The Marines moved quickly.
Once Sengoku and Tsuru's orders went out, every Marine still inside Wano received the message and immediately withdrew to the fleet waiting offshore.
Soon, the warships raised anchor and began sailing away from Wano's surrounding waters.
"So he's here?"
Aboard one of the Vice Admiral-class warships, Gion held her sword at her side and stared back at the country growing more distant, her expression grave.
She had not received any direct confirmation, but the Marines' orders and sudden retreat made the answer obvious.
"He's probably the first man in history to force the entire Marine force to back down by himself."
Tokikake was unusually serious, helplessness filling his eyes.
"I've met him twice."
Gion thought back briefly, then spoke in a quiet voice.
"Why does someone like him even exist?"
Cyrus's strength had already gone far beyond anything she could understand.
The Emperors of the New World had all been terrifying in their own right, but none of them could defeat the Marines outright or force them into a retreat like this, even with their enormous crews and territories.
The Marines had only refrained from launching full-scale campaigns against those pirates because of the consequences such wars would bring, along with their limited control over the New World.
But now…
"When this is all over, will you finally accept my proposal?"
Tokikake suddenly asked.
"Vice Admiral Chaton!"
The Marines working nearby nearly dropped what they were holding.
"Sir, that is not something you should be saying right now!"
Gion did not react at all.
Similar conversations were taking place across the other warships.
Most of Marine Headquarters' officers were quietly questioning everything they believed about the balance of power in the world.
And the man they were all discussing had already entered Wano.
…
Wano Country.
Compared with the country Cyrus remembered, Wano had become a scorched wasteland.
Kaido's demonic infection had already torn the nation apart.
The monsters that followed had ravaged what remained, and the Marines' recent operations had only added to the destruction.
Cyrus stepped forward, leaving a chain of afterimages behind him as he vanished and reappeared far in the distance.
His Observation Haki spread across the entire country.
The Flower Capital had been completely destroyed. The traces left behind by rivers of magma were impossible to miss.
Akainu's work.
Cyrus floated above the ruins, flames circling his body.
He looked down at the monsters gradually gathering below, then turned his attention toward the distant coastline near Kuri on the opposite side of Wano.
A conspicuous island had collapsed into the sea there, with half of a shattered giant skull still visible above the water.
"Interesting."
A flicker of surprise crossed Cyrus's face.
He transformed into a streak of fire and crossed the sky, arriving above Onigashima in an instant.
The island Kaido had once used as his headquarters looked as though it had fallen from the sky.
More surprisingly, several faint presences were still alive inside it.
This should have been where the demonic power first began spreading.
Which meant those people had been hiding here since then.
...
At the very bottom of Onigashima, where the island met the seafloor, several figures stood inside a sealed chamber and stared up at the stone ceiling.
"Young Master Yamato, wait a little longer. Those monsters may still be up there."
A young woman's voice tried to persuade her.
"Stop saying that, Ulti. I'm done waiting."
The white-haired woman swung the kanabo in her hands, visibly restless.
At her words, the others turned toward a tall figure leaning against the wall.
The light was too dim to make out his face, but two faint flames burned behind him.
King, one of Kaido's All-Stars.
He was the one who had brought them down here, destroyed the passage leading back up, and sealed the chamber completely.
They could not leave, but the monsters above had been unable to find them either.
King showed no intention of joining Yamato and Ulti's argument.
Seeing that, Ulti and the others turned back toward Yamato, ready to keep trying.
Then a green door suddenly appeared.
Its glow might not have stood out beneath the sun, but inside the dark underwater chamber, it immediately drew every eye.
The moment Cyrus stepped through, an enormous sword came crashing down toward his head.
The flames behind King flared bright red as he struck.
The others turned and raised their guard.
Clang!
King's blade collided with Cyrus's raised hand, producing a deafening metallic crash.
Cyrus had covered the back of his hand in Armament Haki and stopped the full-force slash without moving.
He glanced at King, then swept his gaze across the others.
King immediately retreated and landed in front of Yamato and the rest.
"Find a way out."
His voice was deadly serious.
As an experienced pirate and powerful fighter, King knew exactly how strong that strike had been.
He had not transformed, but he had not held back either.
That had been a full-power attack.
The result sent a chill through him.
Even Kaido would not have stopped that blow so casually.
But the man in front of him had.
After giving the order, King stared at Cyrus as he emerged fully from the doorway.
The moment he saw Cyrus's face clearly, his eyes widened.
"Cyrus!"
Although King had never met him in person, he had seen Cyrus's photograph in the newspapers many times.
"What?"
"That's the chairman of the Hunter Guild!"
"The man Governor Kaido was wary of!"
Yamato and the remaining Tobiroppo stared in shock after hearing King call out the name.
"Move!"
King lost his composure.
He knew this man was stronger than Kaido.
Kaido had never feared anyone who was only slightly above him. Whitebeard had been stronger than him for years, yet Kaido had repeatedly challenged him without hesitation.
But whenever Kaido spoke of Cyrus, his tone had been different.
That alone told King everything he needed to know.
If Cyrus intended to kill them, none of them would escape.
King could only hope to hold him back for a few moments and buy the others enough time to flee.
"Thunder Bagua!"
Before he could do anything else, Yamato charged.
The white-haired woman swung her smaller kanabo with black lightning wrapped around it and brought it down toward Cyrus.
"Conqueror's coating?"
Cyrus looked genuinely surprised.
Was Kaido's bloodline simply that powerful, or was Yamato's own talent extraordinary?
At her age, she had already learned such an advanced technique.
"Young Master Yamato…"
Even King stared in shock.
