Unlike Kid, Killer, who had been captured from the Sabaody Archipelago, was not a Devil Fruit user.
Nor was there any reason he had to be kept alive, so he was dealt with at the first possible moment.
This Four-Winged Angel wielding scythes was numbered 9527, and was currently one of the guards of the Reincarnation Pool.
Her strength was extremely formidable, and she had inherited Killer's swordsmanship.
After this round of knowledge enhancement, she had undergone another obvious change.
"Let me see."
Ren beckoned. The scythe angel approached, then respectfully knelt on one knee, allowing her god to inspect her specific condition.
His gaze swept over her and landed on the scythe angel's body. Then he placed his hand on it.
The angels, born from metal and earthly fire, were living beings, yet they were not like living beings in the conventional sense.
Their basic composition was metallic material.
However, when Ren placed his hand on the body this time, he felt the pulse of "life"!
Metal had gained life!
This was an extremely complicated situation, so Ren chose to open the Dimensional Roulette and check the details.
Then he obtained a result that was unexpected, yet also seemed entirely natural.
[Living Metal]
That was a name that fit the situation.
After obtaining the "life" of Zoan Devil Fruit powers, the Angels of Glory had undergone an enormous change in the fundamental composition of their bodies.
The Zoan Devil knowledge filtered, screened, and reconstructed by the Glory Sanctuary no longer had much to do with the original Artificial Devil Fruits.
Strictly speaking, Artificial Devil Fruits provided the "knowledge composition" of Zoan Devil Fruits.
Once that reached a certain quantity and scale, useful "results" would form.
Living Metal was one such result.
The effect it brought was to grant metal vitality, forming a new "basic composition."
Under these circumstances, the angels would possess metallic bodies with some flesh-and-blood characteristics.
By consuming energy, they could automatically heal. When enraged, the strength provided by their metallic bodies would grow even stronger. Positive effects that humans possessed would also appear in them.
Meanwhile, the negative effects of a flesh-and-blood body did not apply to a metallic body.
This was extremely complex and unbelievable, but considering that it came from Devil Fruits, it was still somewhat understandable.
And that was only one part of it.
Ren shifted his gaze, landing on the scythe angel's armor.
Aside from the densely packed enchantment patterns on it, layered plates had also appeared, resembling an insect's exoskeleton.
Most likely, this was a result formed from fragments of Devil Fruit knowledge.
As Artificial Devil Fruits continued to be invested, it was foreseeable that more and more abilities like this would be learned and mastered by the angels.
Because Ren had already discovered through the cluster network that some angels had obtained other Zoan Devil abilities.
Most importantly, the current Angels of Glory could now learn Haki!
On one hand, it was because of the "life" granted by the Zoan system—because of Living Metal.
On the other hand, it was because a large amount of material possessing Haki had been invested, allowing the Glory Sanctuary to obtain a massive quantity of data.
The Haki knowledge that had originally progressed extremely slowly in its research suddenly sped up by a great deal.
Once the analysis was complete, it would be transmitted to the Land of Glory.
That would allow the angels born afterward to possess the aptitude to awaken the power of Haki.
One had to know, the Angels of Glory under Ren's command had already reached a scale measured in the tens of thousands!
If both directions of enhancement were completed, even he himself did not have an accurate estimate of what kind of terrifying army would be created.
But he imagined it would be worth looking forward to.
"Based on that calculation, the foundational military strength for establishing a force is enough."
Ren withdrew his hand and calculated matters regarding his army system.
The arrangements he had made for his army in the past had finally brought him a massive return.
Even the current Angels of Glory were already enough to support the lower ranks of the "force" he planned to build.
In truth, there was nothing complicated about it.
It was a force similar to the Cross Guild from the original story.
The difference was that Ren would first hunt the pirate groups of the New World and use that as the beginning of his force's rise.
He would properly make use of the Reincarnation Pool's characteristics and complete the snowballing growth of his mid-level combat strength.
After that, he would sweep forward with the momentum of the age and deal with his final enemies.
It was not especially refined. After all, it was only the embryonic form of a plan.
After confirming the changes in the Angels of Glory, Ren began working on his own matters.
He threw the petrified Blackbeard into the Reincarnation Pool.
To avoid any accidents, he had even asked Hancock to petrify this ambitious hero once again.
The pool water surged. Teach disappeared beneath the water.
Some utterly merciless force completely crushed him, extracted him, and formed the final result.
While waiting, Ren was not idle either. Instead, he began making his own preparations.
A material like Blackbeard was rare. The best method was to borrow the power of the Dimensional Roulette and complete a perfect enhancement.
Because of Tesoro's assistance, he currently still had enough chips on hand.
Or rather, he no longer needed to consider the matter of chips at all.
While Ren was busy, the atmosphere on Kuja Island was not exactly pleasant.
Because as the plan advanced, the entirety of Kuja had basically become a foothold for Ren's group.
Nami, Nojiko, Vivi, and the others were all here.
Naturally, what they held was the mentality of victors.
