บท 44: [44] The Devil's Orchard

[2440 words]

Make those powerstones rain as this will be the only week with daily uploads.

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[Wailles Bay]

*Braugh!* *Braugh!* *Braugh!*

The shrill alarms roared as the pirates came out with their weapons ready.

A sea of nearly five thousand pirates, many of them with a bad name. Their combined bounty would surely reach at least 20 million berries!

"Get ready, some boat pulled by Sea Kings took down one of our scouting ships, get to your shit together and surround the intruder!"

Dozens of ships broke out from their stationary position, creating a wide arc that slowly spanned around the tiny enemy vessel.

Though the pirates weren't too sure of the enemy, they had seen the massive Sea Kings surface momentarily and took out the scout ship without effort.

It was enough to wake them up!

"Dorobō-sama, you've come as well!?" a fodder exclaimed.

The captain didn't answer, just staring at the tiny boat.

"Listen up, men," the green-haired man addressed the crowd. "Looks like some punk thinks he can attack our people and get away with it. This is our greatest step to conquering the sea, and eventually, the entire Grand Line!"

"Ouugh!" the pirates roared out, ready to war.

…

[The Other Side of the Battlefield]

Damien raised an eyebrow. "It took them a moment but they figured it out," he commented.

He now stood at the bow of the boat that was now surrounded by tens of ships. Such a sight for a lone person at the edge of a pirate island was truly fear-inducing to most. However, to Damien, it was a good place to test out a few ideas.

A deep whiff of the salty sea air later: "Now then…"

Damien locked onto the horde of enemies and focussed on concentrating his power, driving it to a new use.

*Purrup* *Szzzz*

A sizzling sound erupted from the young pirate's eyes. His already red pupils blazed deep red, even the whites of his eyes were overtaken with the red energy.

The erratic energy began to spark into the air, letting out some dull zaps.

A thick, red mist also formed around the pair of eyes. The heat was evident as it bubbled the air in steam. The energy took around three seconds of anime time to build up and was now ready to rush forth.

"Omega Beams."

At the drop of his words, two blazing red beams of dense energy blasted out of his eyes, leaving behind a trail of exploding air and water as they rushed forth.

*Vzzzzmm*

They traveled at absurd speeds, covering the little distance between the two sides within seconds.

"What is that red stu-"

The man was trying to finish his sentence yet the red beams had already reached him.

"Augh!"

His mouth gave out some incomprehensible words as his lips quivered. The man's eyes went dull as the beams tore through his heart.

Sounds of pixelation went off as the two holes left behind set out a ripple of red design. His body began to fall apart from within, soon turning into tiny pieces.

The beams were unforgiving.

They didn't simply go straight; they bounced and ricocheted from awkward and impossible angles and irregular patterns.

The blazing red streaks left in the air were a frightening omen to the pirates nearby. They saw the twin menacing red zips of energy rush through the pirate masses, making their way through each ship.

[Omega Beams Image (in Discord)]

"H-He's an ability user!" a man yelled out.

*Vzzzzmm*

The beams kept whizzing forth, bending, turning, and elevating in all sorts of bizarre angles.

"AHHH!"

"RUN!"

"Ugh!"

"Ouch."

Endless cries of men erupted the seas as tens of thousands of inch-sized cubes rained down everywhere.

150…370…590…1040…2050.

The death toll went up like the economic inflation of Damien's past life. In a span of barely one minute, nearly half of the pirate fleet had been obliterated!

"J-Jump into the sea!"

*Vzzzzmm*

The two beams suddenly turned straight around and zoomed at the pirate. His descent into the water came at a bare fraction of a second before the beams got to him.

"..."

A silence pervaded as the two red beams halted an inch from the water.

It took a man with an average IQ to piece things together as he loudly declared, "Ability-users can't affect the sea; everyone dive down now!"

The man jumped straight down after his proclamation. Though his relieved eyes soon fell to despair.

"Rawwr!"

A giant, nearly fifty-meter-wide mouth rushed out from the blue below, inhaling the pirate in a single gulp.

The beast dove back into the sea and disappeared.

*Vzzzzmm*

The pirates had no time to think as the temporarily paused beams shot back out without delay, resuming the massacre.

One pirate at the far back could only slump onto the ground. His eyes teared up as the pupils went dull from the inevitable end.

Alas, so was the price of piracy.

…

Another two minutes passed, and the once boisterous sea was now filled with a deep silence. Pieces of flesh decorated the seaways, loose blood dyeing the water red.

