The Venom-Venom Fruit

"Oh, what a pity."

Carl noticed that as Baroque used his potent poison to corrode the ground, the gold embedded in the floor was also being completely dissolved. Knowing that this gold counted as his spoils of war, he felt a pang of heartache as a portion of it was eaten away.

"You had better worry about yourself instead."

"Poison Gas Spread!"

In an instant, Baroque filled the entire cave with the highly toxic poison from his body in the form of a mist. The poison spread with incredible speed, saturating the cavern almost instantaneously. Since they were deep inside the cave and there was only one exit, there was no time to dodge.

"Not good!"

Carl immediately waved his arm to cover his nose and held his breath, but it was a fraction of a second too late; he had inhaled a trace of the toxic gas.

Although he held his breath in time, a wave of weakness washed over his entire body, and his brain felt dizzy. He hadn't expected even a tiny whiff of the poison to be this potent; he could clearly feel it wreaking havoc on his senses from within.

Considering his strength was by no means low—he possessed the power of a pseudo-Admiral—the fact that he hadn't managed to evade it showed that Baroque's mastery of his Devil Fruit was far superior to that of the warden in the original story.

He realized he had underestimated the powerhouses of the Pirate World. It made sense; any great pirate who had been active in the New World for decades had pushed their Devil Fruit to the limit. The warden from the original story hadn't had the time to truly develop his fruit, so their strengths were naturally not on the same level.

However, his Titan Constitution quickly restored his clarity. Evidently, a mere trace of poison wasn't enough to cause lasting damage to his true form; a surge of warmth rose from within his body and neutralized the toxin in an instant.

He knew he wasn't a superhuman yet and couldn't hold his breath for too long, so he had to end the battle or break the stalemate as quickly as possible, or else he would end up losing this fight.

Carl lunged forward, the earth and stone beneath his feet shattering and spraying outward instantly.

Moving at a speed invisible to the naked eye, Carl arrived at Baroque's side in a flash, swinging a fist coated in Armament Haki toward his head.

Carl's strength was ultimately superior to Baroque's, as Baroque relied entirely on his Venom-Venom Fruit, leaving his physical constitution relatively weak.

"Ugh!"

Baroque's head was struck squarely by Carl's fist, sending his body flying backward to slam into the wall behind him. He was embedded deep into the stone, causing the entire cave to tremble.

"Ugh!"

"Kid, you're quite strong, aren't you?"

Baroque pulled himself from the wall, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth as he felt the damage to his internal organs. He realized the strength of the brat before him was extraordinary; he looked young, but his power was truly immense.

"Poison Giant Soldier!"

Baroque's entire body was covered in virulent poison. Like a suit of armor, the toxins surged, instantly increasing his height to nearly ten meters. From a distance, he looked like a small mountain.

Once prepared, Baroque charged headlong at Carl, everything in his path being corroded by the poison spilling from his form.

"Lightning Thunderbolt Fist!"

Carl knew that in close-quarters combat, contact with the poison was inevitable.

He first coated his entire body in the Golden Light Incantation, then, with his fists crackling with electricity, Carl stepped forward, swinging his thunder-infused strikes with lightning speed.

A thunderous roar, accompanied by the crackling of electricity, erupted through the air. The power of the lightning was so great that the very air it passed through began to smell of ozone and burning.

Because of the massive size of Baroque's Poison Giant Soldier, none of the punches missed. The purple lightning struck the giant, and electric currents instantly coursed across its surface.

"Aaaaaah!"

Baroque hadn't expected Carl's lightning to be so powerful. He felt his strength draining away as he was electrocuted; it was as if he had lost control of his own limbs, and even the power of his Venom-Venom Fruit began to dissipate.

This was Carl's Lightning Method unleashed at full power, instantly driving violent thunder into the opponent's body to scorch their internal organs. To survive such a move, one would either need to have refined their Armament Haki to the absolute limit or be able to interrupt the attack from a distance.

He couldn't help but think that if not for Luffy's protagonist halo, he might not have been able to defeat Enel, the user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, before awakening the Sun God Nika fruit. Indeed, the protagonist halo was crucial.

Though he thought this, only a few seconds had passed. He looked at Baroque in the center of the arena.

Sure enough, before the Poison Giant Soldier could even reach Carl, it had already dissipated, and the toxic gas in the air had vanished completely. It was clear that Baroque had...

Baroque knelt halfway, dozens of meters in front of Carl, his body flickering with residual electric sparks. He could clearly feel that his insides had been scorched to charcoal by the lightning. His intuition hadn't been wrong; he no longer had the strength to continue the fight.

"The Rumble-Rumble Fruit, is it?"

"I never thought I would die in this nameless little cave."

In this final moment, Baroque reflected on his tragic life: the massacre of his village by pirates when he was a boy, leaving him the sole survivor; joining the X Pirates; and finally, ten years later, tracking down the crew that had slaughtered his village and killing every last one of them in a single night. Though he had avenged his people, he had become a pirate himself, and he knew he could never return to the life he once had.

In the decades of storms and strife that followed, he had killed countless people on the sea, but he had never found a place of peace for his soul. Everything would end today.

"Boy, if you had a choice, would you be a pirate?"

Although Baroque knew he was dying, perhaps it was true that a man's words are sincere when his time is near; he wanted to know if Carl's experiences were similar to his own.

"Of course I wouldn't. Isn't it better to live in peace and contentment?"

After Carl said this, Baroque knew they were the same kind of person. It was just a pity that fate was cruel; everyone, due to various circumstances, was forced down a path they never wished to take.

Perhaps this was the cycle of the dragon-slaying hero eventually becoming the evil dragon himself.

Baroque's dying words stirred a sense of longing within Carl.

"Heh!"

"Indeed. If there were a choice, who would ever choose to be a pirate?"

As Baroque spoke these words, his eyes dimmed, and it was clear he had passed on.

Carl, meanwhile, felt his soul cleansed by Baroque's final words.

He remembered a saying from a great general during the wars on Blue Star: "Those souls tempered by the fires of war will be linked to the destiny of the people. Everything we do today is of supreme glory."

Carl's fighting spirit was instantly ignited. Before this, he had no ambition and no real drive, but Baroque's words today had awakened him.

Since he had come to the Pirate World, even if he didn't know the specific reason for his arrival, he now wanted to create a world without war and without slaves. He wanted to strive for that goal and dedicate his entire life to it.

Everything boiled down to one thing—the Celestial Dragons!