Chapter 140: Pandemonium (7)

"It all started from one theory of mine... that devil fruits have souls of their own."

The megalodon roared as it attempted to bite onto Bastille's zanbato. Bastille quickly drew his weapon back and sent a punch at the side of the creature, which was strong enough to blast it away from him.

"Devil fruits are rare in this vast sea, and it is considered a fortune for one to take hold of one!"

Queen, whose punch was originally intended to strike Hina, ended up smashing through the deck instead as Hina jumped before rotating her body and landing her heel on Queen's cheek.

The strike was strong enough to draw blood out of Queen's mouth, but Queen nonetheless endured. Grinning with his bloody teeth, Queen pushed Hina away from him and continued speaking.

"And for some reason, those who possess the Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits gathered under the 'Strongest Creature in the World.' How is this possible, I wondered, and since then, I started to experiment to see if I could unveil the mysteries behind the Devil Fruits."

Can beings that aren't alive eat a Devil Fruit?

"Vegapunk proved it once in the past. He fed a Human Human fruit to a rock, and saw it growing arms and legs! What I did was the exact copy of that... with a slight tweak, that is."

Green blood.

That's what Vegapunk termed his finest work as. It was a serum that contained the extracted lineage factor of a user of Devil Fruit. Queen injected the green blood that contained the power of Fish Fish fruit, model: Megalodon into the corpse of Kozuki Oden... after testing it multiple times in what he considered as the low-grade guinea pigs.

"What currently controls that massive, deformed body is the devil's will in the Fish Fish fruit, model: Megalodon. To accommodate for its endless appetite, it adapted to such a shape. Jack the Famine, it is the greatest work of mankind... it is the proof that science stands above all else!!"

Queen then paused. Before he realized it, he was speaking more in excitement.

"...Then, there are the words spoken from Poneglyphs."

Hina furrowed her eyebrows, still on guard.

"The existence of that one fruit... one where its user attains the freedom unlike any other... one where his or her body stretches like a rubber... one where his or her heart beats endlessly—granting the boundless energy!!"

Human Human fruit, model: Nika.

"...Supposedly, all the existing Devil Fruits, except for two fruits that handle the domains of rain and forest, were artificially made based on this fruit... by the Ancient Kingdom. And if these synthesized fruits are to possess the will of their own... are their wills simply the fragments of what constitutes the being named Nika?"

'And in that sense...'

Queen wondered,

'Can anyone who ate a devil become—'

"...Two other fruits?"

Queen's thoughts couldn't continue as Hina expressed her confusion for the first time. Forgetting the ongoing fight momentarily, the information from the past was recalled in her mind.

"Nika, along with two more. That's three in total. Sun, rain, and forest. However... as far as the folklore goes... there are four domains."

Sun, rain, forest, and... earth.

"The god of earth. Just what is..."

Hina, whispering as she voiced her inquiry, stopped in the middle. Sighing, she shook her gloved hands as her eyes sharpened.

"...No matter. What matters at hand isn't to gain answers to these questions, but rather, ensure that you don't live to see another day."

"...It seems that I too lost track of time."

Queen's body then enlarged into the gigantic form of a brachiosaurus, standing at its full might.

"MUAHAHA, BEHOLD!! From here on... I'm going all out without holding back at all—"

"...Are you an idiot? Hina confused."

"—What?"

The deck below Queen cracked before the entire ship, unable to withstand Queen's weight, broke into pieces. Queen, before he could register, found himself descending.

SPLASH!

__________

"I see that you aren't as soft as I expected you to be-dara!"

Bastille's zanbato skid through the side of the megalodon that flew past his side. The screeching noise caused those below to wince, but Bastille didn't seem to mind it even the slightest.

Currently in the middle of the sky, Bastille recalled the sensation that he felt through his zanbato just now, when it came in contact with Jack's skin.

It was hard and metallic; Bastille wondered how much of Jack's body was constituted by non-human elements.

'And even without considering those enhancements, this guy's innate endurance... is abnormal-dara!'

Bastille kicked off the air and swung his zanbato against Jack who was rising from below with the power of his jetpack booster.

BOOOM!

Bastille's zanbato directly clashed against Jack's head.

"Foooooooooooooood."

"Daradara! Even now, eating is all that you're interested in?"

Laughing, Bastille rotated his body along with his zanbato, before slamming it onto Jack's head for the second time. The blow wasn't enough to draw a wound out of the creature, but it was sufficient to blow it away from Bastille.

"Heh, let's see how much more you can take-dara!"

Bastille grinned as he flew at the megalodon that was falling down the sky. His zanbato, encased by the Armament Haki, gleamed dimly as it met the moonlight.

Without hesitation, he slammed it right on top of the megalodon's torso with vigorous strength. The noise—as if a cannon had hit its target—resounded across the sky as the megalodon was struck once more.

"Fooooooooooooooood."

Along with the continuous chant, Jack suddenly turned his body with the intention to slam Bastille with his tail.

Bastille, having been expecting this, quickly twisted his body to meet said tail with his zanbato.

BOOOM!

Both the tail and zanbato were recoiled back as they clashed. Not stopping there, both Jack and Bastille rotated their bodies the other way to utilize the recoil as the momentum, before meeting the tail with zanbato for the second time.

BOOOOM!

There was no trick; it was simply the battle of pure strength.

BOOOOM!

The tail and zanbato met one another continuously as if there was no end. Though the pace wasn't as fast, the gust that they generated upon each clash was staggering.

"G-Gahhhh!!"

