Sharp alarm bells echoed across Marineford.
The moment the alarm sounded, all the Marines in Headquarters immediately entered combat readiness.
With grim expressions, they rushed outside the base at top speed.
The first thing that caught their eyes was the wreckage of a warship scattered along the inner bay.
It seemed to have plummeted straight down from high altitude, causing the entire ship to break apart on impact.
"What happened?"
The Marines were utterly stunned by the scattered wreckage of the warship.
"Gyahaha...!"
Just as the Marines were shaken by the wreckage, a wild laugh rang out from above.
The Marines abruptly raised their heads and looked toward the source of the laughter, only to witness the most horrifying sight of their lives.
High in the sky, nine enormous warships were floating at crooked angles.
At the center, surrounded by those warships, was a massive island ship with rows of wooden oars extending from both sides of its hull and a rocky underside.
Like the nine warships, this strangely shaped island ship was also floating steadily high in the sky.
The man who had laughed stood in midair before the island ship.
A wooden ship's wheel was embedded in the top of his head, while his wild golden hair fluttered in the wind like a lion's mane.
Yet what drew the most attention was not the ship's wheel stuck in his head, but his legs, which had been replaced by two long swords.
This man was Golden Lion Shiki, who, twenty years ago, had dismantled the myth of Impel Down's underwater prison at the cost of cutting off both his legs.
"Gyahaha."
Shiki threw his head back and laughed.
With his arms folded across his chest, he looked down at the Marines on the ground as if he were staring