Arch stared at the snake-fox, his mind racing. "What the heck, Foxxy! I didn't know you'd eaten a Devil Fruit before!"
He pointed a finger at the massive, 18-foot serpent tail swaying lazily behind the fox. "Is that the result of the fruit? Are you a 'Snake-Snake' model or something?
The creature didn't even look at him. It simply rolled its eyes with an expression of pure boredom and turned its head away, focusing on cleaning a paw.
"What? I got ignored?!" Arch barked out a laugh, shaking his head. "Well, anyway, this fruit really would have suited you. You're already a fox with a snake tail—becoming a Mythical Wolf would've been the cherry on top. But now that I know you've already eaten one... eating another would make you go BOOM."
He looked down at the icy blue fruit in his hand. Even if the laws of this world were shifting due to the butterfly effect, he wasn't about to gamble with the life of his only companion by feeding it a second fruit.
"I'm not trying that shit on you, foxxy " he muttered.
Arch's gaze lingered on the swirling patterns of the Inu Inu no Mi. Kyukon's final words echoed in his mind, louder than the wind whistling through the ruins: "...not because you are worthy, but because of fate, and a promise made long ago."
Arch's eyes burned with a wild, reckless light. He looked at the icy blue fruit, then at the massive ruins surrounding him.
"A Guardian Deity of Wano, huh? Hmmm... what is there to even think about?"
He began to chuckle, a low rumble that quickly built into a roar of defiance. He raised his voice, challenging the very shadows of the temple.
"Fate? A promise? GURARARARARARARARARARARA! This better be a challenge, Kyukon, or I'll despise you for giving me such a boring gift!"
Without a second thought, Arch unhinged his jaw. Just as he had done with the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Yamata no Orochi, he didn't bother taking a small bite to test the flavor. He shoved the entire Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Okuchi no Makami into his mouth and swallowed it in one massive gulp.
"I've eaten Devil Fruits before! What is there to be scared of? And if I somehow die from eating a third..." His grin widened as the fruit hit his stomach. "Gurararararararararara! Then that's just fate, too!"
Arch stood perfectly still, bracing himself for the internal agony of a body being torn apart just like before. He waited for the heart palpitations, the bone-snapping growth, or some death shit scenarios.
But nothing happened.
"Hmm... nothing?" Arch muttered, patting his chest. "No 'pain-no-gain' thing'y? It just felt like I swallowed a pack of cold ice."
He frowned, his mind wandering back to the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Yamata no Orochi he had consumed previously. Now that he compared them, that first fruit had been strange—its color, its jagged shape, and those long, fern-like stems didn't match the descriptions of standard Devil Fruits he knew from his past life. Even if the old scrolls called it the Orochi fruit, something felt... off about it.
Was that first one even a normal fruit? Or was it something else entirely that paved the way for this?"
As his mind spiraled into the mystery of his own biology, his focus slipped. The moment his concentration wavered, the latent power he had just swallowed surged to the surface.
The temperature didn't just drop—it plummeted.
The moisture in the air didn't turn into snow; it turned into jagged needles of frost that fell with a metallic clink against the stone. The orange pillars, once warm and vibrant, turned a ghostly, brittle white. Arch's own breath came out not as steam, but as a frozen mist that fell to the ground like dust.
Arch looked at his hands. His skin hadn't changed, but he could feel it—a predatory, ancient stillness sitting right alongside the violent vibrations of the Tremor power.
Arch let out a deep, rolling laugh that sent a fresh wave of frost dancing through the air. He held up his hand, watching as a dense, ghostly mist began to swirl and solidify around his knuckles, coating them in a jagged layer of rime.
"Gurararararara! Look at this... Aokiji, I've got some ice shit too," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
He clenched his fist tight, the ice crackling with the sound of a freezing lake. He didn't just feel the cold; he felt the possibility of it.
"In the old stories, they always said there are no weak Devil Fruits, only weak users. Your own imagination is the key to everything... gurarararara!"
Arch looked at the mist on his fist and then at the massive, 21-foot Murakumogiri. He realized he didn't have to just be a man who threw earthquakes or a man who cut space. He could be the blizzard itself.
He didn't just have ice; he had vibrating ice.
--------- to be continued-------