"Deploy the defensive grid immediately! Big Mom is about to launch a sudden assault on Unzan Port right now—!"
The Den Den Mushi in Diego Backan's hand shook violently as Millie's hysterical screams erupted from the shell.
"What—?! Big Mom is launching a sudden strike on Unzan Port right now?!"
Backan sharply inhaled a breath of cold air, his face twisting into utter disbelief. "At a time like this... are you kidding me?!"
Inside the submerged vessel, Millie was practically besides herself with anxiety. "Just go! You bastard, get moving and organize the defense—!"
Millie's frantic voice cut through the receiver once more, snapping Backan out of his daze as the sheer, terrifying gravity of the situation settled in.
"Understood! I'm on it!"
Without even taking the time to hang up the receiver, Backan slammed it down and bolted out of the room like a gust of wind.
"Wake up! Everyone get the hell up!"
"Emergency assembly! Grade-1 Alert! Grade-1 Alert!"
Backan charged into the central courtyard, his lungs bursting as his roaring commands echoed through every corner of the grand central keep.
Wnnn— Wnnn— Wnnn—
The next instant, the central keep lit up like midday. Countless souls were jolted awake from their slumber as the sharp, ear-piercing wail of the emergency sirens tore through the night sky.
"What's happening?!"
"Where did a Grade-1 Alert come from?!"
"That's Backan-sama's voice!"
"Quick! Sound the alarms!"
The pirates of the Fourth Division scrambled within the keep, grabbing their weapons in a frenzy. Many didn't even bother to finish dressing before sprinting out of their quarters.
Amid the chaos, Backan grabbed an unkempt subordinate by the collar, his eyes wide with fury and panic. "Get to the communications room right now! Relay a message to Nakor's sector—the Big Mom Pirates are launching an immediate, full-scale ambush on Unzan Port!"
Stunned into a stupor by the revelation, the pirate stammered out in sheer terror, "I… I… I'll go right away..."
By now, the sirens from the central keep had spilled into the surrounding territory, throwing the entirety of Unzan Port into a frantic boil. The urban districts, the docks, the military camps outside the city walls, every single siren in every corner began to wail in unison. The high-pitched, piercing shrieks were so loud that the alarms tearing through Unzan Port could be heard clearly even from the neighboring Germa Kingdom.
Tens of thousands of soldiers surged out of their barracks. Simultaneously, the dozen or so subordinate pirate crews under the Chris Pirates' banner received the emergency directive and began mobilizing en masse toward the harbor.
Down at the docks, Zéphyr bolted from his quarters the exact second the sirens went off. Casting a grim eye across the blinding lights and deafening alarms echoing throughout Unzan Port, he took a deep, steadying breath, his face etched with absolute gravity.
"The Grade-1 Alert has been triggered! Sensei, is it an assault by Big Mom?"
Ain's voice cut through the noise. Zéphyr turned to see his three primary disciples rushing toward him in unison.
Behind them, the rigorously trained soldiers of the "Z" Division were already assembling with lethal efficiency. Unlike the unruly, disorganized pirates, every single one of their movements was crisp, disciplined, and flawlessly executed.
Rumble... Rumble...
Suddenly, a heavy, suffocating roll of thunder boomed from the heavens. Jet-black storm clouds surged and churned across the sky, swiftly blotting out the brilliant luster of the full moon. Snaking arcs of lightning flickered ominously within the dense cover, casting sporadic, blinding flashes over the landscape.
Had Unzan Port not activated every single high-powered searchlight along its perimeter, the entire harbor would have been plunged into pitch-black, absolute darkness.
Ain stared up at the roiling, turbulent sky, her voice failing her as she cried out, "This... how could they possibly have arrived so quickly?!"
Beside her, Binz and Shuzo bore incredibly grim expressions, every muscle in their bodies tensing as they braced for impact.
"She's here," Zéphyr muttered, lifting his gaze to the heavens as his demeanor hardened.
BOOM! BOOM!
In an instant, the sky erupted in a brilliant flash as deafening thunderclaps split the air. Countless jagged bolts of lightning rained down like a torrential downpour, striking out like gnarled, luminous branches and tearing ruthlessly into the infrastructure of Unzan Port.
As bolt after bolt blasted into the harbor, the scene transformed into a terrifying vision of the apocalypse. Aside from a select few structures fortified with lightning rods, vast rows of buildings and high-rises were effortlessly pulverized by the catastrophic, raw power of the lightning storm.
Towers collapsed into rubble, streets fractured apart, and hundreds of soldiers and pirates alike were instantly incinerated beneath the cascading blanket of thunder.
Even along the coastline, where the defensive artillery towers were equipped with lightning rods, several fortifications were overwhelmed and shattered by the sheer volume of consecutive strikes. The heavy cannons within were instantly reduced to warped, glowing chunks of molten scrap, leaving the artillerymen with zero survivors.