Nami treated the place almost as if she were strolling through a shopping district, and although the people of Kuja knew that they were Ren's people, they did not know exactly what level of "insiders" they were.
Adding Hancock's personality into the mix...
It could only be said that when Ren was not present, conflict between the two sides was practically inevitable.
Of course, both sides maintained a basic degree of restraint, and it did not evolve into a full confrontation between two forces.
However, the verbal exchanges still turned the scene into something like a powder keg.
"This is my country. If you cannot understand that, then leave this place!"
Hancock's expression was icy, and she still displayed that haughty posture.
Granny Nyon wore a troubled expression at the side, wanting to speak but holding herself back. Even though she had suggested that Hancock could act a little prickly in order to secure Kuja's proper position and weight among the factions under Ren, was the current situation not going a little too far?
Of course, it was not that the Snake Princess had gone too far. Rather, the other party's words were something the Snake Princess absolutely could not accept.
"Huh? Understand what? This place belongs to Ren, doesn't it?"
Nami planted both hands on her hips, pointed unhappily at the handprint on Hancock's thigh, and said, "And what did I say wrong? You belong to Ren too, don't you?"
"I do not!"
Hancock nearly bristled like a cat as she tried to cover the handprint on her thigh. However, because today's outfit was a pair of shorts Ren had requested, there was simply no way to conjure fabric out of thin air and cover the handprint on her fair skin.
It was all that bastard Ren's fault!
If not for him...
Hancock no longer wanted to recall it.
In its place, her aggression rapidly surged.
"Ha, I was right."
Nami's words were like pouring oil on a fire.
A thunderous explosion instantly erupted inside the hall. Hancock rushed out at a speed not even Granny Nyon could pull back.
Corresponding to that were the arcs of lightning spreading through the hall!
'This is bad!'
Granny Nyon's scalp went numb. She felt that the next scene most likely would not end well.
Boom—!
A vast, surging wave of Conqueror's Haki came flooding in from afar, swallowing the entire hall like a tide.
Amid the roar, Ren's figure appeared, one hand gripping Hancock's lower leg.
The lightning released by Nami was restrained around her own body. It was clearly the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, yet it could not draw even the slightest bit closer.
"What are you doing?"
His dissatisfied words rang out calmly.
Hancock bit her red lips, gave a cold snort, pulled her leg free, then retreated and stood still.
Her gaze was still furious, but she did not dare look at Ren. Instead, she glared at Nami.
Nami, who was being stared at with hostility, did not care at all.
"Darling~"
Nami let out a seductive call, then pounced onto Ren.
Like a curious pet dog, she checked him all over, even reaching out and feeling around.
"What are you doing?"
Ren looked utterly confused as he dealt with Nami.
"What was that just now? The thing that blocked my lightning."
Nami's eyes shone as if she had sensed something. "It wasn't your Thunder and Flame Mastery. I felt something else."
"It was magnetism."
Ren said helplessly, "The power of the Paramecia-Type Magnet-Magnet Fruit."
"Magnet-Magnet Fruit?"
Nami was startled. "You completed that? You have two Devil Fruit powers now?"
"Mm. I got lucky."
Ren nodded calmly.
"Amazing. As expected of my man."
When she said this, Nami deliberately looked toward Hancock and stuck out her pink tongue. "Right, Miss Hancock?"
"If he is yours, then he is yours. Why are you asking me?"
Hancock coldly took a step back, but for some reason, irritation rose in her heart.
"All right, that's enough."
Ren changed the topic. "There have been changes on the angels' side. You and Nojiko should go get familiar with them. There should be trouble coming to our doorstep soon."
"Trouble?"
Nojiko's eyes changed, and her aura became a little fiercer.
"It's intelligence from the Revolutionary Army, so it should not be wrong."
Ren put Nami down and turned his head to look at the sky outside the hall. "I did not expect that I would come into contact with another Yonko's force under these circumstances.
"But it doesn't matter. The angels just so happen to need a real combat test."
At this point, he extended his hand. Threads of lightning leapt in his palm.
"So do I."
This was not Thunder and Flame Mastery. Or rather, it was a characteristic evolved from the datafied fusion of the Magnet-Magnet Fruit's power.
The name had not changed, but in terms of functionality, there had been a very major change.
To put it simply, Ren's current control over lightning was only one step inferior to Nami, who possessed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
This was also the reason Ren had chosen the Magnet-Magnet Fruit.
The existence of electromagnetic force would have an extremely great use for that future stage.
There was no material in the world that could withstand the sun. Only an electromagnetic field could restrain that incomparably scorching power.
And the fact that he could make this choice also meant that Ren had succeeded.
Yes, just as he had told Nami, he had become a dual Devil Fruit user!
In fact, it was not limited to that!
Blackbeard was known to be able to eat at least two Devil Fruits, while Ren was far beyond that.
What he obtained after consuming a large number of chips, using the power of the Dimensional Roulette to draw prizes, and layering multiple results together, was the trait displayed by datafication.
[Lord of Devils!]
(End of Chapter)