The small boat soon sailed ahead to the bay, ready to dock.

Thud!

Damien's large stature dwarfed the fallen pirates.

He relaxedly walked towards the watchtower overlooking the bay, his boots sinking into the grassy soil.

A shaken Dorobō stood not too far away from the shore, frozen in his shoes; his eyes were wide open, his jaw practically touching the floor. He turned his gaze to the sole enemy pirate, a mix of fear and anger.

"All my men… My power… My prestige… You ruined everything!" he roared out.

The man's face grew savage as he shot forward with a thunderous roar. His hand reached out and grabbed Damien by the arm but his height difference made it look rather comical.

Dorobō gave a wild laugh as his hands shone with gray light and boasted a white fern-like pattern, contrasting with the darkness around it.

"Sensory Deprivation!"

Damien watched patiently as white energy pulsated from his fingers and travelled outwards, almost as if sapping something out of his body.

The young pirate hummed while the older one froze. Oddly enough, Damien didn't feel anything.

"Oh right, you can't affect me with the sheer difference in Haki," Damien said as lightly nodded.

He then exercised his body to forgo the Haki that stopped the attack, lowering his natural guard and leaving him vulnerable.

"..."

Dorobō went through a chain of emotions and was having trouble expressing himself. Eventually, he went back to using his powers.

The arm once again began to deprive Damien, pulling out strands of energy.

Dorobō's eyes opened wide in relief as he felt his powers working once more.

Damien, however, felt a familiar sensation. Suddenly, he had lost his sense of touch, much like the fight with Enigma.

The human body naturally felt warmth, or the lack of it; the touch of air, the gradual wind, and so on; being deprived of that was truly quite a harrowing thought.

"It's not bad, but I need to see more…"

Dorobō froze once again as he saw Damien effortlessly move about after his greatest attack.

'Sibyl, fruit details.'

[Coming up…]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Deprive-Deprive Fruit (Ubau Ubau no Mi)]

[Paramecia Fruit]

[Fruit Rating: 6 Stars]

[Allows the user to deprive anything they touch of certain characteristics, making them a Depriving Human.]

[Expanded: As mastery increases, the extent of deprivation grows towards more undefined qualities.]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

Damien hummed at the details.

He then shifted his gaze back to the man paralyzed by fear.

"Dorobō, was it? I want you to use your powers to deprive this corpse," Damien commanded.

With a wave of his hand, a near-ten-foot-tall body fell onto the ground.

The captain of the Ravager Pirates could only take a few steps back, his mind has gone through too many tragedies at once. Yet now the fresh corpse of a mighty Overlord of the Seas had been placed before him! Not that he knew who it was.

"Hurry up, there isn't that much time."

Dorobō robotically moved, his mind entering a self-saving mechanism.

He touched the fresh body. The skin grayed out once more, branching with patterns.

"W-What do I deprive him of?"

A dry reply came from Damien: "His fruit ability."

Dorobō's eyes widened to the point of falling out and gulped at the thought that never entered his mind.

*Huff*

A soft hum went off as the white pulsating light glowed brighter than before, pulsing up from his hand and up his arm.

It took ten seconds before the crazy sight occurred.

Dorobō's hand naturally moved out from Enigma's chest, clawing at something.

It was soon visible—A peach-coloured fruit sporting many fleshy folds and soft to the touch, resembling a brain. Just one look at its organic beauty and it was surely a Devil Fruit!

[Image of the fruit (in Discord)]

Dorobō felt his world turn upside down.

He had such a power this whole time?

'Why didn't I try this sooner!?' he screamed to himself with a broken expression.

Such an ability could surely get him endless fortune and power and yet he never realized it himself; momentary delight turned into despair as he felt the cold gaze of Damien from behind.

*Gulp*

Damien didn't pay much attention to the prancing fool of a pirate, rather his thoughts were linked to the fruit.

"The Dark-Dark Fruit is probably the best option for extracting other powers but if Enigma, with his vast sea of puppets, couldn't locate it in his long reign and it took Blackbeard decades to get his hands on it, then what chance do I have?"

A decisive glint passed through the Sin Incarnate's eyes as he grabbed Dorobō from the back of the neck and picked him up like a toddler.

The island's ruler desperately waved his hands in the air.

"Don't worry, I'll make good use of this power wasted on you."

Dorobō felt an ominous breeze pass by, sending shivers down his back. He flailed in the air, deeply wishing to escape the vice-like grip on his neck, all to no avail.

Meanwhile, the Sin Incarnate took out a golden token in his empty hand, not minding Dorobō's incessant movements.

