A golden giant Buddha, a hundred meters tall, was sent flying backward.
It crashed toward the two Elders who had just stepped onto the ground.
The burly Elder saw this and stomped his foot, soaring into the air.
He pressed a palm against Sengoku's back.
His expression fierce like an enraged vajra, he let out a thunderous roar.
With force in his arm, he pushed and adjusted Sengoku's backwards-flying body.
The golden Buddha's feet landed, sliding backward and gouging deep trenches in the earth.
"Sengoku, go guard the perimeter."
The Elder with the demonic blade wrapped his sword in Haki while speaking to Sengoku.
The burly Elder also grabbed the collar of his suit and tossed it aside with a flick!
His fists wrapped in Haki, ready to fight.
Sengoku released his Buddha form and let out a long breath.
He replied, then turned and headed toward the post he had previously been guarding.
Just now, with Roger and the two Elders having left, Kong and Garp had quickly fallen into a disadvantage.
Sengoku had no choice but to join the battle, though the situation only improved slightly.
Had the two Elders not appeared when they did, Rocks might have truly broken through the encirclement and charged underground.
There was no denying it—Rocks was terrifyingly strong.
And that only reinforced the Elders' determination to eliminate him.
Pirates fighting among themselves didn't actually hinder the World Government's rule.
In fact, it somewhat aided their governance.
Only when pirates ran rampant would the member nations of the world grow increasingly reliant on the Marines and the World Government.
Of course, powerful nations did exist, but they were few and far between.
And pirates possessing Conqueror's Haki were all one in a million, each possessing the presence and spirit of a king.
If you wanted pirates like that to obey, you had to suppress them with overwhelming strength.
Rocks had managed exactly that.
Golden Lion, Whitebeard, Charlotte Linlin, John, Ochoku—numerous infamous pirates—all followed Rocks.
That was truly frightening.
It meant that nearly 80% of the top combat power among pirates worldwide was under Rocks' command.
He was a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment.
Rather than wait for it to detonate unexpectedly and cause grave damage, it was better to trigger it proactively.
As for whether the World Government might be overthrown—the Elders had never even considered it. Pirates were ultimately wild rogues with narrow horizons.
All they knew came from historical texts scattered who knows where, containing subjective information, and yet they believed they had grasped the truth of the world.
What did they know of the true foundation of the World Government?
Just a rumor about a broken ancient weapon was enough to make a warlord like Rocks throw caution to the wind.
And he hadn't disappointed them—at the mere whisper of that information, he had mobilized all his forces. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
The World Government had stood for 800 years, and heroes and tyrants had continually risen across these seas, over and over.
Every few decades, a new warlord would rise, uniting most pirates and obstructing the rule of the World Government.
Among them were bold ones, mad ones, cunning ones, domineering ones—but in the end, they would all become... dead ones.
Rocks wasn't the first, nor would he be the last.
Decades from now, only the recollections of elderly pirates teetering on the edge of death would even mention his name.
A few decades after that, every trace of him would vanish completely—no one would know that such a world-conquering pirate ever existed.
And some years after that, a new world-conquering pirate would appear again, repeating the same cycle...
The emotionless voice of the Elder holding the demonic blade rang out, his words calm and unshaken.
As if narrating Rocks' fate—or perhaps pronouncing judgment—he slashed at Rocks.
Heaven and earth split in two!
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