OP: AMP Ch. 208

The screaming and terror caused both pirates' minds to crack under the strain. Under normal circumstances, their brains would've forced them into unconsciousness as a protective measure. Their sanity wouldn't have shattered completely, just temporarily shut down to preserve itself. But Mental Amplification I was preventing that safety mechanism from activating.

Marcus watched the scene with growing surprise, making mental notes about what he was witnessing. So mental amplification had this kind of twisted side effect. The brain forcing someone unconscious wasn't a sign of weakness, it was a defense mechanism, like a circuit breaker preventing overload. And apparently, mental amplification disabled that circuit breaker entirely.

He quickly sealed the small platform with cobblestone and stuck torches into the walls. The two pirates who'd been shrieking in panic finally quieted down after what felt like an eternity, though their eyes still held that thousand-yard stare of people who'd seen things they couldn't unsee. During that time, he had been feeding glowstone into the respawn anchor. Forty stacks went in, filling the small yellow indicator completely.

"Put your hand on it," he said.

But both pirates just stood there with unfocused eyes, completely unable to hear his words. They looked like their souls had been ripped out, leaving behind empty shells. Usopp shook his head at the sight. This was what happened when someone experienced the full, unfiltered horror of soul sand's aura without any protection.

Absolutely terrifying.

He made another mental promise to himself: unless it was absolutely necessary, he was never coming back to this godforsaken place.

Goliath simply grabbed one of the catatonic pirates and forcibly pressed his hand against the yellow dot on the respawn anchor.

Nothing happened.

"What?"

Marcus frowned in confusion. He stood there thinking for a moment, then crafted another respawn anchor from scratch. He fed it another forty stacks of glowstone, watching nearly two million EMC vanish into the structure. He didn't really care about the cost though. Without saying anything, Goliath had already moved the pirate's hand to the new anchor. This time, the yellow dot detached from the structure and embedded itself into the pirate's palm, glowing faintly beneath the skin.

Just like the mark on Marcus' own hand.

"So one respawn anchor can only register one person..." Marcus' eye twitched at the realization.

This new information was frustrating. If he wanted to set up respawn points for his entire crew, he'd need individual anchors for each person.

Next, he pulled out the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. But looking at the pirate's vacant, drooling expression, it was obvious the guy couldn't conduct any kind of experiment himself.

It didn't matter though. He had other options.

With a wave of his hand, a small obsidian chamber appeared next to the cobblestone platform. He activated Soul Possession, targeting the catatonic pirate. The man was too far gone to agree or resist. But he could still feel himself slowly entering the body, like trying to open a door that wasn't locked but wasn't being held open either. If a person was like a house, then getting permission was like the owner opening the door and inviting you in, instant access. Rejection was the door being slammed in your face and locked.

But this was like the house was empty, abandoned. You could still get in, but you had to pick the lock. And during that process, if the owner suddenly showed up, they could either welcome you in or kick you out and change the locks. Except in this case, even when he fully entered the body, there was no resistance. The possession process took a full ten minutes, way longer than usual.

When he finally settled into the pirate's consciousness, he immediately frowned. Every member of the Straw Hat crew had pure white consciousness spaces.

This consciousness space was different.

Black and white were actively corroding each other, creating a chaotic mess. The whole place looked like a dilapidated house on the verge of collapse, one good push away from falling apart completely. He turned his head, looking around the empty consciousness space. Then he looked back toward where his own body should be. Nothing. No presence at all. It was as if this body no longer had a soul inhabiting it.

He controlled the man's eyes to open.

Immediately, he felt ghostly wailing echoing through his mind. This was his first time personally feeling what soul sand's aura did to normal people without protection.

It was uncomfortable. But not unbearable.

The best comparison was like watching a horror movie and hearing creepy background music. Unpleasant, sure, but not enough to drive someone insane, right?

"Marcus?" Usopp asked uncertainly, staring at the possessed pirate.

"Yeah, it's me."

Marcus took the Devil Fruit from Usopp's hands.

The moment he bit into it, he felt like his mouth was being subjected to medieval torture. Every taste bud screamed in agony at the assault of flavors that should never exist together.

"So disgusting..."

