Kaido's heart swelled with delight at Marco's words. They hit him right where it mattered. He'd always intended to become the alliance leader—he'd just been waiting for the right moment. Even if Marco hadn't brought it up, Kaido would've raised it himself before long.
He burst out laughing. "Worororo! Looks like you've gotten a lot stronger lately, Marco. Good. You decide the time and place."
Kaido's confidence in his own strength was absolute. Ever since his Devil Fruit awakening, his speed and power had been boosted across the board. Even if Marco had refined those black flames of his and grown stronger, Kaido felt no fear.
In fact, he was eager. He wanted Marco to push him to the brink again, just like last time, to see if he could shatter his limits once more.
After speaking, Kaido glanced at Big Mom, perhaps remembering her position, and asked, "Linlin, you don't have any objections, do you?"
Big Mom's face darkened instantly. The two of them were talking over her as if she didn't exist, and it made her livid. She roared, "I shouldn't have any objections, right! How could I not have any objections!!?"
Marco replied calmly, "Then you can join in too. As long as you can defeat me, I have no objections to you being the leader."
Kaido's lips curled into a grin as he added, "Same for me. If you can beat me, Linlin, you can be the leader."
Big Mom flew into a rage. She knew her own strength well enough to know she couldn't defeat Marco or Kaido as she was now. She bellowed, "What kind of joke is this!! When we formed this alliance, we agreed everyone would be equal! Kaido, don't forget you still owe me a favor! I'm not dead yet, and you already want to climb onto my head!"
She then turned that fury on Marco. "And you, Marco! Don't forget you married my daughter! Even if it's a political marriage, I am still your mother-in-law! It's one thing that you refuse to call me 'Mama,' but you won't even call me 'Mother-in-Law'! And now you even want to ride on my head? In this whole world, is there any son-in-law who acts like you?"
At the mention of the favor he owed, Kaido immediately lost some steam, and Marco too was left without a ready comeback.
Seeing the two of them fall silent, Big Mom's anger eased slightly. But she knew better than anyone that on this vast sea, strength was everything. The Big Mom Pirates had to recover their power as quickly as possible, or her position within the Three Emperors Alliance would inevitably slip day by day.
While the three emperors argued on Cake Island, a massive magic circle suddenly formed in the sky above Wano Country. From within that glowing pattern, a circular spaceship—shaped like a gigantic straw hat—slowly drifted out. It was enormous, emerging bit by bit from the magic circle until it hung in the air above Wano.
The sudden appearance of the giant ship made everyone in Wano look up. Faced with such an unprecedented colossus, the common folk could only stare in bewildered curiosity.
The Beasts Pirates were also stunned, but more than that, a sharp sense of alarm and fear gripped them.
After about a minute, the gigantic spaceship finally fully emerged from the magic circle. It spanned seven thousand meters across. Its bulk blotted out the sun, and all of Wano Country fell under its shadow.
The people of Wano stared blankly at the colossal object dominating the sky. It looked even bigger than Kaido himself.
Queen, the all-star left behind to guard Wano, stared up at the thing and immediately felt a very bad premonition.
At that moment, in the Holy Land Mariejois, within Pangaea Castle—
Imu gazed down at Wano Country through a magic circle, a chilling light glinting in his eyes.
"This country… Eight hundred years ago, I should have destroyed it. …"
As his words faded, the colossal flying ship hanging in the sky above Wano suddenly unfolded countless crystalline energy cannons. One by one, they began to charge, humming with power.
"Not good, run!" Queen shouted at the top of his lungs.
But before absolute power, any struggle was meaningless.
In the next instant, the muzzles of the cannons erupted with blinding radiance. From afar, it looked like a single white pillar of light crashing down from the heavens, striking the land of Wano. In a flash, everything within its reach was swallowed by white light and utterly annihilated.
The beam endured for dozens of seconds before slowly fading. Where Wano had once stood, there was now nothing. The shockwave tore through the Nation-Protecting Wall encircling the country; massive stone bulwarks crumbled, and the land that had been Wano was erased without a trace.
With a series of rumbling booms, the last sections of the wall gave way. The freshwater that had once filled Wano's basin roared outward, cascading into the open sea.
High above, the flying ship's cannons folded back into its hull. The vessel slowly withdrew into the magic circle, shrinking from view until both ship and circle vanished from the sky over the former Wano.
And so, Wano Country disappeared completely from the world.
In Pangaea Castle, upon the Empty Throne, Imu's emotionless voice echoed through the hall.
"The dragon pulse is weakening…"
Saint Saturn, head lowered in deference, replied respectfully,
"Please rest assured, Imu-sama. We have already located the scientist. He has developed a new type of energy to replace the dragon pulse, but the current amount is still insufficient. Once we have an ample supply, it will fully take the dragon pulse's place—and allow us to sweep away certain troublesome individuals for you."
Imu gave no answer. He simply turned and walked away, his silhouette quickly swallowed by the darkness behind the throne.
After Imu's departure, the Gorosei finally let out a collective breath of relief, rising slowly from where they had been kneeling.
Nusjuro glanced at Saturn and asked,
"Saturn, has the Mother Flame really been completed?"
