The first half of the Grand Line, hundreds of nautical miles away from the Kalga Kingdom.
A large warship flying the Marine Headquarters flag sailed slowly across the endless blue sea.
Compared to Sakazuki's ship, where even the sailors seemed to stand straighter, this ship felt much more relaxed. The sailors worked at an easy pace, and no one on deck looked as tense as Sakazuki's crew.
Under a sun umbrella in a corner of the deck.
Borsalino, wearing a yellow striped suit and a Justice coat, lay on a beach chair with his legs crossed. He held a steaming cup of tea in one hand. His brown sunglasses had slipped low on his nose as he enjoyed the afternoon sun.
"Vice Admiral Borsalino!"
A Marine adjutant hurried over with a nautical chart in hand. He saluted, then stopped for a second before speaking.
"Oh, it's Terry."
Borsalino did not even sit up.
"Didn't I tell you? This kind of weather is perfect for meditation. Don't bother me unless the sky is falling."
"But, Vice Admiral..."
Adjutant Terry pointed to a stretch of sea ahead and asked in confusion.
"You just ordered the ship to suddenly change course and head toward the Kalga Kingdom at full speed. That takes us far off our planned G-12 Branch patrol route. If it delays our patrol mission..."
"Ah, that."
Borsalino sighed. He slowly put down his teacup, took off his sunglasses, and rubbed his face.
"I can't help it. I didn't actually want to go there. That place is far and remote, and they don't even have any good local food."
"But Fleet Admiral Sengoku called personally just now, and he sounded extremely angry."
He put his sunglasses back on and pointed toward the Transponder Snail.
"The Fleet Admiral said a Celestial Dragon sent out a distress signal over there, and it's an emergency. If we don't hurry over and check the situation immediately, our entire crew's wages and bonuses will be completely cut next month."
Saying this, Borsalino spread his hands.
"So we don't starve next month, I had to compromise."
"Wh-what?!"
The adjutant froze.
Cut the entire crew's wages?
That was too cruel!
"Since it's an absolute order from the Fleet Admiral, we must move at full speed!"
The adjutant turned around instantly and shouted at the sailors on deck.
"Did you all hear that? Full speed to the Kalga Kingdom!"
That was a lie.
On the phone earlier, Sengoku had clearly said he would cut Borsalino's wages and bonuses.
As for the salaries of these regular soldiers, Sengoku, as Fleet Admiral, did not have the free time or the malicious intent to deduct their pay.
However, since they had to work overtime, Borsalino had to find a reason to motivate his subordinates.
He had found the fastest way to make the crew move.
But this relaxed atmosphere did not last long.
As the warship sailed at full speed and got closer to the Kalga Kingdom's waters, the surrounding sea began to change.
The originally calm surface churned with massive black waves. Strong winds hit the sails, and a sharp metallic smell filled the air.
Even the compass spun wildly.
Borsalino set his cup down.
He slowly stood up from the lounge chair, walked to the front of the deck with his hands in his pockets, and adjusted his sunglasses.
"This feeling..."
Borsalino muttered.
He looked through the layers of sea fog.
At the end of the sea ahead, above the island of that supposedly unknown small country, a huge black thundercloud hung over the sky.
That was not natural weather.
The thick clouds formed a strange spiral. Black-red lightning moved through them again and again, lighting up the sky above the island.
That was not ordinary weather.
A Logia user had changed the sky over the island.
Even from this distance, static prickled over Borsalino's skin.
"Oh, this is quite something."
Borsalino pushed up his sunglasses.
For once, he stopped joking.
As a Logia Glint-Glint Fruit user, he could sense this kind of elemental power more sharply than most people.
Under that thundercloud, a death match was taking place.
And something was wrong with Sakazuki's side of the fight.
"Terry."
Borsalino spoke suddenly.
"Yes! Vice Admiral!"
The adjutant quickly ran over. Looking at the terrifying weather in the distance, his legs were trembling.
"Stop right here."
Borsalino waved a hand.
"You all cannot intervene in a battlefield like that."
"Huh? Then you..."
"I'll go over by myself."
The moment he finished speaking.
Buzz.
Borsalino's body broke apart and disappeared.
