"Fufufufu! This is truly fascinating!"
Doflamingo burst into manic laughter, his fingers twisting into shapes impossible for ordinary people.
Even he had never imagined the war would develop to this extent.
But he loved it.
The World Government's momentum had completely collapsed, and Doflamingo could already see the direction this war was heading.
Within such a short period, the battlefield had undergone countless reversals. Both sides had hidden terrifying combat power in the shadows, and the secrets buried beneath the surface made everything even more thrilling.
By tracing the chain of events backward, the causes and consequences behind this war, along with the schemes hidden within it, resembled a set of nesting dolls layered endlessly upon one another.
Some truths were still unknown, but that only made things more interesting. They could be investigated, speculated upon, and endlessly discussed.
Across the world, countless people had already begun brainstorming. Some were even preparing to write books about this war.
Without question, those books would become bestsellers.
At this point, with no additional reinforcements appearing, many had already reached the same conclusion.
The World Government had entered a state of decline.
On the surface, the Golden Sea battlefield appeared evenly matched, but for the World Government, failing to maintain an advantage already counted as defeat.
And now, the balance was gradually tilting toward the pirates.
Teach alone was suppressing four CP0 agents, displaying overwhelming dominance.
Although he had been forced into a disadvantage earlier by Kong, and his so-called absolute defense, Dark Jade, had been shattered, that did not mean Teach was weak.
It only proved that Kong's attack had exceeded the upper limits of Dark Jade's defensive capability.
The destructive power created by Armament Haki, once unleashed, far surpassed ordinary physical force. Because of that, the New World was ultimately a world ruled by powerful individuals and Haki.
Without Armament Haki, surviving in the New World was difficult.
Armament Haki itself could be divided into two aspects: quality and technique.
Covering, emission, flowing Haki, and internal destruction were all merely methods of application, and these methods were used to classify a user's level of mastery.
Technique depended heavily on talent.
As long as someone possessed enough aptitude, comprehension, and opportunity, they could master advanced Haki techniques in a relatively short period.
True monsters could surpass decades of another person's effort within only a few years.
Teach was exactly that kind of monster.
In merely a few short years, he had pushed his mastery of Haki to an astonishing level.
He had completely mastered the technique of penetrating Haki into another person's body, achieving true internal destruction.
In this regard, the gap between Teach and Kong no longer lay in technique.
It lay in quality.
The quality of Haki was extremely difficult to improve. In a sense, it was tied to natural talent itself.
Some people were simply born with stronger Haki than others.
After decades of tempering and accumulation, Kong's Haki had long since undergone a qualitative transformation.
Compared to Kong's Haki, the flowing Armament covering Teach's body resembled a thin membrane that could be pierced directly.
That was why Kong had shattered Teach's defense so easily.
Dark Jade's defense was terrifying, but internal destruction allowed concentrated force to break through a single point and collapse an entire surface.
That was the true reason Kong managed to break through Dark Jade.
Without internal destruction, whether Kong's raw strength and Haki alone could have shattered Dark Jade remained uncertain.
Teach called Dark Jade an absolute defense for a reason.
Its durability, combined with its fluid nature, allowed it to possess both hardness and flexibility simultaneously.
To break through Dark Jade, mastering internal destruction was the bare minimum requirement.
Unfortunately, internal destruction was an extremely profound technique.
For many people, flowing Haki, or Ryuo, already represented the peak of what they could achieve.
By allowing Haki to flow, they could increase both offense and defense.
As for Conqueror's Haki coating, that was an entirely different realm.
Even Teach had yet to fully experiment with it.
Internal destruction represented the ultimate offensive application of Haki.
However, mastering internal destruction did not necessarily mean one possessed superior defensive Haki.
That was why Teach completely dominated the four CP0 agents.
None of them could break through Dark Jade.
Without internal destruction, how could they possibly shake Teach's defense?
This kind of mastery relied heavily on comprehension.
No matter how hard some people trained, they would never achieve it in their lifetime.
Aside from the Gentleman and the Red-Masked CP0 agent, the remaining two CP0 operatives had already suffered severe injuries under Teach's relentless assault.
Their condition drew the most concern.
No one knew how much longer they could endure.
Two days?
Three days?
Or perhaps the battle would end in the very next moment.
None of those possibilities seemed surprising anymore.
