#apokalypse

It's been months since the outbreak happened. You had been separated from your family and friends, forced to wander alone. You don’t know if they are dead or alive, and you may never find out. People were a rare sight, and you liked it that way. You were more scared of desperate people than slow, dumb zombies.

It got harder to move forward as winter drew closer, food became harder to come by. Warmth, harder to hold onto. You avoided areas where people would be, towns, cities. You’ve heard rumours from the people you do manage to stumble upon that the military has been going around looking for survivors. A last ditch effort to preserve some sort of society.

You drag yourself through the snowstorm, the sun starting to set. You had gone to get water from a nearby stream that had not yet frozen over, needing fresh water for the night. You approach the little camp you had set up, a tent and a campfire in an old concrete building. You slow your steps as you notice.. Tire marks…? You feel your stomach drop. These are fresh marks.

Someone is nearby. You reach for your knife, snow crunching under your boots as you enter the building as you see a snowmobile parked outside of the window to your right. You see the familiar crest of the National Guard and another you don’t recognise. Your heart is beating out of your chest, you snap your head to your set up, someone has gone through the tent…

The sound of a gun reloading over the sound of the snow storm makes you turn around fast. You find yourself looking down the barrel of a gun, a shotgun, held by a man in tactical gear and a skull balaclava.

The man seems much better prepared for the winter weather than you, at least judging by his white camouflage heavy duty cold weather gear- compared to your scavenged coats and boots. His voice is low and emotionless as he clicks the gun’s safety off and speaks in a low, dangerous voice.

“Drop the knife.” He says, his voice eerily calm. In a panicked state, you drop the knife and make a run for it. You hear a gunshot ring out, and you fall to the ground. He shot you in the leg. You are horrified by the pain and how much blood seems to seep from the wound.

He is at your side in less than a second, his gun lowered as he kneels down beside you, checking your leg.

"Stay still. I’ve hit your knee. I don't know how bad it is."

There's something in his eyes- it might look like pity, but it's a bit too cold and hard to really call it that. Even so, he reaches out to help you sit up. You immediately try to scramble away from him, blood painting the cold concrete below you red.

"Hold still. You aren't going anywhere."

He grabs your waist and forces you to sit still, keeping his grip firm. He seems pretty intent on forcing you to stay put, and he's strong- you'll struggle against his grip as much as you want, but it's not going to do any good.

"Now don't try to crawl anywhere. You'll just bleed out even faster. You're going to sit there and listen to me now, no matter how much it hurts, alright? You don't have any other choice."

He uses your scarf to wrap the wound, making sure that you won’t bleed out and die. Your tears freeze to your face as you dry heave at the sight of blood. He then drags you over to the snowmobile outside the old building, and you see that he's packed up your things in the sled attached to the back of the snowmobile.

You whimper and sob the pain is blinding. And he lifts you up to get you to sit on the back seat of the snowmobile. He makes you sit back there, and when he's pulled the strap of the seat tight over your chest, he stops and pauses, looking at you- really looking, almost for the first time. He can really see the exhaustion on your face from fending for yourself.

He gives you a pat on the leg, and then gets into the driver's seat, starting up the snowmobile.

"You're just going to have to ride with me. And then we're going back to my cabin." He grabs a spare helmet from the side compartment beside him and he puts it over your head, making sure it fits correctly.

He holds the helmet in place and buckles it on your head, starting the motor of the snowmobile as he does so. Once you're all buckled in, he starts driving through the thick, white snow.

"Hold on. The ride might be rough."

He doesn't wait for you to respond, starting the engine before the words have fully left his mouth. Every bump and turn makes the pain in your knee shoot up your leg, it hurts so much.

One hour, then two. The snow is thick and the snowmobile struggles over the rough terrain. Simon glances back at you every now and then as he drives, checking your expression.

At last, after what feels like an eternity of bumps and jolts, the snowmobile finally starts to level out, and he spots a small cabin nestled in some trees up ahead.

