Naval Headquarters — atop the battlefield.
As Uta fell asleep, the one hundred and fifty thousand souls trapped within the singing world finally returned to reality.
For a long while, the battlefield lay in eerie silence. Then came the sound of rustling, of movement—
the slow, hesitant stirring of both Marines and Whitebeard Pirates awakening from a shared illusion.
Faces across the battlefield were pale, eyes unfocused, filled with confusion and disbelief.
"What's going on…?"
"What just happened?"
"Wasn't I already dead?"
"Why am I still alive?"
"Is this really Marineford?"
"The headquarters should've been in ruins… why is everything still standing?"
"What about the Whitebeard Pirates? The bay—where are they?"
"Even if I don't want to admit it, we clearly lost to the Marines…"
"Could everything that happened… have been just a dream?"
The Marines and Pirates stared at each other across the scorched plaza, neither side able to make sense of what they were seeing.
Then suddenly—
"Ahhh! Ace! Ace, you're alive again!"
Straw Hat Luffy's shout broke the stunned silence, his voice shaking with joy.
"Sabo, Ace is alive again!"
"Yeah… I think I finally get what's happening!"
Sabo's eyes lit up with realization and excitement.
"Luffy… Sabo… why are you…"
Ace opened his eyes weakly, his entire body drained of strength.
The singing world had been a realm apart from reality.
Even those who perished within it did not die in the real world—
though the pain, the exhaustion, and the wounds of their souls remained.
"Didn't I already… die?"
Ace murmured, confusion clouding his gaze.
"Don't talk now, Ace," Sabo said seriously, his expression hardening. "Leave the rest to us."
Elsewhere on the battlefield—
"What kind of insane joke is this?!"
Commodore Smoker dropped to one knee, his face pale and expression grim.
Compared to the soul's exhaustion, what crushed him more was the brutal truth before him.
"Everything… was just a dream? Then all our efforts were meaningless…"
Colonel Hina forced a bitter smile, her tone trembling.
"How could this be?" she whispered. "We already defeated the Whitebeard Pirates… but it was all a false victory?"
"The hell it was!"
Peacock, shaking and furious, shouted with disbelief.
"But… isn't it good that everyone's still alive? At least no one actually died,"
Skylark, the gentle Marine girl, said hopefully.
"NOT GOOD AT ALL!"
Peacock and several others snapped in unison.
"What kind of monster could manipulate the minds of a hundred thousand Marines and the entire Whitebeard fleet?"
Admiral Kizaru pouted, but for once, his laid-back tone had vanished—his face showed genuine fear.
"Ah la la… it's like trying to fetch water with a bamboo sieve,"
Aokiji sighed, shaking his head wearily.
"A complete waste of effort."
"Damn it! Damn it all!"
Akainu slammed a fist into the ground, teeth clenched, rage twisting his features.
"This is unacceptable! We had already won! How could this happen!?"
"Damn Fairy Tail! What in the world did that man do!?"
"That Sugisawa Yuuto finally showed his true colors!"
"A pirate will always be a pirate—how could he ever be a hero!?"
"Only the Marines represent true justice!"
"From this day on, Fairy Tail is our enemy!"
"If we ever meet again at sea, I'll make sure they're wiped out completely!"
The top Marine officers—Vice Admirals Dauberman, Onigumo, Burning Mountain, Flying Squirrel—were beside themselves with fury.
And who could blame them?
They had sacrificed so much, fought tooth and nail, believing they had defeated the Whitebeard Pirates.
Victory had been within their grasp.
But now?
Now they were told that it was all a dream.
That their triumph existed only in illusion—while the real Whitebeard Pirates still stood unscathed.
It was unbearable.
In stark contrast to the Marines' despair, the Whitebeard Pirates and their allied crews—realizing they were alive once more—burst into wild celebration.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"I don't know what's going on, but who cares! We're alive!"
"Father's alive! Ace is alive! Everyone's alive!"
"Is this a dream? Or hell itself?"
"Doesn't matter! The Marines are right here in hell with us!"
"Those bastards tricked Skuyad into stabbing Father! They used that damn surrounding wall!"
"This time, things will be different! This time, we'll save Ace!"
"Wake up, brothers! The gods have given us another chance—we won't waste it again!"
The warriors of the Whitebeard fleet roared in defiance, their morale surging higher than ever.
At the prow of the great ship Moby Dick—
"Ha ha ha! This is… wonderful!"
"Father's alive!"
Marco the Phoenix, Joz the Diamond, Bista the Foil, and the other division captains gathered around Whitebeard, tears of joy streaming down their faces.
For them, the war they'd just lived through had been a nightmare made real.
They had watched their father—Edward Newgate, Whitebeard himself—die before their eyes.
It was a pain no one could ever truly describe.
But now—
All of it was undone.
The nightmare had been erased.
Before them stood their living father once more, mighty and unbroken.
No one could hold back their emotions.
"But… how? How is any of this possible? I was frozen solid by Aokiji…"
Joz looked down at his arm. Even now, faint traces of frostbite lingered there, a reminder of his defeat.
"Could this be… a miracle of the gods?"
Izo, the sixteenth division captain, murmured quietly.
"No…"
Marco clenched his fists, eyes blazing with conviction.
"This isn't the work of gods."
"This is the miracle of Fairy Tail—and of Sugisawa Yuuto!"