"What happened?!"
"What's the situation now? The Video Den Den Mushi has been destroyed! We can't see what's happening on the scene!"
Countless people around the world were dumbfounded.
They never thought there would be such a turn around.
But could a single missile seriously injure Emperors like Kaido and Big Mom?
The outcome was still unknown, and the civilians who couldn't see what was happening grew anxious.
"I hope... I hope the pirates have been wiped out," someone prayed, "although I know there's little hope."
On the other side, looking at the blacked-out screen, everyone in the Marine camp was shocked.
"That explosion... it was absolutely more powerful than anything I've ever seen," Sengoku was shocked, swallowing with difficulty.
"What kind of technology is this? It's terrifying!"
The Five Elders were trembling.
"Could it be... an Ancient Weapon?"
In their memories, there was no such thing as a missile.
The only thing they could imagine with such destructive power was one of the legendary weapons of old.
"No," Leon shook his head. "This is a new technological weapon I developed."
Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay.
"I have a hunch," Vice Admiral Chaton said, his face pale with lingering fear.
"That if I had been in the middle of that explosion, I'm afraid I would have been..."
Seeing what he said, everyone nodded in agreement.
The power of that blast had obviously surpassed the Admiral level.
Even an Emperor could not have easily resisted it.
"Let's go," Sengoku said suddenly.
"Let's go back to Marineford and see what's happened."
Immediately everyone open an anywhere door to Marineford and hurriedly stepped through.
At this time, Marineford had been turned into a wasteland of ruins.
No piece of ground was complete, and the air was filled with the unpleasant smell of burning and an incredibly high temperature.
Not a single building was still standing; it seemed they were all turned into powder in an instant.
"Hiss..."
Immediately, Sengoku and the others couldn't help but gasp, their bodies trembling.
Everything in front of them had exceeded their imagination.
One missile had leveled the entirety of Marineford.
What kind of destructive power is this ?
At this time, the Five Elders looked horrified, so frightened they didn't know how to speak.
"Leon," Ju peter said, suppressing his inner turmoil.
"What kind of technological weapon is this?"
"Hehe. Its name is the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile—the Messenger of Nuclear Peace."
"Intercontinental... Ballistic Missile?" the Five Elders repeated with a look of surprise on their faces.
"If I had known earlier that we had such a powerful weapon," Sengoku sighed.
"Our Marines wouldn't have had to pay such a heavy price."
In the ruins before them were not only the bodies of pirates but also a great number of Marine soldiers and even officers.
"There was no time to let you know in advance," Leon said, shaking his head with a trace of regret in his eyes.
"I only just finished developing the Nuclear Peace Messenger a few hours ago."
"Leon, you've done more than enough," one of the Five Elders smiled.
Suddenly, with a great BOOM, Bullet pulled himself out from the endless ruins as he was drenched in blood.
"Fortunately, my Combine-Combine and Castle-Castle Fruits, with the power of the More-More Fruit, helped me block most of the explosion... Otherwise, I would have..."
At this time, Bullet's face showed the lingering fear of someone who had just survived death.
"Hahaha, Bullet, you're not dead!" Redfield appeared beside him in a flash of teleportation.
In the distant sky, the important commanders of the Kaido and Big Mom crews also appeared one after another.
A few of the Whitebeard and Red Hair pirate ships also emerged from the sea.
"Hm?!"
The faces of Sengoku and the others sank.
These top powerhouses and their most powerful commanders hadn't been completely wiped out.
However, they all appeared to be weakened or seriously injured.
Moreover, the number of pirates under their command had decreased sharply.
Of the millions of pirates who had gathered for the war, only a few tens of thousands had survived.
"Damn you, Marines!" Kaido, Big Mom, Shanks, and Whitebeard all turned pale with fury, looking at them viciously.
While their top-level strength had not been completely lost, their lower and middle ranks—the countless subordinates at the bottom—had been almost entirely wiped out.
"This humiliation... we will definitely pay it back!" Kaido gritted his teeth and immediately transformed into a blue dragon, flying away at top speed.
Big Mom and the others also immediately left with their remaining forces.
At this time, they were also afraid that the Marines might be hiding a second terrifying bomb.
"Marines... I didn't expect you to hide such a trump card," there was a lot of killing intent in Whitebeard's eyes.
"I underestimated you. I will definitely settle everything with you again. My sons, let's go!"
One by one, they spoke their cruel words and quickly left the scene.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, let me hunt them down!" Akainu volunteered, wanting to pursue the enemy.
"No," Sengoku sighed, shaking his head.
"Their strength has been greatly reduced, but so has ours."
In this battle, the Marines' casualties were no less than their opponent's.
And even if they launched a pursuit now, it was unlikely they could stop the Emperors from escaping.
"Turn on the Video Den Den Mushi again," Sengoku ordered.
The next moment, countless civilians around the world saw the scene.
The once-great Marineford had been razed to the ground, and the pirates were fleeing in defeat.
