Hadn't someone just delivered themselves to his doorstep?
Xiao immediately locked onto the targets and opened a dimensional gate.
Miss Valentine and Mr. 5—who were in the middle of pursuing pirates—didn't even have time to react. Before they could register what was happening, both were knocked unconscious and dragged through space, landing directly in front of Xiao.
"Hm~~~"
Xiao's gaze lingered briefly on Miss Valentine. She was dressed in her lemon-yellow jumpsuit, her features delicate, her figure striking. After a moment's thought, he quietly captured a few more pirates from elsewhere as backup specimens.
"Such a fine girl," Xiao muttered. "Wasting her on experiments would be a shame. She should be contributing to the growth of the Xiao family." (T/N: Ayoooo! that's diabolical)
With that thought, Xiao decisively settled Miss Valentine's status and began extracting the Devil Fruits from both her and Mr. 5.
The abilities they possessed were the Paramecia-type Kilo-Kilo Fruit and the Paramecia-type Bomb-Bomb Fruit.
The Kilo-Kilo Fruit allowed its user to freely adjust their body weight anywhere between one kilogram and ten thousand kilograms. They could float as lightly as a feather or crush enemies beneath overwhelming mass.
The Bomb-Bomb Fruit, meanwhile, allowed any part of the user's body to explode. Even a flicked booger or a breath exhaled from the mouth could detonate. The user was immune to explosions—bombs could be eaten whole without causing harm.
How should these two abilities be evaluated?
They weren't overwhelmingly powerful—but they certainly weren't weak either.
At best, they could be described as mid-tier, abilities whose true strength depended almost entirely on the user. Strong in capable hands, mediocre otherwise.
Which made them perfect experimental material.
…
…
Xiao's palm suddenly split open. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a massive metallic maw that swallowed the two pirate subjects whole.
Naturally, Xiao made a small adjustment beforehand—he cleanly removed the head of one of the pirates.
The experimental procedure was clear:
First, fuse the two bodies.
Second, fuse the souls.
Finally, attempt full fusion of both body and soul.
As expected, the first experiment only achieved physical fusion. The two Devil Fruits could not coexist peacefully.
After all, how could a single soul command two Devil Fruits?
The laws governing the abilities immediately clashed within the pirate's body. The conflict escalated rapidly, ending with the fused body exploding from the inside out.
As the pirates died, the Devil Fruit powers attempted to escape—but the dimensional field bound them tightly. With no path forward, the abilities were forced to retreat back into the fruits Xiao had prepared in advance.
The experiment continued.
This time, Xiao attempted soul fusion.
Two souls shared a single body—and at first, the two Devil Fruits coexisted without conflict.
But new problems soon emerged.
Xiao discovered that when Devil Fruit abilities were inactive, their power resided in the heart. Yet a single body possessed only one heart.
At first, the two Devil Fruits remained stable. But as time passed—just one month later—even without using either ability, internal conflict erupted. The heart could not withstand the strain and eventually burst, killing the subject.
Then came the final experiment.
Xiao swallowed two intact pirates simultaneously and fused them perfectly within his processing system. The resulting being achieved a complete fusion of body and soul—and successfully accommodated both Devil Fruits.
The subject lived for an entire year without any signs of rejection or instability.
Both abilities lay dormant within the body, usable at will by either personality.
However, the fusion of two souls inevitably produced two distinct personalities. Each sought dominance. Constant internal conflict followed, with the subject frequently falling into violent self-inflicted battles.
"Tch… you really need two-way integration," Xiao muttered, frowning. "This is unbearably inefficient."
After repeated trials, Xiao finally abandoned the idea of becoming a multi–Devil Fruit user like Blackbeard.
Because at its core, so-called "multi-fruit" power was nothing more than forcing multiple individuals into a single vessel, whether naturally or artificially.
And the price was unacceptable.
Stuffing another person's body—and soul—into his own was something Xiao simply could not tolerate. Even if he could treat other souls like tools, he refused to integrate another existence into himself.
"If only I could obtain the power of the Supreme Will's laws…"
With a flick of his finger, Xiao casually erased the fused pirate subject and reclaimed the Devil Fruits.
His gaze then drifted toward the massive golden gate shining within the Daluo Arena. Longing and anticipation burned openly in his eyes.
If he could acquire the power of the Elden Ring world, he could refine Devil Fruit abilities into pure laws, cast them into Great Runes, and then fuse them into a Ring.
At that point, conflicts between laws would cease to exist.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Will—obsessed with absolute perfection—regarded the Junction as a treasured collection. No one else was even allowed a glance, let alone a chance to interfere.
"Since multiple fruits don't work…" Xiao murmured, a new thought forming, "…then why not try Devil Fruit fusion instead?"
As was well known, Devil Fruits followed a clear hierarchy—upper-tier and lower-tier variants.
Take the Ton-Ton Fruit and the Kilo-Kilo Fruit, for example. Both controlled weight, yet the difference was vast. One operated in tons; the other was limited to kilograms.
The same applied to fruits like the Bomb-Bomb Fruit versus other explosion-type abilities, or the Lightning Fruit compared to magnetism, or Float versus Gravity.
Devil Fruits with similar concepts but different focuses naturally formed superior–inferior relationships.
When a high-tier fruit confronted a lower-tier one, suppression was almost absolute.
Yet lower-tier fruits weren't without merit.
They often possessed unique traits or specialized functions that higher-tier fruits lacked entirely.
And that… was where the real value lay.
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