More Than Blood

God no More
Three days had past since Tabart was completely embarrassed by his enemies on Spicy Pot Island. The World Government did their very best to cover up the humiliating defeat that they suffered at the hands of Abel, who Tabart managed to unearth as the former captain of the Hunting Pirates, Vryrch Seth. However, they refused to release this information out of fear of sending the world into a frenzy. If anything, because of it, Abel was now highly regarded as a target worth pursuing. Therefore, Tabart wasn't blamed for any of the events that went down; in fact, he was commended for surviving. But, he didn't feel good. Not in the slightest.

He had been spared, not through his individual might, or expertise, but because Redland Gut decided that he could use Tabart. That was why he was allowed to live, and that was why he trudged through the wet forest of Gerbraltar Key throughout the entire night. As midday broke, the thunderstorm has long since receded. Instead, it was replaced by a gentle breeze accompanied by the scorching sun. Even if Tabart hadn't used the forest to defend himself from the elements, he was certain he would have dried from the sheer ferocity of the sun. Therefore, he commanded the leaves and trees to shade them from their rays, until he finally exited the dense field of oak. There was a gate; it had to be the village he was told about when he arrived a day ago.

He approached the gate, stopping at the command of someone's voice. It was hoarse and coarse as if worn by decades of nicotine and chemicals.

"Who are ye?" the old man inquired, stepping from his cover, holding a rifle in his hand. He squinted, gasping out of surprise. "I-I-I know who yer are!! You're one of dem, warlords!! Those World Government peeps! What the fuck are ye doing here?"

Tabart exhaled. "I'm here to meet with...."

"ME, OLD MAN!" A voice boomed from the forest. Then as loud footsteps began to crash against the ground a looming wave of trees could be seen. Rising from behind the current tree line they loomed in the air, packed tightly together, their tips pointed horizontally. It was as if the land was being pushed over, rising like a wave to swallow the town. But then as the footsteps grew close the wave became clearer, it was a floating forest. A massive bushel of trees, grouped together and floating in the air above the island. Drawing closer along with the footsteps.

"BRAHAHAHAHAHA!" A booming laughed echoed towards the two men as the forest began to part, Redland pushing himself through. "Didn't think you'd show up Wyrmling. I was getting bored."

The old man move up to Gut, his mouth agape in shock. "I just sent you out 5 minutes ago. Wha, what the hell." His wrinkled face peered up at the floating forest, now hanging above the city.

"You said to harvest em in exchange for the land. And I did just that, roots and all." Gut responded. "You got fields for these right, I'd hate to crush such a quaint place."

"Yes yes just beyond the village." The old man nodded.

"Good then." Gut moved before the village gate, adjusting himself as the floating forest spun, roots now facing towards the far end of the village with the fields. Then just came crashing down in an arc, roots slamming themselves into the faraway ground. "There we go old man," Gut tapped his axe against his shoulder. "Come on Wyrmling. We've got work to do." He spoke, walking back towards the trees he came from.

Tabart followed quickly behind, jogging slightly to keep up with Gut's massive strides that befitted a man of his stature.

"Where are we going...er?" Tabart paused. He hadn't learned Gut's name at all, considering his only encounter with him was being utterly humiliated in their quick encounter, and then told that he wasn't worth anything. However, here he was, here to complete his part of the deal. No matter what Tabart was, he was truly a man of his word. That was the reason why he didn't make promises often.

"We're bringing your side of our bargain to a close Wyrmling." Gut replied, batting trees aside as he moved his massive frame through the forest.

They walked in silence for a couple minutes before finally arriving in a massive clearing that gave way to one of the edges of the island. The clearing itself was patchy with holes and dirt everywhere. It looked as if an entire section of the forest had been uprooted and considering what had just gone down, it seemed very likely to be the case. "Here we go." Gut grinned as he stomped to the center of the ruined area.

"Alright listen up Wyrmling, you make things grow yeah? Grow this." He removed a piece of what looked to be bark from his person, handing it to Tabart. "I wanna see a tree."

Tabart looked at the bark, and then squeezed it, causing it to burst into a barrage of flowering seeds fell onto the earth. Upon mental command, the seeds exploded into trees, growing until they were more than twice Gut's height.

"What are these trees?"

Gut was grinning wildly a he walked up tapping one of the trees with his arm. "Pretty sturdy, this is good." Gut moved closer to the trees looking over the bark with his own eyes. "Step one is complete Wyrmling." He laughed as he flung his axe outward, anchoring it in the faraway soil.

"That piece of bark right there was from Treasure Tree Adam!"

Tabart's eyes fell motionless, having felt from the very moment he grabbed the bark a sense of Deja Vu. He was pulled into his memories, back to Elbaf, and back to his fight against Bathory McGhinnis. That was the battle where he sacrificed his right arm, using the wood of the treasure tree to prevent McGhinnis from moving forward. He, and Kettle, together held him back until they eventually both collapsed.

How weak he was back then....Nothing had changed.

He shook his head, returning to reality.

"So, you just want me to mass produce timber or something? What's all of this for?"

"The treasure tree took at least a couple lifetimes to grow to where it is now." Gut replied, still admiring the miniature grove. "But with you here we can bypass that. Got yerself a green thumb Wyrmling." He reached out placing a massive hand around the trunk of one of the smaller trees, gripping it.

"I'm gonna split Adam in two, purge it by the roots. Now that we have our own there's no need for the rest of the world to be granted access."

