Pirate: I, Ace, am the King of Eclipse!

The law of cause and effect has begun to operate.

The injuries he had just endured transformed into power that surged through his limbs, causing Urouge's body to rapidly expand. The muscles in his shoulders and arms strained through his wounds, forcefully pushing the stuck greatsword away. His height continued to increase, and the deck beneath his feet, unable to bear his weight, collapsed layer by layer.

Snag took a half step back, his hands going numb. Before he could raise his greatsword again, a huge shadow had completely enveloped him.

Urouge transformed into the form of a giant Buddha, his Armament Haki surging into the broken hexagonal iron staff along his arms. The staff hummed under the pressure of the force, and the damage caused by the previous sword strike was multiplied into this attack as a result of karma.

"It's my turn."

The hexagonal iron rod was swung over his head and smashed into Snag's chest.

Snag had no time to dodge and could only release his heavy sword, crossing his arms in a gesture shrouded in domineering aura to block. The moment the iron rod fell, his arm bones snapped, and his chest caved inward.

The candy boat burst open in the middle.

Snag coughed up blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, his body crushed through several decks by iron bars. The ship, broken in two, tilted towards the sea, sinking into the harbor along with this Sweetheart Star.

From the moment Sabo charged out to the end of the battle on both sides, only a few dozen seconds had passed.

The spies hidden behind the mangroves and buildings in the distance dared not utter a sound. The officers of the Four Emperors and the Seven Warlords of the Sea joined forces to block the Eclipse. Captain Ace didn't even draw his sword; the two officers who did act had already dealt with their opponents.

Sabo returned from the direction of the ruins, extinguishing the flames on the soles of his boots as he landed on the deck and casually brushed the ash off his cuffs. Urouge also jumped back from the sinking wreckage, his body returning to its original size. The wound on his shoulder was still bleeding, but he seemed not to feel it as he carefully shouldered the hexagonal iron rod again.

“It’s resolved.” Sabo walked to Ace’s side.

Ace glanced at the candy fragments floating on the surface, then swept his gaze in the direction of the hiding spies, but didn't continue the pursuit. He turned and walked off the bow of the ship: "Let's go to the 'Rental Bar'. There's a celebrity in Sabaody who's been active on the high seas for many years; it's time to meet him."

Chapter 107 Meeting with Rayleigh

Sabaody Archipelago, Mangrove Area 13.

It's not far from the commercial street, but it seems to have been deliberately forgotten by the island's hustle and bustle. There are few shops along the road, and not many people come and go. Only occasionally do resin bubbles rise from between the tree roots and burst silently in mid-air.

The wooden door of the "Knock-off Bar" was pushed open, and the wind chimes on the door frame rang twice.

Ace entered the tavern, with Sabo following behind him. He had already sent the rest of the men out to buy supplies and deal with the bounty hunters and underworld spies who had been tailing them.

Behind the bar, a woman with short black hair was smoking and wiping glasses. An elderly man with white hair and beard sat on the sofa against the wall, round-framed glasses perched on his nose, and a half-empty bottle of liquor beside him.

Xia Qi glanced at the two of them, her exhaled smoke drifting over the bar: "They just made such a commotion in area 41, and now they've walked right into my bar. A 1.5 billion bounty pirate has come knocking on my door. Should I raise the price of drinks tenfold first?"

“Don’t scare the customers away.” Rayleigh put down the wine jug, stood up and walked to the bar. “Shakky, bring two bottles of good wine. Crocus contacted me back at Twin Capes, and I’ve been waiting for this day for a while.”

He stood in front of Ace for a moment, his gaze shifting from Ace's eyebrows and eyes to his height, as if comparing it to a distant memory.

"It's still a bit unbelievable to see it with my own eyes. You're starting to look more and more like him, and you're almost as tall as he was when he was young. But the way you look at people is much fiercer than he was."

After six months of training, Ace had grown taller again, indeed approaching Roger's physique at adulthood. He sat down at the bar, took the rum that Shakky pushed towards him, and used his teeth to open the cork.

