-1472, Sacrafrillas Island, South Blue
Painful cries and whimpers rang in the ears of a blood soaked child of 8 years old.
The boy held his mouth and cried from under a bed as he watched a disheveled man lean over a battered and bruised woman, having his way with her as she struggled under his grip.
Her body covered in the blood of her own husband, now a headless corpse next to her. The boy shivered but the woman turned to him with a godless emotion in her eyes as though warning him to stay hidden…
The boy knew he should've done something, he knew he should've stopped the evil man, but he couldn't do anything. He was powerless to stop the people who raided his home and village from the seas, as a result of his powerlessness, his father was murdered and his mother would follow him shortly after being disgraced in the most vile of ways.
The boy continued covering his mouth but he never closed his eyes. He watched and watched, taking in every detail.
The bright red blood splattered across the walls, the smell of iron from the blood he was lying in, the blood of his entire family. The hopeless look of his mother as the evil of this world took everything from her.
He studied every single detail of the man who was lost in the pleasure of violating a woman as he had presumably done many times before. For the man, it was just another lucky day. Raiding villages, raping women, killing husbands, looting houses, everything was normal for him.
It was his way of life, a life of pure indulgence.
They were above the law.
The Island Marines were shredded to paper by criminals much more determined than them.
Determined to reflect the evil within themselves onto the world.
Determined to watch their darkest desires come true without repercussions.
This is what they loved doing and they did it to who knows how many people. It was routine for them.
Just another day.
But for the boy…
The boy who was always playing in the warmth of the sun. That boy came to know what darkness was as he was thrown headfirst into the deepest abyss in this life. The darkness surrounded him, coated every fiber of his being, but the boy wouldn't succumb to such darkness.
No…
The boy's eyes were not the eyes of someone who was consumed by darkness, they were bright. Extremely so. He could've given in, let the darkness consume him and follow a path similar to the evil man was on, but no.
The boy's blue eyes blazed with fury. An indescribable fury. A rage so immense, it burned away the darkness and evil around him. The boy would never give in to such pathetic darkness, he abhorred the idea.
He watched the evil devour his mother before slicing into her naked body as though she was a doll. Her mind was so broken by this point that she couldn't even react, even the God of the Sun, his mother so desperately prayed to every night couldn't save her anymore…
She wasn't even a shell of her former self. The sunny and kind woman she once was had been violated by absolute sin. Body and soul corrupted, so far gone that even if marines were to save her life, she would already be a walking corpse.
The boy watched as the evil wildly chopped the fallen angel to pieces, not even stopping at defiling her, it had to disgrace her corpse. Perhaps the evil just loved the idea of tainting something so holy and pure, maybe it thought it could purify itself that way, the boy didn't know.
And at this point, the boy didn't care anymore.
Not even when the evil chopped the fallen angel's thighs and waist off, keeping her hip for itself. Probably for the long journey towards the next unfortunate group of souls abandoned by the Gods they worship.
The Evil picked up a finger and cackled in an inhumane way before eating it, licking its lips as though satisfied with the taste of a tainted angel.
The boy gripped his mouth tightly, staring at the evil as the flames around them lit up its face. The boy studied the evil thoroughly, engraving every miniscule detail into his brain. Never again would he forget this thing…
This force of nature that clawed and scraped at him, trying so desperately to drag him into the abyss. It wanted the boy to fill the bottomless hole that was itself, maybe it figured the more people it dragged into itself the more full it would feel.
The evil stood up as shouts were heard "Cap! We found gold and diamonds! Hahahaha~!" The evil grinned and turned to the door, shouting back "Good eye, lads! Any precious cargo?"
The boy saw a man bringing a girl by her hair, laughing "A nice young one! She was the best of this trash heap!" The evil held his prize, curling his lips into the most sinister grin ever to be witnessed, "I got my own, lads. Collect the loot, we do for a celebration this time 'round!"
The man dragged the girl with him, her eyes unfocused and dull. The boy knew her, a kind girl from school. He figured she wouldn't last long, she was already dead inside it was only a matter of time now. The consolation was that she probably wouldn't feel anything anymore, no matter how many of the Evil's crew had their way with her.
Maybe she was already playing with the other kids in her mind, closed off to the entire outside world.
The boy hoped her mind was fantasizing happy moments.
The evil looked around the house before chuckling disgustingly as he picked up a sword and rifle, walking out of the house as it burned with the flames of sin.
The boy waited and waited as the flames surrounded him, the only saving grace was the blood soaked area he was laying in, stopping the flames.
The voices got more and more distant as the boy slowly crawled out from under the bed. He was covered in blood from head to toe, staining everything he ever cared for. He stepped over the meat that was his angel of a mother and stood in the doorway, everywhere in his vision were flames.
Nothing else, just fire.
Houses collapsed all around him, just flaming debris at this point. Ashes blowing in the wind, surely the remains of his friends and neighbors.
The boy looked off into the distance as houses crumbled, granting him a view of a ship he would never forget, far off in the distance, sailing away from the island.
The moonlight illuminated the ship, vaguely revealing a jolly roger. A skull and crossbones, simple and effective.
The boy stood in the midst of flames and ash, not another living being in sight for miles. And he stood there even as the house behind him collapsed, destroying what was his original life.
Whoever this boy was before, he died along with his family in that fire, the boy that was born on this day…
His name is Galan.