Golden particles burst across the deck, gathered into a beam of light, and shot straight toward the center of the thunderstorm ahead.
...
Above the ruins of Blackstone Town, Kalga Kingdom.
A golden streak of light flashed across the high sky.
"Seriously, what in the world is Sakazuki doing?"
Within the light, Borsalino flew at high speed while complaining to himself.
"Even if he ran into someone annoying, he shouldn't be making such a huge mess... It's like he wants to sink the entire island."
Just as he thought that.
Suddenly!
His Observation Haki sensed something flying straight at him.
"Hm?!"
Before Borsalino could even see what it was, a dark red figure came flying backward through the air.
It crossed the distance almost as soon as he sensed it.
"Oh, what a scary welcoming ceremony."
Out of instinct, Borsalino raised his index finger, and a golden light gathered at his fingertip.
He planned to shatter the flying object with a laser.
However.
Right as the light was about to shoot from his fingertip, the glow let him see who that dark red figure was.
Borsalino stopped moving for a beat.
The laser at his fingertip dimmed.
"Sa... Sakazuki?!"
It was Sakazuki.
The same man who always stood like nothing on the sea could move him.
But right now, Sakazuki was badly wounded.
Someone had knocked him up from the ruins below.
His Justice coat had long since been torn into scraps. Several blackened blade wounds crossed his body. Half his face was stained red with blood, and the magma around him flickered instead of rolling steadily.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
Borsalino killed the laser before it fired.
He changed his posture in midair. His body scattered into countless light particles, forming a net of light that caught the flying figure.
Crash!
High in the sky, golden light and magma collided.
Sakazuki hit him like a falling cannonball wrapped in magma.
The force of the impact, along with the leftover electrical current clinging to Sakazuki's wounds, shocked Borsalino's arms until they went numb. For a moment, he almost failed to hold his elemental body together.
Boom!
The impact sent both of them spinning out of control through the air before they crashed into the ruined buildings below.
The crash plowed a deep trench through the ground. They broke through three broken stone walls before finally stopping.
Dust rose over the crash site, and broken rocks flew into the air, forming a massive crater.
"Cough... cough..."
Inside the smoke and dust.
Borsalino held his aching back and climbed out of the deep pit.
"Ouch... my back..."
He patted the dust off his yellow striped suit and looked at Sakazuki beside him, who was kneeling on one knee and breathing heavily.
"I say... Sakazuki."
Borsalino adjusted his crooked sunglasses and looked him over again.
"If the new recruits at Headquarters saw you looking like this, they would probably get so scared they'd quit the Marines."
"Who exactly could beat you up this badly?"
"Even if Whitebeard came, he wouldn't beat you up this much, right?"
Sakazuki kept facing the dust ahead.
He ignored Kizaru's teasing and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
His magma arm, which was only half left, slowly moved and repaired itself, making a sizzling sound.
Sakazuki spat out blood, then said,
"Borsalino..."
Sakazuki wiped blood from the corner of his mouth before speaking.
"Don't be careless. That kid... can no longer be measured by normal Marine standards."
"His speed, physical strength, and Haki... all of them are above mine."
Borsalino's hand paused on his sunglasses.
He knew Sakazuki too well.
This man was arrogant, tough, and confident to the extreme.
For Sakazuki to personally admit that Aiden was above him was not a simple matter of strength.
It meant the fight had already gone far beyond what Borsalino had expected.
Before Borsalino could ask further, the rolling dust ahead split apart.
Zzt.
A blue-white electric arc cut through the dim space.
Aiden appeared less than thirty meters in front of them.
His Justice coat had been damaged by the fierce battle. The edges were burned by magma, but it still rested firmly on his shoulders.
The word "Justice" on his back stood out under the electric light curling around him.
Aiden's arms hung naturally at his sides.
Oto was in his right hand.
Kogarashi was in his left.
Wild electric currents flowed down both blades and sank into the ground, crushing small stones under his feet.
Aiden looked from Sakazuki to Borsalino.
Sakazuki.
Borsalino.
Two of Marine Headquarters' strongest Vice Admirals stood in front of him.
One represented magma that could destroy everything in its path.
The other represented the speed of light.
At that moment, these two men stood there as his opponents.
