Months after departing from Ohara, Krieg was once again back in the Grand Line.
Specifically, he was at the training grounds of Marineford—the headquarters of the Navy, the guardians of the sea who protect the four oceans and the Grand Line itself.
He was dressed in his usual black trousers and boots, but he had discarded his coat and signature armor.
His upper body was bare, revealing a torso etched with countless scars that told the stories of the fierce battlefields he had survived.
In his hand, he gripped a single mace. He had named it "Hakubikon" (The White-Tailed Mace). Unlike his previous dull-colored weapons, this one featured distinctive white ends tipped with Sea Prism Stone.
It was equipped with several internal mechanisms and boasted a weight that far surpassed his predecessor, the Gungnir—a staggering 10 tons.
One might call it madness.
He didn't exactly swing that absurdly heavy mace with ease; he was in a process of constant trial and error, repeatedly shifting his grip, adjusting his swing, and testing different stances.
After swinging the mace for a while, he finally stopped. He leaned the weapon against a wall—which promptly crumbled under the weight—but he didn't care. He sat down cross-legged beside the rubble, closed his eyes, and entered a state of deep meditation.
He remained perfectly still, but as time passed, beads of sweat began to form on his forehead, and his face contorted as if he were enduring immense agony.
The technique he was practicing through meditation was "Life Return" (Seimei Kikan)—a form of body control known as biofeedback.
The pinnacle of this art is the ability to perceive and control every single part of the body, from a single strand of hair to the tip of a toenail.
It allows the user to manipulate areas normally outside the realm of conscious perception, such as moving hair like hands or changing one's body shape at will.
Someone once said that if a human could stretch their nerves to every pore and nail, there would be no part of the body they couldn't control. Krieg was putting that theory into practice.
The reason for this extreme training was simple: he remembered the original Don Krieg from the story swinging a 10-ton mace with ease. (In reality, it was 1 ton; he had simply misremembered the figure).
Determined to match that feat, he had thought so hard his brain nearly melted, finally reaching a singular conclusion:
I just need to grow more muscle.
But how to grow muscle beyond human limits? His answer was to use "Life Return" for self-modification.
First, he focused on changing the very nature of his muscle fibers. Before he became Krieg—back in his previous life—he recalled that humans have "Red Muscle" (slow-twitch) for endurance and "White Muscle" (fast-twitch) for explosive power.
He also remembered a middle ground called "Pink Muscle" that combined both.
He didn't remember the exact science, only that it required training. So, he trained. He abused and pushed his body to the absolute limit.
Through sheer biological resilience, his body survived the ordeal and was reborn.
With his massive frame, he was eventually able to handle 5 tons with ease. But that wasn't enough to reach the "10 tons" he believed the original Krieg possessed. Thus, he moved to the next stage: total sensory perception of his body.
From the top of his head to his toes, he focused his consciousness on every muscle, organ, and bone. At first, it was a failure. But with time and repetition, it began to bear fruit.
By the age of twenty, Krieg had mastered total perception of his body and moved to the next level. He trained to move parts of himself that shouldn't be movable—internal organs, nails, hair.
Then, he focused on his muscle fibers. He learned to perceive each individual strand and tightened them, making them thinner and more compact.
In short, he was increasing his muscle density. He multiplied the number of muscle fibers and packed even more into the freed-up space.
Of course, a dense engine needs a reinforced chassis. He increased the density of his bones and the strength of his blood vessels and organs to handle the increased metabolic demand and sheer physical output.
The drawbacks were severe: the process of restructuring his body caused excruciating pain, and the massive energy consumption left him in a state of constant, ravenous hunger. His food intake skyrocketed to keep up with his self-evolution.
Though his body modification was still in progress, he could finally handle the weight of 10 tons.
He couldn't swing it "lightly" just yet, but he knew that if he continued this meditation, he would eventually handle that 10-ton mace as effortlessly as the Krieg in his memories (who, again, only ever used 1 ton).
This training brought unexpected bonuses: the increased muscle density made his body as hard as iron, and the improved explosive power drastically increased his speed.
He hadn't tested these improvements against a truly top-tier opponent yet, but the secret of his monstrous strength was now his body itself—possessing a density dozens of times higher than that of a normal man.
A sturdy frame with a muscle mass to match—it was a philosophy akin to that of the Giants.
His self-reconstruction was still incomplete; not every muscle had been replaced yet. When this physical metamorphosis was finally finished, he would undoubtedly ascend to an entirely different stage of power.
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