Under normal circumstances, the death of a pirate with a bounty worth several hundred million in the West Blue would absolutely count as major news.
Even after the beli had gone through a period of inflation, breaking the hundred-million mark was still an indirect certification of strength.
A pirate at that level would not simply be cannon fodder even in the New World—at the very least, they would be a recognizable name, an NPC important enough to be remembered.
But in the current God Valley region, such a matter seemed insignificant. Pirates stronger than Valentine were everywhere, and all of them were advancing toward God Valley.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amid fierce cannon fire, in the eastern waters of God Valley, a warship sank beneath the sea wrapped in smoke and flames, immediately drawing the attention of the Marines stationed on the island.
"It's the Rocks Pirates!!!"
"No! Not just them! A lot of infamous pirates are approaching too!!"
The pirate flags fluttering in the wind identified each group clearly. Even for rear admirals, let alone ordinary soldiers, a terrible premonition rose in their hearts.
"Fire! Fire! Stop them! Don't let them land!!"
Boom! Boom!
The other warships adjusted their angles and poured artillery fire toward the ship of the Rocks Pirates charging at the front.
But the effect was negligible.
The Rocks Pirates' ship was several times larger than those large naval warships and built from top-grade materials.
No one aboard even bothered intercepting the shells. Relying purely on its size and durability, the ship charged straight through the Marine bombardment, smashing and overturning the warships in its path.
Then it rammed directly onto the shore.
"Useless, Marines! Rocks Pirates—follow me!"
Rocks charged onto the island first, and the pirates' landing immediately threw the Celestial Dragons into panic.
"This is terrible!! Pirates are here! What are you useless Marines doing?!"
"If we get hurt even a little, every one of you will be executed!!"
But this was only the beginning.
Before the Marine officer in charge of receiving reports could issue orders, bad news began arriving one after another.
"Report! Pirates sighted on the west coast—it's the Roger Pirates! They've landed too!"
"Report! Northern shore—"
"Report! The Celestial Dragons demand—"
One report after another left the Marines on the island overwhelmed.
Forget him—even his entire fleet combined might not be enough to handle a single major officer from any of the pirate crews being announced over the communications line.
And now those pirate crews were arriving in clusters, like the end of the world had arrived.
Worse still, they were responsible for protecting the Celestial Dragons, and those Celestial Dragons gave them no peace whatsoever.
One moment they demanded that slaves be evacuated.
The next, they demanded the prizes be protected.
For the Marines, the only small comfort was that at least some true elites remained among the Celestial Dragons.
Figarland Garling, then commander of the God's Knights, understood clearly that the Marines could not handle the invading pirates, so he personally took over combat operations against them, leaving the Marines to focus only on evacuating the other Celestial Dragons.
The Marine reinforcements led by Garp also landed quickly, giving the island's Marines a faint spark of hope.
But no matter how one looked at it, the island had already been completely swallowed by war.
With multiple factions colliding, each carrying their own motives, God Valley had become a nightmare battlefield with nowhere left to run.
And attacks did not necessarily come from enemies.
"Newgate! You bastard—was that strike just now aimed at me?!"
"Who did I slash? Wasn't I hitting the enemy?"
Facing Charlotte Linlin's accusation, Whitebeard offered his explanation and pointed at the member of the God's Knights beside him who had just been cut in half at the waist, proving he had not swung at random.
But that explanation did not convince Linlin.
"You think I'm stupid?! I almost died there! Want to settle who's stronger right here?!"
"No interest. Just how many Marines are on this island? And how many pirates have landed?!"
A crowd of ambitious pirates eager for fame launched attacks on the Rocks Pirates members one after another, while the Rocks crew gradually split into several smaller groups, temporarily joining forces in different areas.
Even if crewmates from the same ship were not fully trustworthy, they were at least somewhat useful.
"Rocks has vanished. Why is Nereus missing too?! Babel! Where'd he go?! Did he go steal Shakky first?"
Deadwood and Oto flashed in the Golden Lion's hands, their afterimages slicing through the air, every swing accompanied by a flying slash.
Yet the enemies before him seemed endless.
The moment one group died, another appeared immediately.
Golden Lion had a rough idea where everyone else was, but Nereus—who had left midway—remained unusually mysterious.
So he turned to ask Babel, the fellow fish-man.
"How would I know? Big Bro doesn't need to report his movements to me! And stop using that brain full of dirty thoughts to guess what Big Bro's doing! He definitely has something important to handle!"
Babel punched aside an enemy charging from the flank, but Golden Lion clearly latched onto the wrong point.
"You called my Shakky dirty thoughts? Your taste really is broken too!!"
"Enough arguing! Nereus is over in that direction!"
Kaido pointed toward one side of the island.
Nothing could actually be seen there, but the few present all instinctively looked down at the ground.
The corpses of the pirates they had just killed were undergoing a strange transformation.
The blood inside those bodies seemed drawn by some mysterious force, flowing out through wounds one after another.
Blood gathered into streams, eerily moving in a single direction as though something were pulling it forward.
"Nereus has started using his ability again."
In Kaido's understanding, only Nereus could manipulate blood over such a range—and only he would bother doing so.
"If I remember right, he said that ability only works on the dead, didn't he? So why does he drink so much blood every time? To fill his stomach?"
"Who knows? 'Blood is the currency of the soul'... I think that's what he said before. Always acting mysterious."
The others on the ship had more or less dealt with Nereus before and understood parts of his abilities, but now was hardly the time to discuss them.
Compared with that, the treasures ahead were far more important.
Meanwhile, on the other side of God Valley, Nereus had already landed on the island.
At this moment, he was in his Beast-Human form.
Broad bat wings spread behind his back, and his pupils had taken on a crimson hue.
But compared to when he had fought Rocks before, there was one clear difference—
A streak of blood-red flame cloud floated behind him.
And that flame cloud was no decoration.
It was the special mark of a Zoan user after awakening—proof that, with the changing era, his power had entered a new stage.