Aiden did not feel fear.
Instead, his grip tightened around both swords.
If he only had to face Sakazuki, he was certain he could defeat him.
But now Borsalino had joined the fight.
Borsalino was different from Sakazuki. He did not rely on brute force. His speed, movement, and range could change the whole battlefield.
With him added, the fight would no longer be simple.
However.
This was exactly what Aiden wanted.
He had killed a Celestial Dragon here today.
From the moment he made that choice, he had never planned for things to end peacefully.
Rather than being hunted down like a criminal later and dragged into someone else's trap, it was better to settle the matter here.
He wanted this battle to show the Marines one thing.
His value was not something the World Government could simply throw away.
In this chaotic era, where pirates were everywhere and the old order was already rotting, Aiden wanted Marine Headquarters to understand that he had the strength to change the sea.
He wanted to use this battle to drive a crack into the bond between the Marines and the World Government.
Not with speeches.
Not with excuses.
With power.
He wanted to force the Marines to make a choice.
Was a dead Celestial Dragon worth losing someone with his strength?
Would they throw him away just to protect the World Government's dignity?
Would they keep serving as the World Government's shield, even after seeing what that shield protected?
Or would they swallow their pride, protect him at all costs, and pretend this incident had not reached the point of no return?
"Oh, how scary."
Borsalino looked Aiden up and down.
Electricity cracked around Aiden and crawled across the broken ground.
"When I saw the commotion from a distance earlier, I thought Linlin and Kaido had teamed up and attacked."
"I didn't expect the one causing all this trouble to be our famous Reaper, Rear Admiral Aiden."
Borsalino still kept his hands in his pockets, but his shoulders were no longer loose.
"Aiden, we are colleagues. Why make things so difficult? Fleet Admiral Sengoku already has enough headaches to deal with."
Aiden gave a short laugh.
"Drop the act, Borsalino."
He raised both swords slightly, pointing the tips toward the two men in front of him.
"Since Sengoku sent you here, it wasn't so you could tell boring jokes."
"And since you also plan to arrest me..."
Aiden took one step forward.
Lightning burst from his body and struck the ground around him.
Above his head, black-red lightning moved through the thundercloud again and again.
"Then attack together with Sakazuki."
"If you think adding yourself is enough to beat me, go ahead and try."
Those words were arrogant to the extreme.
Facing Sakazuki and Borsalino at the same time, Aiden did not back down.
He challenged them first.
"You... bastard..."
Sakazuki pressed one hand against the wound on his chest.
Magma leaked between his fingers.
Being looked down on like this by a junior was absolute humiliation for a proud man like him.
The last trace of Borsalino's lazy smile disappeared.
He slowly raised his right hand.
Golden light gathered above his fingertip. It grew brighter and sharper until it formed a crossbeam brighter than the sun.
"Seriously... young people these days speak so aggressively."
Borsalino pushed his sunglasses up.
Aiden's lightning-covered figure reflected in the lenses.
"Since you are so confident, Aiden, I will have to get a little serious."
He let out a small sigh.
"Looks like I'm destined to miss dinner tonight."
Boom!
The moment his words fell, lightning, magma, and light erupted at the same time.
Blue-white lightning.
Dark red magma.
Blinding golden light.
The three colors split the sky above Blackstone Town and pressed against each other.
At that moment, the battle truly became a Marine civil war.
Almost at the exact same instant, the three men disappeared from their spots.
Borsalino moved first.
Even though he had been joking a moment ago, his attack was the fastest.
His body turned into a golden zigzag and crossed the distance in an instant.
He appeared above Aiden's head.
His leg was covered in light as he kicked down toward Aiden from above.
Sakazuki attacked from the front almost at the same time.
His magma arm expanded several times over, dragging heat and sulfur through the air as it smashed toward Aiden's chest.
Caught between light from above and magma from the front, Aiden did not retreat.
He stepped forward instead.
Lightning burst around his arms as he swung both swords.
Kogarashi swept upward.
Oto drove forward.
Clang!
Borsalino's light-covered kick struck Kogarashi's blackened blade.
At the same time, Sakazuki's compressed magma fist crashed directly into Oto's lightning-wrapped edge.
