Michael then found himself alone outside the gate of a castle with a guard looking at him, shocked that he had just appeared in front so suddenly. The guard then recovered from his shock, since it would be his life that was the prize if the person in front of him, clearly a Celestial Dragon from his suit attire, seemed to be missing a bubble in his head.
"Is Sommers here?" Michael asked the guard, who answered as respectfully and humbly as possible.
"Saint Shepard Sommers is indeed here, Saint Shepard Michael," the guard answered respectfully, stepping aside to let him through. Michael nodded and walked inside, making his way toward the office of the Shepherd Sommers.
Michael's relationship with his cousin, Sommers, could be described as that of mentor and protégé — though from Michael's perspective, much of what Sommers tried to teach him was little more than worthless garbage.
One of the clearest examples was Sommers' twisted concept of love, which he defined as "hurting one another." His sadism ran deep; he often demonstrated it using the powers of his Thorn-Thorn Fruit. Sommers would wrap the children of slaves in thorny vines, then force the parents to embrace their own trapped offspring under threat of death for their children.
Driven by love and desperation, the parents would have no choice but to hug their children, even as the sharp thorns pierced deeply into both bodies.
The children, helpless and terrified, could only watch as their parents slowly bled to death — victims of a horrific and agonizing love, which made them cry heavily, ensuring that the parents are still alive, Sommers would kill the child first in front of the parents, making them watch as the the child they wanted to save, was killed first before them, with Sommers not even granting the parents a swift release of death, often leaving them in their miserable state where they slowly bleed to death.
I should feel something... but I don't. Is this Cain's influence? Michael thought to himself, remembering one particular incident from the body's original memories.
He recalled how Sommers had casually created a thorny vine wrapped around a young child's neck. The parents, desperate to save their child, tried to remove the vine, only to be punctured by the razor-sharp thorns in their hands. Their frantic attempts to free the boy only tightened the vines further, the spikes digging deeper, until the child was ultimately killed right before their eyes.
Enraged by their loss, the parents lunged at Sommers in blind fury. But Sommers, completely unfazed, slaughtered them with a casual cruelty, as if swatting away insects too insignificant to deserve a second thought.
Michael, can't help but think that this should make him drop to his stomach and vomit if he only had his original memories from his past life, did not react, since he got the memories of Cain, inventor of the Hercules method, it made him completely lack empathy, since, it would be the embodiment of human perfection through numerous murders.
He continued walking, thinking about all of his changes, until he reached the office of Sommers, which had the title outside of the door that said, Dagger of the Holy Land of Mary Geoise Sommers of God's Knight, Michael then knocked inside, where he found Sommers in his underwear, and absentmindedly reading the newspaper.
"Sommers," Michael said, getting the attention of Sommers, who looked at him with a serious expression.
"Oh, Michael, what are you doing here?" Sommers greeted him and asked, confused as to why his younger cousin went to his office/mansion in God's Knight quarters.
"Today is my joining of God's Knight," Michael answered without changes in his tone, stating his business and purpose on seeing Sommers, who immediately remembered after Michael reminded him.
"Ahhh, that's right. Wait, I'll put on my uniform," Sommers said casually, donning the full attire of a God's Knight.
Once fully dressed, he summoned an abyssal portal, a swirling darkness that opened beneath them. Without hesitation, Sommers and Michael stepped into it, teleporting to the island where the formal selection would begin.
The island was filled with young candidates, most from noble bloodlines — the sons and daughters of Celestial Dragon families. Some were half-bloods, born from forced unions between full-blooded Celestials and their wives that they took from the underworld.
When Michael arrived through the abyssal portal, the attention of the gathered crowd immediately shifted toward him.
The moment they saw his flowing blonde hair and the pristine white suit — the formal attire typical of Celestial Dragons — many instantly recognized him. He was Saint Michael F. Shepard, the son of the Supreme Commander of the God's Knights and the grandson of the current serving Warrior God of Agriculture.
Whispers rippled through the assembly. For many of them, it was a rare honor — only those closely tied to the highest echelons of the World Government had ever even glimpsed Saint Michael before. To witness him here, standing among them, made them feel as though they were part of something truly significant.
Michael, noticing the stares and hushed whispers directed at him, chose to ignore them. He stood calmly, waiting for the ceremony to begin, overhearing murmurs about his supposed strength, strength said to be inherited from the union of two of the most prestigious bloodlines among the Celestial Dragons.
After nearly an hour of waiting, a figure with long, striking red hair, clad in the official uniform of the God's Knights, strode confidently onto the platform. He was accompanied by a short-haired woman wrapped in bandages beneath her ceremonial robe; a dragon-like creature wielding a bizarre trident with asymmetrical blades, wearing the bubble-shaped headgear typical of Celestial Dragons; and lastly, an older man, distinguished by his dark shades and the single rose pinned to his chest.
The four figures were revealed to be Saint Shamrock Figarland, Gunko, Saint Killingham Rimoshifu, and Saint Shepard Sommers.
Among the gathered half-blood candidates, many gazed with particular admiration at Gunko. Despite being born from the union of a Celestial Dragon and a slave, she had risen through the rigid social ranks to achieve a position of power — a feat many of them aspired to replicate. To them, Gunko embodied a rare, almost unreachable hope: that even those of mixed blood could carve a place for themselves among the so-called "gods."
Saint Shamrock then drew his sword and sent an attack towards the recruits in front, intending to test them in their current capacity. Shamrock then sent a stronger attack towards his half-brother, intending to see whether he deserved the Figarland blood that was flowing inside him.
Michael, observing Shamrock's sudden attack, merely looked on with boredom. He was already prepared, thanks to his naturally strong Observation Haki, enhanced further by the precognitive abilities granted by the Hercules Method.
Without much effort, Michael activated his Devil Fruit power using his sword as a medium, breaking down the incoming attack into countless smaller fragments until it simply disintegrated, vanishing as if it had never existed at all.
Shamrock, seeing his stronger attack so effortlessly dismantled by his half-brother, grinned maniacally. In his mind, this was proof that the Figarland blood flowing through Michael was not in vain. Meanwhile, Sommers, watching from the side, scoffed inwardly, attributing Michael's prowess instead to the strength of the Shepard bloodline.