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Chapter 174: [174] Roots of Redemption

It was late evening when the band of pirates arrived at the uncharted island.

*Crunch* His thick boots dug deep into the rich soil, sending out a pulse of energy that rippled through the island, bringing evident joy to the wildlife and greenery.

A lone Damien paused in his steps, standing tall and enjoying the warm air, hearing the singing trees and the dancing flowers. 

Such familiar grass. Such familiar breezes. Such familiar sights. After nearly seven years, Damien had come back home.

A soft sigh escaped the notorious pirate\'s lips, a reaction shared by Ares to his side, father and son, both heartstruck. The nostalgia from long ago came back in surges.

*Fwoooo* A gentle breeze passed the two, almost as if they were welcomed back home.

"All those years in a cold and decrepit cell… I never thought I could enjoy this simple yet homely island ever again," Ares muttered, even forgetting his impending doom.

Damien absently smiled, feeling the same. 

A mix of the mundane years of his childhood in a peaceful village and then the years he spent all alone on this very island.

As if sensing the young pirate\'s ambivalence, a soft hand grasped his own. "Damien-san," Toki\'s cheerful voice beckoned his attention. She smiled at him: "The air here is even purer than that of Wano."

Damien nodded, sensing the thriving nature.

Though at face value, it was overgrown and uncontrollably so, at the same time, the blooming nature brought on its own disastrous beauty. The blessing of the Dryad Fruit and Damien\'s own affinity had left Renaissance truly reborn out of its ashes from years ago, true to its name. 

Trees that had been reduced to black logs had grown to colossal sizes, giving home to a vast array of species to call their home.

.

"Woah, the vibe here is even more nurturing than from Mortem Island," Kuzan commented, pulling up his eye mask and shaking out of sleep. He ran a hand through a few blades of tall grass, pulling at that: "Jeez. This stuff is tough!"

Mihawk went further, unsheathing his katana and stabbing at a tree.

*Clang!* It was as if he had struck a solid column of dense metal; the shock reflected in his hawk-like eyes as it ran down his arm. "It\'s tougher than steel…"

Solomon, who had grown up under the forsaken forests of Extinction Valley, was just as surprised. He leaned in to sniff another sturdy tree: "There\'s no end to the weapons you can make with wood like this. Hell, even the grass is as sturdy as steel wire!"

"I\'ll say," Kraft said, tracing his hand across the bark of a tree. The shipwright\'s mind ran through dozens of ideas inspecting the forest: "The wood here is close to rivalling Adam\'s Oak!"

Eventually, the party made their way through the verdant island. Where the average person would see an endless maze of towering trees, Damien saw nothing but a self-opening path, leading him to the island\'s real treasure.

…

[Ten Minutes Later]

And there it was, the wide span of trees forming a mangrove. The spanning leaves allow the ideal amount of rainwater and sunlight to pass through, keeping this treasured area in its most perfect state.

The smell of roses and lavender with rainbows was born from the dripping water under the approaching moonlight.

"Damien… t-this tree…!"

It was the first time the young pirate had heard his father stutter in such a stupor, frozen at the sight of the mangrove.

A mass of trees, vines, flowers, grass, bushes, and shrubs collectively formed the face of a sleeping woman. The arriving moonlight gave the portrait a sacred halo, making it shine.

[Image (in Discord)]

"So mystical," Toki muttered, lost in a trance at the arboreal sight.

"I bet sleeping in this grove would be heaven on earth," murmured the ice-boy.

"The Dryad Fruit that you told us about," Aurora\'s voice came to Damien\'s ear. "Is this from it?"

Damien hummed, his eyes still locked on the figure of the sleeping woman.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* 

Ares, who had woken up from his fazed state, slowly walked ahead, his shoes gently stepping through the grassy floor.

A scarred hand was placed at the center of the enchanted grove portrait. After a brief pause, the man with the weathered and war-struck face brightly smiled and softly uttered, "Sorry I\'m late."

"..."

