85 The Crows Of The Night
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Chapter 84: The Crows Of The Night
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Right on the edge of the East Blue and the Calm Belt, there was an Island. Its proximity to the Calm Belt made it completely inapproachable by most people of East Blue.
The Island was quite large and dark. The weather in the area was nothing but dark clouds despite how rarely it rains.
It was, however, extremely chaotic. Cries and wails of beasts resounded throughout the Island, complemented by roars of predators.
The Island's Cycle of life was a bit fucked as only predators reside within it, thus the chaos. The beasts were always looking for preys to devour.
Yet life on the Island survived because of the darkness within, the monsters of the Night. They were little creatures that only hunt in darkness, and luckily for them, it was always dark on the Island.
Just like now, they watched from the darkness as a colossal grey tiger went out to hunt. The Tiger was strange like most beasts on the Island. It had black horns and a tail similar to that of scorpions.
It silently moved through the woods, looking for prey that can satiate its hunger. It was a bit too cautious, eyeing the trees and the sky from time to time, seemingly expecting something.
And even when it found its prey, the Tiger stayed wary. It found a buffalo with about six horns and spikes spurting from its back. Even its tail was a spike.
The beasts on the Island seemed to have evolved to be predators of each other in the harsh environment.
It took a long while of tailing before the Tiger finally lost patience and decided to attack, approaching as silently as possible before leaping to the prey.
The Tiger had the element of surprise, and it would've certainly liked to clutch to the Buffalo's neck, but the latter's massive horns were an obstruction, so it could only bite onto its stomach.
The stomach allowed the Tiger to be relatively out of reach of the Buffalo's spiky tail as the latter started jumping about, trying to force the predator to let go.
However, the Buffalo's tail was able to reach the Tiger's tail and stop it from lunging at him. It was a chaotic battle that went on for a while with the Tiger dominating throughout.
It was dark, so the Tiger didn't see it coming, especially since something or somethings took out his eyes. The little monsters were blending with the darkness very well.
And right away, he felt those things beak through his skin, somehow strong enough to do so. They were many, and they made it hell for the Tiger.
The monsters of the Night were creatures that bring terror to every beast on the Island because of how cunning and sneaky they are, and Yovan got to personally witness them at work.
Yovan was in his beast form, a small three-legged crow with golden eyes. What he was seeing was clearly reflected in his eyes, crows, thousands of them moving about.
Indeed, the Island was completely dominated by dark crows that blend in darkness to such a degree that they were unseeable by most beasts.
Yovan estimated that the Island houses hundreds of thousands of crows if not more.
The Island's geographical location is also very convenient because it allows dead sea beasts to wash up to the shore, so almost every day, tens if not hundreds of Sea beasts wash up there.
Their state doesn't matter to the beasts of the Island, especially so to the Crows of the Night. They'll eat whatever.
Such an environment allowed the Crows to multiply very quickly and even rule the Island with terror, but not today.
Today was a special day because darkness left the sky, or more like, light overwhelmed the sky, a burning light so bright it summoned every single Crow from their nests.
They eyed the sky in fear for light was something foreign to them. They live in the Night, and nothing but night, but now there was a sun in the sky, golden flames.
The Three-legged Crow is also known as Sun Crow. It's the embodiment of the Sun, a higher creature in the food chain.
This was merely an experiment for Yovan. If it works, then his future will become many times easier, so the cawing sound of crows started resounding throughout.
The crows were communicating with each other, their cawing only cut off by an immense pressure they felt. It was very minor, but they still felt terrified as the Sun Crow appeared.
The Island or to be specific, the Crows of the Night were perfect for Yovan's future. He made a deal with Morgans to look for nests of crows, as many as he could find.
And thus why he appeared here. The Pantheon's network of information can't work with Morgans' News Coo because the World government will certainly eradicate Morgans with what Yovan is planning to do.
There can't be too close of a connection between him and Morgans aside from releasing news about him.
In fact, Morgans was already kept on close watch due to releasing some news he shouldn't be aware of.
The blueprints of Pluton aren't something to be known. That's why Yovan was assigned such a high bounty.
Either way, Yovan stayed on the Island of the Night for about a month before heading back to Rusukaina.
Yovan landed directly on Hancock's pink Ship, and just waited for Hancock to come out, ignoring many of her people eyeing him weirdly.
"Finally back," Hancock said with a smile as she approached Yovan.
"And you're still here?" Yovan arched his brows, "You should really go and start the preparations for the announcement just in case."
"Well, I wanted to say goodbye," Hancock murmured with a blush before trying to hide it with her next words, "Have you heard about what happened to Crocodile?"
"I will take care of it." Yovan stated with a mischievous smile before pulling her into a hug, "I enjoyed our time together, so thank you for keeping me company, but don't slack off, alright?"
"A-Al-Alright?" Hancock, the Pirate Empress, stuttered her words with a blush much to the absolute shock of her crew. They were, in fact, slack-jawed, literally.
"Well, take care," Yovan let go as he turned around, leaving her with a few last words, "And remember, the grand meeting will happen in less than a year from now, so be ready."
Hancock remained frozen in her place for a while after as were her crew, "I... Was I just confessed to?"
Yovan who was far away by now couldn't help but shake his head, a strange look was apparent on his face, 'How did she fall in love with me? Well, I'm fabulous, so it kind of makes sense.'
He came to the most correct answer very quickly as he jumped on top of Antarisa before the latter leaped into the sky, using platforms of feathers to move about.
'Hah, I miss my crew,' Yovan thought in his mind. He had no interest in romance, not for now at least. All he wants was to go on an adventure, but there are problems to solve.
Soon, a few crows flew to Yovan settling on his shoulders and head. They started gently cawing at him as he nodded, seemingly understanding them, "I see, Antarisa, head south from here, to that direction."
And she did, leaping from one platform to another with a speed surpassing that of sound. She has grown quite a bit under Yovan's training. Who wouldn't under him?
The crows scattered, flying in different directions while Antarisa made her way south until Yovan told her to stop and leap above the clouds.
Not too far away, there was a Marine Ship moving relatively close to the Calm Belt. Its destination was Ennies Lobby.
There were dozens of Marines on the Ship's deck while others were on the insides, all doing their job as usual, but each and every one of them noticed it instantly, the temperature was rising.
All it took those on Deck was turning their head to see a hazy figure, hidden behind a cluster of flames, "I would very much like it if you let Crocodile go without any trouble. Otherwise, I will burn the Ship down."
The situation was a bit strange because there are very few places Yovan can't sneak into with his Awakening.
However, he chose to make himself known. Well, not exactly as all they could see was a cluster of flames surrounding a figure.
The Marines quickly brought out their guns before surrounding him, aiming at him with trembling hands as one specific Marine walked closer to Yovan.
The Marine was quite muscular with white hair, and he was strangely smoking two cigars at once, "You think you can?"
Yovan let out a chuckle of amusement as things turned a bit too bright to the point that almost everyone on the Ship had to close their eyes, but that didn't save them from the burning heat.
