"Die, Whitebeard!" Akainu roared, launching a volley of magma fists.
Though injured, he was still an Admiral, and he was determined to kill the pirate legend at all costs.
Meanwhile, Aokiji, Kizaru, and the others launched their own attacks on the Golden Lion and the division commanders.
Now was the time to strike—while the pirates were severely wounded.
"Capture them all!" The entire Marine force rallied.
Suddenly, at that very moment—
"FIRE FIST!"
A deafening roar echoed, and a torrent of scorching flames surged toward the Marines, forming a massive wall of fire that shielded the retreating pirates.
"Huh?!"
"Fire Fist Ace..." the Marines gritted their teeth in frustration.
But just then, an endless darkness began to roll out from the base of the flames, surging toward them like a tidal wave, intent on devouring everything in its path.
"Marines, let's see how you get past this!" Ace grinned, feeling the newly acquired power coursing through him.
He was brimming with excitement!
Earlier, Miss Bakkin, who had been hiding among the Whitebeard Pirates, had acted according to Whitebeard's plan.
She had pulled Ace aside and secretly given him a second Devil Fruit.
The moment he consumed it, the fruit's abilities awakened instantly.
"What... what is this?!" The Marines looked on in shock, retreating step by step.
They realized that Ace's body was not only enveloped in flames but also shrouded in a deep, consuming darkness.
This scene stunned the Blackbeard Pirates, who were watching from the sidelines.
"Captain, isn't that your Devil Fruit ability?!" Lafitte exclaimed.
Doc Q, Van Augur, and the others also looked puzzled, turning their gazes toward Blackbeard.
His face, which had been dazed, suddenly contorted into an ugly snarl.
"Hmph, yes. That's my Dark-Dark Fruit ability."
"He gained a second power," Blackbeard gritted his teeth, a trace of deep resentment in his eyes.
"It seems there's an extraordinary person hiding on Whitebeard's ship."
The Dark-Dark Fruit—the power he had schemed for decades to obtain, the most dangerous ability in the world—had been acquired by Ace in the blink of an eye.
This left Blackbeard feeling intensely cheated.
Who on Whitebeard's ship could have done this? he seethed, unable to comprehend it.
"That looks like Blackbeard Teach's Devil Fruit ability!" a Marine Vice Admiral exclaimed.
"Exactly!" Sengoku watched from afar, his face ashen.
Letting Ace escape was bad enough, but now he had gained a second, terrifying power.
Ace, who was already a handful, would undoubtedly become an even greater threat.
"Who did this?! Who is the variable helping the Whitebeard Pirates?!" Sengoku's eyes burned like flames.
The Marines' chances of winning this war should have been nearly 100%, but this one factor—this secret scientist granting the pirates dual abilities—had changed everything.
"We must uncover the mastermind behind this!"
"All forces, take them down!" Sengoku commanded sharply.
"Do not let a single member of the Whitebeard Pirates escape!"
"Yes, sir!" The Marines charged forward.
Aokiji unleashed his Ice Age, freezing the chasms in the ground and creating paths for the troops to cross and engage the enemy.
"Capture Ace! Take down the Whitebeard Pirates!"
As he spoke, Aokiji himself shot forward, his body emanating a terrifying chill as he charged toward Ace.
"Partizan!"
In an instant, several lances made of pure ice shot toward him.
"Dark Vortex!" Ace's left hand filled with black mist, and the swirling vortex absorbed all the ice lances.
"You Admirals are nothing special!" he jeered.
But a glimmer of cold light flashed in the sky.
The next moment, Aokiji was upon him.
Combining the full might of his dual Devil Fruit abilities, his sharp, ice-clad spear slashed through the air directly at Ace.
"AHHH!" Ace's expression changed as he felt a sharp, freezing pain.
He retreated repeatedly, but a cold sensation spread rapidly from his chest to his entire body, drastically slowing him down.
"Fall, Fire Fist Ace!" Aokiji pressed his advantage.
"Tch..." Ace's pupils trembled.
His speed had become extremely slow, leaving him no time to dodge.
"I was just careless for a moment! Fire Pillar!"
A column of flames shot into the sky, instantly melting the ice on his body.
He hurriedly threw a punch to defend himself.
"Dark Water Fire Fist!"
With his remarkable combat talent, he enveloped his flaming fist in darkness, allowing him to attack his opponent while simultaneously absorbing their power.
Fist and claws collided, stirring up a violent gust of wind.
A flicker of surprise passed through Aokiji's eyes, but he reacted quickly, kicking Ace away.
BOOM!
Ace was sent flying.
Aokiji pressed his advantage, launching a series of attacks.
For a moment, Ace found it difficult to keep up with him.
"Seraphim, hurry and help Ace!" Whitebeard shouted anxiously.
Soon, his three custom Seraphim rushed to support Ace.
As for Whitebeard himself, his expression hardened.
'Our current situation is too dire. Continuing to fight will only increase casualties. Ace has been rescued. We must break through and retreat immediately!'
