Without warning, the Vice Admiral skidded to a halt and faced the cloud of venom head-on. His eyes burned with the feverish gleam of a prospector who'd struck a vein.
He grinned—and opened wide.
He drew a single, fierce breath. Air twisted around him in a visible vortex.
To Saint Saturn's astonishment, he inhaled every last purplish-black orb and swallowed them whole.
For a heartbeat the ancient tyrant could only stare, a ridiculous thought crawling up his spine: did the brat know he was doomed and decide to take his own life?
Then Darren's blood-smeared face flushed a dark violet. His body shuddered once, twice—then the tremors died. His eyes brightened. He even burped, a foul purple gust slipping past a satisfied sigh.
Physique: +0.339
Physique: 96.083 → 96.422 (Indestructible Body)
Strength: +0.123
Strength: 90.087 → 90.210 (Giant's Body)
His system roared to life. Toxins were crushed underfoot; organs and muscles knit stronger than before. The joy was so sharp he almost threw back his head and howled.
Truly worthy of a Gorosei. Truly worthy of a Mythical Zoan.
A handful of toxic bubbles, and the physique he'd struggled to budge had leapt by more than three-tenths. Under that pressure, even his raw strength ticked upward.
If he could take a few more rounds of this, would his body become a walking, human-shaped Mythical Zoan?
Good thing he had survived hellish poison training under Overalls Fatso and Magellan. Anyone else would be on the ground and foaming.
He bared his teeth at Saturn, eyes blazing. "Flavor's a bit weak. More, please."
Saturn staggered back a step, disbelief cracking his mask. In eight centuries of rule, what spectacle hadn't he seen?
Never this.
His most vicious, weakening, viral venom… useless?
"Impossible," he hissed, eyes bloodshot. He howled. His abdomen bulged and fired again, a second storm of purple-black orbs blotting out the snowfall and drenching a twenty-meter ring.
Darren's eyes lit—then pinched with urgency. Don't waste it on the ground.
He moved.
Soru—divine speed.
His figure flickered left and right through the snow, afterimages smearing the air as he drove his body straight into the projectiles he'd been meant to avoid.
Direct contact.
Physique: +0.221 | Strength: +0.422
Physique: +0.188 | Strength: +0.411
Physique: +0.166 | Strength: +0.379
Physique: +0.152 | Strength: +0.315
The more venom sank in, the deeper the purple spread across his skin—face, throat, even the whites of his eyes—yet the grin only sharpened. Saturn's brow furrowed; his eyelids twitched.
When Darren had devoured the last drop—wasting nothing—his whole body locked up and trembled. Thick violet smoke bled from his pores; muscles spasmed under skin stretched tight. Veins and cords bulged along his forearms like writhing dragons. A giant heart seemed to pound in his chest, beating like a war drum, a volcano straining in his throat.
He took one step.
BOOM.
Vital force ripped out of him in a visible gale, fracturing the ground in a ring. His feral roar rolled through the storm and blew the snow to powder.
Across Felsek, beasts bolted in every direction. Birds exploded into the sky in a screaming veil.
"Hahahahaha! What a rush!"
He threw back his head and laughed. Every cell in him sang. Power burned through him like wildfire, begging to be spent.
I have to let it out.
Saturn's composure finally cracked. What was this Marine? How could nothing stick?
"Then… let's dance again," Darren said, dropping into a predator's crouch. Steam hissed from his mouth. As he sank, the earth around him turned to dust—clods, brush, stones—everything within a hundred meters collapsing at once under the counterforce.
He launched like a shell.
Damn it.
Saturn's body swelled mid-beat, surging back into the towering Gyuki. Two spider-legs speared forward with lethal accuracy.
Sizzle. Sizzle.
Blood sprayed as both legs punched into Darren's abdomen—and stopped. The Vice Admiral's compressed muscle clamped down and held them fast.
Saturn's eyes pinpricked. Stronger still?
Physique: 98.267
"Hey, old man… don't just stand there gawking."
Darren's grin flashed before him. Then he heaved. Muscles bunched like pythons. He ripped both legs free in twin bursts of green blood.
Strength: 94.315
He tore forward through the spray, eyes gone red. Another wrench—another fountain of green. A third limb came away in his hands. The Gyuki staggered, lost balance, and crashed to earth.
Pain raked Saturn's mind raw. The world blurred. Beneath the agony, a cold, bewildered thought turned and turned with nowhere to go.
He should have been poisoned.
But his physique and strength only climbed.
Was such a thing even possible?
To be continued...