30 Years in Whitebeard’s Crew, I Became Invincible

Boom!

With a deafening blast, the pitch-black creature suddenly inflated like a balloon. The compressed air inside Regan's body exploded.

Out at sea, the marines stared in shock.

"Is it over?" Vice Admiral Doll muttered.

"Hic!"

Before anyone could answer, a hiccup rang out.

The swollen monster let out a loud hiccup and expelled all the air from its mouth. Its massive body instantly deflated into a limp, slimy pile, resembling a giant slime creature.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

"Try fire! Use fire!!" Lilith shouted.

"I'll do it!" Atlas hefted a flamethrower and unleashed a torrent of flames onto the sludge-like Regan. The burning stench filled the air.

"Smells like burnt rubber tires," Roy muttered from the lab, sniffing the air.

"Still no analysis results?"

Beside him, Shaka was busy. The drop of thick black blood collected earlier had already been placed into an analyzer. He was examining its components.

"It's still related to rubber and has an incredibly strong regenerative ability," Shaka replied.

"Yeah, I see it now. The biological signature has changed; it's no longer carbon-based. Is it Silicon-based perhaps?" Roy nodded, eyes fixed on the monitor.

The three Seraphim advanced again. S-flamingo continued restraining Regan with his threads, limiting his movements. Each thread bound the monster tightly.

S-Hawk rushed in, raised his blade, and swung it down on Regan's arm.

Shngg

This time, there was no blood. The severed black arm crashed to the ground like a multi-story building, even bouncing once upon impact.

Boom!

"RAAAGH!!"

Regan roared. His severed arm began squirming; it was growing back!

S-Hawk didn't react in time. The regrown arm punched him like a cannonball, launching him into the ground.

"Ursus Shock!"

S-Bear appeared in front of Regan and slammed his paw into the monster's head.

Boom!

The shockwave from the Paw-Paw Fruit pierced Regan's skull. For a normal person, their brain would've turned to mush.

But not Regan.

In that moment, he suddenly jerked his head upward and smashed S-Bear with a brutal headbutt, sending him flying into the dirt.

From the rubble, the two fallen Seraphim stood back up.

S-flamingo suddenly sensed something, his expression changing. He flew into the air, his threads slicing through Regan's body and shredding it into countless small pieces.

"He's no longer physical!!" Roy exclaimed as he saw the change; it was no longer like before.

It reminded him of the slime-like virus monster Caesar had created with the Axolotl Fruit, which had no physical body, just a gaseous virus that had eaten the fruit.

Who would've thought that the cloned Nika Fruit could produce a creature with a similar non-physical form?

Earlier, it had displayed rubber powers. Now, it was transcending physical limits, just like a Zoan-type fruit awakening.

Take Katakuri's Mochi-Mochi Fruit, for example, after awakening, he could turn his body and alter the environment into mochi, similar to a Logia..

Roy kept watching. This fruit wasn't useless; it depended on whether it could be controlled.

'Could his Haki suppress this fruit? Would he turn into that monster if he ate it?'

"…Forget it. I'll wait and see what it becomes first," Roy shook off the thought.

Good thing he hadn't eaten it.

The battle continued. S-Flamingo kept slashing with threads, but Regan's body had fully liquefied, and there was no solid physical form left to target.

Slashes, shockwaves, and wire control were all useless.

The three Seraphim were clearly losing the upper hand. Despite using all their abilities, they couldn't defeat the now-invincible Regan, not even contain him.

"The best way to deal with a liquid is this!"

Vegapunk entered the lab and operated a machine. Soon, the island's systems kicked in, and a large cannon took aim at Regan.

Psssh!

Liquid nitrogen sprayed from the nozzle, hitting Regan and rapidly freezing him into a block of ice.

Regan finally stopped moving and quickly became a giant ice sculpture.

S-Hawk, still not satisfied, slashed at the ice statue, cutting it clean in half.

"Is it over?"

Roy stroked his chin. Liquid beings were weak to freezing; once frozen from the inside, there was no survival.

BOOM!

The top half of the frozen body crashed to the ground, shattering. Suddenly, black flames burst out from the shards, and the ice began to melt.

"ROAR!!"

Regan came back to life.

"Tch!"

Even Roy was stunned. 'How could it still not be dead? What kind of principle was this? And what were those black flames?'

He wasn't the only one shocked. Vegapunk and Shaka were equally stunned, especially when the black blood inside the analyzer also caught fire.

"It's not a physical being anymore. This thing is consciousness, it's become a manifestation of will!" Vegapunk said in horror.

"Consciousness? What do you mean?" Roy asked urgently.

"Resentment. It's the resentment of the Devil Fruit. All living beings have thoughts; humans even more so. When the body dies, what remains? The soul!"

"I once ran an experiment: when a person dies, they lose 21 grams instantly. It could be the consciousness, it could be a soul."

"Humans have souls. Devil Fruits, which exist in a higher-dimensional space, may have them too.You said this came from a cloned Nika Fruit. But this fruit never truly existed. It wasn't born from human desire; it's a punishment from the Devil Fruit itself for cloning and defiling it."

"Think of it as a pure soul now. It's no longer human. Whoever ate it has already been consumed and used as fuel; they're long dead." Vegapunk explained.

Souls are real. Brook can leave his body and roam as a soul.

Technically speaking, Brook is immortal. He could survive in any body, his soul just needs a vessel.

So if humans have souls… could Devil Fruits have them too?

Roy's attempt to clone the Nika Fruit may have angered Nika itself, unleashing this disaster.

"If this is soul-based power… then the solution is simple," Roy smirked.

"What are you doing?" Vegapunk grew tense as Roy walked toward the black flames.

"I'm just testing something." Roy spread his arms and released his Conqueror's Haki.

"Hmph!"

With a cold snort, the raging black flames instantly extinguished.

The best counter to soul-based powers was Conqueror's Haki. No matter the Devil Fruit, nothing could hide under its will-crushing force.

"Looks like the experiment can continue. I'm going to retrieve this anger, see if it can turn into a real fruit," Roy said.

"Continue the test. Deploy the rest of the Seraphim," Vegapunk nodded. He, too, wanted to see if a Devil Fruit born from the 'emotion' or 'desire' of another Devil Fruit can truly succeed.

Sometimes, a scientist's madness can bring about disaster or spark the progress of civilization.

.....

If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.

[email protected]/DaoistJinzu