Rocks's body convulsed violently.
The long blade he'd swung froze mid-air.
His eyes bulged.
The disdain that had lined his face twisted into a demonic snarl.
Veins popped across his skin like writhing serpents.
The light in his eyes began to fade.
Those once-indomitable orbs now ran crimson with blood.
Even more horrifying, four massive fangs jutted from his gaping mouth.
He looked as though he'd turned into a fiend.
"Aaaargh—!!"
Rocks writhed in endless agony.
Even a will as iron as his could not stifle that heart-rending scream.
"Hey! Rocks!! What's happening?"
Whitebeard, Roger and the others—having scattered the black fog and sprinted back—paled at the sight.
Dozens of metres above the ground,
two pitch-black tendrils pierced Rocks through.
Boundless malice poured from Imu, surging into him like a tide.
It was eroding his will, driving him berserk.
Yet Rocks clenched his teeth and fought on.
"Still so stubborn…" Imu's voice dripped mockery.
A sneer curled across Rocks's fiendish face. "Heh—don't underestimate humans, monster!"
He roared:
"Davy D. Jones—once the true king of the world!"
Imu snarled back, "Nonsense! He was never king—not for a single second! My feud with Davy is none of your concern!"
Rocks threw his head back and laughed, the sound echoing across God Valley.
"Then what are you afraid of? Just the name Davy!"
"You've always feared it, haven't you?"
"Feared Davy's will being passed on! Feared the day that promise comes true!"
"Tell me—which frightens you more?"
"Davy D. Jones?"
"Or Joy Boy?!"
Imu sneered, "Dream on! No such person can ever exist again—once you're gone…"
His shadowy face leaned close to the helpless Rocks, murmuring like an old friend:
"Davy, I've found excellent soldiers—huge, harmless, directionless…"
Rocks froze, eyes widening. "Giants?? Bastard—leave Harald alone! All he wants is peace!"
"But what a rare chance; we'll never find a king so easy to control."
Imu seemed to smile—a cruel, taunting smile.
"Just like you right now! Hurry…"
"…and end it for me!! Davy's dream!!"
The two black tendrils bulged, flooding Rocks with even more malice.
In the next instant veins exploded across his face.
He tried to fight back.
But could not.
The towering hatred he felt for Imu,
his worry for Alice and Teach's wife and child,
his fear for his old friend Harald—
all these tangled emotions, twisted by the endless malice, turned into pure, ravenous spite!
The unique light in those once-mighty eyes dimmed.
What replaced it was an empty, numb, emotionless gaze brimming with evil.
"Gwaaah!"
His final defiance became a roar of pain.
Freed from Imu's grip, Rocks crashed to earth.
Unhindered, Linlin was first at his side. "What did that thing do to you? What happened? Rocks—hey, why is your body—"
She broke off, stunned.
For she saw
the fallen Rocks now towered several times his former size—
from barely three metres to well over ten.
He loomed even above her.
And more—
a pair of colossal black wings sprouted from his back.
A cold, cruel voice echoed through his hate-filled mind:
"With your own hands, wipe out Davy!"
"Slaughter every living thing in God Valley!"
"Erase this bloodline from history!"
The last words spilled from Rocks's own lips.
He rose slowly.
Huge demon wings unfurled behind him.
A ten-metre titan stood upon the earth.
Empty eyes, savage and brutal, fixed on Linlin.
She gulped, shaken by the blood-thirst radiating from him.
"Rocks! What's wrong with you?"
"Oro-oro-oro, Rocks! You a Devil-Fruit user too? Never saw this—what power is—"
Kaido, lifting his great dragon head, had barely voiced his curiosity
when Rocks beat those wings, shot skyward, and drove his blade clean through the dragon's upper jaw.
"Agh! That hurts! What're you doing, Rocks?!"
Kaido howled.
Rocks paid no heed.
He seized the dragon whiskers, muscles bulging, and hurled the colossal beast aside.
Boom!
The azure dragon slammed into a mountain, sending boulders raining down.
"Kaido!" Linlin cried from below, aghast. "Rocks—have you lost it? Attacking allies—"
Her shout was cut short.
Rocks dived from the sky and slammed a foot toward her face.
She tried to block.
But the terrifying force scattered her two soul Homies and the kick landed squarely, blood spraying as she flew.
Whitebeard, finally free of the black fog, frowned at the sight.
"Are we in your way, Rocks…?"
"Out of my path!!" Rocks bared his fangs, twin arcs of Haoshoku lightning crackling along his blade as he slashed at Whitebeard.
"Damn it—enough!!"
Whitebeard roared, mountain-shaking power erupting as he drove an elbow into the air-shattering cut.
The shockwave met the slash head-on.
Whoom-whoom-whoom!
Crack-crack-crack!
A titanic blast tore the sky between them,
ripping the air and shattering space itself.
To the horror of all, even the thousand-metre peak of God Valley was cleaved clean through.
Rumble—
the pillar-like mountain toppled, as though the heavens themselves were falling.
"Run for your lives!"
"Is… is this the end of the world??"