21. The Phoenix Fruit’s Beast Form. Shocked Marco.

│3rd Person POV│

[Grand Line, New World, Moby Dick, on the way to G5 Marine Base…]

'Cover my whole body with Blue Flames?'

Ron quickly acted upon hearing Ace's advice.

He mobilized the Blue Flames to cover himself, attempting to block the power of the Flare-Flare Fruit from affecting him.

However, the situation was extremely challenging.

Initially, the Blue Flames managed to block some of the Flare-Flare Fruit's flames after they appeared.

However, despite his continuous efforts his flames were quickly engulfed, resulting in the Flare-Flare Fruit's flames becoming more potent.

"Argghhh——!! Damn it!"

Being continuously assaulted by the pain of burning, Ron was getting extremely angry and frustrated at the situation.

Seeing that his idea didn't succeed, Ace was also getting anxious.

Not having any other choice, Ace decided to push Ron into the sea.

Although Ron would sink like an anchor because of being a Devil Fruit user, the sea would at least snuff the flames of his Flare-Flare Fruit. And he could fish out Ron afterward.

Screech——

Suddenly, a cry echoed through Ron's body.

At this moment, Ron noticed some unusual activity in his body.

He could clearly feel that the power of the Flare-Flare Fruit that was initially burning his internal organs was now being absorbed rapidly, unable to cause further damage. 

"This is–" For a moment, Ron fought hard to ignore the pain and concentrate on the changes within himself.

After a moment of self-examination, Ron was certain that his body was going through a process that all Zoan-type Devil Fruit go through once their fruit powers had been developed to a certain level.

He was about to transform into the Beast form of the Phoenix Fruit.

He was thrilled by the discovery because he knew the power of the Beast form.

According to Marco, in the Beast form of the Phoenix, all attributes of the Phoenix would be enhanced by about five to eight times.

This meant that what he needed to do now was to increase the absorption of flames to truly awaken the Phoenix's Beast form and complete the first phase of development.

Thinking of this, Ron suddenly said, "Ace, please inject more flames into me! I feel the power of the Phoenix Fruit being activated.

"If you give me more of the Flare-Flare Fruit flames, I will surely be able to use the Beast form of the Phoenix Fruit. This may even be the best opportunity to increase the temperature of my Blue Flames."

"Is that so?" Hearing this, Ace stretched out his hand and checked Ron.

Ace was surprised by Ron's request as the latter was screaming his heart out just a few seconds ago, but after seeing that he did not appear to be in any pain at this moment and that his Flare-Flare Fruit's power did not pose a fatal threat to him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He said, "In that case, I believe you then. If you can't hold on, just say it, and I will push you into the sea to completely extinguish the flames and then, fish you out later."

After speaking, Ace didn't say anything more.

With a thought, the red flames appeared again and he began to inject directly into Ron's body.

It continued to enter his body, reach his heart, and be absorbed by the phoenix. For a moment, a bizarre stalemate situation happened at the bow of the ship.

While the both of them were busy playing with flames, everyone inside the Moby Dick had already noticed the commotion caused by them initially.

"Ace, Ron, what's happening here?"

"Ace, what are you doing to Ron?"

"Ace, why are you unleashing your fire on Ron?"

For a moment, countless shouts resounded as all the Division Commanders arrived at the bow of the ship. After seeing Ron's current situation, Marco and others' expressions changed.

They misunderstood the situation, thinking that there was a conflict between Ron and Ace and that the latter was using his fruit's powers to burn the former.

"Marco, you're here."

However, Ace didn't care to think about what was going through their mind right now.

He was just a little tired after spending a long time carefully controlling the amount of flames being injected into Ron so as to not overwhelm him. 

He explained to Marco, "I am helping Ron unlock the Beast form of the Phoenix Fruit. He just told me that he needs the power of Flare-Flare Fruit's flames to unlock it."

'What! Unlocking the Beast Form?'

Hearing this, everyone present was shocked.

'Unlocking the beast form so early? Wasn't he developing the Phoenix Fruit too fast?' Such were the collective thoughts of everyone.

After judging the current situation with their Observation Haki, Ace wasn't lying.

Although the power of the Flare-Flare Fruit continued to wreak havoc on Ron, it did not pose any danger to his life.

Subconsciously, Vista looked at Marco and said, "Marco, after you ate the Phoenix Fruit, I remember it took you more than a year to unlock the Beast form, right?

"I didn't expect that Ron would have already reached such a stage after just a month or so of copying your fruit's power. You should be ashamed of yourself, Marco! Hahahaha~!"

Hearing this, Marco's mouth twitched. He knew it was a joke by Vista.

However, he had to admit that Ron's development of the Phoenix Fruit's abilities was indeed much faster than his.

It can even be said that his talent in this area was far superior.

But at this moment, he refused to be outdone and retorted, "What's the problem in that? Ron's Devil Fruit is a Paramecia-type, so the difficulty of development is naturally much lower than that of my Mythical Zoan-type.

Not every special Paramecia-type Devil Fruit is the same as Pops' Tremor-Tremor Fruit with development difficulty being impossibly huge."

As soon as these words came out, Vista and others' mouths twitched.

Although they knew that despite Marco being harsh in his retort, it was undeniable that what he said did make some sense.

Screech——

At this moment, a bird cry resounded throughout the area.

As dark blue colored flames rose into the sky, Ace, Marco, and others were all blown back a few meters away.

Ron's figure soared into the sky, his hands opened wide with dark blue flames began to emerge from them. Instead of burning his arms, the flames took the shape of wings.

Not only that, his face, neck, ankle, etc. also began to transform into bird parts, clearly displaying that Ron had indeed unlocked the Beast Form of the Phoenix Fruit.

"…"

For a moment, Marco and others couldn't help but lose their voices.

Although what Ace said before was shocking, even they were looking forward to it.

But when Ron actually completed this step, they were still a little shocked.

After all, Ron had developed the Phoenix Fruit's power to such an extent in just slightly more than a month after he copied its power.

If he was given some time, wouldn't it mean that he would be able to surpass the original user very soon?

"No, something's not right! His fire, his fire is not at the right temperature."

Suddenly, Marco seemed to notice something unusual. His eyes widened, and he stared at the Phoenix-Ron floating in the air with sheer disbelief.

He said in disbelief, "It's so high. The temperature of his flames is so high. It's higher than the temperature of my Blue Flames by a significant margin! How is this possible?

"The maximum temperature of Blue Flames is fixed. Even when I am close to awakening the fruit, I can't increase it. How did he manage to increase Blue Flames' temperature so much so quickly?"

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