Nameless desert island, deep in the primeval jungle.
“Boom—!!” A thick, orange-red pillar of fire roared out like an angry dragon, tearing through the dense jungle and blasting a black rock hill dozens of meters high ahead into gravel and scorched earth.
Heat waves rolled, and the surrounding vegetation turned to ash in an instant.
“What terrifying destructive power!” Sabo stood on the scorched land, looking at his right arm transformed into flames, his blue eyes flashing with undeniable shock.
He had only tried to integrate the force-generating techniques of Haki into the flames, and the explosive lethality displayed by this Mera Mera no Mi had already surpassed all the physical attacks he had painstakingly practiced for the past seven years.
On a flat boulder not far from Sabo, Ace sat cross-legged quietly.
In front of him lay the thigh meat of an ancient giant lizard that had just been roasted.
There was no shortage of other things on this desolate island; the enormous, firm-fleshed beasts were simply countless, enough for them to consume their extremely large physical strength here without any scruples.
Ace was not in a hurry to destroy the terrain; he stretched out his broad right hand, and a cluster of pure, crimson-gold flames danced quietly in his palm.
There was no scorching black smoke, nor the crackling sound of burning.
This cluster of crimson-gold divine fire was like a perfect work of art—quiet, noble, yet revealing a profundity that made one’s heart palpitate.
Ace stared at the divine fire in his palm, his mind naturally connecting it to another top-tier Mythical Zoan Type that was famous in the upper circles of the sea in his past life’s memories.
Whitebeard Pirates 1st Division Commander, Marco’s Zoan · Tori Tori no Mi · Mythical Zoan Type · Phoenix model.
“Also a mythical creature of the avian type, and also possesses the characteristic of being reborn from fire.” A flash of contemplation passed through Ace’s eyes, followed by a confident arc at the corner of his mouth.
He understood the fundamental difference between these two fruits very well.
The Phoenix’s flames of regeneration are cyan-blue.
Although they grant the user extremely abnormal recovery power, the characteristics of those flames are more inclined towards healing and do not inherently possess the high temperature and destructive power that normal flames should have.
This is also why, in the original work, although Marco was extremely difficult to kill, he always lacked a lethal means to seal the deal in terms of attack power.
But his Suzaku form is different.
Suzaku represents the Li Fire of the South and is the true master of all fires.
Ace flicked the crimson-gold flames in his palm, and they landed on a hard black rock beside him.
“Hiss—” There was no violent explosion.
The moment that seemingly gentle cluster of crimson-gold flames touched the black rock, the hard rock didn’t even last a second; without even going through a red-hot process, it was directly vaporized into a wisp of white smoke under the extremely terrifying high temperature!
Ultimate destructive high temperature, and endless absolute healing.
This is the true terror of the Vermilion Bird Fruit.
It not only compensates for the Phoenix’s lack of lethal lethality, but also pushes the concept of fire—destruction and rebirth—to the very top of the pirate world’s mythological system.
“Ace!” In the distance, Sabo finished a round of firepower discharge, released his elemental state, and walked over with satisfaction.
Although it was a newly acquired Logia-type ability, being able to use it so smoothly on his first attempt made him quite satisfied.
“How do you feel?” Ace picked up the huge piece of roasted meat and handed it over.
“Strong, but it still needs some time to adapt.” Sabo took the roasted meat, took a big bite, and moved his somewhat sore shoulders.
“Although elementalization can passively immunize against physical attacks, active elementalization when encountering Haki still needs more practice.” Sabo subconsciously rubbed his right shoulder blade.
Ace’s gaze fell calmly on Sabo’s shoulder.
He knew that those were the hidden injuries left by Sabo’s crazy training over the past seven years to catch up with his own abnormal physical strength.
Although there was herbal conditioning from Dadan’s family, those subtle strains that damaged the bone marrow could not be completely eradicated by ordinary medical means.
Once Sabo develops Haki to a very high level in the future, these hidden injuries might become a bottleneck that limits his breakthrough.