Soon, the Emperors Alliance exchanged information regarding the battles that had taken place across the seas.
The Beasts Pirates managed to repel the Marines through their own strength, but the price they paid was devastating. Their forces had been reduced to fewer than a thousand survivors.
The Big Mom Pirates chose a different path.
Rather than stubbornly defending their territory to the bitter end, they abandoned Totto Land in order to preserve their main fighting force. Although all of their territories were lost and many subordinate pirate crews were sacrificed to slow down the Marines, the core members of the Big Mom Pirates survived.
As for Vegapunk, after ordering S-Bear to send him away, there was no immediate way to contact him. Based on Marco's estimation, it would take at least three days before communication could be reestablished.
Marco could only notify Dragon in advance and have the Revolutionary Army prepare ahead of time.
After all, if Vegapunk used S-Bear's ability to escape, then the most likely destination would naturally be the Revolutionary Army.
Five days later, the Phoenix Pirates finally returned to the New World.
With the combined support of the Phoenix Pirates and the Beasts Pirates, the Big Mom Pirates quickly reclaimed the territories they had lost.
However, calling it "reclaiming" was not entirely accurate.
The Marines had already abandoned Totto Land voluntarily.
Because after occupying Totto Land, the Marines turned the entire archipelago into hell itself.
The civilians living across Totto Land's many islands had all been slaughtered, and afterward, the Marines set fire to the islands. The flames raged for three days and three nights, reducing everything to scorched ruins.
When Big Mom returned and saw Nut Island transformed into a blackened wasteland, her rage exploded instantly.
Everything she had spent decades building had been destroyed in a single day.
Katakuri stared at the burned remains of Nut Island with an unusually dark expression.
"Not even a single survivor..."
Jinbe looked around at the ruined landscape, anger visible in his eyes.
"The Marines speak endlessly about justice, yet they carried out a massacre against defenseless civilians. This is beyond inhumane."
"They're worse than pirates!" Yamato shouted furiously.
Marco silently observed the scorched earth before him.
Although the fires had already been extinguished, the smell of burnt flesh and ash still lingered heavily in the air.
For one of the few times in his life, even Marco felt genuine disgust toward the Marines' methods.
Vista spoke with a grim expression.
"So this is what they call Absolute Justice? Innocent civilians weren't even spared."
But to the Marines, the civilians of Totto Land were never considered innocent.
The people of Totto Land paid taxes to the Big Mom Pirates every year and even surrendered portions of their lifespans in exchange for protection. In the eyes of the Marines, these civilians were directly supporting a Yonko crew.
To them, the citizens of Totto Land were not harmless bystanders. They were resources, laborers, and future soldiers for the Big Mom Pirates.
As for the World Government, they cared even less.
To the Celestial Dragons, everyone outside of Mary Geoise was insignificant.
Furthermore, Totto Land was never affiliated with the World Government, meaning its citizens were not considered protected civilians under the Government's rule.
Soon afterward, following the destruction of Totto Land, Marco proposed relocating the headquarters of the Emperors Alliance to Sphinx Island.
At the same time, he suggested abandoning several unnecessary territories in order to concentrate all military power and prepare for a full-scale war against the World Government as soon as possible.
Originally, both Kaido and Big Mom still held some hesitation about directly confronting the World Government.
Now, those doubts were gone.
Both of them clearly realized the truth.
From the moment the Emperors Alliance was created, there were only two possible endings.
Either they would overthrow the World Government...
Or the World Government would destroy them completely.
The World Government would never tolerate any force capable of threatening its rule, and the power displayed by the Emperors Alliance had already crossed that line long ago.
Sphinx Island.
At this moment, several hundred Celestial Dragons were being imprisoned separately across the island.
Through their reactions and accusations against one another, Marco easily distinguished the pure-blood Celestial Dragons from the fake ones.
During previous interrogations, Marco had already learned that the Celestial Dragons possessed strict bloodline classifications among themselves.
Pure-blood Celestial Dragons possessed bloodline purity ranked at least C-Class.
Meanwhile, those who rose from the lower world through achievements, political usefulness, or flattery were considered inferior "fake" Celestial Dragons, their bloodline purity classified as D-Class.
Marco handed the fake Celestial Dragons over to the others for processing.
As for the pure-blood Celestial Dragons, he personally separated them for one reason only.
Attribute points.
Soon, after more than a hundred pure-blood Celestial Dragons were executed, Marco's accumulated attribute points finally reached 158,800.
Without hesitation, Marco opened the system panel.
He immediately used the points to raise his Conqueror's Haki to the Mythical level while simultaneously unlocking the Phoenix Fruit's final awakening ability, Undying.
Soon, the updated system panel appeared before him.
Name: Marco
Age: 43
Attribute Points: 8,800
Devil Fruit: Mythical Zoan, Phoenix Fruit (Awakened)
Awakening Abilities:
Flames of Destruction
Impart
Light of Resurrection
Nirvana Rebirth
Undying
Haki:
Armament Haki, Legendary
Observation Haki, Legendary
Conqueror's Haki, Mythical
Six Powers Techniques:
Soru, Top-tier
Rankyaku, Advanced
Geppo, Advanced
Tekkai, Top-tier
Shigan, Advanced
Kami-e, Advanced
Attributes:
Strength: 42,054
Speed: 24,900
Defense: 43,800
Recovery: 100,000
Stamina: 87,100
Mental Power: 61,300
System Combat Power Assessment: Planetary Level