"I'm not here to hear you talk about that dead man," Ace said, taking a sip of his drink. "I have two questions. First, how do I get started with Conqueror's Haki?"

Rayleigh had just picked up his glass when he heard this and chuckled: "Asking about the top forces on the high seas as soon as we meet, you really don't hold back. It seems the Navy calls you 'The Breaker' not entirely because of that 1.5 billion bounty."

After the laughter subsided, he placed an empty wine glass on the table, extended his index finger, and stopped it above the rim of the glass.

A black arc of electricity flashed and disappeared at the fingertips.

Raleigh's hand didn't touch the glass, nor was the table impacted, yet a cracking sound came from inside the glass first. Countless cracks crept from the bottom to the rim, and the next moment, the entire glass collapsed inward, shattering into a pile of glass dust.

“The most common use of Conqueror’s Haki is to spread out your will and crush those who can’t withstand it. Entanglement is the opposite.” Ray tapped the powder with his finger. “You take back the released power and press it into your body or weapon like Armament Haki, so that it doesn’t dissipate prematurely. When the attack lands, let this will collide head-on with the enemy.”

He withdrew his hand and picked up his wine glass: "You have already mastered advanced Armament Haki and know how to send power into the target. The two methods have something in common. The rest is not up to me to explain, but to find an opponent who can push you to your limit and personally grasp that feeling in the face of life and death."

"One more thing, don't treat Conqueror's Haki as an inexhaustible weapon." Ray drew a circle on the bar with the bottom of his glass. "Armament Haki can be accumulated little by little through training, but Conqueror's Haki depends directly on the user's will. If there is even the slightest hint of retreat in your mind, the binding will loosen from the inside first. When two people who have mastered this power clash, it's not just their fists that collide. Whoever doubts themselves first will lose their attack first."

Sabo stood silently to the side, but took note of everything Rayleigh said. Ace, meanwhile, raised his hand to simulate the flow of power in his arm. No black lightning appeared on his knuckles yet, but the air was compressed, and the glass dust on the table scattered outwards in a ring.

Rayleigh raised an eyebrow at the sight. He had thought it would take several demonstrations, but Ace had already grasped the direction of compressing willpower, though he couldn't yet stabilize and lock it in place.

Ace picked up a speck of glass powder. The Vermilion Bird Flowing Sakura: Infernal Asura also relies on the compression and internal destruction of power, only it was originally driven by Armament Haki. If the core were replaced with Conqueror's Haki, the power of the technique would surpass an even higher level.

“Understood.” Ace flicked the powder from his fingers. “Second question. Where is Roger’s sword, one of the twelve Supreme Grade Swords, ‘Ace’?”

The wine stopped at the rim of Rayleigh's glass.

Shaki didn't wipe the glasses again. The tavern was quiet for a while, with only the soft sound of burning cigarettes.

“That knife was with him for most of his life, and your name comes from it.” Reilly drank the wine in his glass. “He had the knife with him before he went to the execution ground. I haven’t found out who took it or where it ended up.”

Ace tapped the bar twice, not disappointed, but instead, it brought back many old memories.

He stayed inside Rouge's womb for a full twenty months. The soul and memories he gained from his time travel gradually awakened during that period. Therefore, he knew better than anyone how Rouge had sacrificed her own life to keep a child in her womb for nearly two years in order to evade the World Government's investigation.

To him, Roger was merely a stranger who provided his bloodline. That man ignited the sea with his death, yet left the pursuit and suffering entirely to the pregnant Rouge.

The only family member he truly deserved to acknowledge was the woman who risked her life to bring him into this world.

“After Roger’s death, the person responsible for cleaning up the mess should be Garp,” Ace suddenly said.

Rayleigh glanced at him: "Garp is a Marine, but he's also one of the people who knows Roger best. It's not surprising that he's handling this."

"Then there's somewhere to look."

