Under the envious gazes of countless ordinary adventurers, merchants, and tourists, Dragon and his cadre rose into the sky on the back of a giant dragon, heading straight for Sky Island.
Hawkeye Mihawk also made the ascent.
Before leaving the ground, he had defeated Kurt Wagner, then agreed to pass a message to Brook on Kurt's behalf.
After all, Kurt had paid for that request with his own body. Passing the message was Mihawk's "reward" to the man he had just beaten down.
…
Meanwhile, the World Government and Marine Headquarters had already learned about Brook's World Expo.
They could not stop it.
So they did what they always did when they could not crush something directly.
They strangled the roads.
Sabaody Archipelago became the blade at the throat.
If you wanted to enter the New World by coating your ship, forget it.
Marine Headquarters made an example out of several targets, slaughtering pirates and secret delegations alike in Sabaody. Blood and fear did the work that orders could not.
Forced into detours, some factions had no choice but to board the Hell Guild's snail ships and flying fleets in the East Sea and South Sea, cross the Red Line, slip into the North Sea or West Sea, and only then attempt entry into the New World.
Other "secret delegations" from allied nations simply panicked and went home. They stayed obediently within their own borders, trembling and greedy, still dreaming about the pure gold ring.
Brook's soft invasion was spreading. His influence expanded without cannon fire, and to Imu, that was the most poisonous kind of conquest.
Imu wanted to act.
He wanted to strike the North Sea and West Sea, wipe out the traitors among the allied nations, and carve Brook's new roots out of the ground.
But he hesitated.
Because Brook's flying fleets were faster than him.
Because while Imu traveled, Brook could fly straight to Mary Geoise and Marineford and erase them from the world.
That single fact had turned the World Government's greatest strength into a cage.
Imu had already begun searching for replacements for the Float Float Fruit and the Gravity Fruit, trying to build an air force of his own. Without it, he would always be held at swordpoint by Brook's mobility.
The world was vast. Even Imu could not strike everywhere at once. Travel time mattered.
And ever since losing the king named Uranus, Imu understood something bitter.
He had lost the kind of deterrence that let you win wars without fighting.
The World Government's scientists lacked the ability to build true flying battleships. They did not have enough minds like Vegapunk. They did not have enough miracles.
Imu and the Five Elders could not find a clean solution.
Not unless they were willing to trade homes with Brook and burn the world down together.
Otherwise, two forces this evenly matched could not destroy each other quickly.
Imu possessed the strongest personal might.
But in terms of power structure and equipment, he was being overtaken, day by day, by Brook.
The Universal Government kept gaining countries. The Hell Guild kept producing Pluton imitation ships and sea stone warships. Imu's anxiety only deepened.
Eight hundred years ago, his opponents had been a young man called Joy Boy and a kindhearted mermaid princess.
Now, his opponent was Brook.
A fox in a king's cloak.
A mouse in a battlefield, never stepping where a trap might be hidden.
In strategy and timing, even Imu felt outplayed.
He considered taking a force into the New World to destroy the World Expo.
But Doragonzo Island lay deep in the latter half of the New World, and the suppression of "Mother Nature" there was no joke.
Not to mention the god of Hell behind the Gate of Hell itself.
The World Government had already sent countless spies into Brook's territory, desperate to steal technology.
Every one of them failed.
"Lord Imu," Saturn said, his voice stiff, "to host this World Expo, Brook has pulled the Hell Pirates' main force back to the New World to maintain order. The West Sea and North Sea defenses are weaker now. Should we seize them, or simply plunder them?"
Saturn's implication was blunt.
The World Government was already losing.
If they let the West Sea and North Sea remain in Brook's hands, the World Government would wither like an old man in his twilight years, overtaken by a younger, hungrier empire.
Better to strike while they still had teeth.
Even if Mary Geoise and Marineford were threatened, they could conquer the West Sea and North Sea and prove the blood and resolve of the World Government.
In the Grand Line and the Four Seas, Imu was still stronger than Brook.
That was the logic.
But Imu's silence carried a different weight.
Since witnessing Brook's summoned gods of Hell, Imu had grown cautious to the point of suffocation. He did not dare ignite a full conflict again, not yet.
Still, he approved action.
Not a direct war with Brook.
A game.
He authorized Marine Headquarters to move into the West Sea and North Sea, to raid and plunder, and to target the allied nations' traitors.
