Chapter 17: Mark vs Saint Saturn
Regardless of Mark's desire to avoid fighting against Saturn, he had to accept this invitation.
Mark and his family were now at the arena; his parents were sitting on the stands while Mark was walking down to the field.
Mark was nervous, incredibly so, but he was still walking towards Saint Saturn.
He might not be confident right now, but he knew that he would learn to fight in no time; his intellect was said to rival Vegapunk after all.
What took others decades or even centuries to understand, he can understand within minutes.
'There is a reason Vegapunk is said to be 5 centuries ahead of the entire world.'
'As long as Saturn doesn't kill me in one shot, I'll learn to fight sooner or later.'
Mark cracked his neck, and his eyes narrowed; a burst of conqueror's haki started emitting from his body; his clothes fluttered, and so did his hair.
He was starting to resemble Goku Black in looks as well as his attitude towards battle.
_Tap_
Taking the last step forward, Mark reached Saturn and stood before the man.
"Conqueror's Haki…"
"Hope you are well prepared, Mark; we are about to begin."
Saint Saturn muttered before he clutched his cane, and his body started to grow bigger; a large shadow soon covered Mark's whole body.
"What is that!"
"How did Saturn grow spider legs and horns? He became so large that he's the size of a small hill!"
"What's going on, honey?!"
Luna Rose exclaimed from the seats; she had never seen one of the elders transform, much less into such a monstrous-looking thing.
Charles held Luna's hand from the side. After seeing this form, he remembered some rumors he had heard as the Rose patriarch.
"Honey, I think Saint Saturn has eaten the Ushi Oni mythical zoan."
"He is said to be an awakened devil fruit user; do you see the black flame around his shoulders?"
"That's an indication of his awakening."
Charles told Luna, as the Rose patriarch, he knew a lot of things; putting together a possible explanation wasn't that difficult for him.
Luna heard this and bit into her nails; Saturn was so tall that Mark was the size of his finger.
"Charles, let's stop this fight."
Luna said with some fear in her voice; she was getting a bit scared that her boy was going to get hurt.
"I don't think this is the right time; let's wait for a while. If something happens, I'll stop them personally."
Charles said with gritted teeth, his fists were clenched under the seat; he was starting to understand why celestial dragon traditions include knowing how to fight.
Charles suddenly realized that in situations like these, he could only depend on himself.
Their love for Mark forced Charles and Luna to wake up to the dangers of the real world; their inherent celestial dragon attitude was slowly starting to change because of this.
Meanwhile at the battlefield, Saint Saturn looked at Mark.
"The Rose family has a good bond with each other."
Saint Saturn said lightly. He was a strong and experienced man; he could clearly hear what Mark's parents were talking about back at the stands.
"Yeah, we stick together."
Mark laughed a low laugh, which slowly changed into a loud, boisterous one.
"Hahahaha! We certainly do!"
Mark's pearl-like earrings were shaking with his laugh; it wasn't only his parents who understood the need for personal strength after facing Saturn's monstrous form.
He did as well.
He was bound to go against Im in the future; someone like Saint Saturn was the least of his concerns.
He had a long way to go before he could protect himself, much less his family; one wrong step and the entire Rose family might die with him.
But for now, he was with them, and he'll use the elders to build his strength.
"I am ready to begin, Saint Saturn."
Mark slowly said with a smirk on his face, although he still didn't know how to fight, but his attitude towards battle was incredibly serious.
"Good spirit."
"Now dodge."
Saint Saturn's eyes suddenly shone a bright glow, and Mark's eyes shrank.
_Boom_
His forehead felt as if it was hit with a hammer, his ears buzzed, and his face felt wet from all the gushing blood.
_Bang_
Mark ragdolled onto the ground and skidded to a stop.
_Cough_
Coughing up some blood, Mark ignored the fearful yelling of his parents and tried to stand up shakily.
His eyes were seeing red due to all that blood, but he refused to fall.
His courage as a conqueror was what kept him standing.
"Your observation haki is strong; you could see the attack coming, but your physical instincts need improvement."
Saturn acted as a teacher to Mark; he had hit Mark pretty hard, but it wasn't enough to kill him.
Mark didn't know armament Haki yet; if Saturn wanted to, he could have killed Mark in one shot.
"I lack physical instincts? Good to know."
Mark huffed with a chuckle and wiped off the blood flowing down his forehead.
Soon his shaking legs became steady, and his forehead, which was supposed to be bashed in and bleeding, was completely healed.
"You healed? How did you heal…?"
