"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle..."
After Sakazuki's Magma Bombs and Borsalino's rain of lasers fell in succession, the entire sea had been thoroughly boiled, bubbling without end. Countless cooked fish mingled with the pirates' corpses, rolling about in that enormous pot of seawater...
With Kuzan, Sakazuki, and Borsalino joining forces, all three hundred pirate ships of the Flying Pirates, along with their total of 36,758 pirates, had been utterly wiped out!
No one had expected the Marines to be so ruthless. They had not even given the pirates a chance to beg for mercy, executing them on the spot right outside Marine Headquarters.
"Hey! Sakazuki, wasn't that too brutal? You boiled the whole sea! Didn't we agree we would only destroy the pirate ships and arrest these pirates?"
Kuzan stared at the sea before him, which looked like a pirate hot pot cooking countless pirates alive, and complained unhappily to Sakazuki beside him.
"Shut up, Kuzan..."
"Tell me, why should the prisons painstakingly built by the World Government and Marine workers be free lodging for this scum?"
"Do you know how many pounds of food produced by the government's agricultural bases these scum consume in prison every year?"
"Do you know that if the food eaten by those prisoners were sent to the Marine kitchens instead, it could train at least two more outstanding Marine soldiers?"
"You don't know any of that, so shut your mouth already!"
Sakazuki crossed his arms before his chest and roared at Kuzan.
"You bastard..."
Kuzan's eyelid twitched slightly after hearing Sakazuki's words. Then he roared, "That counts as disobeying military orders, doesn't it? As a Marine, you just defied Admiral Sengoku's orders, didn't you?"
"Shut up, Kuzan..."
"Though this wasn't an order issued by Admiral Sengoku, it came from someone higher up!"
Sakazuki spoke with complete confidence after hearing Kuzan's words.
After all, the Celestial Dragons stood behind Sakazuki now!
"Oh? They're arguing again. How scary~"
Borsalino helplessly pursed his lips as he watched Kuzan and Sakazuki quarrel over what he considered a trivial matter. Then he transformed into countless flashes of light and vanished from the spot, arriving atop Golden Lion's execution platform in the blink of an eye.
"Is it over, Borsalino?!"
As soon as Borsalino arrived at the execution platform, Steel-Bone Kong, the current Fleet Admiral, immediately asked him.
"It's already over, Fleet Admiral Kong~"
Borsalino answered with a crooked smile.
"Open the gates around Marine Headquarters!"
Steel-Bone Kong's lips curled upward slightly as he spoke softly into the Den Den Mushi.
Boom!
As Kong's words fell...
A series of thunderous rumbles followed!
The enormous steel gates were cranked upward by the Marines, revealing the tragic scene outside Marine Headquarters.
In the bubbling sea, clearly boiled by the intense heat, lay one thoroughly cooked pirate corpse after another, along with countless wrecked pirate ships and the Flying Pirates' flags, shredded to pieces by the rain of lasers.
Just as Borsalino had said, the pirates outside had been dealt with. The Flying Pirates, led by Golden Lion Shiki and once as famous as the Roger Pirates and Whitebeard Pirates, had become a thing of the past. Of the several thousand members of the great fleet, not a single one had survived except Golden Lion, who remained bound to the execution platform awaiting execution.
Drip...
The legendary sea hero, Golden Lion Shiki, gazed at the countless wrecks in the distance and the pirates who, under Akainu and Borsalino's combined assault, had not even been left intact corpses. This man whose will was as unyielding as steel finally shed a tear.
Though it was only a single tear, he truly had cried...
Of course, he was not crying for himself. He was crying for the tragic state of his companions, who had come to save him only to be ruthlessly slaughtered by the Marines before Marine Headquarters.
"I'm sorry! My recklessness got you all killed!"
Shiki looked at the familiar faces floating among the corpses on the sea and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Don't be sad, old lion!"
Kong frowned slightly as he looked at the tearful Shiki, offering him comfort.
If one of them had not been standing while the other knelt...
If one had not been the Fleet Admiral while the other was a lawless great pirate...
They might have seemed like old friends comforting each other.
"I'll send you to reunite with your companions below."
"Time's up! The execution begins..."
"It is now exactly noon. The public execution of former Rocks Pirates member and Flying Pirates admiral, Golden Lion Shiki, shall commence..."
The atmosphere shattered in an instant!
Kong, the current Fleet Admiral, announced the execution order without another thought.
"Hey! Kong, the live broadcast cameras are on right now, aren't they?!"
Ignoring Kong's words, Shiki asked his own question.
"You bastard, what are you planning to do?"
Kong's heart jolted at Shiki's words, cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
"Jihahahaha..."
"Little brats of the Four Seas, Paradise, and the New World, whether you're preparing to set sail or have already gone to sea! Listen up!"
"I am the admiral of the Flying Pirates, Golden Lion Shiki..."
A broad grin spread across Shiki's face as he roared at the World Economic Journal camera aimed directly at him.
"Execute him! Execute him!"
Kong panicked at the sight and roared at the executioners.
"Y-Yes!"
The executioners immediately raised their butcher blades.
They swung them toward the legendary great pirate before them...
Blood splashed at once!
Unfortunately, they were still a step too late...
The executioners' blades were ultimately half a beat slower than Golden Lion's mouth.
"The World Government told you that Roger that bastard was called Goldo Roger, didn't they? That was a lie! Roger's real name was Gol D. Roger..."
"And everything Roger said before his execution was true! The legendary Great Treasure, One Piece, truly exists! It is on Raftel!!"
"Go and find it, men of the sea! The future belongs to you..."
"Jihahahahahaha..."
What Roger had not said was spoken by Golden Lion Shiki.
With the bloodstained execution platform beneath him, this legendary figure who had once dominated the seas delivered the final declaration of his life! Thus, the curtain fell on another legend...
At the same time.
Mary Geoise.
Within the garden of a Figarland family villa...
Shaya, with his short red hair, casually shut off the broadcast, pulled out a cigar, and began puffing away amid swirling smoke...
Several famed blades were stuck into the ground behind him: Ace, the sword of Pirate King Gol D. Roger; and Sakura Ten and Kogarasu, the swords of Golden Lion Shiki!
No one could have imagined that the mastermind behind the executions of two great legends was a Celestial Dragon who had hidden in the Holy Land from beginning to end, never appearing in any public place.
"Once Whitebeard dies, the old era will truly come to an end!"
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