The shriveled eyelids opened once again, and the zombie-like hands struggled to support the body as it got up.
“Queen…he.”
Knight’s voice was extremely hoarse. Whether it was the war machines or the abilities displayed by Queen himself, they far exceeded their expectations. Although in the previous battle Queen had already shown that his ability was not that of an ordinary Brachiosaurus.
But this vitality plundering ability greatly exceeded his expectations. If it weren’t for being a devil fruit user himself, he would probably have been wiped out with the team.
At this moment, footsteps could be heard coming from a distance; they were the observers sent by the Cozia Kingdom after seeing that the battle here had ended. However, in the next moment, their chests were pierced by an unknown attack.
“They came just in time.”
It was Knight’s fingers that pierced them, his body extending inexplicably like some indescribable object.
Zoan-type • Insect-Insect Fruit • Model: Earthworm. This devil fruit didn’t provide him with much enhancement in battle, and after transformation, it looked so ugly it was hard to describe, so Knight rarely used it in battle.
What he used most was the life-saving ability of the earthworms. Strictly speaking, earthworms are not insects, but because of their appearance, they are still classified under the Insect-Insect Fruit.
After being cut in half, earthworms wouldn’t die but would generate two brand new earthworms, provided the cut wasn’t vertical.
However, Knight couldn’t fully replicate the earthworm’s ability. At least he wouldn’t turn into two Knights, but rather regrow new limbs from the upper body. Through this ability, he had also regenerated his limbs in several past missions.
And what this regeneration consumed was stamina. If it were just a missing arm, he could replenish his stamina by eating a large amount of food combined with Seimei Kikan, but not now.
Queen had already drained him dry, and his body had been cut in half. He didn’t have the time for slow recovery, so he could only replenish his needs by draining the life of others.
Queen had been careful enough, even delivering a finishing blow after draining them dry. The only mistake was not decapitating him. Earthworms were not immortal; as long as the cut was precise enough, they could still be killed.
Whether it was beheading or vertical cleaving, both could perfectly achieve this, but Queen didn’t expect his opponent to be a devil fruit user, as people who never used their ability until death were truly rare.
And this was also Knight’s judgment. Even if he used his ability, he might not be a match for the opponent. Rather than fighting desperately against Queen, it was far better to prioritize his own survival. And as it turned out, he had made the right gamble.
The withered body was slowly recovering, at the cost of the deaths of several other soldiers. His first action afterward was to strip off a pair of pants; he wasn’t like those Logia-types and Mythical Zoans who could use their ability with clothes on.
His previous suit pants had already been blasted to shreds, and his newly grown limbs were bare. So, naturally, he needed something to cover them up. Afterwards, he continued searching on the battlefield, but what he was looking for wasn’t the bodies of his comrades.
While they were alive, these people were his subordinates, but once they are dead, they are dead. There was no meaning in looking for their bodies. What he was searching for were the remnants left after Genesect exploded.
Finally, he left with some metal fragments. CP0 had secret supply stations all over the world, and he needed to report the situation here. From the current performance, it seemed they had underestimated Queen’s strength.
While Knight retreated to the safe house, Judge also led the Germa Kingdom to retreat towards the direction of the Red Line. This war undoubtedly ended in failure; they hadn’t been able to capture Cozia Kingdom.
But they also had some gains; firstly, the clone soldiers were undoubtedly a success.
After retreating to a safe location, he gathered all of Germa’s researchers together.
This team was fundamental to Germa, none of them were clones, but rather geniuses recruited from various fields by Judge, and he himself was the leader of this team.
At this point, he had already proposed a new idea: Lineage Factor armorization.
Germa’s combat suits were made of special materials, which could make clothing harder than steel and naturally had other uses.
Under Judge’s leadership, a project for mechas that only Germa Super Soldiers could pilot was proposed. Moreover, pure humanoid mechas weren’t suitable for combat based on biology. Beast-like bodies were much more convenient in various kinds of battles.
However, it was difficult to clone such pilots. Taking Genesect’s transformation ability as reference, he believed that mechas should be able to switch between humanoid and beast forms.
“Supreme Commander, theoretically, this idea is sound, but… we don’t have the metal that can transform. To achieve both transformation and high-intensity combat, our current materials cannot solve this problem.”
“You don’t need to worry about this issue. I’ve studied about memory metal a bit, and it won’t take much time.”
This was a benefit they gained from working with Vegapunk back in the day. Judge, Queen, Caesar Clown – their personalities might be flawed and their talents diverse, but their research capabilities were top-notch in this world.
While direct research may not be possible, reverse engineering is no problem. The subject of memory metal was also touched upon by Vegapunk. Even in Germa’s combat suits, there are traces of similar memory alloys, albeit not in large quantities.
Although there were some flaws due to the lack of Wapometal created using Wapol’s ability, it can still be used reluctantly.
Since he brought up this topic, Judge naturally has a way to research this aspect of the problem; after all, mechanical engineering was also his main focus.
Now that his children were starting to behave normally and the clone soldiers had no issues, it was a good time to embark on new research.
After receiving confirmation from Judge, these people began to diverge their thoughts and research the so-called mechas. Some even suggested considering combining them for greater power.
On the other hand, Queen and Yamato were on their way to North Blue. At this point, they were accompanied only by two Genesects; the remaining intact one had already returned to Wano Country earlier with the two self-destructed Genesects.
Queen appeared very sad, but he was only lamenting the loss of his bananas. Even if he killed all those people, he wouldn’t feel better. For him, those people were completely insignificant compared to his bananas.
As for the bounty, he no longer cared. With so many debts, a few more blames wouldn’t make much of a difference. From Omanyte’s eavesdropping, he had also confirmed that they had always been highly suspicious of him, rather than assured that it’s him.
Marines aren’t fools; although they often make silly mistakes, the Beasts Pirates didn’t keep Arceus’ abilities a secret. The situation inside is completely different from what is observed outside. Despite previously confirming that there was likely something amiss with him, they hadn’t completely given up on investigating Arceus.
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