OP: AMP Ch. 213

The figure that emerged stood three meters tall with the build of a heavyweight champion. His proportions were textbook perfect, muscles defined but not bulky, lean but clearly powerful. The kind of physique that looked deceptively slim when clothed but impressively built when bare.

Usopp barely registered any of that. He was too busy staring in shock at the man's face, where two pirates had somehow merged into one. Under normal circumstances, Goliath could only stack people together like human Jenga, two bodies attached at most, maybe three if you arranged them in a triangle.

But the two pirates' heads had fused into a single face.

"Who... am... I?" The man's voice sounded singular, yet Usopp could swear he was hearing two different people speaking in perfect unison.

"This! This is insane!" Usopp circled the fused man, examining him from every angle. "There really isn't a second face anywhere!"

"Could it be... is this actually...?"

He couldn't even finish his thoughts coherently.

"That's right," Marcus confirmed. "Proper fusion."

Both Usopp and the fused man stared blankly, trying to process what had just happened.

The merged pirate's expression was equally confused, his eyes filled with bewilderment as if he were reviewing two different lifetimes simultaneously. Two distinct sets of memories existed in his mind, both claiming to be him. Yet this unfamiliar body made it impossible to understand his current state.

Was there an instinct to separate? To reject this forced merger?

The thought existed, but it remained only a thought.

"I..."

Two different consciousness patterns collided, but there was no battle for dominance. It wasn't like those horror stories of split personalities fighting for control. If you had to compare it to something... it was like a person with dissociative identity disorder, but weirdly harmonious. One part of him remembered being a wine merchant from the North Blue. Another part insisted he was a country kid who'd joined a pirate crew by chance and lived a hard life at sea.

Two identities coexisted, surprisingly peacefully.

The differences in thinking didn't interfere with normal reasoning. Both souls seemed to be completely fused, understanding each other's pasts and sharing the same immediate goal.

They both wanted to survive.

Then in the very next instant, pop, the single person split back into two.

"Huh?!"

They'd just accepted each other, found strange comfort in their existence. So why had they suddenly separated?

They'd been intimately connected, sharing the same body and mind. And now...

What about his memories?

What about their bond?

What about everything they'd experienced together?

Though they'd lost the detailed memories of fusion, some impressions remained. Having literally occupied the same body created a connection that couldn't be easily dismissed. When their eyes met, both men felt an inexplicable sense of recognition, like finding a long-lost brother.

Then one of them spoke, shattering the moment.

"You son of a bitch! You were hitting on my boyfriend!"

Though the fusion memories had faded, certain vivid impressions apparently stuck around.

"Your boyfriend was the one who started flirting with me first! I just went along with it!"

The two pirates immediately started shouting at each other, then began fighting, grabbing and shoving.

The three observers watching this spectacle wore complicated expressions.

"...Boyfriend?" Goliath cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm still young. I don't understand these... complicated relationship dynamics."

Usopp, meanwhile, cared less about what was coming out of their mouths and more about why they'd separated and what had triggered the split.

Marcus just gave both pirates a thumbs up. "You guys really know how to keep things interesting."

But honestly, it made sense when you thought about it. Stuck on a ship for months with no women aboard, people found creative ways to deal with stress and loneliness. Some crews handled it better than others. Normally, sailors would gather in groups to chat, joke around, play cards or dice. But when that went on too long without proper release, pressure just kept building until people started developing... issues.

It was like those gender-segregated schools you heard about, pressure cookers for behavioral problems.

"The energy I'm providing should theoretically sustain a fusion for at least an hour," he explained, analyzing what he'd just witnessed. "But conflicting thoughts and strong individual identities burn through that energy faster. If they weren't extremely close friends who knew each other inside and out, maintaining fusion would probably be near impossible."

Usopp nodded slowly, processing the information. This was literally merging two people into one being. The philosophical and practical questions were overwhelming.

"Wait," he said suddenly, remembering something. "Didn't Goliath say before that he could permanently alter material properties now? Could this work the same way with people?"

