In fact, Shanks had made the right gamble this time.
Simply because all of his thoughts had already been anticipated by Rosse...
BOOM!
The moment Luffy's rubber fist came into contact with that terrifying magma, it was instantly blasted to pieces.
His entire body flew sideways like a kite with its string cut.
"Luffy!"
Juste cried out anxiously.
Bang! Bang!
At the same time, two crisp gunshots suddenly rang out.
The heavy Seastone shackles around Juste's wrists were directly shot through and shattered by two incredibly precise bullets fired by Yasopp from a distance.
Almost at the same moment, Snake moved like lightning, rushed to Juste's side, scooped up his weakened body, and continued charging forward.
As the two continued rushing forward, a faintly glowing doorway suddenly appeared out of thin air behind them.
The two passed through the doorway, and in the next moment, they had already appeared on the other side of the execution platform, where Sanji was, which was also where Luffy had been thrown and fallen.
"SUCCESS!"
Seeing this unbelievable scene, everyone present on Whitebeard's side was invigorated, their faces filled with unbelievable joy.
Every one of them had come here with the resolve and determination to die.
But they had never imagined that they would actually rescue Juste so easily.
Even less had they expected Sanji to not help the World Government at this moment, but instead help them.
Hope!
At this moment, they saw hope.
"Hahahaha! Zephyr, your World Government is nothing special after all!"
Seeing that Juste had been successfully rescued, Garp's punches became more agile, and his entire aura rose again.
Zephyr merely threw out his fists casually, easily blocking Garp's somewhat disorganized attacks in his excitement, while a meaningful smile curled at the corner of his mouth:
"Originally, as long as Whitebeard alone died, Juste could indeed have left safely," He spoke leisurely, "But since you chose to let Juste leave ahead of schedule, this funeral originally prepared for Whitebeard has already entered another, entirely different process."
"Garp, don't tell me you still don't understand? All of this is still within His Majesty's predictions and control."
"What?"
Garp's expression changed drastically, and an ominous premonition suddenly surged into his heart.
The next second, he saw it.
Sakazuki's figure suddenly charged forward.
His speed was terrifyingly fast, faster than everyone else present. In almost an instant, he appeared in front of Luffy, who had just fallen to the ground and had yet to steady himself.
His fists, transformed into boiling magma, smashed viciously toward Luffy's heart.
If that landed solidly, with Luffy's pitiful level of strength right now, he would certainly die.
"Luffy!"
Seeing his grandson about to be in danger, Garp had no time to care about anything else. He gritted his teeth and roared furiously, swinging his fist desperately toward that direction.
Even though he himself knew clearly that, given the distance between them, there was no time.
And this full-powered strike of his was, unsurprisingly, easily intercepted by the already-prepared Zephyr.
"Since you chose to come here and disrupt things, you must be prepared to pay the corresponding price."
Sakazuki spoke indifferently. His Observation Haki swept across the entire battlefield, precisely calculating everyone's positions and the differences in timing, causing his magma-burning fists to come crashing down at exactly the right speed.
Whoosh!
The howling wind, carrying the terrifying heat of the magma, instantly pierced through warm flesh.
Sizzle!
Blood splattered wildly in this instant.
Luffy's vision was instantly dyed a shocking blood-red.
It was blood flying through the air and spraying in every direction.
Very red.
The blood was also very hot.
But at this moment, Luffy did not feel any pain.
"Juste!"
Looking at Juste, who had suddenly appeared in front of him, his chest completely pierced through by Sakazuki's magma fist, Luffy let out a desperate scream as if he had gone mad.
'It shouldn't be like this!'
'It shouldn't be like this!'
It was obviously supposed to be that they would come to save someone, and then everyone would happily leave together.
Sakazuki expressionlessly pulled out his right fist, allowing Juste's body, which had almost completely stopped breathing, to hang limply and fall heavily onto Luffy.
At this moment, Juste did not look at Luffy, who was within arm's reach. Instead, he used the last of his strength to look with a face full of guilt at the tall, battered figure below, "I'm sorry... Pops..."