He pulls the snowmobile into a shed that looks old and weathered. The roof is almost collapsing, and the walls are made out of plywood.

He unbuckles you from the back of the snowmobile and helps get you to your feet. He is still silent, but he seems calmer somehow.

"We're here. Come on."

He starts walking towards a door on the side of the cabin. You limp, almost falling over. You clench your teeth, the pain feels like it's burning.

He keeps a grip on your arm, helping you limp with him as he leads you into the cabin. The cabin is small, but tidy, with a stove in the middle and a few shelves along the wall- he closes the door behind the both of you, and locks it.

He helps you out of your winter gear, hanging each piece of your clothing up to dry- the jackets, boots, and pants. He watches you closely as he helps you take the layers off, noticing the tears still running down your face- he's not used to someone crying in front of him.

He guides you over to the couch, sitting you down gingerly on the sofa. Every movement is agony, and you haven't stopped crying.

He goes to a shelf, grabbing a first aid kit. He comes back to you, sitting down next to you on the couch. He starts to open the first aid kit, a grim expression on his face.

"This is going to hurt, so try and lie as still as you can, alright?"

He works quickly but carefully, his movements practiced. He's been doing this kind of thing for years in the military. He pulls out the bullet with a pair of surgical tweezers, and after some delicate stitching, he finishes up the wound. You feel like your gonna pass out from the pain.

"There. All done."

As he speaks, you notice how his voice is almost softer than usual. You are breathing heavily, not managing the pain very well. He gives your wound one more once-over, wiping away the excess blood with a cloth. Then, he pulls out a pair of fuzzy socks and puts them on your feet, slowly starting to warm your feet with your boots and snow pants set to dry.

"There. They should warm up soon."

He glances up at you as he sits back, noticing your tears and how you're crying. He frowns almost imperceptibly, as if the sight of you crying is making his stomach twist a bit.

He quickly grabs some clean cloth from a shelf in the next room, bringing them in and sitting back down on the couch next to you. He starts to wrap the cloth around your knee, securing the makeshift brace around it. He ties the ends together, holding the cloth in place over the injury.

"Now you won't be able to move that leg, let alone bend it. That should help keep that knee from getting worse for now.."

He's quiet for a long moment, just sitting next to you on the couch as you cry. He's watching you carefully, an almost unreadable look on his face. His eyes take in every detail of your expression, almost like he's committing it to memory.

After a while, he speaks, breaking the silence between you.

"You should probably try and rest, okay?"

We out here Barda posting

καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἄλλος ἵππος πυρρός, καὶ τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἐδόθη αὐτῷ λαβεῖν τὴν εἰρήνην ἐκ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἵνα ἀλλήλους σφάξουσιν, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ μάχαιρα μεγάλη.

καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος μέλας, καὶ ὁ καθήμενος ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἔχων ζυγὸν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ.

καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος χλωρός, καὶ ὁ καθήμενος ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ ὄνομα αὐτῷ ὁ Θάνατος, καὶ ὁ ᾍδης ἠκολούθει μετ’ αὐτοῦ...

I would be like this if I didn't take pills.

So there is a lot to unpack with the Harley painting, and what we learn of the world, so lets unpack it, and see how it explains the discrepancies between the Nica the benevolent sun god who spent his time liberating slaves, and Joy Boy, who seems to have lead his side into war with the goal of becoming "King" of presumably the entire world, leading to formation of the world government to oppose him, who's victory lead to the current despotic world government.

the biggest key to one piece's past we learn in this story is that the great war during the void century was not the first apokalyptic event the world went through.

As we learn here, the Devil fruit that would one day become known as the Gomu Gomu no Mi, began it's existence from the prayers of men, their desire for a great saviour who would liberate them from their bonds of slavery.

they created a myth of a mystical saviour, and as a result, one day the power for a man to become one such came into existence through the devil fruits.

However, as we see here, this ultimately all turned out in the worst way possible.

from what i understand, We probably have no information on whoever fought in this war beyond what we learn here, and the information that the first Nica was heavily involved in it.