The entire glacier battlefield had already been divided into multiple combat zones.
Those lacking sufficient strength could not even approach.
For Teach and the pirate alliance, the overall situation had already been decided.
The scales of victory had tilted in their favor.
Aside from the battles between the strongest individuals, the remaining clashes no longer held much meaning beyond increasing casualties.
Because of that, many pirates gradually stopped pressing the attack.
They withdrew into defensive positions and relied on overwhelming firepower to hold back the Allied Forces.
While fighting, Teach continued secretly observing Arest's battle against Redyat.
The two had already fought for nearly seven days.
Both were nearing their limits.
Their stamina was almost completely exhausted.
Teach wanted to leave Arest behind permanently.
However, he was not confident he could succeed.
If he acted, it would need to be a fatal strike delivered in a single opportunity.
Otherwise, with Arest's strength and abilities, escape remained entirely possible.
Arest was still a top-tier world-class powerhouse.
Throughout his battle against Redyat, he had consistently maintained the upper hand.
The Comet-Comet Fruit possessed terrifying power.
In many ways, it was practically a perfect ability.
If not for Redyat's immense advantage within darkness, which compensated for the gap between them, Redyat might have already lost.
As the battle dragged on, Redyat still possessed the amplification granted by his Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit.
Arest, meanwhile, relied purely on his own physique.
Excluding Devil Fruit abilities, Redyat still fell noticeably short compared to Arest.
After all, Arest himself possessed the potential of a true monster.
He had survived the harshest training programs created by the World Government.
Every year, the World Government cultivated countless agents and had long since established a complete training system.
The intensity of that training was divided into multiple stages and levels.
If someone could not adapt to a certain level, they would immediately be downgraded.
Only those capable of enduring the cruelest level at every stage could prove they possessed the potential to become world-class monsters.
Only then would they attract the true attention of the World Government, enter the vision of the Five Elders, receive top-tier Devil Fruits, and gain the qualifications to compete for the position of CP0 Chief.
Both Arest and Gaia had risen through that system.
At a young age, they had already become monster-class powerhouses.
However, after becoming Vice Chiefs, they no longer needed to personally carry out dangerous missions as frequently.
With fewer life-and-death battles, the rate of their growth naturally slowed.
Even now, Arest had yet to fully reach his peak.
After all, he was only approaching forty years old.
At this moment, Arest was clearly weakened.
If Teach could kill him here, it would undoubtedly deal a devastating blow to the World Government.
Teach's thoughts stirred.
Could he really do it?
The idea sounded simple, but reality was another matter entirely.
In the end, Teach abandoned the plan.
The probability of success was too low.
Ten percent at best.
Betting everything on such poor odds held no meaning.
Too many powerful individuals still surrounded the battlefield.
Killing a top-tier powerhouse was never easy.
Even a successful sneak attack might fail to secure a kill.
After all, even a severely injured Redfield had once fought a full-strength Garp for three days and three nights.
Even if Arest was weaker, he would not die so easily.
Furthermore, the Comet-Comet Fruit might still possess hidden abilities that had yet to be revealed.
Teach shifted his focus back toward the four CP0 agents.
If he could not kill Arest, eliminating several CP0 operatives would still heavily weaken the World Government.
Meanwhile, the Marines of the New World retreated toward G2 Branch.
In order to cover the withdrawal of countless soldiers, the Marine core combat forces suffered severe losses.
Thousands of elite Marines lost their lives.
Since the war was still ongoing, Whitebeard could not recklessly unleash the full destructive force of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Doing so would inevitably affect his temporary allies.
More importantly, it would instantly offend half the New World.
Even if many of them were technically enemies, they currently stood on the same side.
Naturally, numerous members of the Whitebeard Pirates and their allied crews were also present.
Golden light erupted across the battlefield.
Terrifying shockwaves collided directly against white tremor force.
The violent impact caused the earth, sea, and sky themselves to tremble.
"Great Buddha Shockwave!"
Sengoku roared as he transformed into a gigantic golden Buddha.
Raising both palms forward, he unleashed a devastating burst of power.
Although he had not fought seriously for two years, Sengoku remained as formidable as ever.
Now, he directly faced the strongest man in the world.
Whitebeard.
The Great Buddha Shockwave collided violently against the Tremor-Tremor force, creating massive ripples of compressed air that spread across the battlefield.
The earth split apart.
