Hearing Kaido’s confused question, the strange man tilted his bird head, his golden beak twitching awkwardly as if he were still getting used to speaking with it.
Then, under Kaido’s astonished gaze, the bird head transformed.
The golden plumage and beak faded away, morphing back into a familiar human face.
“You?!
How are you…”
Kaido was stunned.
Looking at Carlo—whose physique had drastically changed to nearly twice his former height, with a pair of golden wings sprouting from his back—he had no idea what was happening.
“Haven’t you ever seen the power of a Devil Fruit?”
Carlo savored the newly acquired power surging through his body once more.
In the instant Kaido was dazed, Carlo’s eyes, which had turned into golden vertical slits, suddenly flared crimson.
Like two embers glowing in the dark of night, they released a brilliant, piercing red light!
Then…
*Swoo!!*
*Swoo!!*
Two blood-red laser beams shot out from Carlo’s eyes, striking Kaido with lightning speed!
“What?!”
Caught completely off guard, Kaido took the blast straight to the chest.
His tall body was blasted backward like he had been hit by a giant cannonball!
A burst of scorching, intense light erupted on him, enveloping his entire body.
At this moment, Kaido felt as though he had been thrown into a microwave, violently scorched by the searing glare radiating from his skin!
The hottest, most penetrating, and most damaging points were undoubtedly the two spots on his chest struck directly by the lasers.
His chest muscles, hard as iron and tough as steel, sizzled and bubbled with grease under the heat, scorched into two charcoal-black scars in the blink of an eye!
Even more shocking was that the crimson lasers shooting from Carlo’s eyes didn’t stop.
Like solid pillars of light, they pressed against Kaido, pinning his massive body flat to the earth as he skidded backward across the terrain.
Every inch he scraped along exploded in a series of fiery bursts!
Only after pushing Kaido back several hundred meters did Carlo tilt his head slightly, extinguishing the crimson light in his eyes.
His eyes reverted to sharp golden vertical pupils.
Though lacking the terrifying pressure of the lasers he had just fired, they still radiated an undeniable majesty that made it impossible to look at him directly.
“Zoan, Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Model: Garuda.”
“Or rather, the Golden-Winged Great Peng Model!” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“A divine beast from Buddhist legend that feeds on dragons.”
“Possessing extraordinary speed, divine strength, and heightened senses.”
Carlo folded his golden wings back, bringing them around from his shoulders to his front.
Looking at the tightly aligned feathers—hard as golden blades to the touch—a satisfied expression appeared on Carlo’s face.
His current transformation stemmed from the Devil Fruit he had obtained from the World Government.
Zoan, Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Model: Garuda!
Originally, when he received the fruit from the CP agent dispatched by the World Government, Carlo had felt uneasy and conflicted, uncertain if he should eat it.
He hadn’t been sure whether consuming it would give a massive boost to his future power, or merely burden him with the inability to swim.
To be sure, any Devil Fruit, if developed properly, could grant extraordinary strength.
However, compatibility was also a factor.
Supposedly, a Devil Fruit contained the devil’s will within itself and would actively seek a host suited to it.
An ability gained this way would perfectly align with the user, allowing them to unleash its full potential.
Carlo had worried that if the Mythical Zoan fruit he extorted wasn’t compatible with him, it would be a total waste.
Fortunately, Konggu had contacted him in time, explaining the sheer potency of this Mythical Zoan fruit.
Only then did Carlo make up his mind.
However, after eating the fruit and experiencing the terrifying strength of its Mythical Zoan power firsthand, another question arose in his mind.
Why would the World Government be willing to hand over such a top-tier Mythical Zoan fruit to him?
Carlo was destined never to get the answer.
What he didn’t know was that the Five Elders had originally intended to toss him any random Mythical Zoan fruit—something useless like a Pegasus model that only granted flight.
However, out of guilt toward his former comrade-in-arms, Konggu had used the military merits he had accumulated over many years to exchange with the World Government for this fruit, which was considered top-tier even within the Celestial Dragons’ treasure vault.
And Konggu hadn’t told Carlo the truth.
It was a good thing Carlo didn’t know, or he would have felt guilty and confessed to Konggu that the bottle of Elbaf Divine Oil he gave him that day was actually just ordinary lubricant, with no miraculous cure for physical weakness…
Hundreds of meters away in the ruins, a muffled groan from Kaido broke Carlo’s train of thought as he immersed himself in his abilities.
He looked up.
His golden vertical pupils acted like magnifying lenses, reflecting Kaido’s distant figure down to the finest detail.
At this moment, Kaido looked quite disheveled.
Smoke billowed from his entire body, and his clothes had been burned away by the intense flash.
The crimson lasers, along with the scorching heat, hadn’t just incinerated his clothing—they had scorched his hair as well. This story is hosted at g.com.
Aside from his pair of curved bull horns, his wild, weed-like black hair was gone, reduced to a heap of dark ash atop his head.
The skin across his entire body was scorched black.
It looked terrifying.
Yet in truth, he hadn’t sustained overly critical injuries.
Only at the two charcoal-like black spots on his chest were the muscles burned, throbbing with waves of searing pain.
“Damn it!
What on earth is that?!”
Kaido clutched his chest, rolled over, and scrambled to his feet, panting heavily as he stared at Carlo hundreds of meters away in complete utter confusion.
From his expression, he truly could not comprehend the transformation Carlo had undergone.
This left Carlo momentarily stunned.
This guy Kaido had broken away from his home kingdom at age ten and had been at sea for several years, right?
How could he not even know about Devil Fruit powers?
However, after a moment’s thought, Carlo realized the answer.
The reason was simple.
Kaido simply didn’t pay attention to such things.
In the past few years running wild on the seas, he hadn’t encountered many decent powerhouses or suffered any major setbacks.
Those unfortunate enough to cross him usually couldn’t even survive a few swings of his club.
Except for Logia users, even if someone used a Devil Fruit power, to a musclehead like Kaido who relied solely on overwhelming brute force to smash things with a club, it was probably just a matter of hitting them a few more times.
Just like the Leech Fruit and Fast-Cut Fruit users Carlo had killed earlier.
“Damn it!!”
Having just retrieved his kanabo only to be blasted away again, Kaido was suffocating with rage.
With a furious roar, he charged toward Carlo yet again, swearing to avenge his humiliation and teach Carlo a lesson with the club in his hand.
However, before he could reach him, the red glow in the eyes of Carlo, who stood calmly in place, flared up once more.
*Swoo!*
*Boom!*
“Fuck!!”