"Did you eat a Zoan devil fruit?"
Saturn raised his eyebrows and asked curiously; this speed of healing was immense even for mythical zoans.
Only awakened mythical zoans could compare to Mark's sudden and rapid healing of wounds.
He had never seen anything like this without devil fruits being involved somewhere.
"No, I didn't eat a devil fruit; I just happen to heal a lot faster than normal people."
Mark said with a grin, of course, what he said was a total lie; he didn't want to tell his future enemies about his powers.
He had actually used life return, the technique that lets him control his body completely, to finish healing his wounds in seconds.
Wound healing was far less complex than digestion or muscle augmentation; this was an easy job for Mark.
Of course, if someone else wanted to copy this speed, they would need a brain on the same level as Mark's.
"You have regeneration abilities? Wonderful."
Saturn spoke with excitement and tapped his cane on the ground.
"Shall we test the limits of it?"
_BOOM_
Instantly Saturn's eyes glowed, and Mark's torso was hit.
_Splat_
The sound of flesh and blood hitting the ground was heard throughout the arena.
"Aaaagh, my boy! You have a hole in your body!"
Luna Rose screamed in terror, and Charles Rose was about to run down and stop Saturn himself.
"Ahem… Stop it, Mom, Dad, ahem."
Mark weakly said from the ground; he turned his eyes towards his body and found a large hole in his stomach.
He looked like how Ace did after getting hit by Akainu's magma fist.
Still, he didn't want to involve his parents in the mix; who knows if Saturn will attack them because they were disrespecting him?
There was very little chance of this happening, but he couldn't risk it.
"Ahem."
Spitting out some more blood, Mark concentrated on his stomach area.
_Wiggle_
And to his surprise, it took him a total of three seconds to close these gaping wounds; his body stitched itself back together like nothing.
'Wow… I feel like I am more Zamasu than Goku Black now.'
'Before this fight I didn't even realize that I was almost immortal.'
Mark smiled with amazement.
With a mind far beyond regular humanity and control over one's body, which was second to none, Mark had achieved this incredible feat.
_Spit_
Spitting out some remaining blood in his mouth, Mark stood back up once more, shocking everyone watching.
Even Saturn was shocked at his almost immortal-like body.
"Saint Saturn, let's continue."
"By the way, there is one more thing I need to tell you: I have already seen through your last attack."
"Your powers won't work on me again!"
Giving a very Saiyan-like smirk, Mark himself rushed towards Saturn.
"Oh? We will see about that."
Saturn grunted, and his eyes shone once more.
_Bang_
The attack hit Mark right in the head.
"What?!"
But to Saturn's absolute shock, Mark stopped for one second before rushing towards him again.
How could it be!
How could Mark remain unaffected by his ability!
Chapter 18: Past
Mark aggressively ran towards Saturn; although Saturn was shocked when Mark ignored his attack, he decided to try and attack him once more.
He was pretty sure Mark hadn't used Haki but still managed to tank his attack somehow; he wanted to know how Mark did it.
_Boom_
_Boom_
_Boom!_
Saturn hit Mark's head three times back to back, and after each attack, Mark paused for a second before he kept moving forward.
_Rush_
Saturn stepped back instinctively; Mark was fast, and he had appeared before him quickly.
"Have a taste of this!"
Mark exclaimed and jumped up high; he pulled his fist back and prepared for a powerful punch.
"Attacks of that level do not work on me; you need Haki to do any damage."
Saturn commented slowly and got ready to catch Mark's attack.
But just as his palm was about to connect with the punch, Mark smiled internally.
'Life return, muscle balloon!'
_Puff_
Mark's hand abnormally bulged and became full of muscles; his arm was five times its previous size with this technique.
"How!"
Saturn didn't see this coming and was hit with way more strength than he was prepared to block.
_Skid_
His giant body skidded back from the large amount of force; his spider legs stabilized him but left deep cuts into the ground.
"What was that…?"
Saint Saturn asked with confusion; this looked like a devil fruit ability, and he wasn't sure how Mark was doing this.
'Mark definitely didn't eat a devil fruit; is this an inherent ability he unlocked due to his mutation?'
Saint Saturn thought silently.
Mark soon landed back on the ground and looked at his hand with a smile.
"This? It's something I learned to do a while ago; this is also why I could ignore your attack before."
_Puff_
Changing his hand back to normal Mark lied with a straight face; he was not going to tell Imu's puppets that he did it with life return; there was no need to make his enemies stronger.
Still, he had to tell Saturn how he blocked his technique before.