The token was rather special.

Damien glanced at the golden coin-like item and crushed it within the palm of his hands, an act that burst out into a golden spectacle.

The shiny mist swirled around the infamous pirate's arm as it shot out to grab Dorobō's heart.

"W-What're you doing!?"

Damien didn't reply as he continued to exercise the item.

"W-Wait, it hurts… augh!"

The pirate began convulsing like a fish out of the sea, his arms and legs flying in all directions.

Damien watched as the golden light flooded into the man's very core and moments later, rushed back out.

The brilliant light returned to Sin Incarnate's body and filled him with a new sensation.

Thud!

Dorobō's body fell to the ground with a thud, huffing and puffing in residual pain as blood dribbled from his orifices.

"It worked…"

Damien deeply sighed while a ding went off in his mind.

[One {Fruit Ability Transfer Token} has been used. The token has materialized into the following auxiliary ability: ]

[{Deprivation} – Grants the auxiliary ability to deprive living or nonliving things of certain characteristics.]

He then walked forward and stood before the gasping Dorobō. The man crawled back in instinctual fright, his mind entirely overwhelmed.

"Sensory Deprivation, was it?"

Dorobō's breathing stopped as he saw the familiar gray skin appear, though this time on Damien. He watched the white pulsating light as his world seemed to fall apart.

[Image of the Arm (in Discord)]

"..."

The ability was in effect immediately, leaving behind a shaken Dorobō. The seven-foot-tall pirate shot up from the ground, his mouth wide open in deep fear.

He waved his arms as if trying to fly.

He walked in circles as if trying to regain direction.

He even scratched and stabbed at his side as if trying to feel anything.

He opened his mouth to scream but he had lost his ability to hear.

He could not even taste the blood that had flooded his mouth moments ago.

Damien deprived the man of all five of his senses and even the ability to talk and scream. Such a result brought an epiphany to the young pirate's mind.

The transfer tokens allowed him to take a fruit ability and translate it into a power but they had a heavy restriction—they could only be used to gain an auxiliary ability and would fail for any offensive transfer.

"It seems robbing one of all their senses doesn't meet the bar of physical harm," he concluded.

Damien balled his hands into a fist, thinking of one final test.

In the background was a Dorobō who had gone mad.

He couldn't touch, hear, see, smell, or taste; his body felt like a void, unable to interact with reality itself. The once-feared pirate soon tripped over a tree root and fell on an unsheathed sword, putting him out of his misery.

Meanwhile, the Sin Incarnate picked up the orange fruit that was inconspicuously lying on the ground from its previous extraction.

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Mind-Mind Fruit (Nō Nō no Mi)]

[Paramecia Fruit]

[Fruit Rating: 7 Stars (Ultimate-Class Fruit)]

[Allows the user to gain supremacy of the mind, making them a Mindful Human.]

[Expanded: The user may unleash mental attacks, overwhelm one's mental facilities, and materialize mental energy into attacks that omit physical defenses. Considered an Ultimate-Class Devil Fruit that gives domain over any living creatures' minds.]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

"Hey, hey, that's a little overpowered right there," Damien commented as he stored the fruit's previous user back into his Inventory.

He then jumped back to his Sea Skimmer boat, cursing under his breath. "I would translate the power with another token but some annoying things stop me from doing so..."

[Don't blame me, Damien. It simply is not possible to translate an Ultimate-Class fruit with those Tokens; all items need some form of restrictions otherwise the Laws of Physics would be for decoration.]

Damien clicked his tongue, no longer holding onto the issue.

"Rawwwr!"

The Sea Kings roared out as they finished their open buffet. Gracefully saluting the young pirate.

They tugged on their ropes and pulled the boat ahead as per a new command: "Take me to the Grand Line back through the Calm Belt."

The Sin Incarnate leaned back in his seat as he felt the cold wind pick up in intensity from the increasing speed.

"Now I won't miss out on potentially powerful Devil Fruits slipping out of my hands…" he murmured, clenching his fists at the thought of the vast array of abilities across the Grand Line.

To Be Continued…

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Author's Corner.

It took Blackbeard 26 years to find the Dark-Dark Fruit. It would be naive Damien to think he can find it so he chose the Deprive-Deprive Fruit as Enigma theorized instead and things worked out.

Originally, there was no fruit for extracting powers and Damien went for the Split-Split Fruit for entirely different reasons. All of that was rewritten, starting with the Deprivation Fruit.

Images are available on Discord alongside other niche details: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q