The tranquil grove seemed to hum with a soft breeze as if embracing the newfound connection. A few spring leaves fell from the arboreal portrait, fluttering their way down to the ground. 

One tearful streak ran down the aged man\'s face, his single eye wide open and not blinking as if it would disappear if he did.

"!!!" Yet it didn\'t last long as a bone-rattling pain suddenly spazzed through Ares\' body, rippling through his limbs, torso and even skull.

*Thud!*

The man fell to his knees, but with a final burst of strength, he shifted his fall so he could slowly lower himself by slanting against the tree. 

With a grunt, he sat down, sucking in a breath that made his lungs feel as if they were taking in lava. "It\'s alright," he reassured Toki, who had rushed to alleviate the pain. 

He leaned his head on the tree and addressed them all, "My time is near… there are some things I want to share with my boy."

The weakened words were an obvious way of asking the others to give the father-son duo some space.

Indra looked to Damien and received a nod, taking his leave to the island\'s edge. 

Most of the others were quick to follow...

"Even a kid like me knows what he\'s asking. Stop standing there and move on!" Kuzan hissed at the casual Solomon.

"Tch, I know what he meant!"

.

"We\'ll be fine," Damien finally spoke, asking the girls to leave, too. They looked at him with troubled expressions, knowing full well what was to come. 

Alas, leaving the two alone.

"..."

A breeze whistled through the emptied grove, creating a sharp tune for the two silent men to hear.

"You know, I can feel Nadia\'s grace all around you… it\'s almost like she\'s been with you all along."

Ares looked around after speaking, seeing the vibrant green around Damien\'s feet. "Ruhahaha! Unlike me, she would never leave you alone, even in death."

Damien blankly looked to the floor, seeing the lively grass and sighed. 

*Thump* *Thump* He walked up, rustling the grass, and sat in front of the waning Ares. The two were now at eye level, a meter apart.

"This is quite familiar," Damien muttered, much to his father\'s amusement. 

"I sat in front of you back in your cell Impel Down… now we\'re here, sitting before one another in a place of primal freedom, hehe, how ironic!"

The younger pirate couldn\'t help but smirk, "Life is full of ironies."

.

Another peaceful silence passed as the father-son duo felt the draft pick up—the sun had set completely.

"I\'ve been thinking, kid," Ares began, his voice hoarse yet steady. "I saw you pluck those Devil Fruits from those insects at Impel Down."

The War God sheepishly smirked, catching his son\'s narrowed eyes. "If your amazing mother can leave you such a gift," he said, his hand brushing through the lively flowers at his side, "how can I meet her in the afterlife without leaving you something of my own?"

Damien remained silent, allowing the dying pirate the space to unravel his thoughts.

"I\'ve seen the pages of your past fights. That ice-kid is a big fan of yours, Ruhahaha!" Ares\' laughter turned into a violent cough, a raw sound that forced blood from his throat. *Ptui!* He spat, clearing his lungs, his bloody grin defiant even against his fading strength.

"All that strength you\'ve built in just a few years…" His smile grew softer, weary but proud. "It\'s a marvel, but it\'s also a burden. Your body is being pushed beyond its limits, and while your will can carry you through, it won\'t keep you standing forever."

Damien\'s lips tightened. He didn\'t deny the truth in his father\'s words. He could feel the echoes of exhaustion in his Haki. His body remained as titanic as ever, but there was mental fatigue born from nearly seven years since he left to a life of little rest and endless battle.

"You mean…" he muttered, his eyes narrowing in question.

"Ruhahaha!" Ares roared the laugh of a man unafraid of the abyss before him. While raising a clenched fist, his single burning eye gleaming, he declared, "That\'s right. I want you to have it—my War-War Fruit!"

The words hung in the air like a thunderclap.

"No man can bring down a mountainous force that has existed for over seven centuries." Ares\' tone grew sharper, charged with the weight of his own history. "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, it need not be lived again!"

