Logia Users and Natural Energy!

"Hmm?!"

As Kuzan compared the taste of the Devil Fruit and Red Lotus Blood, he suddenly felt a distinct surge of violent emotion rush from within his body toward his consciousness.

It was then easily blocked by a "wall" in his mind.

Haki.

Haki was the transformation of willpower into a spiritual weapon, so the foundation of Haki training was having a sufficiently firm will.

If an ordinary person's will was as soft as water, then the will of someone who had mastered basic Haki could be considered rock.

As for Kuzan—

As an admiral of Marine Headquarters, although his Haki cultivation was inferior to Garp's and Zephyr's, he was still far stronger than those "below" him.

The firmness of his will was enough to be described as steel.

This was also why only those with admiral-level combat power could withstand the impact of so-called "Emperor"-level Conqueror's Haki.

Those at the Vice Admiral level could at most remain conscious. They would lose their ability to fight outright and might not even be able to stand.

Basically, any attack targeting the mind or spirit first had to break through the willpower defense of a Haki practitioner.

The mindless, beastly emotion within Red Lotus Blood was like a cloud of filthy gas trying to crash through an iron gate.

Aside from letting Kuzan smell a faint stench of blood, it failed to produce any real effect and was instead completely worn away by the will contained within that gate.

The reason Esdeath still retained the "little fox" within her body—

Was simply because her will at the time had been insufficient to purge the beastly nature from her blood, allowing it to remain intact.

As time passed, it gradually grew and eventually formed a relatively complete "beast soul."

Similar to the "beast