If Brook refused to fight him head on, then their chess pieces would clash instead.
Until the last moment, neither side wanted to meet again and wager their lives so soon.
Imu intended to remain in Mary Geoise, watching to see whether Brook dared to strike.
Or, if necessary, enter the New World to threaten the Hell Pirates and pull their attention away.
Imu believed Brook would retaliate against the East Sea and South Sea instead, rather than choose a direct war with him.
"Destroy the New Navy headquarters in the West Sea and North Sea."
The Five Elders sent the order down to Marine Headquarters.
Fleet Admiral Kong did not want to send his people to recklessly trespass into those seas, but he had no choice. Under the cover of the World Expo, he assigned forces to smash the New Navy's branches.
During this period, the World Government's newly appointed admiral candidate, the man known as Scarlet Flame Magma, accidentally saw through the disguise of Sakazuki, the commander of the New Navy's North Sea headquarters, during a mission on a Grand Line island near Reverse Mountain.
The two clashed briefly, violently.
Sakazuki was even "injured."
He fled back to the North Sea, shaken enough to retreat fast.
Scarlet Flame Magma did not pursue. He suspected a trap.
But he was certain of one thing.
He could kill that traitor.
He was confident he could crush the base commander.
Now, with the new mission to destroy the New Navy branches, the man who dreamed of reclaiming the West Sea and North Sea immediately volunteered to take the North Sea operation.
Kong approved it.
The West Sea operation was handed to hawkish vice admirals, including MacArthur.
As for the top combat power of Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral Kong, Sengoku, Garp, and Tsuru, they were kept on a tight leash. They had to be ready to receive the Five Elders' orders at any moment and follow Imu into the New World to deal with Brook.
Before departure, Kong warned the dispatched officers repeatedly.
If anything went wrong, retreat first.
Marine Headquarters would keep the Hell Pirates' main force pinned in the New World. They would not allow them a chance to abandon the World Expo and rush out to intervene elsewhere.
They were even prepared to sacrifice a hidden piece, to manufacture an "accident" at the World Expo itself, just to drag the Hell Guild's eyes back to the New World.
--------------
North Sea, Fuji Island.
Gunfire and steel rang across the docks. Under the roar of cannons and the screams of close combat, a Marine fleet successfully seized the port and occupied the small island, tearing it from Universal Governments grasp.
Over these past years, clashes between the Marines and the New Navy had never truly stopped. The World Government had never given up on the North Sea or the West Sea.
Still, as long as no "admirals" from either side took the field, these fights remained what they were, local skirmishes that could not decide the era.
"Lord Magma, Fuji Island is secured!"
On the deck of a massive warship, a commodore bellowed the report to the admiral candidate, Scarlet Flame Magma.
"Good." Magma's gaze swept over the battlefield like a blade. "Commodore Vergo. Your Armament and Observation are solid. Interested in serving under me? Vice Admiral MacArthur is old. His road ends there."
Magma held the young officer in high regard.
At this age, Vergo had already mastered two types of Haki. Plenty of headquarters vice admiral still could not do that. Magma wanted his own direct troops, men he could shape, men who would not hesitate when the storm arrived.
Vergo fit perfectly.
"For justice!" Vergo snapped to attention and saluted, a flicker of excitement slipping across his face. "It would be my honor to follow you, Lord Magma, and reclaim the North Sea!"
Magma's mouth curled faintly. He liked that expression.
A kid who understood where the wind was blowing.
Following an airborne admiral candidate with endless potential was far more promising than clinging to a stalled vice admiral's shadow. In the Navy, there were factions, currents, and knives behind smiles.
Where there were people, there was struggle.
Magma, newly elevated and still lacking roots, had no intention of becoming a lone blade. He needed an arm. He needed a backbone. And he needed subordinates whose merit would become his merit.
Fuji Island sat close to Northmarn Island, the New Navy headquarters in the North Sea.
Magma turned it into a supply point and a forward command post, then slowed his advance. He knew Sakazuki would hear the news, so there was no need to rush headlong into a trap.
He would wait for Marineford's latest instructions, then decide the next move.
Soon enough, news swept in from the New World.
The Hell Pirates' main force, the Six Hell Kings, and Brook himself had all appeared at the World Expo on Doragonzo Island.
Even the three New Navy admirals were there, maintaining order.
