"Ha ha ha ha!"
"This is easily the fiercest battle I've ever faced."
"For decades I've spent not a day without growing stronger — all for today."
Rocks' fists were drenched in the blood of Roger and Garp.
As the sea's final hope, Garp and Roger were crushed by Rocks' sonic, bone-shattering blows — tossed into gouges in the cliff like two men hurled into a spiderweb of damage. The men sunk in those hollows were at their peak, yet still unable to move Rocks' dominance.
"I originally wanted the Meatball Fruit — then the Dark-Dark Fruit's side effects could be completely blocked!"
"I'd let the world taste true pain, and fling it across every shore!"
"I've sailed too many seas; a fruit like that would let me come and go by virtue of its nature. What say you, Roger?"
Rocks gave them no room to recover. Even as he spoke his mind, his assault accelerated — Haki-laced strikes smashing Roger's ribs, threatening to shatter bone. Garp struggled but could not even call out. A crushing despair settled on the valley — unlike the despair that once only shook the Navy's morale, this despair meant even the great fighters of the seas could not find hope.
People pressed weakly against the wall as stones pelted down. Those with faint Observation Haki tried to sense Roger and Garp — were they still alive? After Rocks' ferocious strike, survival seemed all but impossible. Yet they could not die: the only ones left with the strength to beat Rocks were them.
Sharn's Berries was full; he spun once. Food converted rapidly into energy. Broken bones, lost teeth, damaged organs — they all knit back together quickly. Though exhausted, his will kept him steady. Overexcited hormones held everyone upright.
"Immortality's charm outshines wine; yet life vanishes in a flash. Better to fall drunk and ignorant."
John rolled off an oak barrel. He'd lived a life of drunken revelry and treasure hunting — leaving behind countless spoils.
"Kid — can your Observation Haki actually hear?" John asked, puffing, his appearance ragged but oddly handsome in the sun. Sharn didn't want a life like John's: Rocks' crew had their vices — Whitebeard and Kaido drank like him, Lili loved food, and Lion (Shiki-style?) harbored endless ambition like Rocks.
"Stop calling me 'kid.' Sharn will ring across the seas!" Sharn stood and felt his body — altered by drugs, strengthened to the limit.
"Maybe," John replied. "I've seen many rookies die."
"A confused boy with no will — what else is he but a rookie?" John declared. "Rookie — Xiaen!"
John's spirit was flawed but his creed — drunken daring and treasure-seeking — held. Without will or ambition you cannot reach the sea's pinnacle. Even Roger, who yearned for freedom, lived unbound by any man or thing; that longing was a formidable ambition.
Sharn stared at the last flicker of the old age's curtain. He'd come into this world without ever truly finding his own will.
"What do I want?" he muttered.
As he puzzled, a heartbeat echoed inside him — someone's Haki had flared. Roger.
Roger's Observation Haki, woven with Conqueror's Haki, reverberated with the valley itself. Rivers, trees, every little living thing that still had will trembled to his call. Sharn knew Roger wouldn't die so easily; though rocked by blows, the man still fought to revive his spirit. It was stubbornness in the truest sense.
Even so, Roger would later fall to an incurable illness; history is cruel. Once, Sharn had thought a being who'd honed Haki to the utmost could never die young. Peak Roger was a monster: twin-armed strength, world-class swordsmanship, and an Observation that listened to everything. Now Sharn understood: whether Roger or Rocks, to die at the peak is to remain forever unreachable.
What, then, is will? Family, freedom, power, treasure, wine, beauty, food, rank? In Sharn's mind Barrett appeared — a pirate driven by hunger for power with no deeper will. What about himself? To surpass Rocks?
"What do I want?" Sharn heard Roger's breathing — less a "listen to all things" than a telephone-snail-like Haki signal. That he could "speak" directly into the heart explained why Roger could converse with everything, like how ancient Sea Kings speak.
Hearing that abyssal, whale-like call sent chills down Sharn's spine. Reborn into this life, he'd already awakened three Haki types and had repeatedly strengthened his body — becoming a frame ordinary swords cannot shatter. Powerful Devil Fruit, a mysterious Demon Compass — everything injected new blood into Sharn's life. Opportunity and future lay in his hands.
For others God Valley is an ending — a curtain call. For Sharn and most here, it is the start of a new era.
"I want everything." Sharn's look fixed on Rocks' frenzied onslaught. After feeling the sea-lords' Conqueror Haki, one thought remained: to possess everything.
"Why choose? I want it all — more than Rocks himself."
Sharn clenched the recording Den Den Mushi and engraved the moment into both the machine and his fifteen-year-old soul. Rocks seemed invincible now, surrounded by only a few loyal followers; by contrast, the World Nobles (Imu) sat on their Red Line throne with never-ending guards. If Rocks lost, his crew would scatter. Sharn remembered this and vowed never to suffer it himself. Bearing all the weight on your shoulders is exhausting. To hold absolute power, you must have absolute strength and the mightiest faction.
The Den Den Mushi blinked; Sharn recorded the world-king's pinnacle clash. John glanced at Sharn; for a moment his drunkenness cleared.
"Xiaen, you seem to have found the helm you'll steer by?" John observed.
Sharn bit an apple. Strength returned and his ambition germinated like a seed. Greed was always in his eyes; now it awakened.
Crack — crack — Roger's heartbeat and his "listen to all things" combined; he drained life for a willful revival. Garp's finger twitched and resonance flowed from the pit — his throat spattered with blood; it hurt to breathe. "Rocks…!" he croaked.
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