OP: AMP Ch. 206

Marcus ignored Usopp's complaints and focused on the wolf-like creature that had somehow recovered from its near-death state. The thing looked healthier than it had any right to be, considering it had been barely clinging to life just minutes ago. He pulled out two replica Bomb-Bomb Fruits from his inventory and, without ceremony, tossed both of them directly into the creature's mouth.

Goliath threw the beast into the obsidian partition Marcus had constructed, sealing it inside. At first, nothing happened. The wolf hybrid just sat there, looking confused and maybe a bit pissed off about being manhandled.

But then came the pain.

The creature started thrashing violently, slamming itself against the obsidian walls, letting out howls that didn't sound entirely animal. Its body contorted in ways that looked wrong, like something was trying to tear its way out from the inside.

Before any of them could really process what was happening or make guesses about the chemical reaction taking place, the entire partition space erupted in a massive explosion.

Marcus immediately slammed the iron door shut and placed additional obsidian blocks behind it for good measure. The blast rattled the reinforced structure, and for a moment he worried it might not hold.

BOOM.

Smoke filled the enclosed space, seeping through the tiny gaps around the door. The violent shaking gradually subsided.

He pried open a small observation gap and peered inside. The partition was completely empty. Not a trace of the creature remained.

Not even blood.

Complete obliteration. The thing had been erased from existence.

Usopp stared at the empty space, his mouth twitching as he tried to process what they'd just witnessed. "So... that didn't work?"

Marcus frowned. If eating two Devil Fruits caused that kind of destruction, then the whole experiment was...

At that exact moment, a gray blur shot through the one-meter gap in the partition.

Cold fangs aimed straight for his throat with terrifying speed. But in the next instant, blood sprayed across the obsidian floor. A headless body collapsed in a heap. He hadn't even moved. The Shichiseiken had protected him before he'd even registered the threat. But she wasn't in her beast form. This was her sword-beast hybrid state, a form he had only seen a handful of times.

Funkfreed transformed its trunk into a blade. Cerberus could split into three heads and spit blade projectiles from its mouths. The Shichiseiken had her own unique transformation. On what normally looked like a soft, almost cute sheep's head, two long ram horns covered in spike-like protrusions now stood prominently. But if you looked closely, each of those "spikes" was a sharp blade. The creature had impaled itself on those horns in its attack, the blades piercing clean through its skull. The Shichiseiken could even control the length of the horns, extending and retracting them at will.

Silently, the horns retracted, and the wolf-fox's head dropped to the ground. The Shichiseiken returned to her normal appearance, looking as innocent as ever.

Both Goliath and Usopp swallowed hard, staring at the scene.

So fast.

Whether it was the Shichiseiken's reaction time or the speed of the creature's ambush, everything had happened in a blink. Usopp's brain was still trying to catch up to what his eyes had seen. His Adam's apple bobbed as cold sweat formed on his forehead. He leaned back against the obsidian wall, needing the support.

"That's... that's really terrifying."

Marcus knelt down to examine the headless corpse more carefully. "Good news and bad news."

"What's the good news?"

"Good news: eating two Devil Fruits doesn't seem to make your body explode." Marcus stood up, wiping his hands on his pants. "Bad news: we still don't know if their abilities stack or interact in any meaningful way."

Usopp fell silent.

The fact that the beast had survived, even briefly, meant that consuming multiple Devil Fruits was possible. But the explosion they'd witnessed, followed by the creature's apparent survival and then violent behavior... They'd taken a step forward, but it felt like they were still at square one. After all, their goal had been to see whether Devil Fruit abilities would enhance each other when combined.

Could it be that someone really would have to test it personally?

His hesitation was written all over his face. He couldn't hide it even if he tried.

Goliath, who'd eaten the Munch-Munch Fruit and theoretically had the best chance of surviving multiple Devil Fruits, also looked curious but wary.

Should they stop the experiment here?

"I'll..." Usopp started, steeling himself for what he was about to suggest. After all, if eating them didn't cause your body to explode, then the immediate threat to life was eliminated. At worst, it would just be ineffective.

But before he could finish, Marcus stopped him with a raised hand.

"Those pirate prisoners still alive?"

The question made both of them pause. Then realization dawned.

