Marineford, Marine Headquarters.
The situation had escalated with devastating suddenness. By the time Fleet Admiral Sengoku fully processed the sequence of events, it was already far too late.
He had watched, helplessly, as Leo vanished from under his very nose, taking the captured Marines Tashigi and Isuka with him. The sheer audacity and the flawless execution of the rescue left him seething.
"That damn brat!!" Sengoku's forehead was furrowed deep with rage, his eyes glinting with a cold, murderous light. It was a foregone conclusion; the next time they met, Tashigi and Isuka would be standing against the Marines as enemies. He wasn't basing this on a mere hunch. If Leo could sway a former Vice Admiral like Doll and the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, what hope did those two have?
"Damn that kid!!" His face darkened further as he unleashed his Observation Haki, sweeping it across the frozen battlefield, searching desperately for any trace of Leo's unique energy signature.
Inside the bay, the situation was deteriorating rapidly. Whitebeard's forces poured through the massive breach in the steel enclosure wall, their war cries echoing off the icy cliffs.
"Hold on, Ace! We're almost there!!"
"Out of our way, you Marine scum!!!"
"Brothers! Victory is within our grasp! Rescue Ace!!"
"OOOOOOHHHHHH———————!!"
Every single member of the Whitebeard Pirates, wounded or not, fought with renewed, feverish intensity, their collective will to win burning like a supernova.
On the execution platform, Ace knelt, his spirit broken. He bit his lower lip so hard he drew blood, his vision blurred by unstoppable tears.
"Little Oars... everyone..." His voice was a ragged, broken thing. A torrent of emotions—gratitude, profound guilt, soul-crushing pain—waged war within him. The one thing he didn't feel was happiness. He had watched his grandfather, Garp, die. He had watched Little Oars Jr. and so many of his cherished comrades fall. With every passing second, more men died in a sea of blood, and it was all because of him. The acidic tears fell, obscuring his view.
BOOM—!
A tremendous explosion drew his hazy gaze. It came from the crater where his father, Whitebeard, was engaged in a cataclysmic duel with Admiral Akainu.
Whitebeard sent the Admiral flying with a devastating quake-enhanced punch. He then raised his bisento, Murakumogiri, high into the air, his voice thundering across the entire battlefield. "MY SONS! RESCUE ACE!!"
The mighty roar, filled with unwavering paternal resolve, washed over his crew. His towering, indomitable figure, even riddled with wounds, made the surrounding Marines hesitate. Their commander's direct order was the ultimate stimulant, injecting a fresh wave of adrenaline into the Whitebeard Pirates.
"Don't worry, Pops! Today is the day the Marines fall!!"
"The great Admiral, resorting to such cheap tricks, and he still gets beaten like a dog by the Old Man?!"
"Hahahaha! Sakazuki, enjoy your pounding!!"
"CHARGE!!"
Led by their allied captains and division commanders, more and more Whitebeard Pirates flooded into the inner bay. The war had reached its fever-pitch, white-hot climax.
The Marines, however, were not about to yield. Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals led the counter-push. The air was thick with the roar of cannon fire and the crackle of gunpowder. In every corner of the battlefield, grotesque and beautiful flowers of blood bloomed without cease. The entire Marineford plaza had been transformed into a giant meat grinder. The Grim Reaper himself had taken up residence over the island, his scythe harvesting souls by the thousands. The carnage only intensified.
"WHITEBEARD!!" Akainu roared, emerging from a pile of smoldering rubble with pure, unadulterated fury etched on his face. He wiped a trail of blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Today, Marineford will become your grave!!"
"Great Eruption: Cerberus!!"
Enraged beyond reason, Akainu's right arm morphed into a monstrous, three-headed hound of molten rock, lunging at Whitebeard with apocalyptic force. Where the magma beast passed, the ice instantly vaporized, the very air boiling away.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, you magma punk!!" Whitebeard bellowed in response. Swinging Murakumogiri down with all his might, he coated the blade with a terrifying concentration of his Tremor-Tremor Fruit power. The very atmosphere shattered, a spiderweb of cracks spreading through reality itself. The concussive force met the magma beast head-on, obliterating it in a shower of superheated rock and volcanic bombs.
