Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Chaos arrived at the foot of the cliff behind the mountain to continue his daily training with the Gold-Gold Fruit.
He reached out with both hands and grabbed at the ground from a distance. Any gold within a ten-meter radius beneath the earth burst out of the ground and floated before him, moving as easily as his own limbs.
With a thought, the gold transformed into all manner of weapons—swords, spears, and halberds—or compressed and split into needles as tiny as bullets. They shot out, easily piercing rocks and nearby trees.
This was hardened gold.
Next, all the gold combined into a single mass, roughly one cubic meter in size. It was quite heavy!
It was probably all the gold on the entire island. Chaos had collected it over the past three years and buried it here.
Under Chaos's control, the gold began to soften, forming a thick golden serpent. It wrapped around a tree and squeezed tighter and tighter, until the tree snapped with a crack.
This ability was much like Magneto's superpower, except Chaos controlled gold.
It was certainly powerful, but only when gold was available.
He still couldn't create gold out of thin air or turn other materials into gold. He could only transform his body into gold or control gold within range.
Even Gild Tesoro from the movies, despite having awakened his Devil Fruit, couldn't create gold from nothing.
Perhaps that would be possible after developing the power further.
Under Chaos's control, the golden serpent seemed almost alive.
It crawled and writhed across the ground like a snake, soft and boneless, nothing like the rigid, hardened gold. Now it was flowing and pliable.
Chaos raised his right hand, and the golden serpent stood upright and began to change. It hardened and compressed into a three-meter-long halberd. Gripping it, Chaos swung it around a few times. Sand and stones flew as it easily tore up the ground.
He swept the halberd through the air, and it split apart into a number of golden longswords. They stood upright behind Chaos, then shot away with a whoosh and embedded themselves in the distant cliff face.
This move was a little like Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon.
Now he had a ranged attack.
Once he learned Armament Haki, his attacks would become even more terrifying. With Observation Haki, he'd be able to hit whatever he aimed at!
After a short barrage, Chaos lowered his right hand. The golden longswords circled around him, clashing with the sound of clanging blades. Several of them softened and merged, then stretched from head to toe over his body, covering him all the way up to his head.
In just two or three breaths, Chaos was completely encased in golden armor.
It looked just like Iron Man's Nano Armor from Avengers: Endgame.
He took a few steps, and the armor didn't feel awkward at all. Since he could soften the gold whenever he wanted, the joints never stiffened.
"Whoosh!"
He vanished from where he stood and reappeared three meters away. Chaos punched a tree trunk as thick as a person's thigh. With a crack, the towering tree snapped and crashed to the ground.
The gold on the back of his right hand wriggled and extended into a golden longsword. He slashed at the broken trunk, easily cutting it in two.
With ranged attacks, golden armor, and weapons he could change at will, he had both offense and defense covered. He had no particular weakness in either close or ranged combat.
While wearing the golden armor, Chaos could also turn his own body into a little golden man. That would give him two layers of defense. If he learned Iron Body and Armament Haki in the future, his defense would be absolutely incredible.
The golden armor began to contract around him. Chaos raised both hands and flexed them, then took a deep breath.
Then something incredible happened: Chaos's body began to rise into the air. Soon he was hovering ten meters above the ground, taking in the scenery around him. His grin stretched from ear to ear. He was clearly in a great mood.
Even without learning Geppo, he could fly by controlling gold.
When the idea had first occurred to him, he'd tried practicing. Back then, he'd often misjudged things and plummeted to the ground. It had felt like walking a tightrope.
So smooth!
Boom!
A blast of wind swept around Chaos as he picked up speed. He quickly vanished into the sky, reappearing on the far side of the forest before soaring high above the clouds. Surrounded by endless white clouds, Chaos closed his eyes and spread his arms as if embracing the whole world.
The golden armor stretched down to his feet and formed a giant golden sword. Chaos stepped onto it and shot into the clouds. Before long, he burst out of the clouds from another direction. The plump, fluffy clouds were riddled with holes, all of them made by Chaos as he flew through.