_Knock_
Knocking on his forehead, Mark told Saturn.
"I made the bones of my skull significantly harder when you attacked; your attack did hit me, but it couldn't break through my skull."
"That's why it looked like I was ignoring your attacks."
Having a strong skull was an easy way to ignore Saint Saturn's ability; other people before Mark had survived this attack because of this.
Durable races like the buccaneer race, for instance, should be able to ignore Saint Saturn's ability using their tough bodies; they had the blood of the giants flowing inside them after all.
One piece had a lot of such hardy races.
Mark, on the other hand, artificially made his skull durable enough to survive this attack; life return was one hell of a skill.
"You made your skull harder? Amazing, I assume you bulked up your muscles the same way."
"Your inherent ability has a lot of potential; you could give Saint Garling a run for his money. At your age he wasn't as good as you."
Saint Saturn said something cryptic, which only a celestial dragon like Mark could understand.
'Garling? He's Shank's father and the man who gave Whitebeard his scars. He is comparing me to him?'
Mark frowned a bit. While Garling was strong, really, really strong, strong enough to stand against the entire Rocks crew without losing his cool and picking a fight with Whitebeard, that didn't mean Mark liked the guy.
Garling had gained his fame in God Valley during the slave hunting tournament; he even killed Saint Mjosgard in cold blood because Mjosgard was a good man.
Mark was not very fond of this man, to say the least.
"I am honored to receive such praise, Saint Saturn."
But Mark knew his position well; he was a celestial dragon and a smart one at that. He would not show dissatisfaction until he was capable enough to do so.
"You deserve it; I could grant you a temporary elder authority right now, but I assume you have other plans?"
Saint Saturn transformed back into his human form and tapped his cane on the ground.
"I heard you wanted to visit Marine headquarters before you accept Vegapunk's knowledge."
"What are you going to the lower realm for?"
Saturn asked with a soft voice. Mark rolled his eyes, he knew he couldn't hide his decision from the elders; CP agents were everywhere and must have ratted him out.
"I want to roam around the lower realm a little, take over some kingdoms that aren't affiliated with the world government."
"Maybe fight a few strong men, get some capable people for entertainment; that's about it."
Mark shrugged and said his plan in a very careless way, but in reality he was going to do none of that.
His plan was actually to build his own power and fight against him Im particular.
The kingdoms he wanted to take over were going to be his base of operations; the men he would recruit weren't going to be for entertainment but would be his personal guards and crew.
He had a very different plan from what he was telling Saint Saturn.
"You want to take over kingdoms, huh? We expected this from the owner of Conqueror's Haki, such as you."
"Go ahead, we allow it; as you know, we hold a tournament every 3 years to kill an island's population with some problematic slaves; we usually take over the island after that."
"The islands you conquer during your time at the lower realm will be put under your command. Go ahead, conquer them in the name of the world government."
Saint Saturn gave Mark the go-ahead; he acted as if he had already expected Mark to make such claims.
Which made Mark vigilant, but he didn't show anything out of the ordinary.
"Thank you, Saint Saturn."
Mark nodded with a smile; Saint Saturn nodded back and continued to speak.
"You aren't the first one to think of going down to the lower realm; in fact, many others have done so before you."
"All of us elders back in the day individually went down to the lower realm; we fought, we killed, and we experienced everything we needed to experience."
Touching the scar on his forehead, Saturn looked as if he was remembering the old days.
"I got this scar from someone back then; all of us elders have our battle scars. Experiencing the lower realm is an important part of becoming an elder."
"You can't rule the world correctly if you haven't experienced it personally."
Saturn said with calmness, then he tapped his cane on the ground, and a magic circle appeared below him.
"If you are looking for a fight in the lower realm, I suggest hiding your identity as a celestial dragon; no strong man would fight you if they knew your identity."
"This is how we Elders did it back in the day: we went down, we started from scratch, and we made a name for ourselves. When we had enough, we came back, and our name was erased from the world."
"You can decide to act any way you want; the world is our playground; go ahead and play as much as you want."
Saturn muttered softly, then he vanished into a burst of fire and electricity.
Only Mark was left alone on the battleground, thinking about what he should do.
He was given a free pass to do whatever the hell he wanted; when his journey was over, he could come back and take the elder position, and his adventures would be erased from the world's history.
'The world government is hardcore.'
In the end that's all Mark could think, for now he had a much more important decision to make.
What side should he choose for his adventures? Marine, pirate, bounty hunter, or revolutionary army?
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
27 Power
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