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Delta Island. The once-thriving Pirate Festival, a grand treasure hunt that had drawn pirates from across the seas, had collapsed into a desperate struggle for survival.
"Dammit! Festa set us up!"
"It was a trap!"
"He's trying to wipe us all out!"
"Run! Forget everything else, just stay alive!"
The stronger pirates forced their way through the poison gas, stumbling and scrambling across the island in search of any possible escape route.
But Garling and the remnants of the World Government had spent years preparing for this operation. What was unfolding today was the culmination of all that planning.
Hordes of operatives wearing gas masks poured onto the island, attacking and arresting everyone they found.
At first, the pirates resisted fiercely.
As time passed, however, the poison gas began to wear them down. Even the strongest among them felt their limbs grow heavy and their bodies weaken.
Garling had also anticipated Marine intervention. He had already mined the coastline and stationed artillery batteries around the island.
The moment the Marine warships entered range, those batteries opened fire with poison gas shells.
'The enemy refuses to surrender, and they still dare to fight back?'
Sakazuki's expression hardened. Without hesitation, he ordered the fleet to return fire and unleash a scorched-earth bombardment across the entirety of Delta Island.
At this point, the island was occupied only by Celestial Dragons, World Government remnants, and pirates. Every last one of them was a destabilizing element, and none of them mattered enough to stay Sakazuki's hand.
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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions came one after another without pause.
Marine artillery shells rained across the island, leveling buildings, shredding forests, and reducing the landscape to a charred wasteland.
"An indiscriminate bombardment?"
"That has to be Sakazuki!"
"That mad dog!"
Garling frowned.
As an enemy, Sakazuki was the most troublesome kind imaginable. He would use whatever means were necessary to secure victory.
Even if those means required sacrificing his own side.
And that was one of the main reasons Jin had chosen not to eliminate Sakazuki.
In an age of global turmoil, Kuzan's sense of justice often became a weakness. At crucial moments, he hesitated. The Marines still needed Sakazuki's ruthless decisiveness.
Then, without warning, a thunderous laugh rolled across the sea.
"WORORORORORORORO! LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE GETTING LIVELY!"
A massive fleet appeared off one flank of the island.
At its head stood none other than Kaido, one of the Four Emperors.
The towering Yonko stood on the prow of his flagship with his kanabo resting across his shoulder, steering his fleet straight toward the Marine armada as if he intended to smash through it by force alone.
And Kaido was not the only threat.
From another direction, Marine lookouts spotted the unmistakable flagship of Charlotte Linlin.
The objective of both Yonko fleets was obvious.
The Marines.
The reasoning was simple.
First, Marines and pirates were natural enemies. Since Marine Headquarters had been relocated to the New World, the friction between both sides had only grown more intense. They were irreconcilable foes.
That reality had not changed, not even under Kuzan's leadership of the Marines.
Second, the Yonko and the World Government had a long history of backroom dealings.
This time was no different.
Garling had lured Kaido and Big Mom here by using the "Log Pose to Laugh Tale" as bait.
"Kaido? Charlotte Linlin?"
Sakazuki narrowed his eyes, and killing intent flashed within them. "Perfect. We settle everything today."
"Ignore the island."
"Concentrate all fire on Kaido and Charlotte Linlin!"
He exchanged a glance with Borsalino. The two of them had worked together for years. Their views on justice were different, but on the battlefield their coordination was flawless.
The situation had changed. The Marines no longer answered to the World Government. They now served the International Alliance.
And Borsalino was, in truth, a Revolutionary Army infiltrator.
The balance between factions had shifted.
In a moment like this, even he could not afford to stand back and coast.
"Oh, how frightening. In that case, I suppose I'll deal with Kaido."
Two years earlier, when Kaido had attacked the new Marine Headquarters, Borsalino had clashed with him briefly.
That fight had ended in a draw.
Now Kaido launched himself from the deck of his colossal ship and shot toward the Marine fleet like a falling mountain. His Haki surged outward in all directions, so overwhelming that countless Marines staggered under its pressure.
"Thunder Bagua!"
Roaring at the top of his lungs, Kaido gripped his kanabo with both hands and brought it crashing down toward the warships below.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WE'RE DEAD! IT'S KAIDO!"
The Marines screamed in terror as the Yonko descended on them like a natural disaster.
"Open fire!"
"Fire the cannons!"
Rifles cracked and artillery thundered in unison.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
But neither bullets nor cannonballs ever reached Kaido. They slammed into the invisible wall of Haki around him and exploded in midair.
Ordinary weapons could not pierce his defenses.
"Ama no Murakumo!"
Moving at the speed of light, Borsalino appeared in Kaido's path and formed a gigantic blade of condensed light that stretched for nearly a thousand meters. He swung it straight at the Emperor.
Even from afar, the collision sent arcs of Haki lightning bursting across the sky as violent shockwaves rippled outward.
"ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
The muscles in Kaido's arms swelled, and his coat snapped wildly in the gale as he forced his kanabo downward with monstrous strength.
'This is troublesome.'
Borsalino narrowed his eyes as he absorbed the impact.
Kaido's combat power had clearly risen since their last encounter two years ago.
Kaido possessed the Mythical Zoan Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon.
Borsalino wielded the Logia Glint-Glint Fruit.
Both were Devil Fruit users, but their strengths lay in completely different domains.
Kaido held every advantage a Zoan monster could offer: overwhelming durability, immense physical strength, and terrifying vitality.
Borsalino's power was certainly destructive, but against a beast like Kaido, he was at a disadvantage in direct physical combat.
If he chose to brawl head-on, he would only be abandoning his own advantages and fighting on Kaido's terms.
That would be idiotic.
Once he noticed the warships below had retreated to a safer distance, Borsalino's body erupted in a blinding flash.
"Light Kick!"
He drove a kick straight into Kaido at the speed of light.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
His leg collided with Kaido's kanabo, and the explosion that followed tore through the sky.
Light flared. Thunder roared.
Borsalino and Kaido clashed in midair.
At the same time, Sakazuki moved to intercept Charlotte Linlin.
"Meteor Volcano!"
He threw a barrage of punches, launching a rain of magma fists high into the sky before sending them crashing down toward the Queen Mama Chanter.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The blazing magma plunged like falling meteors, turning the sea itself into a boiling inferno.
Charlotte Linlin seized Zeus and answered with a blinding torrent of lightning that blasted upward.
Lightning collided with magma.
Each impact unleashed another deafening explosion, accompanied by waves of Haki-charged shock.
"CHARGE!"
"WIPE THEM OUT!"
Kaido and Charlotte Linlin had mobilized their full military strength for this operation. The All-Stars, the Sweet Commanders, and every major officer under their banners had entered the battlefield.
Leading their subordinates from the front, they drove a relentless assault against the Marine fleet, determined to seize this chance to annihilate Marine Headquarters once and for all.
In this new era, the International Alliance had failed, for many reasons, to inherit the prestige and unquestioned authority once held by the World Government.
Regional powers had risen everywhere, carving out territory and ruling as independent overlords. Yonko crews like Kaido's and Big Mom's stood at the forefront of that reality.
In truth, the Yonko had always functioned as the great warlords of the old age. They had their own territories, armies, and economic systems.
No one had simply been willing to state it openly.
Now, however, organizations modeled after Yonko crews were multiplying across the seas, and the authority of Marine Headquarters had diminished into a shadow of what it once was.
If Kaido and Linlin could crush the Marine fleet here and seize the Log Pose to Laugh Tale, then claim the One Piece itself, their alliance would dominate the New World and establish itself as the supreme power of the new era.
For the two Yonko crews, this was an opportunity too great to ignore.
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