"Straw Hat Luffy?! Where did he get a warship? Damn that Garp!"
Sengoku snapped, instantly blaming the chaos on Garp. In his mind, the Garp family was responsible for at least half of the world's current disorder—between the Revolutionary Army, Straw Hat Luffy (who dared to strike a Celestial Dragon), and Ace, Garp's own grandson.
"That's the one who hit the Celestial Dragon, right? How did he get here—and is that Jinbei with him?"
"Ace's younger brother, huh? Looks like he's here to save his big bro."
"He's one of ours, sure, but damn—this kid is way too reckless."
The Whitebeard captains, many of whom had heard about Luffy from Ace, were seeing the younger brother in action for the first time—and quickly realized he was as reckless as they come.
Charging in on a stolen warship and announcing his presence with a loudspeaker, when stealth would've been smarter? That wasn't courage—it was pure madness.
Then, without warning, the sky crackled.
A massive bolt of lightning, ten meters thick, shot down from above—obliterating the warship beneath Luffy.
"Ah! Ace's brother!"
"That damn Shichibukai Mage again!"
"The Straw Hats are all Devil Fruit users—they fell into the sea!"
The warship shattered to pieces, and bodies flew into the water. One by one, survivors surfaced—some pulled out by their comrades. But many didn't make it. Half the pirates and criminals Luffy brought from Impel Down were killed instantly by the blast.
"Unreal… That power—he struck a warship from that far away?"
"No doubt about it. That's the power of the strongest Logia Fruit..."
Marines on the battlefield were reinvigorated. With someone like Mage on their side, they couldn't possibly lose.
"Attack! Wipe them out!"
"Kill Whitebeard! Cut off his head!"
For a brief moment, the battlefield paused. Then it erupted into chaos once more. Whitebeard's captains clashed again with the Marine Vice Admirals.
"Pfft… That was close—I almost drowned! What the hell was that? Why'd lightning hit me?!"
Luffy coughed and wheezed as Jinbei pulled him out of the sea. All he'd done was shout "Ace!" and boom—lightning out of nowhere. It was too bizarre.
"Brother Luffy, that was the power of Shichibukai Mage," Jinbei explained.
"He has a Logia-type Thunder Fruit and controls lightning itself."
Luffy blinked, confused.
"Shichibukai? Why'd he attack me? I don't even know him!"
Jinbei sighed.
"You don't remember? Your bounty spiked after Alabasta—because you freed thousands of pirate slaves from Mage's territory. He's held a grudge ever since. Be careful. He's not someone to take lightly."
He added, more softly:
"Although I shouldn't say this… Mage is an ally of Fish-Man Island too. But what he's doing now—it's inhumane."
Jinbei scanned the surroundings. Most of the Devil Fruit users had been rescued, but many were badly injured. The weaker ones were in even worse shape.
"We have to get to the ice field—now. If he fires again, none of us will survive!"
Without waiting, Jinbei took Luffy, Ivankov, and Buggy and dove into the sea, swimming fast toward the massive ice field that separated the fleets. Without that retreat, they'd be dead.
Meanwhile, after releasing that devastating lightning strike—Mage (Kain) calmly lowered his hands.
He could attack whenever he wanted.
But unless something truly personal happened, he had no real interest in helping the Marines. Without the World Government involved, maybe he'd have considered stepping in.
For now, though—he was just here to watch the show.
Back on the battlefield, the chaos intensified.
The three Marine Admirals had finally entered the fray.
Kizaru shot into the sky, unleashing his Yasakani no Magatama—a flurry of light projectiles aimed at Whitebeard.
Marco intercepted him midair, blocking with blazing blue phoenix fire. The two clashed violently above the field.
On the ground, Diamond Joz hurled a massive iceberg toward Marineford, but a high-powered missile obliterated it mid-flight, raining shards of ice across the battlefield like a frozen meteor shower.
"Kuhahaha! Sengoku, if you want to stop me—come do it yourself!"
Whitebeard roared with laughter.
After injecting himself with a recovery serum, the chronic injuries in his body were easing. His strength surged. For a moment—it felt like he was back in his prime.
Like the world's most fearsome man had never left.
After Whitebeard finished speaking, he leapt straight off the Moby Dick, gripping Cong Yunqie. The naginata now gleamed with an even brighter white light, clearly radiating terrifying power.
Seeing this, Sengoku shouted a warning:
"Be careful! The strongest man in the world is about to get serious!"
Boom!
The might of the world's strongest shockwave—enough to overwhelm even the titans—erupted with such force that the sky itself seemed to crack apart, fragmenting visibly.
The glowing white shockwave shattered the ice ahead, and the port of Marineford was finally sealed off by a blinding yellow light and towering, frigid icebergs.
Admirals Aokiji and Kizaru combined forces to block the shockwave, but even they felt the shift. This version of Whitebeard was noticeably more dangerous.
