On the high platform, the spotlights gathered every ounce of attention onto that tiny crystal case.
Even the sea breeze seemed to hold its breath.
Blake knelt on the ground, his trembling hands lifting the pineapple-shaped fruit.
The spiral patterns on its surface seemed alive, slowly writhing, radiating a chilling aura that felt capable of swallowing one's very soul.
This wasn't merely a fruit.
It was the pinnacle of power.
The shortcut countless ambitious men dreamed of.
And also… the source of sin for which Marshall D. Teach had once murdered a comrade.
And now, it rested quietly in Blake's hands like an ordinary dessert after dinner.
Gulp…
Tens of thousands of Marines below swallowed simultaneously.
Even Aramaki, who had looked disdainful moments ago, removed his sunglasses and stared fixedly at the fruit, unable to hide the fear and desire in his eyes.
"What? Reluctant to eat it?"
Renzo's voice shattered the suffocating silence.
He lounged sideways on his couch, one hand propping up his head while the other held his unfinished juice.
His tone carried impatient urging.
"If you leave it sitting too long, it'll stop being fresh."
"Hurry up and eat it."
"Let me see what this so-called strongest Logia really looks like."
"Y-Yes, my lord!"
Blake shuddered violently, snapping out of his dreamlike trance.
He looked at the fruit in his hand.
His gaze slowly became resolute.
Then transformed into blazing fire.
For this moment, he had survived twenty years crawling through garbage heaps.
For this moment, he had swung his sword across frozen plains until his hands bled.
For this moment, he had endured until the final second inside that despair-filled Sloth Domain.
"This… is my future!"
Blake no longer hesitated.
He opened his mouth wide and bit viciously into the fruit emanating black mist.
Crunch!
The crisp chewing sound echoed throughout the entire plaza through the loudspeakers.
The next second, Blake's originally cold, composed face instantly twisted.
His features distorted.
Veins bulged.
He looked like a man who had swallowed a living skunk currently tap dancing inside his stomach.
"BLEEEEGH!!"
Blake nearly vomited on the spot, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face.
That taste… it was like mixing rotten canned herring, expired milk, and moldy socks together before shoving them directly into your nostrils!
'Hold it in! I can't embarrass myself in front of Lord Renzo!'
'Even if it's literal crap, I have to swallow it would make me stronger!!'
Through sheer superhuman willpower, Blake clamped his mouth shut, forced himself to chew twice, then tilted his head back.
Gulp!
He swallowed it.
"Well done! A real man!"
Rehn watched with deep emotional understanding and gave a thumbs-up.
"This kid ate the Dark-Dark Fruit without throwing up. He's hardcore!"
As the flesh entered his stomach, the disgusting taste gradually faded.
Replacing it was, coldness.
Absolute coldness.
A freezing sensation seemingly crawling up from the deepest abyss itself.
"Urgh… ah…"
Blake clutched his chest painfully and curled up on the ground.
He felt as though his body had become a black hole greedily devouring everything around him,
Heat. Light. Even pain itself.
Bzzzzzz
Suddenly, strange black smoke seeped out from his pores.
At first it was only thin wisps, like ink dripping into clear water.
But in the blink of an eye, the black mist burst forth like a collapsing dam, completely engulfing Blake!
"What's happening?!"
The audience cried out in alarm.
The black smoke didn't disperse.
Instead, it twisted and coiled around Blake like a living creature, eventually forming a black sphere several meters wide.
As light approached the sphere, it warped unnaturally,
Then vanished completely.
Even the gigantic high-powered spotlights shining onto the black sphere disappeared without creating the slightest ripple.
Darkness. Pure absolute darkness.
"How terrifying~…"
Kizaru adjusted his sunglasses.
For once, his eternally smiling face became serious.
"It can even devour light…"
"So this is the nature of the Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit~?"
"If my Glint-Glint Fruit encountered something like this…"
"Even I would have a troublesome time~."
"Lahahaha! So this is the most vicious power?"