His voice rose, a final rallying cry echoing through the endless green of Renaissance. "This fruit earned me the name \'God of War!\' Take it upon my death and bring the world to its knees!"

Ares\' words continued to echo through the island\'s forests, booming through its endless green. The dangerous words evoked a sharp, hissing gust of wind, leaving Renaissance shivering.

If heard by a commoner, it would undoubtedly leave them frozen, but coming from a pirate that once terrorized the seas would leave them frightened.

"..."

The grove seemed to shiver; the arboreal figure above them basked in moonlight.

Damien\'s gaze remained fixed, his father\'s words stirring a storm within him.

He had one Fruit Ability Transfer Token left—the last of the three gifted to him many years ago. He thought of the centuries-old mountain of power that was the World Government, one so stable that even the Rocks Pirates had barely shaken it.

\'I alone can\'t do it either,\' Damien thought, the fire in his eyes rekindling. Tales of Ares\' relentless campaigns against Navy forces played in his mind. The War-War Fruit\'s power wasn\'t just fearsome—it was a weapon capable of reshaping the tides of history.

The dying Ares watched intently as Damien\'s resolve sharpened, the flicker of fire in his son\'s eyes mirroring his own from decades ago.

"Ruhahaha! But kid," Ares said, his voice softening, "don\'t be in such a hurry."

Damien\'s head tilted slightly, uncertainty flashing across his expression.

"You\'ve been chasing power like a demon for years," Ares continued. "Your body might be fine, but your mind needs a break too." He glanced at the darkening skies, his voice quieting. "Such greed and hunger for strength were my undoing—and I don\'t want you to share the same fate."

The old pirate leaned back against the tree, tracing its dense bark with a scarred hand. "I\'ve spent decades fighting the world, throwing myself into endless battles. But do you know the one moment I\'ve never forgotten? The one moment that\'s always stayed with me?"

Damien raised an eyebrow but said nothing, letting his father speak.

"It was the month I spent here with your mother. No wars. No blood. Just peace. I wasn\'t a pirate or a fighter—I was just me."

Ares smiled wistfully, the weight of decades present in his eye. "Every story has an end, boy, and it ain\'t always a good one. If you\'re so focused on that end, you\'ll miss all the beauty along the way."

The weathered hand played idly with a blade of vibrant grass, his gaze now locked on Damien. "You were born into a hellish era, one ripe with clashing egos. Tragedy gave you strength, but it also gave you scars. You\'ve got to carry that ambition carefully—it can guide you, but it can also consume you. It happened to Rocks… he thought he could master it, but in the end, he became its slave."

A soft but cool breeze passed through the grove, carrying Ares\' words with it.

"Take your time, kid. See the world. Treasure your crew and those two girls by your side—they\'re more precious than anything else you\'ll ever find."

The strength in Ares\' body began to fade, his hands falling limp as his breathing slowed. "You\'ve got the blood of the D and mine too. \'Sworn enemy of the Gods\'—that\'s what they call us. But don\'t let them define you."

His voice grew softer, every word deliberate. "Live freely. Love fiercely. And when the time comes… give hell to those who stand in your way. I wasn\'t there for your childhood, but I\'ll be with you beyond my death!"

With one final breath, Ares exhaled, the air carrying his words like a final prayer. A smile lingered on his face—a smile of peace, pride, and relief.

Leave fell from the arboreal portrait, shimmering under the moonlight. They landed gently around the man who had found his peace.

Damien stood in silence, staring at his father\'s peaceful face. For a moment, the grove was still, the world holding its breath for the passing of a legend.

To Be Continued…

Author\'s Corner.

One Piece doesn\'t have the best fathers *Cough* Dragon, Roger, Yassop *Cough*, and mothers usually get a terrible death (mothers of Ace, Robin, Sanji, Ussop, etc.) This chapter the end to Ares, who has chosen to have his son inherit his legacy in the form of the War-War Fruit. Leaving us with one final chapter to end Part 1 of the fanfic.

Images are available on Discord alongside other niche details: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q