Chapter 457
When Teach returned to the New World, the war, which had lasted for another month and a half in the Golden Sea Battle, officially came to an end.
With the situation on Gaya Island stabilizing, the Great Pirate who had been pressuring the Navy began to retreat in an orderly manner.
Continuing to fight is pointless; they still need to develop their own power. For pirates, it's always about their own interests.
Even though Kaido a little reluctant, he still had to leave; he had no intention of facing so many powerful Marines alone.
Having been away from the pirate crew for so long, even though other important members are in charge of its development, they still need to go back and take charge.
The era of pirates truly reached its climax after the Great Pirate Era began and the Golden Sea Battle ended.
The pirates' influence truly overshadowed the Navy and even surpassed that of the World Government.
I thought the birth of the four Sea Emperors would be the real climax, but unexpectedly, one wave after another rose higher and higher.
The World Government and the Navy have reached an unprecedented low, barely able to protect themselves, and even pirates are no longer a concern for them.
Pirates roam freely on the high seas, and patrolling naval forces are now extremely rare; it's nearly impossible to spot them.
The retreat of the Great Pirate brought a sigh of relief to Sengoku, who knew that the war was finally over.
But this doesn't mean the navy can relax; it will face immense pressure ahead. The end of the war is just the beginning.
"Let's go back to headquarters." Sengoku sighed, his arms trembling and aching, bleeding slightly. Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit power was not something easily withstood.
It's manageable for a short time, but if it lasts too long, even the Sengoku couldn't withstand it.
On the surface, Sengoku appears to be alright, but in reality, he is riddled with holes, his bones are shattered, and the power of the shockwave is ravaging his body, making it difficult for him to recover even with the regenerative abilities of Mythical Zoan.
As Fleet Admiral, Sengoku couldn't show his vulnerable side, especially under the scrutiny of so many people, so Sengoku persevered.
Sengoku is still somewhat inferior to Whitebeard. Although he possesses Conqueror's Haki, Sengoku is not Conqueror's Haki in it. This alone makes him weaker than Whitebeard in close combat.
Even if the internal injuries heal, it will take at least seven or eight days to recover.
"Then what about the New World?" Sakazuki asked.
"The Navy's situation is much worse than we imagined. If this continues, the Navy may very well disintegrate. So we have to abandon the New World for now and just keep the G1 Branch." As he spoke, Sengoku had a headache. He hadn't had a proper rest in days. "We can't control the New World anymore. Let these pirates cause trouble on their own."
Although I'm a little worried, there's nothing I can do about it. We had already fought our way back to the New World and the situation was going well, but unexpectedly, because of this battle, we've been back to square one.
The Navy can only guard the gateway to the New World now; as for the rest, they have to give it up. The New World has once again become entirely pirate territory.
"Is it really that serious?" Garp frowned, looking somewhat serious. As Sengoku's close friend for many years, he could naturally tell whether Sengoku lying or not.
Although they were on the front lines, they had some understanding of the navy's situation: logistics were basically cut off, military funds had long been exhausted, and the World Government was not providing support.
If it weren't for the "fishing" fleet behind them, they probably wouldn't have lasted this long; fighting on empty stomachs, they would have been defeated long ago.
However, they were unclear about the specific situation within the navy.
"When I left headquarters, the Navy was already on the verge of collapse, and now it's only gotten worse."
Silence fell upon them; even Sakazuki remained silent. The moment of life and death for the Navy had undoubtedly arrived.
"Let's go back first. Brother Kong is seriously injured and is still in the hospital."
They all knew that staying in the New World was pointless; the navy could no longer afford further losses.
The war in the New World originally only involved these top-tier warriors; most of the naval elites had been sent back to headquarters long ago.
On the returning warship, he briefly made a phone call to headquarters and gave some instructions.
Taking advantage of their spare time, a group of naval leaders turned on the Transponder Snail. The New World War was an extension of the Golden Sea Battle, and Golden Sea Battle, they naturally needed to understand it.
