It was precisely because of Wano Country's instability that Garp had gone to the New World at a time like this.
With all three Admirals already away, Garp should theoretically have remained at Marine Headquarters to guard against emergencies. Instead, he had left on a mission specifically to keep watch over Wano.
SWORD was responsible for monitoring the other three Emperors of the Sea, with most of its attention focused on the Big Mom Pirates.
The other two Emperors, Whitebeard and Red-Haired Shanks, required far less attention. Both were relatively restrained and rarely caused major trouble.
Big Mom, however, would occasionally rampage across the sea in search of particular foods. Whenever that happened, it was SWORD's job to intervene.
Under normal circumstances, the Marines were strictly forbidden from starting a war with an Emperor without orders from the World Government and permission from the Fleet Admiral.
SWORD was different. It had the authority to engage the Emperors without first requesting approval from its superiors. Its members had formally returned their Marine commissions. They retained their identities as Marines but were no longer bound by Marine regulations.
Normally, the Marines had no shortage of combat strength.
Even if Fleet Admiral Ann could not be deployed, there were still three active Admirals, as well as Garp, Zephyr, and Ah Xing. The Marines could rightly be called the dominant power of the current world, but even they seemed inadequate for the present crisis.
Aatrox's presence had reappeared. Although no one yet knew whether he had broken through the seal and returned, another Demon Lord had unquestionably emerged.
Two Demon Lords, the Thunder Angel charging straight toward Terminal Dogma, and Wano Country poised to launch a war at any moment made for a truly catastrophic combination.
Even the Five Elders did not know what to do. An overwhelming amount of information had flooded their minds all at once, leaving everyone silent.
"Where is Monet?"
Ann was ultimately the first to speak. "She should have reached the first half of the Grand Line."
Vegapunk replied, "She said she was going to Drum Island, but she never told me why."
Monet belonged to Pandora Island, which was currently under Vegapunk's supervision.
"Contact Monet and have her investigate the Demon Lords," one of the Elders ordered. "With her ability, she can escape at any time, even if she encounters danger."
"Perhaps... that is why she went there in the first place," Makima said slowly. "She is a member of God's Right Seat. She might have learned something in advance and traveled to Drum Island because of it."
Before anyone else could respond, she continued, "However, as a precaution, I recommend sending Admiral Kizaru to Alabasta as well."
"We have detected the presence of two Demon Lords. I do not know where the second one is, but the first is unquestionably Aatrox. He was sealed in Alabasta. Whether our goal is to prevent him from escaping or merely gather intelligence, we must send someone to investigate."
"If Kizaru and Akainu both leave, what about the forces guarding Terminal Dogma?" Vegapunk asked worriedly.
"The Thunder Angel is attacking from the first half of the Grand Line. Now that it has appeared, no other Angels should attack for some time," Makima said softly. "Terminal Dogma is important, but the emergence of a Demon Lord requires just as much caution."
"If a Demon Lord were to unleash its power without restraint, the destruction might rival an Impact."
"Fleet Admiral Makima is right. We cannot take the emergence of a Demon Lord lightly," Ann said. "I will order former Admiral Zephyr, who is currently in the North Blue, to travel to Alabasta. If Aatrox truly has returned, we must seal him again as quickly as possible."
Despite her words, everyone's heart remained heavy.
They had sealed Aatrox last time only because they had Roger and the Shinigami's assistance.
Without the Green Pyramid bestowed by the Shinigami, not even Roger would have possessed the power to fight Aatrox.
Still, victory was not entirely impossible. They had already determined Aatrox's weakness.
Although Aatrox was immensely powerful, he needed a puppet of flesh and blood to act in the outside world. Even if they could not defeat him directly, they would still win if they delayed him until his fleshly body completely decayed.
But...
There were two Demon Lords this time.
Who...
Who was the other one?
Amid this tense atmosphere, every department under the World Government mobilized. Vast numbers of troops gathered along the Red Line, and even the Admirals began moving out.
The many factions that constantly monitored the Marines, the dominant force on the seas, were deeply alarmed. They had no idea what madness had seized the Marines. Were they about to launch a war in the New World?
Wano Country, which could observe the entire world through spy satellites, had a rough understanding of why the Marines were mobilizing.
"What is that?"
Kaido frowned at the enormous blue octahedron on the screen. He had sailed the seas since the Rocks era. Although he had not dominated an entire age like Roger, he had accomplished great feats such as storming Mary Geoise and considered himself widely experienced.
Yet he had never seen or even heard of this strange blue octahedron.
"Very strange," Yuri murmured. "A special field surrounds the creature. It blocks even electromagnetic waves and biological signals, preventing us from analyzing its biological composition."
Wano had learned about the Marines' movements as soon as they began. After searching with their spy satellites, they concluded that the blue octahedron racing across the sea toward the Red Line was the cause of the commotion.
"Not only the Marines, but the entire World Government is mobilizing. This is our opportunity." Kaido was already preparing for battle.
"Not yet." Yuri shook his head. "First, we must understand what is happening. And do not forget that the Mirror Beast threatens more than just the Marine Fleet Admiral."
The Mirror Beast's existence was no secret among the world's strongest individuals, so many of them deeply feared the demon. Simply creating a copy would have been bad enough, but its most disgusting ability was forcibly taking half of the original's energy when it did so.
That was equivalent to instantly cutting someone's strength in half, something none of them could accept.
If the Mirror Beast had not hidden itself so well, someone would have killed it long ago.
Kaido snorted. "Fine. We'll first see what this blue monster intends to do."
