit of Armament Haki would have changed that. Her goal was not to kill the senile old man, at least not yet.
Gan Falls arms shot out once more. Cherry made to block them, but the moment they would have collided something changed.
His arms shifted from cloud iron blades into a strange purple cloud that enveloped her head.
Cherry quickly realized that these clouds had the consistency of mud and she could breathe.
Not that it was a problem that she couldn't breathe. Breathing was only a mortal method to obtain energy from the environment, she need only replace the process with a minimal amount of vital energy.
Still, she made a point to appear to be struggling with her breath.
"HAHAHA! Now you can't breathe! How do you like my swamp clouds?!" Gan Fall was ecstatic.
Cherry reached up and directly tore away the swamp clouds.
"Huh?" Gan Fall's smile wavered.
"You aren't the only one with a devil fruit ability, false god." Cherry look unimpressed. Gan Fall seethed in rage.
Gan Fall reached into his robes and put a gauntlet on his hand.
Cherry wasn't stupid. Although she did not know about all the different kinds of dials, she imagined there was a sort of battle related dial within the gauntlet.
Cherry pulled out her revolver and fired it at the gauntlet. Surprisingly Gan Fall took the shot directly with the gauntlet.
There did not seem to be any impact whatsoever, however.
"Hmph, it seems you are unaware about dial combat. I could tell that shot was no ordinary one. There is a kind of dial called an 'impact dial' that can store the energy from a blow and release it later." Gan Fall explained with a surprising calmness.
'Oh no~! I'm so~ scared!' Cherry mocked inwardly. The kinetic energy from the shot might hurt, but it wouldn't do any major damage to her.
Gan Fall ran towards her, using his left arm to assault her with cloud iron blades, then stretching his right arm bearing the gauntlet towards her.
Naturally Cherry wouldn't let him get his way too easily and fought back fiercely. She left an opening for the arm blade, then 'barely' blocked the blade to leave a different opening for the gauntlet.
Gan Fall's gauntleted hand landed on her chest and he sneered. "But this isn't an impact dial..."
*BOOM*
A deep sound as loud as thunder echoed outwards and could even be heard on Angel Island.
Cherry coughed up blood as she pulled herself out of the wall of the courtyard.
Robin, hearing the sound, peeked out the window of Gan Fall's study and covered her mouth in worry.
"Hahahahaha!" Cherry laughed. "Damn, that really hurt. You're not half bad, you crazy old coot."
Gan Fall looked between the gauntlet and her with confusion on his face. "How are you still alive...?"
"What? You managed to break some of my ribs and damage some organs, yet still you want more? Aren't you the greedy one." Cherry smiled, teeth stained with blood.
Gan Fall was dumbfounded and Cherry made no attempt to break him out of his mystification. When he did regain his wits a few moments later and prepared to attack her once more, Cherry held out a hand as if to tell him to wait.
"You know, Enel is on his way up here right at this very moment." Cherry said.
Gan Fall's eyes widened and his Mantra stretched down the beanstalk and sure enough, her words were true.
"AHHHH!" He let out a war cry and sunk into the island clouds at his feet., likely to go after Enel.
Cherry quickly moved towards where Robin, Cabernet, and Serene were sneaking out of the shrine residence.
"Let's go, I know where the cloud iron box is." Cherry said, telling Cabernet to transform and carry them.
"Are you alright, Cherry?" Robin asked worriedly.
"Psssh, I'm fine. Just some ruptured organs and massive internal hemorrhaging. Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix." Cherry said nonchalantly.
Robin took it as a joke and sighed with relief, though it was pretty much true. Body Cultivators were a tough bunch, that's for sure.
"How do you know where the cloud iron box is? You've been fighting this whole time..." Serene said, always the doubter. Cherry pinched her waist for asking questions without permission.
"Alright, Cabernet, take us up, to the very top of this beanstalk." Cherry instructed. Cabernet followed without complaint.
Cherry knew where the cloud iron box was because she could guess that the thing she picked up with her Life Sense on top of the beanstalk was what it had contained.
"Did you find the dream journal Robin?" Cherry asked, Robin nodded in the affirmative.
"It's a rather interesting read. It seems to function as both a diary and a collection of Gan Fall's dreams, as well as his own thoughts about them. Most of them are pretty surreal, but one in particular describes what Gan Fall believes to have been a possible future involving Enel as well as a 'Treasure of Birka'." She described.
"His 'prophetic dream' involving Enel seems to have occurred before his visit to Birka and resulting descent into madness. Afterwards, he mentions a tomb of someone called the 'Thunder God of Birka' and a trap laid by him for those who came to steal his treasure. Perhaps this trap has something to do with his madness?" Robin speculated.
"Well, who knows. If he got a good hard crack on the noggin then I doubt there's a way to bring him out of his madness." Cherry said, though she had a tiny feeling she might have hit the jackpot.
