The battle on God Valley had reached its boiling point.
"Damn it! We can't clear these vines at all! This can't continue—retreat, now!"
Kuzan froze the black vines in front of him with a burst of ice and shouted across the chaos.
"Retreat? No retreat!" Sakazuki roared. His magma arms churned with black smoke. "Absolute Justice doesn't retreat!"
"Sakazuki—Kuzan's right!" Borsalino's fingers glittered with golden light, his speech noticeably faster than usual. "If we keep fighting here, the bodies will only pile up. The more corpses there are, the stronger Romu becomes. Staying here just turns us into dead weight for Kong and the others!"
Sakazuki's expression darkened like a storm cloud.
"Damn it…"
"Fine. Retreat!"
Orders immediately rippled through the remaining Marines.
They were already breaking—so when they heard they could fall back, that despair finally cracked open into a fragile sliver of hope.
But the moment the orders went out—
Sakazuki turned into a jet of magma.
And instead of retreating with everyone else—
He blasted deeper into the island.
"I'll finish off those heavily injured squad leaders!"
"What a reckless idiot…" Borsalino muttered, but his gaze sharpened. He turned into a streak of light and followed.
"…What a troublesome day." Kuzan adjusted the green eye-shade on his head, then vanished after them.
At the same time—
On the western side of the island, Romu was locked in a brutal clash with Kong, Roger, Garp, and the others.
Romu was no longer relaxed.
Because Roger had called in reinforcements—
Rayleigh.
Gaban.
And Bullet.
Romu wasn't fighting six anymore.
He was fighting nine.
Romu had absorbed Rocks and reached a terrifying height—
But Rocks' energy was simply too vast.
Romu hadn't fully fused it with his own yet.
Against nine of the absolute top-tier monsters in the pirate world…
Even he was starting to feel pressure.
"Romu!"
"We're ending you here today!"
Zephyr roared.
He seized the split-second Romu was forced to guard Kong and the others—old force spent, new force not yet born—
and launched forward.
His speed screamed through the air.
"Good!"
Kong and the others' eyes flashed.
Zephyr had found the opening.
But the very next moment—
their expressions twisted into disbelief.
Romu didn't dodge.
He didn't retreat.
He kept both hands raised, still countering attacks from the side—
and let Zephyr's punch slam straight into him.
Zephyr's pupils snapped wide.
The punch…
passed through.
Like Romu wasn't a body—only a shadow.
"How is that possible?!"
Zephyr stared at his fist inside "Romu's" torso, stunned.
But Garp and the rest were even more shaken.
Zephyr hadn't seen it.
They had.
In that instant, Romu did move.
Not once.
Twice.
He shifted his torso just enough to slip past the punch—
then returned to the original position so fast it looked like an afterimage.
So fast that Zephyr believed he'd hit a phantom.
"Too slow."
Romu's mouth curved slightly.
His right arm rose—
and came down like an executioner's blade.
Boom!
Zephyr was sent flying and smashed into a distant hill.
"Damn it…" Roger cursed.
But his instincts as a born conqueror flared.
So what if Romu was a monster?
Roger refused to believe one man could handle everyone here.
"Divine Strike!"
Roger gripped Ace with both hands.
Dark-red Conqueror's Haki surged.
The blade lit up with a deep, dazzling crimson—like compressed lightning.
He swung.
Air split.
Ripples peeled outward.
And at the same time—
Rayleigh pushed his glasses up with one finger.
His black blade, already coated in Armament Haki, was drowned in dark-red conqueror pressure.
A radiant blue gleam flashed.
Energy hissed and screamed.
This wasn't Rayleigh "holding back" anymore.
He swung.
A gorgeous blue slash followed Roger's crimson strike, racing together toward Romu.
Romu's expression didn't change.
Unless seven or more attacked at once, he still wasn't truly strained.
Roger and Rayleigh?
He didn't even rate them.
Romu raised both hands.
Crack.
Conqueror's Haki coated his arms—
but it wasn't dark red.
It was black.
Blacker than anything Rocks ever showed.
In everyone's stunned stare—
Romu opened his palm.
Black hand meeting crimson and blue—
and yet…
There wasn't even an explosion.
Romu's right hand tightened slightly.
The two slashes shattered like a broken mirror—splitting into dozens of fragmented shards.
Then Romu closed his palm again.
The shards snapped together—
reformed—
into a single black sword wave.
"Keep it."
Romu flicked his wrist and tossed that black blade right back at them.
The black slash tore through the air, crushing everything in its path.
Roger and Rayleigh didn't have time to be shocked.
They felt it.
That wasn't something they could block.
They rolled on the ground—ugly, desperate, abandoning pride—
barely dodging it.
The black blade skimmed Roger's scalp and tore into distant stone.
BOOOOM!
A thunderous rupture—
and God Valley split open with a crack that ran who-knew-how-far, ripping across the island like a wound.
Roger's face went pale.
Every hair stood on end.
He instinctively patted his head, furious.
"Damn it!"