Of the hundred or so vessels of varying sizes anchored within the harbor, nearly twenty were broken apart and sent to the ocean floor in the very first exchange.
Concurrently, the Germa Kingdom, which had previously been locked together as a single landmass, began to slowly decouple. The massive kingdom steadily fractured outward, transforming back into a fleet comprising thousands of colossal, amphibious giant snail ships.
"This is bad!"
Ain's face paled as she witnessed the fleet's deployment, a look of pure dread washing over her. "Order all vessels docked at the piers to set sail immediately! Get every single ship out into open water, regardless of size! They must block the Germa Kingdom's fleet from initiating a coastal bombardment at all costs!"
Her words snapped the surrounding commanders out of their stupor. If dozens of Germa Kingdom battleships were allowed to unleash a coordinated, unrestricted salvo upon Unzan Port, the entire harbor would be wiped off the map.
One could not forget that the Germa Kingdom was a superpower built entirely upon cutting-edge scientific warfare. Every single one of their vessels was outfitted with proprietary, large-caliber naval artillery whose destructive yield was fully on par with the heavy armaments engineered by the Chris Pirates.
A single, unified volley from their fleet would deal a catastrophic, irreversible blow to Unzan Port.
"I'll handle the docks!"
Without wasting a single breath on explanations, Shuzo propelled himself into the air, using Geppo to race toward the piers.
The sheer velocity of the enemy's arrival had caught them completely off guard.
No one could have anticipated that a crew that had just suffered a crushing defeat and sustained severe injuries to a core Sweet Commander would immediately pivot into a lightning-fast retaliatory ambush. It left them with absolutely zero time to mount an organized preparation.
In truth, not even Judge had anticipated that Big Mom would launch an offensive so abruptly without a shred of warning, leaving even the forces of the Germa Kingdom scrambling to catch up.
Though the Germa Kingdom had already split into dozens of independent warships, a vast number of the Germa 66 clone soldiers had not even managed to reach their designated battle stations.
"Die! All of you, just drop dead!!!"
Suddenly, a piercing, maniacal screech tore through the thick layer of storm clouds.
"That voice..."
Zephyr's heart jolted. Squinting upward, he watched a titanic silhouette burst through the roiling veil of black clouds. Clutches of terrifying, suffocating aura radiated from her form as she brandished a colossal broadsword. Her feet rode atop a pitch-black storm cloud, while a massive, blazing fireball of intense heat hovered closely by her side. She was descending upon Unzan Port at a frightening velocity.
"Big Mom!"
Zephyr's expression turned extraordinarily grim. He had never expected that the monstrous woman would personally lead the charge as the vanguard.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With no time left to ponder the logistics, Zephyr leaped into the sky, kicking the air with furious bursts of Geppo to intercept the descending force of nature that was Big Mom.
"Well, well... so you've gone and turned pirate too, old man Zephyr! What an unbelievable twist of fate, ma-ma-ma-ma!"
"But tell me... did you come up here just to throw your life away?!"
Charlotte Linlin recognized Zephyr in an instant, her face twisting into a hideous, feral sneer.
Back when Zephyr was still an active Marine Admiral, Big Mom had clashed with the Marines on more than one occasion. The two had traded blows across the seas long ago.
Furthermore, when Charlotte Linlin had first caught wind of the rumors that Zephyr had abandoned his convictions to join the Chris Pirates as an outlaw, even she had found it difficult to believe.
"Big Mom! As long as I am standing, you will not run rampant here!"
Zephyr roared, his voice booming across the sky. A faint, almost imperceptible sheen of hardened energy rippled across his arms as he coated his fists in Armament Haki. He unleashed a savage, earth-shattering punch, the raw, concentrated force of his strike threatening to detonate the very air itself.
Armament Hardening—Shigan: Punch Gun!!!
"Let's see if you still have the teeth to back up those words, old man!"
Charlotte Linlin cackled, wrapping both hands around the hilt of the giant sword Napoleon. She swung the blade downward with apocalyptic force, the roaring edge tearing the atmosphere open as it carried a gale of sharp, razor-thin wind pressure.
BOOM—!!!
In a fraction of a second, the sky violently convulsed as a massive, visible shockwave rippled outward in a perfect circle.
The next instant, a cataclysmic tempest of displaced air erupted between them. Like a localized hurricane born from the wrath of nature itself, the shockwave swept across the heavens and slammed into the earth below, causing the atmosphere to vibrate with a low, agonizing rumble under the immense strain.
Out at sea, the ocean waters were violently churned and pulled upward, forming a series of colossal tidal waves that loomed over a hundred meters high!
On land, countless individuals were swept off their feet and hurled into the sky like ragdolls, while rows of civilian buildings and reinforced concrete structures were instantly leveled by the sheer pressure of the wind!