Thus, All Gods Were Born

"Stop with these pointless tricks, Flame Ring - Fire Pillar!"

Kuma roared and surrounded Ace, shooting into the sky, scattering countless planks and pebbles in all directions.

"Stop! You can't beat him right now!"

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Blackbeard's forehead as he turned and sternly rebuked him.

"Isn't it a bit too late to say this now, Fire Fist!"

The scorching flames instantly engulfed everyone, and Van Augur's expression changed as he vanished from their sight.

At the same time, Laffitte leaped into the air and escaped the flames, while Doc Q, Gizas Burgess, and Marshall D. Teach, who had no way to escape, were engulfed by the flames.

"Oh my god! Wait, it's so hot, so hot, so hot..."

Marshall D. Teach, who was sent flying by a punch, rolled on the ground in pain. Ace, whose body was blocked by the flames, did not notice that there were no burn marks on his body.

Everyone: "Captain!"

Marshall D. Teach: "Wait, damn it..."

Amidst the sea of fire, Ace slowly stepped forward, his eyes, shrouded in flames, cold and ruthless.

"Hehehe... I know, Ace, you really want to kill me, right? After all, killing a comrade is a serious crime!"

"But, there's nothing I can do about it. The fruit in his hand is the fruit I've been dreaming of for the past twenty years..."

"According to the rules on the ship, whoever gets it first is entitled to eat it first. In order to get it, I memorized all the shapes of the fruits in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia."

"That's why I was able to see at a glance that the fruit of my dreams had been taken away by Thatch!"

"Speaking of which, the reason I stayed on Whitebeard's ship for so many years was because the chances of getting that Devil Fruit were greatest on Whitebeard's ship."

"If I had been unlucky, I would have accepted it, but unfortunately, this fruit ended up in my friend's hands!"

Marshall D. Teach screamed his lungs out, but Ace remained expressionless, exposing his hypocritical performance.

"So, you killed Thatch, took his spoils, and betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates?"

At that moment, Marshall D. Teach, realizing that nothing he said mattered, gave a strange smile, and a plume of black smoke shot into the sky.

"Speaking of which, I haven't explained what this fruit is yet. Your body is me, right, Ace? Do you know what my body is? My body is darkness!"

As they were talking, thick black smoke billowed into the sky and spread in all directions in the blink of an eye.

Ace stood atop the ruins shattered by the pillar of fire, his brow furrowed and a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

"Dark?"

"That's right, it's darkness, the most ferocious representative of the Logia, darkness that won't even let a sliver of light go. Just watch, Ace!"

In an instant, the pitch-black darkness swallowed the entire town, and in the blink of an eye, it was completely liberated by Marshall D. Teach, turning it into ruins.

From this moment on, Ace lowered his eyelids, and clusters of green Huo Guang emerged between his ten fingers.

"Fire Fly - Fire Daruma!"

The clusters of light exploded completely in front of Marshall D. Teach, and intense pain returned. Marshall D. Teach collapsed to the ground, his entire body engulfed in flames.

"Oh? That's strange. You're not a Dark Person with the Dark-Dark Fruit, so you should be able to use Elementalization. Logia Ability User should be able to easily dodge this move."

Panting heavily and throbbing with intense pain, Marshall D. Teach slowly rose and confessed to Ace before him.

"While the Dark-Dark Fruit's power is formidable, it has a weakness that other Logia Ability User lack: the inability to Elementalization..."

"However, the reason it's called the most evil fruit is for another reason. Feel it for yourself, Ace!"

The New World, the Wano Country.

Bored, Huayue lay on the clouds and fell into a deep sleep, when she saw a sneaky figure quietly slip in.

"Big brother, let's settle this today... Asleep? Why are you always sleeping lately?!"

A hint of suspicion flashed in Yamato's eyes. After slowly lifting the book that had been covering Huayue's head, his eyes lit up immediately.

"The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia... could it contain my brother's ability? A great opportunity..."

Soon, as the pages of the book were turned, Yamato stopped what he was doing and turned his gaze to the description of a fruit that had been circled in red.

"Dark-Dark Fruit? Why is this place circled? What does it mean?"

"That fruit, it's a very special Devil Fruit. It's Logia, but it can't turn its body into Elementalization. However, it can use gravity to control the Lineage Factor within the Ability User's body."

In an instant, Yamato froze, turned around and smiled at Huayue.

"Big... Big brother, when did you wake up?"

"Just."

Ignoring Yamato's effort to slip away at any moment, Huayue reached out and hooked the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia into his hand.

"If we could find a phenomenon in nature that represents the Dark-Dark Fruit, a black hole would be the perfect description..."

"A force of gravity powerful enough to devour everything, yet too heavy to become a Ability User of gravity itself—a fruit full of contradictions."

After hearing Huayue's evaluation of the Dark-Dark Fruit, Yamato seemed to be deep in thought. Then, his fingertips slid rapidly across the other two pages, landing on the fruits circled in red.

"What about these two? The Gum-Gum Fruit and the Toshi Toshi no Mi. What are the characteristics of these two fruits that made you notice them, Brother?"

"The Gum-Gum Fruit, this fruit is very interesting. Perhaps it can be said that it does not represent Devil Fruit, but rather the aspirations and prayers of countless people."

As she slowly rose from the cloud bed, Huayue seemed lost in thought, but she continued to comment on the Gum-Gum Fruit.

"During the Void Century, there was a Ability User once ate a real Gum-Gum Fruit, Joy Boy."

"In the trust of the oppressed slaves, Joy Boy's will merged into the fruit, becoming a Sun God who saves slaves, brings joy to people, and liberates everything."

"And all of this is just as I often say: those who are trusted will seek a higher existence in order to escape this heavy pressure..."

"The Sun God, existing in a higher realm, would yearn to pray to a higher and more trustworthy deity..."

"In this way, all kings were born, and all gods were born."

"The so-called Sun God is nothing more than a combination of Joy Boy and Devil Fruit in the fantasies of slaves eight hundred years ago, with the powers of the two being fused together."

"The Gum-Gum Fruit, or the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Nika form, possesses all the characteristics of Logia and Zoan types."

"While the surrounding environment is homogeneous, it also possesses Nika's imagination. This is the god of this world."