Aleus, Born with the Hogyoku

The father and son's conversation lasted until dawn.

After broadly agreeing on the strategy for dealing with the Amento Kingdom going forward, Aleus dragged his somewhat weary body back to his own bedchamber.

The bathroom.

The dense steam from the water obscured the scenes that shouldn't be shown, like thick fog.

Aleus wiped his wet hair as he walked to the large bathroom mirror. The anti-fog mirror was completely unaffected by the steam inside the room, clearly reflecting a pair of emerald-green eyes, a handsome face, two robust pectoral muscles, eight chiseled abdominal muscles, and—

A gem embedded in the center of his chest, shimmering with a blue-black luster.

"The Hogyoku!"

His fingertips gently touched the gem on his chest, and Aleus gazed at his reflection in the mirror with an appreciative look.

"Whoosh!"

As Aleus's thoughts shifted, a pair of pitch-black bat-like wings sprouted from the trapezius area behind his back, spreading instantly to their fullest extent, directly blocking the light from the ceiling lamp and casting a large shadow on the floor.

A pair of pale, curved horns also grew from the top of his head.

At a glance, it was as if he had been possessed by a demon.

"This thing... if I were to name it, it should count as a Mythical Zoan, right? Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Black Winged Great Demon Form?"

Aleus gently stroked the horns on his head and the wings on his back. This wasn't the first time he had examined himself in front of the mirror, yet every time he looked, he found it so wondrous, so exquisite, so... beautiful.

The Hogyoku on his chest had been born into this world together with him, accompanying him through the twenty years of his life so far.

However, for the first sixteen years, the Hogyoku had remained silent, offering him no help at all. The 'Golden Finger' that had once filled him with soaring ambition was frozen. Aleus could only turn his gaze to the yellow earth beneath his feet, relying on his own efforts, pouring out one hundred and twenty percent of his sweat to push himself to become stronger.

Fortunately, compared to those 'fellow travelers' who woke up in garbage dumps, were found washed up on beaches, played survival games on deserted islands, went on rampages on pirate ships, or even regained consciousness directly on bloody operating tables—

His luck wasn't bad.

Really not bad.

As the first crown prince of a powerful nation in the New World, he was already a winner in life from the moment he was born.

With the backing of such a powerful country, Aleus had received top-tier elite education since childhood (mainly focused on combat training). There was no helping it—who could ignore the fact that this was the Great Pirate Era? Not to mention that the Ekmondo Kingdom was located in the New World. To survive in this era, on this sea, sufficient military strength was the most basic guarantee.

At the age of sixteen, When his strength growth hit a bottleneck, Aleus selected a Zoan Devil Fruit from the royal palace's treasury—the Bat-Bat Fruit, Normal Zoan, Great Flying Fox Form—preparing to eat it. Although it was just an ordinary Zoan, it couldn't be beat for the ability to fly!

Rather than clinging to unrealistic fantasies and risking life and limb to search for the Rumble-Rumble Fruit or the Mera Mera no Mi...

A Zoan Devil Fruit that could fly was already a choice worth more than gold.

However, Just as he swallowed that Devil Fruit, The Hogyoku, which had been dormant for sixteen years, awakened. The ordinary Zoan Bat-Bat Fruit, catalyzed by the Hogyoku, directly transformed into its current form, the [Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Black Winged Great Demon Form].

"Souls are still not enough!"

Aleus pressed his finger against the Hogyoku on his chest.

It had been four years since the Hogyoku awakened, and Aleus had finally connected with its consciousness, learning the reason for its sixteen years of silence.

First, regarding the Hogyoku's creation: Kisuke Urahara created an incomplete Hogyoku using countless 'Hollows' as a foundation. Later, Sosuke Aizen created another incomplete Hogyoku using the souls of hundreds of Shinigami and even more spiritually gifted souls from the Rukongai. Finally, the two incomplete Hogyoku merged into one, giving birth to the complete Hogyoku.

From this, it was clear that the Hogyoku's essence was a creation based on a massive number of high-quality souls.

As for the Hogyoku's power, it possessed self-awareness. It could absorb the 'hearts' of things around it, manifesting them into reality. It could also protect its host's body, making it immortal and indestructible. When the host's abilities reached their limit or their life was threatened, the Hogyoku could drive the host to evolve endlessly toward the next dimensional realm.

It sounded incredibly powerful.

But upon careful consideration, one would realize that the Hogyoku's strength didn't come from nowhere. It needed to absorb the 'hearts' of things around it. This 'heart' naturally wasn't the physical organ, but rather, to be precise, the souls of all intelligent beings. Using souls as fuel was the only way to support the host's evolution to higher, stronger realms.

The sixteen years of silence were due to a lack of sufficient souls to provide energy.

Thus, Souls, Only souls were everything.

In the first sixteen years of his life, Aleus had continuously hunted enemies in real combat, and the Hogyoku had silently absorbed each soul. When he ate the Devil Fruit, the power of the fruit collided with the Hogyoku, forcibly activating it before it had fully recovered its strength.

Because the Hogyoku hadn't fully recovered, the awakened one only strengthened and enhanced the Devil Fruit's power, then fell silent again. However, this time it wasn't completely dead; its consciousness remained, available for Aleus to command.

For four years, Aleus had been constantly fighting, killing, and persistently collecting souls for the Hogyoku.

Through four years of unremitting effort, the number of souls collected was actually not small. But unfortunately, the quality of these souls was generally quite low. If he relied solely on such low-quality souls to fill the Hogyoku's bottomless, black-hole-like demand, it would be an astronomical number, no exaggeration.

"But still, there's finally another chance for a big feast."

A hint of excitement flickered in Aleus's emerald-green eyes. War was the fastest way to collect souls. The only fly in the ointment was that souls had a freshness limit. Only during active warfare could he collect souls to his heart's content. Once time passed and the souls departed for the Yellow Springs underworld, he wouldn't even get a single strand.

Several times, he heard that a great battle had broken out somewhere, but by the time he rushed over, he was too late, and the final harvest was utterly unremarkable.

In the end, it was just a waste of time.

However, This time, he would personally command the war.

He planned to turn this war with the Amento Kingdom into his own hunting ground for harvesting souls.

The Hogyoku on his chest sensed Aleus's excitement, and the flowing blue-black luster subtly quickened its pace.

After bathing and changing into the pajamas prepared by the maids, Aleus quickly fell into a sweet slumber on that soft, large bed.