Chapter 244 Darkness Awakens!

The strange sight of the sea water made Roger feel vaguely uneasy. Before he could figure out what was going on, the inky black color suddenly spread to his feet.

At this moment, the area around Roger had turned into a pitch-black ocean. He wanted to use his ability to escape, but found that the environment was no longer affected by his ability. An invisible force imprisoned him in place.

Akainu and the others were not affected at all. They stood firmly on the black ocean. Even though the ice had disappeared, they did not sink.

Aokiji couldn't help but try to freeze it with icy air, but his icy air fell to the ground like a drop in the ocean, and the ability was completely ineffective.

Roger inserted Ace into the Black Sea and said in a deep voice,

"Black Dragon, I know it's you! Come out! Let's put an end to this!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a huge whirlpool appeared in the Black Sea, and Jiger's figure slowly rose from it.

The pair of bat wings behind him had turned into two jets of darkness, like two balls of black flames. A black halo appeared at the junction of his scarlet right arm and shoulder, completely suppressing the explosive power that was about to get out of control.

Roger felt a terrifying dark force from Zigg. At the same time, he had an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if he had seen this scene somewhere.

He shook his head, looked at Jiger and said in a deep voice,

"I didn't expect that you would awaken as well."

Jiger slowly raised the black-glowing sword Muramasa and said calmly,

"Yes, come to think of it, I have to thank you."

In the previous battle, Jiger's bloody claws pierced Roger's skin and sucked a large amount of blood from it, which contained the breath of Nika.

His Dark-Dark Fruit had already developed to the point where it was on the verge of awakening; all he lacked was an opportunity.

When the dark power in his body sensed Nika's breath, it seemed to be stimulated and directly broke through the bottleneck and awakened completely.

Under Roger's gaze, Zigg inserted the Muramasa into the dark ocean below, and an invisible wave spread out.

The next second, the entire dark ocean began to surge violently, and Jiger whispered to himself,

"In return, please taste this... King's Command: Dark Brashu!"

The sea surface gradually calmed down, but everyone could feel that within this calmness, there was a great terror hidden.

Boom boom boom!

Under the sea, a shaking roar sounded. Roger stared at his feet with a serious face. He clenched Ace in his hand, and his domineering color formed a barrier to protect him.

Next second,

"Roar!!!"

A terrifying roar sounded from the sea, and in front of everyone's horrified gaze, a black dragon head as big as a mountain emerged from under Roger's feet.

From Roger's perspective, there was a rapidly spinning dark vortex in the dragon's mouth, emitting an extremely rich dark force.

Roger held Ace in his hand and slashed out with one domineering sword energy after another, but it did not hinder the dragon at all.

The next second, Roger's body was bitten by the dragon and held in its mouth.

Roger only felt that his body was constantly torn and squeezed. This dark force had already undergone a qualitative change. Even his tough Nika body was torn by this dark force, and dense spider-web-like cracks appeared.

He gritted his teeth, endured the severe pain, and tried his best to activate the power of Nika to make his body expand again. When he was about to be completely dragged into the Black Sea, he finally broke free from the dragon's mouth.

At this time, Roger was covered in blood and his breath was extremely weak.

This was not the end. Soon Roger's skin began to dry rapidly. He looked decades older and looked like a dying old man.

Although Roger's body was still very large, anyone could feel that he was now like a deflated balloon with only his last breath left inside.

Roger raised his hand holding Ace's with trembling hands. A faint arc of domineering color appeared and disappeared on Ace's sword. He roared and swung it hard at Jiger.

"God...get away!!"

The red overlord sword energy slashed out, but Jiger had no intention of dodging and let the sword energy pass through his body.

The awakened dark power is able to break through the space affected by Nika, so Ziger can naturally use Kamui again.

Seeing that his last attack missed, a hint of despair flashed in Roger's eyes. He roared unwillingly towards the sky, and his other hand suddenly began to beat his heart violently.

Roger hit very hard, and you could see that a horrible dent had been made on his chest, but he seemed not to notice it and continued to hit.

As he continued to beat him, large amounts of blood spurted out of his mouth.

Suddenly, a dull drumbeat began to sound from his chest.

"Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The drumbeats grew faster and louder until they echoed throughout the sea and sky.

A vast aura emanated from Roger, creating circles of waves in the space.

Zig frowned. In his opinion, Roger's situation was nothing more than triggering the so-called "Drum of Liberation" of the Nika Fruit. When the drum sounded, the user of the Nika Fruit would "revive with full blood" and perform a round of "sit-ups".

But Roger's Liberation Drum is obviously very different from Luffy's.

First of all, Luffy's Liberation Drum, which is his heartbeat, can be regarded as his passive ability and is automatically triggered, but Roger has to hit himself hard to trigger it. The two seem to be the difference between "automatic transmission" and "manual transmission".

Another thing is that Luffy's Liberation Drum has almost no side effects, at least it looks quite normal.

But looking at Roger again, not only did his aura become stronger, but his appearance looked even more miserable. His originally dry skin was now almost stuck to his bones, and his body size had shrunk to the same size as usual. He looked like a mummy.

And judging from the reactions of the people around him, it seemed that apart from being frightened by Roger's appearance, they did not show any unusual emotions.

In fact, from the very beginning when Roger showed the Nika form, the black flame cloud that was completely opposite to Luffy's color made Zig feel that something was wrong.

It seems that Roger has not really been recognized by the Nika Fruit. Not only are the abilities he displays like castrated versions, but the side effects are also extremely severe. Now he is even more likely to die.

The smell of corruption gushed out of Roger's mouth. He slowly raised his head and looked at Jiger. He spoke in a hoarse voice,

"Black dragon..."