He maintained his original, steady pace, and just as the beast was about to touch his body, he raised his right hand extremely casually, fingers spread open.
“Bang!!” A dull, booming sonic boom exploded in the air.
He didn’t use Armament Haki, nor did he use his full strength.
Ace’s broad, thick palm, like an impassable Wall of Sighs, pressed precisely onto the massive head of the lunging beast.
The astonishing kinetic energy was completely absorbed and neutralized in an instant.
The ten-meter-long ancient beast was actually forced to a stop in mid-air by Ace’s single hand!
In the beast’s cold, vertical pupils, an extremely anthropomorphic extreme fear surged instantly.
It struggled desperately, but the palm pressing on its head seemed to contain the weight of a mountain, rendering it unable to move an inch.
“Quiet down.” Ace’s tone was flat, and his wrist suddenly pressed downward.
“Boom!!” The earth trembled violently.
The armored beast, weighing several tons, was brutally pressed into the soil beneath their feet by Ace’s single hand.
Its hard skull emitted a teeth-grinding cracking sound; the beast didn’t even have time to scream before it completely lost its life, and scarlet blood spread along the mud.
One-hit kill.
Ace withdrew his hand, his breathing rhythm not changing in the slightest, as if he had just casually swatted an annoying mosquito.
“Looks like the food on this island is not bad.” Ace stepped over the beast’s corpse and continued walking forward.
Sabo looked at the dead ancient apex predator on the ground and shook his head helplessly.
At seventeen, Ace’s physique had been polished to a monstrous level that even Sabo found unfathomable.
The two continued forward.
The deeper they went into the island, the sparser the surrounding vegetation became, replaced by extremely steep black rock cliffs.
Finally, under the guidance of Observation Haki, the two stopped at the deepest part of a huge natural cave hidden behind a waterfall.
The interior of the cave was extremely humid, the air filled with the faint scent of moss.
Reaching the end, there was a steep black rock cliff covered with crisscrossing cracks.
“Ace, look over there.” Sabo’s gaze was drawn to a crevice at the base of the cliff.
In that hidden, low stone crevice, a strangely shaped fruit lay quietly.
Its entire body was a bright orange-red, and its skin was covered with eerie patterns resembling spiral flames.
Just by looking at it, one could almost feel a scorching high temperature.
“A Devil Fruit is actually growing in a stone crevice on a deserted island like this?” Even though Sabo was usually steady, a trace of shock could not help but flash in his eyes.
On the sea, Devil Fruits were treasures that could be sought but never found.
Even the famous great pirates of the East Blue might never have seen a fruit encyclopedia in their entire lives.
Ace stepped forward and stopped in front of the cliff.
He looked down at the orange-red flame fruit, and a trace of incredible surprise flashed in his pitch-black eyes, even carrying a hint of rare doubt.
It wasn’t because of this flame fruit.
It was because his Observation Haki, that perception belonging to listening to all things, was currently pulling at his nerves frantically, pointing to a position higher up on the cliff.
Ace slowly raised his head.
About three meters above the ground, there was another extremely deep, extremely narrow crevice.
Due to the dim light, and because the color of the orange-red fruit at the bottom was too eye-catching, even if an ordinary person walked here, their attention would be snatched away instantly, and they would definitely overlook the mystery above their heads.
Ace reached out his broad, thick palm and, without hesitation, extended it into the dark crevice high above.
When he withdrew his hand, there was an extremely noble crimson-gold fruit in his palm.
The fruit’s shape resembled a beating heart, and the spiral patterns on its skin intertwined, faintly outlining an ancient totem like a divine bird spreading its wings.
One high, one low.
Twin demons.
Ace looked at the crimson-gold fruit in his hand, feeling the crazy resonance it produced with the blood in his body, a resonance originating from life’s instinct.
The initial surprise and doubt gradually faded from his eyes, replaced by a firmness and depth as unshakeable as ten thousand years of ice.
If Heaven gives it, one must take it.
Since this sea had sent such divine objects before him, as a king aspiring to reach the summit, he had no reason to refuse the submission and gift of fate.
Ace lowered his head, scooped up the orange-red flame fruit from the crevice below, and threw it to Sabo behind him with extreme decisiveness.
Sabo caught it subconsciously and was stunned for a moment: “Ace, what is this?” “Logia-type, Mera Mera no Mi.” Ace’s voice echoed calmly in the cave, low and filled with pressure.
“Eat it.
From today on, you are the flame of the Eclipse.” After speaking, Ace’s gaze fell back onto the crimson-gold fruit in his palm.
In that instant, he seemed to hear the cry of a divine bird piercing through the ages.
Ace didn’t say another word of nonsense; he opened his mouth and, without hesitation, took a bite of the crimson-gold fruit flesh.