"Yeah, it should," Marcus replied thoughtfully. "And compared to just maintaining the energy supply, permanent fusion might be easier. I'd guess the weaker the targets, the easier full fusion becomes. But maintaining a two-person fusion state actively... that probably drains more stamina. For stronger individuals, permanent fusion might be harder to achieve, while temporary fusion would be relatively easier."

Usopp felt his mind boggling at the possibilities while simultaneously understanding the logic. After all, he'd eaten three Devil Fruits himself and gained elementalization as a result. Even though it required manual triggering, combined with Observation Haki, it was an unbeatable defensive ability.

So if the Munch-Munch Fruit could do something this powerful after three iterations, it didn't seem that surprising. These were three Devil Fruits of the same type. What ordinary person would ever achieve such a thing?

Of course it would be broken as hell.

"What if they're ability users though?" Usopp's imagination immediately ran wild. "What happens if you fuse two Devil Fruit users? Would their abilities combine somehow? Or could they use both powers at the same time?"

The questions came rapid-fire as his mind raced through possibilities. The Flower-Flower Fruit combined with the Gum-Gum Fruit? Explosions mixed with bubble generation? The potential combinations seemed endless, and every one of them sounded ridiculously overpowered.

Marcus had considered this too. After all, he'd seen someone who possessed two abilities at once in the original story: Blackbeard.

"It's possible two abilities could appear and be used simultaneously," Marcus speculated carefully. "But true ability fusion, where the powers themselves merge into something new, probably has a low success rate. However, a Zoan transformation followed by using a Paramecia or Logia ability? That might work since you'd still be one entity using two separate systems."

But Usopp was barely listening anymore, already lost in excited speculation about fusion combinations and their potential applications. After all, what guy could resist the appeal of fusion? It was basically every shonen manga's ultimate power-up.

Goliath, meanwhile, was thinking along more practical lines.

"Usopp, I think I understand now why Nami's Clima-Tact sometimes showed enhanced properties and sometimes normal ones when I was modifying it."

"Huh?"

"Before, I was just replacing materials, swapping one thing for another. Now I should be able to fuse the properties of different materials together. It's a completely different level of modification."

Marcus' curiosity was piqued. The Munch-Munch Fruit could create Wapometal in the original story, that had been key to Wapol's eventual comeback as a wealthy industrialist. Multi-metal synthesis creating new properties was already impressive.

But what Goliath was describing went beyond that.

Simply put...

If he ate a grass block and a magma block and tried to fuse them before, the result would basically be layering, pixels of grass alternating with pixels of magma. It would look merged, but really it was just two materials stacked together.

Sure, you'd still have grass on top. You might even be able to use it as a water elevator block. But now, after true fusion? He could create a grass-magma hybrid block.

Grass could grow on it. You could till it with a hoe, use bone meal to speed up growth, maybe even grow different varieties of plants. But at the same time, it wouldn't lose the magma block's characteristics, it would still burn your feet if you stepped on it, still function as a water elevator.

So, property fusion didn't just combine things, it resolved contradictions. The fused material would somehow have both characteristics functioning simultaneously without interfering with each other. It was like the rules of both materials existing in the same space.

It was similar to how Devil Fruit powers defied normal physics.

Why could Luffy stretch like rubber but still feel pain? Why didn't Crocodile's sand form just blow away in a strong wind? The powers created their own internal logic that superseded natural law.

Goliath's Munch-Munch Fruit experiment had been a success, and the breakthrough with fusion abilities opened up terrifying new possibilities.

As for eating a fourth Devil Fruit? Both Goliath and Usopp were certain they couldn't handle another one. Even thinking about it made them queasy.

One more would kill them, simple as that.

Even with the respawn anchor available, dying was still dying. Only an idiot would charge forward knowing they'd drop dead.

The two of them left the Nether, heading back to the surface to process what they'd learned and rest. Their bodies needed time to adjust to the changes.

