Sitting alone on a large block of black stone, Noah stared at the egg and the two cocoons in front of him.
The egg belonged to the Thunderfire Phoenix he had created.
The two cocoons, on the other hand, belonged to different creatures.
The first cocoon, which reached a hundred meters in height and was covered in veins, belonged to the second Emperor bloodline he had reproduced using the same method with which he recreated the phoenix lineage.
Inside, the embryo of a pure-blooded titan was forming.
The third cocoon, however, was the easiest to obtain. It was black, and its surface resembled withered skin.
Inside slept nothing less than the child of Death.
As he looked at it, Noah recalled what had happened a few hours earlier.
Returning to the world of Harry Potter, Noah used the door to the Death Chamber to summon Death and force it to appear before him in its true body.
Death could no longer disobey him, now that he had control over its soul through its true name, and could only comply.
The moment Death stepped through the portal, its instincts screamed as a golden light plummeted toward it.
It tried to move, but shadows climbed up its body and momentarily restrained it.
Although it broke free a moment later, the Reincarnation Explosion from the Golden Wheel had already struck, slicing its body in half.
Disbelief was still etched on Death's face as it watched its body being cut, but Noah gave it no chance to recover.
The two halves of Death's body distorted in the air, absorbed into the Kamui dimension.
Death's soul fled its body, only to be caught by a massive claw of cyan chakra that slammed it into the ground.
The cyan chakra pulverized its spiritual form, reducing its soul to nothing.
Then the fire proceeded to burn its body completely, leaving only a heart floating in the air.
This cyan fire was an extension of Noah's chakra cloak—an upgraded version of Fiendfyre.
Using Dark Release and the original incantation, he had turned the cyan flames into a spiritual-natured spell.
Thanks to the Yin attribute and the Dark Release fire, Noah had managed to recreate the spell with ease.
Noah smiled, euphoric, as he saw the heart. He quickly pulled out the Philosopher's Stone formed from life energy.
The stone melted and turned into a withered-looking cocoon that enveloped the heart, stimulating the bloodline within to create a new body and soul.
Snapping out of the memory, Noah rubbed his chin as he pondered what to do next.
"Since I'm at it... should I awaken the Rinnegan?"
After a moment's thought, he dismissed the idea.
"Not until I'm done with this bloodline mess, first... Anyway... on to the next objective."
Exiting the Kamui dimension, Noah activated his Elder Blood and passed through the portal.
---
East Blue, Dawn Island.
Noah hid among the crowd, watching closely as a young man with black hair and freckles, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, prepared to set sail.
Portgas D. Ace smiled confidently as the villagers cheered and offered words of encouragement.
However, amid the noise and farewells, Noah threw on his invisibility cloak, and instantly, the crowd lost all sense of his presence.
He had become invisible to all eyes.
He slipped through the crowd and approached the dock, where Ace's small boat floated, ready to depart.
Without hesitation, he silently jumped aboard, making sure not to make a sound.
The young pirate untied the ropes and pushed the boat away from the dock, his smile full of excitement.
"Here we go!" he shouted, raising a fist to the sky as the boat drifted away.
---
The journey went smoothly until nightfall.
The sea turned rough, and Ace's small boat couldn't withstand the growing waves.
Despite Ace's efforts to keep control, the boat eventually capsized, throwing him into the sea.
Noah reacted instantly. Using his psychic powers, he levitated himself.
Ace, however, wasn't so lucky. The force of the impact knocked him unconscious, and his body was at the mercy of the ocean.
For several long minutes, he was dragged by the waves until he finally washed ashore on a large island.
When he awoke on the beach, his clothes in tatters and body aching, the first thing he noticed was the presence of another man, equally battered.
Ace didn't let his guard down. He stayed silent, watching cautiously as the man, whose face was partially covered by a mask, brushed off the sand and returned a similarly wary gaze.
"Who are you?" Ace finally asked.
"Masked Deuce," the man answered after a brief pause. "And I guess we're stuck on the same damn island."
Ace didn't respond right away. Instead, he kept a close eye on Deuce's movements.
Over the next few hours, he noticed the man combing the beach with particular interest, examining the sand and checking every corner.
"He's looking for something," Ace thought. And if there was something valuable on the island, he had no intention of letting that guy find it first.
Without saying a word, Ace began exploring too, pretending indifference but staying alert to his unexpected companion.
As the days passed, the tension between them grew.
Each tried to get ahead in the search, digging in different spots, checking cracks in the rocks, and exploring the dense vegetation.
But the island seemed unwilling to yield its supposed treasure, and all they found was unbearable hunger.
When they were on the brink of collapse, they found a strange, eye-catching fruit among the underbrush.
Both froze, staring at each other.
"It's mine," Ace said, stepping forward.
"I saw it first," Deuce replied, taking a defensive stance.
The tension exploded into a sudden fight.
Weakened by hunger, they struggled clumsily, rolling on the ground and exchanging feeble blows until exhaustion overcame them.
Neither of them noticed a hand reaching out, swapping the fruit for an apple that mysteriously took on the appearance of the original fruit.
Finally, Ace sat up and grabbed the fruit, splitting it in half.
"Since neither of us won, we share it," he grumbled.
Deuce hesitated for a moment, but hunger prevailed.
"Some people are just destined for certain things," Noah sighed.
Ace was destined to find the Mera Mera no Mi on this island. It was his path.
No matter how he got here, he would've ended up at this point eventually.
The same goes for other people in different worlds.
"Seems I'll need to research this in the future."
As a favor, Noah created a wooden raft using his Mokuton.
It wasn't anything fancy, but it would serve as compensation for stealing his Devil Fruit.
Using the Magic Door, he returned to Dawn Island.
After some thought, he decided his next destination would be the Conomi Islands.
To get there without trouble, he located a low-ranking Marine ship and infiltrated it with ease.
In the middle of the night, while the crew slept, he used a subtle mind-control spell to implant orders into their subconscious.
Upon waking, the Marines acted as usual, unaware they were being manipulated.
Without questioning anything, they set course for the Conomi Islands, obeying Noah's will without even knowing it.
During the journey, Noah stayed hidden in the ship's hold.
He used the time to study maps of the region.