The ones who would ultimately stop Rocks from conquering the world were Vice Admiral Garp and the pirate Roger.
Before that.
No one believed that, with even the Holy Knights defeated.
Anyone could defeat the Rocks Pirates!
Their strength was practically unmatched!
Every crew member was a monster.
From its very founding, the Rocks Pirates had been unlike any crew before it.
There were no rules, no absolute ruler.
Rocks had gathered these people with strength, schemes, and absolute ambition and promises.
Even the Whitebeard Pirates at their later peak.
And the Red Hair Pirates, known as an iron wall, could not compare!
Whether it was multiple captains or two Emperors.
They all paled in comparison to the Rocks Pirates.
The Rocks Pirates possessed absolute strength, with Rocks alone standing at the pinnacle.
And the monstrous strength of their core crew!
Even an Apprentice Crew Member aboard their main fleet was an inhuman being like Kaido.
By then.
Golden Lion, Whitebeard, Linlin, Wang Zhi, Silver Axe, and John.
Had already made names for themselves.
They had risen to dominate the seas after the Rocks Pirates collapsed!
They were no unknown nobodies starting from scratch.
Even Kaido was an Apprentice Crew Member.
Had occupied Onigashima in Wano Country just ten years later!
Becoming a great pirate whose name resounded throughout the region.
Almost all the powerful female pirates who came later also hailed from this Pirate Crew.
Flame Flower, the original captain of the Kuja Pirates, and the crew member Shakky had nurtured Empress Hancock.
Captain John, a treasure-seeking pirate who plundered riches, also had a follower in Buggy of the Four Emperors.
Wang Zhi later held Hachinosu for decades, immovable as a mountain, until Blackbeard of the Four Emperors defeated him.
To compete with them and win, one had to stand at the pinnacle of the seas.
Looking across decades at sea, it was ultimately the Rocks Pirates who stirred up the storms of the decades to come.
At this moment.
From the moment Rocks and his crew defeated the Holy Knights.
No one thought anyone could be stronger than Rocks!
"Sengoku, Kong, Tsuru! Are you Devil Fruit Users trying to get yourselves killed?"
"Zephyr, you think that little bit of Haki can hurt me?"
"Saturn! From this moment on, God Valley is the next Hachinosu!"
Rocks loudly proclaimed everyone's fate.
"Dark Hole!"
Darkness spread.
God Valley was completely petrified!
Countless powerful fighters were frozen into stone.
Devil Fruit Users would be severely weakened before Rocks's absolute strength.
Whether they were the Five Elders, the Holy Knights, or the Marine Headquarters Admirals and Fleet Admiral.
Unless one was not a Devil Fruit User, one would ultimately become weaker before Rocks.
Even if powerful Haki could resist the effects of his Devil Fruit.
That still meant sacrificing a large portion of one's fighting strength.
The slightest carelessness would still leave them brutally consumed!
"Don't you love the Heavenly Tribute, love your nation-destroying games, love branding everyone a pirate!"
"Then we'll all become pirates and make the Celestial Dragons' world vanish!"
"Saturn! You've lived a long time, haven't you! Have you ever lost?"
The darkness behind Rocks became a gigantic hollow.
Using God Valley's terrain, it transformed into a black hole!
"Petrification, destruction, rebirth!"
"Wherever fear spreads, darkness follows!"
"Defeat him, and only those few old bastards on the Red Line will remain!"
Captain!
A true captain!
At that instant.
Everyone believed their success was within arm's reach.
Overthrow the Celestial Dragons and seize this world.
The Totto Land Linlin wanted, an everlasting Sheep's House.
The family Newgate sought, the homeland he devoted himself to protecting.
The endless war Kaido wanted, a world of utter chaos.
The domination of the seas Golden Lion wanted, making the skies tremble.
Whatever you wanted.
Join the Rocks Pirates, and anything was possible.
Despise the Celestial Dragons, hate the Celestial Dragons, replace the Celestial Dragons, surpass the Celestial Dragons!
Carve up this world!
You champions of chaos and evil upon the seas!
Saint Saturn watched the scene before him.
As Darkness Erosion corroded his body, even the devil was weakened by that darkness.
The Rocks Pirates, by contrast, remained completely unharmed under Rocks's indulgence.
Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit and Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit.
