Amidst Rocks's laughter toward the sky.
A colossal azure dragon coiled its immense body, lowering its majestic head before the group; its maw split in a boastful roar.
"Oroorororo! Look, Rocks! Carlo! Newgate!"
"Check me out—ain't I incredible? I've finally got my Devil Fruit!"
"Zoan-type, Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Azure Dragon form!"
"Carlo, didn't see this coming, did you? Even if you swiped the fruit, I still took it back! I scored first place in your Celestial-Dragon-hunting game!"
Rocks lifted his gaze, sized up Kaido's dragon form, and grinned.
"Congrats, kid! From where I'm standing, you're clearly loving every second—Wahahaha!"
"Well done… but," Whitebeard gripped Murakumogiri, staring in shock at Saturn as he approached, "what in the world is that thing?"
"You ask me what it is?" Rocks turned, eyes unreadable, voice low.
"That would be—the world!!"
"Saint Saturn, why appear in such a state? Are you a Devil Fruit User as well?"
The Marine officers still conscious looked on in horror at the fiend-like Saturn wreathed in black flame-clouds.
Reflexively they clutched their weapons.
By now Saturn's bloated body towered two or three times higher than the surrounding houses.
He crouched on the ground, eight jet-black hooked spider legs lining his flanks.
Black fire roiled across him.
Most terrifying of all, the ox-spider already bore Saturn's own face.
Yet above that face, a thin demonic shadow writhed, shifting shape.
Clearly some fearsome creature.
It clung to the Gorosei like a parasite.
It seemed to have seized complete control of Saturn's body and will; his eyes were empty.
He offered no reply to the Marines' questions.
Atop the shadow, beneath a crown-like triple-pronged silhouette, emotionless spiral eyes looked down on the terrified sailors.
"Eyesores…"
Saturn spoke no word, yet a cold voice echoed in every Marine's mind.
Before the hundred-odd soldiers could grasp where the voice came from, the black spiral patterns on the huge spider legs stirred, detached, and came alive.
They writhed free, turning into spear-like legs of shadow.
Under the horrified gaze of the Marines, they shot forward.
In an instant dozens of black spider-leg shadows solidified, whipping through the air in every direction.
Moving at impossible speed, they skewered scores of Marines, punching through bodies without mercy.
Screams and blood burst across the square.
The sudden carnage left watching pirates dumbstruck.
"Aaaah! What's that monster doing? Isn't it on the Marines' side? Why's it slaughtering its own?"
The moment that bewilderment surfaced, countless black spider-leg shadows ripped through walls and earth, impaling pirates and nailing them to the ground.
Those farther off fled in terror.
"Run! That thing kills anything that moves—it doesn't care whose side you're on!"
Yet the shadows' reach was monstrous; even hundreds of meters away, fleeing pirates were pierced and fell screaming.
Even members of the Roger Pirates down by the shore were hit.
Rayleigh and Jabba, unable to wait for Roger, hurried the crew aboard.
The immense spider-fiend strode straight toward Rocks and Carlo.
From its body countless shadows lashed out like tentacles, skewering pirates, Marines, and refugees alike.
Just as the panicked pirates had said: it attacked without distinction and nothing could stop it.
With every step its aura swelled.
By the time it halted less than ten meters from Rocks, Carlo, Whitebeard, Kaido, Roger, Garp and the others, a crushing pressure burst forth like an erupting volcano.
The aura felt godlike—yet demonic.
Carlo narrowed his eyes at the black shadow perched atop Saturn, the thing steering him.
Among everyone present only he and Rocks knew the creature's true identity.
Imu.
The being whose presence utterly eclipsed them all—the secret founder of the World Government, the victor over Joy Boy, the Celestial Dragon king who had lived eight centuries.
Before this moment Carlo had speculated about Imu's strength.
He had assumed that even if Imu were mighty, a single instant kill against top-tier fighters like them was impossible—otherwise the future Four Emperors would be meaningless.
But now, face to face, every assumption was overturned.
Rocks was the strongest fighter Carlo had ever seen, yet Imu's very presence completely suppressed even his Haoshoku Haki.
With Imu alone, the entire field was subdued—so powerful it inspired dread.
Rocks stepped forward, resting on his sword, and looked up.
"Hey, King of the sewer rats!"
"You've come to kill me, right?"
At such close range Imu's face remained hidden; only those cold spiral eyes gazed down as he finally spoke.
"I never expected it would be you… Davy Jones!!"
Rocks bared his teeth. "Wrong guy. Never met whoever that is."
He pulled his long blade from the ground.
"Still, a promise is a promise."
The word "promise" seemed to strike Imu's raw nerve.
His voice turned icy with rage.
"That is why you must be erased from history!!"
"My world is not yet finished—I will not allow vermin like you to meddle!!"