Unlike the overwhelming, earth-shaking shock of the River of Death, the eruption of Styx manifested as a construct of translucent, ethereal soul-forms.
From the violet-and-gray currents, countless souls with human silhouettes surged forth.
"Wh-What are these things?"
Tashigi instinctively tried to touch them with her blade, only to find they were like mist, flowing past her blade, impossible to seize.
A moment later, everyone watched in horror as these fluid, soul-like entities dived into the corpses strewn across the battlefield.
One particularly towering soul surged directly into the body of Whitebeard.
Laffitte was only halfway through covering the body with the black cloth when he saw a flash of red light in Whitebeard's eyes. A fist followed immediately, slamming into his rail-thin frame.
BOOM!!!
The immense force sent Laffitte hurtling into a nearby pile of stone ruins.
His formal attire was shredded, and his body was coated in dust. He struggled to lift his head, gasping, "H-How... impossible... he was definitely... dead..."
"Using the Styx on its own isn't a bad change of pace."
Alucard leaped into the air, landing behind Whitebeard. Unlike the full release of the River of Death, he did not lose his immortality while in this state of Styx liberation.
Whitebeard's body stood even straighter than when he was alive. He slowly raised his great naginata, swinging it in a devastating diagonal slash.
"Ugh!!"
Caught in shock, Teach desperately raised his diamond-clad arm to block the blade. With his other hand, he struck Whitebeard's knee, leaving a massive, blood-red fist print on the leg.
Teach expected the blow to force Whitebeard back, but to his horror, the old man didn't even flinch. Instead, Whitebeard increased the pressure on his blade, causing the ground beneath Teach's feet to shatter.
"What... what's going on?"
"Pops was definitely just..."
"Pops! Can you hear us?!"
Seeing Whitebeard "resurrected," the members of the Whitebeard Pirates were caught between confusion and wild excitement. They shouted toward him, momentarily forgetting their own retreat.
However, the phenomenon wasn't limited to Whitebeard. Across the battlefield, corpses of both pirates and Marines began to stand up one by one after being possessed by the souls. Their eyes glowed with a haunting white light as they picked up their weapons and resumed the slaughter.
"Wh-What is this?!"
"Stop! We're friends! AHH—!!"
"Why did they come back to life?"
"They... they won't die?!"
"Pulverize their bodies! All of them!"
The battlefield descended into absolute chaos. Some soldiers continued to hack and slash without hesitation, but others, seeing their fallen comrades "resurrected" and attacking, hesitated to strike back. That hesitation cost them their lives.
Since the living still made up the majority of the battlefield, many souls from Alucard's Styx found no corpses to inhabit. They drifted through the air and across the field, their constant, mournful wails chilling the hearts of all who heard them.
"Great Buddha Impact!"
Sengoku gritted his teeth against the pain, instantly reducing a group of resurrected Marines charging at him to powder, ensuring they could not rise again.
Yet, Sengoku noticed that as the flesh was destroyed, the dark-toned soul entities simply detached from the debris, drifting away to find new targets.
"Just... what is happening here?!"
At the Sabaody Archipelago, the crowds watching the broadcast were struck speechless with terror. The ghostly figures floating around the battlefield made the reporters' skin crawl.
Across the chasm Whitebeard had previously torn open, Jinbe called out to Alucard's back: "Alucard-san, is this... an ability similar to Moria's?"
Jinbe had experience fighting Moria and knew well the technique of cutting shadows from the living to animate corpses. Seeing Alucard release a mass of souls into dead bodies, he couldn't help but draw a comparison.
Hearing this, Alucard let out a mocking chuckle. Indeed, on the surface, they did look somewhat similar.
However, the current level of the Styx was still relatively low, and its effects were limited. Once it leveled up further, it would be something that Moria's third-rate ability could never hope to rival.
Alucard's laughter made Jinbe assume he had confirmed it. Seeing the scarred and battered Whitebeard relentlessly suppressing the Blackbeard Pirates, Jinbe's expression turned to one of pity. "Can you not let Pops' soul find peace in the afterlife? To force him to fight on in such exhaustion is truly..."
"Hehehe... but to me, he looks like he's having the time of his life," Alucard laughed.
Jinbe looked again. He realized that although Whitebeard's eyes were vacant, a faint sound was escaping his lips.
"Teach... I will never... forgive you..."
Jinbe gasped. He heard it! He heard the voice coming from Whitebeard's mouth.
"He can actually speak in the Styx state? Teach, it seems Newgate holds quite the grudge against you," Alucard taunted, looking at Teach, who was gradually losing ground.
Teach's expression was hideous. After blocking Whitebeard's blade with his diamond body, he prepared to counter-attack with his subordinates. Unexpectedly, Whitebeard swung his naginata aside and began condensing the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit in both hands.
"Now's our chance! Get him, boys!"
Teach roared. Though he didn't know exactly what Alucard's power was, he followed Jinbe's logic and assumed it was something like Moria's.
Either way, Whitebeard focusing his energy was the perfect opportunity to take him down!
With the exceptions of Shiryu of the Rain and Devon, almost everyone in the Blackbeard Pirates carried firearms. At their captain's command, they drew their guns and fired in a continuous volley.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
An instant before the countless bullets could impact Whitebeard's body, an invisible wall intercepted them, reflecting the entire volley back at once.
WORLD TREMOR!!
Cr-crack... crackle...
Fine, spiderweb-like fractures erupted from Whitebeard's hands as the starting point, rippling out into the space around him.
BOOM!
A massive shockwave rang out, followed immediately by a second and a third. A crushing atmospheric pressure swept through the area, and terrifying, spiraling air currents tore everything in their path to shreds.
"How is it?" Alucard grinned savagely. "This power?"