What did it intend to do?
At that moment, the Thunder Angel was speeding across the sea. It moved incredibly fast, but machines on Pandora Island had already locked onto its position.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Missile after missile launched into the sky. These were some of the most advanced weapons in the world, long-range strategic arms created by Vegapunk.
Even when launched from Pandora Island, they could destroy the section of sea in the first half of the Grand Line through which the Thunder Angel would pass.
The machines calculated the Thunder Angel's speed against the missiles' velocity and determined that their paths would intersect.
Sure enough, as the Thunder Angel raced forward and split the sea behind it, dozens of lights appeared on the horizon. Each was a missile. These were nothing like those fired by the armed helicopters in Alabasta. Each was a genuine long-range missile capable of destroying an entire town!
The Thunder Angel also noticed the lights and immediately stopped.
The octahedron transformed in the next instant.
Its blue, prism-like structure separated into several triangular formations. Each triangle's point aimed toward the center, where a single spot resembled an eye.
Red light flashed. A crimson beam erupted from that point, and as the Thunder Angel rotated, the beam swept sideways in a straight line, passing through every approaching light in an instant.
Boom!
Every missile exploded at once. Not one could even approach the Thunder Angel!
"Those long-range missiles travel at over Mach ten!" Vegapunk exclaimed in shock.
"Enough, Doctor. Wouldn't it be stranger if the creature couldn't do that?" Ann replied coldly. "Your so-called common sense does not apply to beings like them."
Among everyone present, she was both the least qualified and the most qualified to make that statement.
She was the least qualified because she had never fought a Demon Lord. The strongest demon she had faced was Kozuki Oden of Wano Country, and at the time, Oden had merely been a Demon Lord's host. His own strength had been far inferior to that of a true Demon Lord.
At the same time, she possessed Roger's memories and was a part of him. No one in the world had understood a Demon Lord's combat abilities better than Roger.
Although the Thunder Angel was not a demon, it was likewise a creature found only in myth.
"What about Akainu? Has he arrived?" one of the Five Elders asked anxiously.
Ann closed her eyes before slowly answering, "Yes. He's reached the Red Line."
The Black Order's Thunder God was also there.
A single Admiral would probably not be enough. More importantly, this had originally been the Black Order's responsibility. Makima could not possibly rely solely on a Marine Admiral. The Black Order also needed to deploy someone of Admiral-level strength.
If the two of them could not stop the Thunder Angel, then Ann would have to intervene despite the risk.
Everyone continued watching the screen.
After the Thunder Angel's sweeping beam detonated every missile in midair, the surrounding waters seemed to boil. None of it hindered the creature's advance.
The Thunder Angel returned to its octahedral form and soon arrived less than ten kilometers from the Red Line.
Upon the continent dividing the first and second halves of the Grand Line, Akainu stared intently at the waters ahead.
He had rushed to the Red Line without pause after receiving Ann's orders and had prepared himself for battle along the way.
This was the first time the Black Order had faced an attack by an Angel. Akainu also wanted to discover how powerful these Angels truly were and why the government treated them so seriously.
He would find out soon.
More precisely, he would find out now.
The Thunder Angel was not yet visible on the horizon, but Akainu suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of danger. A moment later, his Observation Haki showed him what was coming.
Akainu's pupils contracted. For an instant, he saw a laser pierce straight through the Red Line, blasting a passage through the continent that divided the sea!
"Hound-Bite Crimson Lotus!"
Akainu did not dare grow careless. Red magma coated his fist, which contained an immense concentration of power.
He activated the powers of both the Logia-type Magma-Magma Fruit and the Fire Card to their fullest!
The two powers merged into one as Akainu roared. The beam appeared in the next instant.
A beam of light naturally moved at the speed of light. The instant it entered his vision, it was already in front of him.
Boom!
The collision between laser and magma sent the surrounding soldiers flying. Many people nearby even spontaneously burst into flames!
Akainu's pupils contracted. During the collision with the laser, a hole had been punched straight through his chest, and blood now poured from the wound.
What...
What was that?!
"Lightning Dragon!"
As Akainu struggled to understand, the Thunder God's roar came from above. A colossal dragon of lightning burst from the clouds and descended at the speed of a thunderbolt, striking the distant sea.
More than ten kilometers offshore, the Thunder Angel changed form again and gathered its power. Before the Lightning Dragon arrived, it fired another laser and pierced straight through the dragon with a deafening blast.
"That thing... can perform such terrifying sniping attacks from ten kilometers away?" Akainu covered his chest. A hole had somehow been punched through it, leaving him with a deeply unsettling sensation. He had clearly matched the laser's power, yet some inexplicable force within it had still penetrated his body.
"Can you keep fighting?" The Thunder God descended from the sky and landed beside Akainu, his expression grave.
"This little wound is nothing," Akainu said. "The enemy clearly specializes in long-range sniping. I didn't expect a laser fired from ten kilometers away to retain so much power. We need to engage it at close range."
The Thunder Angel's ability to attack from afar did not mean they could do the same. Even if they could launch attacks across ten kilometers, those attacks would inevitably lose strength over the distance.
Boom!
Before he even finished speaking, another laser erupted in the distance.
"Spear of the Thunder God!"
The Thunder God closed both hands around empty air. A spear made entirely of lightning appeared, and he hurled it with all his strength, intercepting the laser once again.
But the Thunder Angel's attack did not end there. At that moment, the space ahead filled with...
A dense barrage of lasers, so numerous that they seemed to merge into a single line, covering the entire visible horizon!
----
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