Avisa Makes Her Way to the Top of Lamesa Mountain

As Avisa traversed through the jungle—trying to stay out of sight—Sanji felt a tingle go down his spine. He could usually sense when a woman was in trouble nearby, and right now, he had a gut feeling that something was off. He put his bucket of berries down and walked over to the house to look for Avisa.

He called her name a few times as he checked the various rooms and at the front of the house. But there was no sign of her. The place was dead silent. And then he noticed she had taken her satchel and gun. He knew something was wrong now for sure and he went out the front porch to see if there were any signs of her. He saw footprints leading to town, but they looked like they were made from heels. It was then that he also noticed some fresh footprints in the mud that led towards the thick jungle surrounding the farm. He quickly went to tell Luffy that he was going to go find Avisa, and he convinced the crew to stay put and watch over her family while he did so. He wasn't sure this was the best choice, but he wanted to make sure that Lord Dinero wasn't baiting them somehow. And he knew Avisa would never forgive him if they left her family and they got hurt.

He quickly made his way into the bushes and followed any signs of Avisa as best he could. He soon realized she was hiking steadily up towards Lamesa Mountain, which seemed strange considering how much she emphasized the dangers there. There had to be a good reason she would suddenly go there. He was careful to keep an eye out for anyone watching and to be as stealthy as possible. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he for sure didn't want anyone catching onto the fact that he was following her, just in case. It was better to have the element of surprise.

...

As Avisa got closer to the top of Lamesa, she noticed there were a lot more footpaths than she would have expected to go towards the peak. She had always gotten the impression as she grew up on this island that people avoided the mountain—especially the top. There were too many stories of people going mad or missing when they tried to climb here. So why did it look so traversed?

It suddenly dawned on Avisa that this might be the hideout of Lord Dinero that she had heard rumours about. Most people claimed Lord Dinero didn't have a home base, but Avisa had always suspected otherwise. She had in fact been surprised when the devil fruit he ordered his men to bring to him was shipped to a marine headquarters in a different island than Kenonee. Most of his most important shipments in the past had been brought here to this one, which had made her suspect he had a base of operations here. She supposed he had sent the devil fruit to a different island in hopes that Alexei D'Angelo wouldn't figure it out since she'd mostly targeted this island and his other islands. But she knew about that one too. And she had friends like Natasha that didn't want Lord Dinero gaining more power. Her contacts—who would often take a cut of whatever profits she made when they gave her a good tip—were essential, but they didn't know everything. Even though she had hunted for his base for years, it was a closely guarded secret. She figured now she knew though.

As she began to see the edge of the peak and slowly got closer to it, she found her breathing got more laboured with the elevation. It wasn't the highest mountain she'd climbed in her lifetime, but it was still very tall, and she had been walking fast for hours. She could feel her stomach twist a bit in hunger but ignored the feeling as she walked through the thickening fog towards the peak.

When she looked down from where she was, she could barely see anything now as the clouds and fog veiled the world below. She hoped her family would be okay and that the Straw Hats would protect them if Lord Dinero didn't keep his promise to her. She knew him to be pretty dependable when it came to his promises, but they always came with conditions that he found his way around a lot of the time. Really, his most reliable characteristic was his ruthless capacity for violence and revenge. It was what most people feared about him and made them so loyal to him. His inner circle knew that if they crossed him, he would take everything they loved and make them hurt as much as possible. But if you were completely loyal to him and demonstrated that consistently, he would usually repay you in equal share. That's why his network was so hard to crack. She'd been trying to dismantle his operations for years now and still only scratched the surface with what she knew about him.

Her heart pounded rapidly as she made her way finally to the peak and tried to quiet her breathing. Everything seemed to be enveloped in a quiet hush, besides the muffled wind blowing over the mountain. The world was foggy, and it was hard to see due to the bright setting sun in the distance too. But then she saw a dark building ahead of her. It felt out of place completely. Her eyes widened in shock. It had gothic architecture, with impressive turrets and battlements. She was a little surprised no one could see this from the ground, but it seemed like it was far enough from the edge of the mountain that it was hid perfectly from sight. She wondered how long the building had been here as she gazed at its engraved stonework and took in its stained glass windows. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring and sent chills through her as she walked slowly towards it. It started to drizzle just as she followed the stone path leading to the large arched entrance. 

As she began to walk through, she realized that she was now in a large indoor courtyard. It was darker in here due to the fading sunlight—despite the high windows at the end of the room—but as her eyes adjusted, she saw large candelabras casting soft flickers of light around the room and noticed above there was a chandelier with light too. She stifled a gasp as she realized that the chandelier was made of human bones. It was an intricate design of skulls of various sizes and femurs and spines, with candles slowly dripping wax on them and onto the cold stone floor below.

As Avisa's eyes followed the dripping wax and as she took a shaky breath of the musky cold air, she noticed a tiled mosaic beneath her feet. It had the image of a dagger piercing a bright green snake, but the snake bit the hand that wielded the dagger and crimson blood fell from the wound. Under it, there was a phrase written in latin: "Mihi vindicta; ego retribuam."

Vengeance is mine; I will repay.

Avisa froze. It can't be. I know that phrase. And I know that Coat of Arms. But he's dead. They killed him. I saw it.

A deep echoing chuckle reverberated through the room. She couldn't tell where it came from, and she barely resisted the urge to reach for her pistol. The deal was that she wasn't going to fight back, and she had to stick to it, or he'd have an excuse to kill her family. Avisa tried to take a deep breath and calm herself as she waited for him to appear.

"It took you long enough to get here, my dear." Avisa saw the silhouette of the man known as Lord Dinero move before the tall windows at the end of the room. "Welcome, daughter," he said with another dry chuckle.