"Shane! Snap out of it!"
Flameflower's Flower Snake coiled around Shane.
Stussy, who had hidden in a corner, wore a wicked grin.
She simply tucked her Flintlock Pistol into her leather belt.
She wore a Noble Hat perfectly suited for a shopping trip.
Then she actually took a bottle of Reagent from the pouch at her waist.
Years later, Stussy would possess Whitebeard II, a human modified through lineage factor.
Her own modified clone would also become a King of the Dark Underworld and a member of CP0.
She had also been a member of Vegapunk's laboratory before he rose to prominence!
Even now, she had already used her clever mind to create many drugs, instinctively beginning to seek the essence of life!
In this era.
Ohara, the symbol of wisdom, had yet to be destroyed.
The waters of the Calm Belt could not yet be navigated.
Knowledge and technology were both shackled.
They awaited the questions of humanity, which had been silent for eight hundred years.
Only when Dr. Clover deciphered the Poneglyphs and unearthed the Void Century.
And Vegapunk, the Brain-Brain Fruit user, replicated ancient technology and sought the truth.
Would human intellects finally clash.
Before that.
Every future madman was merely a scientist with a burning heart!
"Shane, your body should be able to withstand my drug!"
Stussy murmured, unable to help feeling a little excited.
"Kaido and Newgate have always refused. Otherwise, I'd really love to use them as test subjects."
"But I still managed to collect a strand of Newgate's hair!"
"I'll succeed sooner or later, won't I?"
"Everything has to start somewhere. With you, for instance!"
Stussy's drug was pale purple.
There was no telling what was inside it.
Flame Flower glanced at her, thoroughly annoyed.
"Could you hurry up? You might as well just poison him to death!"
Hearing Flame Flower's words.
Stussy poured the pale purple drug straight onto Shane's wound.
"It's very impolite to take advantage of someone when they're unprepared."
Shakky spoke very elegantly from beside them.
The drug rapidly seeped into his internal organs through his blood.
With a monster like Shane, there would practically be no chance to experiment unless they took advantage of this moment!
Shane's eyes remained open, though they were vacant.
But his consciousness was trying to regain clarity within the white fog.
His wounds healed rapidly.
The pale purple drug wove through them, producing new, pitch-black dragon scales.
Even Shane's broken fingers twisted back into place, returning to normal once more.
His entire body trembled as immense vitality surged forth.
"I've always wondered where the limits of human potential lie."
"To obtain more test subjects, and to find the answer to eternal youth."
"I joined the Rocks Pirates! Linlin and Kaido are both anomalies."
"They even possess certain traits of Devil Fruits."
"I kept experimenting, trying to find common ground, the connection between humans and Devil Fruits."
"Perhaps it will take a long time to decipher that answer, but before then."
"I've already begun exploring the possibility of pushing humans beyond their limits to unleash their maximum combat strength!"
"This drug contains an extremely potent stimulant, along with super antibiotics."
"As long as you can withstand its effects, it can stimulate hormones, block toxins, and accelerate healing!"
"The price? There's only one!"
"Constant fighting!"
Stussy's eyes were alluring, but unfortunately.
The wound at Shane's flank healed completely.
Streams of white vapor rose from his entire body.
His cells were fighting furiously, which meant the drug was continuing to work.
It also meant that unless Shane suffered such severe injuries again.
It would be difficult to conduct any more experiments!
Crack, crack, crack.
His bones made strange noises.
The white fog in Shane's eyes turned into dazzling sunlight.
As his body healed.
His cellular activity increased dramatically.
Roar!
The black-scaled dragon roared into the sky.
As he regained his senses, an intense desire to fight arose within him!
"Purple Lightning Hot Windstorm!"
He spun at high speed in midair.
His Bolo Breath erupted into a massive pillar of flame powerful enough to shatter a mountain.
Purple lightning and bad wind coiled around it, forming a frenzied pillar of energy.
Saint Saturn emerged from the valley.
The six-pointed star vanished from the ruins.
He stood at the heart of the battlefield with Saint Garling.