Tabart grimaced. "Destroy the tree? That's not the best idea."

"And why might that be Wyrmling?" Redland replied, looming over him.

Tabart stepped backwards. "Because, you're just going to bring unwanted attention to yourself. Sure, destroying the Treasure tree would be beneficial, because then you'd have a monopoly over it, but you'd have to fight through a whole bunch of pirates, the World Government, etc., It'd be much easier to knock them out through competition, rather than literally knocking the tree over. Think about it for a moment," Tabart answered, stepping towards the trees.

"We can grow a whole grove of these trees as large as we want whenever we want, for free. You can only harvest so much from the Treasure Tree, because it takes forever to grow, but here, we can mass produce it. You can drop your prices, while supplying more product. You'd dominate the market based purely on supply and demand."

Redland cocked his head at Tabart. "Heh, oh I see. You think I should wait it out first huh. Interesting theory Wyrmling." Redland spoke, a loud whirring was heard in the distance. His axe had begun to spin rapidly, ripping through the dirt it began to swirl around the two, cutting a deep line through the soil. Gut surveyed the area and nodded.

"Alright make this area a grove of em." He motioned to the circle his axe had created.

Tabart stepped forward, planting his foot along the line of soil. He exhaled, focusing and churning his powers to activate, and then, just like that, several dozens of tree sprouted along the grove; a dense forest of treasure tree plants were crafted in but a moment's notice, for such was the power of an Awakened Paramecia user.

"Like that?" Tabart asked curiously.

"Admirable job. I knew you'd be of use." He huffed, admiring the grove he reached out and snapped a branch off one of the trees. Tucking it into his clothes he looked to the sky. "It's about time, hope you didn't leave anything here."

Tabart would barely have time to respond as the plot of landed lifted from the ground, carved out by his axe. It climbed towards the clouds in an arc over Gerbraltar Key, picking up speed as it moved.

"W-What the?!" Tabart replied, his eyes widened out of sheer surprise. To believe that the ground, in this moment, was flying?! What type of sorcery was this?! No, rather....

He looked towards Redland, his hands gripping the elongated grass tightly. "What devil fruit do you have?!"

"A good one!" Gut replied with a hearty laugh.

Tabart squinted. He wasn't going to get an answer out of Gut. He expected someone like him to keep things close to his chest. That was just the type of guy he seemed to be. Therefore, he channeled his powers to cause the grass to grow around him, gripping his hands and legs to keep him firmly glued to the floating grove.

As the grove pierced through the clouds, a mass could be seen on the horizon. It was moving faster than the grove and was much larger. As it drew neared Tabart would be able to make out the true shape of it, some massive floating island being orbited by smaller ones.

"Hold on Wyrmling."

Tabart gripped the grass tightly. "What is all of this?!"

"Vínland." Gut Replied.

A World Above
Gut stood on the edge of the floating grove as the massive island grew ever closer, seemingly set on a collision course for them.

"Here we go!" He roared as the grove began to speed up, along with the island. In mere moments the island was almost upon them and they hung to the far right of it, then the whole grove jolted. Swinging in a completely different direction as it was originally traveling. It began to move around the island, moving with many of the other smaller islands. Now a part of the larger system, the massive island continued to soar through the sky, traveling to some unknown destination.

"Well we've made it Wyrmling, welcome to my paradise above the clouds." He motioned outwards as they orbited the great island. It was quite sizable, sporting a couple forests, a lake, and a small mountain range. Near the center there was also what looked to be a city of sorts. Surrounded by large walls it seemed to be bustling with activity. Flecks of color could be seen moving about the winding streets. The various islands that spun around the main island carried various buildings, mountains, gardens, and even other small villages.

Gut let out a huff as he looked over it all.

Tabart glanced around, taking everything in as he stood in what anyone could only assume was awe.

"H-How? What is your devil fruit?" Tabart inquired, snapping his head to face Gut. "Yes, it's a good one, but how are you doing this? The only person who I know that can do something of this scale is Ralph-sama, you know, the former admiral! Who in the hell are you? Don't tell me you're another one of his brothers!!"

Gut turned to Tabart raising his eyebrow. "What makes you so sure I have one Wyrmling?"

Tabart stepped forward. "Because there's no way you can do any of...this" he replied, waving his arms around as he gestured to Gut's sky paradise. "Not without a fruit! It doesn't make any sense."

"Heh does it now Wyrmling." Gut replied, staring down at the sea of clouds below them. "You'd be surprised what someone without a fruit can do." Gut reached his hand out, his large fingers grasping the air. He pulled back towards his body and the air seemed to change. Tabart would feel his entire body being dragged towards Gut, wind roaring by his ears.

"W-What the--" Tabart's body lifted off the ground, and went flying towards Gut's own. There was absolutely nothing he could do!

He flew into Gut's open palm, quite hard. Gut grinned and dropped him to the floor. "Didn't need a fruit to do that."

Tabart fell right on his butt, and looked up. "What the hell? How in the fuck are you doing that though?"

"It's not hard, I just grabbed the air and dragged it towards me." He turned his palm to Tabart, a small black dot sat on the tips of each of his fingers.

"Yeah, but how?!" Tabart inquired again, doing the same motion with his hands. "You see how I ain't pulling shit? How in the hell do you grab air?"

"You know what haki is right Wyrmling?" Gut glanced at him, pointing one of his massive fingers at one of the dots.

Tabart nodded. "You should probably just explain it man. Yeah, I know what Haki is, but I'm missing the connection being made."