The pirates who were situated near the clash were flown back from the wind. Cannonballs that were fired around the two were blown back before they lost speed and fell into the ocean.

"Daradaradara!!"

Bastille seemed to be immersed in the battle against the monstrous creature. Uncaring of the fact that light gashes began to appear over his clothes, body, and the metal mask that he wore, he relentlessly swung his zanbato over and over again with a grin on his face.

BOOOOM!

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!"

Jack then roared as he opened his mouth. A beam of scorching fire was blasted straight at Bastille, but Bastille, instead of dodging, swung his zanbato vertically.

Shockingly, the beam of fire parted into two and traveled on Bastille's left and right—essentially missing the target.

In this state, Jack's jet booster acted up. In an instant, Jack was ramming right onto Bastille with his gigantic size. Bastille quickly raised the blade and avoided direct contact, but nonetheless had his body blasted into the sea below, and,

SPLASH!

disappeared into its beneath along with the huge eruption of the water.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!"

Jack, still in his full Zoan form, didn't stop there. From each of his cheeks, the propeller-like fans popped out. Then, they spun rapidly, and in correspondence, numerous sharp arcs of air pressure were shot at the sea below, right at where Bastille dropped into.

BOOOM!

The sea erupted once again. Then, through the endless arcs of sharp wind, one huge arc of Haki-infused wave slashed through, returning them to the stationary air.

Then, Bastille revealed himself from the water. He, grinning wildly, propelled himself at the gigantic megalodon above him.

"Daradaradara!!!"

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!"

Laughing, Bastille lifted his zanbato to block Jack's attempt to bite him. Clenching his left hand into a fist, Bastille then proceeded to smash a punch into Jack's huge head.

From the force, Jack's bite loosened, allowing Bastille to pull his zanbato out of the creature's teeth.

Jack, meanwhile, withstood the impact of Bastille's punch. Turning his head on Bastille's way, his throat began to brighten up again, which indicated that he was about to blast the beam of fire—at point-blank range.

Bastille, noticing this, grinned. Holding his zanbato with two hands, he slammed it down right atop Jack's mouth, forcibly closing it.

Then, the fire was released—within Jack's closed mouth, that is.

BOOM!

The smoke exited through the slightly parted mouth of Jack. He for once roared in pain as his form shrank back into his human form. His small eyes were filled with exhaustion, and it seemed that he no longer was in a condition to continue fighting.

Jack helplessly fell, and at this rate, he would fall into the ocean. Then, before Bastille could react, a black figure suddenly appeared and caught Jack in midair. Surprisingly, the figure managed to endure Jack's weight and successfully landed on one of the remaining ships of Beast Pirates.

"That's..."

Said black figure was none other than King. With a plume of fire constantly burning from his back, he momentarily gazed at Bastille in silence before turning to the pirates behind him.

"Foooooooooood..."

"Bring in something to eat."

Jack, lying on the deck and occupying over half of the available, space, expressed his craving for foods. Adhering to King's order, the pirates hurriedly moved around, trying to find the edibles that were available at the moment.

"Huff... huff... something is wrong with that guy, I tell ya."

And currently, next to Bastille was Aramaki, who was huffing rapidly. He seemed to have suffered a few blows, as shown by the bruises here and there on his body.

"Daradara, what happened to your confidence? Didn't you say that you're the strongest among us after Smoker-dara?"

"Shut up! Tch..."

Aramaki growled angrily.

"I have no idea why, but no attack of mine works on that guy! Forget Haki, how is his body even more resilient than Smoker-san?!"

"Hm..."

Bastille hummed. He then pointed it out,

"So, are we going to watch as Jack restores his stamina?"

"Hell no!!"

Aramaki held his hands out at the ship where King and Jack were on top of.

Those hands morphed into what appeared to be the roots of trees. Atop those roots grew the enormous trunk, which became encased by the Armament Haki from its start to the end.

Then, said wooden trunk was physically 'fired' from Aramaki's hands.

"MORNING WOOD!!!"

King, whose eyes were locked on Aramaki's attack, immediately flew up through the use of the black wings attached to his back. While doing so, a fireball appeared atop his right palm, which he clenched as he formed a fist.

"Imperial Flame!!"

The fire-infused fist of King then collided with the gigantic wood.

 Upon the collision, the booming noise echoed throughout the area. The wood was engulfed by the fire, but somehow persisted without becoming reduced to ashes.

Nevertheless, King's vigorous blow eventually won with the burning wood splitting into pieces.

As those pieces dropped into the sea powerlessly, King, who quickly drew his sword, was now meeting Bastille blade-to-blade.

CLANG—!

Following the clash, King's blade suddenly ignited, before a large, whirling, serpentine dragon of fire revealed itself.

"Imperial Flaming Wings!!"

Bastille was knocked off as the dragon crashed into his zanbato and was forcibly flown back.

Simultaneously, Aramaki was now right behind King with numerous wooden roots, with their pointy edges covered by Armament Haki, grown out of his back.

"SUCKING WOOD!!"

Said roots then struck King at once,

CLANG!

though none of them managed to break through King's skin.

"...Just what is your body made out of?"

Just as Aramaki remarked, King ignited his right leg and slammed it onto Aramaki's face, blasting him away.

Meanwhile, Jack from the ship below was now found inhaling a mountain of food that was delivered to his front.

The pirates around him watched in disbelief, wondering how such a feat was possible.

Bastille, who noticed such a scene while recovering from King's attack, couldn't help but curse,

"...Fuck-dara."