Werther's gaze sharpened.
In the Pirate World, unscientific things like Devil Fruits existed, but a dead man speaking? That was impossible.
"Blackbeard?"
Werther did not approach recklessly. Holding Intent Blood, he kept his distance from Blackbeard's corpse.
"Contract. Kingdom. D. Devil. Awakening!"
Blackbeard's severed head began to mutter.
If Werther had not spent so long adventuring and hardened his nerves, he might have turned and run.
"What the hell are you? Enough with the tricks."
Werther charged at Blackbeard's head, leaped, and crushed it beneath his foot.
Red fluid splattered. Blackbeard's head burst under the blow.
Werther suddenly froze.
Behind him, Blackbeard's headless body had stood up.
"Crack, crack..."
Blackbeard had only just died, yet his body seemed to have decayed already. His joints ground together stiffly.
A mass of gray mist emerged from Blackbeard's body and hovered above his shoulders.
It had no fixed shape. At times it resembled Blackbeard; at others, the head of a beast.
"Is that... Blackbeard's third Devil Fruit?"
Werther was shaken. What kind of Devil Fruit failed to reform after its host died and manifested like this instead?
But he did not dwell on it. He had killed Blackbeard himself; the Devil Fruit concerned him even less.
"Human Marshall D. Teach, descendant of the D. Clan, privately explored the secrets of Devil Fruits and broke the rules agreed upon by the Royal Family.
Ssllgsflaglrwqggaasdgqgq."
Werther could understand the first part of what the gray mist said. The rest left him completely baffled.
It seemed Blackbeard had violated some taboo by attempting to fuse Devil Fruits.
That was why this Devil Fruit had taken such a form.
"What exactly are you trying to say? If you've got nothing else, hurry up and turn back into a fruit. Spare me the nonsense."
Werther's forceful attitude clearly