The heat wave carried the grand fleet across that stretch of sea. During that time, Smoothie stepped in several times to cut apart the firepower coming from the shore.
Those torrents of crimson flame were incredibly powerful. If they struck directly, they would probably sink the fleet, so they could not be ignored.
Oven, meanwhile, poured all his strength into using his Devil Fruit ability, making the fleet move faster and faster.
As Devil Fruit users, the sea was their natural enemy to begin with. No matter how one looked at it, fighting on land was the best choice.
During this time, the somewhat worried Cracker pushed himself to the absolute limit of what he could do.
Katakuri took all of this in, but did not interfere too much.
His own role was very clear to him. The opponent named Ren was the enemy he needed to deal with.
Surely, a powerful fighter capable of injuring Kaido would also let him experience a long-awaited, exhilarating battle.
As the first ship of the grand fleet charged onto the shore, the curtain on a war was fully raised.
Dense ranks of Biscuit Soldiers leapt onto the coast, formed up, and began advancing toward the forest behind the shoreline.
Cracker, who controlled the soldiers like pieces on a board, did not hide inside one of the Biscuit Soldiers as he usually did to toy with his enemies.
Because he had seen them.
Two-Winged Angels, so numerous they almost filled the sky.
There are... really this many of them?!
With just one glance, Cracker roughly judged their numbers. There were at least more than ten thousand troops. Among them were also large numbers of Four-Winged Angels and a smaller number of Six-Winged Angels, units that looked clearly different.
That also represented a cruel truth.
The batch of Angels of Glory he had seen earlier were not elite individuals within the enemy legion. On the contrary, there was a high chance they were the weakest foot soldiers!
Cracker's heart sank slightly as he felt the pressure.
But... this time, they had come with a grand fleet. He was merely one link in the chain.
Whether it was Brother Daifuku, Brother Oven, or Sister Smoothie, they were all monsters within the family.
And then there was Brother Katakuri, the undefeated legend. It was not yet time to think they could not win!
Clap—clap—clap.
Cracker began clapping, accelerating the production of Biscuit Soldiers to respond to the enemy's counterattack.
But the speed and intensity of that counterattack surpassed his imagination.
Once again, a brutal torrent of crimson flame descended. Smoothie instinctively struck out, scattering it with a flying slash.
However, immediately afterward, there appeared an extremely conspicuous pillar of heat.
Or rather—Blast Breath!
A golden-red sphere of light gathered in Nojiko's mouth. The pink giant dragon soaring above the mountains spat out a deadly attack.
The wildly violent power crossed the sky and set off a massive explosion at the coast!
Dazzling firelight and thunderous roars washed over the entire point of impact.
The Biscuit Soldiers were scoured by scorching flames, their bodies softening one after another, faintly showing signs of melting.
Cracker's expression changed slightly, and he was just about to act.
Then he saw the Biscuit Soldiers softened by the high temperature suddenly burst apart.
Railgun strikes fired at several times the speed of sound crossed several kilometers in an instant, completing a wave of finishing annihilation.
The Biscuit Soldiers he had painstakingly created were instantly reduced to barely a dozen.
"That pink giant dragon, huh?"
Cracker seemed to realize something and looked toward Smoothie, who had long since been itching to fight on a nearby large ship. "I'll leave that Zoan-Type Devil Fruit user to you.
"Hold him down. Don't let that pillar of flame appear a second time, or Cracker's Devil Fruit ability will be countered."
The words were phrased as a question, but in reality, they were a command based on the situation.
"Fine."
Smoothie did not refuse. Carrying her greatsword, she charged toward the forest.
Within her Observation Haki perception, that enemy was also descending and approaching.
It seemed the one hoping for a fight was not only her!
Oven and Daifuku both looked toward Katakuri. In addition, Charlotte Amande, who had yet to make a move, also looked over.
"Wait a little longer," he said.
War.
It was something extremely close to reality, yet also something that had never truly happened on this land before.
Now it was unfolding before the Kuja warriors.
And yet, strangely enough, they were not the main force.
They were spectators.
Yes. Even though enemies had invaded the soil of their own homeland, they watched from the sidelines like outsiders.
In theory, they should have felt dissatisfied.
However, the one who had given the order was Ren, Kuja's Uncrowned King.
Up to now, no one had dared challenge the authority of the Empress, let alone the Uncrowned King who stood above the Empress.
More importantly, the other side in this battle was simply too powerful.
"So strong..."
Sandersonia's expression was grave as she looked toward the far end of the shore.
The grand fleet from a Yonko force had broken through the Angels of Glory's interception. Those warriors who looked identical yet were incredibly powerful had landed on the coast.
They had suffered one round of attacks and were nearly wiped out, only to reappear and form up again not long afterward.
Mixed among them were large numbers of strangely dressed beings that, according to Ren, were called Homies.
The ones fighting these enemies were the Angel Legion, which had been ordered into battle!
Thousands of Angels of Glory launched attacks from high above, clashing with the Biscuit Soldiers and Homies army occupying the ground.
The entire coast of Kuja Island had become a battlefield. Every moment, Angels of Glory fell, Biscuit Soldiers were crushed, and bodies were dismembered.
The intensity was like a meat grinder.
And yet, both sides participating were extremely special existences.
