Next Bonus, 100!!
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As the future Fleet Admiral of the Marines, Sakazuki possessed both raw courage and ruthless cunning.
Throughout the Summit War, he was an omnipresent force of destruction.
From the opening salvo to this bloody climax, he had been fighting relentlessly.
Aside from Luffy, Sakazuki was arguably the most active and dominant figure on the battlefield.
He was no slacker like Kizaru.
His first major move had been critically wounding Squard.
When Jinbe had charged him, he had effortlessly repelled the Warlord with a single "Great Eruption."
"Running away again, Ace?"
Sakazuki knew exactly how to play the young pirate. Ace was impulsive, quick to anger, and valued honor above his own life.
Sakazuki knew exactly which buttons to push.
"Ace! Luffy! You aren't getting off this island alive!"
"This cursed bloodline ends today! The era of Roger dies here!"
"Is running all you cowards know how to do??"
Sakazuki taunted them as he pursued, his words dripping with venom.
It was a blatant provocation.
"You bastard!" Ace snarled, his temper flaring.
"ACE! DON'T STOP!"
"KEEP MOVING!"
"DON'T LET POPS' SACRIFICE BE FOR NOTHING!"
The division commanders screamed, desperately urging Ace to ignore the bait and run.
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BOOM!
Across the sundered battlefield.
Whitebeard was not only holding off Sengoku and Garp, but he had actively charged into the pursuing Marine ranks, doing everything in his power to stall their advance.
"Enough of this, Newgate!!!"
"Buddha's Wrath!"
Sengoku, fully transformed into his colossal golden Buddha form, unleashed a devastating strike.
The true terror of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Buddha was that it elevated the user's strength, intellect, and spirit to a transcendent, god-like level.
It fused a massive, indestructible physique with brilliant tactical acumen and flawless technique.
It forged the user into the ultimate warrior, perfectly balancing mind, body, and skill.
Sengoku, already a natural-born Conqueror, was made exponentially more lethal by the fruit.
He forcibly calmed his mind, banishing his anger.
Like a true, serene Buddha, his power, focus, and spirit perfectly aligned.
He launched himself forward, driving a massive palm strike toward Whitebeard.
Executing a brutal fighting retreat, Whitebeard swept Garp aside with a heavy slash, cleared the immediate area of Marines, and sensed Sengoku's incoming assault.
He pivoted, drawing his fist back. Channeling the cataclysmic power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, he met Sengoku's shockwave head-on.
DOOOOOM!
The two strikes collided.
In the next instant...
Golden light and dark red aura clashed with the apocalyptic fury of a meteor impact.
It was a staggering collision.
The resulting shockwave of Conqueror's Haki was catastrophic.
The sky seemed to tear open.
Marines and pirates alike collapsed in droves.
Even several Vice Admirals were brought to their knees!
Two legends of the same era, men who had clashed countless times, intimately aware of the absolute depths of each other's power.
RUMBLE!
The sheer kinetic force of their collision shook the very air and earth.
Following the impact, both titans were forced back.
Sengoku landed heavily, his feet crushing a pile of rubble into dust. The deep gash on his shoulder tore open further, spraying fresh blood.
He clutched his chest, coughing up a sickening mouthful of blood.
Whitebeard plowed two deep trenches into the earth with his boots before finally using Murakumogiri to arrest his momentum.
A crushing wave of exhaustion washed over him!
He staggered, his massive frame swaying slightly.
He had just fought consecutive, grueling battles against all three Admirals—with his clash against Sakazuki being particularly brutal.
Add to that the grievous stab wound from Squard...
In the original timeline, by this point, the aging, sickly Yonko had already lost half his face and was practically a walking corpse, clinging to life by a thread.
The only reason he was still fighting now was due to Law's surgical intervention and the experimental stimulants currently burning through his system.
Even so...
Under the relentless, combined assault of Garp, Sengoku, and tens of thousands of Marines, his stamina was rapidly bleeding dry. He was thoroughly exhausted.
By comparison...
Sengoku's shoulder wound, while severe, was relatively minor for a combatant of his caliber.
This was the absolute, undeniable advantage of the Marines!
When facing a singular powerhouse, they could simply drown them in a war of attrition.
Years ago, Bullet had been systematically ground down by a Buster Call-level fleet before finally being captured.
Whitebeard felt it.
