"It hurts so much, Roger!"
"Why do I have to suffer twice the pain!"
"Who stole the Paw-Paw Fruit that should have been mine!"
Rocks roared.
Within the Darkness Abyss.
In his Darkness Paradise State, Roger had stabbed him through the heart.
"No matter how powerful a Logia you are, even if you've awakened, you still have a true body!"
"I can hear every voice inside your heart, Rocks!"
Roger gripped his blade in both hands.
Suspended in midair, he drove the blade into Rocks's heart with every ounce of strength.
I have to kill Rocks!
I can't leave him even the slightest chance of survival.
Otherwise, everyone will fall victim to him.
In the darkness.
Linlin did not know what to think.
She had originally wanted to seize the Paw-Paw Fruit, but Kuma had taken it and eaten it instead.
Yet because of that.
Kuma had later endured far too much unimaginable pain.
Had Rocks possessed this fruit and expelled all the pain within his body.
Then had someone else eat the Op-Op Fruit and perform the Eternal Youth Surgery on him once their fruit awakened.
Then.
An absolutely powerful Rocks would never be defeated again!
So powerful that he had no weaknesses.
An unexpected twist of fate had instead changed this world's destiny.
"Roger!!! Why won't you conquer the world with me!"
Rocks cried out in agony. He had reached the final moment when his will was at its weakest.
His life was rallying at rock bottom.
Even if he died, he would take enough people down with him!
"You traitors!"
"If I have to die, then everyone dies with me!"
"Roger! Do you want to know the true nature of Devil Fruits?"
Rocks's eyes flashed in the darkness.
He laughed, looking more like a demon at the end of its rope.
Did Rocks still exist at this moment?
Or had he.
Given himself over entirely to the demon in exchange for even greater power?
Others would not dare attempt such a possibility, but Rocks would have absolutely no reservations.
To him, he was going to die anyway, so why let anyone else off easy?
"There really are demons inside Devil Fruits!"
"The Dark-Dark Fruit can command both demons and fruits."
"Do you know what happens when demonic will runs wild?"
"Newgate, Shiki, Linlin! Ochoku, Silver Axe, John, Kaido, Kurozumi Higurashi, Kurozumi Higurashi, you damned traitors!"
"Now you'll understand the price!"
Like a muddy swamp, Rocks struggled out of the abyss.
As the blood throughout his body detonated bit by bit, his darkness-laced skin burst into dark blood.
God Valley surged wildly.
Every Devil Fruit User felt the agony of having their throat seized.
As Rocks's injuries grew increasingly severe and he approached death.
The demonic will inside their bodies was also reviving faster!
"Rocks! We didn't betray you, we were just... just watching!"
The Kurozumi Siblings were in unbearable agony, feeling their consciousness begin to blur.
Once demonic will robbed them of their bodies, they would become walking corpses.
Zoan users in particular would become beasts no different from animals, readily accepting domestication!
"What is this?"
For the first time since joining the Rocks Pirates, Kaido felt such pain.
It could be said that.
Back then, Whitebeard had approached him on Rocks's behalf, inviting him to join as an Apprentice Crew Member.
After that.
The one who had always treated Kaido best was the understanding big sister, Linlin.
Apart from that.
He had picked up a drinking habit from following John.
Only when Shane appeared did he first have a friend close to his own age.
Even he had never known of Rocks's method of sacrificing his life to take everyone down with him.
"Don't let the demon in your head devour you, Kaido!"
As Linlin spoke, she slapped a hand onto his shoulder.
Demonic will!
A hurdle that Devil Fruit Users had to overcome after developing their fruits to the utmost.
Only by avoiding being devoured by the demon could they truly achieve Devil Fruit Awakening.
From then on, Kaido remembered this taboo for Devil Fruit Users all his life.
They absolutely had to guard against being devoured by the demon's soul.
"Rocks! You're not the only one in this world who's reached Devil Fruit Awakening!"
Shiki gritted his teeth, a blood-red gleam flaring in his eyes.
Whoosh!
At this moment, even the seawater resonated.
It was precisely because he had reached this stage.
That Golden Lion could perform the seemingly forbidden feat of making even seawater float!
"From the moment I set foot on Hachinosu, I considered that this day might come."
"That's why, even after reaching Devil Fruit Awakening, I kept looking for an opportunity."
"Rocks, everyone grows. This really is your last chance."
"But it shouldn't become the beginning of your destruction of everything!"
"I have family I want to protect too!"
Newgate's blade stood against the ground as his Conqueror's Haki erupted continuously.
His powerful will fought the demon as he used his awakened fruit state to resist Rocks's attempt to take them all down with him.
At a dead end, with nothing left.
In reaching this point, Rocks had already accomplished much that his predecessors never had.
Yet at the final moment, he lost to the unpredictability of people's hearts.
"Hahahahaha!"
"A bunch of trash with no ambition or aspirations."
"Those content to stay in their little corner can only ever be pirates, never kings or conquerors!"
"Even things like you deserve King's Aptitude? Heaven must be blind!"
Rocks gnashed his teeth.
He reached a hand out of the darkness and gripped the blade tightly.
"Come on!"
"Even those with awakened fruits will suffer unbearable pain!"
"Everyone else whose fruits haven't awakened can die with me!"
Rocks roared at the top of his lungs.
Only now could those powerful in Haki realize just how great the hidden dangers of Devil Fruits were.
From then on.
A saying spread through the Roger Pirates: never eat a Devil Fruit.
So much so that after Buggy accidentally ate a Devil Fruit, he would stay angry with Shanks for decades.
Even after Red-Haired later founded his own pirate crew, he upheld the principle of not eating Devil Fruits.
The bottomless sea, fraught with danger.
Seastone, which restrained, suppressed, and weakened Devil Fruit Users.
The demonic souls carried by fruits, and the dangers of Devil Fruit Awakening.
Being countered by a rare, monstrous fruit like the Dark-Dark Fruit.
The targeting and damage from both Observation Haki and Armament Haki.
Out on the sea.
Encountering any one of these five threats would put a Devil Fruit User in great danger.
Only with Devil Fruit Awakening could they possess some degree of resistance.
Yet across eight hundred years on the seas, how many had awakened their fruits?
If twenty years counted as an era.
From Rocks to Roger, then to Newgate.
All those with awakened fruits combined could still be counted on one's fingers.
"Demonic will, revive!"
Rocks was going mad. He no longer cared about anything and only wanted to destroy everything.
To make everyone die with him!
If they dared kill him, they had to be prepared to suffer equally devastating injuries.
"Roger! Are you certain you'll never develop the ambition to swallow up the seas in your lifetime?"
"Power makes people lose themselves, and leaves them devoured by greed."
"And these people you saved today will eventually stand against you."
"As long as the Celestial Dragons exist, Marineford will be nothing more than an appendage of Mary Geoise."
"The Marines will hunt you for the rest of your life!"
"Perhaps one day you'll wake up and find Garp and Sengoku personally hauling you onto the Execution Platform!"
Rocks spread the five fingers of one hand and plunged them into Roger's abdomen.
"Darkness Erosion will corrode your blood year after year."
"The more you fight, the worse your body will get."
"You're killing me to protect this world."
"Then let this world join forces to destroy you!"
"Nothing can dispel absolute darkness. This is damage injected into your bloodline!"
Rocks's eyes were crazed. Already trapped in the abyss himself, how could he let anyone else have freedom?
Before you continue