At this moment, in the empty desert.
What Crocodile was facing was a scene that shocked him.
Yellow sand filled the sky, mixed with black sand, all gathered together.
They were like strips of black silk, appearing and disappearing, surrounding Rowan, and connecting him to four other sand soldiers.
Huge amounts of armed power flowed in the sand, dyeing the bodies of those soldiers black.
Also dyed black was the scepter in Rowan's hand.
Rowan held it in his hand, like a spear, and swung it horizontally, tearing open a curtain of sand!
He stepped out.
Black gradually spread, Rowan's armor and body were also covered in armed power!
...
Devil Fruits are rare, and the natural type is even more so.
Only when a user dies can a Devil Fruit with the same power possibly appear on the sea.
And this world is too big.
A user may not be able to find any trace of the previous user in their entire life.
Crocodile never thought that he would one day fight the former Sand-Sand Fruit user!
He remembered what Rowan said in the tomb:
"The Sand-Sand Fruit, this is how I use it."
How to use it?
To gather sand into soldiers, and then use huge amounts of armed power to create an unbreakable sand guard!
Full body armed power covering - it is rare, but not scary, many experts can do it.
What really made Crocodile's pupils shrink, unable to hide the shock in his heart, was that Rowan still had the strength to cover four other sand soldiers while covering his whole body with armed power!
What a huge amount of armed power!
Faced with this strange scene, Crocodile frowned and laughed.
"Hehehehe, as expected of an old monster from eight hundred years ago..."
He lowered his body, sandstorms gathered on his right hand, getting ready for battle.
He is Crocodile the "Sand Crocodile".
In his youth, he became famous on the sea with unstoppable momentum.
He fought the "Devil's Heir" Douglas Barrett several times without a winner;
He also challenged the world's strongest man "Whitebeard" Edward Newgate;
Now, he's just adding an emperor who existed in the world eight hundred years ago.
To be afraid before fighting is not his style!
Whoosh...
A hot wind blew.
Swish!
Instantly, Crocodile took a step, his whole body turned into an element, sliding close to the ground like a ghost.
In the desert, the mobility of a Sand-Sand Fruit user is amazing!
In the blink of an eye, the sharp gold hook was already close to Rowan.
The latter swung his scepter horizontally, meeting the gold hook!
Crack!
Metal collided with armed power, sparking a few sparks.
"Ugh..."
Crocodile groaned, the feeling of soreness and stinging surged into his arm again.
As expected.
This old monster from eight hundred years ago, his body skills are definitely no less than the top experts on the sea today.
So, there is no shortcut, he can only use all his strength to defeat him!
At the same time, a violent sandstorm was gathering in Crocodile's right palm.
That is his most powerful sandstorm attack—
Heavy Sandstorm!
Boom!
Released at nearly point-blank range, the sandstorm is no longer a whistling sandstorm, but more like a cannonball made of sand.
It exploded violently!
The violent impact swallowed Rowan and Crocodile together.
Prepared, Crocodile immediately elementalized his body, while turning his arm into a sharp sand blade, and swung it violently towards Rowan's location.
This is his real killing move.
Desert Greatsword!
Swish!
The sand disappeared into the ground, a huge blade rose from the ground, stabbing out diagonally.
Boom!
Another deafening explosion, yellow sand scattered everywhere, blocking Crocodile's sight.
He was breathing heavily, multiple elemental transformations were very exhausting, but the power of the move was indeed huge.
"Old monster, how is it? This is how I use my fruit power!"
Observation power spread out, Crocodile tried to capture Rowan's movements.
But, what he never expected happened.
He felt a "wall".
The sand slowly fell, and the true form of the "wall" was revealed in front of Crocodile.
Four sand guards stood with shields, blocking the explosion of the heavy sandstorm.
It was a wall made of black shields, the wall of the guard!
Rowan was behind them, his scepter on the ground.
Swish!
The four sand guards seemed to have received an order, their shields turned into spears, changing from a defensive to an offensive stance.
Then, they charged forward!
Swish!
The four guards charged forward in neat steps, straight towards Crocodile.
The speed was so fast that the latter had no time to defend.
Faced with the sharp spears covered with armed power, Crocodile was forced to elementalize his body, dodging the deadly spear tips.
But when he looked up again, his expression suddenly froze.
He saw sand soldiers standing up one after another from behind Rowan.
There were as many as a thousand people.
These sand soldiers were not covered with armed power, but each held a spear, ready to throw it.
The target?
Of course, it was Crocodile himself.
Rowan waved his scepter forward, giving the order.
Instantly, thousands of sand soldiers threw the spears in their hands!
Swish swish swish swish...
The spears, as dense as raindrops, fell from the sky, heading straight for Crocodile!
At this moment, Crocodile was in the air, in an elementalized state, and there was no time to dodge.
He could only watch as the spears fell!
A angry and unwilling voice roared from his throat.
"Rowan!"
Boom!
Thousands of spears fell, exploding into countless grains of sand, burying Crocodile's figure!
...
The empty desert returned to calm again.
Only the sound of footsteps could be heard.
Rowan walked on the sand, step by step, gradually releasing the state of full body armed power covering.
He walked to a newly raised sand dune.
Crocodile was lying on it.
The falling sand spears were not wrapped in armed power, so he was not injured, just a little embarrassed.
He looked at the sky, his face gloomy.
After failing to challenge Whitebeard, Crocodile once again felt that absolute powerlessness.
He lost.
And this time, because both of them were Sand-Sand Fruit users, the unwillingness in his heart was even greater than before!
Bam!
Crocodile punched the sand, and stood up from the ground.
"Huff..."
He took a deep breath, tidyed up his clothes, and turned to Rowan and said:
"You won, I will leave this country, but one day..."
Before he could finish speaking, Rowan suddenly interrupted Crocodile with a surprised expression.
"Why do you want to leave?"
Hearing this, Crocodile was stunned, and became confused, "Are you okay with letting someone who has designs on your country stay?"
At least Crocodile himself would never let someone who had different intentions towards him live.
But Rowan didn't think so.
"Alabasta is a country, not a ship."
"Why can't there be ambition?"
Rowan smiled slightly, "No matter how big your ambition is, I will always be the emperor of Alabasta."
"Hehehehe, I stand by my previous assessment, you are really a conceited and annoying guy!"
Crocodile waved his hand, turned around and said, "Forget it, I have no interest in serving under others."
But Rowan shook his head.
"You don't need to serve, but you must witness!"
As always calm, as always unquestionable, but these words made Crocodile's pupils tremble.
He turned his head, silent for a long time, and asked, "What exactly are you going to do?"
Rowan held his scepter and looked up at the sun in the sky.
The sand floated around, and the conqueror's power unconsciously flowed out.
At that moment, Crocodile felt as if he was in that vast empire eight hundred years ago!
Iron armor clanging, war drums booming!
That extremely powerful country, traveled through time from the sand, briefly reappearing in the world.
Crocodile, who was born in this era, had never seen such a scene!
Rowan gently pinched a grain of sand.
Instantly, everything dissipated, returning to nothingness.
Rowan's voice echoed in the desert.
"I will bring back the glory of the Alabasta Empire!"