One Piece 1077 notably highlighted the incredible power of the Lunarians. Enhanced with the DNA of King, the only survivor of the Lunarian tribe, Seraphim cyborgs were able to endure even direct attacks from Luffy, despite the latter using his Gear 4 form.
Frustrated by his efforts to be in vain, Luffy even compared the durability of Seraphims to that of Kaido. This was telling, given the immense toughness of Kaido, the World's Strongest Creature.
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the One Piece manga up to chapter 1077. It also reflects the writer's personal views.
One Piece 1077 certifies that Lunarians are a force to be reckoned with
Lunarians have the special ability to ignite their bodies
Long ago, the Lunarians inhabited the Red Line. At one point, the tribe nearly disappeared, with almost all its members being exterminated under circumstances that are yet to be disclosed.
The World Government rewards anyone with relevant information about the whereabouts of a Lunarian survivor with no less than 100 million berries. This may hint at the World Government being the one who hunted Lunarians.
Lunarians have special distinctive traits - brown skin, white hair, and black wings. Moreover, they bear a flame burning on their back, which is the secret of their immense reputation for strength. Lunarians are indeed hailed as a race of gods who can survive in every situation and environment.
Owing to the flames on their backs, the Lunarians can endure frightening attacks without receiving any injuries. By switching off the flames, they can temporarily swap some of their toughness for a sudden speed boost.
Lunarian survivor King is one of the strongest Yonko Commanders
The only known survivor of the Lunarian race is Alber. Initially held captive by the World Government, Alber was recruited by Kaido, who named him "King" to emphasize his notable fighting capabilities.
Therefore, Alber became Kaido's right-hand man. Since then, he has served the latter as his strongest and most loyal subordinate. When Kaido headed to Marineford, he brought no crewmember with him except for King, which showed how much he trusted his capabilities.
Several years later, King was featured in One Piece's Wano arc as one of the most prominent antagonists for the alliance. At the beginning of the arc, King proved his might as the "Number Two" of the Beasts Pirates.
He single-handedly repelled the Big Mom Pirates' ship, despite Charlotte Linlin and other prominent fighters such as Perospero and Smoothie being on it. Later in the arc, King overpowered Sanji, despite the latter using his Raid Suit.
King later teamed up with his crewmate Queen to fight Marco, the former right-hand man of Whitebeard, forcing him to consume most of his energies. Exploiting Marco's fatigued state, King managed to put the squeeze on him, leaving him almost exhausted.
King was later challenged by Roronoa Zoro, the right-hand man of Monkey D. Luffy. After a heated fight, Zoro defeated King, striking him with a devastating attack that caused him to end up mutilated.
A few days later, still weakened by the previous beating, King was overwhelmed by Marine Admiral Ryokugyu. He is yet to reappear again in the One Piece series, and his current state remains unknown.
King displayed remarkable Armament Haki and raw physical strength, proving himself to be a fearsome swordsman. He also wielded the powers of the Dragon-Dragon Fruit Model: Pteranodon.
Owing to this Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit, King could unleash enough power to destroy large pieces of Onigashima. Moreover, he has gained pteranodon wings so tough that they can block Zoro's Black Rope Dragon Twister, a move that cut through Kaido's dragon scales, wounding him.
Thanks to his natural-born powers as a Lunarian, King was able to ignite himself, freely creating fire and manipulating it. He could coat his limbs with flames, enhancing his punches, kicks, and slashes.
King could also unleash tremendous fire blasts to incinerate his enemies from any range. His flames were akin to magma, which in the One Piece world is much stronger than normal fire. This ability earned him the moniker of "Wildfire."
To this day, it is unknown whether Lunarian fire is inherently comparable to magma, or if King was the only member of his race who could conjure such a powerful flame.
King's Lunarian heritage allowed him to fully withstand most attacks. Despite being struck with Zoro's Death Lion Song, a move even stronger than Dragon Twister, which already cut Kaido's body and wounded him, King didn't even shed a single drop of blood.
Such an occurrence proved that, at least with regard to resilience, King was even superior to Kaido. Considering the high durability of Kaido's dragon-enhanced body, this emphasizes the might of the last surviving Lunarian.
Seraphims are enhanced with King's Lunarian DNA
Seraphims are cyborgs created by Dr. Vegapunk, fulfilling the World Government's request to develop living weapons that could substitute the Seven Warlords, who previously were the allies of the Marines among the Three Great Powers.
They are built based on the Lineage Factor of former members of the Seven Warlords, whose childhood versions they resemble. Moreover, they are empowered by the peculiar powers of the Lunarian race.
When King was a child, he was held captive by the World Government. After conducting experiments to test his resilience, Vegapunk used King's DNA to enhance the Seraphims, providing them with the same natural-born abilities as Lunarians.
Vegapunk likely created a cyborg for each of the former members of the Seven Warlords. To this day, four Seraphims have been revealed, each one equipped with Green Blood, a substance instilled with Lineage Factor, allowing them to gain genetic memories of the skills learned from the same person.
