Next Bonus, 100!!
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Their combined, overwhelming auras washed over the plaza, leaving the remaining pirates trembling in terror.
"Ace! Take everyone... and go home!"
Whitebeard didn't even look at Sengoku. His eyes remained fixed solely on Ace.
"Pops!"
Ace finally understood.
"GO!"
Whitebeard roared.
He raised his naginata and swung it with everything he had left, aiming directly for the mechanical army blocking the pirates' retreat.
When his family had nowhere left to run...
The patriarch of the Whitebeard Pirates ignored his agonizing wounds and unleashed his full, devastating power.
SHLUCK!
A visible, crescent-shaped shockwave tore through the air, carving a massive arc straight through the Pacifista lines.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Mechanical Giants caught in the blast instantly violently exploded, utterly paralyzed, unable to seal the breach.
Simultaneously...
THUD!
WHAM!
Garp's iron fist.
Sengoku's full-power Buddha palm.
Both struck Whitebeard squarely in the back.
The sheer force of the twin impacts visibly bent the Yonko's spine.
He pitched forward.
His head dropped, and he vomited a massive torrent of blood.
A few drops splattered across Ace's face.
"POPS!"
Ace screamed.
CLANG!
The haft of Murakumogiri slammed into the ground!
Whitebeard did not fall!
He held his ground!
His children hadn't made it home yet. How could he possibly fall now?
Even if it killed him...
He would not fall!
"Hah... hah... hah..."
A low, furious growl rumbled in his chest.
And then, fighting against the crushing pressure of Garp and Sengoku, he slowly, agonizingly, straightened his spine.
"Just stay down!"
Sengoku roared.
In his Buddha form, resembling a furious, avenging deity, he thrust a massive golden palm forward, unleashing another devastating shockwave.
"Ace! Everyone! GO!"
Whitebeard bellowed.
He drew his right arm back and hammered his fist into the empty air behind him.
DOOOOOM!
Like a war drum!
The air shattered like glass, releasing a catastrophic shockwave that violently repelled both Sengoku and Garp.
And then!
Standing tall, Whitebeard turned to fully face Sengoku and the endless tide of Marines.
His back was to Marco and his retreating crew.
In all his countless battles, Whitebeard had never once turned his back on an enemy.
Because that meant running away!
It meant cowardice!
But today, his back bore the horrific scars of this war.
A sunken palm print, a gaping hole from a magma fist, copious amounts of blood completely dyeing his coat red.
To save his 'sons,' Whitebeard willingly bore the 'shame.'
SWISH!
He swung his blade in a wide, vicious arc, halting the Marine pursuit dead in its tracks.
"Whitebeard is running on fumes! He can't hold out much longer!"
Sakazuki's cold, metallic voice rang out.
He clawed his way out of the crater, his head bleeding profusely.
Despite taking a devastating, direct hit from Whitebeard, he hadn't paused to catch his breath for even a single second before throwing himself back into the fray.
His terrifying resilience provided a massive morale boost to the Marines.
Those following Sakazuki's charge were the hardliners, the absolute zealots who worshipped his uncompromising brand of justice.
Their eyes were bloodshot, practically glowing with homicidal fervor.
"Wipe them out!"
"Even if it costs us our lives, that cursed bloodline ends here!"
"We are Marines! We bear the absolute weight of Justice! There are things we must do, even if the price is our own lives!"
They charged with reckless, suicidal abandon.
"They're crazy... they've all gone completely insane!"
Koby, dragging an unconscious Helmeppo behind cover, watched the carnage in absolute horror. He couldn't comprehend it.
The entire battlefield was consumed by a deafening cacophony of violence, screaming, and agony, all drilling relentlessly into his ears.
Men were dying by the second.
It was terrifying!
Koby was paralyzed with fear. If his legs hadn't turned to jelly, he would have bolted long ago.
"Things are certainly getting heated, aren't they?"
Crocodile observed from the sidelines, an amused smirk on his face. Hancock and Mihawk were similarly detached, simply watching the spectacle unfold without making a move.
Whitebeard clashed with Garp and Sengoku once more.
But his decline was agonizingly obvious.
CRASH!
Suddenly, the partially frozen bay violently ruptured.
A strange, sharply pointed ship burst through the thick ice, drawing everyone's attention.
"We're here! Everyone, get on board!"
On the deck stood a woman wielding a curved sword.
"The Ice Witch, Whitey Bay!"
Sengoku scowled.
As the coating on Whitey Bay's ship ruptured, the Whitebeard flag unfurled, snapping wildly in the wind.
