A cold, emotionless electronic voice suddenly rang out from within S-Shark's body.
"What?!"
Whitebeard frowned as an ominous feeling immediately rose within him.
Before anyone could react, S-Shark's entire body suddenly began swelling like an overinflated balloon. Blinding white light poured violently from every crack across its damaged frame, while an incredibly unstable wave of destructive energy erupted from its core.
"Damn it! It's going to self-destruct!"
Kaido was the first to recognize the danger. His enormous dragon eyes contracted as he roared a warning across the battlefield.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
A world-shaking explosion erupted.
S-Shark's body transformed into a miniature sun.
A terrifying spherical shock wave blasted outward in every direction, carrying scorching fragments of metal along with it. The sea beneath the explosion was violently depressed into an enormous crater as towering waves, flames, and steam surged toward the sky.
The sudden self-destruction struck the battlefield like an enormous bomb dropped into still water.
Its speed and destructive power surpassed everyone's expectations.
The violent energy rampaged outward like some ancient monster suddenly awakened from its slumber, twisting the surrounding air and seemingly tearing apart even the space around it.
Even Whitebeard, a legendary man whose power could shake the world—
Big Mom, one of the strongest monsters to ever rule the seas—
And Kaido, renowned for his indestructible body and savage fighting style—
None of those three supreme rulers dared to underestimate an explosion of this magnitude.
Their expressions immediately turned grave.
All three instinctively recognized the threat and responded at almost the same moment, either defending themselves or moving to avoid the worst of the blast.
Whitebeard's hair and coat whipped violently in the shock wave as every muscle in his enormous body tightened.
Murakumogiri gleamed coldly in his hands.
With a roar, he poured tremendous strength into the legendary blade and swung.
A massive slash tore forward like a stroke capable of splitting heaven and earth, forcibly cutting through the incoming shock wave.
Flames, molten fragments, and debris exploded to either side.
Each movement of Whitebeard's blade carried overwhelming force, displaying the majesty of the man who had once stood at the very summit of the seas.
Big Mom reacted differently.
Napoleon rapidly changed form in her hands, expanding into an enormous defensive shield before her.
She planted herself firmly behind it.
BOOM—!
The destructive energy wave crashed against the shield with tremendous force, but Big Mom remained rooted in place, refusing to give even a single step.
Kaido was even more direct.
His enormous Azure Dragon body coiled through the sky like a mountain brought to life, every scale gleaming with a metallic sheen.
He threw back his head and roared.
Then he simply endured the explosion head-on.
The shock wave slammed into his colossal body, flames and fragments battering his scales, but Kaido relied on his monstrous physique to force his way through the blast.
His eyes continued burning with fury.
While the three Emperors were occupied with S-Shark's self-destruction, the entire area descended into chaos.
The explosion produced light so intense that it illuminated the entire sea like daylight.
Violent currents of energy tore through the air and water, creating vortices, turbulence, and blinding interference everywhere.
And hidden within that chaos was an opportunity.
The remaining five Seraphim recognized it instantly.
There was no hesitation.
Their eyes flashed as they simultaneously reached the same conclusion.
The flames behind their wings erupted at maximum output.
Blazing fire surged upward, supplying them with enormous propulsion as all five transformed into streaks of brilliant light.
With Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Kaido temporarily occupied by the explosion, the Seraphim immediately broke away.
Like birds finally escaping a net, they shot toward the open sea.
Their speed was greater than at any earlier point in the battle.
They did not look back.
Five trails cut across the sky as they fled farther and farther from the battlefield, quickly shrinking into tiny black dots on the horizon.
Within moments, they disappeared over the distant sea.
Amid the lingering chaos—
"BASTARDS!"
Kaido's furious dragon roar exploded like thunder.
The sound rolled through the fading shock waves, saturated with rage.
Even the air seemed to tremble beneath it.
Nearby, Big Mom's already dark expression became positively murderous.
Her teeth ground together as dangerous fire burned in her eyes.
"They played us!"
Her voice was low and furious.
Her fists clenched until her knuckles whitened.
Not far away, Whitebeard remained standing like an immovable mountain.
His sharp gaze followed the distant Seraphim until they disappeared completely from sight.
A gigantic ball of fire still burned above the sea where S-Shark had detonated, rapidly turning seawater into thick clouds of steam. Beneath it, an enormous whirlpool spun violently, threatening to swallow everything nearby.
Whitebeard rested Murakumogiri against the ground and stared at the devastation for a moment.
Then a deep laugh rolled from his chest.
"Gurararara…"
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"They'd rather destroy one of their own weapons to let the others escape?"
Whitebeard's grin sharpened.
"Vegapunk… or maybe the World Government itself. Either way, they're damn decisive."