"Everyone, evacuate immediately!" Whitebeard roared.
With the Overlord present earlier, escape would have been impossible.
But now, without its terrifying presence, there was a chance.
As soon as Whitebeard gave the order, the pirates rushed toward the Moby Dick and the other ships in their fleet.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Akainu bellowed, his body transforming into magma as he shot into the sky like an erupting volcano.
"Heh!" Whitebeard released the grip on his massive bisento.
His hands turned into dragon claws that tore through the air.
The next moment, the atmosphere itself shattered once more.
"Hmm?" Aokiji, who was battling Ace, suddenly looked up, his expression calm.
"Another trick…"
As expected, with the vibrations in the air, the entire sky and sea tilted chaotically.
Violent waves surged, forming towering tsunamis that crashed down toward the Marines.
"Hmph, useless!" Akainu sneered, disregarding the massive tsunami and continuing his charge.
He knew Aokiji would act.
A mere tsunami was nothing to the power of the Ice-Ice Fruit.
However, to his surprise, as the tsunami arrived, a vast sheet of seawater seemed to hang suspended in the sky, as though the world had turned upside down.
"Hmm?" Aokiji, about to take action, paused, his brow furrowed.
It was the power of Shiki's Float-Float Fruit.
'But why would he do this?'
As he wondered, he saw Whitebeard repeatedly striking the air, the terrifying power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit impacting the suspended seawater.
Immediately, the massive tsunami began to rapidly disperse, splitting into dozens of disconnected sections.
"Not good!" Aokiji's expression changed instantly.
He now understood their plan.
By separating the seawater, they had made it impossible for him to freeze it all at once.
"Evacuate the Devil Fruit users!" he urgently shouted.
"Brilliant idea, Pops!" Jinbe's eyes lit up.
He immediately followed suit. "Fish-Man Karate: Seawater Shoulder Throw!"
He and the other fish-men used the falling water to hinder the Marine Devil Fruit users, who turned pale and retreated in panic.
At that moment, the rest of the endless seawater poured down from the heavens, surging forward with the power to destroy everything.
"Dark Water!" Ace's gaze sharpened.
Instead of rushing to the Moby Dick, he stood his ground as endless darkness enveloped him, desperately blocking the surging seawater.
At the same time, he unleashed another attack.
"Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor!"
A blazing fireball shot from his hand, striking the massive tsunami wall that Aokiji had managed to freeze earlier.
The ice chunks instantly melted and exploded, and the resulting steam and rain only amplified the seawater's destructive force.
Within seconds, all of Marineford was being submerged.
Ace was pulled away by Marco, who instantly acted, wrapping him in strings.
However, many pirates who couldn't board their ships in time were swallowed by the waves.
BOOM!
A massive tsunami surged out from Marineford, catching the Moby Dick and all its subordinate pirate ships and sweeping them away into the open sea.
"Let's go, my sons!" Whitebeard shouted, as if this had been the plan all along.
Shiki, hovering above a massive rock, rapidly descended, plunging one hand into the chaotic sea.
The next moment, the water on both sides surged violently, opening a clear underwater passage for Whitebeard's fleet.
"Heh! How interesting!" Whitebeard swiftly transformed into a colossal blue dragon.
The terrifying heat radiating from his body caused the seawater around the passage to evaporate, widening it further and allowing more pirate ships to pass through at once.
Immediately after, Whitebeard flipped and leaped, spinning until a massive tornado formed on the sea's surface, directly blocking the only exit from Marineford Bay.
"Dammit…" Sengoku and the others gritted their teeth.
The pursuit route had been completely cut off.
The three Admirals and Sengoku himself were all Devil Fruit users; they were powerless against the raging sea.
No matter how unwilling they were, they could only watch helplessly as Whitebeard and the others escaped.
They seethed with anger but were powerless to act.
Countless people around the world watched this scene, their faces filled with rage and regret.
The Marines had been on the verge of total victory, and now they could only watch as the enemy fled.
"Damn it! I never expected the Whitebeard Pirates to have a trick like that up their sleeve!"
"They actually got away!"
"Letting them escape means the Navy won't get another chance to capture them so easily."
Many who witnessed this scene wore grim expressions.
In Mariejois, the Five Elders looked equally grim.
"Hmph, that cunning Whitebeard!"
"Are we just going to watch them escape like this?!" Warcury roared angrily.
"The World Government and the Marines will become a laughingstock!"
If Ace was rescued, it meant the enemy had won.
How could they accept that?
"Alas, there's nothing we can do," Ju Peter shook his head, sighing deeply.
"Almost all of our top fighters are Devil Fruit users. Recklessly pursuing them into the sea is too dangerous."
However, just as the Five Elders and all the Marines thought the battle was over…
"Hmph, is that all?"
Suddenly, a youthful voice rang out again.
Everyone stared at him in astonishment.
"It's just seawater, isn't it?" Leon grinned, a meaningful glint in his eyes.
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