Death was closing in.
Did he have regrets?
Was he sorry?
Absolutely not!
His life had been a roaring, unmitigated legend!
He had made his peace with dying the moment he set sail for Marineford.
A man of his experience... how could he not see that the public execution of Ace was merely the bait? He knew he was the true target.
His only remaining concern... his final, lingering regret...
Was that his 'sons,' his 'family,' had not yet safely escaped this hell!
"ACE!!!"
Luffy's terrified scream snapped Whitebeard's attention back to the harbor.
He looked up.
Across the blood-soaked ice...
A massive phalanx of Mechanical Giants had completely blocked the escape route.
And just a short distance away...
Sakazuki, his body boiling with superheated magma, his fist coated in dense, pitch-black Armament Haki...
Had just slammed Ace brutally into the ground.
"My magma burns far hotter than your pathetic fire!"
"Die! You piece of pirate trash!"
"Your life is mine!"
Sakazuki's body radiated an inferno, yet his eyes were as cold as absolute zero.
It had seemed the war would end with Whitebeard's glorious, sacrificial final stand, but Sakazuki's relentless, fanatical pursuit...
Had changed everything.
His constant, venomous taunts had finally hit their mark.
"The Whitebeard Pirates are a bunch of cowards, and Whitebeard himself is nothing but a failure from a bygone era."
It was an insult Ace simply could not swallow.
But more importantly, watching Jinbe, Vista, Marco, and the rest of his brothers desperately throwing themselves into the meat grinder just to buy him time...
It filled him with an agonizing, unbearable guilt.
He couldn't forgive himself.
So...
Upon hearing Sakazuki insult the man he viewed as a father, Ace had turned to fight him one-on-one, hoping to buy his crew precious seconds to escape.
He had walked right into Sakazuki's trap.
The Magma-Magma Fruit was the natural, absolute superior to the Flame-Flame Fruit.
It possessed an inherent, overwhelming suppressive advantage.
Not to mention that Sakazuki's baseline combat power, Haki mastery, and physical prowess were all leagues above Ace's.
Ace was rapidly overwhelmed.
Sakazuki's face was a mask of cold fury. He drew his right arm back, aiming a lethal blow directly at Ace.
"Hellhound!"
A punch boasting the highest explosive offensive power in the entire world hurtled toward Ace.
One strike.
That was all it would take to send the young pirate to hell.
The magma fist descended.
Trailing thick black smoke and saturated with Haki, the searing heat was enough to instantly liquefy steel.
It seemed Ace's life was about to end right then and there.
Luffy, utterly drained of energy, could do nothing but scream in horror.
The remaining Whitebeard Pirates watched, paralyzed by despair, crying out in disbelief.
"SAKAZUKI!"
Suddenly!
A roar of absolute, unbridled fury echoed across the battlefield.
A suffocating wave of homicidal intent crashed into Sakazuki from behind.
His vision swam. Under the crushing pressure of that monstrous aura, his fist involuntarily froze in mid-air, as if locked in place by an invisible vice.
A massive shadow fell over him.
Whitebeard!
Seeing Ace in mortal danger, he had willfully taken a devastating palm strike from Sengoku and a brutal punch from Garp just to close the distance.
"What the hell do you think you're doing to my sons??"
Whitebeard bellowed, his killing intent flaring without restraint.
DOOOOM!
Accompanying the roar...
Whitebeard's fist crashed down with apocalyptic force.
Sakazuki managed to turn his head just enough to see the devastating quake-punch screaming toward him.
It seemed to move in slow motion...
But in reality, it was blindingly fast.
WHAM!
Sakazuki had absolutely zero chance to dodge.
A sickening, muffled thud echoed...
As the blow detonated directly against his skull.
The catastrophic seismic vibration blasted through his body, violently tearing the surrounding air to shreds.
The sheer, downward force of the punch crushed Sakazuki...
Driving him deep into the bedrock of Marineford.
"Admiral Sakazuki!"
Seeing the Admiral so brutally incapacitated...
Sent the surrounding Marines into an absolute panic.
"Pops!"
Ace, spared from certain death, scrambled to his feet.
Seeing Whitebeard covered in horrific wounds, blood pouring from his massive frame, Ace's heart broke.
"WHITEBEARD!"
Sengoku and Garp, having recovered from the blast, charged furiously from behind.
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