The Heavenly Battlefield raged on like a storm.
"Take a break and you'll die a gruesome death, Sengoku!" Wang Zhi slung a colossal palm down; his fall was like a meteor, his huge eyes—two houses stuck together—blinked slowly.
Sengoku, furious, met that motion with a palm of his own and hurled Sharn into the sea. "Boring," Captain John stumbled forward, wine-skin sloshing. The last mouthful spilled and he bellowed, "Winefire, extinguish!" A cloud of liquor-vapor and flame poured out; any marine or pirate who stepped into the vapor staggered and fell, while the fire's bite carved wide wounds.
"Filthy flies," Sengoku said, and with a single move he flung Kaido into the water as well, then turned to put down John. The three-way brawl shook one quarter of the field: Buddha-golden light pressing the wicked back while drunken flames and insane ship-sized rocks crashed and bled across the port. Giant stones, ships, and smashed houses made up a landscape of titans.
A roar split the sky as two great forms rose: a black dragon and an azure dragon, cloaked in rolling flame-clouds. They shot up from the harbor and, not long after, their bodies ached with exertion — but animal-Zoan healing was mercilessly fast. Kaido remained in hybrid form; human guise here would mean certain death.
Sharn cracked his neck, knowing this battle would not end quickly. God Valley had already fallen into absolute ruin: Navy, pirates, Celestial Dragons—three camps in violent collision.
"Don't get in the way, Silver Axe!" Garp barreled out of a wrecked alley, cutting between Jabba and Silver Axe. "Leave it to Newgate!" Roger clipped the rim of his hat, smiling, and wrapped his blade in haki. The two of them stepped into the ring, and the exhausted duo—Jabba and Silver Axe—suddenly found the fight hijacked.
"Hey! That's our fight!" someone shouted. Roger only grinned. He and Garp let loose a triple-colored haki blast. The air split like lightning; the shockwave stunned every pirate and marine within range. Eyes rolled white; bodies went limp.
"Now that's haki," someone whispered. "We've only scratched the surface." Kaido watched in awe. "One day we'll have that too," he muttered. "If you survive this fight, join me." Kaido's eyes shone with hungry expectation.
The day wore on. Sun tore the canyon into slices of orange. No one knew what tomorrow held. For a moment everyone felt Lew Rock's promise almost touchable—close enough to become gods in a valley named for gods.
For the marines, God Valley was hell. Comrades fell one after another while Den-den Mushi screeched orders from the chain of command. Sharn watched pirates and marines die together; by coincidence several of them clutched family photos when they went down. The cannon-fire kept rhythm with the screams; the blood-wash was the only constant. The Celestial Dragons, smug to the end, still called themselves gods.
"You should all die!" spat one of the Five Elders, Saturn-sama, and a lance of attack came hurtling Sharn's way. Sharn dodged; with Soru plus Geppo he could vanish from any angle and reappear elsewhere.
"He's got horns," Kaido observed, not waiting for Sharn's reply. Saturn-sama's form was monstrous—spider-like tendrils, twin horns, black flames. "Demons—they are the true devils beneath those masks of divinity," Sharn said. The battlefield left no safe ground. The port sector boiled with Sengoku, Wang Zhi, and John; the plaza where the main caskets lay had become a melee of Jabba and Silver Axe, now seized by Roger and Garp.
Saturn-sama abandoned his duel with Lion and Rayleigh and stabbed toward Sharn. Sharn expected it, and slipped aside. "They'll be the same in decades," he thought. "Devils do not age." Light lit his eyes as a realization coalesced — the answer to Kaido's question about forming a crew.
"Kaido!" Sharn called, meeting him. "You asked if I'd start a crew with you. You want to be king of the seas, to wield the strongest haki and strength. I have my answer." Purple lightning arced around Sharn's knuckles, a color whiter than Kaido's blue-white sparks. Saturn-sama's face flickered with a deeper dread than mere force — the kind written into bone.
"Do you know why this war began?" Sharn asked, voice like a blade. "Rocks wants it. The Navy protects it. But both are born of the Celestial Dragons!" He clenched his fists. "Until this world is overturned, you cannot claim the title of World King."
Sharn hunted for the thread in himself that everyone spoke of — the invisible line that, once pulled hard enough, would tear out something limitless. If haki were such a thread, then it should be hammered until it broke, and true power would spill out.
"Before I fully mine my potential," he promised, "I'll make life return — and I'll first surpass human limits!" He drove electric shocks into his own cells, forcing speed and power to climb. The sun slid down; a thin moon rose. Sharn stared at it, energy thrumming.
Saturn-sama shouted, "Die with those stupid ideas!" Black flame and spidery tendrils swelled. The blow that followed was a mountain, and its pressure made the ground quake. Rob Lucci three decades hence would still appear as a human; devil fruits had ranks, and Celestial hierarchies had their petty cruelties.
Kaido answered with a thunder-burst of his club; lightning of blue and violet intertwined as the two fought side by side. Images of their youth flickered through both their minds — war machines turned into offerings, then recruits of the Rocks Pirates. Their futures were uncertain. Kaido refused to become like Long Bread; he wanted to sail and make his own name.
"Be my right hand, Sharn!" Kaido roared, wolfish grin splitting his face. "I'm going to be captain."
"I'll be captain myself, Kaido," Sharn returned — and they charged forward together.
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