Lightning, light, and magma collided at one point.
The impact swelled into a bright, unstable ball of heat and electricity.
For one breath, the three forces pressed against each other without giving way.
Then the delayed boom shook the ruins.
Boom!
The blast tore through the broken cloud layer above Blackstone Town.
The three figures touched and separated at once.
Sakazuki dropped heavily to the ground.
Magma spread under his feet and boiled outward, turning the ruins around him into a red, burning lake.
Borsalino broke apart into countless light particles and re-formed in the sky.
Although the first exchange had ended evenly, Borsalino adjusted his sunglasses and stopped smiling.
Aiden's strength and Haki were far beyond what he expected.
But...
"Strength means nothing if you can't hit me."
Borsalino lifted both hands in front of his chest.
On this sea, no one was faster than light yet.
Since he could not suppress Aiden with power, he would use speed and distance instead.
Light gathered between Borsalino's palms, then shot out in thin golden paths.
Those paths bounced between broken glass, polished metal, and even the dust hanging in the air.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield became a maze of light.
Golden lines crossed above, below, and around Aiden.
They built a tight net of light that wrapped the entire space around him.
Sakazuki understood at once.
Although he and Borsalino had almost opposite personalities, they had fought through the same era.
They did not need words for this kind of coordination.
Sakazuki punched with both magma arms.
Two huge waves of molten rock surged across the ground, cutting off Aiden's escape routes below and forcing him to face Borsalino's speed in the air.
"Oh, Aiden, can you still see clearly now?"
Borsalino's words bounced through the light paths from every direction.
The echoes overlapped, making it impossible to tell where his real body was.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Lasers shot out from blind spots.
Every beam aimed at Aiden's head, chest, or joints.
In the center of the light net, electricity snapped across Aiden's body again and again.
His black hair lifted from the current around him.
The lasers came from every side.
Aiden lowered his head and stopped relying on sight.
Light was indeed fast.
Fast enough that even his Observation Haki required extreme focus to catch it.
But light still belonged to the same world of waves and fields.
If Borsalino wanted to turn the battlefield into paths of light, Aiden would disturb the space those paths had to cross.
Zzt.
The electricity around Aiden changed.
It no longer only burst outward with destructive power.
Instead, it compressed around his body and formed a tight magnetic field.
The laser beams curved the moment they entered its range.
The light bent slightly, as if passing through burning air.
All of those deadly attacks slid past Aiden's body and blasted into the ruins behind him, throwing dust and broken stone into the air.
"What?!"
Borsalino missed his next step inside the light path.
His aim had not been wrong.
The light itself had bent.
Borsalino adjusted his sunglasses.
His body reflected off a broken mirror and materialized behind Aiden's rear side.
This time, he did not use long-range lasers.
Golden light compressed around his right leg.
Borsalino kicked from Aiden's blind side, the light around his leg cutting through the air as it dropped toward Aiden.
The light-covered kick cut down toward the back of Aiden's neck with a sharp crack in the air.
At that distance, the kick should have landed before anyone could move.
Even with Observation Haki, there should not have been enough time to react.
However.
Just before the kick touched him, that strange field appeared again.
Borsalino felt his leg drift off course.
It was not that he had kicked wrong.
The light around his leg bent inside the field, pulled slightly away from its original path.
His kick went straight toward Aiden's left hand.
And that hand was already waiting there.
Smack.
A soft sound echoed through the battlefield.
For a heartbeat, neither man moved.
The smile left Borsalino's face.
His right leg, covered in light and strong enough to shatter steel, had been caught by the ankle.
Aiden held it with one hand wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki.
Aiden opened his eyes.
His grip tightened.
"Inside my field, even light can be pulled off course."
His fingers dug harder around Borsalino's ankle. Armament Haki locked down the elemental body before Borsalino could scatter into light.
"Your speed won't save you here."
Boom!
Lightning burst from Aiden's left arm.
He planted his feet in the air with crackling current, twisted his waist, and swung Borsalino down by the leg.
He did not give Borsalino time to escape.
The golden figure was hurled straight toward Sakazuki, who was charging in from the front.
"What?!"
Sakazuki saw Borsalino flying toward him and tried to change the path of his punch.
