"Rocks!"
Garp kept swinging both fists.
His body moved like lightning, bursting with electric light.
His Haki destroyed every obstacle along the way like a python.
People watched this duel in despair.
Zephyr and Sengoku leaned against each other.
Their eyes held more concern for Garp.
They feared he would lose, and feared even more that he would fight to the death rather than retreat.
This battle should never have involved so many people in the first place.
But wave after wave of people had come to reinforce them.
If things had gone according to the original plan.
If Kong had not personally led a force, the combatants should have been the Rocks Pirates, the Roger Pirates, the Holy Knights, and the Headquarters elites led by Garp.
But now an entire era had been swept into it!
The timing was too perfect.
The future Shichibukai were either not yet born or still just children.
This was the era before the rise of the three great heroes and the four emperors of the sea.
An era dominated by Rocks alone, when even Kong struggled to stand against him as an equal.
With his awakened Devil Fruit, his outstanding, peak Rokushiki, and his supreme mastery of the Three Types of Haki, he held firmly to the throne of the strongest.
With the Dark-Dark Fruit in his hands, ability users were utterly suppressed.
And the Love-Love Fruit added another form of absolute destruction.
When facing him, opponents not only had to guard against being consumed by darkness, but also risked petrification whenever their Haki defenses weakened!
If a peerless beauty ate the Love-Love Fruit, anyone unable to resist her beauty would turn to stone!
Likewise, the fruit would make her even more beautiful and captivating.
If an ambitious warlord of a chaotic age ate it, however, it would greatly increase his imposing presence.
The more others feared him, the more easily they would turn to stone!
This trait added yet more power to his Conqueror's Haki!
It gave Rocks the strength to sweep through armies in battle, even single-handedly!
Devouring, petrification, stunning!
Any one of them could kill an ordinary person instantly.
From the start, only powerful Haki users qualified to face him.
And they had to be fighters who relied as purely on Haki as possible.
Otherwise, even a moment in which the Dark-Dark Fruit exploited their own Devil Fruit would drastically drain their stamina!
Even those who possessed both powerful fruits and Haki capable of nullifying fruit effects.
Would still be affected, unable to attend to everything at once.
It was precisely because Rocks understood this that he meshed perfectly with the Dark-Dark Fruit!
Ability users were countered, and fighters strong in both Haki and fruit powers were weakened too.
On the sea, reaching the pinnacle through Haki alone was even harder.
As of now.
Roger and Garp stood at the very forefront.
Beyond them, even Rayleigh and Zephyr.
Fell a little short in Rocks's eyes.
"Just as I thought."
"Ever since you two advanced side by side and became the outstanding figures of the new era."
"Through years of growth, meeting again and again, and fighting as enemies."
"I considered taking you under my command."
"Things didn't go as I wished, and you became my final enemies after all."
Throughout his life, Rocks had possessed strength, luck, and cunning.
In the end, he had driven out every potential rival and brought countless powerful fighters under his command.
The last two men unwilling to submit had also become the only two who could possibly oppose him.
"Roger! Garp! Come at me!"
Darkness soaked Rocks's fists, and his robes were torn.
He stood atop the highest point of the ruins.
His long hair danced like shadowy serpents.
Haki coursed over his whole body, turning dark red like lingering blood in an instant.
At this moment, he was not Medusa, but Satan from hell!
"Dark Hole!"
"Bloody Gale!"
"Paradise!"
His Haki washed over everything, working in tandem with his fruit powers.
As fists struck flesh, if his opponents let their concentration slip for even a moment.
They would fall into fear and turn to stone, or be caught by the pull of darkness and unable to move.
Rocks remained a perfectly rounded fighter, meeting this final battle for the summit with absolute strength.
"Divine Slaughter!"
Roger suddenly vanished.
He moved fast enough, and with "Sword Observation Haki Killer" added to it, he disappeared directly from Rocks's perception.
"I've seen your entire future! I've heard every possibility in your heart!"
Roger swung his blade at Rocks.
His explosive force and destructive power both rose to their peak.
The might of that single slash.
Sheared off a corner of the valley.
Rocks abruptly stamped down and met it with a punch.
Darkness became a storm, meshing perfectly with his Haki.
The blade struck his palm.
Rocks laughed wildly as his other hand clenched into a fist and came swinging in.
"Storm Galaxy!"
Garp hurtled in like a meteor.
His muscles were taut as nerves.
His cells mobilized every last trace of Haki.
Blue-white lightning pierced blood-red Haki, bursting from a fist far harder than alloy steel.
Almost in an instant.
Haki poured out like blood as he clashed head-on with Rocks.
Crack, crack!
It was lightning clashing.
The skies above God Valley changed once again.
The sounds of battle kept ringing out from the valley, thunderous in everyone's ears, yet no one dared approach.
They would die. This was an absolute death zone!
Bang!
Amid constant blows, the three fought indiscriminately.