Marcus stayed behind in the Nether.

At that moment, two pirates were trembling uncontrollably near the soul sand island, their faces pale with terror.

"We... we didn't mean to—"

He ignored their stammering and focused on the Soul Sand Floating Island. Even in the short time since he'd arrived, more blocks had appeared, their ghostly flames flickering in the dim red light. Right before his eyes, another block of soul sand quietly materialized, growing from the existing mass like a cancer spreading.

The speed was unsettling.

From the time he'd arrived in the Nether and started experimenting with Devil Fruits, had it even been a full hour? In that brief period, at least three or four new blocks had grown on the visible sides alone. How many more were forming on the parts he couldn't see?

If it kept growing at this rate, would something monstrous eventually spawn? Like a Wither forming spontaneously?

After all, ever since arriving on Skypiea, his abilities had shown a disturbing tendency to develop on their own. The Goatman was proof of that.

"Come to think of it," Marcus muttered to himself, "there are theories online that the Nether is actually inside some enormous creature. This soul sand really does look like cancer cells metastasizing."

He shook his head, dismissing the unsettling thought. That kind of speculation wouldn't help him right now. He turned to look at the two men trembling behind him.

Marcus drew the Shichiseiken.

Instantly, ghostly energy erupted from the blade.

The two men's eyes widened in terror, then quickly became calm. They stood there in a daze, no longer afraid.

"Follow me," he commanded.

Without resistance or hesitation, both men fell into step behind him. He led them to the cobblestone bridge he'd constructed over one of the soul sand formations. He looked down at the newest growth below.

So far, he'd only tested soul sand's devouring properties on piglins. But what would happen if it consumed a human? Would it behave differently? Would the soul sand grow faster, or produce different effects?

He was curious, and since these two weren't dead yet anyway, they might as well serve a useful purpose. He glanced back at his two followers. Despite standing right next to the soul sand, neither man showed any signs of distress. If anything, they wore peaceful smiles, as if they were experiencing something pleasant.

He looked down at the Shichiseiken in his hand.

The blade's voice drifted into his mind. They should be having beautiful dreams right now.

The Goatman Fruit was a Mythical Zoan, which meant its abilities went far beyond simple transformation. One of its special powers was the ability to manipulate dreams, pulling people into fantasy worlds of its own creation. And the Shichiseiken could control those dreams completely, making them either blissful paradise or living nightmares.

"That's surprisingly merciful of you, letting them have good dreams."

It's not as nice as you think, the sword said in his mind. When things are peaceful and calm, that's when I let them notice something's wrong. Then I slowly pull them deeper and deeper into the nightmare. The descent from comfort to horror... ah, that feeling is delicious.

Marcus fell silent. Right, he'd forgotten. The Shichiseiken wasn't some benevolent spirit. Why would it give people pleasant dreams for free?

He grabbed one of the pirates and lifted him easily with one hand, carrying him to the edge of the bridge. Then he dropped the man onto the soul sand.

The pirate who'd been enjoying a sweet dream instantly twisted in pain, his peaceful expression shattering. A piercing scream tore from his throat as the pleasant fantasy transformed into horror.

While he thrashed in the nightmare, his real body was being gradually consumed by the soul sand. By the time his waist had already been devoured, the man finally woke up, but there was no relief in consciousness. What awaited him was an even more desperate reality.

"Ah! No! No!"

At first, he could still form complete sentences, but the anguished faces embedded in the soul sand had already begun clinging to him. Even though only half his body had sunk into the material, his entire form was already covered in the soul sand's distinctive coloring, his skin taking on that same spectral quality.

Marcus watched the process, scratching his head. Was he starting to look too much like a villain? This whole scene felt like something straight out of a horror story.

Whoa, that's a huge surge of energy, way more than the transition from sweet dream to nightmare, the Shichiseiken exclaimed, and Marcus could hear excitement in its voice.