Shortly after Roger's execution, Rouge gave birth to Ace on Battilla Island in the South Blue, and subsequently died from exhaustion. Garp briefly left before taking the baby, presumably to bury Rouge. If Roger's belongings had fallen into Garp's hands, given the old man's character, he wouldn't have put the sword in the Marine warehouse, much less handed it over to the World Government.

The sword named "Ace" may very well be stuck in front of Roger and Rouge's graves, serving as their tombstone. Just as after Whitebeard's death, Murakumogiri remained by his master's side.

Ace picked up the bottle and stood up: "Roger couldn't overthrow this world while he was alive, so I'll use his knife to do it. When I cut Mary Geoise open, it'll be a good thing that knife wasn't buried for so many years."

He walked toward the door, then paused: "As for the memorial service, it's mainly for my mother. Roger can only be included incidentally."

Rayleigh watched his retreating figure, but didn't detect any resentment in his words. Ace truly intended to conquer the Red Line and drag those who called themselves gods off their thrones.

He shared Roger's blood, yet this young man was walking a different path. Unlike Roger, who only sought freedom, he was more like someone Rayleigh knew—unwilling to accept the old world, nor prepared to coexist with it.

"The times have only just begun to change, and such a fierce fellow has already appeared." Rayleigh picked up the wine jug and refilled his glass.

Ace and Sabo pushed open the door and left the tavern. Sunlight filtered through the tree canopy, casting their shadows on the bubbles along the street.

Sabo, carrying the alloy water pipe, asked, "Should we go to the South China Sea first?"

"No rush. Knowing the approximate location, we can get it back sooner or later."

Ace had just taken a step when he suddenly stopped.

The sounds around him receded rapidly into the distance. The bursting of resin bubbles, the rolling of wheels in the distance, the clinking of glasses in the tavern—all were drowned out by a very faint rhythm.

That's not a human or animal heartbeat.

Something was hungrily devouring the surrounding light, life, and all the power it could capture. At the same time, it sensed Ace, sensed this body that possessed top-tier Conqueror's Haki and still had a slot left for a second Devil Fruit.

Two different "voices" collided across a large block, and the greedy rhythm immediately became rapid, as if urging him to go over.

Ace turned towards Zone 1. That was where the human auction house and black market were located.

"What did you find?" Sabo followed his gaze.

“The sea has delivered something to me.” Ace changed direction and walked towards Mangrove Tree No. 1. “I’ll take it before I leave Sabaody.”

Chapter 108 Secretly Choosing a Master, a Monster with Two Fruit Positions

The streets of Mangrove Zone 1 are perpetually dirty. Cheap tobacco, sewage, and blood mingle together, and casinos, slave shops, and black market stalls are crammed between wooden shacks. People wearing collars are chained to the roadside, and passersby glance at them briefly before quickly ignoring them as if they were merchandise.

After Ace and Sabo entered, the hawkers' cries along the street subsided. Some people recognized the face on the 1.5 billion bounty poster and quickly retreated into their shops; those who didn't recognize them were forced to make way by the two men's physiques and the stench of blood on them.

Ace kept his Observation Haki active. The closer he got to the depths of the mangrove, the clearer the call became. It had no fixed direction, yet it left its mark on the perception that listened to the voices of all things, carrying a hunger that wanted to devour everything.

The two finally stopped outside a damp alley.

At the alley entrance sat a rickety cart, almost falling apart, with an old, one-eyed pirate guarding it. The cart was mostly filled with scrap metal salvaged from shipwrecks, along with a basket of fruit covered in black spots.

Ace walked to the front of the car and pushed aside the top layer of rotten apples. At the bottom of the basket, a purplish-black pineapple-shaped fruit was revealed, its surface covered with arabesque spiral patterns.

The moment his fingertips touched the fruit peel, the rhythm that had led him there suddenly vanished.

It didn't leave, but rather finally found a suitable owner and fell back into silence.

