Without a doubt, the ordinary apple had turned into the golden Rumble-Rumble Fruit. How could he put it? The impression Sephiroth got from seeing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit with his own eyes was hard to describe. All he could say was that it gave him this feeling-as if someone had turned Pikachu into a piece of fruit.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit had appeared a year ahead of schedule, bringing his thoughts to a momentary halt. All his earlier worries and urgency drained from his mind at once, leaving a vacuum.
His hands, however, barely paused. He picked it up immediately, as if delaying even a second would disrespect the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and took a bite-
"Bleurgh... urgh..."
Sephiroth had never eaten shit, but he had once played a cursed hot pot game with his asshole friends-one idiot had opened a can of surströmming.
...It tasted pretty much like that.
Even though a single bite would grant him its power, he still fought back his nausea and intended to finish the entire fruit. After all, back on Blue Star in his previous life, there had been rumors that eating only one bite prevented awakening. Better safe than sorry. He gritted his teeth and kept eating.
As the awful taste made him grimace, arcs of electricity began spilling unconsciously from the hands holding the fruit. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit's power was gradually affecting his body.
In some respects, Devil Fruits were more like [WAAAGH] with a defined effective range or target, with a hefty dose of mind over matter.
When it came to electricity, Sephiroth had been nothing more than an ordinary working stiff in the field back on Blue Star. But compared with an illiterate like Enel, he was fundamentally different.
Electrostatics, magnetostatics, electromagnetic fields, circuits, electromagnetic effects, electromagnetic measurements, electromagnetic communications... and all the related laws. This knowledge, which he had studied in broad strokes and only half understood, was now coexisting with him in a way that... felt as though something intangible had become tangible.
-In an instant.
A little static appeared in his mind, like interference on a radio. A strange perception beyond his five senses spread through an invisible field, and all manner of information flowed into his brain-bringing multidimensional, three-dimensional [sounds].
He could actually "touch" electromagnetic waves... Magnetic field lines rippled with the movements of his hands... He could see, hear, smell, and taste them-a synesthesia based on electromagnetic force had formed between his five senses and electromagnetic perception.
Within this perception, the flame from the Flame Dial Lamp gave off a slightly shrill beeping sound, the texture of a non-Newtonian fluid, and a faint spicy taste... All the other objects were much the same...
Brilliant electric light shone from Sephiroth's eyes.
At the same time, several Holy Knights who had awakened [Mantra], along with the Pontiff himself, burst inside and witnessed a sight that left them dumbfounded-
The Holy Son spread his wings. Electrical arcs leaped and spread across them, their tips emitting brilliant blue halos. As those two rings of light mingled and surged, an overwhelming sense of supernatural divinity washed over the onlookers.
Even the pointed edges of other objects in the room emitted flame-like blue-white flashes under the influence of that invisible force, illuminating the entire room like a divine realm.
"...Wonderful... I... am gradually coming to understand everything..."
(The atmosphere was freezing up.)
Really, Sephiroth had just been indulging in a fitting little moment of solitary chuuni theatrics. Who knew they would barge in without even knocking?
Who knew what absurd conclusions these people had jumped to... The Holy Knights kneeling all over the floor were bad enough. Even the Pontiff knelt down, crying his eyes out...
If he had not ordered the Holy Knights to lock down the news immediately and forbid its spread, there was no telling how much upheaval it would have caused within the church.
Without a doubt, the church's senior leadership unanimously believed that the legendary power of God had descended upon Birka once more, and that the once-in-a-millennium Holy Son was unquestionably the true God reincarnated.
It was late, after all. Not wanting to disturb God's rest, they burned incense and kowtowed to Sephiroth before running off to hold a private meeting.
A less-than-peaceful night passed.
...Well, something like that had happened the night before.
An emergency meeting was called overnight. When high-ranking knights hauled the many uninformed bishops out of bed, they thought the Blue Sea People had built a Sixth-Generation Aircraft.
The worst off was the Logistics Bishop, who had been playing a little game with his Acolyte that would have needed censoring. A Holy Knight leading four Grand Knights had barged in all at once-later, word was that he wanted to emigrate to the Blue Sea.
Early the next morning.
-In the stratosphere, thirty-six kilometers above Birka.
Sephiroth spread his wings and stretched his body toward the rising sun. After acquiring the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, his "flight" ability could easily take him tens of kilometers into the sky.
Testing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit on Birka Island would definitely cause enormous chaos, so the previous night, he had only tried a few properties that would not cause a disturbance. Early that morning, he had eagerly taken to the sky.
The special Observation Haki he had named Electromagnetic Mantra also spread without restraint at this altitude.
Without regard for precision, Electromagnetic Mantra had a maximum detection diameter of 2,500 kilometers. Its normal precision range was 400 kilometers, with maximum precision extending to roughly 100 kilometers. It was an advanced form of Observation Haki specialized for wide-area coverage.
Subjectively, it felt as though his "senses" had moved from a cramped room into a boundless expanse. He could even clearly perceive the magnetic field of the planet beneath him, like an enormous, steady breath.