He looked at the half-eaten fruit in his hand with deep reluctance. Compared to the ghostly wailing in his mind, the taste was somehow worse. At least the wailing was just annoying background noise. This, on the other hand, was suffering. Still, he forced himself to eat the entire thing, bite by excruciating bite. Why? He'd paid a lot of EMC for it, so at the very least, it shouldn't go to waste. Right?

When he finally swallowed the last piece, he felt like he was going to ascend to a higher plane of existence just to escape the aftertaste. And the worst part? He'd have to do this again with a second Devil Fruit in a few minutes.

The thought made him want to cry.

Since he'd already possessed Usopp before and was familiar with the Bomb-Bomb Fruit's abilities, he quickly created small crackling explosions in his palm. Tiny pops and sparks danced across his hand as he tested the power. He analyzed the strength and changes the Devil Fruit had brought to this body. So far, it felt no different from when he'd controlled Usopp.

He walked into the obsidian testing chamber he'd built earlier.

A moment later, the confined space filled with explosive smoke and the sound of detonations. When the smoke cleared, he wiped sweat from his borrowed forehead.

"Looks like about E4 power level," Usopp commented from outside.

As a Bomb-Bomb Fruit user himself who'd witnessed countless explosions, he could accurately judge the blast's strength. Even though Marcus had detonated it in an enclosed space, the vibration, force, and density of the smoke told him everything he needed to know.

Marcus ate some steak to recover his stamina, staring at the second Devil Fruit with the expression of a man facing his execution. He sighed deeply, opened his mouth, and took another bite. Tears involuntarily streamed down his face. Even though he was controlling someone else's body, the taste of a Devil Fruit made no distinction between bodies. The horror was universal.

As two people who'd both eaten Devil Fruits, Marcus and Usopp both knew exactly how terrible they tasted.

"Well?" Usopp asked curiously, leaning forward.

Marcus examined his condition carefully. The moment the first bite went down, the Devil Fruit had already begun modifying the body's fundamental structure. He could feel changes happening on a cellular level. Looking at his hand, he felt a strange sense of uncertainty. It wasn't that there was no sensation. After eating the Devil Fruit, he could clearly feel that something inside this body had changed.

But what exactly had changed? That was the question he couldn't answer.

Had his physical strength improved? Had the Bomb-Bomb Fruit's power increased? Or had the body itself mutated in some way?

"Did my body change at all?" Marcus asked, gesturing to himself.

Both Usopp and Goliath shook their heads.

"Then let's test an explosion."

Marcus didn't overthink it. He released another explosion inside the obsidian chamber.

After the smoke cleared, Usopp gave the exact same assessment: "E4 power level. No increase in strength. Did it not work?"

Marcus scratched his head uncertainly. "I can definitely feel that something changed. But it doesn't feel any different from before. That's weird."

He wasn't sure what to make of it.

If the ability had evolved or strengthened, he should've been able to sense that clearly. So what had changed?

Could it have awakened?

He placed one hand on the obsidian wall, trying to sense any changes in his relationship with the environment. But nothing happened.

Strange.

Just as he was puzzling over this mystery, he suddenly felt a powerful repulsive force driving him out of the body. His vision shifted and blurred. In an instant, he was back in the consciousness space.

The black-and-white corroding consciousness space had changed again. A new color was spreading through it, purple, like an infection overtaking healthy tissue. And in the previously empty consciousness space, someone had appeared.

But this person...

The appearance was that of the pirate he had possessed. But the whole thing looked like something that would make you lose sanity points just by looking at it. The left side was still vaguely human. But the right side of the body was rotting away, countless transparent bubbles growing out of the decaying flesh. Inside those bubbles, purple-black smoke swirled and churned. The human side seemed aware that something was terribly wrong and was trying to resist.

Marcus could see the body being pulled back and forth like a tug-of-war between humanity and something else. But the human form couldn't be maintained. In moments, the entire body began swelling grotesquely, transforming into bubble after bubble of purple corruption. It completely lost any human shape, becoming something that belonged in nightmares.

Immediately after that transformation completed, he felt an extremely powerful repulsive force. In an instant, he was violently ejected back into his own body.