Unfazed, Akainu pressed the attack, his assaults growing even more ferocious. He could sense it clearly—while Whitebeard's attacks remained overwhelmingly powerful, the old Emperor's body was failing. He couldn't maintain this level of output for much longer.
In stark contrast to the blistering heat of the magma battlefield, another area was locked in a deep freeze.
Admiral Aokiji, usually the picture of lazy detachment, now fought with a cold, ruthless efficiency that had Boa Hancock on the defensive. Garp had been his mentor. To see the hero of the Marines cut down before his eyes... how could he not be enraged?!
Hancock gritted her teeth, parrying and dodging a relentless barrage of ice attacks. In the span of a few seconds, she had been forced to block over a dozen strikes.
"You're a mayfly trying to shake a tree. Know your place!" Aokiji stated coldly, his tall frame leaping into the air.
"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak!"
Screech!
Screech!
Two piercing avian cries split the air as a pair of gigantic ice pheasants, radiating an aura of absolute zero, materialized. With a beat of their crystalline wings, they unleashed a wave of freezing energy. At Aokiji's command, the colossal birds dive-bombed Hancock.
"You dare?!" Hancock's eyes narrowed, a deadly glint flashing within them. In a straight one-on-one fight, she was indeed outmatched by the Admiral, but that didn't mean she lacked the means to threaten his life. In one fluid motion, she plucked the hairpin from her signature and, in a flash of purple light, it transformed into the formidable Love-Love Bow.
Aokiji's eyebrows twitched upwards at the sight of the suddenly manifested weapon. An inexplicable, deep sense of foreboding settled in his gut.
Meanwhile, in a third, brilliantly illuminated sector of the battlefield, the air crackled with energy and the sounds of fierce feminine shouts.
Admiral Kizaru had initially assumed subduing the seven women would be a trivial matter. He could not have been more wrong. Their fighting styles were bizarre and unpredictable, and their proficiency in both types of Haki was nothing to scoff at.
Take Perona's Negative Hollows, for instance. He had seen a Marine Vice Admiral get tagged by one and immediately drop to his knees, spouting a stream of self-deprecating nonsense, completely stripped of his dignity. The thought of himself, a Marine Admiral, being subjected to such a public humiliation was... unthinkable.
Then there was Nico Robin's Flower-Flower Fruit abilities. They were insidiously difficult to defend against. Arms and legs blooming out of any surface would be troublesome enough, but these limbs were also coated in Armament Haki. His Logia intangibility was useless. He was forced to either block with his own Haki or dodge preemptively.
But the most troublesome, by far, were Nami's control over lightning and Tashigi's master-level swordsmanship. Their attacks were纯粹 designed for pure, unadulterated destruction and posed the greatest direct threat to him.
Doll and Kalifa, with their combined mastery of Rokushiki and dual Haki, were also persistent nuisances, constantly forcing him to split his attention.
Of the seven, Margaret was the least threatening. She had been part of Leo's crew for the shortest time, and while the gravity chamber had accelerated her growth, one couldn't become a master overnight. Furthermore, the Cat-Cat Fruit model: Leopard wasn't among the most exceptional Zoan types. Recognizing her limitations, Margaret had wisely abandoned close-quarters combat after a few probing strikes, opting instead for long-range harassment. While her Armament Haki-infused arrows couldn't deal significant damage, Kizaru's instinct for self-preservation prevented him from simply tanking them.
The fight was equally grueling for the women. Each of them now bore minor injuries, their breathing slightly labored.
"Hahahaha! Kizaru! Even Garp is dead! You're next!!" Nami shouted, completely ignoring the cuts on her arms. She gestured, and the sky above them convulsed, unleashing a maddened storm of lightning bolts.
"Cliff-Splitting Sword!" Tashigi, silent and focused, seamlessly followed up with a devastating flying slash.
Kizaru's eyes widened. His body dissolved into motes of golden light, instantly reappearing a safe distance away.