Shattered rocks flew in every direction.
The war in the New World had fully escalated into a battle between monsters.
The Marines had already fallen into a disadvantageous position and were chased all the way back to G2 Branch by an overwhelming pirate force.
If Sengoku had not arrived at the crucial moment and unleashed a shockwave spanning dozens of kilometers across the sea, blocking the pirates and buying time for the Marines to regroup, their casualties would have been far worse.
Alone, Sengoku confronted Whitebeard at his peak.
Against such a Whitebeard, even Garp would struggle to gain the upper hand.
He might even be suppressed.
Yet Sengoku, relying on his abilities, overwhelming defense, and immense vitality, could still temporarily maintain equilibrium.
That alone demonstrated Sengoku's terrifying strength.
Even Kaido and Charlotte Linlin currently avoided directly challenging Whitebeard.
But Sengoku stood before him without retreating.
Golden radiance and white tremor force clashed repeatedly, turning the entire battlefield into a collision between two overwhelming colors.
"Gurararara! Sengoku, you're not bad!"
Whitebeard laughed loudly.
His fist, wrapped in white tremor force, smashed directly toward Sengoku.
Whitebeard's massive body resembled a small giant, yet in front of Sengoku's transformed Buddha form, even he appeared comparatively smaller.
For monsters of their level, this battle had only just begun.
Even so, the scale of the clash already resembled an epic scene from legend.
"You're not bad yourself, Newgate."
Sengoku's entire body glowed gold.
His voice boomed through the battlefield like the roar of a lion.
Facing Whitebeard's punch, Sengoku answered with a palm strike of his own.
"I never expected you to ally with other pirates."
This remained Sengoku's greatest confusion.
An alliance itself was not entirely surprising.
After all, the Golden Sea War involved countless pirates opposing the World Government.
In the New World, pirate alliances frequently formed whenever powerful enemies appeared.
Especially during the era of the Emperors, weaker pirate crews often banded together simply to survive.
But Whitebeard secretly cooperating with Shiki to deceive both the Marines and the World Government was another matter entirely.
Combined with the movements of Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, it became increasingly clear that the Emperors had likely established cooperation long before this war even began.
They had united specifically to oppose the World Government.
And not merely through their subordinates.
"Who told you to hide so much power?"
Whitebeard laughed loudly as his cloak billowed behind him.
"Of course we had to prepare carefully."
After throwing one punch, he immediately followed with another.
Cracks spread through the air itself like shattered glass.
Under Whitebeard's terrifying strength, even space appeared to split apart.
Although Whitebeard never stated it directly, Sengoku understood his meaning immediately.
The pirate alliance had discovered the World Government's plan long ago.
That was why they had prepared everything in advance.
If the World Government's operation had succeeded, not only would they have secured control over the Golden Sea, they also would have severely weakened the pirate forces of the New World.
Numerous core combatants would have been lost.
That exact threat had forced the Emperors into cooperation.
Together, they had plotted specifically to ruin the World Government's plans.
At that moment, Sengoku finally understood everything.
From the beginning, they had already lost the initiative.
War was not fought solely with strength.
It was also fought with information.
Once the intelligence advantage disappeared, the initiative disappeared with it.
How could they possibly win after that?
A bitter feeling rose within Sengoku.
The truth was cruel.
From the very beginning, this had been a war destined for failure.
But how had the information leaked?
That question troubled Sengoku deeply.
Very few people had attended the original meeting.
None of them seemed likely to betray the operation.
Within the Marines, only Sengoku himself had known the details.
That meant the leak could only have originated within the World Government.
Someone inside the World Government had acted as a spy for another force.
Not necessarily pirates.
That realization sent a chill through Sengoku.
Anyone capable of accessing that level of information had to occupy an extremely high position.
The World Government had developed a hidden cancer within itself.
And that cancer needed to be removed immediately.
Otherwise, the damage it could cause in the future would be unimaginable.
This war alone already proved that.
Shock mixed with frustration inside Sengoku.
They had sacrificed so much in a war that had been doomed from the very beginning.
That traitor had to be found.
No matter the cost.
The Marines had suffered catastrophic losses.
Recovering their strength would take at least five or six years.
As for rebuilding their lost core combat forces, that process would require even longer.
Sengoku could already foresee it.
After this war ended, the World Government itself would inevitably undergo a massive purge.