While Lucien was making his move in Sabaody, the forces aligned under the Savior Group were also shaking the seas.
The New World was in chaos.
The Blackbeard Pirates were relentlessly hunting Devil Fruit users. Ever since the fall of Impel Down, the balance of power had been thrown into disorder. Although Lucien had nearly annihilated the prison's forces, a handful of monsters had escaped beforehand.
One of them was the infamous World Destroyer, Byrnndi World.
A former legend of the seas, World possessed the Paramecia type More More Fruit, an ability that allowed him to multiply his own speed and the speed and size of any object he touched by up to one hundred times. It was an ability that bordered on absurdity. Bullets became cannons. Pebbles became meteors. His own body moved like a disaster given flesh.
After escaping Impel Down, World intended to take revenge on the Marines.
Unfortunately for him, someone else found him first.
Bang.
A fist collided with his crossed arm. The ground beneath World's feet shattered instantly, sending him flying backward like a cannonball. A dull groan escaped his throat as he tore through layers of earth and stone.
Jozu appeared above him in the next instant, his right arm fully transformed into diamond. The air trembled as he drove his enlarged fist downward.
World barely had time to cross his arms in defense.
The impact landed like a collapsing mountain.
Blood sprayed from World's mouth as the surrounding thousand meters caved in. Shockwaves rippled outward, tearing apart the terrain and flattening everything in sight.
He rolled desperately across the rubble, narrowly avoiding Jozu's follow up strike that cratered the earth even further.
"Hundredfold Bullet."
Seizing a moment of distance, World grabbed scattered gravel and multiplied its size and speed. The stones shot forward like artillery shells.
Jozu did not dodge.
Fully diamond hardened, he tore his foot from the shattered ground and charged forward like a living fortress. The amplified stones shattered against his body in a storm of debris.
After undergoing Demon Blood modification, Jozu's strength had risen to an entirely new level. The same was true for all of Lucien's subordinates. Their power had been dragged upward by force, sharpened into something monstrous.
Boom.
World planted his feet and threw a punch enhanced by his fruit. The air pressure detonated between them as the two forces clashed head on. The crust split. The earth buckled. Both men slid backward, carving deep trenches in the battlefield.
"As expected of someone once feared across the seas," Jozu muttered, shaking his arm. World's brute force exceeded his expectations.
If this had been a one on one fight, the outcome might have been mutual destruction.
But World was not facing a single opponent.
The ground trembled violently. A massive mountain rose upward and reshaped itself into a colossal stone giant. Pica's towering form blotted out the sky.
From the opposite direction, the land glowed red as it liquefied into magma. Oven advanced through the heat, his entire body radiating scorching power.
World's crew had already been crushed. Geilam, Sebastian, Naxin, none of them remained free. Pica and Oven had swept them aside with overwhelming force.
Now World stood alone, surrounded in a triangular formation.
"What does the Savior Group want?" World's expression darkened. Even he had heard of their meteoric rise.
"Two choices," Oven replied, his body glowing as the ground melted beneath him. "Join willingly, or we make you join."
World's jaw tightened. He was the World Destroyer. Surrender was not in his nature.
"Attack."
Jozu charged like a raging bull. Pica's hundred meter stone fist descended like a falling meteor. Oven surged forward like a walking sun, incinerating the air itself.
The sea trembled.
Far away, in another corner of the New World, another empire was collapsing.
Gran Tesoro, the largest entertainment city in the world, recognized as an independent nation by the World Government, was in flames.
The colossal ship glittered with gold, once filled with casinos, coliseums, auctions, and endless pleasure. It had been a paradise for the wealthy and corrupt.
Now it was disintegrating.
At its center ruled the Golden Emperor, Gild Tesoro, wielder of the Gold Gold Fruit. He controlled gold at will and possessed a financial empire rumored to hold nearly twenty percent of the world's Berries. Through wealth alone, he manipulated Celestial Dragons and influenced the World Government.
On this ship, he had been king.
Not anymore.
Explosions tore through golden towers as debris rained into the sea.
"How terrifying. Have you ever been kicked by light?"
A golden flash descended.
Tesoro's face twisted in agony as a kick sent him crashing through layers of buildings, leaving a smear of blood behind.
Kizaru hovered in the sky, light shimmering around him. His lazy expression barely changed.
Tesoro staggered to his feet, coughing blood. As someone deeply connected to the World Government, he understood the strength of a Marine Admiral. What he had never expected was for Kizaru, now aligned with the Savior Group, to target him.
A beam of light materialized beside him.
Tesoro attacked first in desperation.
It did not matter.
The battle ended within ten minutes.
Gran Tesoro fell, its golden glory reduced to wreckage. Kizaru alone had dismantled the richest empire on the seas.
Elsewhere, another force collapsed.
The New Marine, founded by the legendary Zephyr, faced overwhelming assault. Crocodile's Baroque Works, alongside Genzo, Hercules, Ulti, Diamante, and various pirates and Revolutionary fighters, launched a coordinated attack.
Within thirty minutes, the New Marine was captured.
And above a distant sea in the New World, the sky itself trembled.
Black clouds churned as lightning split the heavens. Two waves of Haoshoku Haki collided, tearing through the atmosphere and summoning hurricanes from nothing.
"Kekekekekeke."
An old man with a lion like mane laughed wildly.
Shiki, the Golden Lion.
A ship's rudder remained embedded in his skull. His legs had long been replaced by twin swords. Despite his age and injuries, he floated among drifting islands, still radiating the dominance of a former emperor of the seas.
Opposite him stood Monkey D. Dragon.
Blood stained Dragon's lips, yet his gaze remained steady.
"The legend truly lives up to his name," Dragon said calmly.
Even weakened by age, the rudder in his head, and the loss of his legs, Shiki retained power comparable to a Yonko. His Devil Fruit allowed him to levitate entire islands. His swordsmanship and experience were honed through decades of war.
This was a man who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with the Pirate King.
Had he not been crippled, he might have surpassed even the current Emperors.
But Dragon was not finished.