The Golden Sea Battle lasted so long that they couldn't possibly have seen it all from beginning to end. The most crucial parts, however, had already been prepared for.
The most important part is naturally the appearance of those eight CP0 members and Dark Emperor Teach, which set the stage for the final and climax of the war.
And this was exactly what they were looking at. As they watched, their expressions were extremely solemn. The three ability users were easily captured by Teach, and in a short time, only their corpses remained.
This demonstrates just how terrifyingly effective the Dark-Dark Fruit's ability to counter a user can be.
These three CP0 members are definitely not weak; they are all masters of physical combat and would be considered strong even among Navy Marine Vice Admiral.
The ability to suppress an opponent's movements in the air through sheer force can give Teach a significant advantage in aerial combat.
Then came a move that had been used once before, now used again, which directly devoured the leg of one CP0 member and one of another.
In a very short period of time, half of the eight CP0s were lost.
Its terrifying power made them extremely wary.
"Garp, Tsuru, you've seen this move with your own eyes, right? How does it feel compared to before?" Sengoku asked, looking at Tsuru and Garp.
Although Tsuru had reported to him when she returned last time, Sengoku still wanted to hear their thoughts, since nearly two years had passed and things were bound to be different.
"Hmm." Crane recalled carefully. As a strategist, Crane had a very good memory. "If this move was newly developed last time, it is now very proficient. We must not be touched by this move and must stay away from the area covered by its burst."
It can be seen that the range of this move is limited; otherwise, the CP0 member wouldn't have been unaffected by it after severing his own leg.
The others nodded in agreement, grasping the key point: the range. As long as they stayed within the area where the attack would occur, it would be fine.
It sounds simple, but it's actually quite difficult. Teach controls when it will erupt and how it moves. Combined with Teach 'Teach powerful Observation Haki, avoiding it is definitely a difficult task.
Teach also has techniques to restrict movement. If he uses Conqueror's Haki at a crucial moment, anyone affected could be doomed.
"Garp, what about you?" Sengoku looked at Garp.
"Huh?" Garp paused, seemingly unsure of what to say, then scratched the back of his head and laughed, "Haha, that's quite powerful. Even I'm having some trouble breaking free."
Hearing Garp's Versailles-esque answer, Sengoku and the others were speechless. The power released in the air would be greatly reduced, especially under restrictions.
Even Sengoku couldn't guarantee he could break free, although he could unleash shockwaves.
Not everyone is a monster like Garp. It has to be admitted that in terms of physical skills, Garp is absolutely top-tier in the world, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him the strongest.
Even Kong, who greatly influenced Garp Sengoku Garp terms of physical skills, was no match for Garp in terms of physical skills alone.
The video continues, with Sora suddenly appearing and knocking Teach. Later, Shiki appears and engages in a fierce battle with Shiki.
These things flashed by quickly in their eyes. Since the Transponder Snail had slow motion, it also had fast motion, which saved a lot of time. They would stop and take a closer look at the key points.
Next comes the great battle between the Storm God and the Ancient Giant God, and the protagonist who caused all this, displaying terrifying natural disasters, is a powerful CP0 member and the revolutionary Dragon, "the world's most vicious criminal".
Seeing this, most of the people present knew the dragon's true identity and turned their attention to Garp.
Seeing the situation was turning against him, Garp quickly reacted and shouted at the dragon in the image, "You little brat, you've gotten so strong after all these years! Don't let me catch you, I'll teach you a lesson!"
Although it looked like they were cursing, it was strange; it felt like they were praising the dragon. They couldn't detect a trace of anger in their voices.
Garp's lips curled into a slight smile, seemingly very pleased with the dragon.
Sengoku and Tsuru sighed, deciding they didn't want to concern themselves with these matters.
Dragon can be said to have grown up in their eyes. He was trained by Garp from a young age to be the strongest marine, and he joined the Navy and was groomed as his successor.