Just like that, he'd achieved the legendary art of flying on a sword.
This was also why Chaos had the confidence to go out to sea: flying would greatly improve his chances of survival.
Without the ability to fly, he wouldn't feel safe on the ocean!
"Wow!"
"Awesome!"
Chaos laughed with abandon. The feeling of flying freely, like a bird with the whole sky to itself, was simply incredible.
The giant golden sword softened and stretched behind him. Chaos began to free-fall toward the vast blue sea, but within just two breaths, a pair of enormous golden wings appeared on his back. They beat the air, whipping up gusts of wind, and Chaos soared through the sky like a golden-winged man.
He shot back up above the clouds. His golden wings transformed into dozens of palm-sized golden swords, which whistled through the air like bullets before forming a golden torrent that streaked through the clouds.
A tiny golden sword appeared beneath each of Chaos's feet. With a thought, he summoned countless golden longswords around him. They whirled into a storm, clashing with the sound of blades and setting his blood racing.
He threw himself into developing his abilities among the clouds. About an hour later, Chaos dropped back toward the island in free fall, exhausted and with most of his stamina spent.
He slowed down and landed gently three feet above the ground. The golden armor fell away from his body and hit the ground with a heavy thud.
He was already used to the weight.
It was a shame there was so little gold on the island. Otherwise, simply wearing it while he walked would've been like training with weights.
Sitting down, he waved his right hand at the gold in front of him. It wriggled and transformed into a little golden man about 1.7 meters tall. Under his control, the little golden man did several backflips and jumps, then even performed a set of calisthenics.
"Golden Warrior."
This was the golden clone Chaos had created. He'd gotten the idea from Doflamingo's Shadow String.
The golden armor, flying on a sword, Gate of Babylon, and so on were all ideas Chaos had borrowed from others, such as Iron Man, Magneto, Gilgamesh, and Doflamingo.
Compared with the dull way Tesoro had developed his powers in the original story, Chaos's approach was much more versatile.
For instance, Tesoro had never thought of flying on a sword.
That was the difference between ways of thinking and levels of imagination.
After all, Devil Fruits relied on imagination. With even a little foundation to work from, some ideas could become reality.
But impractical ideas without any basis or foundation were nothing more than castles in the air. They could never come true.
Under Chaos's control, the Golden Warrior performed all kinds of difficult moves. But a closer look revealed that its movements weren't very coordinated, and it still couldn't compare to Doflamingo's Shadow String.
Once Chaos developed this technique until the Golden Warrior moved just like him, he wouldn't even need to face his opponents himself when he ventured out to sea. They could fight desperately and defeat the Golden Warrior, only to discover that it was just gold being controlled remotely by Chaos. Their faces would turn green.
But this technique had some major drawbacks. Its movements weren't very coordinated yet, and it couldn't move more than ten meters away from Chaos. If it went beyond that range, he'd lose control of it.
"If only I'd awakened Observation Haki!"
Chaos sighed. If he combined this technique with Observation Haki, he'd probably be able to control the Golden Warrior as far away as he could sense.
Even though being transported to this world had cleansed his soul, he still hadn't awakened it in three years.
If he hadn't been through that cleansing, given the talent he'd had in his previous life, who knew how long it would've taken him to reach his current level?
What a pain!
Then there was Geppo. Even though Chaos could fly using gold, he was determined to learn it.
If he ever lost the Gold-Gold Fruit or had no gold to control, Geppo would still improve his chances of survival.
It was a matter of principle.
He didn't just want to learn Geppo. Chaos also wanted to master all six powers, and even awaken Life Return.
He absolutely couldn't neglect physical training. It affected how much punishment he could take, how quickly he could recover, his stamina, his overall physical condition, and so on.
Looking at the power system of the world of One Piece, physical training was one of the most important things...
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