Devil Fruit Fusion Sends Combat Power Soaring

A nauseating stench exploded in his mouth.

It was like stuffing a handful of moldy kelp inside, mixed with the stench of a dead rat fermenting in a sewer for ten days.

Rektol's stomach suddenly cramped. Acid surged up his throat.

He clenched his teeth and forcibly suppressed the urge to vomit, his Adam's apple struggling through two swallows.

The fruit pulp slid down his esophagus into his stomach, like he had swallowed a chunk of icy lead. He opened his mouth and dry-heaved, spitting out a mouthful of bitter, yellowish-white saliva. He raised a hand and wiped the corner of his mouth.

Shiki stood atop a ruined stone pillar not far away.

The half-smoked cigar between his teeth dropped to the ground with a sharp snap. Sparks scattered across his wooden sandals.

He stared fixedly at Rektol swallowing the fruit. The muscles on his face twitched violently, while the veins on his forehead bulged and throbbed like earthworms.

"You little brat, are you trying to get yourself killed?" Shiki roared like a beast.

He had waited more than half a year for this fruit, spending countless hours and resources tracking down clues.

Yet a three-year-old freak had chewed it up right in front of him like an apple.

Shiki kicked the top off the granite pillar beneath his feet.

He raised his right hand and swept it sharply downward. The more than thirty enormous pirate warships in the sky received the order, and the thick cables were instantly severed by the sailors.

The dozen or so heavy wooden ships at the front turned their bows around.

The massive hulls, weighing hundreds of tons and carrying a howling pressure of wind, plummeted straight toward the bluestone altar below like a dozen small mountains.

The brass rams on their bows tore through the air with a shrill scream, completely blocking Rektol's view.

Rektol did not dodge.

He stood barefoot in the center of the altar.

"Thud."

The first heart in his left chest gave a muffled beat. Blue-white lightning began coursing through his blood vessels with faint crackles.

Normally, after eating a second Devil Fruit, the body would be unable to withstand two completely different Devil Fruit powers and instantly explode into a skyful of blood.

But Rektol's body neither swelled nor split apart.

Deep in his right chest, the second heart that had always remained dormant suddenly beat once.

"Thud!"

The sound was heavier than that of the first heart, like a sledgehammer striking a leather drum.

The blood forcibly split into separate streams within the aorta. The two violent powers found their respective homes in different organs, each perfectly performing its own function.

There was no rejection whatsoever. The power of the Float-Float Fruit was completely taken over by the second heart.

Rektol felt the stone slabs beneath his feet lose their weight.

Gravity seemed to vanish in an instant.

Several pieces of rubble slowly floated up from beside his feet, suspended in midair in defiance of the laws of physics.

The instinct to control gravity and manipulate all floating objects was directly carved into the depths of his mind.

Above his head, the dozen or so warships had already dropped to less than fifty meters from the altar.

Their enormous shadows completely swallowed Rektol. The splintered ends of the broken masts were clearly visible. The pressure of the wind plastered his pink hair tightly against his scalp, making his skin sting.

Rektol raised his right hand.

He spread his five fingers, palm facing upward, and aimed at the meteor shower of steel and wood crashing down.

"Stop."

He spat out the word in a hoarse voice.

A terrifying repulsive force beyond description erupted from his palm.

The air was forcibly compressed into a visible, translucent ripple that rapidly expanded outward.

"Creak—"

The bow of the foremost three-masted sailing ship had just struck the invisible repulsion net.

Its thick oak hull instantly shattered. The planks broke apart inch by inch, while the massive iron nails were forcibly torn out and sent flying through the air.

The dozen or so warships simply stopped in midair without warning.

It completely violated the laws of kinetic energy.

Their tremendous inertia sent the pirates tumbling from the decks like dumplings dropped into a pot. Their screams rang through the heavens.

But the pirates could not fall to the ground either. They were all glued firmly to the air by the gravitational field, flailing and struggling wildly.

Shiki gripped the famed sword Oto, his eyelids twitching violently.

He could feel that unreasonable pulling force. Even the rubble beneath his feet was flying upward.

This brat didn't explode—and the instant he ate the fruit, he had already developed its power to this extent?

Rektol gave Shiki no time to think.

His right hand, suspended in midair, suddenly clenched, his five fingers curling inward.

"Lightning Release: Universal Pull."