His booming voice carried clearly across the ruined battlefield, each word heavy with meaning.
...
Although they had managed to stop part of the Seraphim force from withdrawing—and had even forced one of them to self-destruct in order to cover the others' escape—the majority still managed to get away.
That inevitably took a little of the shine off what had otherwise been an overwhelming victory.
It was like a small blemish appearing on an otherwise magnificent painting. It did not ruin the whole, but it was still enough to leave behind a trace of regret.
More importantly, it served as a warning.
The Marines, the other powers aligned with them, and especially the World Government behind everything would never simply let this defeat go.
An even fiercer and more brutal conflict was almost certainly already brewing beneath the surface.
There was no chance this war would truly end here.
...
Elsewhere, thick, acrid poison fog covered the battlefield.
Every breath felt capable of scorching a person's lungs.
Within that terrifying region, the grueling battle of attrition between Queen and Magellan had finally begun approaching its conclusion.
Queen's once-mighty brachiosaurus form had long since lost its earlier ferocity.
His enormous body moved with increasing difficulty, every motion sluggish and stiff like a rusted machine.
The heavily modified body he had always taken such pride in—reinforced through countless brutal biochemical alterations and filled with deadly toxins of its own—was now riddled with damage.
Crater-like wounds of varying depth covered his body, all carved out by the relentless corrosion of Magellan's venom.
Dark-purple poison marks spread across his rough skin like a dense spiderweb, leaving the flesh beneath them sickly and discolored, as though it might split apart at any moment.
Worse still, Magellan's terrifying venom had ultimately proven too potent even for Queen's exceptional poison resistance and the tremendous regenerative ability granted by his Azure Dragon power.
The toxins had finally penetrated his defenses.
They were now spreading through his bloodstream and attacking his internal organs and nervous system directly, inflicting agony from the inside out.
"Zoom... zoom..."
Queen tried to force out his usual ridiculous laugh, perhaps hoping to hide the fear and unease growing inside him.
But what emerged from his throat was hoarse and distorted, trembling obviously with pain.
He gathered what little strength he had left and spat out another cloud of poison.
Yet even that had changed.
The once-thick, vivid toxin had become dull and thin, its power drastically weakened.
The poisonous fog that had previously covered enormous areas and terrified anyone who approached could no longer stop the venomous dragons advancing toward him.
Magellan was exhausted as well.
His breathing had become heavy, his chest rising and falling sharply. The venom surrounding his body no longer surged with the same overwhelming intensity it had possessed at the beginning of the battle.
But his eyes remained cold and resolute.
He could tell Queen had reached his limit.
The pirate no longer possessed the strength to resist effectively.
And Magellan had no intention of allowing the battle to continue any longer.
He gathered his remaining power.
"Venom Demon: Final Touch!"
This time, he did not unleash another enormous, indiscriminate wave of poison.
Instead, Magellan compressed practically all of his remaining venom into a single point.
A gigantic dark-purple hand of highly concentrated poison formed in front of him.
It radiated a suffocating sense of danger, resembling the claw of some demon reaching out from the depths of hell.
The hand shot toward Queen with terrifying speed, aiming directly for the relatively vulnerable neck of his massive brachiosaurus form.
Queen desperately tried to lift one of his heavy mechanical arms to block.
Veins bulged across his forehead as every muscle in his body strained against the attack.
But the numbness spreading through his nerves had already robbed him of precise control.
His movement was half a beat too slow.
And in a battle like this—
Half a beat was enough.
Squelch!
The enormous venomous hand clamped directly around Queen's neck.
This was not ordinary poison.
It had been compressed to an extreme degree, making its toxicity vastly more concentrated.
The moment it made contact, the venom flooded into Queen's body like water bursting through a broken dam.
"GAAAAH—!"
A horrifying scream tore from Queen's throat.
His enormous brachiosaurus body began convulsing violently.
Muscles spasmed uncontrollably, as though invisible hands were twisting and tearing through him from within.
Slowly, he lost the ability to maintain his transformation.
His massive body rapidly shrank back into human form.
Queen's obese frame collapsed onto the ground.
His eyes rolled upward until only the whites remained visible.
Foam mixed with stomach fluid and poison spilled uncontrollably from his mouth and ran down his cheeks.
His entire body continued twitching in violent spasms.
Each convulsion seemed to reflect the agony raging through him.
It was obvious that Queen had completely lost the ability to fight.
He was helpless.
Magellan walked toward him at an unhurried pace.
His tall figure loomed through the dim poison haze, strange venom still rolling across his body like an ominous aura.
He stopped beside Queen and looked down at the defeated pirate with cold, emotionless eyes.