Rocks remained impassive as the bolt of lightning descended.
He calmly raised the necromancer's staff. The terrifying thunderbolt, a storm that could obliterate an island, simply vanished into the staff's bone-white tip as if it had never existed.
This was just the beginning.
In the next instant, Rocks's figure disappeared.
He reappeared directly in front of the terrified Zeus, the bone staff striking the thundercloud's head.
The Homie didn't even have time to scream as its soul was violently ripped from its form and absorbed into the scepter.
The staff pulsed with a malevolent, deathly aura, growing stronger from the meal.
The pirates of Totto Land watched in shock and horror.
"What... what is that thing?"
"He ate Mama's Zeus! He just ate it!"
"RUN!"
Seeing this impossible feat, the Big Mom pirates turned to flee, but it was already too late.
A blood-red light flared in Rocks's eyes, a look of pure, bloodthirsty killing intent that chilled them to the bone.
"Die," he said, his voice a cold whisper.
He waved the Necromancer's Staff, and a wave of deathly energy surged outwards.
In the blink of an eye, the fleeing pirates collapsed, foaming at the mouth, their vitality almost completely extinguished.
The terrifying aura of the staff grew even more tyrannical.
"I need your help," Rocks said to the groaning, half-dead pirates.
"This is what is required to rule the world!"
He swung the staff a few more times, and the dying pirates struggled to their feet.
They looked at their own hands, which were now wrinkled and desiccated, like those of a mummy.
Their bodies felt frail, their bones brittle.
They were living nightmares, trapped in dying shells.
"What are you going to do to us, Lord Rocks?! Please, don't kill me!" one of Big Mom's children sobbed.
"Rule the world? We don't understand! We're not strong enough to do something like that!" another pleaded.
"They're right! We're just a mob! How can we hope to subvert the world?!"
"Then do you want to live?" Rocks asked, a cold, indifferent smile on his face.
The pirates fell silent, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
"It's very simple," Rocks's faint voice echoed. "Promise to do as I say, and I promise not to kill you."
This simple sentence made them all look up, a flicker of desperate hope in their eyes.
"Really?"
"I'll do anything, Lord Rocks! Anything, as long as I don't die!"
"Me too! I will complete any task you give me!"
Almost in unison, the children of Big Mom and the entire crew pledged their allegiance.
Their mother was defeated, and they were on the brink of death.
Stubbornness was a luxury they could no longer afford.
Rocks nodded, and the coldness in his eyes receded slightly. He vanished.
"Hah..." Charlotte Katakuri, Big Mom's strongest child, let out a long, shaky breath.
He was alive.
For now.
He seemed to contemplate something, his fists clenching, but then he hesitated.
He didn't have to wait long. Rocks reappeared directly in front of him.
"Charlotte Katakuri," Rocks's voice was a low growl. "Don't think I didn't see that."
Katakuri's expression became grim.
"Rocks, what are you doing? Are you going back on our agreement?" he asked, his voice cold.
Rocks let out a contemptuous laugh. "Agreement? Remember, your lives are in my hands. Don't get any clever ideas, Katakuri."
He casually waved the staff. Instantly, Katakuri felt another portion of his life force being ripped from his body.
He stumbled, his face turning deathly pale.
"I... understand, Rocks," Katakuri gritted out, forcibly suppressing the burning rage and humiliation in his heart.
He knew now.
Resistance was futile.
This man could kill them all with a flick of his wrist.
"Very good," Rocks said, a cruel smile on his face.
"You're a quick learner. Not at all like the kind of son I'd expect that fat sow Big Mom to produce."
Katakuri's words of submission were exactly what Rocks wanted to hear.
He nodded in satisfaction.
"From this moment on, you are all members of the Rocks Pirates," he declared.
"And this nation, Totto Land, is now my territory!"
He swiped a hand through the air, and a massive, three-dimensional map of the New World materialized before them.
On it, a vast swath of territory was colored a bloody red—his new empire.
Katakuri's eyes widened in shock.
The map already included all of the Whitebeard Pirates' former territory.
This meant that before even coming here, Rocks had already brought another Emperor to heel.
"I told the world decades ago that I would be its master," Rocks snorted, his cold eyes sweeping over the terrified crew.
"I will make you, and those pathetic Marines, understand who the true king of this world is!"
He turned his attention back to the assembled pirates.
"I have drained your life force, leaving each of you with only one month to live. Your mother is no exception. Getting your lifespan back is very simple."
His voice became a low, predatory whisper. "Every time you kill a living being, you will be rewarded. An ordinary civilian is worth one month of life. A powerful Sea King, with its immense vitality, is worth much more. If you want to survive, you will fight. You will kill. Death is the only currency that can buy you more time."
He paused, letting the horror of the ultimatum sink in. "There is no harm in this choice. My crew has no place for cowards. Do not disappoint me... or I will have the pleasure of watching the entire Big Mom Pirates family wither and die together."
Katakuri said nothing, his gaze fixed silently on the distant horizon where Rocks's flagship was likely waiting.
After a long, tense moment, he stood up straight.
"Everyone," he said, his voice deep and resolute. "You heard him. If you want to live, it's time to act. Remember who we are. We are pirates. We take what we want by any means necessary. The time for mercy and honor is over."
A grim silence hung over the crew, but it was soon broken by a guttural roar.
"Kill them! Kill them all!"
"To survive! We are mad dogs, and we will feast on their blood!"
"LET'S GO!"
With those shouts, the Big Mom Pirates scattered, a plague of desperation unleashed upon the seas.
As they swarmed out of Totto Land, a satisfied smile spread across Rocks's face.
He waved his hand, and a swirling portal of pure darkness opened in the air before him.
"I will await news of your victorious return," he said, a cruel curl on his lips.
"When your killing is done, the power of death will re-emerge, and the vitality you have lost will be returned to you."
With that, he stepped into the portal and vanished.
The moment he was gone, the remaining members of the Big Mom Pirates collapsed to the ground, exhausted by the terror and the sheer force of his will.
He was a living devil.
Katakuri, his body shifting into mochi, launched himself toward the main ship.
While his mother slept in her powerless state, the temporary command fell to him.
There was only one path left for his family: to follow the devil's orders and begin the hunt.
...
In a distant corner of the New World, over the skull-shaped island of Onigashima, a pitch-black portal tore open the sky.
A wave of immense, otherworldly power washed over the island, and the ground began to tremble as if caught in the grip of an invisible, cosmic chain.
"Wano Kuni," a voice laced with evil chuckled from within the portal.
"It's been a long time."
Rocks stepped through, appearing in the air above the headquarters of the Beasts Pirates.
He didn't have much time.
As he descended, a figure in black leather, wreathed in flames, shot up to block his path.
"Rocks," King, Kaido's lead commander, said, his voice a low growl.
King's eyes narrowed.
He had stepped into a new realm of power.
Rocks didn't waste time with words.
He calmly raised his Necromancer's Staff.
A wave of desperate, soul-crushing death energy was suddenly released, washing over the All-Star.
"I have no time to waste on you," Rocks said, looking up at the winged figure.
"So... stay out of my way, King."
King wanted to retort, but he felt it instantly—a cold, draining sensation, as if his very life was being pulled from his body at an unimaginable speed.
His complexion changed.
Without hesitation, he transformed into his full Ancient Zoan Pteranodon form, hoping its vigorous, prehistoric vitality could withstand the drain.