"Ooooh! Ace! I'm here to save you!"
A colossal titan, tens of meters tall, stormed onto the battlefield. The massive blade in his hand measured at least 20 or 30 meters—towering over even the Marine Headquarters' titan Vice Admirals.
Gekko Moria's eyes bulged.
"Hehehe… isn't this Oz's grandson? I didn't expect him to be on Whitebeard's crew. I really want that body."
But before he could finish, Kain interrupted coldly:
"Zombie, that titan's mine. Don't even think about taking him."
Moria's grin faltered.
"What did you say?! On the battlefield, whoever gets there first—"
"If you try to take him, I'll kill you right here. Not even the Marines can save you."
Kain's words cut deep. Moria choked on his retort, gritting his teeth but ultimately staying silent. He had seen Kain's power firsthand—if he pushed it, Kain would absolutely turn on him in the middle of the war.
He backed down.
No more bluster. No more games.
"Heh heh… He really is the strongest Logia user," Doflamingo chuckled from the sidelines. "He's bold enough to argue in the middle of a full-blown war. That kind of strength really does back it up."
Kain gave him a sideways look, surprised. Doflamingo had been keeping his head down so far—barely laughing, barely speaking. Now, he dared to joke?
"Clown," Kain said curiously, "Do you want another beating? Or have you found a new master?"
"Heh heh… who knows? Maybe I'm just making conversation."
Doflamingo adjusted his glasses and strolled onto the battlefield.
Under the brutal assault of Whitebeard's captains—and with Oz's monstrous strength—Whitebeard's forces were close to breaking through to the port fortress. The Shichibukai could no longer afford to sit back.
Kizaru was tangled with Marco. Akainu attacked from beneath the scaffold. All three Admirals were now engaged… though one of them seemed to be slacking.
Hawkeye, Moria, Hancock, and Doflamingo each launched attacks at Whitebeard's pirates—but all of them steered clear of Oz. Only Bartholomew Kuma, with no self-awareness, actually struck at him. But even his shockwaves would take two or three direct hits to kill a titan like Oz.
"Ace!!"
Oz roared his brother's name, swinging his massive blade with raw fury. Any Marine in his path was sent flying. Even the titan Vice Admirals couldn't hold him back. With several captains covering him, Oz barreled toward the execution platform.
"One Hundred Million Volts: Stormpike."
Lightning surged into Kain's hands, forming a thunder spear less than five meters long—but charged with terrifying energy.
He hurled it.
The spear shot forward like a bolt from heaven, piercing through the heart of the titan Oz in an instant.
Puff!
The highly condensed lightning spear shot straight through Ozzy's heart, creating a massive hole. Kain didn't let the power of the lightning disperse; otherwise, Ozzy's Titan constitution might have allowed him to survive. But now, with his heart obliterated, Ozzy could only die.
"Oz!!"
Both Ace, on the execution platform, and the captains under Whitebeard were stunned by Ozzy's death. Many of them turned and glared at Kain, their anger rising as they prepared to charge at him.
But Kain was already at Oz's body. In the next second, he grabbed it and disappeared from the battlefield.
"Where is he? Damn it, where did he take Oz?!"
Some of the captains were furious, not only because Kain had killed Ozzy, but also because he had taken his body.
Others tried to calm them down:
"Stay calm! The most important thing now is to rescue Ace!"
"That's right, save Ace first."
"Keep going! Don't waste the opening Ozzy made for us."
However, only a few seconds after Kain left, he reappeared using Apparition. After securing Ozzy's body, he stood there satisfied, waiting for Whitebeard to fall in battle. This time, he had no intention of making a move—unless Whitebeard died first.
But as soon as that thought crossed Kain's mind, he sensed a creature approaching through the air. Sengoku, Whitebeard, and several Admirals all noticed it at the same time.
"It's a war! The apex of war—how could I miss this? Whitebeard, Sengoku, let me join in!"
A massive Azure Dragon emerged from the clouds, its enormous head tearing through the dark sky. It unleashed a torrent of scorching flames, indiscriminately attacking everything in front of Marineford's port.
Whitebeard clenched his fist, muttering:
"What a troublesome guy. I knew that bastard wouldn't sit this one out."
"It's Kaido of the Beasts Pirates, one of the Four Emperors!"
Sengoku's face turned grim. He immediately removed his cloak of justice, recognizing the serious threat Kaido posed. The appearance of another Four Emperors on the battlefield was a worst-case scenario.
"Cut off all video phone bugs immediately. This war cannot be broadcast!"
The Marines needed a decisive victory. If another Four Emperors joined, even if they won, it would be an incredibly costly and tragic victory—one that would expose Marine's weakness to the world. It must not be allowed to leak.
"Yuan, Marshal, we've cut off all the video phone bugs, but there's one that was snatched by the prisoners in Impel Down. We can't cut that one off!"
…
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