Saturn nodded.
"Yes. Vegapunk informed us a few days ago that the Mother Flame has been developed. However, the current quantity is still far too small. The materials it requires are extremely special, and the energy must be extracted from multiple rare sources. Even with the greatest brain in the world, it's impossible to achieve mass production in a short time. We'll still need more time."
The other Gorosei nodded in agreement.
"As long as we have the energy, destroying the Three Emperors Alliance will be no challenge at all."
—
On Whole Cake Island, the banquet had stretched on for more than three hours before finally coming to an end. The main reason was simple—Big Mom was getting drowsy. Once her stomach was full, all she wanted was sleep.
They had fought the Marines for seven or eight hours earlier that day. Now, with food and drink weighing pleasantly in their bellies, the exhaustion they'd been holding back came crashing down all at once.
Big Mom waved a massive hand, issuing her order to dismiss the guests.
"Alright, that's enough. Thank you all for coming to support me this time. From here on, Totto Land needs to be rebuilt, so off you go!"
Kaido grinned, baring his teeth.
"Worororo! How heartless—you're already kicking everyone out."
Hearing that, Big Mom laughed and snapped back,
"Cut the act, Kaido! When we formed this alliance, we agreed that if the Marines attacked, we'd give each other unconditional support. And what happened?! Your support showed up late! I haven't even settled that debt with you yet!"
Kaido was at a loss for words.
"I came at the fastest speed possible."
Big Mom snorted.
"Perfect. Then this time, you're taking a mirror back with you. That way we can link up through the mirror world. Next time the Marines come knocking, we can back each other up a lot faster."
"Worororo, no problem..." Kaido agreed without hesitation.
Dozens of pirate ships appeared on the horizon. At that moment, King the Conflagration swooped down and landed beside Kaido, reporting, "Kaido-san, Jack and the others are here."
Kaido's lips curled into a grin. "Worororo! So Jack and the others finally showed up. Tell them to get ready for the return voyage."
Hearing that, Yamato clicked her tongue in irritation. "Tch, they only come after the fighting's over! Kaido, you did this on purpose, didn't you? You wanted to use this battle to wear down our Phoenix Pirates!"
A vein bulged on Kaido's forehead. He snapped back, "Damn brat, it's a good thing I married you off! Back when you were with the Beasts Pirates, I don't remember you caring this much about us!"
Yamato immediately put on an exaggeratedly carefree look, even making a deliberately smug, punchable face as she retorted arrogantly, "Who cares about you, you old geezer, I'm part of the Phoenix Pirates now. You'll never get to boss me around again."
Kaido snorted and tore his gaze away from her. What was done was done. In any case, he'd already used the marriage to secure Zack's powerful combat strength. He barked, "Zack and Ulti, we're leaving."
Marco stepped forward as well. "Then we'll be taking our leave too. We came here through the mirror, so we can only return through the mirror."
Just then, the transponder signal on King's body suddenly rang. King picked it up. "Hello, this is King—"
An anxious voice exploded from the other end. "King-sama, this is bad—Wano Country is gone?!"
"…What did you say?" King's brows drew together sharply, and Kaido, standing nearby, also stiffened, confused.
King immediately pressed, his voice low. "What do you mean, Wano Country is gone?"
The pirate on the other end stammered in panic, "J-just now, a huge flying ship-like thing appeared in the sky above Wano Country! It fired some kind of energy light pillar straight down—Wano was wiped out in an instant! Nothing is left! Even Onigashima and the Nation-Protecting Wall were hit by the shockwave from that light pillar. The Wall collapsed, and most of Onigashima has been destroyed!"
"What did you say?!" King's voice shot up several octaves.
Marco and Big Mom had already heard everything. Kaido ripped the transponder snail from King's hand and roared, "You're saying Wano Country has been destroyed?! What about Queen and the others? What about the factories?!"
The pirate on the other side screamed, half-mad with fear, "They're gone—everything's gone! Queen's whereabouts are unknown, and the factories are gone too! Wano Country has completely disappeared! We only survived because we were on Onigashima at the time… but even here, loads of people were blasted into the sea by the shockwave from that energy pillar. We don't know how many are dead or alive!"
Kaido's expression twisted, his face growing darker by the second. He forced out, "You said a giant flying ship appeared above Wano. What did it look like?"
"It was a circular flying ship," the pirate replied. Then, as if suddenly remembering, he added, "And there was this huge, magic-circle-looking thing. That giant flying ship came out of that circle, then fired an unbelievably destructive energy beam down at Wano. And Wano Country... it just vanished."
"By the time we realized what was happening, Wano was already gone without a trace. That giant thing in the sky disappeared too—like it had never been there at all."
"Uranus. That has to be Uranus!" Kaido bellowed. He had only just heard about Uranus from Marco, and he never imagined the World Government would move so quickly—let alone target his Wano Country. One single strike had wiped it out.
He had never expected the World Government to hit him first.
Enraged beyond reason, Kaido's body surged and stretched, transforming into a massive azure dragon. With a roar that shook the air, he shot off in the direction of Wano Country.
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