For the former, death merely meant another cycle of reincarnation. As for the latter, they were simply creations of a Devil Fruit ability.
If the Kuja warriors were placed in the Angels of Glory's position, Sandersonia could not imagine how great their losses would be.
That was why she now felt fortunate.
Fortunate that Ren had not intended to send the Kuja warriors onto the battlefield.
However, at the same time, she also felt worried and uneasy. At present, Kuja had clearly submitted to Ren's management. Based on their own speculation, the reason was that he intended to obtain "military strength."
Many Kuja warriors knew Haki, possessed formidable combat power, and were numerous.
But the appearance of the Angels of Glory had overturned that point.
Sandersonia had even discovered that the first Angel of Glory, the one called 001, seemed to have already learned some rudimentary Haki.
Their combat strength had also been verified today.
Even though the person named Nojiko had given up supporting the Angels of Glory and chosen to fight the enemy officer who had advanced rashly, the Angels of Glory on the main battlefield had not truly fallen into a disadvantage.
They were extremely skilled at combat. After realizing the effect high temperatures had on Biscuit Soldiers, they proactively changed their method and turned the battle zone into a sea of fire.
The scorching heat softened the biscuits, and even when coated in Haki, their hardness still dropped considerably.
Bzzz—!
A chainsaw sword roared as it spun. A Four-Winged Angel dove down, its saw teeth aimed at a Biscuit Soldier being pincered by two Two-Winged Angels.
The Biscuit Soldier swung its shield fiercely, smashing back the Two-Winged Angel on its left, while its sword cleaved open the enemy on its right.
Then, the chainsaw sword descending from above split and shredded it in a single strike, turning it into fragments that filled the air!
"Target minus one."
Angel of Glory 073 expressionlessly lifted the chainsaw sword, ignoring the sea of fire and the extreme heat around her.
She stepped over the wreckage of her companion and rushed with another Two-Winged Angel toward a battlefield not far away.
Relying on their extraordinary numbers, they divided the Biscuit Soldiers' formation and used small-unit tactics to resolve enemies by trading losses for losses.
One Four-Winged Angel served as the guarantee of combat power, while two to four Two-Winged Angels served as sacrifices, carrying out suicidal attack orders.
With the Biscuit Soldiers weakened by high temperatures, this tactic could be successfully executed.
Of course, the greatest reason was still that Cracker, the source who granted the Biscuit Soldiers Haki, could not support a war on the scale of thousands.
This caused the Biscuit Soldiers' overall strength to fall sharply.
As for why he did not concentrate his Haki onto a small number of Biscuit Soldiers, it was not that he had not done so. To be precise, quite a few of them existed.
But the Angels of Glory also had elite individuals!
Woo—!
Amid a sharp whistle, a scythe tore through the air with a piercing screech, colliding with a sword in the next instant.
Within a narrow range, hundreds of clashes erupted in that instant.
When the fierce wind exploded and turned into crisscrossing sword energy that carved up the ground, the two entangled figures separated at the same time.
The Biscuit Soldier into which Cracker had poured a large amount of Haki took several steps back, its body covered in dense slash marks.
It tightened its grip on its sword and stared fixedly at the troublesome enemy before it.
Ahead of it, a Six-Winged Angel holding a scythe and similarly covered in wounds calmly tightened her grip on the handle.
A pitch-black metallic sheen wrapped from her palm around the blade of the scythe.
Armament Haki: Coating!
Yes.
This angel transformed from Killer had already mastered the power known as Haki!
That was also the reason she had advanced into a Six-Winged Angel.
Similar to her were those Angels of Glory transformed from prisoners captured in Impel Down, former great pirates who had once made names for themselves on the seas.
Because the conversion materials themselves had known Haki, their speed in mastering Haki was beyond imagination.
And the abilities formed from the knowledge of Artificial Devil Fruits were also reflected in their bodies.
Just like now.
The wounds on the scythe angel's body healed little by little.
Although the speed was not fast, the fact that they could heal after a brief rest was terrifying in and of itself.
The vitality of a Zoan manifested in the angels as a form of Living Metal.
In addition, they also possessed all kinds of enhancement projections from Ren, making their combat strength even more terrifying.
Far away, Cracker, who was distractedly controlling his Biscuit Soldiers, took all of this in. A chill instantly rose in his heart.
If there were only one or two, that would have been fine. But he had discovered at least a hundred such elite individuals.
This meant that in the direction of military legions, the source behind these angels was even stronger than him!
At the very least, he knew he could not achieve this level.
No, rather than that, he simply could not understand the current situation at all.
How exactly were such killing machines mass-produced?
And how were these clearly intelligent angels made to be so indifferent to life and death, fighting his Biscuit Soldiers to the bitter end?
How was this kind of combat power cultivated?
Innate? Acquired?
There was no way to come up with a reasonable answer.
But Cracker had already understood his own situation and position.
"Brother Katakuri..."
Without hesitation, Cracker chose to report the situation to his elder brother.
Of course, he could choose to hide it, draw his sword, and enter the battlefield himself to resolve the problem.
But... would that have any meaning?
Brother Katakuri's intention was to use his Biscuit Soldiers to probe the enemy's trump cards.
If he could not do even that, then going onto the battlefield himself would simply be adding to the chaos!
Very soon, Katakuri learned of the state of the battlefield.
(End of Chapter)