But the magma around his arm had already gathered too much force.
"Bastard!"
Sakazuki cursed and forced his arm aside.
Crash!
The heavy magma punch brushed past Borsalino's body and hit empty air, but the two Vice Admirals still crashed into each other.
The force sent them flying together.
Their bodies smashed into a nearby mountain, and part of the slope cracked and collapsed, throwing dust into the sky.
"Cough, cough..."
In the rubble, Borsalino climbed out with his yellow striped suit torn and dust on his shoulders.
A thin line of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
"What... incredible strength..."
He rubbed his nearly crushed ankle.
For once, he stopped joking.
Aiden had caught him mid-kick.
That changed the whole fight.
His speed advantage was no longer safe.
If Aiden could bend his path and drag him out of light-speed movement, the rest of the battle would become a long, brutal close-range struggle.
"Stop spacing out, Borsalino!"
Sakazuki pushed away a boulder pressing on him.
Half his body turned into rolling magma. The heat around him grew stronger than before.
"That field can't be free. Keep forcing him to use it!"
"Attack together. Wear him down!"
The two Vice Admirals attacked again.
This time, neither of them held back.
Magma spread across the ground like a burning tide, while golden light bullets poured down from above like heavy rain.
The center of Blackstone Town disappeared under magma, light, and lightning.
Aiden held his ground in the middle of it, both swords moving without pause.
"Wear me down?"
Aiden gave a short laugh.
He swung Oto and Kogarashi in front of him again and again, cutting apart magma and deflecting light.
"Then let's see who falls first."
The battle broke out again.
But as the fight grew more violent, Aiden frowned.
Sakazuki had stopped holding back. Every strike aimed to destroy everything around him. The falling magma fists kept shaking the island and spreading cracks through the ground.
If left alone, the island itself might start breaking apart.
The civilians in Blackstone Town had already escaped, but there were still tens of thousands of people in other parts of Kalga.
Aiden killed when he chose to, but he did not kill for no reason.
Dragging innocent people down with him just to kill his enemies?
Only beasts did things like that.
He did not want innocent blood on his hands.
"Troublesome."
Aiden cursed under his breath.
While dealing with the attacks from Sakazuki and Borsalino, he had to spare part of his power.
He lowered one sword.
Fine currents spread from the blade into the ground.
Zzt.
Countless thin lines of electricity ran across the broken streets, reached the cracked edges of the battlefield, and locked into the ground.
The currents pulled the broken foundations together and held them in place.
At the same time, a faint blue-white wall rose around the battlefield, blocking Sakazuki's overflowing magma inside the circle and stopping the flames from spreading outward.
Sakazuki saw it.
For a man who believed in Absolute Justice, that sight was humiliation.
The criminal who had killed a Celestial Dragon was fighting two of Marine Headquarters' strongest Vice Admirals.
And while doing that, he was still using part of his strength to protect the battlefield from spreading.
Was Aiden saying he still had power to spare?
Or was he showing that the Marines were destroying the town while he protected it?
"Who are you looking down on?! Aiden!!!"
Sakazuki shouted.
His entire body surged forward as a mass of magma shaped like a hound, charging straight at Aiden.
He wanted to tear through Aiden's defense.
Aiden did not explain.
He only swung his sword.
Then he swung again.
This battle was destined to be long.
...
Time passed in blasts of magma, light, and thunder.
They fought through noon, through dusk, through the cold night, and into the next morning.
The center of Blackstone Town had sunk more than ten meters. The original streets were gone, replaced by deep pits filled with cooled magma.
Even Sakazuki, known for his stamina, had started breathing heavily.
Aiden kept forcing them back from every angle, and the two Vice Admirals had to keep their focus and Haki raised at all times.
The constant pressure burned through their stamina faster than a normal fight.
The magma flow on Sakazuki's left arm had clearly slowed. More than a dozen charred blade cuts crossed his body.
Borsalino was not much better.
His brown sunglasses had long since shattered. His yellow striped suit was torn and ragged, and burn marks from electric shocks covered his body.
His movements had slowed.
As for Aiden, he was not completely unharmed either.
His Justice coat had finally shattered in the battle, revealing his bare upper body marked by burns and cuts.