He knew Yamato possessed Conqueror's Haki, but he had no idea when she had learned to coat her attacks with it.
Bang!
She flew back faster than she had charged.
Yamato's Conqueror's-coated strike had barely reached Cyrus before she was launched across the chamber and slammed into the stone wall behind the others.
Crack!
Fractures spread outward from the crater her body created.
A moment later, seawater burst through.
"You bastard!"
Yamato shot back out of the hole, transforming into her hybrid form.
Her clawed hands tightened around her kanabo as she lunged at Cyrus again.
This time, she was not sent flying.
Cyrus did not even sway. He simply raised his right hand and caught her by the throat as she rushed toward him.
Yamato struggled wildly in his grip.
She swung her kanabo again and again, but each strike was repelled before it could even touch Cyrus's body.
Bang!
Cyrus raised his left arm and blocked an attack from a birdlike head.
King, now in his hybrid form, immediately followed with another strike, slashing his great sword toward the arm holding Yamato.
Another metallic crash rang through the chamber.
"That's enough."
Cyrus looked at King as he was knocked away, then casually threw Yamato aside.
She crashed into the Tobiroppo and sent the entire group tumbling across the ground before they hurriedly pushed themselves back up.
"What do you want?"
King steadied himself and asked in a low voice.
"That's a good question. I hadn't even said why I was here before all of you started attacking me."
Cyrus glanced at King, though his eyes showed faint disgust when he saw the man's birdlike hybrid form.
Even if the Dark-Dark Fruit allowed him to steal abilities, he had no interest in any Devil Fruit that would turn him into an ugly monster.
"If I beat you, then I can definitely beat that bastard Kaido!"
Yamato climbed to her feet and shouted at him.
Her voice echoed through the small underground chamber.
Cyrus glanced at the thickheaded woman.
"Then you're going to be disappointed. You'll never defeat Kaido."
Yamato froze, then immediately became furious.
The next sentence left her speechless.
"I killed him not long ago."
The chamber fell silent.
Only the sound of seawater spraying through the cracks remained.
Kaido was dead?
King and the Tobiroppo had hidden here after Kaido was transformed into a demon. They had no idea what had happened outside since then.
Hearing the news from Cyrus left their minds completely blank.
"That bastard Kaido is dead?"
Yamato looked equally stunned.
Then what had she been training so hard for?
"He turned into a monster, so I killed him."
Cyrus walked forward as he spoke, watching their dazed reactions.
"That's impossible. Kaido-san…" King suddenly objected.
Kaido had already been immensely powerful, and after that strange power possessed him, he had become even stronger.
How could he have died so easily?
They needed to get out and confirm the truth for themselves.
King's body suddenly expanded.
He spread his wings around Yamato and the others, shielding them as he launched himself toward the ceiling.
His unusual bloodline made his body extraordinarily durable, almost impossible to damage. Relying on that toughness, King drove upward with everything he had.
The rubble he had used to bury the passage shattered before him.
Then came the old underground structures beneath Onigashima, followed by the ruined remains above.
Boom!
King tore straight through the island and burst into the sky.
The moment they emerged above Onigashima, however, his entire body went rigid.
A green doorway appeared directly overhead.
Cyrus stepped through it.
A heartbeat later, King and everyone beneath his wings were driven back down even faster than they had risen.
They crashed into Onigashima with tremendous force.
The entire island shook.
Half of it had already sunk beneath the water, and the impact tilted it farther, allowing even more seawater to flood over the ruins.
"If I don't let you leave, then you aren't leaving."
Cyrus descended and looked into the enormous crater below.
His tone was calm, as though he were stating an obvious fact.
"Hah…"
Yamato crawled out from beneath King's huge wing and leaned on her kanabo, gasping for breath.
The others followed.
The durability granted by Zoan Devil Fruits certainly had its advantages.
When it came to surviving a beating, they were in a league of their own.
Cyrus looked down at the group and considered what to do with them.
When he first noticed them, he had thought about killing them while he was here.
But Kaido was already dead, so whether these people lived or not made little difference.
Even if Kaido were still alive, none of them would have posed any threat to Cyrus.
Under his calm gaze, everyone below tensed nervously.
The kick King had taken had shattered the bones in his chest. The only reason he was still alive was his extraordinary physique.
Cyrus vanished.
He reappeared at the bottom of the crater, and another green door opened beside him.
Before Yamato could stand, Cyrus kicked her straight through it.
"Young Master Yamato!"
The others shouted in alarm.
Their voices stopped almost immediately.
With several more kicks, Cyrus sent the Tobiroppo and King through the doorway as well.
He dusted off his hands, then shot upward.
Flames carried him above the clouds.
From there, Cyrus looked down at all of Wano spread beneath him and brought his hands together.
The air began to warp.
Space itself twisted around his palms from the extreme heat gathering there.
An unbearably bright white light erupted between his hands.
Even the light spilling from it dyed the surrounding clouds until the entire sky seemed to glow.
From a distance, it looked as though the clouds above Wano had become luminous.
The first to notice were naturally the Marine warships hurrying to leave the surrounding waters.
The phenomenon was impossible to miss unless someone was blind.
But what exactly was it?
Many understood that Cyrus had begun his attack, yet no one knew what he intended to do.
Sengoku, Garp, and the others walked onto the deck and stared toward Wano.
Before long, the glowing clouds vanished completely.
In their place hung a sun.
It floated above Wano, so painfully bright that anyone who looked directly at it had to turn away.
Endless light and heat poured from it.
Even from the retreating warships, the temperature rose sharply.
The unbearable heat scorched Wano and the surrounding sea below, while distant News Coos frantically snapped photograph after photograph.