Before he could finish speaking, the air around him twisted violently. Pale white flames erupted from his body.
Unlike ordinary fire's crimson hue, these flames were a chilling, bone-white, cold and unsettling. As they churned, Ace's eyes too were coated in a layer of icy white light.
"But today—" His voice suddenly sharpened, each word dripping with murderous intent, "Whitebeard, you will die!"
Ace transformed into a pale streak of fire, shooting forward like an arrow from a bow. The ice in his path melted and evaporated instantly, leaving behind a charred, smoldering trail!
The watching Marines were horrified; they had never seen such bizarre flames. The pale light sent a deep-seated chill through their hearts.
Whitebeard cooperatively widened his eyes, his face a mask of "terror." He exaggeratedly took half a step back, the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit gathering on his fist only to "reluctantly" dissipate.
"Such a terrifying Flame Emperor! Even my Tremor-Tremor Fruit cannot withstand these flames!"
With that, he actually turned and fled, his pace neither fast nor slow, yet somehow managing to convey a sense of "frantic escape." The Marines watched, dumbfounded, as the World's Strongest Man "desperately" retreated toward the Moby Dick.
Marco on the deck was already prepared.
The moment Whitebeard leaped onto the ship's railing, he immediately shouted, "All hands, full retreat! Now!"
The Moby Dick turned with a speed utterly unbefitting its massive size.
Ace, now a pale meteor of fire, "relentlessly" pursued Whitebeard, and the two began an "earth-shattering" chase across the sea.
Whitebeard fought while retreating. Each swing of Murakumogiri created exaggerated shockwaves, stirring up waves tens of meters high, while Ace's pale flames always "coincidentally" pierced through the gaps in the shockwaves, exploding into brilliant sparks around Whitebeard.
"Moonwalk!"
Ace pursued from the air, using the Navy's Six Powers technique!
"How terrifying!" Whitebeard shouted loudly as he retreated, his voice booming across the sea, "These flames would surely burn me to ashes, leaving not even a speck of dust behind!"
The watching Marines were electrified. Young soldiers clenched their fists in excitement: "He's too strong! Warlord Ace is actually suppressing Whitebeard!"
"It seems the title of World's Strongest Man is about to change hands!" a Rear Admiral exclaimed, pounding the railing, "Look! Whitebeard is completely on the defensive!"
Sengoku: "...."
However, just as everyone was swept up in the excitement, a sharp-eyed Commander noticed something wrong: "Wait... aren't they moving a bit too far away?"
His words jolted everyone to awareness.
They saw the Whitebeard Pirates fighting a retreat, with Ace in hot pursuit. Unnoticed, they had already moved dozens of nautical miles away. The pale flames and scorching heat evaporated the surrounding sea, shrouding the area in a thick mist!
The steam and flames generated by the battle gradually obscured their figures.
"Quickly! Binoculars!"
But as the Marines frantically adjusted their binoculars, they saw the last trace of the ship vanish just beyond the horizon, leaving only gradually calming waves and a few lingering pale sparks on the water's surface.
"This..." Vice Admiral Momonga opened his mouth, finally lowering his binoculars helplessly, "They... just escaped like that?"
"The battle was too intense, they fought further and further away..."
"Where did they go?"
The entire Marineford fell into an eerie silence.
Marine soldiers looked around blankly, their weapons hanging limply at their sides, faces filled with confusion and bewilderment.
"Wh-what's going on?" a young Marine stammered, breaking the silence, his voice jarring in the empty battlefield, "Where did they go? Weren't they just fighting... uh... 'fiercely'?"
The veteran beside him slapped his own forehead: "They fought their way right off the stage?"
Suddenly, a naive Marine shouted nervously, "Will Warlord Ace be in danger? Even though he's the World's Strongest Flame Emperor, his opponent is a Four Emperor!"
Dozens of gazes instantly turned to him, looking at him as if he were an idiot.
Vice Admiral Onigumo's hair-arms snaked out and wrapped around the recruit's neck: "Kid, what's your relationship with that 'Flame Emperor'?" His voice was as cold as an ice cellar.
The recruit's face turned pale with fright, and he shook his head desperately: "N-no relationship! I just... I just misheard!"
He frantically pointed at his ears, "My hearing was damaged by the Tremor-Tremor Fruit earlier!"
Doberman: "The recruitment standards really are slipping lower and lower." He glared fiercely in the direction Whitebeard had "disappeared," "Such a clumsy farce..."
Garp stood atop the ruins, his face beneath the dog-hat brim red from suppressed laughter. When he saw Ace finally "chase" the Whitebeard Pirates out of sight, he could no longer hold back and burst into earth-shaking laughter:
"WAHAHAHA! That brat is still so unruly!"
Sengoku looked at his old friend expressionlessly. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Garp suddenly reach into the inner pocket of his Admiral's cloak and deftly pull out a bag of limited-edition senbei.
"Hey! Those were a gift from Fleet Admiral Kong—" Sengoku's words were cut short as Garp tore open the package and began munching loudly, crunch crunch.
"Thanks, Sengoku!" Garp said through a full mouth, casually stuffing the empty wrapper back into Sengoku's cloak pocket, "I'd better go keep an eye on that brat! Who knows what trouble he'll stir up next!"
He laughed as he turned, swaying away across the scattered warship wreckage, humming an off-key Marine song as if what had just happened was nothing more than a boring drill.
Sengoku stood frozen, Garp's senbei crumbs still littering his cloak. His eyelid twitched violently, a vein throbbing at his temple.
He knew they couldn't have kept Whitebeard... but for Ace to just leave like that?
That genius who could master the Navy's Six Styles in a single glance? That young man whom Vice Admiral Tsuru had praised as "a once-in-a-century seed of justice"? The one he had secretly decided to nurture as a future pillar of the Marines...
Sengoku wearily rubbed his temples. The sound of Garp's humming faded into the distance, accompanied by the crunch crunch of senbei.
"Will he come back...?" Sengoku murmured, gazing at the Moby Dick disappearing beyond the horizon.
Akainu stood rigid, his dark face turning a visible purplish-red. The veins at his temples bulged, throbbing like wriggling earthworms.
Witnessing Ace's exaggerated "Flame Emperor" pose and Whitebeard's clumsy, coordinated exit, his breathing grew heavy and ragged.
"Bas... bastards... to just run away like that..." His trembling finger pointed at the empty sea, his lips quivering, unable to form a complete sentence.
Suddenly, he clutched his chest, his body swaying as if struck by an invisible hammer.
"Admiral Sakazuki!" his aide desperately supported him, "Are you alright?!"
....
The journey continues right now for our Jade Dragons! 🐉
For just $6/month, you can step into the advanced chapters and never face a cliffhanger again. Gain instant access to 50+ chapters immediately, support the story you love, and help decide its course.
🔗 Become a Jade Dragon:https://patreon.com/J_Dragon