The report reached Magma quickly. Fleet Admiral Kong ordered him to strike while the window was open and destroy the New Navy headquarters in the North Sea as fast as possible.
After that, they would watch how the Hell Pirates and the Wano Government responded, then choose the next step accordingly, either continue the plunder and "liberation" of the North Sea or withdraw cleanly.
What Marineford did not realize was that every move was being watched.
Watched by Commodore Vergo, the rising star on Magma's ship.
And watched by Sakazuki, who already knew exactly what the Marines were doing in the North Sea.
…
North Sea New Navy Headquarters, Northmarn Island.
Base Commander Sakazuki ended a call with a special Den Den Mushi, then spoke in a low voice, expression unmoving.
"How ironic. Hell Guild eyes are sitting inside the enemy's command center."
Brook's arrangements were terrifying.
Their spies were in Marineford's orbit. With the enemy's plan in hand, how could this not become a dragon riding right across their faces?
Sakazuki's fingers slid over the weapons laid out before him.
Sea stone gear, shipped in like a flood.
A thousand man musket unit waited outside, each soldier gripping a box of sea stone bullets and shells like it was a treasure chest. Those were expensive. Precious. The kind of ammunition that could make a devil fruit user feel fear again.
If anyone secretly skimmed a few and sold them on the Grand Line black market, they would make a fortune overnight.
Sea stone capture nets.
Sea stone cuffs.
Sea stone chains.
Even daggers forged with sea stone alloy.
And a long sword inlaid with that same alloy.
Sakazuki looked at the blade that had accompanied him for years, then set it down without hesitation.
He drew the sea stone alloy sword instead.
A sea stone dagger slid into his belt. A sea stone musket followed.
To capture Scarlet Flame Magma alive, a user of the Magma Fruit, it was not excessive to bury him under sea stone.
With Haki and a sea stone blade, Sakazuki could catch him off guard. He might even end it in a single strike, leaving that arrogant Magma Fruit user to die in the North Sea.
The last time they clashed briefly on the Grand Line, Sakazuki had hidden a large part of his strength. Magma's judgment of him was wrong.
That mistake was worth more than a hundred cannons.
When he finished familiarizing himself with the sea stone alloy sword, Sakazuki glanced toward the young man beside him, dark wings spread behind brown skin.
A Seraph.
Brook had not only supplied the weapons.
He had sent that monster as well.
For the first time in a long while, a confident smile surfaced on Sakazuki's rigid face.
If he could not take Magma even with this, then he did not deserve to ask for the Magma Fruit.
…
New World, Doragonzo Island.
The World Expo, advertised across the entire world for more than a year, finally opened its gates.
The first exhibitions to begin were arms and medicine. Delegations from every government unveiled newly "updated" weapons and advanced treatments, immediately drawing seas of buyers and gawkers.
Soon after, the martial arts tournament began.
At Hawkeye Mihawk's casual recommendation, Brook personally instructed Kurt Wagner to enter the tournament. He wanted Kurt to show his face, raise the tournament's caliber, and quietly reserve a seat for him among the Seven Impermanences.
After all, former Warlords showing up at the Universal Government's World Expo and becoming Hell Guild Impermanences was the kind of story that spread like wildfire.
It was also the kind of story that carved the World Government's prestige into ribbons.
From the viewing platform above, the eight massive arenas below looked like beasts' mouths, roaring with combat.
Group auditions had begun. In each arena, the last four fighters standing would advance into the next round of single elimination.
Even from the stands, Brook still had time to speak with Antonio over Den Den Mushi, checking the situation in the West Sea and North Sea.
The people seated on this platform were not ordinary guests.
Six Hell Kings and their cadres.
The six underground dark emperors.
Dragon and the Revolutionary Army commanders.
Kings of the core nations.
Brook's women.
The princes and princesses.
His students and apprentices.
Along the railing, children clung to the bars and shouted at every exchange of fists and blades.
Yamato and Kozuki Inosuke were the loudest, screaming themselves hoarse.
Hancock, Robin, Belo Betty, Kikyo, and Nika were quieter, but the way they leaned forward, eyes locked on the arenas, made it obvious how deeply they were pulled into the fights.
Not a single "distinguished guest" dared show irritation at Yamato and Inosuke's shouting.
Because one was Kaido's daughter.
And the other was Kozuki Oden's son.
TL: Check out my newly released fanfic
Germany: The Thousand Year Empire
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