"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." - Pericles
The vibes within the white van was a little off after the new crew realized there was hidden information relating to the mysterious and seemingly powerful new comer.
Lilo had survived a night alone out in the horrifying forest full of abominable gluttonous creatures, and he had emerged from the forbidden temple without being fazed.
Although his appearances looked deceiving, something was definitely wrong with this child that they had taken in, and soon when they arrive at the spire, they planned to extract all hidden truths.
Lilo could feel the tension in the air but he tried to his best to ignore it. One thing he knew for certain was that he was lacking crucial information and the only person he could ask about this strange world discretely was Soda.
Soda was floating around the van, studying each of the new members with bold curiosity. They could not see him after all, so he was free to awkwardly stare at them and analyze them at an intimate proximity.
It made Lilo uncomfortable, but he could understand Soda trying to analyze any potential threats as well as just gleaning overall information that may be useful.
'Hey, when are you going to fill me in on this world's lore?'
"I don't know... I'm not really sure how different our worlds are. For what I thought was common knowledge, you seemed oddly perplexed at."
"For example, your world is full of many of these 'vehicles'. I'm sure we both have many things that differ that we are unaware of... so I'm not really sure where to start." Soda said as he studied Pepper's projectile weapon.
'Tell me about the spire.'
"Well, each spire is different, but in essence it is a citadel where a stronghold of guardians protect the inner circle from invading gluttons."
'Inner circle?'
"Oh... you guys don't have those either? Well the inner circle is..."
This process of questions and answers continued on for hours as they drove across the perilous forest towards the spire.
Their conversation was had all within Lilo's mind, so nobody else in the vehicle noticed or paid mind to Lilo staring blanking into space.
Occasionally they would run into fun sized gluttons but Pepper would pull out her weapon and one shot them with a single powerful ice blast.
It froze them completely and Wonda simply drove around them.
Lilo was too busy marveling at the information dump he was receiving so he was not all too impressed or present during their journey.
He learned all the basics within this mysterious new world he was reincarnated into.
The inner circle referred to the civilized portion of humanity that was within the spire.
There were nine spires and each were atop a mountain that encircled around the kingdom; creating a crater like valley and acted as a protective bubble from the outside.
There were farmlands and manufacturing plants within the valley portion of the crater; a serene meadow devoid of any gluttons and a prosperous land where people were free to work in peace.
At the heart of the crater was a giant crack that opened up a hole to the center of the world.
Within this abyssal portal was a titanic tree that stretched all the way up into the heavens and which roots ran insurmountably deep into the void of the center of the world.
This tree's fruit was the source of the mystical euphoric death candy's. The fruit of the tree was called: devil's fruit.
The candy made from the fruit was created by the tree born, infused with controlled variables to create a desired outcome of a superpower; and is called: cursed candy.
Tree born, an elite race of people who live within the tree's complex advanced society, are capable of eating the fruit as well as its candy without any consequence.
Those that ate of any trace or form of the fruit always had to trade a portion of their soul for its boons.
Anything beyond the spires was a death zone, and the territory where shepherds (scouts sent out by the spires) did their work of research and rescue.
The desolate overgrown cityscape that Lilo was buried... or born into was the outer rim of society that was littered with gluttons; as Lilo had to unfortunately live through to learn first hand.
While Lilo had guessed that gluttons were monstrous creatures that were spawned from kids nightmares and drawn into existence by god with crayons and then sculpted into horrifying creatures by the devil himself; this was only partly the case.
All of the gluttons were once human. Humans that are not direct descendants of the tree born are all prone to become infected by candy and turned into gluttons.
If a regular human ate of any trace of the devil fruit, they would be diagnosed with Cravings: an insatiable desire to stuff themselves with the forbidden fruit.
The more they craved the food, the more desperate they became, and their hunger was everlasting, never being able to be satisfied with any amount of cursed candy or devil fruit.
Each dose of devil fruit consumed and corrupted their soul, turning them into unrecognizable creatures that spawned from a vibrantly colorful hell.
Their odd color schemes and contorted evolved mutated shapes was due to the fact that the candy was synthetic; altering the creation of a devil resulted in chaos.
There were five types of gluttons, as far as Soda was aware:
GT1: (Gene Type 1) "Fun Size", these were equivalent to a large beast in Lilo's world. Extremely physically powerful with an insatiable desire to consume human flesh containing any trace of devil's fruit, but still able to be defeated hand to hand by an experienced human fighter.
GT2: "Plus Size", these were larger than most animals on earth. Equivalent in titanic size to the extinct dinosaurs. They were insanely physically powerful, only being able to be slain by the most elite trained warriors.
GT3: "Party Size", these gluttons were small in size, and easily identifiable because of their petite figure. What made them dangerous was their projectiles and cunning tactics. They were capable of breathing any element as a projectile and were insidiously intelligent with how they hunted their prey; making them terrifying to come across.
GT4: "Super Size", these gluttons were extremely rare but when encountered, your death was certain. Most gluttons past GT1 had to be combatted by specialized enchanted weapons or super soldiers harnessing the power of cursed candy. This glutton could wipe an entire cohort of experienced warriors because of its unique ability to cast spells and create traps. They all varied in size but were identified by their ascension in intelligence and ability to manipulate magic.
GT5: "Quake Size", only recently revealed to Soda was the eerily intelligent ominous creature that lived in the forbidden temple. It's ability's were mysterious but certainly deadly. Just thinking about coming across the humanoid glutton creature caused fear to grip his heart.
People who are born from the elite tree society are able to control their cravings, making them nearly immune to the candy's effects.
Regular people who received just a taste of the devil fruit's potent dose turned into what's called Cravers: outcasted members of society that were diagnosed with inevitable doom.
They would receive a small dose of the powers given by the curse and eventually be driven into utter cravings and gluttonous consumption.
Each craver has to take on a new name in relation to what cursed product they consumed.
This was the demise of Soda and what had caused this family to burry him alive and pronounce him dead in hopes that he wouldn't turn into a gluten.
Lilo was oddly unaffected by the cravings but still showed symptoms of a craver due to his fast regeneration and ability to control his body such as his pain receptors.
There were limits to what he could do but being able to do what he could was an incredible boon within the perilous outer rim of the spire.
This was the layout of the world as Soda knew it. He was only a child and his life was limited; which in turn had stiffened his knowledge of this world.
Soda had only been able to understand the surface level of things because he was more interested in other things; being present within the things that only related to his interest and living his life to the fullest as most kids do.
Have you ever thought about how much of your world that you pay attention to?
How many things are you uncertain of but just live with that unknown and just move on with your life?
If you had to explain to someone else the innerworkings of your own complex world, would you be able to do an adequate job?
Even for an adult within today's society, it is very rare that one has a decent understanding and grasp of this world; and this was proving to be a challenge for Soda to relay what he knew to Lilo.
Regardless, he attempted his best and Lilo remained patiently attentive; determined to glean as much knowledge he could in this unfamiliar world.