“A Devil Fruit?” Sabo saw it too. “This thing is mixed in with a basket of rotten fruit.”

The stall owner was even more astonished than him, clearly having no idea when he had picked up the item.

Ace held the fruit in his hand. Top-tier Devil Fruits may inherently possess a faint will, but this fruit's will was exceptionally clear.

According to its original destiny, it would have been found by Thatch, the fourth division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, leading to Teach's betrayal and a series of subsequent disasters. Now, the course of the seas has long been disrupted by Ace, and Teach remains hidden under Whitebeard's banner, pretending to be an ordinary crew member without ambition, waiting for an opportunity that may never come.

But the Dark Fruit found someone else first.

Roger's bloodline and the soul that traveled from another world granted Ace the rare ability to possess two Devil Fruit slots. The Suzaku Fruit occupied only one slot, leaving the other empty. Coupled with Conqueror's Haki, an undisguised ambition, and a will to burn the entire old order to ashes, the Dark-Dark Fruit's attraction to him surpassed that of Teach, who had waited for many years.

So it deviated from its original trajectory and appeared on the road that Ace was bound to pass by.

Ace tossed down a gold coin: "I'll buy this basket of fruit."

The one-eyed stall owner looked at the gold coins and finally recognized Ace's face. He was so frightened that he didn't even dare to take the cart and turned to disappear into the depths of the alley.

Ace ignored him and took a bite out of the fruit.

The stench of rotting, dead fish exploded in his mouth, and Sabo's expression changed at the same moment. He reached out to stop him, but only managed to watch as Ace swallowed the fruit.

"You've already eaten the Vermilion Bird Fruit! The powers of the two Devil Fruits will clash within your body, causing a normal person's body to explode!"

Ace threw the remaining fruit pits into the sewer: "That's why I've never said I'm a normal person."

He closed his eyes and felt the second force enter his body.

The Vermilion Bird Divine Fire resided between the heart and blood vessels, its crimson-gold life force unconstrained. The newly born darkness fell into a vessel already prepared for it, its icy energy rapidly flowing through the limbs and bones. Fire and darkness were clearly distinct, each occupying its own niche, neither tearing apart nor repelling each other.

Black smoke billowed from Ace's arms and shoulders.

The sunlight falling on the smoke neither penetrated nor reflected; it simply vanished. The rubble on the ground began to roll, and broken wood, nails, and sewage were all dragged toward Ace by an invisible force, even bending the surrounding light.

A fist-sized rock was the first to touch the black smoke. It didn't stay in Ace's palm, but was dragged into the churning darkness, its surface cracking and compressing layer by layer until it disappeared. Moments later, Ace turned his palm towards the open space, and the black smoke suddenly bulged outwards. The rubble, planks, and pieces of iron he had just swallowed were simultaneously ejected, crashing into the alley walls and leaving dents.

The Dark-Dark Fruit doesn't simply pull objects to your side. It can swallow its target into darkness, compress and destroy it internally, and then release it according to the user's will. Ace grasped the general boundaries of the power on his first use, but the range of gravity and the speed of absorption still needed to be refined through combat.

Sabo took a half step back. The Flame-Flame Fruit within him became sluggish as it approached the black mist, as if the flames were being pressed back into his body by an unseen hand.

"What kind of fruit is this? Are you alright?"

"Logia type, Dark-Dark Fruit." Ace opened his eyes, and the black smoke above his right palm collapsed towards the center, turning into a black dot that devoured light. At the same time, he opened his left hand, and the crimson-gold Vermilion Bird Divine Flame rose up. "Both positions are filled, and the body is not rejecting it."

He let the darkness slip through his fingers: "It can't evade attacks like other Logia-type Devil Fruits by becoming elemental. When it gets hurt, the pain is amplified to twice its normal size. In return, it gains the ability to attract and absorb, and to nullify the abilities of other Devil Fruits upon contact."

Sabo looked at Ace, who was burning with fire and carrying darkness, and only exhaled after a while.