Having guessed part of the truth, York immediately set off, rushing in Garin's direction.
Kaido did not hesitate in the slightest and followed right after, chasing along with York.
Shakky glanced at little Teach, who was still unconscious, feeling a bit at a loss.
"Shakky, just stay and look after Teach for now!"
York's voice carried from far away.
Shakky let out a soft sigh and in the end did not go anywhere, nor did she take the chance to steal York's Devil Fruits and run away.
Whitebeard and Charlotte Linlin both cast a greedy look at the burlap sack in Shakky's hand.
But they still had their bottom line.
The two of them discussed it briefly.
In the end, they decided that Whitebeard would go after them to see what was happening, while Charlotte Linlin stayed behind to protect Shakky.
They were not worried about the God Knights coming to launch a sneak attack.
They were worried about the members of the Rocks Pirates here who had temporarily fallen into a weakened state.
Those guys were not people one could feel at ease leaving things to.
Golden Lion just now was the best proof.
Silver Axe and the others watched York and the two heading off, and he and John quietly pushed themselves to their feet.
Seeing this, the others all looked over, and then everyone's gaze fell together on Charlotte Linlin and Shakky.
"Linlin, if you hand over Shakky now, we can spare your life."
"Mama mama! You bunch of weak-kneed shrimps! As expected, you're all just trash!"
A vicious grin spread across Charlotte Linlin's face.
Prometheus burned in her left hand and the thundercloud Zeus crackled in her right, and she did not show a shred of fear.
At the same time, at the very edge of the group, Long Bread, whose suspected target was also Shakky, quietly focused his gaze on the Rocks Pirates in front of him.
These guys seemed to have forgotten that Charlotte Linlin was brought out and raised by him.
Did they really think he would kill his own foster daughter over a woman?
Everyone who had a sword drew their sword, those with axes picked up their axes, and those with mechanical arms began priming their mechanisms.
The battle was about to erupt at any moment.
…
In the central battlefield, the fight between Rocks and Imu was still raging.
The two had been evenly matched from start to finish, neither able to do anything decisive to the other.
Only as time went on did Rocks begin to show slight signs of heavy breathing.
The woman in uniform possessed by Imu, on the other hand, still looked to be in perfect, peak condition.
"It is useless, Rocks. Back then you already knew you could not defeat Imu, and now you are even less Imu's match."
"In the end, all that awaits you is the exhaustion of your strength and being cut down by Imu."
"Rather than that, you should choose another path."
"Your fighting strength is impressive. Imu can make an exception and let you join the God Knights and serve as the next captain of the God Knights."
Rocks sneered at that.
"Be your dog?"
"Wahaha!"
"If I'd wanted that, I would have been your dog back then."
"Today, I am going to truly slay a god."
His long blade was wrapped in ultimate Conqueror's Haki, the lightning-like ribbons it gave off so sharp that each strand could tear the air apart.
Rocks roared, "Godslayer!"
He gripped the saber with both hands and swung it in a full-force horizontal sweep.
The terrifying slash, carrying the power of Conqueror's Haki, swept across the entire island.
Imu swung the demonic trident and deliberately split the body in two, letting the slash pass cleanly through the gap, then restored the body in an instant as if time itself had reversed.
Clang.
The air let out a sword's cry as York, who had been sprinting forward at full speed, suddenly bent back into a full bridge.
The flying slash, its cutting power and destructive force pushed to the extreme, passed just one meter in front of him, almost slicing him in half.
Behind him, Kaido saw York's movement and immediately dove forward, rolling across the ground, likewise only narrowly avoiding being cut in two.
Farther back, Whitebeard chose to take it head-on.
Because behind him were Shakky, Teach, and Charlotte Linlin.
Never mind what would happen to Charlotte Linlin, Shakky definitely could not withstand a blow like that, while Teach might, thanks to his short stature, not even get grazed.
Whitebeard clenched his fist and unleashed a quake punch into empty air. In order to shatter the slash in front of him, he was forced straight back for dozens of meters before finally smashing it to pieces.
On the other side, near the central plaza in the heart of the island's great canyon, Garp and Roger's battle had also reached a fever pitch.
Suddenly, the island-spanning slash flew over their heads and sliced another mountain, one that had not yet been heavily damaged, cleanly in half.
Thousands or even tens of millions of tons of rock began sliding slowly down along the cut, seeming likely to bury the entire God Valley gorge.
Roger finally gave the order to retreat.
"Boys, run! Get out of the canyon first, then figure out where Shakky is!"
"Don't think of escaping!"
Garp did not care about the falling mountain at all.
He usually trained his fists using mountains; how could he be afraid of being buried alive by one.
At the same time, however, a sliver of fear toward that slash rose in his heart.
If that slash had fallen on him just now, even if he had not been cut in half on the spot, he would almost certainly have been gravely injured.
Of course, if he were facing the man who launched that slash in a head-on battle, the other side would not be in good shape either.
Back on Rocks's side, after unleashing this slash that could be said to surpass his limits, he was forced to pause his offensive, standing in place to catch his breath.
Imu did not hurry to attack either, simply watching him calmly as if waiting for something.
Before long, Garin appeared, a limp Alice, Rocks's wife, clamped under his arm.
As soon as he arrived, he shouted, "My lord Patriarch!"
A faint glimmer of satisfaction flashed in Imu's beautiful eyes.
Then, just as he had done earlier to the Rocks Pirates, he waved his hand and drew a pentagram magic circle, which dropped into place under Garin's feet.
Garin set down the corpse he had been carrying and let the magic circle swallow it, while he himself leapt out of the array.
As the strongest member of the current God Knights, he had actually not yet signed a contract with Imu.
His reason was simple. He had talent and believed he could continue to grow stronger.
It would not be too late to gain immortality after his strength reached its peak.
Rocks, of course, also saw what Imu and Garin were doing.
He lunged forward in a single step, appearing before Garin.
Garin, eager to fight, drew his blade and challenged Rocks, but was sent flying by a single slash.
However, that instant of obstruction from Garin was enough.
The magic circle successfully devoured Alice's corpse completely, then rotated a full one hundred eighty degrees.
"Alice!"
At Rocks's tense, disbelieving call, an Alice transformed into a demon, her body now over four meters tall, slowly rose from the magic circle.
She first looked down blankly at her own body.
"I'm not dead?"
Then she noticed Rocks standing right in front of her.
"Xebec? How did you… get smaller?"
Rocks's frame was burly, but his height was not outrageous, a little over three meters, the standard size of a Marine admiral.
In this moment, however, standing before his more than four-meter-tall wife, he seemed slightly small.
"How… how are you alive again?"
Rocks stared at his wife in a daze, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"This is the miracle that only God can accomplish."
Imu's voice sounded from behind Rocks.
"If you submit to me, you can be reunited with your wife and never again suffer the pain of being parted by death."
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