The gravity supplied by the second heart instantly reversed. The violent suction forcibly tore apart the dozen or so warships suspended in midair, kneading the splintered wood and cannons into a huge mixed sphere.

Immediately afterward, the first heart began operating beyond its limits.

Two hundred million volts of violent lightning followed the gravitational field and instantly clung to the massive mixed sphere.

Blue-white lightning illuminated half the sky in a ghastly white. The air reeked of burning.

Under Rektol's control, the trash ball wrapped in destructive lightning slammed toward Shiki with overwhelming force.

Every hair on Shiki's body stood on end.

He swung both swords, slashing out two enormous, intersecting golden sword auras.

The sword auras collided with the lightning sphere.

"Boom!"

A deafening explosion erupted above the deserted island.

The blinding light made it impossible to open one's eyes. The violent shock wave swept across the entire ruin like a hurricane.

The bluestone altar instantly turned to powder.

Dozens of enormous ancient stone pillars were uprooted, and chunks of rubble flew in every direction.

Shiki's sword auras blocked it for only an instant. The sphere, carrying the combined destructive power of gravity and lightning, smashed straight through his defenses.

"Ugh!"

Shiki spat out a huge mouthful of blood. Before it could hit the ground, the surrounding heat instantly evaporated it into a red mist.

The yellow-and-black-striped kimono on his body was blasted into tatters.

More than half of his once-proud golden hair had been burned away, giving off the foul smell of scorched protein.

A charged piece of iron tore a deep, bone-exposing gash across the right side of his face, and blood poured freely.

"Madman! You're a complete monster!"

Shiki gritted his teeth, the intense taste of blood filling his mouth.

He did not dare linger any longer.

This three-year-old brat had simultaneously mastered two Devil Fruits, a Logia and a Paramecia, and his combat power had completely exceeded the bounds of reason.

Shiki suddenly drove off with both legs.

He stepped on a burning plank falling through the air and used it to launch himself backward in a frantic leap.

Without even looking back, he plunged headfirst into the few warships remaining above.

"Turn the rudder! Get the hell out of these waters!"

Shiki smashed the steering wheel with one slap. The remaining pirate ships raised their battered sails in a panic and fled desperately with the current, not even bothering to rescue the sailors who had fallen into the water.

Rektol slowly lowered his right hand.

He did not pursue Shiki.

After repeatedly using ultimate moves that fused two Devil Fruits, combined with the limits of his three-year-old body's endurance, his chest now felt oppressively tight. His breathing was as heavy as a bellows, and his nostrils flared rapidly.

The muscles in his right leg spasmed violently, waves of soreness and pain surging through it.

He simply dropped onto the ground. The soil beneath him had been baked scorching hot by lightning and fire.

He gasped heavily, watching the dark clouds reappear in the sky, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

But the aftershocks of the battle had not stopped.

That last fused Devil Fruit attack had directly pierced through the surface of the deserted island.

The tremors traveled along the rock strata, all the way down to the seafloor fault thousands of meters below.

"Rumble—"

The earth began to shake violently.

Large sections of the cliffs along the island's edge collapsed and crashed into the sea, sending splashes more than ten meters high.

The tectonic movement beneath the sea had been forcibly triggered.

The calm surface of the sea instantly began to boil.

The seawater rapidly receded, exposing vast stretches of reefs covered in kelp and fish and shrimp flopping desperately.

Immediately afterward, a white wall of water dozens of meters high formed on the horizon.

A tsunami.

Carrying world-destroying momentum, it swept in every direction. The gale whipped the seawater into white mist that rushed toward the face.

Rektol stood up and patted the dust from his backside. Watching the wave grow ever higher, he prepared to use the power of the Float-Float Fruit to leave.

Just then.

In the distant waters beyond the edge of the tsunami.

Dozens of enormous warships flying seagull flags forcibly cut through the raging waves and emerged from the surf.

Their hulls were painted with conspicuous blue-and-white stripes. The great flag of justice atop the mainmast snapped in the gale.

This was an elite Marine fleet operating on the scale of a Buster Call.

On the deck of the flagship at the center of the fleet.

A tall man in a sharply pressed suit and a Marine justice cloak rested a hand on the sword at his waist.

The cloak's hem billowed in the wind, revealing the golden epaulettes beneath.

The current Fleet Admiral.

He frowned as he looked at the shattered deserted island ahead and Rektol standing in the center of the ruins.