The unconscious Moriah was wrapped by the dark shadows of the City of Devouring Time. A special power was continuously converted from Moriah's body, and the City of Devouring Time expanded. Hera felt that the entire island was now covered by her domain.
As the energy of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit flowed in, Hera discovered a special application: she could integrate the City of Devouring Time into herself, augmenting her body with the domain's power. However, the terrifying consumption made Hera set aside the idea of trying it out for now. This breakthrough in strength gave her greater confidence in her next steps. More surprisingly, Moriah was not dead.
Hera then looked at Ain and the arriving Nami and Kuina. She took out three pairs of Sea Stone handcuffs from the City of Devouring Time and, just in case, cuffed Moriah first. "Let's go. We'll head to the castle and wait for them to wake up."
Hera glanced at the skeleton following behind and recognized him instantly. "You followed us too, Brook. Come to the castle with us; whatever you want to ask can be resolved there."
Brook was very surprised that Hera had recognized him so suddenly, and he followed along.
Upon reaching the castle, Hera saw the unconscious Perona and Hogback. She put Sea Stone handcuffs on Perona as well, while Hogback only needed to be tied up.
On the second day, the four of them slowly woke up. Perona and Absalom, restrained by Sea Stone, felt completely weak. Moriah was surprised to find that he didn't feel weak at all. He hurriedly tried to summon his strength to control his shadow, but the shadow didn't react.
Moriah continued to exert effort, but it was still useless. Only then did he start to panic.
Hera hurried over after hearing the commotion of the four waking up. As soon as she entered, she saw Moriah's constipated expression and said, "Don't waste your energy. Haven't you noticed that your devil fruit ability is gone?"
Moriah was shocked. He had traveled these seas for many years and had never heard of anyone who could erase someone else's devil fruit ability.
Hera discovered that after her City of Devouring Time devoured the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, her Observation Haki could see the internal body structures of weakened enemies. Those who had eaten a Devil Fruit had an energy sphere inside them that radiated energy outward.
Hera's City of Devouring Time spread to Absalom. With a thought, the dark shadows began to sever the connection between the energy sphere and his body. The immense pain caused Absalom to howl in agony.
Seeing his crew member suffering, Moriah shouted angrily, "Let go of Absalom! If you have a problem, come at me! Don't hurt my crew!"
Hera fired a 'Water Bottle Bullet' at Absalom to sustain his life. Once the connections were completely severed, Hera took out a fruit. Patterns slowly appeared on the fruit, and the Clear-Clear Fruit was extracted.
Hera continued, "You might not understand now, but by doing this, I'm actually saving your future self."
In the future, after Blackbeard ate the Dark-Dark Fruit, he killed Absalom to seize his fruit ability and give it to someone else. Hera hadn't originally wanted to experiment on him, but thinking of this, she still moved to seize the Clear-Clear Fruit.
Moriah grew even more furious upon hearing this. Seizing someone's fruit ability and then expecting them to be grateful—even he felt that Hera was being quite shameless. His body reacted to his emotions, and his Armament Haki tried to burst forth, but his years of decadence prevented his Haki from reappearing.
Hera experienced the sensation of absorption and realized that the connection of the energy sphere was likely related to the degree of Devil Fruit mastery. In Nami's body, there were only a few lines connected, indicating a low level of development. According to her guess, a fully developed Devil Fruit would likely merge with the user, and at that point, the ability could only be obtained by killing them.
Hera thought about it; coming in and immediately stripping two members of their Pirate Crew of their Devil Fruits did indeed make her act like a villain. She started to feel a bit embarrassed.
She fished out two fruits from the shadows: "This is the Paramecia-type Spring-Spring Fruit, and this is the Zoan-type Guinea Pig Fruit. Consider them my compensation to you. Also, Perona, would you like to become my companion?"
Perona, who had just woken up and was still weak, laughed when she heard this. She was almost laughing from anger. "You electrocuted me as soon as we met, then beat up all my crewmates, and now you're asking me to join you? How is that possible? Even if you are cute, I won't forgive you unless you return the Shadow-Shadow Fruit and Clear-Clear Fruit first!"
Hera also felt a bit awkward hearing this, but she still untied Moriah and the other three first. "Everyone, please sit and eat something first. I have my reasons for doing this."
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