Shane's attack came straight at them.
"How does that guy still have any strength left?"
Kaido lay atop Zeus.
Linlin also looked toward the sky in surprise.
She had never expected Shane to have such great potential.
"Let's go take a look!"
"That guy's still very young, and a little unruly!"
"But he can still become my right-hand man, just like you!"
Charlotte Linlin was still dreaming of having both Shane and Kaido, two powerful fighters, at her side.
Little did she know.
The two had long since planned to strike out on their own.
"Shane will come with me!"
Kaido was thinking of recruiting Shane as his Vice Captain and roaming the seas.
Once Rocks succeeded on this expedition, the two would join forces and dominate a territory.
"Really? That's perfect!"
Linlin was overjoyed to hear that.
The plan is completely workable!
The flames scorched the air, illuminating the ruins in the canyon.
Those civilians and slaves slaughtered in the Celestial Dragons' hunting game.
The battlefield built from their corpses seemed to be lamenting the world's injustice.
The Celestial Dragons always liked to erase everything.
They kept the world ignorant, believing it could forever accept history.
But that was impossible!
More than a decade ago, people had begun publishing newspapers one after another, even hoping to circulate them throughout the world.
But that plan had always been considered a fool's dream.
Recently, however, it had begun to show promise.
The future News King, Morgans, was only fifteen.
He would soon ride the tide of the times, using News Coos to deliver all information across the world.
Before that.
The Celestial Dragons, with CP9 and CP0, possessed the most comprehensive intelligence.
As did the Marines under their command!
Afterward.
Not only would Morgans rise, gradually becoming the News King of the Underworld.
The major powers would also cultivate intelligence agencies of their own.
The history in which the Celestial Dragons believed they could erase every trace of any existence at will would steadily crumble.
At least the Rocks Pirates had achieved that, even with their captain dead.
The remnants of the Rocks Pirates still terrorized the seas for decades!
"Saint Saturn!!"
Shane, too, became a remnant of the old era.
Before that.
Shane was still a newcomer among pirates, a future overlord of the seas.
His roar did not cease.
Heat waves swept through God Valley.
Blazing flames slammed into Saint Saturn's arms.
He had not expected Shane's vitality to be so tenacious, much less that a young man who had only just obtained his Devil Fruit powers could hold out until now.
This feeling...
Was utterly revolting!
The stronger that vitality, the more it reminded him of someone detestable.
Joy Boy!
The energy bombardment continued without pause.
Severed limbs lay everywhere in the illuminated canyon.
Who knew how many eyes were covered in dust, how many bodies were mangled beyond recognition.
Before the Celestial Dragons trampled them.
They, too, had been one another's family, lovers, relatives, and friends.
The flames raised the temperature of the air.
It was clearly an evil pirate bombarding the Demon Ox-oni.
Yet he gave them their only light after death.
"God-Slaying Slash!"
Saint Garling felt disgusted at the sight.
He raised his Saber and slashed through the air!
"You ought to replace that sword."
Bang!
A hand seized the blade.
The surface of the sword rapidly petrified!
Then, with another strike, the newcomer forcefully snapped it apart.
What master swordsman!
Ask the King of the World first!
Rocks's long hair streamed behind him, and it was already impossible to tell whether his fist was covered in darkness or Haki!
Boom!
A punch hurtled toward Saint Garling's face.
"Get down there!"
"Rocks!"
This time.
It was not only the Five Elders and the Holy Knights shouting his name, but also Marine Headquarters and the Roger Pirates!
The man known as the most reckless captain turned his head.
And looked at the dragon in the sky!
"Light up this valley. It's too dark!"
"Why call it God Valley? Gods aren't noble."
"There's a Devil Mock Town on the Grand Line. It's far livelier than this place."
Darkness erupted from Rocks's entire body, and all of God Valley was pulled toward him!
He was like a human black hole, frantically tearing at and destroying everything.
The darkness spread.
Boundless.
Shane stared at Rocks's back.
Only one mad thought rose in his heart.
Be more evil than the Celestial Dragons!
Before you continue