Third Zone, Scorched Earth Volcanic Island.
The air was thick with a suffocating sulfur stench. Rolling black smoke blotted out the sky, while dark-red lava flowed slowly through cracks in the ground, radiating destructive heat.
Beside a bubbling lava pool, a figure struggled forward.
It was Shelby.
His once spotless white suit had turned ash-gray, his expensive cape reduced to half, and his handsome face, once adored by countless girls, was now smeared with soot and blood.
An ordinary person, after being crushed so completely by Aramaki, would have lost all will, maybe even withdrawn from the competition.
But Shelby was different.
He stopped, supporting himself with his chipped yet still gleaming blade, "Moonlit Beauty." From his chest, he pulled out that small mirror, which somehow hadn't broken, and looked at his battered reflection.
Then… he smiled.
A confident, almost narcissistic smile.
"Hmph… a kind of messy beauty."
He adjusted his burnt bangs. The light in his eyes didn't fade, it burned even brighter.
"Aramaki… that monster is indeed strong."
"But!"
Shelby raised his head and muttered to the gray sky:
"In this world, every legendary hero, every protagonist… who hasn't suffered defeat before reaching the top? Who hasn't been knocked into the abyss?"
"This failure is just part of the script, arranged by fate to polish me, a 'rough gem'!"
"That's right! This is merely the climax of Act One! The prelude before the protagonist awakens!"
This blind optimism, this self-hypnosis, wasn't entirely delusion.
Since childhood, Shelby possessed something ordinary people couldn't comprehend: extreme luck.
He could pick up money just by walking. Guess answers correctly on exams. Even when he first set out to sea and got shipwrecked, he drifted on a plank straight to a deserted island full of treasure.
He was a true 'chosen one.'
The kind of person even fate itself seemed to favor.
"My instincts tell me…"
Shelby looked around the hellish landscape. Suddenly, something in his mind pinged.
"The opportunity… is right ahead."
Dragging his injured leg, he instinctively circled a massive piece of obsidian.
Behind it, in a crack between scorching rocks, a familiar, dazzling golden light quietly flickered.
"That is…"
Shelby's pupils shrank.
A pure gold token, engraved with Renzo's lazy portrait, was stuck in the rock crevice!
"Haha! I knew it!"
He rushed forward and pried out the [Renzo Gold Token].
"A second token! Effortless!"
Though still in "stealth mode" and unactivated, it was undeniably real.
This meant he had regained his chance to advance!
At that moment, the token in his hand trembled slightly, as if influenced by some magnetic force, pointing toward a nearby dormant volcano crater.
"Hm? What's over there?"
Without hesitation, Shelby followed his instincts and climbed the crater.
The higher he went, the hotter it became. Even the soles of his shoes began to smoke.
Finally, when he reached the top and looked down into the bottomless crater filled with churning crimson lava,
"That is…"
He froze.
At the center of the boiling lava pool, a partially unmelted black rock floated.
And on top of it, lay a fruit.
A strange fruit, covered in spiral patterns, glowing with a demonic orange-red hue, as if flames were burning within it.
It grew alone in this dead zone. The surrounding lava didn't destroy it, instead, it flowed around it like subjects worshiping a king.
"That shape… those patterns…"
Shelby's heart began pounding wildly.
He had seen this before.
As a G-5 Rear Admiral, he once browsed a damaged Devil Fruit Encyclopedia in the base library.
And in the Logia section, there was a page.
Incomplete, but unforgettable.
"It can't be wrong…"
His voice trembled.
"Logia… the Flame-Flame Fruit!!!"
The relic of the former Pirate King's son, Whitebeard Pirates' 2nd Division Commander, "Fire Fist" Ace!
'One of the most destructive, most offensively powerful Logia fruits!'
Why was it here?'
'Did it regenerate here after the Marineford War?
'Or rise from underground through tectonic movement?'
It didn't matter.
What mattered was that it was right in front of him.
Within reach.
"Is this… fate's compensation?"
Shelby's eyes reddened, laughing and crying at the same time.
"I knew it! I knew I was the protagonist! That beating earlier, it was all for this moment!!"
…
G-5 Broadcast Plaza.
The crowd, previously dulled after Aramaki's overwhelming victory, suddenly erupted in screams.
"Look at the big screen!! Zone Three!! What is that?!"
The surveillance Den Den Mushi zoomed in.
