The King of the World, Saint Imu, stared at the crowd with a sharp gaze, eventually drawn by Rocks' voice, and looked toward him:
"So it's you, Davy D. Jones!"
With just a single glance, Imu felt the aura of a former enemy radiating from him.
Rocks smiled at him with a fierce expression and replied, "You've got the wrong person! I've never even met that guy! However, a promise must always be kept!"
Imu snorted coldly:
"It is precisely because of that promise that you must be destroyed! Your clan shall be completely erased from history! Mu's world is not yet complete!"
Saying that, Imu controlled Satan Saint to launch a tentacle attack, rushing straight at Rocks as fast as a blurred afterimage.
Rocks reacted immediately, raising his blade and slicing off that massive spider stinger with a single swing.
"When I was coming over just now, it seemed your companions were all backstabbing each other, Rocks." At that moment, Rune's mocking voice rang out from behind Rocks: "In this chaos, how do you plan to control your subordinates?"
"Heh!" Rocks gave a stark laugh: "There's no need for control! We are a group of people gathered together for profit! Whether they follow me or leave me, they are free to do as they please!"
"Vice Admiral Garp!!!"
"We beg you! You absolutely cannot go and punch that monster!"
"That's right! That's the highest authority of the World Government! If you hit him, we Marines will have no way to explain ourselves!"
Many soldiers exerted all their strength trying to stop Garp from rushing toward Satan, who was possessed by Imu.
"You mean that vermin who slaughtered our Marine soldiers!" Garp dragged several soldiers' bodies along as he ran toward Satan Saint, Haki condensing on his fist.
Seeing this, the soldiers could only let go, not daring to step forward and stop him again.
The intense and familiar aura of Haki made Roger look into the distance:
"Garp! Wait, that's our prey, don't steal it!"
He then raised his saber, aiming at Imu on Satan Saint's body with an intense coating of Haoshoku. Although he didn't know what it was, he was certain that the pitch-black silhouette had harmed his partners.
Whether it was due to grudges or whatever had brought them here, everyone's attention was drawn by the aura emanating from Imu.
Everyone charged their moves at the same time, aiming their techniques at him simultaneously.
"Aiming at that silhouette is useless!" Rune also coated his fist with Haki, but he wasn't aiming at Imu; instead, he aimed at Satan Saint's head: "You have to hit the possessed body!"
Boom! Everyone unleashed their techniques with full force.
"Fist Bone Clash!"
"Void Breaker!"
"Abyssal Curse!"
"Divine Departure!"
"Dragon Breath!"
"Conquerors Fist!"
"Ikoku Sovereignty!"
The full-force strike of the seven strongest humans on the stage of the modern sea questioned the pinnacle of the world, sounding the horn of a declaration of war against the King of the World.
A terrifying shockwave of Conqueror's Haki exploded in the center of God Valley, instantly engulfing Satan Saint's massive Human-Beast Gyuki Form.
Even Imu, who was possessing Satan Saint, was blasted into fragments by this combined strike.
His body was like a dark shadow dissipating in the air, drifting in mid-air, but it did not fully vanish; instead, it was rapidly reassembling and healing.
Satan Saint's body was sent flying by Rune's punch, crashing into the wall at the base of the peak on the right side of God Valley.
In the center of the valley, Rune stood ready with a frown; just now, no one had listened to him, choosing instead to attack Imu.
If all the power of that combined strike had hit Satan Saint's body, it would have definitely blown him apart on the spot, killing him, but now it was too late.
"What on earth is that thing?"
"It didn't dissipate, and it didn't even scream after taking our hit; it's just floating in the air!"
"Those eyes are still watching us from the air, and it looks very angry!"
Looking at Imu's massive dark shadow in the sky, cold sweat broke out on everyone's faces.
In the next second, the aura within Imu poured out like a crashing mountain and sea, a wave of intense Conqueror's Haki that instantly covered all of God Valley, sweeping through everything like a flood.
His Conqueror's Haki destroyed all those with weak wills in the center of God Valley; wherever the Conqueror's Haki passed, those with unsteady wills fainted on the spot.
"Haki King Lu En, you are very dangerous!" Imu glanced at the distant, possessed Satan Saint and used his own power to re-establish a connection with Satan, controlling him to return from the valley wall to the front of the crowd.
Satan Saint returned to everyone's sight, but his body was several times larger than before, with black flames burning all over him.
"Heh." Rune had cold sweat on his forehead, but a ferocious smile appeared on his face as he stared at Imu.
Roger was extremely shocked and looked at Rune: "Do you know his weakness, Rune!"
"Of course I don't!" Rune responded immediately. He didn't know the weakness either, but if Satan were killed, Imu would surely be unable to possess him again.
"Kaido! Give it back to me!" Linlin grabbed the dragon horns on Kaido's head and shouted at him loudly.
Kaido sneered at her: "What's been eaten can't be spat back out, Linlin!"
"What is going on? Why are our attacks having no effect!" Garp fell into self-doubt, wondering if the power of his punch just now wasn't great enough, even though he had clearly exerted all his strength.
Under everyone's gaze, Imu's body quickly recovered, standing once again atop the continuously growing Satan Saint. His gaze then shifted from Rune to Rocks.
The reason was that he only felt the aura of an ordinary powerhouse from Rune, with no familiar scent, and even the Haoshoku was unfamiliar.
This meant that he had no connection to the promised person in the prophecy.
Imu's Observation Haki covered the entire island, peering into the movements of the Davy Clan. He said to Rocks, "New Davy, I can see your wife and child fleeing desperately, trying to survive. Mu will never let them escape; they are harmful lives!"
Hearing his wife and child being threatened, Rocks instantly lost his reason, leaping into mid-air with his blade and slashing at Imu's dark shadow.
"Stop, what do you think you're doing!"
He came here because of Alice and Teach. Since Imu could perceive his wife and child in such a situation, he felt that the opponent could also harm them.
After several slashes, Rocks cut Imu's body into several pieces, yet he still felt no sensation of actually wounding him, as if he were a monster without a physical body.
Everyone saw this scene. Amidst shocked gazes, two black spikes extended from Imu's body and pierced Rocks' chest.
Rocks, still in his sword-swinging posture, froze on the spot, his body rapidly undergoing a strange transformation.
"..." Rune watched all of this, knowing that Rocks was about to be "transformed by darkness" and turned into a demon.
He gritted his teeth, his mind racing. If there were a way to kill Imu now, would the future world change significantly for the better?
If he could be killed, would the tragedies, the horrors, and the entire world be reshaped?
A deep sense of powerlessness pierced Rune's heart. It was precisely because he knew such things existed that he felt himself to be incredibly weak.
He looked at his fist again: "Can my flames... burn away this black flame?"