"This freak didn't just get stronger in Devil Fruit power!"
Romu nodded calmly, as if confirming a lesson.
"Figured it out a little late, didn't you?"
The Wood-Wood Fruit absorbed bodily energy.
And when the body rose…
everything that relied on the body—
Haki included—
rose with it.
Romu glanced around at the grim faces in front of him.
"Stop wasting time."
"Bring everyone at once—"
He didn't finish.
His face sank.
Because his Observation Haki caught something else—
Sakazuki's trio had reached Whitebeard and Shiki.
Flash.
The wooden dragon coiled on the wooden giant's arm shot toward Romu.
Romu leapt without hesitation.
Whitebeard and Shiki were his friends now—especially Whitebeard.
He would not allow them to die here.
With a sharp whistle—
the wooden dragon became a streak of brown lightning, carrying Romu straight toward them.
"Romu!"
Garp and the others shouted and tried to chase—
but the wooden giant surged forward and attacked, forcing them back.
A shockwave ripped across the ground.
Sakazuki arrived.
Then Borsalino.
Then Kuzan.
"I'm taking Newgate," Sakazuki ordered coldly.
"You two handle Shiki."
Borsalino and Kuzan nodded and moved.
Sakazuki stomped forward, shattering rubble with each step.
He looked down at the heavily wounded Whitebeard.
"Hmph."
"Behave."
"Or I'll take your life right now."
His arms turned into roaring magma.
If Whitebeard so much as twitched—
Sakazuki would burn straight through him.
To Sakazuki…
Only a dead pirate was a good pirate.
"Gurararara…"
Whitebeard laughed weakly.
"Just you? Lava brat… you're fifty years too early."
He forced power into his fists.
Moonlit tremors gathered—
but then he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The glow vanished.
His body collapsed.
The injuries were too heavy.
Sakazuki's eye twitched.
For one instant—when Whitebeard began to gather power—
Sakazuki had felt… fear.
Fear, from a man who could barely stand.
That shame ignited him.
"Looks like dragging away a corpse is easier."
Sakazuki lowered his head, voice thick with killing intent.
"Let me see what your fireworks can light, old man."
Whitebeard's eyes stayed proud.
Even dying—
he would never be captured.
Sakazuki's magma swelled, heat twisting the air.
"Die!"
"Pirate!"
He raised his right arm high—
Then—
A pressure slammed down.
BOOM!
Rock around Sakazuki shattered.
The ground beneath him sank an entire meter.
Sakazuki froze.
His face stiffened mid-motion.
Across from him, Borsalino and Kuzan broke into cold sweat.
Their eyes widened like bells.
Sakazuki swallowed hard.
His body trembled as he slowly turned.
His mind flashed white.
A pair of massive orange dragon eyes stared straight into his soul.
And above them—
wide-legged pants, grey short-sleeve shirt…
a cold face lit by raw power.
Romu.
Romu didn't speak.
He simply raised his right arm.
Black Conqueror's Haki coated it instantly.
The darkness expanded—
condensing into a basin-sized black sphere around his fist.
Then—
he smashed down.
Everything his fist passed…
collapsed like it was being crushed by the world itself.
"It's over…"
Sakazuki thought, strangely calm.
Not fear—
just certainty.
This—
was death.
"ROMU!!"
Several furious roars exploded at once.
"Buddha Shockwave!"
"Six Styles Secret Art: Steel-Bone Jade!"
"Fist-Bone Meteor!"
Sengoku.
Kong.
Garp.
They broke free of the wooden giant and arrived in time.
BOOOOM!
Two colossal forces collided.
For a few seconds, the black energy devoured their techniques outright.
Sengoku, Kong, Garp—
and Sakazuki as well—
were all blown backward.
Blood spilled at the corners of their mouths.
Whitebeard finally exhaled.
Romu had come.
Shiki, dragging himself over with his Float-Float power, also reached them—covered in blood.
"I was ready to go keep Rocks company," Whitebeard gasped.
"But damn… Romu. You really are a monster."
Shiki lowered his head, refusing to show how ruined he looked.
Romu's killing intent vanished.
His mouth curved.
He leaned down, pulled a fresh cigar from Shiki's pocket—
snap—
and placed it between Shiki's lips.
"Old men."
"If you're tired, then rest."
He raised both arms.
In an instant—
every vine in the Flower-Tree Realm moved.
They scooped up every surviving pirate—
including Kaido—
and carried them to Romu's side.
Then the vines twisted together.
Roots, branches, trunks—
all converging.
Within moments, they formed a gigantic, strange plant structure—like a massive propeller tower, several times larger than the wooden giant itself.
Its roots speared into the rock, plunging dozens of meters deep.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
In a single breath—
the entire chunk of island beneath the pirates—hundreds of square meters—
lifted.
It rose into the air.
And then it accelerated—shooting toward the distant islets at terrifying speed.
Romu let out a long breath.
He turned back to the nine monsters who had regrouped in front of him.
His voice was calm.
Clear.
Final.
"Your opponent…"
"Is me alone."
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