CHAPTER 295: COMPLETE VICTORY
Kizaru had to admit one thing—right now his mind was buzzing, almost completely blank, because of that one statement from his teacher.
Sakazuki had indeed probably already been defeated.
He naturally acknowledged that man's strength completely, but no matter how powerful, Sakazuki was still an devil fruit user. Since he was an devil fruit user, as long as he was swallowed by seawater, strength or no strength became irrelevant.
Sakazuki wasn't like Brett, that bastard, who could ignore the negative effects seawater brought.
The instant he was swept into the water tornado, his defeat had already been declared.
Though this fact was extremely shocking, Kizaru, having witnessed it with his own eyes, could only choose to accept it. He could only lament that Brett's strength truly exceeded imagination.
But, Zephyr-sensei, are you saying Kuzan has also already been captured by you?
Of the three Navy Headquarters admirals, you've already captured two?
How could Kizaru accept such a thing?!
Just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.
That guy Kuzan wasn't acting alone either—two Warlords accompanied him, along with several vice admirals and a bunch of rear admirals and commodores.
Combined with all these Navy personnel on their side who now had nowhere to escape—
Forget the direct combat losses this would bring to Navy Headquarters—the impact from public opinion alone would already be enough to severely damage Navy Headquarters.
In the eight hundred years since the World Government was established, when had the Navy ever suffered such a devastating defeat?
How could people on the seas still believe the Navy possessed the power to protect justice, to protect them?
Cold sweat already covered Admiral Kizaru's forehead. His lips pressed tightly together. He could no longer maintain that carefree expression from before.
Gravity—only gravity remained on his face.
"About time to run away, isn't it, Admiral Kizaru?"
Brett manipulated the gale to maintain the massive water tornado, preventing Akainu from escaping, while simultaneously extracting himself from the tornado and slowly drifting toward Kizaru.
"Even now, do you still think you can do something?"
Brett chuckled softly.
"This really is terrible."
Kizaru could only sigh helplessly.
He finally looked deeply at Brett one last time.
The Five Elders' judgment wasn't wrong at all—only this man qualified to become the World Government's most powerful enemy.
No, or rather—he already was.
"Zephyr-sensei, you've won this time."
Kizaru said quietly, and the next second his body had already transformed into light, directly flashing away and disappearing into the sky.
Though abandoning comrades and fleeing was behavior befitting a coward for a military man—
There was no other choice in this situation, right?
Did they expect him to somehow rescue his comrades from these two's hands?
Probably no one could be saved. The final result would only be getting captured himself.
So right now, he could only choose to flee.
"Tch, that bastard's ability is still somewhat too troublesome!"
Zephyr snorted coldly with some displeasure.
Of course he'd wanted to capture all three Navy Headquarters admirals.
But Akainu and Aokiji were one thing—as long as you possessed overwhelming force above theirs, capturing them wasn't difficult.
Only that bastard Kizaru—his ability gave him unparalleled mobility. Wanting to catch him when he wasn't fighting to the death was nearly impossible.
"Can't be helped. Though I can control lightning, I can't become lightning itself like a Logia user."
Brett said with a smile.
Wanting to catch up with Kizaru's speed—even that guy Enel probably couldn't do it.
"However, this battle's results are already abundant enough."
Brett lowered his head. On the sea surface below, on the Navy warship decks, despair had completely covered the faces of the abandoned Navy soldiers.
They had nowhere left to escape.
"Next, how should we handle them?"
Brett asked.
Capturing too many Navy personnel at once was also troublesome.
The total number of NEO Navy personnel commanded by Zephyr-sensei probably wasn't even as many as the Navy soldiers captured this time.
The Navy soldiers from the two fleets combined already exceeded fifty thousand. The NEO Navy didn't even have enough prisons to confine them.
"Let me try to see if I can persuade some to defect," Zephyr said. "Now is a critical development stage. If we can directly absorb a portion of elite Navy personnel, it'll benefit our development greatly."
"As for those unwilling to surrender—" Zephyr fell silent for a moment. "We'll release them. They're not important. Keeping just the officers will be sufficient."
Brett nodded.
Though he'd now betrayed the Navy and betrayed the World Government, no matter what, Zephyr-sensei had spent the first several decades of his life as a Navy man.
To truly do something to these Navy soldiers—he really couldn't do it.
And as he said, ordinary Navy soldiers were meaningless. Even if they rejoined the Navy later and appeared again on battlefields opposing them, they could be swept clean with one burst of Conqueror's Haki.
As long as the officers were controlled, that was already sufficient.
"Then, let's take them away first."
Brett lowered his body. Rolling flame clouds were released by him, directly sweeping up all the Navy warships on the sea and the Navy soldiers who'd fallen into the water.
When they were lifted by the clouds, whether Navy officers or Navy soldiers all went collectively pale. No matter how angry or panicked they felt inside, right now they were simply powerless.
Brett also incidentally dispelled the giant water tornado still raging on the sea surface. Seawater crashed downward, along with the unlucky one swept inside falling together into the ocean.
Zephyr immediately jumped into the sea, putting Seastone shackles on his student who'd always had the most explosive temper.
This operation—complete victory.
Brett began returning with all the captives.
However, while returning, there was still one thing to do.
He made a call to a certain someone.
"So, Brett, so how's the war going right now?!"
The call had just connected when that person's impatient shriek came through from the other end.
"I'd say there are some results," Brett said with a smile. "Besides Kizaru, everyone's been captured."
"..."
A brief silence followed, then the next instant—
"HAHAHAHA! I knew it, Brett, I knew you could do it!!"
An extremely excited laugh urgently transmitted into Brett's ear. "Magnificent! The entire world is going to be shaken next!"
Who could say otherwise?
"Then, I'm counting on you for this, Morgans!"
"Of course! Isn't this exactly why I'm willing to help you?!"
Then it was time to report the results to his other good friends.