Right. They had test subjects who deserved whatever happened to them. Any thought of playing saint and stopping Marcus' experiments out of misplaced compassion disappeared. If this had been earlier in their journey, maybe Usopp would have tried to stop him, or at least felt uncomfortable about using human test subjects.

But now? That moral hesitation was gone.

After all, these people were all going to participate in Shiki's East Blue Destruction Plan. Even though it hadn't started yet, they were already accomplices. When it came to ruthlessness, Usopp himself had taken down fifty-three pirate ships. Who knew how many people had died by his hand?

"Should still be alive. I'll go check," Goliath said, already heading for the door.

"Bring back two of them."

Goliath left.

Marcus walked straight into the partition and pulled out a flint and steel from his inventory.

Click.

The portal to the Nether ignited with purple flames. He stepped through. Usopp and followed.

They emerged on the Soul Sand Floating Island that Marcus had constructed months ago. But the moment they stepped through the portal, a suffocating pressure spread up from deep within their chests, like invisible hands squeezing their hearts. The air felt heavier and thicker.

Marcus frowned. What the hell?

Then his eyes widened as he noticed something.

The Soul Sand Floating Island had grown significantly. The change was obvious once you knew to look for it. He had originally built this place as a small containment room, maybe five meters by five meters. A black box to study the weird properties of soul sand without risking the main ship.

But now, inside that "small" room, the soul fire that used to burn right against the soul sand walls stood at least three meters away from the barriers. What had once been a cramped space now felt like a proper chamber. And the soul sand itself had changed. Those screaming human faces that decorated the block surfaces, he had always thought of them as creepy but ultimately harmless decorations, like the game's texture design, were moving.

In the past, the faces on the soul sand blocks never moved on their own. Only when someone approached would they start to shift and flow, as if trying to drag living beings into themselves. But now they were flowing on their own. The wailing faces trembled and twisted, and especially when they noticed the two living humans, all the soul sand seemed to sense their presence. The faces began screaming silently, mouths opening wide in agony, and countless soul particles rose from the soul fire.

Just staring at the blue flames burning atop the soul sand made Usopp feel like his very essence was being scorched. In an instant, intense nausea washed over him, as though countless souls were wailing inside his mind... as if he could feel the agony of burning alive.

"What's going on here?" he managed to gasp out.

Marcus took a step forward and placed his foot on the soul sand. Nothing unusual happened. Just like before, the wailing spirits showed no hostility toward him. The faces didn't gather beneath his feet or try to drag him down.

But when Usopp took a single step forward, attempting to follow Marcus' path, countless faces immediately began twisting and converging. They gathered directly beneath Usopp's feet, and if you looked closely, you could see gray-black little hands emerging from between the blocks, reaching up, ready to drag him into some bottomless abyss.

He froze completely, not moving a muscle.

"You're not wearing the diamond armor I gave you?"

Usopp hurriedly put on his diamond armor set, and the screaming vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

"I suddenly understand why Nami doesn't like this place."

He pulled his foot back from the soul sand, returning to the safety of the obsidian platform. That feeling of countless voices wailing in his head was unbearable. Like having a thousand people screaming directly into your brain while simultaneously setting your nerves on fire.

Marcus looked around the chamber, trying to figure out what had caused the mutation. The soul sand had changed, but why? And more importantly, what did it mean?

In recent days, there had been only one significant change: countless people had gathered on the bedrock layer above this chamber.

Back when it was just Nami who'd entered this space, it had created this strange soul sand region in the first place. The presence of a living person seemed to catalyze something in the Nether's environment. Now there were even more people above. It wasn't impossible that the soul sand had mutated further in response.

He placed down a cobblestone path, digging away the soul sand to create a safe walkway. He made it three meters wide instead of the usual one-meter corridor.

Why not just one meter wide?

Because Usopp was too scared to walk on something that narrow. He was terrified of accidentally stepping on soul sand and getting dragged in by those grasping hands.

When Marcus stepped out of the chamber and into the main Nether area, the familiar sight of zombified piglins wandering aimlessly across magma blocks greeted him. And the evidence was right there in front of them.

The Soul Sand Island really had grown larger. As Marcus watched, he could see new soul sand forming in real-time. Soul particles would appear first, gathering in empty space. They'd all collect into a one-meter cube of space, swirling and condensing.

Finally, a blue light would flash, and it would transform into a solid block of soul sand.