"H-He was cleaved in two—!"
"Prometheus-sama!!!"
As the massive 'Sun' was torn asunder, countless onlookers watched with eyes bulging out of their sockets in sheer horror.
"AAAAAAH!"
Suddenly, Prometheus let out a shrill, agonizing scream. His gargantuan form began to shrink rapidly, like a balloon losing its air. The severed halves of his body merged back together as he fell clumsily from the sky.
"What happened?"
"Why is Prometheus screaming?"
"Can fire itself even be wounded? And by the same element, no less!"
Hearing that familiar wail, the officers of the Big Mom Pirates looked up just in time to see Prometheus plummeting. The flames covering him were no longer vibrant and searing; he looked utterly withered and listless.
"Hot... It's so hot... it's burning me..." Prometheus groaned weakly as he hit the ground.
"Hot?"
Mont-d'Or rushed over. Hearing the weak, pained cries of the Homie, he gasped in shock. "You are the incarnation of fire! How can you feel 'hot'?"
Prometheus was fire endowed with a soul by Mama herself, possessing abilities similar to the Flame-Flame Fruit. Because he was pure fire rather than a transformed human, even Armament Haki usually couldn't harm him.
So why was he wounded by a similar fire-creature?
"The flames..." Prometheus's eyes flickered with lingering trauma. "Those ultra-high temperature flames... they consumed part of my body!"
He had intended to unleash his full power, using a massive volume of fire to scatter and assimilate his opponent. But the moment that flaming greatsword struck, Prometheus felt a sensation he had never known: Pain.
The edge of that sword was wreathed in a heat that transcended normal fire, slicing through his form and incinerating a portion of his very essence.
"Hahahaha!"
In the sky, the fire giant stood tall, his laughter booming. "It worked! It really worked! The Captain's theory was spot on!"
Zhurong raised the flaming greatsword triumphantly. White flames flickered along the edge, a color indicating temperatures of at least 4,000 degrees Celsius. Even magma paled in comparison to such heat.
Just as Sakazuki had burned Ace's arm and pierced his chest during the Summit War, high-temperature magma, reaching over a thousand degrees, could overwhelm and "smother" lower-temperature flames.
The Flame-Flame Fruit's power is effectively combustion. The lethality of fire is determined solely by its temperature. Magma has a fixed upper limit based on the melting point of rock. But fire? Fire has no such ceiling. Fire at a thousand degrees creates magma; fire at several thousand degrees turns magma into fuel.
If Portgas D. Ace had developed his fruit toward extreme heat, it would have been Akainu who burned to death that day.
As an elite transmigrator who had undergone a modern education, Aeridar knew physics. He wasn't fooled by Sakazuki's claim that the Magma-Magma Fruit was the "superior" version of the Flame-Flame Fruit. In various media, like the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four, fire users could reach temperatures into the millions.
Thus, after giving Zhurong the Flame-Flame Fruit, Aeridar's primary instruction was simple: Raise the temperature. Even if Zhurong couldn't reach tens of thousands of degrees, a few thousand would make him a lethal threat to Akainu.
Zhurong's success against Prometheus proved the theory. Even a small amount of white flame was enough to cripple a fellow fire-being.
Whoosh—
Zhurong's body shrank, condensing into a five-meter-tall humanoid fire-wraith as he drifted to the ground. Instantly, the surrounding temperature spiked. Nearby candy buildings began to melt into puddles of cream, and the earth turned a charred, carbonized black.
"Damn... this heat..." Mont-d'Or wiped sweat from his brow, his face pale. "If the Chess Soldiers get too close, they'll be toasted in seconds!"
"Hahahaha!"
"Let the world become a sea of flames! Let my enemies turn to ash beneath the Fire God's blade!"
Zhurong raised his sword and swung. A searing arc of fire tore through the air, cutting down dozens of Chess Soldiers. They collapsed, engulfed in flames, their screams echoing through the streets.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Waves of heat exploded as Zhurong rampaged through the town. Great swaths of Chess Soldiers and Biscuit Soldiers were incinerated. Even members of the Big Mom Pirates who tried to intervene were forced back, retreating with severe burns.
"C-cursed monster! Is there no way to stop him?" Mont-d'Or felt a wave of despair.
He suddenly realized that this was exactly how Mama's enemies felt when facing Prometheus. Armament Haki didn't work. Seastone chains couldn't bind fire. There was no defense.
"Bastard! Heat Body!!!"
Oven's skin turned a glowing, molten red as he charged Zhurong, his body radiating intense heat. With a few heavy strides, he reached the fire giant and slammed an Armament-clad, superheated fist into Zhurong's head.
BANG—!
Zhurong's head exploded into a spray of embers and hot wind.
But before Oven could celebrate, Zhurong's headless body moved. The greatsword in his right hand swept out in a horizontal arc.
SMASH—!
Oven was enveloped in white-hot flames and sent flying like a discarded toy.
A moment later, flames surged from Zhurong's neck, and his head reformed instantly with a savage grin. "What a boring attack."
Oven crashed dozens of meters away, screaming as he rolled on the ground, desperate to extinguish the flames clinging to his skin. Mont-d'Or reacted quickly, appearing from nowhere with a bucket of water and drenching his brother.
Sizzle—
A massive cloud of white steam erupted, masking the area as the fire died out, leaving Oven covered in severe burns.
"Allow me to test your mettle!"
A steady, powerful voice boomed across the battlefield.
Mont-d'Or and the others turned toward the source. A blue figure wearing a patterned yukata appeared, carrying a large barrel of water.
Knight of the Sea Jinbe!
"Take this!"
Jinbe gave a mighty shout, tossing the barrel into the air. As the water spilled out, he reached into the spray, catching the massive volume of liquid as if it were solid. He twisted his body, redirecting the flow into a powerful technique.
"Fish-Man Karate: Vagabond Drill!!!"
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]