Not only had his lifespan extended dramatically—he could now strip the lifespan from other living creatures, convert it, and transfer it to others of his choosing.
In theory, if he wanted to, he could make every human being immortal.
In the age of Spiritual Energy revival, the hatching and growth rate of mutant beasts had become difficult to imagine. That was precisely why every beast wave, without exception, was a massive one.
Of course, his stripping ability only worked on creatures weaker than himself. Against something stronger, the target could simply resist, and the attempt would fail.
But for Charles, that wasn't much of a constraint. You sent fighters to beat the creature half to death first, then had people with control or beast-taming abilities force it into compliance.
Because of this power, Charles Longfellow currently held a position in Dragon Kingdom that bordered on absurd.
If it weren't for the fact that this Clow Card mission was drawing Dragon Kingdom's absolute best, and that Charles himself could seize the opportunity to claim a few cards and shore up his own survivability in a crisis, they would never have let him come out.
His life was too valuable to risk.
"I suppose so."
Firewing nodded thoughtfully. Abilities tied to lifespan weren't without compatible items—the Soul-Soul Fruit, the Vampire Fruit, the Op-Op Fruit came to mind—but lifespan was only a secondary function for those. Their primary abilities lay elsewhere, which meant there were certainly more natural matches for them in other people, or other creatures.
"They really let you out, though?"
"And they're not worried something happens to you?"
"Of course they're worried. That's exactly why they had me follow him."
"Zhang Hai and A-Bao are with us too."
Ethan clicked his tongue mildly. He was Dragon Kingdom's greatest support fighter—his life mattered too. Just not quite as much as Charles's.
"Knock it off."
Charles gave him a flat look. He had no idea what expression someone unfamiliar with Ethan would read on his face just now—probably jealousy.
His ability made him important to the higher-ups, yes. That didn't mean Ethan and the others ranked below him.
For Dragon Kingdom as it stood today, their value to the country far exceeded his.
"Oh—why isn't William here?"
With how curious William was about everything, there was no way he'd voluntarily miss this.
"Still poking at the Devil Fruits."
"Though I'd guess he's about to give up. These aren't real Devil Fruits."
Nathaniel Gray said it without much interest.
These Devil Fruits were Brandon's creations. They weren't genuine articles from the world of One Piece. He genuinely couldn't understand why William was so fixated on studying them. If he wanted something to research, the existing sciences—or spiritual-energy technology—weren't good enough?
"His ability is literally tied to machinery. Why not research that properly?"
"Even before the Devil Fruits showed up, he spent ages on his Imperial Arms, God's Helping Hand, and got nowhere."
"These things are beyond what current science can parse."
He shook his head slightly. They were all Dragon Kingdom's, yes, but William was in a different department—the research division. His prodigy over there. His obsession with science wasn't something the rest of them could really understand.
For people like them, whether the future belonged to science or to the mystical was beside the point. Worrying about the future was less useful than getting through the present in one piece.
"What do you think Brandon's actually after with all of this?"
"The Devil Fruits let people with ordinary talent have a real shot at growing strong, and let people who were already strong get stronger. Same with the Imperial Arms."
"Five-Element Armor, Kamen Rider belts, Clow Cards..."
"Was his only purpose to boost our fighting strength? To advance the civilization as a whole?"
"I know that's not quite accurate—beyond us, mutant creatures have been among the chosen recipients too. Better to say he's strengthening all civilizations."
"Stronger civilizations make him stronger in turn."
"But is there some other reason we're not seeing? Harvesting the faith of living beings, for instance?"
Nathaniel ran his fingers absently through the Flame Beast Lion's mane, his tone uncertain.
Chu Han and Zhang Hai exchanged puzzled looks—they hadn't been read in on as much background as the others—while Firewing, Skyler, and the rest turned to stare at Nathaniel with expressions that fell somewhere between amused and pitying.
"What? Was that a stupid question?"
"You're all looking at me like I said something crazy."
Nathaniel stared back at them, genuinely baffled.
"I just assumed you'd come up with something more interesting," Firewing said, rolling her eyes. "That one's not impressive."
"Then you tell me—what good is human faith, exactly?"
"If faith actually did anything, angels and God would have showed up before the Spiritual Energy revival. Those religions have billions of followers between them."
"And the dragons from our own myths would have shown up long ago. Outside of news clips, nobody's ever actually seen one."
"You've been reading too many web novels."
"And even if faith had some effect, it'd clearly be less useful than Spiritual Energy. Because before Spiritual Energy arrived, there wasn't a single divine entity to be found anywhere."
Nathaniel went quiet, then gave a rueful smile.
She had a point. Faith probably did something, but the effect was nowhere near as significant as he'd imagined. Otherwise something, anything, would have shown up before Spiritual Energy came into the picture.
"Not necessarily."
Skyler spoke up without much buildup.
"The concept of Spiritual Energy itself only existed in fiction before all this started."
"Cultivation methods have shown us that the Dao followed by each school genuinely exists. So the immortals and deities enshrined in mythology might not be fictitious either."
"It's possible they simply need a higher concentration of Spiritual Energy to manifest in the physical world—enough that the current levels aren't sufficient."
"As the Spiritual Energy Tides keep coming, they may eventually appear."
"That said—rather than believing those beings already exist somewhere and are waiting to arrive, I lean toward the theory that they'd be born from human belief itself."
"If faith and offerings actually mattered, their threshold for survival shouldn't be 'cannot exist without Spiritual Energy.' That would make them absurdly fragile."
Right now, there was nothing. In the future, there very well might be.
Before the Spiritual Energy revival, nobody had imagined that one day the age of Spiritual Energy would actually dawn on Earth. But it had happened.
And if the mythological immortals did eventually emerge, Skyler believed they would be born from the accumulated faith of humanity—not beings who had always existed somewhere, merely waiting. Because if they already existed and required offerings and worship to survive, why had none of them appeared before Spiritual Energy? If belief and incense were their primary sustenance, they should have had no reason to wait—and yet they had.
"I still think the probability is low."
Firewing pushed back on Skyler's theory.
"Or are you forgetting about Brandon?"
"If faith actually has power, that faith should belong to Brandon anyway."
"Faith is generated by humans. Humans belong to nature. Nature belongs to Brandon. Work out the chain of ownership and faith flows to Brandon."
"If something wants to walk out of mythology, it would need the ability to do that in the first place."
(End of Chapter 280)