Thats the point. this was a primordial conflict that ended with a near total extinction event as whoever nica was fighting unleashed dragons upon the world, and cast the world into ruin.

This also gives us an insight into the basis for their power to rule.

"The Earth burned in endless flames"

dragons in one piece are dangerous creatures, but compared to how much fear they awoke in monsters, it seems a bit disproportional compared to how relatively easily they are to kill.

however, if we use the information we learn here, we can extrapolate that the true reason they awoke such fear in the day of Ryoma, was due to a then still lingering cultural memory of when the rulers of the world used dragons to dominate the planet.

Nica challenged this, and though there is not a mention that he actually lost the war, the outcome made it irrelevant.

Nica and his followers reached for "The Forbidden star" whatever that was, and in some way, the consequences of that destroyed the world.

the world burned. darkness fell. death reigned.

thus the seeds for the next age was set in the distant future of that war.

this is the origins of the original nica, the savior of slaves who liberated peoples hearts and spread hope wherever he went.

the second apokalypse, is one we are far more familiar with.

The great war. Joy Boy's attempt to conquer the world, and his opposition eventually becoming no better as they decided to raise themselves as god kings after their victory.

In the text we learn a lot of new, cryptic details though.

Firstly, there seems to be a reference to the true origins of devil fruits.

We know how they come into existence, how their powers manifest from human dreams and desires, but what we do not know is the exact origins of the power itself, if there is such a thing.

This text might shine a hint to such a thing.

The God of the Forest wove their magic, nurturing it's devils.

This suggests that there is an entity of some kind that is indeed responsible for creating devil fruits at the source, and that in the period leading up to the great war, they were active in growing them for one of the two sides to bolster their powers in the upcoming conflict.

this also confirms the fact that it was indeed Joy Boy who started the conflict, confirming what we already kinda knew, that it was the number one son of the great kingdom that was the warmonger agressor in the war.

we also get confirmation that the people from the moon were heavily involved in this conflict, both through the imagery, and the moons being singled out as big players in the conflict. which if they were indeed the people of the great kingdom(as their technology would suggest) they would indeed be.

however, then learn something else, or at least the passage of events tells us something that completely flips what we thought we knew on it's head.

after slaying joy boy, the world government was formed and 19 of the original monarchs deified themselves and they now rule the world to this day.

however, the last event mentioned tells us that the 20 kings, by killing joy boy and deifying themselves, they "Evoke the wrath of the sea god." who was clearly the previous poseidon.

we have always known that the three ancient weapons have the power to destroy the world, but we have believed(as suggested by vegapunk) that it was the clash of those three weapons that destroyed the entire world of old and sank them into the sea.

if this text is to be believed though, then wasnt entierly true.

because it wasnt before joy boy's death that the 20 monarhcs actually "Awoke the sea god's wrath".

it was her wrath that was the final endnote of that era.

In other words, when her side decisively lost the war, and Joy Boy was slain, she sank the grand line in her wrath, and destroyed any and all spoils the new world government could have pilfered both from her side, and just the political reality that they now controlled the entire world... which she reduced to one, last continent that was beyond her power to sink, and a bunch of wrecked islands where once were continents.

it paints both her and joy boy in an entierly new light, and hammers in what rayleigh once told robing, not to be too hasty in her presumed judgements as ohara's scholars were.

whatever came after, joy boy was the one who attempted to conquer the world.

thus the image of the man who woke such fear into the victorious side that they have done everything they possibly can to erase the memory of the man and his entire side, because the idea that someone new could rise up is absolutely terrifying.

joy boy is thus the origins of the warlike, destructive legend of the sun god.

the third apokalypse, the one we're currently seeing unfold is the end of the current world order when the world is about to fall into the sea, and the sun god rises for a third time.

it's not exactly subtle, as the text rather bluntly references the "Final act" which is the arc after this one presumably, where the world will end, and a new day will break, and presumably the pair that has been referenced repeatedly at the endings of all of these stansas will finally reunite.