In the end, it would be Vice Admiral Garp and Gol D. Roger who stopped Rocks D. Xebec from ruling the world.
But before that moment came, no one—absolutely no one—believed that, with even the God Knights defeated, any force could still stand against the Rocks Pirates.
They were, at that point, unstoppable.
Every crewmate was a monster in their own right.
From the very day of its founding, the Rocks crew had been different from any before it—
no hierarchy, no rules, no loyalty except to raw power, cunning, and ambition.
Rocks gathered his people not by command, but by promises and sheer gravitational will.
Even at their strongest, neither Whitebeard's family nor Red-Haired Shanks' so-called "Iron Wall" could compare.
Captains, Emperors, legends—the Rocks Pirates made them all look pale.
For the Rocks Pirates were not a fleet—they were a storm.
And its captain was the only man to reach the true summit of the age.
Even an "apprentice" on that ship was someone like Kaido, a beast that couldn't be called human.
At that time—
Golden Lion Shiki, Whitebeard Newgate, Charlotte Linlin, Wang Zhi, Silver Axe, Captain John—
all had already carved their names into legend.
After the fall of Rocks, they each went on to become emperors of their own seas.
None of them started from nothing.
Even Kaido, once an apprentice, would seize Onigashima a decade later and rule as a great pirate feared by the world.
Many of the strongest female pirates in history could trace their roots back to Rocks' ship.
The first captain of the Kuja Pirates, Fireblossom, trained Shakky, who later raised Boa Hancock—the Pirate Empress.
Captain John, the treasure-obsessed thief, would inspire the rise of Buggy the Clown, one of the future Four Emperors.
Wang Zhi held Hachinosu for decades before finally being defeated by Blackbeard.
To rival them—
you would need to stand atop the very peak of the seas.
For decades, every major storm that shook the world would trace its roots back to Rocks' era.
Now, with the God Knights fallen and the seas trembling, no one believed there existed a power greater than Rocks.
"Sengoku! Steelbone! Tsuru! You Devil Fruit fools are signing your own death warrants!"
"Zephyr! You think that bit of Haki can scratch me?!"
"Saturn! From this moment, God Valley is the next Beehive Island!"
Rocks declared the world's fate.
"Dark Abyss!"
Darkness spread—
and God Valley turned to stone.
Dozens of powerhouses were petrified where they stood.
Against Rocks' overwhelming might, all Devil Fruit users felt their strength collapse.
The Five Elders, the God Knights, even the Admirals and Fleet Admiral of the Navy—all were weakened in his shadow.
Haki could resist, but at the cost of one's life force.
The moment you hesitated, the darkness would consume you whole.
"You love your Heavenly Tribute? Your extermination games? Calling everyone you fear a pirate?!
Fine. Then we'll all become pirates—and burn your world of Celestial Dragons to ash!
Saturn! You've lived a long time. Tell me—have you ever lost before?**"
Behind Rocks, the darkness tore open the earth, twisting God Valley's terrain into a black hole.
"Petrify. Destroy. Restart.
Wherever fear spreads, there shall my darkness follow!"
"Defeat him," one whispered, "and only those few relics on the Red Line will remain."
He was the Captain.
The real captain.
And for a fleeting instant—
every crew member believed their dream was within reach.
To crush the Celestial Dragons.
To take the world.
Linlin would have her Totto Land, a "nation of all races."
Newgate would find a family, a home to protect.
Kaido wanted an eternal war, a world in chaos.
Shiki wanted to rule the skies until heaven itself trembled.
Whatever you desired—
on Rocks' ship, it was possible.
Hatred for the Celestial Dragons, the drive to surpass them, to destroy their world—
this was their creed.
"Split the world among us,
you chaotic kings of the sea!"
Saturn could barely comprehend the scene before him.
The darkness gnawed at his body; even his devilish powers were fading, while the Rocks crew—under their captain's will—remained untouched.
Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit,
Shiki's Float-Float Fruit,
and Rocks' own dark gravity all hammered him together.
"Tell me, Celestial Dragon—how many Five Elders do you have left?!"
The darkness swallowed all sight and sound.
"Everything I promised you is here.
Every Devil Fruit I swore to give you—ours.
From now on, the God Knights and the Five Elders are our hostages.
Take them, and we'll overturn the world!"
The Celestial Dragons who'd joined the "Kingdom Extermination Game" lay dead.
But Rocks didn't care.
He had captured the elites of the elites—the perfect bargaining chips.
Win this war, march upon the Red Line, and it would all end.
Civilization had enslaved savagery to build its pyramids—
but savagery never stayed chained.
When hearts yearning for freedom and equality beat again,
civilization would burn in the fire of its own arrogance.
History had always shown this.
Every fallen empire was erased completely—
even its memory devoured by the victors.
The Void Century was the same.
The so-called "gods" who shaped the modern world were nothing more than savages wearing oxygen masks, pretending to be celestial beings.
They had lost the knowledge they stole and waited 800 years for a man like Vegapunk to reinvent it.
Rocks D. Xebec—
was merely history repeating itself.
A new barbarian, unchained and free, laughing in the face of order.
To Saturn, Rocks looked like a madman—
perhaps too much like his younger self.
How many centuries had passed since he'd stood in that same place,
believing in another "Rocks," a tyrant cloaked in genius and power?
Would he, too, be replaced?
Could he still win?
The handover of fate had come too quickly.
Slash!
Whitebeard's Murakumogiri ripped open Saturn's chest. Blood sprayed—but the wound knit shut instantly.
Crack!
"Quake Break!" Newgate didn't let him recover—his quake-framed punch shattered bone and air alike.
"Sakura Ten! Kogarashi!"
"Lion's Thousand Cut Valley!"
Shiki's twin blades roared, trapping Saturn's legs in shifting sand and cutting faster than he could heal.
A silver flash—the giant axe of Silver Axe came cleaving down, splitting stone and sky.
A flaming thunderclap of Brightblade, thunder and fire intertwined.
"Mama Mama Mama!" Linlin laughed from above, thunderclouds coiling around her as her flaming hair blazed.
Her massive Homie hand grabbed Saturn by both arms,
and Wang Zhi and Silver Axe carved deep trenches across his chest.
Boom!
Captain John's wine-vapor burst into a sea of fire.
"Thunder Bagua!"
"Moon-God Violet Strike!"
Kaido charged with an iron bar, and Sharn followed, lightning and Rokushiki fusing into a storm of pure energy.
Flame, lightning, Haki, quake, slash, beam—
a hurricane of destruction swallowed the battlefield.
Rocks' darkness devoured it all.
Saturn could no longer see the path he'd come from.
"It's over! A new page for this world begins here!"
Rocks' final punch struck deep into Saturn's abdomen.
Pain and memory converged—an agony he hadn't felt in eons.
"You're not Nika… then why… why do I lose?!"
The mighty devil collapsed, thunder echoing in his fall.
He wasn't felled by the young generation—
but by kings, monsters forged to counter gods.
His consciousness dissolved as Rocks' darkness consumed him, his heart hardening into stone.
When Elder Saturn finally fell—
the Rocks Pirates stood upon his corpse.
They had fought for a day and a night, while marines from every corner of the sea converged to stop the birth of a new world king.
Sharn had not yet seen dawn.
Under the moonlight, he fully grasped the power of the Moon-Lion Form,
awakening Life Return, his white hair pulsing with life, moving like serpents—just like Rocks' own.
Rocks strode between Kaido and Sharn, eyes calm amidst ruin.
"Your name?"
"Sharn."
Rocks smiled faintly.
"Then you're an apprentice now."
The King of the World had spoken.
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