BOOM! CRACKLE!
The combined force of lightning and sword slash obliterated the space he had just occupied.
The women turned as one, their eyes locking onto Kizaru as he re-materialized, standing atop the wreckage of a half-sunken battleship.
"You pesky little girls are so troublesome~" Kizaru muttered, his face uncharacteristically dark. His eyes scanned the broader battlefield. Garp was dead. Leo had disappeared. Sakazuki was locked in his death struggle with Whitebeard. Kuzan was battling Hancock. The Marines, relying on their numerical advantage and the fervent oratory of their officers, were managing to rally and mount a counter-offensive against the Whitebeard Pirates.
His gaze returned to the seven women before him. He had to finish them, and fast. If Leo returned and they managed to surround him, his chances of survival would plummet to zero. Escape would become impossible.
"It seems I don't have time to play with you any longer," Kizaru said, a cold smirk twisting his lips.
In a series of blinding golden flashes, ten identical Kizarus appeared, forming a perfect circle around the women.
"Everyone, be careful!" Nami warned, her expression tightening.
Robin and the others braced themselves, their nerves stretched to the breaking point.
"Yasakani no Magatama!" all ten Kizarus chanted in unison, their fingers forming the familiar seal before unleashing a storm of devastating light pellets.
It was a pincer attack of absolute annihilation.
But at that exact, critical moment, something far brighter than Kizaru's golden light split the sky. A pillar of brilliant, silver-white lightning descended from the heavens, striking with divine judgment. Nine of the ten Kizaru clones were instantly vaporized into sparkling dust.
The real Kizaru, his Observation Haki screaming a warning a fraction of a second earlier, had already teleported away, evading the cataclysmic strike.
"Leo!"
"Leo!"
"Captain!"
A collective cry of relief and joy escaped the women's lips as a familiar, tall figure landed gracefully between them and the retreating Admiral.
"Are you all okay?!" Leo asked, his gaze sweeping over each of them with genuine concern.
They all nodded, their postures relaxing slightly now that he was here.
"You've all done well," Leo said, a note of pride in his voice as he took in their determined, albeit weary, faces. Holding their own against a Marine Admiral for so long was a testament to their three months of brutal training.
"Robin, Doll, Kalifa, Perona, Margaret," he continued, his tone leaving no room for argument. "You're heading back to the ship. Get Kaya to heal your wounds, then meditate on the experience you gained today."
In the blink of an eye, he and the five women vanished, only for Leo to reappear alone a heartbeat later.
"Nami, Tashigi," he said, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. A warm, green energy flowed from his palms, knitting their minor cuts and bruises closed in an instant. "Go help Hancock. I'll be right there."
"Understood!"
"Leave it to us!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the two women shot towards the frozen battlefield where Hancock was dueling Aokiji.
Leo's eyes followed them for a second, then flicked to the purple bow in Hancock's hand. A predatory smirk tugged at his lips.
Soon, he thought, the whole world will witness the terrifying power of the Slave Arrow.
But for now...
His attention returned to Kizaru, whose face had paled considerably. Leo's expression morphed into one of cold, merciless intent.
He was going to enjoy this.
He dismissed the Seven Star Sword. Instead, he summoned the very weapon that had once sheared off Kizaru's arm—the demonic blade, Thousand Demon Slayer.
"Kizaru," Leo's voice was a soft, menacing whisper, a demon's promise. "Your turn."
A shiver of primal fear, cold and sharp, shot up Kizaru's spine, from his heels to the crown of his head. At his peak, he was no match for Leo. Now, missing an arm and facing a man who had just killed Monkey D. Garp? A man who, in their previous fight, hadn't even used Advanced Conqueror's Haki?
"D-Don't think you can intimidate me, Leo!" Kizaru retorted, his voice cracking slightly despite his efforts to sound defiant. "I'll make sure you die here at Marineford today!"
The threat rang hollow. He launched a volley of light beams at Leo, but his movements were telling—he was attacking while actively creating distance, inadvertently moving closer and closer to the central execution platform.