His voice was very soft, so soft that even Luffy right in front of him could barely hear it.
But Whitebeard, who had been closely watching what was happening here, heard it clearly.
"JUSTE! MY STUPID SON!"
At this moment, Whitebeard's feelings were incomparably complicated.
There was anger, helplessness, and deep sorrow.
These surging emotions were directed at his own powerless, broken body, at Shanks and Luffy's impulsive and reckless group, and at the World Government's scheming.
Clearly... clearly the World Government had solemnly promised that as long as he died in battle, they would let Juste go.
'Why... Why did you suddenly show up...'
'Why couldn't you just let me quietly go to his death? Wouldn't that have been enough?'
Even if, in the very end, Juste, Teach, and the other children were still destined not to escape the cruel fate arranged by the World Government, at least, who could really say for certain what would happen in the future?
Seeing Juste die in front of Luffy without any warning, everyone present froze on the spot.
At first, they had not expected Juste to be rescued so easily.
And now, they likewise had not expected Juste to die so easily, so suddenly.
Just now... they had clearly already rescued him.
The Seastone shackles had already been shattered, and he had passed through the doorway and reached the safe side.
But in the blink of an eye, everything had changed.
"RETREAT!"
Among everyone present, Shanks had the calmest and most rational mind.
The moment Juste died, he immediately made a decisive choice, suddenly moving his body and charging toward where Luffy had fallen without regard for anything else, wanting to rescue him at the first opportunity.
From the force and speed of Sakazuki's punch just now, he had already keenly noticed it.
That punch had never been aimed at Luffy from beginning to end.
If Sakazuki had truly wanted to kill Luffy, with his strength, Luffy would have already been a corpse from the very beginning and could not possibly have survived until now.
Not to mention, with Sakazuki's strength, even if Juste had desperately managed to block the attack in front of everyone in time, he could still have pierced both of their bodies with a single punch.
Yet only one had died.
Clearly, this was the World Government's malicious amusement.
Since the rescue had completely failed, minimizing the losses in time was the only optimal solution.
"Ara~ Ara~ Juste didn't have to die in the first place."
With a light laugh, Shirahoshi turned her gaze toward Whitebeard's tall body in front of her. Her voice was crisp and pleasant, yet it spread to every corner of the battlefield:
"According to our calculations for today, actually, it would have been enough for Whitebeard alone to die. If you have to blame someone, blame yourselves for insisting on suddenly running over here and disrupting things."
She could clearly feel just how tremendous the raging fury was burning in Whitebeard's chest at this moment.
His cloudy eyes seemed almost ready to spit fire.
But so what?
With Whitebeard's nearly exhausted, broken body now, he could no longer do anything.
Moreover, even if she were facing Whitebeard at his peak, she would not fear him in the slightest.
"Heh! You people never cared about human lives in the first place, did you?"
Shanks, who was being firmly held back by Ace, snorted coldly. His eyes were filled with uncontrollable fury as he glared angrily at Shirahoshi.
"Are we the ones who don't care about human lives, or are you the ones who don't care about human lives?"
Shirahoshi laughed softly, her beautiful eyes filled with amusement, not putting Shanks's tremendous fury in the slightest, "Luffy is obviously that weak, yet you dared to let him charge forward like that. Doesn't that mean you simply aren't afraid of him dying?"
Her tone was casual, yet every word struck at the heart, "We are enemies who will not stop until one side is dead. Isn't it only natural for an enemy to do something cruel and ruthless? On the other hand, you people knew that the road ahead was a place of death, yet you insisted on bringing your most important companion along to wade into these muddy waters. That is what truly harms people."
"AAAAAAAAH! You bastards! Hahahahahahaha!"
And just as the situation was on the verge of exploding, a strange mist suddenly rose from Luffy's fallen body.
At the same time, what accompanied it was Luffy's unrestrained, crazed laughter.
