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On the screen above, facing the horrifying sight of Teach simultaneously wielding the powers of darkness and tremors, the remaining members of the Whitebeard Pirates had expressions filled with bewilderment and utter disbelief.
"How is this possible… how could he possess two abilities at the same time!"
"That's our old man's power! He's defiling our old man's power!"
Anger, grief, and a fear born from having their understanding of the world overturned intertwined in the hearts of every Whitebeard Pirates crew member.
They couldn't comprehend why that ironclad rule had failed on Teach.
However, amid the chaos, the 1st division commander and ship doctor Marco suddenly raised his head.
In those eyes, dimmed slightly from exhaustion and sorrow, a flash of realization and an even deeper solemnity suddenly appeared.
"No… perhaps it's not entirely impossible."
Marco's low voice rang out, drawing the attention of his surrounding comrades.
He stared fixedly at the laughing figure on the screen and said word by word: "For ordinary people, something like this is naturally impossible.
But have you all forgotten? Teach… that man's body structure has always been different from ours! He's an 'abnormality'!"
These words were like throwing a spark into smoldering ashes, instantly igniting long-buried memories in many veteran crew members.
Those who had spent decades on the same ship with Teach showed looks of understanding mixed with even greater complexity.
"That's right… Marco's correct."
"That monster… he never needed sleep."
"I remember, that bizarre constitution of his…"
Fragmented memories were pieced together.
Marshall D. Teach—this man who had lurked in the Whitebeard Pirates for decades—his superhuman endurance, his lack of need for sleep, and certain unspeakable physiological anomalies…
What had once been mere odd rumors on the ship now seemed to serve as the footnote explaining how he could break the iron rule.
His body itself was one of the greatest anomalies on this sea!
He was an abnormality among abnormalities!
It was as if he had been prepared from birth as a vessel capable of bearing "two devils"!
"Zehahahahaha!! Feel it! Let Marineford sink into the sea!"
On the screen, Teach continued laughing wildly, the powers of darkness and tremors intertwining in his hands, further ravaging the already devastated Marine Headquarters.
He seemed to already see his future ascending the throne and controlling everything.
However, extreme joy begets sorrow!
"Your evil ambitions end here!"
A deep shout filled with boundless fury rang out like a great bell, resounding across the battlefield.
Dazzling golden light erupted from midair, instantly dispelling some of the oppressive feeling brought by the darkness.
Everyone looked up to see Fleet Admiral Sengoku, now transformed into a golden giant Buddha—majestic and awe-inspiring, like a true deity descended to earth, carrying an overwhelming aura that suppressed everything!
Without the slightest hesitation, Sengoku in his Buddha form swung a palm toward the arrogant and rampant Blackbeard Pirates below, unleashing a terrifying shockwave!
Boom—!!!
The golden shockwave pressed down like a tangible mountain!
The air was compressed into explosive roars, and the ground cracked inch by inch under the impact.
The entire Blackbeard Pirates crew, who had just been reveling in the joy of double the power, had no time to mount an effective response before being completely overwhelmed by this destructive force!
"Pfft!"
Screams and the sound of vomiting blood mixed together.
Whether it was the arrogant Burgess, the sinister Laffitte, the many newly joined pirates, or Teach himself who had just acquired the Tremor-Tremor Fruit…
At this moment, they were all like scarecrows whipped up by a gale, mouths spraying large amounts of blood as they were brutally blasted away, crashing heavily into distant ruins in utter disarray!
"Hahahahaha!!!"
In God Valley, Golden Lion Shiki saw this scene and immediately burst into unbridled, gleeful mockery: "This Blackbeard thought he was also Garp's grandson or something?
"I'm dying of laughter, hahahaha! That old Sengoku really knows how to pick who to hit hard!"
He laughed while slapping his thigh forcefully. Though he knew these were battles in different contexts, the contrast was simply too stark.
"You guys look—compared to this punch that beat Blackbeard now, the one he threw at Luffy on the execution platform earlier was basically just tickling his grandson. Way too gentle… pffthahaha!"
Golden Lion's delightfully malicious teasing instantly ignited the atmosphere in God Valley.
The originally heavy mood caused by the dual-fruit ability suddenly eased a little.
Many powerhouses, including some Marine officers, couldn't help but curl their lips upward, even letting out low chuckles.
Of course they knew Sengoku would never show mercy to enemies, and his earlier attack on Luffy at the execution platform had absolutely been aimed to kill.
But the screen juxtaposed these two attacks side by side, and the "difference" in visual impact—
One left Luffy nearly unconscious but with no obvious external injuries, while the other sent the entire Blackbeard Pirates crew vomiting blood and flying backward…
It was simply too dramatic, so it was no wonder Golden Lion seized on it to mock relentlessly.
"Looks like even the Fleet Admiral adjusts the strength of his punches depending on whether he's beating his 'own' grandson or a real villain!"
At that moment, the captain of the Pineapple Pirates, Polo Gram, suddenly chimed in with a cheeky grin.
This remark immediately triggered an even louder wave of laughter.
"Tch, that Shiki guy…"
Garp folded his arms, his face somewhat darkened, but unusually he didn't retort.
He looked at Teach on the screen, beaten and vomiting blood on the ground, then recalled the blow Luffy had taken earlier. For some reason his chest felt stuffy, so he could only viciously bite into the senbei his subordinate had just given him.
Even Rocks, whose face had remained gloomy the whole time, twitched the corner of his mouth almost imperceptibly when he heard "Garp's grandson."
He looked at his son on the screen, heavily wounded by Sengoku's single strike, and the complex emotions in his eyes deepened further.
Whether it was disappointment at his son's overconfidence or contemplation of something deeper, no one knew.
On the screen, Sengoku's decisive strike had temporarily curbed the Blackbeard Pirates' arrogance.
[However, Teach—who had obtained dual Devil Fruit powers—would absolutely not give up so easily. Meanwhile, at the bay entrance, Sakazuki's pursuit of Luffy continued, and the ice-sealed pirates had yet to escape danger…]
[After Sengoku blasted Blackbeard and the others away, his towering, golden, magnificent figure stood like a guardian deity, helping the Marines on the ground regain their fighting spirit!]
The brilliant golden light had not yet fully dissipated. Sengoku, in his form of the golden giant Buddha, stood atop the ruins like an unshakable mountain.
His majestic gaze swept across the battlefield, and his voice carried clearly through the amplification Den Den Mushi into every Marine's ears: "The fortress is destroyed… then we'll just build another one!
But this place—Marineford, an island almost at the center of the world—our presence here holds extraordinary significance!"
Sengoku's voice was steady and powerful, carrying a magical quality that soothed panic!
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