Below the stage, Aramaki stared at the black fog with battle intent surging from his eyes.
"Interesting! Too interesting!"
"I wonder if it can absorb my forests dry!"
Just as everyone held their breath BOOM!!!
The black mist surrounding Blake exploded outward violently!
A visible black shockwave swept across the area, instantly blowing away the flower-covered red carpet and revealing the alloy flooring beneath.
When the smoke cleared, Blake reappeared.
He still wore the same black training clothes.
Still carried the black blade.
But his entire aura had undergone a complete transformation.
If before he had resembled a sharp, icy sword, now he resembled a bottomless abyss.
A black volcano ready to erupt at any moment.
Dark purple light faintly flowed beneath his skin.
His pupils had become deeper than before, like two spinning black holes capable of swallowing souls with a single glance.
"Haa…"
Blake slowly exhaled black mist.
He lowered his head and examined his hands.
His left hand opened, a pitch-black vortex slowly rotated in his palm, radiating horrifying gravitational pull.
His right hand gripped the black blade on his back.
Armament Haki instantly coated it, but this time, the Haki was mixed with strange darkness energy, making the blade appear even more sinister and dangerous.
"So this… is the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit?"
Blake's voice became hoarse, carrying a strange magnetic echo.
"My body feels… heavier."
"But also… emptier."
"It feels like… it could contain the entire world."
"Stop standing there admiring yourself."
Renzo's lazy voice interrupted Blake's contemplation.
"Since you've eaten it, show us something."
Renzo pointed toward an abandoned target ship floating far out at sea.
"Let me see whether those fifty billion berries were worth it."
"Yes, my lord!"
Blake turned toward the ocean.
Taking a deep breath, he stomped both feet down, lowering his center of gravity dramatically.
He did not draw his blade.
Instead, he slowly raised his left hand and pointed his palm toward the target ship over a thousand meters away.
"Black Vortex."
Blake shouted softly and slammed his hand downward.
BZZZZT!!!
The shadow beneath his feet suddenly came alive!
His ordinary shadow transformed into black tidal water racing across the ground and out over the ocean surface!
In the blink of an eye, the black tide spread across the sea, completely covering the waters beneath the target ship.
"What is that?! A black ocean?!" the audience cried out.
"Sink."
Blake clenched his hand through empty air.
"BLACK HOLE!!"
RUMBLEEEEEEEEE!!
A horrifying scene unfolded.
The black ocean surface suddenly generated monstrous gravitational force!
The steel target ship weighing hundreds of tons twisted violently like paper mache!
Steel screamed. Decks shattered.
An invisible giant hand seemed to be crushing the ship downward into the black hole beneath the sea.
Only three seconds passed.
CRACK!!!
The entire ship was completely crushed and swallowed.
Not even a single plank remained.
It vanished entirely into the black domain.
Then, "Liberation!!"
Blake swung his hand upward.
BOOOOM
CRASHHHH!!!
The black domain erupted violently!
Countless scraps of compressed metal, shattered boards, and steel plates crushed into spheres exploded outward like a volcanic eruption, piling into a mountain of wreckage.
…
Dead silence.
Everyone stared with jaws hanging open.
This was the Dark-Dark Fruit?!
Gravity! Compression! Absorption! Release!
After a combo like that, forget ships, even a giant would be crushed into meat paste!
"This is… my power."
Blake stared at the destruction with ecstatic delight flashing through his eyes.
But he still wasn't satisfied.
"Not enough…"
"This is only the fruit's power."
"I'm a swordsman."
"I need to fuse this power… into my swordsmanship!"
SHING!
The black blade left its sheath!
Blake raised the sword high overhead with both hands.
This time, he didn't use Armament Haki.
Instead, he mobilized the darkness inside his body.
Bzzzt… bzzzt…
Large quantities of black smoke wrapped around the blade, turning the famous sword into a pure blade of darkness.
"Ghost Sword Style: Secret Art-"
"Dark Moon Devouring Slash!!!"
Blake swung downward fiercely.