This sensation was not the Voice of All Things. Sephiroth tried listening in on the Sea Kings he detected in the Blue Sea, only to discover that he could "hear" all sorts of "data," including biological signals, but could not understand their "language."
Interestingly, the Sea Kings he targeted seemed to sense something and fled frantically into the depths.
Electromagnetic Mantra's active detection mode could not be used to monitor powerful fighters; they would notice. According to the Holy Knights who helped him test it, the instant he locked onto them, it felt as though an enormous invisible shadow had enveloped them, and even the air seemed to thicken.
Above the clouds, Sephiroth swept past like a fighter jet.
When flying without transforming into his elemental state, he dealt with the high-altitude environment using an invisible composite electromagnetic barrier, whose functions included oxygen production through electrolysis, high-frequency electric-field heating, and an electromagnetic shield.
He could even blend into the planet's immense background magnetic field to achieve a degree of "invisibility." At the very least, the Holy Knights' Mantra could only detect him within visual range.
When they discovered that Sephiroth could even deceive and disrupt other people's Mantra through something resembling "electronic warfare," their expressions gradually suggested they were questioning everything they knew.
That was just how ridiculous the WAAAGH of Devil Fruits was. He himself had only a rough understanding of these things, yet the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's power let him skip the crucial theories and technologies and force the practical effects into existence.
This gliding flight, powered by the Planet Magnetic Field, was, in simple terms, like riding a bicycle downhill. It consumed almost no stamina. He could reach Mach 7, which soared to Mach 24 after he transformed into his elemental state.
Electromagnetic flight felt wonderful from his own perspective, but it was not Sephiroth's fastest means of travel.
Once he detected a magnetic-field coordinate, he could turn his entire body into an element and become a bolt of lightning that "struck" that location. In terms of sensation, though, it felt almost like teleportation.
"...Well, I've wanted to do this for ages."
Through Sephiroth's magnetic vision, the magnetic field before him twisted and deformed. Several sets of rectangular electromagnetic fields for multistage acceleration appeared, arranged in arrays above and below.
Then he took out a metal coin he had smelted the night before using lightning's intense heat.
-It was as though powerful music had begun to play!
-An auditory hallucination etched into his DNA rang in his ears!
"Railgun Sister-we love yooou!"
...Perhaps Sephiroth's DNA transcription had mutated, leaving him a little different from normal people.
Whatever the case, an orange beam pierced toward the horizon like a laser, without a sound. A thunderous boom followed half a beat behind the flash.
The orange beam tore through the atmosphere, forming a continuous trail of sonic-boom clouds. Its radiance left an afterimage in the air for a fraction of a second.
-Railgun.
It used the firing configuration of the latest electromagnetic cannon from the Rabbit's homeland on Blue Star in his previous life.
With suitable materials, its range could reach 200 kilometers. Unfortunately, the hastily smelted coin vaporized after traveling just over forty meters...
Afterward, Sephiroth rolled through the high-altitude sky like a supersonic fighter, activating various abilities to test their specific effects.
How could he put it?
A Sixth-Generation Aircraft could go stealth. So could he.
A Sixth-Generation Aircraft had beyond-visual-range capabilities. So did he.
A Sixth-Generation Aircraft could cruise at supersonic speeds. So could he.
A Sixth-Generation Aircraft could conduct information-based warfare. So could he.
A Sixth-Generation Aircraft had no tail fins. Neither did he.
-So I was a Sixth-Generation Aircraft too.
Setting aside Sephiroth's unhinged solo fun in the empty sky, this round of testing finally gave him a fairly direct understanding of his fruit's abilities.
Back on Blue Star in his previous life, people had said that even Logia users consumed stamina when using their abilities, including when transforming into their elemental state. He could only say that it did consume stamina, but not as much as he had imagined.
Elemental transformation consumed almost no stamina, especially passive elemental transformation.
For Logia users, elemental transformation was much like breathing. Actively transforming into their elemental state was like switching to manual breathing.
As for actively transforming to evade Armament Haki attacks, he had never actually tried it. He guessed the difficulty might feel similar to controlled breathing exercises.
For his other abilities, electromagnetic flight was like cycling downhill, while the electromagnetic cannon shot from earlier had consumed about as much stamina as an ordinary person tossing a pebble.
His electrical discharge ability was like using "leverage" to move the charges in nature. Its stamina consumption depended on the electrical environment and the scale of the discharge.
Sephiroth had tried releasing a discharge of roughly 100 million volts and 50,000 amperes without using "leverage." The stamina consumption felt like throwing a shot put with all his strength.
Then, during comparative testing, the Devil Fruit taught him a lesson-the actual effects were tied to the user's mental state.
Precise quantification was almost impossible. In a sense, the louder he shouted, the greater the power... That was way too WAAAGH...
Testing complete, he adjusted his flight posture.
He dived through the clouds, triggering large-scale lightning between them. After transforming into his elemental state, he merged with the electric fields within the clouds and fell toward Birka...
(Early on, his "power scale" matched Enel's. But thanks to the "knowledge" from his previous life, his applications were stronger. Within fifty chapters, he would have all Three Types of Haki and be on par with Kizaru.)
Before you continue