"You can't run," Leo stated flatly, a mocking chuckle escaping his lips before he vanished.
"KI-ZA-RU!!" Sengoku's panicked shout echoed from the platform. Seeing Leo close in on the injured Admiral sent a jolt of pure terror through him. If Garp's legendary durability couldn't withstand Leo's attacks, what hope did Kizaru—a man who relied too heavily on his Devil Fruit and neglected his physical toughness—have?
His eyes darted to Ace, kneeling beside him. A ruthless, desperate resolve hardened in Sengoku's heart. The World Government's reinforcements were nowhere to be seen. If he continued to stand by, Leo would pick off the Marine high command one by one!
He snatched up a Den Den Mushi.
"ATTENTION, ALL MARINES!" His voice, amplified and authoritative, boomed across the plaza, cutting through the din of battle.
Across the various battlefields, combatants on both sides instinctively paused, their attention snapping towards the execution platform.
Under the gaze of tens of thousands, Sengoku's face was a stony mask of grim determination. "BY THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN ME AS FLEET ADMIRER," he declared, his voice resonating with finality, "I HEREBY COMMENCE THE IMMEDIATE EXECUTION OF PORTCAS D. ACE!"
Ace flinched as if struck. The two executioners flanking him raised their long, ceremonial spears high.
The reaction from the Whitebeard Pirates was instantaneous and volcanic.
"ACE!!"
"You bastards! The execution time hasn't even come! You have no honor!!"
"Damn it! MOVE! Get out of my way! I have to save him!!"
"Marco! Do something!!"
"Fire the cannons at the platform! Don't let them do it!!"
A tidal wave of desperate fury erupted from the pirates. They began throwing themselves at the Marine lines with a reckless, suicidal abandon. The Marines, knowing everything hinged on this moment, dug in and fought back with equal ferocity.
Whitebeard himself turned his gaze towards the platform, his voice a thunderous roar of pure wrath. "SEN-GO-KU!!!!"
"Heh heh heh... Whitebeard, resign yourself!" Akainu sneered, launching another blistering magma attack to keep the Emperor pinned. "Today, you will not only fail to save your son, but you will also die here!"
This was the critical moment. He could not, would not, let Whitebeard interfere.
Leo merely glanced at the unfolding drama on the platform before dismissing it. He understood Sengoku's gambit perfectly. The Fleet Admiral was sacrificing Ace to eliminate a variable, hoping to free up Kizaru and perhaps other forces to deal with him.
Trying to save someone from me? How laughable, he thought with a cold, internal scoff.
Shaking his head, he locked onto Kizaru's frantic energy signature once more and teleported.
Sabaody Archipelago, Grove 1.
Tens of thousands of citizens watched the live broadcast, holding their collective breath. Their eyes were wide, unblinking.
"Is... is Ace really going to be executed?!"
"It looks that way! Why are those executioners so slow?!"
"Damn it, why am I so nervous?!"
"Heh heh heh... Once Ace is dead, this whole invasion is a waste for Whitebeard!"
"You said it! Looks like the 'Strongest Man in the World' is running on fumes!"
"Look! It's Marco!"
A reporter pointed a trembling finger at the giant screen. All eyes focused on the image.
On the screen, Marco the Phoenix, First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, was a blur of blue flame. Leaving a trail of fire in his wake, he shot towards the execution platform with impossible speed, a living comet of desperation.
He would not let Ace die. Not like this. Not while he drew breath.
On the platform, a sharp phoenix cry pierced the air as Marco dove, his taloned feet aimed directly at Sengoku. He feared the Fleet Admiral not at all.
"Phoenix Brand!"
In response, a brilliant, golden light erupted from the platform, overwhelming in its intensity. The massive, golden form of the Buddha—Sengoku in his full Daibutsu form—manifested, towering over the proceedings.
"MARCO! YOU WILL NOT DEFILE THIS PLACE!" Sengoku's voice was divine and terrible. "CARRY OUT THE EXECUTION! NOW!"
The two executioners, spurred into action, began to bring their spears down.
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T/N :
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