SHWOOOOOOOSH!!
A colossal black slash dozens of meters high burst forward!
Unlike ordinary sword energy, it wasn't sharp or swift.
It resembled a black tsunami capable of crushing everything in its path.
Wherever it passed, air was devoured.
Light warped.
Even the ocean itself split apart into a bottomless black trench!
And the trench did not close, because the seawater on both sides was being held back by the dark power itself.
The slash traveled several kilometers before finally crashing into a distant deserted island.
RUMBLE!
There was no fiery explosion.
The entire island was simply swallowed by darkness, then silently collapsed, shattered, and vanished by half.
As though some colossal beast had taken a bite out of it.
"Hisssss."
A synchronized gasp spread throughout the plaza.
That destructive power…
That visual impact…
It was even stranger and more despair-inducing than Rehn's thunder attacks earlier.
"So strong…"
Shelby stood below the stage staring at the attack.
The mirror in his hand shattered again.
"This just made beating him even harder in the future…"
Issho slightly opened his blind eyes, revealing faint white pupils.
"Gravity…"
"Somewhat similar to mine, yet completely different."
"This power capable of devouring everything…"
"What a dangerous ability."
Meanwhile, on the high platform, Renzo looked at the half-destroyed island and finally set down his cup, sitting upright for the first time.
Unlike everyone else, he wasn't shocked.
Instead, he frowned.
"Tch."
Renzo clicked his tongue.
"The power's decent."
"But…"
He pointed toward the ruined sea and the destroyed island.
"You made a huge mess."
"And blew up my island."
"Now there's nowhere left to barbecue there."
"That's terrible for the environment."
"…."
Kizaru and Rehn nearly fell off their chairs.
That focus… was so incredibly Renzo.
But soon Renzo smiled again.
He looked at the black-clad figure below who stood upright like a spear despite breathing heavily.
"Still…"
"Since you're so good at 'eating' trash…"
"We can save a fortune on waste disposal around the base now."
"Rehn."
"Yes!"
"Write this down."
Renzo spoke lazily.
"Blake, due to the special nature of his abilities, shall serve not only as combat captain…"
"But also as 'G-5 Environmental Protection Ambassador' and 'Director of the Waste Recycling Center.'"
"From now on, all hazardous waste and expired ammunition the base can't dispose of…"
"Feed it all to him."
"This is called… maximizing resource efficiency."
"PFFFFT!!"
Blake staggered so hard he nearly fell flat on his face.
Moments earlier he had been immersed in the joy of obtaining incredible power and dreaming about the future.
He thought he had finally become Lord Renzo's right-hand man.
A blade of justice walking within darkness.
And now, Director of the Recycling Center?!
Environmental Ambassador?!
So the strongest Logia was just being used as a mobile garbage disposal unit?!
"What? You unwilling?"
Renzo's airy voice drifted over.
"NO, SIR! THIS I'M WILLING!!"
Blake instantly dropped to one knee and roared.
Even though he felt like crying inside, If it was Lord Renzo's order, even swallowing literal sewage would have to be done!
"Good."
Renzo nodded in satisfaction.
He stood up, his cloak billowing in the wind.
Night had completely fallen by now.
But beneath G-5's lights, the sea still looked like daytime.
Renzo looked down over the fanatical soldiers and the newly empowered monsters below.
"Had enough of tonight's show?"
Renzo stretched lazily and spoke to Kizaru beside him.
"Maa~… it truly was a spectacular evening~."
Kizaru stood and adjusted his suit.
"Looks like writing my report afterward is going to be difficult~."
"This much power…"
Kizaru looked toward the sixty-six monsters below, his tone becoming deeper.
"If they aren't guided properly~…"
"They may become the greatest threat on these seas~."
"A threat?" Renzo laughed.
Turning around, he walked toward the depths of the Temple of Sloth.
"As long as I'm here…"
"They'll never be a threat."
"They'll only become…"
"Pillows that let me sleep more peacefully."
"Let's go. Time for bed."