Only the Marines still stood on the battlefield.
For a moment, countless people were shocked.
"They, no... we won?!"
"They actually turned defeat into victory?!"
An unbelievable look appeared on their faces.
The next moment, the entire world burst into cheers.
*****
On a deserted island in the Grand Line, a group of wounded pirates sat in grim silence.
It was the alliance of Kaido and Big Mom.
Among them, Bullet was gritting his teeth.
In the war, he had been the most severely injured.
He had thought his defenses were absolute, with countless warships merged into his body and the powers of the Castle-Castle and More-More Fruits.
Unexpectedly, the blast had still broken through his defense.
Fortunately, by the time the force of the explosion reached his real body, it was only the aftermath, but even that had almost taken his life.
Bullet couldn't help but feel a twinge of dread.
"I really didn't expect the marines to have such a powerful weapon," Redfield said.
"The Marines have announced that the weapon is called the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile—the Messenger of Nuclear Peace. If it wasn't for that 'Nuclear Messenger,' the victory would have been ours. Now, not only are our losses heavy, but all of our top fighters are injured..."
"It must have been invented by that Leon kid again!" Big Mom gritted her teeth.
A single shot had completely reversed their absolute victory and eighty to ninety percent of their forces had been wiped out.
How could they accept this?
"Queen, Judge, Caesar!" Kaido roared. "Can you develop this 'Nuclear Peace Messenger'?"
"If you just want to develop such a powerful weapon from scratch... it's impossible," Judge said in a deep voice.
"But if we can get a sample of it, the success rate should be much higher. The premise, however, is that we can get our hands on one of the missiles."
"But once the missile is fired, no one can stop it. How can we possibly get one?"
"Then we can only find the launch site and get it from there."
Thinking of this, Kaido and the others fell silent.
That was easier said than done.
The missile had appeared high in the sky, proving that its launch site wasn't close to Marineford.
"I suggest that we immediately mobilize all our personnel to find it," Kaido said in a deep voice.
"At the same time, we will recruit new members. We must have such a terrifying weapon in our own hands!"
Big Mom, Bullet, and Redfield all nodded.
Indeed, without a weapon of equal power, they might have to be cautious even in a frontal war.
The power of the Nuclear bomb had become an endless shadow lingering in their hearts.
Not only that, but their base camp should never be discovered by the Marines.
If the enemy simply fired another missile at them... no number of people could withstand it.
"I agree," everyone nodded.
They decided to live temporarily in Brulee's Mirror World, using its countless mirrors as entrances and exits to protect themselves from a direct attack while their forces searched the seas for the missile's launch site.
****
At the same time, on another side of the world.
The Red Hair and Whitebeard Pirates were gathered.
"Shanks," Whitebeard said, his face extremely serious, "that was a dangerous one. What do you think we should do next?"
"We discussed it yesterday," Shanks smiled.
Benn Beckman nodded, taking a puff of his cigarette.
"Actually, we don't need to be particularly afraid of this 'Nuclear Messenger.'"
"Hm?" Whitebeard, the Golden Lion, and Mihawk all showed surprise.
"What do you mean?"
Benn Beckman continued. "First of all, think about it: under what circumstances does this missile pose the greatest threat to us? When we don't know about it we still survive. But now we do, and we can take precautions. They will never be able to achieve such a result against us again. Why? Because the Marines can't even abandon their own people. When they launch this missile, they will definitely have to evacuate their own forces first. So, in our future battles, the moment the Marines begin to retreat, we must immediately take precautions and escape ourselves."
"As long as we can find out in time, no matter how powerful this missile is, we can quickly retreat and get away."
An ordinary force couldn't do this, but they had people with spatial Devil Fruit abilities, fully capable of rapid transfer.
Furthermore, their barrier ability could resist the blast for a time.
Although the power of the missile surpassed the highest defense of the Barrier-Barrier Fruit, it could still hold for just a couple of seconds.
For powerful fighters like them, two seconds was enough to do a lot.
"Well... that makes sense," Whitebeard and the others nodded one after another, feeling a little relieved.
"Besides that," Benn Beckman continued, "the biggest threat from this missile is not on the battlefield, but in normal times. For example, right now. Just imagine if they just launched a few missiles at us while we have no defenses up... wouldn't that be a devastating blow?"
Hearing this, the faces of Whitebeard and the others turned grim.
"But don't worry," Benn Beckman smiled. "They only fired one shot today, and it was only when they were on the verge of total defeat. This proves that the Nuclear they used was likely the only one they had just developed. So, we can infer that its development cycle is at least half a month. Even if they've improved the process, it's impossible for them to develop another one within a few days. Not to mention, it will take them some time to find us. So, don't worry, at least not in the short term."
Hearing this, Whitebeard and the others were relieved.
Benn Beckman then slowly stretched out three fingers.
"So, at the moment, we need to do three things..."
----------------------------
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