"It's actually this island!?"
Since this voyage had relied entirely on Ayala's Devil Fruit powers, Tiger had no idea where they were headed. But the moment he saw the island ahead, belching huge clouds of black smoke, he immediately recognized it.
"No wonder even the Whitebeard pirate crew and the Silver Axe pirate crew came here."
Tiger's words immediately drew everyone's attention.
Seeing that, Tiger pointed at the island in the distance, shrouded in black smoke and lined with enormous smokestacks.
"This island is called Warship Island. It used to be one of the World Government's three shipbuilding bases in the New World. Even though the Marines took a lot with them when they withdrew, there should still be plenty of valuable things left behind. Setting the craftsmen aside, these shipyards alone are priceless. And I've heard the island also contains a huge amount of mineral resources. I'd say that's exactly what brought both the Whitebeard pirate crew and the Silver Axe pirate crew here."
Everyone immediately understood.
Meanwhile, on the sea not far away, the Whitebeard pirate crew and the Silver Axe pirate crew were still bombarding each other fiercely.
Ever since the Marines announced their withdrawal from the New World, the already fragile alliances between pirates had been torn apart in an instant.
With the Marines and the World Government no longer in the way, these great pirates began openly fighting to seize territory across the seas.
As the rulers of their respective forces and captains of their own pirate crews, neither Whitebeard nor Silver Axe could make a move lightly. So the ones sent out were naturally their senior officers.
Because of how important Warship Island was, Whitebeard had directly sent out the three sons he valued most.
They were First Division Captain Marco, Third Division Captain Diamond Jozu, and Fifth Division Captain Vista of the Flower Swords.
As for the Silver Axe pirate crew, which had inherited most of Rocks' legacy, they had sent only one man.
That man was Captain John, who had once served under Rocks alongside Silver Axe. After Rocks disappeared following the Battle of God Valley, the two had formed an alliance.
Even though the other side had only one top level fighter, the expressions in Whitebeard's three sons' eyes were grave.
After all, he had once been their Oyaji's companion.
But none of the three were afraid.
They were Whitebeard's sons.
On both pirate ships, the grunts waved their weapons excitedly while smoke poured from the cannons and shells were fired one after another.
On the decks, whether it was Marco, Jozu, and Vista of the Whitebeard pirate crew, still youthful in appearance but brimming with confidence, or Captain John on the opposing ship, dressed in an extravagant captain's coat with a bottle in hand and two Western swords at his waist as he looked at the three young men, all of them seemed strangely detached from the battle itself, calmly watching one another.
"What fine young men. Whitebeard really did find himself some excellent sons."
After taking a swig of strong liquor, Captain John, the second in command of the Silver Axe pirate crew, tucked the flask back at his waist and began issuing orders.
"Prepare to board!"
"Oh!"
In an instant, all the grunts on deck grew excited.
On the Whitebeard pirate crew's ship, Marco's gaze sharpened at the sight.
"Get ready. This is going to be a hard fight."
Jozu and Vista exchanged a glance, and their fighting spirit visibly surged.
But at that very moment, something neither side expected happened. Alarm bells rang out on both pirate ships at the same time.
"Clang... clang... clang..."
Everyone froze. Their movements stopped instinctively as they looked up toward the companions stationed on the masts as lookouts.
"This is bad, Captain John!"
"Captain Marco!"
"A pirate ship is approaching... That's... the Sky Pirates... It's the Sky Pirates' flag..."
In an instant, everyone turned toward the distant sea.
On the horizon, under the glow of the setting sun, a pirate ship slowly sailed toward them.
...
Ordinarily, for New World overlords like the Whitebeard pirate crew and the Silver Axe pirate crew, a pirate crew that had only just entered the New World should not have made them this tense.
The flow of information in the pirate world was already slow, so the pirates of the New World did not know much about what happened in the first half of the Grand Line. On top of that, the Marines had deliberately suppressed information, leaving many New World pirates with an impression of the Sky Pirates that was still limited to those absurdly unreasonable bounties.
But ever since Morgans reported everything about that battle a month ago, the pirates of the New World had finally understood just what kind of terrifying monster had arrived.
Nearly fifty pirate ships and eighteen pirate crews, including some already making a name for themselves in the New World, had been wiped out in an instant by the Sky Pirates' almost miraculous power.
Anyone who read that report would feel a chill run down their spine.
Of course, some people dismissed it as fake news. Power like that should have been impossible.
But the Navy's next move proved it was real.
A naval fleet far beyond the scale of a Buster Call had entered the New World for the sole purpose of erasing the Sky Pirates from the world. Yet a full month had passed, and the Navy still had nothing to show for it.
That made many people think of one man.
The Pirate King, Roger.
Without even realizing it, whether they were pirates or ordinary people, no one in the New World could regard the Sky Pirates as mere rookies anymore.
So the moment the pirates on lookout spotted the Sky Pirates, they hurriedly sounded the alarm.
Everyone instinctively tightened their grip on their weapons. The fighting stopped, and all eyes turned toward the slowly approaching Sky Pirates.
Before long, everyone saw that familiar figure appear on the deck.
He looked exactly like the photo in the newspapers. He was clearly just standing there, yet he gave everyone an indescribable sense of pressure.
"What a terrifying young man."
As a swordsman with powerful Observation Haki, Captain John instantly sensed how extraordinary the young man before him was.
Marco, meanwhile, looked full of anticipation.
"So we finally meet."
But what surprised both sides was that the Sky Pirates seemed to ignore them completely. Their ship did not slow down in the slightest as it passed right through the middle of the battlefield between them.
And just as the three pirate ships drew level with one another, Tiger, the navigator of the Sky Pirates' ship, stepped forward on deck and shouted at both sides.
"The Sky Pirates have no interest in your conflict. We're just here to find something, so stay out of our way!"
After saying that, the Twin Goddesses sailed straight through, leaving only its stern in everyone's sight.
The grunts from both pirate crews looked at each other, then turned to their captains.
Marco scratched his pineapple head, not particularly surprised.
"So they really are just as arrogant as the intel said."
Captain John, on the other hand, looked thoroughly intrigued.
"Not many young men dare to ignore me like this."
At that moment, the leaders on both sides gave the exact same order.
"Follow them. Warship Island is territory claimed by the Whitebeard pirate crew and the Silver Axe pirate crew..."