On the battlefield aboveground.
Boom!
A hundred-meter-tall golden Buddha came hurtling backward.
He flew straight toward the two members of the Five Elders who had just stepped onto the battlefield.
At the sight, the burly Elder stamped his feet and leaped into the air.
"Hah!"
He planted a palm against Sengoku's back.
His face twisted fiercely like a wrathful guardian as he let out a shout.
With a powerful shove, he righted Sengoku as he hurtled backward.
The golden Buddha landed on both feet, carving long furrows as he slid back.
"Sengoku, go guard the perimeter."
The sword-wielding Elder spoke to Sengoku while coating the cursed blade in his hand with Haki.
The burly Elder grabbed the front of his collar and tore his jacket off!
His black suit jacket flew away, and he coated both fists with Haki, ready to fight.
"Yes, sir."
Sengoku released his Buddha Form and let out a long breath.
After answering, he headed back to the position he had been guarding.
With Roger and the two Elders gone, Kong and Garp had quickly fallen on the defensive.
Sengoku had been forced to join the fight, but that had only improved matters slightly.
Had the two Elders not returned, Rocks might truly have broken through the encirclement and fought his way underground.
There was no denying it: Rocks was truly powerful.
That only strengthened the Five Elders' resolve to eliminate him.
Pirates fighting independently did not actually threaten the World Government's rule.
In fact, they even made its administration somewhat easier.
Only with pirates running rampant would the world's Affiliated Nations become more reliant on the Navy and the World Government.
After all, countries strong enough to stand on their own did exist, but there were only a handful.
And pirates with Conqueror's Haki were all one in a million, each possessing the potential and spirit to rule.
The only way to make those pirates obey was to subdue them with strength.
Rocks had done exactly that.
Golden Lion, Whitebeard, Charlotte Linlin, John, Ochoku, and many other great pirates all obeyed Rocks.
That was a frightening prospect.
It meant that eighty percent of the world's strongest pirates were under Rocks's command.
He was a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.
Rather than let him detonate unexpectedly and inflict crippling damage, it was better to set him off themselves.
As for whether he might overthrow the World Government, the Five Elders had never even considered it. Pirates were ultimately outsiders with far too narrow a view.
They could only glean fragments of subjectively recorded information from Poneglyphs scattered who knew where, yet they thought they had grasped the truth of the world.
How could they know the depths of the World Government's power?
Just news of a damaged Ancient Weapon had been enough to make even an overlord like Rocks throw caution to the wind.
And Rocks had not disappointed them. A single piece of news had made him muster all his forces. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
In the eight hundred years since the World Government's founding, heroes and ruthless overlords had emerged on these seas in an endless cycle.
Every few decades, an overlord like this would appear, uniting more than half the pirates and obstructing the World Government's rule.
Some were bold, some insane, some scheming, and some domineering, but in the end, they all became... dead!
Rocks was not the first, nor would he be the last.
Decades later, his name would only surface in the recollections of a few old pirates nearing the end of their lives.
A few more decades, and every trace of him would vanish. No one would know that such a great pirate had once reigned over the world.
And some years after that, another great pirate would rise to reign over the world, repeating the same thing...
"Meet your end."
"Rocks."
The sword-wielding Elder's emotionless voice rang out, his words calm.
As though describing Rocks's fate, or pronouncing his sentence, he swung his blade at Rocks, splitting heaven and earth in two!