The Muscle Fruit is truly dangerous. After eating it, all you can think about is muscles.
"Muscle Giant: Twin Titans!" Loki roared as his arms swelled to nearly the size of his entire body. The massive muscles smashed down with overwhelming force.
Boom!
Ten minutes later, Loki lay sprawled on the ground, limp like a defeated dog.
"Are you convinced now?" Lynch asked, standing over him.
"Not convinced!" Loki gritted his teeth.
Without hesitation, Lynch delivered another round of punishment. Loki's once-handsome face was now a swollen mess of bruises, his eyes reduced to mere slits.
"Swear loyalty to me, and I'll spare your life," Lynch offered.
"Bah! Hit me all you want, I won't bow!" Loki mumbled through his swollen lips.
"Alright, have it your way."
Another half-hour of relentless beating followed. This time, Lynch didn't hold back, making sure Loki felt every blow.
Tom stretched out his hand to cover Hilda's eyes. The scene was too cruel and not suitable for children.
By the ninth time Loki was knocked unconscious, he could no longer maintain his muscle strength.
Loki's body began to shrink—35 meters became 20, then 10, and finally, he stopped at just 2.2 meters.
Among giants, this was laughably small. Even among humans, 2.2 meters was hardly imposing.
"Wait... is this Loki's real height?" Lynch tilted his head, amused.
"So your brother also has Elbaf Dwarf Syndrome?"
It turns out Loki's towering stature was artificially sustained by the power of his Muscle Fruit. Over the years, he had instinctively kept his ability active 24/7, even in his sleep, to avoid revealing his true form.
But today, after being knocked unconscious nine times, his strength and composure completely failed him, and he could no longer maintain the facade. His true size was finally exposed.
For Loki, being seen in his real form might have been a greater humiliation than death itself.
At this point, Loki found himself trapped in a difficult situation.
It wasn't Hilda, but Loki who had first discovered he had Elb disease.
Giants grow slowly at first, but then experience a rapid growth spurt until they reach a certain size.
Before the age of four, Loki showed no signs of abnormality. In fact, he stood out as the smartest of the children, even becoming the leader of his peers.
However, around the age of five or six, while his playmates began growing taller, Loki noticed something troubling—his body seemed to have stopped growing.
He became the shortest among his peers, and that's when the thought crossed his mind: could he have Elb disease, the infamous curse?
As time went on, Loki's fear grew. Though his body was still maturing in some ways, his height stopped increasing.
In a panic, Loki tried every method he could think of to grow taller, desperate to keep his secret hidden.
But if Elb disease were so easy to cure, it wouldn't be called a curse of the devil.
One day, the other children noticed that Loki, who seemed to be "shrinking," was no longer growing taller. They pointed it out to the elders, who confirmed that Loki had the dreaded Elb disease.
From that moment, Loki's life changed. The villagers began to look at him with disgust and suspicion. If not for the protection of his parents, Loki feared what they might do to him.
His friends, who once saw him as the leader, now turned their backs on him.
They no longer played with him and instead bullied him whenever they saw him, leaving Loki too scared to go outside.
Even when his parents tried to intervene, it made no difference. Seeing the disappointment and sorrow in their eyes felt like a knife to Loki's heart.
Later, his sister was also diagnosed with Elb disease, and Loki blamed himself, thinking he had passed the curse onto her.
Because the villagers refused to sell food to his family, Loki's parents had no choice but to go fishing on their own.
One day, Loki's parents encountered Sea Kings while out at sea and never returned. From that moment, Loki understood true despair.
Without their parents' protection, Loki and his sister were cast out of the village. They had no choice but to survive on wild fruits, struggling to make it through each day.
No one knew the hardships two children, no older than seven, faced alone in the wild. They encountered poisonous potatoes, itchy radishes, and even the dangerous Lion Majesty wild boar.
During this time, Loki made a vow to protect his sister in place of their parents.
Months passed, and every time Loki encountered the village children, they would beat him. The constant abuse twisted Loki's young mind.
Hilda, on the other hand, was luckier. As long as Loki was around, she was spared from the beatings.
After nearly dying from yet another beating, Loki's resolve hardened. He swore he would one day kill every giant and anyone who had ever bullied him or his sister.
Unable to endure the constant bullying and perhaps believing that those with Elbaf disease were destined not to live past 18, Loki decided to set sail.
He knew that his journey would be a dangerous escape, but he felt he had no other choice. One early morning, he left all the food for his sister and silently set off on a raft, disappearing into Elbaf.
There were no goodbyes, only departure.
Sometimes, when one door closes, another opens. Loki was lucky. Despite the harsh weather of the New World, he survived and even found a Devil Fruit.
Growing up surrounded by betrayal and deception in the human world, Loki's character grew darker. His hatred for the giants only deepened with time and became the driving force behind his desire for revenge.
Eventually, Loki's Muscle Fruit awakened, allowing him to change his body and breaking the lifespan limit caused by Elbaf disease.
When Loki returned to Elbaf after many years, his thoughts had changed from when he was a child.
The power he gained through the Devil Fruit fueled his ambition. He no longer just wanted revenge; he wanted to become the king of the giants, the king of the world.
And he succeeded.
However, in the process of achieving his goals, he lost something far more important—his humanity.
"Father... Mother, did I do something wrong?"
"Hilda... I... I don't think I am the person I once was."
Loki, who had passed out, remained unconscious for a long time. Lynch placed seastone handcuffs on him and imprisoned him in the warship's prison.
Loki was actually worth 80 points, and with his defeat, the entire high-level combat power of the Giants was eliminated by Lynch.
Under Lynch's command, Mark and Iron Punishment led 30,000 Marines to Elbaf. They captured all the giants—men, women, and children—and sent them to the warship.
Luckily, thirty warships were involved, or there would have been no room for everyone. The giant race's population isn't large, only about two thousand, but their size makes them difficult to handle.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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