The Sky Fell

Brief flight through the air had never been a problem for the strong.

Although Queen was round and obese like a ball, his heavily modified body still allowed him to maneuver nimbly through the air.

The massive hailstone smashed into the sea, creating a protrusion like a sea urchin.

The two main combatants were completely unharmed, but their respective subordinates had suffered heavy losses.

The enormous impact stirred up waves that surged violently through the surrounding waters.

The Beasts Pirates' ships were now being battered by the rising waves.

The warships and World Government transport ships, which had arrived a step later than the Beasts Pirates, suffered even greater damage.

As towering waves swept down upon them—

Under the violent impact, many pirates and Marines had already fallen into the sea.

Cries for help echoed across these waters.

But faced with the aftermath of the battle, everyone was too busy saving themselves.

At that moment, everyone was struggling to keep their ships balanced.

The Beasts Pirates were desperately trying to flee this stretch of sea.

But the warships and transport ships had no idea that an even more dangerous crisis was arriving after the waves.

After that previous exchange—

Roy and Queen were nowhere to be seen above the sea.

Roy had turned into a cloud and was floating high in the sky.

To be safe, Queen had activated his stealth battle suit's Black mode and concealed himself in the air above the sea.

His Observation Haki searched the sea below without restraint.

Faced with Roy, a Logia Devil Fruit user—

Roy's unknown Devil Fruit ability and his previous attack had made Queen set aside his earlier contempt.

Just as those pirate underlings had said, Queen had already entered serious combat mode.

Plague viruses spread throughout the waters along with the splashing waves.

As one of the Beasts Pirates' Three Calamities, the Plague—

Queen was confident that as long as Roy became infected with the virus he had released—

He could make the virus even more potent and take Roy's head.

While Queen was invisible and searching for Roy's whereabouts—

Roy, floating in the sky, did not lower his altitude as Queen had hoped and expose himself to the plague virus.

Roy had always been extremely wary of biological weapons.

Through the Echo Map's scan, after hearing and seeing the pirates aboard the Beasts Pirates' ships shouting in panic—

Roy knew that this suspender-wearing fatty known as the Plague was probably about to use his signature move.

Therefore, Roy absolutely could not go down and engage in close combat again.

With the Echo Map covering such a vast area—

Even though Queen had activated stealth mode, in the presence of sound, he was like the emperor in his new clothes.

He believed he had hidden himself perfectly, but before Roy, his whereabouts were completely exposed.

Roy had no intention of engaging in close-quarters combat with the high-spirited suspender-wearing fatty below.

And against a top-tier powerhouse like Queen, attacks like the hailstorm from before had limited killing power.

So, since Roy did not want to touch the plague, he wanted to see whether Queen's biological weapons were stronger, or whether the chemical poison gas Caesar Clown had used to destroy all of Punk Hazard was fiercer.

"Artificial Rain Caesar Gas."

The purple poisonous cloud formed from the poison gas Roy had collected on Punk Hazard answered his call and drifted from a corner of the sea of clouds to beneath him.

As a large number of moisture-filled clouds continuously gathered within the poisonous cloud—

Raindrops containing the toxic components that had destroyed Punk Hazard rapidly formed and began to fall.

The wind and rain from before had gradually subsided.

And in conditions with so little wind, this was precisely Roy's home ground.

When poison-laden raindrops began falling relentlessly in Queen's direction—

Queen initially thought it was merely ordinary rain, but the instant he came into contact with a raindrop, the toxins within made his expression drastically change.

After all, setting aside Queen's identity as a pirate, he was still one of the Pirate World's top scientists.

So after coming into contact with the poisonous rain that carried an irritating smell—

As a small amount of toxin entered his body, Queen held his breath almost instantly.

Looking at the pale purple rainwater that had fallen onto his mechanical arm—

"What is this? Why does this poison have that guy Caesar Clown's style?"

Feeling the way that tiny amount of toxin operated within his body—

The style immediately reminded Queen of his former colleague, Caesar Clown.

"Interesting. This is really too interesting, kid. It's such a shame you became a pirate.

