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"You bastard!" Byrnndi Wald snarled, eyes locked on the man they had believed long dead.
"As for the Wald Pirates… you're still making excuses?" Rocks said, voice cold as steel. "Helpless? What a pathetic explanation, Silver Axe."
"Captain Rocks… back then, we fought with all we had for you," Silver Axe said loudly, stepping forward. "But the Marines—Roger and Garp—they were hell-bent on killing you! We had no choice. The betrayal… it was out of desperation!"
Rocks sneered, his eyes full of scorn. "I gave you too much credit. You were never worthy of my trust."
"Damn it…" Silver Axe muttered, teeth clenched.
At the time, only Roger's crew and Wald's Pirates had the strength to be noticed by Rocks.
Now, seeing him alive again—on the same ship as Ayr—there was no hope for mercy.
Ayr stood quietly beside the resurrected Rocks, his presence just as overwhelming.
Rocks turned slightly, looking down at Byrnndi Wald, hands clasped behind his back, his voice calm but cruel.
"I assume none of you have forgotten my name. Rocks D. Xebec," he said. "So I'll give you one chance. Turn around and run. Do that, and I won't chase you. Stay here—and you'll all die."
Hearing this, Red Earl's palms grew damp with sweat.
Then Rocks turned his gaze toward the three: "Long time no see, John. Silver Axe. Ochoku."
The three froze. Even after all these years, hearing that voice saying their names made their blood run cold.
Each of them had led fearsome pirate crews in the New World, their bounties in the tens of millions. Yet none of that mattered now.
Even back then, they had trembled beneath Rocks' shadow.
And now he was standing here, very much alive—and beside Ayr, no less.
"I once considered recruiting you again," Rocks said, his eyes drifting past Byrnndi Wald toward the pirate masses behind him. "But I remembered—you were never worth it."
The statement hit like a cannon blast.
"Don't look down on us, Rocks!!!" Wald shouted, fury boiling over.
The crew behind him began whispering in panic.
"Captain Byrnndi Wald… half the men… they've already fled."
His own crew—deserting. The moment they saw that Rocks stood with Ayr, they turned and ran.
He had brought an army, tens of thousands of elite pirates.
And now? Half were gone in fear.
Back then, when Rocks lay dying, betrayed and abandoned, he had sent his lieutenants—Golden Lion, Big Mom, and Whitebeard—to recruit Kaido.
He had still been thinking ahead, planning for war.
And now, seeing Rocks look down on him again, Byrnndi Wald roared back.
"What did you say to me?!"
He had once been respected—even feared—during his time as a rival to Roger. But now?
Even John, Silver Axe, and Ochoku, once arrogant tyrants of the sea, stood frozen in fear.
"You three cowards," Wald spat. "What are you afraid of?! Are you going to beg for mercy?! We have no way out now! If we're going to die, then we fight!"
But Rocks' presence—his aura—was overwhelming.
It wasn't just strength. It was dominance.
He was once the strongest in the world for a reason.
He had never bowed, not even to fate.
And now, after more than ten years… he stood tall again, beside Ayr, who had already shaken the new era to its core.
"We won't win," John said, voice trembling. "We're facing monsters from two eras. Even if we fight together, we'll be slaughtered."
Rocks tilted his head, mocking smile curling his lips. "'Captain?' That's a word I haven't heard in a long time. But if you call me captain now… then where were you in the Valley of the Gods? Did you stand beside me then?"
The silence was heavy.
The cowardice of the past hung over them like a curse.
The New World's pirates had long remembered that battle.
They knew this was the moment Rocks would take his revenge.
And already, half the pirate army had fled, terrified by the thought of facing both Ayr and Rocks.
No one in the sea had forgotten what Rocks had been capable of.
The World Government had once declared that the combined threat of Whitebeard, Roger, and Big Mom could destroy the world.
But even they had never dismissed Rocks lightly.
Back then, Rocks had been betrayed, cut down—but not erased.
Now he had returned. And the fear he inspired was the same as it had always been.
"Heh," Rocks chuckled darkly, watching their hesitation. "I'm not here to talk. You brought an army thinking you could crush Ayr? That you'd catch him off-guard? You were fools the moment you set sail."
Byrnndi Wald's face darkened.
They had destroyed Ayr's territory. Their combined force should have been unstoppable.
But the second Rocks appeared—everything changed.
"We brought ten thousand men… and half already ran," Wald muttered, teeth grinding. "Just like before, when Marine pressure broke our backs..."
And that pressure still remained.
The kind of force Rocks brought—just standing there—shattered morale.
Even after all these years, they couldn't forget.
"You all rejected my offer back then," Rocks said, his voice echoing like a judgment. "I thought perhaps one of you—maybe Kaido—might grow into the next king. But now?"
He looked around. "Now I see nothing but fear and decay."
John opened his mouth to respond, but the words wouldn't come. He had been a terror of the sea once.
Now? He felt like a lamb before a wolf.
And Rocks smiled wide, teeth gleaming.
"Well then," he said casually, "are you going to beg for your lives… or die like pirates?"
Wald glared, fists clenched. "Don't think we're afraid! You may have surprised us—but we didn't come all this way to run!"
"You should have," Ayr finally spoke again, his voice cold and level. "But now? It's too late."
And so, in the face of two monsters—Rocks from the old world, Ayr from the new—Byrnndi Wald and his fractured army stood trembling.
This day, long awaited by fate itself, was destined to end in blood.