He had taken several hits.
Sweat slid down his cheeks and dripped onto his sizzling blades.
Maintaining his second-stage state for so long, while also controlling the battlefield, had taken a heavy toll on him.
But the lightning around his body still forced Sakazuki and Borsalino to stay on guard.
It had not weakened.
...
Another dusk passed, and night fell again.
A cold full moon rose above the burning island.
The battle continued.
However, the pace had changed.
They were no longer clashing dozens of times in a single second. Now, each exchange came every few breaths.
By then, the fight had become a test of who could still move, block, and strike.
Sakazuki and Borsalino stood back to back on a raised rock.
Both were panting heavily.
"Hah... Hah..."
Borsalino wiped blood and sweat from his face.
He looked at Aiden and let out a tired laugh.
"Hey... Sakazuki..."
He wiped blood from his mouth before speaking again.
"It's been exactly two days and a night now..."
"Is this guy... even human?"
"How does it look like his stamina still isn't running out?"
They had thought Aiden's high-intensity state would not last more than two hours.
They were wrong.
Not only had Aiden lasted, but as time passed, his lightning became steadier, not weaker.
Sakazuki did not answer.
He stopped wasting words.
He knew that if he did not put everything on the line today, the two of them would leave behind a disgrace Marine Headquarters would never forget.
When morning light finally reached the ruined town, a new day arrived.
Blackstone Town was completely gone.
The huge pits that had been filled with cooled magma were blasted open again, but the battle still had not ended.
Aiden slowly raised his twin swords.
The blades caught the morning light.
He was tired, but his hands were still steady on both sword hilts.
"What's wrong?"
Aiden spoke through the smoke.
"You two don't seem able to keep fighting."
Sakazuki and Borsalino looked at the lightning-covered figure in the morning light.
For the first time, neither of them could see a clean way to bring him down.
Just how long was this nightmare going to last?
-----------------------
Note; Thank you to everyone who waited for me, and I'm sorry for taking so long to update on WebNovel.
I thought my PC was finally fixed, but it started getting blue screens again, so I couldn't upload the chapters properly.
However, I found out that if I use a different browser on my phone, the chapters can be pasted without any problems. So I'll be publishing them from there from now on.
I'm sorry again for the delay.
Patreon hasn't had this problem because the chapters there are scheduled automatically, and there is also a moderator taking care of everything.
Thank you for your patience and support.
Special Thanks to Everyone Who Has Supported Me ❤️
IcedApple • Azua Cortes Juan Carlos • V1789 • kymehz • Alan • Tim K • Endhoz Sandy • Baltazar Gomez • carl hoffmen • Mahdi • Albeiro Bolivar Romero • Pixie
Qsk • Aden Sandefur • Kuro OnceX • Jorge serafin González Patiño
Sturg22 • Andrew Do • Piers • Jaygo • Zolager28 • Shawn • Caracolan • WanderingROB • Vester 1 • Adam Lewis • Sorawis Klommek • tsubasawings
Flipoverrr54 • Warlord • Jack Master • Falcon Heartnet • Turtle • Aiden Mueldener • Noirenth • Nanashi _99 • Acheron13 • Dragonman97 • Jose Ángel Sánchez Jiménez • Edroth • HenryArchon • joshua stadt • Anikong • Damano66
Unknown_Sensei • ChrisKensei • Mickey • Zain Haider • Big Brizzz • Nacho chiciliano • nanonymousgr • CAT M • TJ Maynor • Tu • TengokuOtoko • PumkinKing • Savage_samurai • 13KillerShadows • Alex • Zodiac • Yuusha • 0_0 • Udantha Indusara • Amy Young • Mike • Robson Gouveia • Jacob • Christian Morales-Lopez • OmniSLEET • Nova Ray • Omen • Bgunner11
Willver Cespedes • Demon • ScaredKrieg • Xedie • Yuusuke353 • Henco • Edward Brian • Asmo • Requiem_Phantom • Isaac Alkenbrack • Shashank Kumar
Franco • Looki1297 • Shura • LimitLess • David Nguyen • SPabloS • Sai Manoj Nelavalli • Luca August • Glen • Calvin