The camera locked onto the fruit in the lava.
"Oh my god!!"
"That's a Devil Fruit!!"
"That pattern… that shape… could it be, ?!"
On the commentary stage, Rehn, who had been lazily drinking cola, shot up like a spring!
He spilled his drink but didn't care.
Grabbing the mic, his voice cracked with shock: "Am I seeing things?!"
"Viewers! Tell me this is real!!"
"In that godforsaken volcano crater, there's a wild Logia Devil Fruit?!"
He flipped through his reference guide and slammed the table:
"No mistake!! That is, the Flame-Flame Fruit!!!"
"The power once wielded by 'Fire Fist' Ace!!!"
BOOM!!
The entire New World watching the broadcast exploded into chaos!
"The Flame-Flame Fruit?! That top-tier Logia?!"
"What kind of luck is that silver-haired kid?! He just got beaten like a dog and now picks up a god-tier power?!"
"This luck is insane! It's basically cheating!!"
"He's not even hiding it anymore, just straight-up hacking!!!"
…
VIP Stand.
Renzo, who had been resting with eyes closed, slightly trembled his lashes at the words Flame-Flame Fruit.
He slowly opened his eyes.
For the first time, genuine surprise flickered in his calm gray gaze.
He looked at the screen, at the soot-covered but ecstatic Shelby, and the fruit floating in lava.
"Heh…"
Renzo chuckled.
"This kid…"
He tossed a grape into his mouth.
"Luck… is a form of strength."
"Perhaps the most efficient one."
No training. No struggle. Just being in the right place and gaining power that others could only dream of.
A cliché, sure.
But Renzo didn't dislike it.
In fact… he appreciated it.
"Looks like G-5 is getting another monster."
He leaned back, clearly in a better mood.
"Not bad. Winter heating costs just went down."
.....
Meanwhile, in a VIP box.
Crack!
The wine glass in Donquixote Doflamingo's hand shattered.
Red wine dripped from his fingers, unnoticed.
Behind his sunglasses, his eyes were locked onto the Flame-Flame Fruit.
"This… how is this possible?"
He muttered.
"The Flame-Flame Fruit… reborn here?"
"Such a priceless treasure, picked up like trash by that… pretty-boy Rear Admiral?!"
"That kid's luck…"
Doflamingo inhaled deeply, suppressing jealousy and greed.
He glanced toward Renzo, who remained calm.
"Hmph… even his subordinates have this kind of fortune…"
"Renzo… just how much fate gathers around you?"
His awe deepened.
Not just for Renzo's power, but for this overwhelming "momentum," as if fate itself favored him.
"Seems sticking close to him… was the right choice."
…
Back inside the volcano.
Shelby knew nothing of the outside chaos.
His eyes were locked on the fruit.
"This is mine."
"My power."
He leapt!
Using unstable floating rocks as stepping stones, he bounded like a monkey,
landing firmly on the central rock.
Heat waves scorched his face, even burning his eyebrows.
But without hesitation, he grabbed the Flame-Flame Fruit!
"This feeling…"
Like holding a beating heart.
No hesitation. No second thoughts.
He opened his mouth and bit down.
"Crunch!"
An indescribable taste exploded in his mouth,
like rotten garbage soaked in sewage for ten thousand years.
"BLEGH!!"
Tears burst from his eyes.
Disgusting.
The worst thing in the world.
But he forced himself and swallowed.
One bite. Two. Three.
Until the entire fruit was gone.
"Gulp."
The taste vanished.
In its place, a burning heat surged from his core.
BOOM!!
Shelby threw his arms wide and roared!
In an instant, his body, clothes, hair all transformed into blazing flames!
Not ordinary fire, but living, destructive, demonic flames!
The surrounding lava reacted wildly, boiling as if celebrating.
"This feeling…"
Shelby looked at his flame-transformed hand.
Power, limitless power, flowed through him.
He waved casually.
WHOOSH!
A massive pillar of fire blasted out, smashing into the crater wall and leaving a charred crater!
"Hahaha… HAHAHAHA!!!"
"I really am the protagonist!!"
He stepped out of the flames, reborn.
The battered image was gone.
In its place stood a man wreathed in orange-red fire, silver hair dancing,
like a god of flames descended.
"I, Shelby, from this day on…"
"am the new Flame Emperor of this sea!!"
....
30 Chapter, [email protected]/DaoistJinzu