After the Dark-Dark Fruit awakened, its suppression of Devil Fruit Users was comparable to having Seastone Bullets embedded in their bodies, then having their entire bodies bound in shackles.
Therefore.
Rocks had nothing to fear from the other members of his pirate crew.
Yet he would fall before Garp and Roger.
It was because these two were powerful Haki users.
And with Garp and Whitebeard clearing the way, Roger attacked with his life on the line.
That became the moment Rocks delivered a fatal blow against someone without a Devil Fruit power.
He used the darkness of his awakened fruit to erode Roger's bloodline.
More precisely, it damaged his lineage factor!
Unless Roger traveled decades into the future and met Vegapunk.
And underwent a treatment like the one Bonney received after contracting Sapphire Scales, completely remaking his body.
Other than that.
He would need the awakening of one of three Devil Fruits.
The Op-Op Fruit's awakening, offering treatment at a cost.
The Sick-Sick Fruit's awakening, offering treatment at a specific cost.
The awakening of the Nika form, using the Sun God's advantage over the Dark-Dark Fruit to expel the darkness erosion.
All three were far too difficult to awaken.
One could grant eternal life, and one was rarely seen.
One had gone eight hundred years without anyone awakening it, its very name concealed and unknown.
From then on, Roger would inevitably travel the entire world for this.
As he adventured, the erosion would continue.
Until he became gravely ill beyond recovery, and also became the Pirate King.
At this moment.
Rocks had poured his power into what amounted to a fatal blow.
It also inflicted the utmost damage on himself.
He forced the blade out with one hand, a king's blood dripping into the darkness.
He raised his eyes to Roger, the smile on his face growing little by little.
"Roger! Are you willing to pay this price?"
His words were deafening.
And how could it be impossible?
As long as Roger remained a pirate, he could not avoid being hunted.
Could anyone hide for a lifetime?
Who knew how many pirates in Impel Down had been captured after growing old and weak!
Unless they cultivated subordinates who would support them until death.
But in Rocks's era, and even before it, pirates had no family, no one they called companions.
They were merely in the same boat, waiting for their captain to weaken and be replaced.
The best outcome was being driven off the ship.
But the vast majority met their end at the hands of their own crew.
Rocks did not want to die at the hands of those useless fools, with countless people eyeing his throne in his twilight years.
Why bother?
Why not gain eternal life and possess unshakable power!
Become the new King of the World and replace the Celestial Dragons.
Then Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and Linlin would become the new Five Elders and Admirals of Marine Headquarters.
Rocks would only need to hide behind the scenes and have everyone protect him, one after another.
"Just one step away!"
"Roger! You ruined my journey when I was just one step away."
"Sooner or later, you'll go even further than I did!"
Rocks intensified the erosion, the darkness stripping away the human lineage factor and eating into every inch of skin.
"My Haki is strong enough to nullify Devil Fruit effects. It won't work, Rocks!"
Roger's three types of Haki were already at the pinnacle of the world, and he was also at the strongest age of his life.
He refused to believe a Devil Fruit's effects could work on him!
A cloud of black smoke dispersed, but it had only expelled the Love-Love Fruit's effect!
How could this happen?
Even an awakened fruit could not possibly have such an effect against Haki awakened to an advanced level.
"You're too ignorant!"
"I told you, the Dark-Dark Fruit is the most unique Devil Fruit."
"Though I don't know why it has this extraordinary effect, it will definitely alter your bloodline."
"Since I can't turn into my element before awakening, naturally, it grants other effects."
"Heaven is fair. Since it robbed me of the ability to command the sea, it ought to let me dominate the world."
"Roger! Do you regret it now?"
Rocks thrust Roger away with his palm, and the blade slid free with him.
Amid Rocks's cold, sinister laughter.
Roger fell from the sky, watching Rocks's collapse and that frenzied eruption of darkness.
This man, who sought to deal all the traitors one final blow before his death.
Had also inflicted an incurable wound on Roger, the savior.
Erosion of the lineage factor, the strongest blow of the awakened Dark-Dark Fruit.
It was equivalent to staking a life to grant someone else eternal life after awakening the Op-Op Fruit!
"I don't regret it!"
Roger answered Rocks in the darkness.
"I don't believe you. Unless you never seek treatment for the rest of your life, unless you're never hunted by the Marines again. After all, you're their savior!"
"Hahahahaha! This world is too absurd. Only I am as clearheaded as a god!"
Rocks was no longer human.
Within the abyss behind him, a shadow woven from darkness appeared.
It opened a cavernous, blood-red maw like Taotie and swallowed him whole.
"I give myself to the demon, and you to the Death God!"
Rocks sacrificed himself to the demon, seeking only to take them down with him.
"Roger!"
Rayleigh sliced through a darkness tentacle.
He hoisted Roger onto his back.
"You went and acted on your own again!"
Hearing his first mate's reproach.
Roger laughed without stopping:
"Rayleigh, our era has only just begun! Even if my life is counting down, there's still enough time to turn this world upside down!"
Lunatic!
But he could only grumble that in his heart.
Who in later generations would know the truth? The man who had paid the heaviest price would be known to the world only by the title of Pirate King.
They would never know that he should have had another title: hero!
"Roger!"
Garp's muscles tensed again, and he shattered the tentacle before him with a punch.
"Hey, what's a Marine doing here? We'll protect our captain!"
Gaban chopped the tentacles into pieces with his twin axes.
The crew guarded Roger from the front and rear, keeping him right in their midst.
"Cut the crap. Rocks is the one who deserves to die most!"
Zephyr's fists broke through the darkness as he guarded the rear of the Roger Pirates alongside Garp.
Most of the others were Devil Fruit Users.
By now, they could barely fend for themselves.
Even awakened users like Whitebeard and Golden Lion could only just unleash their Haki to protect themselves.
The weaker ones would probably go mad on the spot!
Several Zoan Rear Admirals and Vice Admirals from Marine Headquarters even lost their minds on the spot under Rocks's influence.
Consumed by the demonic will, they fell completely under their fruits' control.
Marine Headquarters spent a long time taming them because of this, ultimately imprisoning them in Impel Down.
To serve as jailers there who would never tire.
"No one can escape! No one!"
Rocks's laughter chilled their hearts.
His voice seemed to overlap with the demon's, producing a tone that made their scalps crawl.
"Perhaps."
The demonic Rocks floated in the darkness.
In his final moments, his mind kept echoing as he conversed with the demon.
"Why have we who bear D gathered together?"
"Was it coincidence, or destiny?"
"Could someone long ago have had the same idea as me?"
"If so, he must have succeeded to be able to play a part behind the scenes."
"Otherwise, where did the claim that the Op-Op Fruit could grant eternal life come from?"
"The will of D won't end just because a bloodline does."
"Whose will have I inherited, and who will walk the same path as me?"
"Roger, Garp, you can't escape it either-the will of D!"
The demon's whispers could not travel beyond the darkness.
Only Roger looked back from Rayleigh's back.
"You two can hear me, can't you? Then don't forget to find the answer!"
Smiling, Rocks vanished from their minds.
Roger's head immediately throbbed with pain.
The will of D, the one behind the scenes.
The answer!
You two?
Roger himself had the gift of the Voice of All Things.
But who was the other person?
He looked toward God Valley, which was being savagely attacked by darkness tentacles.
Wails and roars were everywhere.
Shane was one of them, seemingly unremarkable.
At this moment.
The will of D was being passed on-and awakening.
Before you continue