The Marines were taken aback. Whitebeard still had reinforcements in reserve??
The pirates, however, erupted in joyous cheers.
Their ticket to survival was right there!
"Fall back to the bay! Keep it orderly!"
Marco, finally freed from the Seastone cuffs and tangling with Borsalino, barked the order.
"Now, now, we can't have that, can we~?"
Borsalino had been casually slacking off, doing just enough to keep Marco from assisting the others.
But seeing the escape ship breach the ice...
He let out a dramatic sigh.
If Whitebeard's crew and Ace actually managed to escape...
The fallout would be catastrophic.
"Yasakani no Magatama..."
"Don't even think about it!"
Marco, realizing the Admiral was targeting the escape ship, launched a desperate intercept. But Borsalino's speed suddenly, terrifyingly spiked.
With a single, blindingly fast kick, he slammed Marco into the ice.
Kuzan frowned, dropping his own lethargic demeanor, and surged toward Ace.
Sakazuki plunged back into the chaotic melee, tearing through the pirate ranks like a force of nature.
Jinbe, Ivankov, and Inazuma were all brutally swatted aside by his magma fists.
The three Admirals finally unleashed their true, overwhelming power. Blinding light, absolute zero ice, and superheated magma ravaged the battlefield.
Sakazuki locked his sights on Luffy!
He might be Garp's grandson, but a pirate was a pirate! He deserved to die!
Furthermore, the boy possessed Conqueror's Haki. If allowed to grow, he would inevitably become another monstrous threat, another Garp or Dragon.
Sakazuki intended to nip that threat in the bud right here, right now.
Luffy, utterly exhausted, didn't stand a chance against the Admiral.
With his protector, Ivankov, blasted away...
Luffy tried to mount a desperate defense.
But before his rubber limbs could even make contact, the sheer, radiating heat of the magma seared his flesh, leaving him screaming in agony.
Sakazuki drove a magma fist straight toward Luffy's chest.
"LUFFY!"
Ace screamed, abandoning his fight with Kuzan.
Kuzan watched him go, making no move to intercept.
Luffy was completely defenseless against Sakazuki's lethal strike.
The molten fist was inches away.
At the very last possible microsecond...
Ace threw himself in front of his brother.
SHLUCK!
A crimson fist of superheated magma punched cleanly through Ace's back, bursting out of his chest, dripping thick, molten blood onto the ice below.
In an instant...
The battlefield went dead silent.
Luffy's eyes widened in absolute, uncomprehending horror...
"A... Ace!!!"
Luffy stared, paralyzed, his mind completely shattering.
"ACE!"
Marco and the commanders screamed in disbelief.
"Hm?"
Whitebeard turned, his eyes widening as he witnessed the scene.
Ace... had sacrificed himself to save Luffy??
A tidal wave of absolute, apocalyptic rage washed over the old man. He tried to surge forward, but his failing body betrayed him. He coughed up a massive gout of blood and collapsed to one knee.
He had finally reached his absolute limit.
"SAKAZUKI!!!"
Garp's face twisted into a mask of demonic fury. He clenched his fists, his rage eclipsing any sense of duty or restraint.
"Garp! Stop!"
Sengoku immediately tackled him, pinning the old hero to the ground. "Don't do anything stupid!"
Garp's face was pressed into the dirt, tears streaming from his eyes, his heart tearing itself apart.
"Yes... Sengoku... keep holding me down! Because if you let me up... I'm going to murder that bastard Sakazuki!"
Sakazuki slowly withdrew his magma-coated arm from Ace's chest. "What a touching display of brotherly love. In that case..."
Ace collapsed to the ground, his blood pooling on the ice as his Vivre Card rapidly burned away to ash.
With Whitebeard incapacitated...
Sakazuki drew his fist back for a second strike, aiming straight for Luffy.
"Luffy! Run!"
Ivankov, Jinbe, Marco... countless voices screamed desperately.
But Luffy had already lost consciousness.
The sheer trauma of watching Ace die before his eyes was too much.
His mind, his spirit, his will... they had completely broken.
In that absolute, desperate moment of crisis...
A black blade effortlessly parried Sakazuki's magma fist.
"Hm?"
Sakazuki's brow furrowed.
Everyone nearby gasped in shock.
Whitebeard, Sengoku, Garp... every eye snapped toward the intervention.
"It's him!"
"Jin!!!"
Under the stunned gaze of the entire battlefield, Jin spoke, his voice carrying an undeniable authority.
"Sakazuki. Give me some face."
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