His brother as close as family had died on the spot to save him, yet Luffy was laughing out loud?
This carefree laughter, almost to the point of madness, made quite a few people present involuntarily feel a chill run through them, their backs going cold.
Then, they watched helplessly.
Luffy's black hair actually began to turn white bit by bit at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Layers of strange rubberized marks also began to appear on the flesh around his body, and his entire outline became cartoonish and distorted.
"A Devil Fruit awakening... So this is Nika? What an idiot..."
At this moment, Sakazuki was still the closest person to Luffy. He looked down at the figure on the ground who continued laughing, and gave his indifferent assessment without expression.
If becoming the legendary Nika meant having to become this crazy and make such a fool of oneself, then he would rather never become one.
Moreover, in his view, Luffy was not that strong even now.
Even after completing this so-called awakened transformation, at most he had barely approached S-rank.
In front of him, it was still not enough.
"Hahahaha! I'm gonna send you flying! AAAAAAH!"
The instant Luffy finished transforming into Nika, his figure suddenly disappeared from where he stood.
Buzz!
The next moment, he had already appeared behind Sakazuki, a fist wrapped in a gust of wind crashing down.
"Tch! Too slow."
Sakazuki did not even turn his body around, merely throwing a fist backward.
BOOM!
The two fists collided violently in midair, and terrifying shockwaves rippled outward in all directions.
Unfortunately, even though Luffy had completed his awakened transformation, he still could not withstand the force of that punch for even one second. His entire body was once again sent flying backward.
And that direction happened to be away from Yasopp and the others.
"Take Luffy and leave!"
Shanks's anxious shout suddenly rang out from the distance, where Ace was holding him back.
Almost at the same time, Sanji's steady yet urgent voice also rang out, "Someone go save him! Go through the door on the left. The door on the right leads directly out!"
He spoke each word clearly, his speech extremely fast, "The person who goes to save him will most likely die! But as long as you can grab Luffy and throw him into the door, Luffy can survive!"
At the same time, two faintly glowing doorways appeared out of thin air in front of everyone.
Looking at the two doors before him and listening to Sanji's cruel choice, Yasopp's foot, which had already stepped forward, hesitated involuntarily.
As Shanks's crewmate, he should obey his captain's orders unconditionally.
But... going to save Luffy really would mean dying.
His gaze involuntarily drifted toward the right, toward that door leading to a way out.
What if... what if Luffy could get back up by himself and crawl into the door?
Wouldn't that mean everyone could be happy, and nobody would have to go and die?
Once this thought arose, his feet became even harder to move.
"Tch! I've had enough of living this miserable life anyway."
Snake suddenly snorted coldly. Without the slightest hesitation, he strode into the left-hand door leading to death, leaving behind only one resolute sentence:
"Lucky Roux, tell the captain for me later. I'm returning this life to him."
"You bastard, don't go!"
Lucky Roux's pupils shrank, and he cursed furiously, wanting to rush forward and stop him first.
But his speed was ultimately no match for Snake, who had already rushed out.
The next second, Snake's figure suddenly appeared where Luffy was flying backward and about to land.
However, just as he grabbed Luffy by the collar, Sakazuki's burly figure had already appeared behind him like a shadow following its target.
That boiling magma fist mercilessly pierced through Snake's entire body from behind.
Blood flowed down Sakazuki's arm.
"Luffy... LIVE ON!"
Snake gritted his teeth and used the last trace of strength in his life to fiercely throw the Luffy in his hands into that door.
As for himself, in the next moment, he completely lost all signs of life and fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing this scene, Shanks fell silent for half a second, a trace of pain that was difficult to conceal flashing in his eyes as his fists quietly clenched.
And after Luffy passed through that doorway, he was instantly transported to Sanji's side.
They were now dozens of meters away from Sakazuki.
As long as they passed through the door on the right, they could successfully escape and retreat safely.
Although they had ultimately failed to rescue the person and had also lost Snake's life, for the entire group, the loss was not considered too severe.