"With poison rain on this scale, it seems you don't care about the lives of your own subordinates either."

By now, Queen had already grasped some of the details of the toxins in the rain.

If it were anyone else, the toxins in this poisonous rain might have poisoned them immediately.

But for a man like Queen, whose physique was powerful and had undergone extensive modifications, although it was harmful, it would not affect his body much in the short term.

The poisonous rain in the sky and the plague spreading over the sea—

These were Queen and Roy's silent clash.

But when the city gate caught fire, the fish in the moat suffered.

The two major figures truly fighting each other had not suffered much harm, but Queen's and Roy's subordinates were now enduring the agony of life and death.

Freeze No. 1 and the poison gas that Caesar Clown had used to destroy all of Punk Hazard mixed together.

Although Roy had deliberately directed the poisonous rain toward the pirates—

Some of the poison gas that evaporated into the air inevitably got inhaled by people on the Marine ships and transport vessels.

At this moment, people aboard both the warships and pirate ships were curled up in agony on their respective vessels.

Due to Roy's special attention, some pirates had already begun to go mad.

Freeze No. 1 was Queen's greatest masterpiece, the predecessor of the Ice Oni.

And the poison gas Roy used was an outstanding creation of Caesar Clown, an expert in large-scale weapons of destruction in the Pirate World.

Either one alone could turn an entire region into a land of deathly silence.

And once the two were combined, some sea beasts had already begun floating on the water with their eyes rolled back.

But none of that was what Roy and Queen cared about right now.

Although poisonous rain fell from the sky, ice spikes and massive hailstones had not stopped for even a moment.

"Damn it! How did you find me? I activated stealth mode!"

Queen cursed furiously toward the sky.

Watching the ice spikes and hailstones fly directly toward him—

How could he not realize that his means of concealment had long since failed?

But at this moment, he could only rage helplessly at the sky.

He had also tried charging into the clouds above.

But once he truly rushed up there, he discovered in horror that the clouds overhead were not ordinary mist.

After feeling a wave of weakness and quickly retreating—

Queen realized that these clouds capable of weakening people had properties extremely similar to the sea of clouds above Wano Country.

If he had not promptly used Black Flames to evaporate the ring of clouds around him—

Just thinking about the possible consequences made him break out in a cold sweat.

This young powerhouse he had never met before had truly given him too many shocks.

The sea clouds in the sky blocked Queen's path upward.

And as poisonous rain, hailstones, and ice spikes continuously fell from above—

Although Queen could withstand them easily, they still drained his stamina.

Faced with this situation where he could only passively take hits—

The plague was no longer effective, while his proud body modifications and Devil Fruit ability were now useless.

When a batch of special droplets mixed with the poison clouds began falling from the sky—

Queen's exceptional Observation Haki instantly sensed danger.

"Not good! You scheming little brat, you actually hid a trick like this!"

As numerous water droplets fell mixed among the hailstones and ice spikes—

After dodging a large drop of water, Queen touched it with his finger.

"Salty. It's seawater. Damn brat, I nearly fell for your trick."

His expression flickering, he looked up at the sky.

Then he glanced down at the pirate ships and Marine warships below, where people were already nearly dead.

As the third-in-command under a Yonko pirate crew—

When it was time to make a decision, Queen did not hesitate in the slightest.

"Kid, consider yourself lucky today. I'll spare you for now. We have plenty of time ahead of us. Next time, I'll make you taste what it means to wish you were dead."

Having made his decision, Queen cast an unwilling glance toward the Marine warships.

"Black Flames."

Several dazzling attacks shot directly toward the warships.

"Hmph. If I can't have it, the World Government won't get it either."

After throwing out a few threats, just as Queen was about to unleash a powerful attack and completely destroy the warships and transport ships—

Seawater and sea clouds swept down from above.

On the attacked transport ship, Cole clenched his teeth as he endured the pain in his body.

Queen's attacks had already inflicted enormous damage upon the transport ships and warships.

And just as Cole thought they were all about to die in the next moment—

The thunderous sound from the sky made him look up despite himself.

The sight before him made even him, while enduring such agony, open his mouth wide.

"The... the sky fell."