The demonized Alice stood before him, her voice dripping with false affection.
"Xebec, stop. Your plan has failed."
"I don't want to hide anymore. Even if you don't care about yourself... think of Teach."
"Can you bear for him to become an orphan?"
Rocks wavered. The face was his wife's. The voice was hers. For a split second, the Captain of the strongest pirate crew was just a husband who wanted to go home.
But then, he looked at her cold, demonic eyes.
SWISH.
Rocks swung his blade. He bisected the demon Alice from shoulder to hip.
"Ji... Jibeck..."
The demon stared at him, feigning disbelief.
"Fake!" Rocks roared, tears streaming down his face. "You are not Alice!! Alice would never be that weak!"
SQUELCH. SQUELCH.
The demon didn't die. Black smoke pulled her halves together. Time reversed, and she stood whole again.
"Xebec..."
Her voice shifted. The affection vanished, replaced by a hateful, resentful shriek.
"WHY?!"
"Why did you do this?! I just wanted a peaceful life! I wanted to give Teach a future!"
"The World Government has ruled for 800 years! Why must you rebel?!"
"The Clan of D is gone! We should just survive! Why do you have to be a hero?!"
Every word was a siege hammer battering Rocks' heart.
He swung his sword wildly, hacking the demon into pieces. But the voice kept screaming.
"STOP IT! YOU'RE KILLING US!"
"IT'S YOUR FAULT I'M DEAD!"
"IMU!!" Rocks roared at the sky, his eyes bleeding. "YOU ARE DESPICABLE!!"
He couldn't take it. The voice was breaking him.
STAB.
Rocks plunged his Haki-coated index fingers into his own ears.
POP!
Blood sprayed from his ear canals.
The world went silent.
The Possessed Woman (Imu's Avatar) watched from above, her crescent-moon eyes filled with sadistic pleasure.
"Destroying your own hearing to shut her out? How ruthless."
"But... killing your wife with your own hands feels great, doesn't it?"
She smiled.
"Oh, I forgot. You can't hear me."
"In that case... let's try something visual."
Imu raised her hand. She snapped her fingers.
SNAP.
The spell holding the "Alice" puppet together was canceled.
The demon, which was in the middle of regenerating, suddenly froze. The black smoke vanished.
SPLAT. THUD.
Gravity took over. The "demon" reverted to what it truly was—a pile of chopped flesh and bone.
Rocks froze.
He watched the fragments of his wife splatter onto the ground.
His eyes widened until the capillaries burst. The tears turned red.
"AH... AH... AHHHH!!!!"
A silent scream tore from his throat. The sound was gone, but the vibration shook the air.
Rocks fell to his knees, clutching his hair, his mind shattering under the weight of absolute grief.
Imu floated down, her smile widening.
She raised her hand. Dark energy swirled.
"Rocks. You are broken. Now, you belong to Mu."
She drew a Pentagram in the air.
"Devil's Contract: Black Reversal Domination."
The purple magic circle appeared beneath the kneeling pirate. The ground turned into a swamp, pulling him down.
Imu chanted the terms, though Rocks couldn't hear them.
Submit. Become a demon. Kill the pirates. And I will resurrect Alice for real.
Rocks sank to his waist.
Imu smirked. 'Another powerful pawn. In the great war decades from now, he will be useful.'
CRACK.
A sound like breaking glass echoed across the island.
Imu's smile faltered.
Red lightning—thicker and darker than ever before—erupted from Rocks' body.
It wasn't just Conqueror's Haki. It was Despair Manifest.
SHATTER!
The magic circle cracked. The purple light shattered into dust.
"Nani?!" Imu gasped. "Impossible..."
"I crushed his heart! I broke his mind! How can his Will still be this strong?!"
Rocks stood up. He stepped out of the broken circle.
He couldn't hear Imu. But he could see her fear.
"You scum..." Rocks mouthed, his voice a guttural growl. "Only one of us leaves this island alive."
Rocks raised his blade.
He didn't use a named attack. He didn't need one.
He condensed every ounce of his pain, rage, and Haki into a single vertical slash.
SWING.
Space twisted.
Imu's pupils constricted to pinpoints. 'He's tearing reality!'
She couldn't block it.
She split her avatar's body voluntarily, separating into two halves to let the slash pass through.
ZZZZZT!
The slash passed between her halves.
Imu tried to reassemble.
"What?!"
She couldn't. The space between her halves was severed. The Haki lingered, preventing the void from closing.
"Damn it! He tore the space itself!"
Imu cursed.
This power... it reminded her of Him.
'Joy Boy...'
Rocks wasn't Joy Boy. But in this moment of pure rage, he had touched the threshold of that ancient power.
RUMBLE... CRACK!
Below them, God Valley groaned.
A massive fissure opened up along the line of Rocks' slash. The earth screamed as the island began to split in two.
Imu's two halves shot into the sky, desperate to create distance.
Rocks fell toward the crumbling earth. He couldn't fly.
But his eyes were locked on her.
"Wait for the next one," he whispered. "I'll split you into four."
Imu hovered in the stratosphere, sweat beading on her avatar's forehead.
'He's dangerous.'
'I am merely possessing a vessel. Compatibility limits my power. If this vessel dies, I lose a Knight.'
She looked down at the berserker below.
'I cannot subdue him alone.'
She raised her hands. Dark energy swirled furiously.
She drew four pentagrams in the sky.
"COME FORTH! MY SERVANTS!"
"THE TIME TO FIGHT FOR MU HAS COME!"
Four pillars of dark light slammed into the battlefield.
With Saturn already defeated by York, the remaining Four Elders were answering the call.
....
.....
.....
Support my patreon and get early access to chapters
patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter