Baby 5: "It can even be used to make cannons? Doesn't that make it kind of similar to my Devil Fruit ability?"
Viola: "A magic this free-form would definitely become far more powerful in the hands of someone with enough imagination."
Hancock: "Tch. If only that ability could go to me..."
Gion: "If Ain really gets Ultear's template and masters its power, I wonder how Zephyr will feel."
Kujaku: "If Ain ends up controlling ice more creatively than Admiral Kuzan, that's going to hit him pretty hard."
"Congratulations, Ain. You're about to get a seriously powerful template."
Raki spoke to Ain with complete sincerity.
Unlike before, this time Arton had explicitly said that Ain could use Ultear's template.
So now, Raki no longer had to worry about congratulating her too early and making a fool of herself.
"Once you get Ultear's template, we should compare notes."
Robin raised a brow at Ain and smiled.
"After all, my Signora template can create ice too. Or maybe you use ice, I use fire, and we let Captain experience what it feels like to be caught between freezing cold and blazing heat?"
Even though Ain didn't fully understand exactly what Robin meant, just from her tone, she could tell this definitely wasn't about anything proper.
In an instant, Ain's face turned red all over again.
And it wasn't just Ain.
Even Arton himself got caught up in the image for a moment.
The thought of Ain and Robin kneeling in front of him—one wrapping him in searing heat, the other closing in with biting cold—made his pulse jump on its own.
"Captain, shouldn't we keep going and introduce the rest of the template's power?"
Nami gave Arton's shoulder a little shove.
"You said Ultear's template also has power over... uh, time, right?"
"R-Right, right. Sorry, I got distracted."
Arton quickly apologized, then snapped his fingers again.
Ultear, who had been paused by Arton's will, moved once more the instant she received his signal.
First, she thoroughly demonstrated her Ice-Make Magic in front of Ain and the others.
The group watched as all kinds of creations appeared in Ultear's hands as easily as breathing.
Furniture, weapons, plants—one after another took shape in ice all around them.
It was enough to make anyone think that if Ultear had chosen to be an artist, she would have become one of the very best.
After nearly a minute, Ultear suddenly stopped.
She snapped her fingers, and every ice construct around her shattered all at once.
But that was not the end.
Ultear raised one hand and struck a somewhat unusual pose.
Then a mysterious, indescribable power spread out from her body and enveloped the broken ice around her.
"Lost Magic: Arc of Time."
Ultear spoke the words softly, and the strange energy around her activated all at once.
Then, an astonishing sight unfolded.
The shattered ice that had been scattered everywhere began to gather back together, piece by piece, as though time itself had reversed.
Chapter 668: The Sisters' Envy
Smoothie: "So shattered ice can just be restored like that? That's seriously incredible."
Cinnamon: "It really is. There are just too many situations where a power like this could be useful."
The expressions on both sisters gradually turned serious.
From what Arton had said earlier, they already knew Ultear Milkovich's template possessed the power to turn back time.
But hearing about it and actually seeing it were two completely different things.
Hearing Arton say Ultear Milkovich could reverse time was shocking enough.
But it was only after they actually saw her use that time-based power to rewind what had already happened that real alarm set in.
Of course, mixed in with that alarm was a good deal of excitement.
"If one of us had that power, we'd never have to worry about Mama wrecking everything around her whenever she loses control again," Smoothie murmured.
Cinnamon immediately nodded in agreement.
It was hard not to.
Whenever Linlin lost her mind to one of her hunger pangs, massive destruction inevitably followed.
And when that happened, no one in the Big Mom Pirates was capable of stopping her.
Even the Sweet Commanders were no exception.
All they could do was stay as far away from Linlin as possible while scrambling to prepare whatever food could calm her down.
But even when they worked as fast as they could and managed to soothe her in the end, by that point Linlin had usually already caused enormous damage to everything around her.
No matter how rich the Big Mom Pirates were, even they could not keep taking that kind of loss over and over again.
At times like that, if someone had a power like Ultear Milkovich's and could turn time back, they could recover a tremendous amount of lost property.
Even just from that angle alone, Smoothie and Cinnamon both wanted Ultear Milkovich's template badly.
And that was without even getting into how much use that power would clearly have in battle.
If you could reverse time, then couldn't you also reverse an enemy's attack?
The moment an enemy used some ability, all Ultear Milkovich would have to do was activate her time magic, and that attack would go from existing... to never having happened at all.
In a sense, that was already close to being an invincible ability.
"The only question is how much stamina a power like that burns through. If using it doesn't drain that much, then it would be even more perfect," Cinnamon murmured.
"For a power on this level, it's unrealistic to expect the cost to be low," Smoothie said, resting one hand against her cheek. "But even so, the user could still keep it as a trump card."
Then she paused, thinking more deeply.
"Come to think of it... I wonder whether that ability could be used on people whose lifespan Mama has already taken."
Cinnamon's eyes widened.
"You mean... if it were used on someone Mama already stole years from, wouldn't that restore their life?"
"If that ever came to Mama's attention, there's no way she'd allow it, right?"
Just imagining the fury Linlin would unleash if something like that were exposed in front of her made Cinnamon's body shiver.
Having lived under Linlin's shadow, she had no desire to experience her wrath firsthand.
For all she knew, Linlin might just rip away part of her lifespan in anger.
Even if she was Linlin's daughter, that certainly didn't mean she wanted to lose years of her life.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.