Back to...
The past?
Hearing that, Austin's eyes flashed with disbelief, followed by a surge of excitement.
Whoosh—
In an instant, Austin appeared before Vegapunk.
With a single blink, Vegapunk suddenly found himself staring into a pair of terrifying eyes blazing with crimson light.
"Hey, Vegapunk, when you say going back to the past, do you mean what I think you mean?"
This world held countless rule-based powers. Space was innumerable, and even time was not unheard of.
For example, Lady Toki's "Paramecia: Time-Time Fruit" could send people and objects to a point in the future, but only forward, never backward.
The old Austin had not been without ideas, such as going to Luffy's generation as a young man and becoming one of the Supernovas.
But that thought had only flashed through his mind. It was unrealistic, and even a little consideration made it seem utterly stupid.
It would be more satisfying to grow stronger and crush everyone instead.
Seeing Austin's terrifying gaze, as though he wanted to swallow him whole, Vegapunk stuck out his tongue and instinctively took a step back.
"Don't be so hasty..."
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. That reaction was far too exaggerated.
He showed Austin the strange instrument in his hand. It looked somewhat like a sphere, though an irregular one.
"To be precise, this was actually a coincidence. Among the frozen ability users captured by the World Government, I found one with a special Devil Fruit ability.
"It was indeed related to time, but its limitations were extremely severe..."
As Vegapunk slowly explained, Austin gradually understood what had happened.
He knew that over the past several centuries, when the World Government encountered Devil Fruit ability users who posed especially great threats, it generally chose not to kill them outright, but to