While others continued fighting, Sharn grabbed a Homiz biscuit and ate it straight away. The moment it hit his stomach, white steam began to curl from his body — but it wasn't burning pain. It was the Homiz's added souls.
Reiju had said it jokingly at first; she never expected Sharn to actually eat them. Even so, he absorbed what he needed and rejected what he didn't — the souls attached to the Homiz were drawn into his body.
"Don't eat me! Mama save me!" cried a tiny cake-Homiz that tried to run, only to be snatched and swallowed by Sharn. As his Berries filled, Sharn began to devour like a high-pressure steam engine: biscuit after biscuit.
"These are solid pills — different from the potion earlier. They're designed to unlock human potential," Buckin explained. "I haven't had enough subjects to observe full side effects yet, but they do dig into latent ability. If you endure the backlash, the enhancement can be permanent. I synthesized this from rare ingredients on harsh islands in the New World."
"Go, Sharn! I believe in you!" Buckin cheered, while the black pills in her hand looked terrifying. Given the clones and modified beings she later creates, her methods were no joke. Maybe Whitebeard's "second" was a product of similar tinkering — or maybe there was real bloodline involved. Either way, Buckin's pills were dangerous.
"It's gross, but I can eat it!" Sharn muttered, chewing Homiz and swallowing the pills. He loved the idea of permanently becoming a bio-mutant — three Devil Fruits, no need for sleep, a superhuman body, even the juicy Meatball Fruit — so he pushed himself to hold on. If he fainted before the end of this battle, he'd lose his shot at all those rewards.
The Homiz converted into life force via Life Return and began patching injuries even as the pills drove his body harder. Pain didn't retreat; he had to accept it in full. Once the pills took effect, his exhaustion flipped into manic vigor: white steam rose, and his body began to squeeze out deeper reserves of power. As Buckin promised, surviving the stage would remake him into an engineered monster — stronger, tougher — provided he kept his wits and survived the final agony.
Hissing like a serpent, Sharn breathed white vapor. This fight had reached zones no one below the Supreme Calamity level should step into. Even though Sharn was among the strongest of that rank, he still hadn't truly awakened his Haki: not the unbending Conqueror's Haki, nor the still-stirring Observation. What carried him now was the growing weight of damage and strain.
"Buckin — do these give hallucinations?" Sharn asked. He watched colors halo the people around him; he heard whispers that hadn't been spoken. "Like eating poisonous mushrooms," he laughed — and he did not feel otherwise unwell.
Buckin sighed with delight. "I blended blood from extreme beasts — abyssal electric eels, fire-breathing island tyrannosaurs, giant feather-shedding sky birds. Maybe there's a common property across life, and we can tap that to rewrite human physiology. Endure it and you might match Kaido's brute strength or Reiju's innate invulnerability."
Sharn felt the world shimmer with stars on people's bodies, each color different. He realized something important: though his eyes were clouded, his perception had sharpened. Zephyr launched another strike toward him — but Sharn slipped from his spot a split-second earlier, as if he'd sensed the blow coming. That subtle extra edge made Sharn suspect the emergence of Observation Haki. He hadn't awakened it fully, but something inside felt more acute.
He closed his eyes and listened to the clamor inside people's minds. Each inner voice was different, each movement held a tell. When he opened his eyes, John was leaning on his back. "Newbie — you drunk?" John laughed, offering a bottle. Sharn downed it in one gulp. The white mist and liquor wrapped him tighter; with eyes still closed his sensory world grew louder.
"Dragon!" — a sudden claw swung. But from the fog, Sharn's purple electricity flashed. He caught Dragon's wrist. "Did I get faster… or did you slow down?" he teased. Dragon scowled — Sharn was fighting with closed eyes, and yet he could match him. Sharn realized his state was probing Observation Haki, fumbling toward it through the fog.
This berserk hybrid — white steam, Moon-Lion aura, purple electric Black-Dragon traits — made Sharn feel like a ghost not meant to exist on the sea. Dragon shouted that he was a madman, and pursued. Zephyr and Tsuru used the distraction to pull Dragon away, but now multiple Marine elite vice-admirals and sword masters formed a ring around Sharn on the beach.
"Hold him up — he'll break down soon!" Tsuru ordered. The whole God Valley had burned out; the fights between Rocks, Roger and Garp were finally winding down. Night deepened. Warships crowded the shore; only the main forces would dare enter the valley now.
"Will Sharn be okay?" Kaido asked as he left. John sat behind Sharn, whose mind frayed like a thread. Reiju hopped onto her thunder-cloud and left. Buckin quietly stashed herself on a warship to observe his symptoms.
"Hey, newbie — smoking cigars?" John teased, and Sharn, steaming and hazy, grinned back. Sharn and John had met somewhere along the way — maybe in the food hold, maybe when Sharn first got picked up as an apprentice. It didn't matter. Side by side, they spat flame: "Heat Breath! Drunken Flame!" They fought back-to-back and cut a path through the Marine elite.
Meanwhile, on the valley's stage, Rocks' duel with Roger and Garp was reaching its final act.
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