The slaves watched this scene in shock, then erupted in cheers of hope.
"Next, please." Kuma turned to the next person.
He asked them one by one, teleporting them one by one.
Some wanted to go to their homes in the East Blue, while others only asked to be sent far away from the World Government's sphere of influence.
Some didn't even know where they wanted to go, only saying, "To a place with sunlight."
Kuma listened patiently to each one, then gently slapped them away.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"May the gods bless you!"
"If I survive, I will definitely repay this kindness!"
To every word of thanks, Kuma simply nodded lightly. "You must live on."
After an unknown amount of time, only three people remained on the coast.
Kuma turned to Little Ginny and Little Ivankov. "Now, I'll send you away."
Little Ginny grabbed Kuma's finger. "Kuma, what about you?"
"I want to search a little longer. Maybe there are still people in the forest who need help."
Little Ivankov frowned. "But this island is extremely dangerous right now."
Kuma's voice was calm and firm. "I want to be like Joy Boy, to bring liberation and hope to people. Even if I can only save one more person."
The two looked at each other, knowing they couldn't change his decision.
"You have to come back safely," Little Ginny said, her eyes welling up.
Kuma nodded and held out his hands. "Then, farewell for now."
Pop~
Kuma slapped them toward his own homeland, the Sorbet Kingdom in the South Blue.
After doing all this, Kuma rushed into the island's forest, searching for people who needed help.
"Is anyone there? Does anyone still need help?"
His shouts echoed through the burning woods.
...
Meanwhile, on the island's high ground.
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the chaotic battlefield below.
He held a sphere of light in his hand, within which were reflected scenes from every corner of God Valley.
The burning forest, the shattered earth, and the massacre that had just occurred on the coast.
A voice resounded directly in his mind, as if from the abyss:
"Saturn, is Rocks dead?"
Saturn responded with a blank expression, "Please see for yourself, Lord Imu. The situation... is unexpected."
"Moreover," Saturn continued, "Raiver has killed all the Celestial Dragons on the island, including those who tried to escape by ship."
A brief silence.
Then, Imu's voice rang out again, devoid of any emotional fluctuation:
"A bunch of trash. If they're dead, they're dead. It's of no consequence. But Rocks and Raiver must die. Everything on this island needs to be erased!"
...
Elsewhere, Rocks stood in the center of the battlefield. With his immense power, he had annihilated the Demon Army and the God's Knights.
Rocks said coldly, "How dare you use my clansmen!"
"Damn you..." At this moment, Saint Garling's body, having been cut into several pieces by Rocks in the previous battle, was severely injured and unable to move for a short time.
Due to his Undying Body, Saint Garling had not died.
But Rocks's attack was imbued with powerful Conqueror's Haki, causing Saint Garling's body to recover at a much slower rate.
Just then, a powerful Haki instantly swept across the entire island.
In almost an instant, all the powerful individuals on the island turned their heads to look. They could feel that a dangerous monster was descending upon the island.
Sure enough, the next moment, the earth shook violently!
At the center of the island, a monster dozens of meters tall burst out of the ground.
It had the head of an ox, the eight legs of a spider, and the tail of a scorpion, its entire body wreathed in an ominous, dark purple aura.
Even more bizarrely, a figure stood atop the monster's head.
Rocks gazed at the monstrous figure with a grave expression.
"Gurarara, Rocks, I'm here." Whitebeard strode over, carrying Cloud Cutter on his shoulder.
Rocks turned his head to look at him. "Newgate, are you here to help me deal with that monster? This won't do you any good. After all, you've witnessed that monster's power before."
Whitebeard grinned broadly. "Don't say such distant words, Rocks! I've had my fair share of your booze over the years!"
A huge shadow swept across the land, and the roar of a blue dragon was deafening.
Kaido, in his Azure Dragon form, circled above the crowd.
"Hey, look, everyone! I have a Devil Fruit Ability now, too. I really want to test this power!"
A flash of approval appeared in Rocks's eyes. "As far as I know, this is the happiest you've ever been, isn't it?! Kaido!"
Just then, space rippled.
Raiver's figure emerged as if from the surface of water. "How could I be missing from a battle like this?"
Rocks looked at Raiver and gave a genuine smile. "Raiver, you're here too."
"I just received a gift." Raiver clenched his right hand, and dark red arcs of electricity jumped between his fingers. "I was just looking for a worthy opponent to test it on."
In the distance, a crewmate pointed at Rocks and the others and said to Roger:
"Captain! It's Rocks and his crew!"
Roger said, "Hey, wait, now's not the time to be worrying about them!"
In the Marine encampment.
The soldiers stared in horror at the unbelievable scene before them.
Five Elders Saint Saturn's body was currently swelling, twisting, and mutating. Something was squirming madly beneath his skin.
"Lord... Lord Saint Saturn?" a lieutenant junior grade stammered, backing away. "Why is he..."
"A Devil Fruit user?" another Marine captain muttered.
In the blink of an eye, Saturn completed his transformation—Mythical Zoan: Ox-oni Imu Form!
Standing atop the Ox-oni's head, Imu looked down on everything below.
Marines, pirates, World Government—all were nothing but unsightly ants.
"Unsightly..."
The next second, countless black, sharp-tipped tentacles bizarrely shot out from the shadows of the spider legs!
The tentacles seemed to have a life of their own, twisting, splitting, and multiplying in the air, covering the sky in a hundred-meter radius in an instant!
"What is that—"
A Marine soldier's cry of alarm was cut short as a tentacle pierced through his chest.
It was so fast he didn't even see where the attack came from.
Then came the second, the third...
"Enemy attack! Prepare for battle—"
Before the order could be fully relayed, the bloody slaughter had already begun.
Imu didn't even move. With just a slight shift in his thoughts, thousands of spiked tentacles shot out in all directions like a torrential downpour!
The Marine lines collapsed in an instant.
The tentacles pierced through, pinning soldiers to the ground, to trees, to rocks.
Screams of agony rose and fell as mists of blood bloomed in the air.
Some soldiers tried to fight back, but their swords only created sparks against the tentacles. The things were unimaginably hard.
"Spread out! Spread out quickly!"
The tentacles pursued every living person like living creatures. Whether you were a Marine Vice Admiral or an ordinary soldier, if you were within the attack range, you were prey.