At that exact moment, wisps of black energy began drifting from the dying man's body. The energy flowed directly into the Shichiseiken, and the bright gemstone at the blade's tip was gradually stained by pitch-black color, becoming dark.

He observed the phenomenon closely. If not for Loyalty VI, and if the Shichiseiken weren't his own weapon, he probably would've sealed the damn thing away immediately.

It was already disturbing enough with its ghostly powers. Now it could manipulate dreams and absorb fear? That was getting into seriously dangerous territory.

"What's the black energy for? Does it strengthen you?"

"Mm-hmm, but it's more like a technique. I can't release it using stamina, it specifically requires fear, terror, dread, and other negative emotions to activate."

"Explain."

The Shichiseiken didn't bother hiding anything from him. "Before, I could release ghostly Conqueror's Haki-type aura to stun weaker people. Anyone affected by the ghost energy would be marked with a seal and become susceptible to mental influence. If someone had strong willpower, they could break free as long as I didn't keep bombarding them with energy. Now it's different. With me as the center, I can create a Fear Domain extending three hundred meters in every direction. Any living being that enters this domain will be affected by emotions like fear, terror, panic, and confusion. It happens silently and invisibly, they won't even realize they're being influenced until it's too late."

"And the weak-willed ones?" Marcus asked.

"They fall into overwhelming fear almost immediately, sometimes to the point of giving up resistance entirely. And here's the best part, those people generate black mist while they're afraid, which feeds back into sustaining the Fear Domain. It becomes self-perpetuating as long as there are enough frightened people in range."

"What about limitations?"

"There should be a cap on how much energy one person can provide. And pirates on the level of Shiki, or anyone with that kind of willpower, probably won't be affected much, if at all."

Marcus nodded, processing the information. This was roughly what he'd expected, though the three-hundred-meter range was impressive. The Goatman in Minecraft could only affect targets within a few dozen meters, so this was clearly an enhanced version of that ability.

The Goatman was an embodiment of fear itself. Whether in games or reality, fear had always been a powerful tool for controlling and influencing others. If a real person obtained this ability in the One Piece world, they'd be terrifyingly dangerous.

Speaking of which...

He pulled out a Goatman Fruit.

"What do you think? Want to eat it again? Just so you know, you're a sword. You don't have resurrection abilities like Goliath and Usopp. If this goes wrong, there's no coming back."

The Shichiseiken fell silent. After a long moment, a woman with goat horns materialized beside Marcus.

"Wouldn't this body work for the respawn anchor?" she asked.

Marcus blinked. He'd almost forgotten the sword could manifest like this. He thought about it for a moment, then decided to test it properly. Ignoring the other dazed pirate still standing nearby, he returned to the cobblestone shelter and constructed a new respawn anchor.

The Shichiseiken's manifestation placed her hand on it.

The anchor activated, glowing softly.

He stared at the scene, completely baffled. That... actually worked? A sentient sword could set a spawn point?

But after a moment, he shrugged. At this point, nothing should surprise him.

The Shichiseiken looked at the Devil Fruit, her expression becoming serious as she mentally prepared herself. She'd seen what Goliath and Usopp went through, and she knew this wouldn't be pleasant. She opened her mouth to eat it in one bite, just like the others had done. But her mouth was smaller than the fruit itself. However, this posed no problem for her. Purple mist drifted from her mouth, enveloping the Devil Fruit completely. The mist sliced the fruit into smaller pieces.

Then, piece by piece, the fruit segments floated into her mouth. She was eating it without ever letting it touch her tongue, probably trying to avoid the horrific taste.

"Cheating the system, huh?" Marcus muttered.

Good grief, these people had really figured out the optimization strategies for Devil Fruit consumption. But he couldn't let her avoid the taste entirely. That kind of shortcut might interfere with properly absorbing the fruit's power, right?

He reached out and held the Shichiseiken's chin, helping her chew a couple of times.

The moment the fruit touched her tongue, her eyes went wide.

"Mmmnnngh!"

Her face twisted in disgust as the awful taste finally registered.