Joined Rocks's fist in a mass assault on Saint Saturn!
"Celestial Dragons! How many Five Elders do you have!"
Darkness tore at everything, swallowing everyone's vision.
"What I promised you is right before your eyes!"
"All the Devil Fruits I promised you are secured."
"From this moment on, the Holy Knights and the Five Elders are the finest hostages!"
"Take them down and overturn this world!"
The Celestial Dragons participating in the nation-destroying game were dead?
It did not matter!
They still had the elite of the elite in their hands!
As long as they won this round and then ascended the Red Line, they could end everything once and for all.
Civilization enslaved barbarism to build pyramids.
But barbarism would not submit to civilization forever.
When hearts yearning for freedom and fairness beat once more.
Civilization would be destroyed in the conflagration of barbaric strength!
Thus.
Throughout the ages, even the histories of those fallen civilizations had ultimately been cut off!
The Void Century was no different.
The victors of that age had become the gods who created the world.
Yet they were merely a band of barbarians wearing oxygen masks and playing astronauts.
In the end, they could not even inherit that lost technology and civilization.
They still had to wait for a Vegapunk eight hundred years later to reproduce it!
Rocks!
Was merely the past revisited, fate reenacted.
A new barbarian who indulged chaos and freedom!
In Saint Saturn's eyes, Rocks was a madman.
He even looked remarkably like Saturn's former self.
So many years ago.
He, too, had been like Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and the others.
Following another Rocks who possessed both strength and cunning.
Would he be replaced?
Could he still win?
How could fate's handover come so soon!
Slash!
Whitebeard's Murakumogiri tore open Saturn's chest.
Blood sprayed.
The wound soon healed.
Crack!
"Quake rupture!"
Newgate gave him no chance to heal, launching a fierce punch.
Haki and the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit were confined to the striking edge of his fist.
"Sakura Ten, Kogarashi!"
"Lion: Thousand-Cut Valley!"
Golden Lion swept up the ground, trapping the towering Saint Saturn's feet in sand and earth.
The Dual Swords slashed rapidly.
However fast you recovered, the attacks would only come faster!
A gigantic axe gleamed silver.
Its divine might could cleave a mountain in a single blow.
The Maser Saber, wreathed in flames and lightning, blasted radiant light across the sky!
"Mama, mama, mama!"
Linlin stood on a thundercloud, her long hair ablaze.
A hand formed from the island was larger than Saint Saturn, and seized both his hands.
Wang Zhi and Silver Axe worked together, carving enormous gashes into his body.
Boom!
John spat out a mist of liquor, seemingly disinfecting Saint Saturn, only for it to become a sea of flames the next moment!
"Thunder Bagua!"
"Moon God Purple Lightning!"
Kaido snatched up an iron rod from the roadside and charged.
Shane combined lightning with the techniques of Finger Pistol and Tempest Kick.
Boom!
Flames, lightning, Haki, quakes, beams, slashes!
Darkness swallowed Saint Saturn, and he could no longer see the path he had come by.
"Let it end! Turn a new page for this world!"
Rocks drove his final punch into Saint Saturn's abdomen.
All the pain and damage converged at that moment.
Saturn felt a wrenching pain throughout his body.
The sensation could not have been more familiar; he simply had not felt it in far too long.
"You clearly aren't Nika, so why would I lose!"
Rumble.
The towering devil crashed to the ground.
Saint Saturn was different from Kaido at his peak.
Those taking turns fighting him were not a new generation challenging the old order.
They were king-level monsters who could weaken and counter him!
His final shred of consciousness shattered as Rocks's darkness frantically consumed him.
Even part of the outer layer of his heart was completely petrified!
When Saint Saturn of the Five Elders fell and did not rise.
The ones standing on his body were the crew of the Rocks Pirates.
By then, they had fought a bloody battle for a full day and night-the marines who had rushed in from every corner of the sea.
All to stop the new King of the World!
Shane had yet to see the dawn.
Under the moonlight.
He gradually mastered the power of Sulong.
And began to awaken Life Return.
His white hair brimmed with vitality and began to dance.
It writhed like snakes, just like Rocks's hair.
"What's your name?"
Rocks walked between Kaido and Shane and asked for confirmation.
"Shane."
"You're an apprentice crew member now."
So said the King of the World.
Before you continue