"Argh… Roger!"
"Why do I have to bear double the pain?"
"Who stole the Paw-Paw Fruit that should have been mine?!"
Rocks roared.
Inside the endless black abyss—his own Dark Paradise—he writhed as Roger's blade pierced his heart.
"Even the mightiest Logia has a body," Roger shouted.
"I can hear your heart's voice, Rocks!"
Gripping his sword with both hands, Roger drove it down with every ounce of strength.
He had to finish this.
Even a flicker of life left in Rocks would doom them all.
In the shadows, Linlin hesitated.
She had once fought to claim the Paw-Paw Fruit, but Kuma had eaten it first—and later paid for it in agony.
If Rocks had eaten it instead—able to expel pain from his body, then force someone else with the Op-Op Fruit to grant him immortality—
he would have become invincible.
A monster beyond defeat.
That small twist of fate had changed the course of the world.
"Roger!" Rocks screamed, trembling.
"Why not rule the world with me?!"
He was breaking apart—yet refusing to die.
If death came, it would drag everyone with him.
"You traitors!"
"If I must perish, then we all perish together!"
"Roger! Do you want to know the truth of Devil Fruits?"
Twin points of light flared in the darkness.
Rocks's laughter echoed, more beast than man.
Was this still Rocks D. Xebec—or the demon that lived inside his fruit?
Perhaps he had offered himself up entirely, trading his soul for one last surge of power.
He had nothing left to fear—why should anyone else survive?
"There really is a demon inside every fruit!"
"The Dark-Dark Fruit rules both the devil and the power!"
"Do you know what happens when that devil's will breaks free?!"
He roared each name in fury—
"Newgate! Shiki! Linlin! Wang Zhi! Silver Axe! John! Kaido! Kurozumi clan conspirators—
you miserable traitors! Now you'll pay the price!"
Rocks dragged himself upward from the pit.
His blood erupted; his dark-laced skin split open, spraying black ichor.
God Valley itself convulsed.
Every Devil Fruit user on the island gasped—the feeling was like invisible fingers crushing their throats.
As Rocks's life faded, the demons sealed inside every fruit began to stir.
"Rocks! We didn't betray you—we were only… waiting!"
The Kurozumi clan conspirators screamed, their minds unraveling.
If the demon will seized their bodies, they would become husks.
For Zoan users it was worse—they would devolve into mindless beasts.
"What is this?!" Kaido bellowed.
Since joining Rocks, he had never known such pain.
He remembered Whitebeard inviting him, Linlin treating him like family,
John teaching him to drink—
and then Sharn, the first friend near his own age.
But Rocks's choice to die dragging everyone down—none had foreseen it.
"Don't let the demon inside your head eat you alive, Kaido!" Linlin shouted, slapping his shoulder.
The demon will—
the final wall every fruit user faced when nearing Awakening.
Only by resisting it could true Awakening be reached.
Kaido burned this truth into his soul:
never let the devil possess you.
"Rocks! You're not the only one who's awakened a fruit!"
Shiki's eyes flared crimson; even the sea trembled with his rage.
He had foreseen this day since Hachinosu—
trained, waited, prepared.
"Everyone grows, Rocks! This is your last chance—don't turn it into the end of everything!"
"I have people to protect!"
Whitebeard planted his bisento, Conqueror's Haki exploding outward.
His will clashed with the demonic surge, his body entering its own awakened state to counter Rocks's suicidal power.
Rocks had gone further than any man before him—
and still lost to the one thing he could not control: the human heart.
"Hahaha!"
"A pack of spineless fools," he snarled.
"You think small, content to play at piracy. None of you were born to rule!"
He seized Roger's blade with his bare hand.
"Come on! Awakening a fruit hurts like hell! Those who haven't awakened—die with me!"
The roar shook heaven and sea.
Every Haki user nearby felt it—
the danger buried in every Devil Fruit.
From that day on, Roger's crew would pass down a warning:
Never eat a Devil Fruit if you can help it.
That legend would echo for decades—
from Buggy's accidental curse to Shanks's lifelong vow to stay fruitless.
The Grand Line was filled with threats:
Seastone that nullified power,
demonic will lurking in fruits,
the perils of Awakening,
Haki that countered them,
and the unique nightmare of the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Any one could destroy a user.
Only the rare Awakened could resist.
Across eight centuries of piracy, such beings could be counted on one hand.
"Demonic Will—Revival!"
Rocks's scream tore through the storm.
He no longer cared who lived.
If he had to die, he would take the world down too.
"Roger!" he roared.
"Are you sure you'll never crave to rule the seas yourself?
Power devours the soul! Greed blinds!
The people you save today will stand against you tomorrow!
So long as the Celestial Dragons live, the Marines serve Mary Geoise.
They'll hunt you all your life!
Maybe one day you'll wake up in chains—Garp and Sengoku delivering you to the scaffold!"
Rocks thrust his clawed hand into Roger's abdomen.
"Darkness will corrode your blood year by year.
The more you fight, the deeper it festers.
You kill me to save the world? Then the world will kill you!
Nothing can banish absolute darkness—it's already in your veins!"
His eyes were pure madness.
Dragged into the abyss, he would never let another taste freedom.
The abyss pulsed outward again.
Every Devil Fruit user felt their inner demon awaken.
Rocks's curse turned allies to enemies—
the battle was no longer for victory, but for their very souls.
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