The man slowly rising from the pool of blood was none other than Edward Newgate, Whitebeard, whom Alucard had previously retrieved.
However, he was different now. The left side of Whitebeard's face was covered by a viscous layer of blood teeming with tiny, darting eyeballs. This crimson trail extended from his face back to the pool beneath Alucard's feet.
Furthermore, every wound Whitebeard had sustained during this war had vanished. Most notably, the gaping hole Teach had punched through his torso was gone, restored as if it had never existed.
Alucard stood beside him, casting a predatory glance at Teach. "Come then. Defeat this man, and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit is yours."
The other members of the Blackbeard Pirates, who had been scattered by the previous shockwave, scrambled to their feet, their faces pale with shock.
Teach spat out a mouthful of blood. "Men, all together! Attack!"
He didn't know if Alucard was truly sincere about handing over the Tremor-Tremor Fruit power. What he did know was that Alucard had no intention of letting him leave. At this point, Teach had no choice but to fight.
Clang!!
Whitebeard thrust his naginata into the ground beside him. His hands curled into claws, hooking into the very air as if grasping something solid.
Suddenly, Whitebeard's muscles surged with unnatural bulk. His arms blurred in a dual-swipe.
In an instant, centered on Whitebeard, a rotational force capable of shattering all existence spiraled outward in every direction.
Marineford tilted! The seas were sliced open! The sky itself fractured!
"This... how is this possible!"
Even from a distance, Robin felt the suffocating threat of death. Her emerald eyes flashed crimson as her physical speed multiplied. She sprouted wings using her Flower-Flower Fruit and took to the sky to escape the epicenter.
"AAAGH!"
"Help! Somebody help me!!"
Marineford was being literally torn into segments. Bottomless chasms opened between every jagged slab of earth. Worse, the ground was tilting at impossible angles, with some sections flipped entirely, swallowing people into the dark depths of the crust.
"The ocean... it's turning upside down!!"
The tremors hadn't even subsided when everyone realized the sea had been hoisted into the air by that single strike. A massive wall of water, large enough to swallow all of Marineford, hung overhead like a lid, poised to come crashing down.
Kuzan didn't have a second to spare for Ace's escape. He leaped into the air, pushing his Ice-Ice Fruit to its absolute limit. He fired two massive pillars of ice toward the hanging ocean.
"ICE AGE!!"
Cr-cr-crack!!
The ice hit the overhead waves, flash-freezing them into a jagged mountain range of ice in mid-air. It stopped the deluge from burying Marineford, but the entire battlefield was instantly plunged into shadow as the frozen sea blotted out the sun, creating a haunting, magnificent spectacle.
Back at the Sabaody Archipelago, the broadcast had cut out. The last remaining Visual Den Den Mushi was likely destroyed. The final image the world saw was Alucard controlling Whitebeard to unleash that world-ending power.
"Whitebeard is dead, yet the 'Immortal' has claimed his power?" Killer, the combatant of the Kid Pirates, crossed his arms grimly. "The road to the New World is looking treacherous..."
"Don't make me laugh!" Kid adjusted his greatcoat and turned to leave. "Whitebeard is dead. His territory is a vacuum now. The other three Yonko won't just sit and watch. This is the perfect time to strike the New World!"
Back at the plaza, Kuzan landed and observed the frozen sea. After a long silence, he spoke: "If they aren't frozen inside that ice... then they've successfully escaped."
Hearing this, the Whitebeard Pirates looked toward the frozen glaciers, hearts heavy with worry. "They should be okay, right? Ace... Jinbe..."
CRACK!!
A violent explosion of sound snapped everyone's attention back.
Whitebeard had reclaimed his naginata. With a flick of Alucard's finger, Armament Haki coated the blade. Combined with a surge of Conqueror's Haki, Whitebeard unleashed a silver, crescent-shaped wave of energy that vaporized everything in its path.
Standing atop the ruins of the "Encircling Wall," Mihawk's hawk-like eyes widened in surprise.
The destructive power of that slash was staggering, the work of a true Master Swordsman. During the heat of the war, the aging Whitebeard hadn't possessed this much raw energy; even his Armament Haki had flickered due to his failing health.
Whoosh!
Mihawk leaped down, moving closer to bypass the crumbling stone walls to get a clearer view.
"Could it be... Whitebeard has been restored to his peak strength?"
The same thought crossed the minds of everyone present. But only the veterans who had followed Whitebeard from the beginning, Marco, Vista, and the others, knew the true answer.
"Marco, that's..." Vista started, walking to Marco's side.
"Yeah..." Marco said, his voice strained. "That's the kind of power Pops used to unleash twenty-two years ago... when he fought Roger-yoi."
The sword pressure had demolished a massive section of the stone wall, revealing Teach's battered form. He was covered in blood and gasping for air. Because of the Dark-Dark Fruit, his sense of pain was double that of a normal human.
Thump... Thump... Thump...
Whitebeard approached Teach step by step. Alucard's voice drifted from behind him, dripping with mockery. "This won't do, Blackbeard. How do you expect to 'steal' this power if you can't even handle this much?"
As Alucard spoke, Whitebeard reached Teach, grabbed him by the head, and hoisted him up. The sheer difference in height made it look as if a titan were lifting a mangy dog.
"Zehaha! I got careless!"
In that split second, Teach's eyes flew open. He unleashed a spiral of darkness he had been condensing in his palm, slamming it into Whitebeard's chest. "Now your ability is nullified, Pops!"
But Whitebeard's expression didn't change. Instead, a silver-white aura erupted from his body, suffocating Teach's breath. Taking advantage of the opening, Whitebeard's entire body turned a lustrous, obsidian black.
Full-Body Armament Haki!
BOOM!!!
A heavy impact made everyone's scalp tingle. Teach was slammed into the remains of the wall with such force that half his body was buried deep in the stone.
"That Blackbeard... he's being beaten without any room to fight back?" A Marine Rear Admiral gaped, unable to believe his eyes.