Garp "Letting Him Through"

Luffy's eyes split with rage as he let out a beastlike howl filled with endless pain, fury, and despair.

"Ace—!!!"

"Bzzz—!!!"

An invisible, intangible, yet incomparably violent and domineering surge of will.

Centered on Luffy, it erupted like a nuclear blast, instantly sweeping in every direction.

Conqueror's Haki.

And Conqueror's Haki of astonishing intensity and purity.

Every Marine soldier and ordinary pirate within a radius of over a hundred meters around Luffy seemed to have been swept by an invisible scythe.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!..."

Figures upon figures rolled their eyes back and fell stiffly to the ground.

Then, on the execution platform.

The two executioners who had been about to carry out the sentence suddenly froze.

It felt as though their brains had been smashed by heavy hammers. Their vision went black, and they collapsed limply to the ground, completely unconscious.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

The two execution blades that symbolized the end slipped from their hands and smashed heavily against the wooden floor of the platform.

The execution had been forcibly interrupted.

Ace... had survived, for the moment.

The plaza fell deathly silent.

The cries of battle, the clashing weapons, and the agonized roars that had filled the air moments ago all seemed to have been paused.

Every gaze focused on the straw-hatted boy kneeling on one knee, stubbornly holding his head high as he stared fixedly at the execution platform.

Monkey D. Luffy.

The source of that astonishing Conqueror's Haki was this seemingly reckless, always boisterous young man.

Under the extreme shock of witnessing Ace about to be executed.

Driven by overwhelming fury, despair, and unwillingness.

The King's Qualification hidden within him had finally been fully awakened, pouring out without restraint.

Though it had been an unconscious outburst, and his control over its range and targets was extremely crude.

The