- S-Hawk (based on Dracule Mihawk, the World's Strongest Swordsman)
- S-Bear (based on Bartholomew Kuma, a former member of the Revolutionaries)
- S-Snake (based on Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress of Amazon Lily)
- S-Shark (based on Jinbe, a master of Fishmen Karate)
Combining the signature powers of former Warlords with the special abilities of Lunarians, Seraphim cyborgs visually resemble the former and possess the biology of the latter. Through the Lineage Factor of a determined Paramecia-user, Seraphims can emulate Devil Fruit abilities. S-Hawk can use the Dice-Dice Fruit, S-Bear can use the Paw-Paw Fruit, S-Snake can use the Love-Love Fruit, and S-Shark can use the Swim-Swim Fruit.
All Seraphims can also exploit a partial replica of the Glint-Glint Fruit, which grants them the usage of highly destructive lasers. Moreover, S-Hawk, the Seraphim based on Dracule Mihawk, has displayed incredibly powerful swordsmanship.
A single slash from S-Hawk cut Amazon Lily's biggest mountain in half. Even Blackbeard, one of the Four Emperors and a tough individual, was forced to cover himself in Armament Haki to withstand S-Hawk's strike without getting injured.
Due to their bodies being infused with King's DNA, the Seraphims possesses the same outstanding durability as Lunarians. Owing to such powers, for instance, S-Hawk came out completely unscathed after being struck with an attack from Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit.
The toughness of Lunarians is troublesome even for Luffy
In Egghead, Seraphims are being highlighted even more. Following an unpredictable turn of events, Lucci and Kaku, the two former members of CP9, now elite agents of CP0, asked Luffy and Zoro for a temporary alliance to fend off S-Hawk and S-Bear.
Despite being confronted by such a powerful quartet, the two Seraphims were able to endure every attack. Not even consecutive barrages of fearsome techniques in quick succession broke their resistance.
S-Hawk was struck by Kaku's Rankyaku: White Thunder and Rankyaku: Onslaught, as well as by two powerful techniques from Zoro, the Purgatory Onigiri and the Death Lion Song. Meanwhile, Lucci hit S-Bear with his Rokuogan and his Shigan: Yellow Lotus. Luffy even used his Gear 4 transformation to strike S-Bear with Gom-Gom Kong Gun and Gom-Gom Kong Organ.
The attacks from the two Straw Hats and the two CP0 agents packed enormous power. Still, they failed to injure S-Hawk and S-Bear. The unbelievable display of resilience from the two cyborgs left Luffy astonished.
Luffy even likened the toughness of S-Hawk and S-Bear to that of Kaido, a former member of the Four Emperors. Such a statement holds incredible value, given that Kaido's resilience was substantially unparalleled in One Piece.
He took several swarms of powerful opponents, including Zoro, Yamato, and Luffy, always coming on top even while consuming a lot of energy to make the Onigashima island levitate. He only lost to Luffy after inflicting three previous defeats on him.
Kaido not only possessed an exceedingly hard body but an exceptionally high degree of endurance as well. Before going down, he took countless hits, including Zoro's Ashura and several Advanced Conqueror's Haki-powered techniques from Luffy in his Gear 4 and Gear 5 forms.
As such, for Seraphims to possess comparable resilience to that of Kaido is an enormous acknowledgment of power. By extension, this reinforces the reputation for the strength of King, whose DNA allowed Seraphims to exploit the peculiar abilities of Lunarians.
The jarring showcase displayed by S-Hawk and S-Bear in One Piece 1077 reinforced the idea of King's Lunarian powers, gifting him with a superior defense than even Kaido. Such a concept was already implied in chapters 1032 and 1033 of One Piece.
While some fans refuted the idea that King's durability could surpass even that of Kaido, it seems that, with regards to this specific parameter, the right-hand man surpasses even his mighty captain.
In fact, Vegapunk Shaka revealed that King was the source of the genetic material which was later implanted in Seraphims. As such, King's Lunarian DNA is the only reason for the extraordinary toughness of Seraphim cyborgs.
Final Thoughts
Concerning durability, King even surpassed Kaido. Luffy and Zoro's words in One Piece 1077 further implied this. After seeing his Gear 4 attacks being useless against a Seraphim, Luffy likened such toughness, which is a result of King's Lunarian DNA, to that of Kaido.
Moreover, Zoro declared that King was practically invincible when using his Lunarian powers. This led some One Piece fans to wonder how King could lose brutally against Zoro and later against Admiral Ryogyoku.
When King and Queen faced Ryogyoku, they were yet to recover from the injuries that they had just received. King was especially weakened, given that the previous battle with Zoro left him mutilated on a limb, with his sword cut in half, and deeply wounded.
Such an impaired condition can justify a loss against a foe of the caliber of a Marine Admiral. Moreover, while Queen was completely drained by Ryogyoku's power, King was only superficially pierced. Rather than being beaten, he was restrained.
With regards to the battle between King and Zoro, to successfully hurt Kaido's strongest subordinate, the green-haired swordsman needed a notable effort. First, Zoro needed to fully understand the secret of King's body.
Despite already being strong enough to significantly wound Kaido, Zoro needed to enhance his attacks even further. He was only able to beat King after unleashing the all-powerful Advanced Conqueror's Haki, a power which is renowned for its game-changing ability.
With Seraphims showing the same extraordinary resilience as King, this is the path to follow in the ongoing battle of Egghead. Now that Zoro revealed the secret of the Lunarians' toughness to Luffy, Lucci, and Kaku, they will certainly gain the upper hand in this fierce battle.