As Rocks fought, the darkness on his fists resembled a giant dragon, yet coiled into hundreds of pitch-black pythons, opening their bloody maws.
Haki surged over Roger's blade, and his moves lost their names.
Every basic attack he delivered was a critical hit!
With every attack, he became a blood-red arc and vanished without a trace, and when he appeared again, Rocks was already blocking and fighting back.
Garp charged in even more recklessly.
Perhaps it skipped a generation, for his grandson had also inherited this reckless fighting style of throwing punches without end.
They fought while taking injuries and attacking at the same time.
Roger and Garp could not spare a moment to stop.
No matter how much it hurt, they had to endure it and give Rocks absolutely no room to maneuver.
"This feels good! So damn good!"
Rocks endured the doubled pain brought on by his Devil Fruit.
But he was willing!
All he had to do was keep fighting and defeat his opponents!
After all, either they died or he lived!
Blood splattered.
Haki was like lightning, and like a raging wind.
The flames born of their extreme speed further colored the shadows in the valley's dark recesses.
Garp spat blood, feeling all the more fortunate.
"Good thing I met an opponent like you at the best age of my life!"
"Otherwise, if I were Kong's age, I'd be out cold before long!"
"Rocks! Do my punches hurt more?"
Kong, lying in a corner, certainly could not speak.
It was not as though he had been knocked out because of his age.
He had been completely countered by the Dark-Dark Fruit!
"Good thing Kong can't wake up, or you'd anger him to death."
Rocks's teeth were stained with blood.
Proof that Garp's punches packed plenty of force.
"It's good to be young!"
"But in this world, however strong you are, you can only reign supreme for a time."
"Without eternal life and power at the very top, you're nothing."
"Luckily, I was fortunate enough to find it. Though I don't know whether I can operate on myself, I have to try!"
Rocks took a Devil Fruit from the clothing hanging at his belt!
Feeling the pain and injuries in his body.
As the most important choice of this trip.
The Op-Op Fruit!
Rocks had to eat it.
"I'd planned to get it and find the best possible host, but now it seems I'll have to rely on myself."
He swallowed a mouthful.
The third Devil Fruit.
With his Mutant Physique, Rocks, who had fallen into darkness, ate the Op-Op Fruit.
Just as Garp's fist was about to hit his face.
His entire body vanished into thin air.
"ROOM! Scapegoat!"
Rocks disappeared and appeared directly behind Roger.
"I already saw everything about you at this moment in the past."
Roger vanished again using "Observation Haki Killer."
An uproar broke out in the valley.
This Devil Fruit would increase Rocks's strength yet again.
"Eternal life is so tempting."
"What a shame. I can only gamble once."
By doing this, Rocks had undoubtedly lost his chance at eternal life.
But he had no other choice!
After all, he could not perform the Eternal Youth Surgery on himself.
With his Observation Haki's Voice of All Things, Roger immediately drew his blade and slashed at Rocks.
At this point.
There was nothing to fear. They simply had to fight to the bitter end.
The Op-Op Fruit he had eaten could not possibly awaken, and even the Love-Love Fruit could not awaken easily.
They were all gravely wounded and exhausted; it came down to endurance.
"Scapegoat!"
Rocks was not a swordsman, and in his hands, the Op-Op Fruit was more like teleportation within a certain range.
Yet it also made him faster, his movements in battle as elusive as a phantom.
"Glug, glug, glug!"
Shane found the innocent Den Den Mushi among the food.
He answered the Den Den Mushi.
The other side immediately asked a question.
"Saint Garling! Saint Saturn! Have the Rocks Pirates been wiped out?"
It was the other Five Elders calling from Mary Geoise.
Perhaps they had been too anxious.
They soon regained their composure.
"Who are you?"
The Five Elders demanded an answer.
After scorching the cold roast meat with purple lightning to heat it up, Shane swallowed it in one bite.
Shane stared at the Recording Den Den Mushi on the other side and knew what to do.
"Some things shouldn't be hidden, like the Void Century."
The Den Den Mushi call was suddenly cut off.
The Recording Den Den Mushi was switched on.
Shane would record everything that happened next in God Valley.
One day, when it was needed, it would be shown to the world again.
Within ROOM.
As Rocks's stamina drained, his attack speed kept increasing.
"Who's the king who rules the world now!"
With the elusive powers of the Op-Op Fruit.
He handled every fight with ease.
Garp tried to swallow, only to find his mouth had long since gone dry.
He turned to look.
Rocks slammed a fist into his face.
Pfft!
Garp spat blood and fell to the ground. He had wanted to grab Rocks with all his strength, but Rocks evaded him in an instant.
Roger slashed at the spot over his heart!
Rocks caught the blade with one hand and drove a punch into Roger's abdomen!
Despite holding the advantage.
The King of the World kept adjusting his breathing.
Not a patch of flesh on either fist remained intact.
"I'm... the ultimate winner."
Before you continue