However, the Awakening of his self-awareness made him unable to accept the existence of the Celestial Dragons.
Therefore, he left the navy and could not be found. When he was contacted again, Dragon was already the leader of the Revolutionary Army.
In their eyes, the dragon's choice cannot be considered wrong; it's just that its stance is opposed to theirs.
The fact that the dragon had grown to this level, and possessed the terrifying power to unleash natural disasters with a mere gesture, surprised them, but not entirely unexpected. They had all witnessed the dragon's potential, not to mention that his father was the Marine Garp the Hero.
The group tacitly brushed aside this matter, but were surprised by the power of CP0. CP0 was quite mysterious to the Navy, and both Alastair and Gaia possessed formidable strength and abilities.
There's also the CP0 Chief who hasn't appeared yet.
This was the first time CP0 had publicly deployed such a large force at once. Although the results were not good, this was due to Teach's strength. However, this does not negate CP0's power, as each member is an elite.
Soon it came to the back, Teach's Star of Ruin, with its power to devour and destroy everything, directly consumed almost all the Allied Forces members.
What they saw only fueled their anger, and at the same time, a deep sense of dread arose in their hearts.
They could tell how strong and physically capable the Violent Bear was; to become Army Admiral, he must have reached a certain level of strength.
To die without resistance like that is truly frightening, especially for those with special abilities; they would flee as far away as possible at sea.
Even Garp's expression turned serious. He wasn't stupid; seeing Teach's terrifying move, he was also thinking about whether he could dodge it.
As for enduring this attack head-on, he hadn't considered it. No one knew how this attack worked, or where it mysteriously disappeared to in the end.
After thinking about it, Garp realized he could easily avoid it, so he stopped worrying, his expression relaxed, and he returned to his usual carefree self.
Having learned their lesson from the Violent Bear, no one dared to confront the Star of Ruin.
Teach was also aware of the limitations of this move; it wasn't very effective against strong opponents. This was a wide-range move used to clear out smaller groups of soldiers, and it had a great deterrent effect.
The situation changed drastically in a short period of time. Due to the enormous influence of the Star of Ruin when it was young, Sora was seized by Shiki and fell directly into the sea.
Seeing this, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Kong was an ability user, and they knew what would happen if he fell into the water.
One can imagine how critical the situation was at the time; Kuzan used his abilities to rescue the air force at a critical moment.
The footage doesn't show what's happening beneath the surface, but according to intelligence, Kuzan has definitely succeeded.
Although successful, Kuzan also put himself in danger. Being in the sea, he was at a significant disadvantage, and he was also accompanied by a Skywalker who had already lost his fighting ability.
One can imagine the immense pressure Kuzan was under at that time, and they could clearly see that Shiki was also launching an attack at the same time.
Terrifying golden sword lights enveloped the entire sea.
Shiki showed no mercy. Kuzan was already quite remarkable to have survived Shiki's attacks, especially with Sora still in his grasp, but there was still no hope of escape.
Shiki wouldn't give Kuzan a chance, making them all hold their breath.
Alastair and the Vulture's actions held off Shiki, buying Kuzan time to emerge from the sea.
But they weren't happy, because they already knew what was going to happen next.
That scene unfolded clearly before them; Teach had predicted their location and attacked the moment they appeared.
One claw severely injured Kuzan, another tore through Kong's right arm, and yet another pierced through Kong's chest.
Each claw seemed to clench into their hearts, and Garp and the others clenched their fists tightly, their anger burning within them.
Now they realized just how badly Kong was in pain. His left arm had been severed by Shiki, his right arm had been torn apart by Teach, and the hole in his chest was the size of a fist, with bones and a beating heart clearly visible.
Teach's powerful Haki internal destruction directly invaded Sora's body. Although he didn't manage to capture Sora's heart, Sora's heart still suffered complete damage from Teach's Haki.
Sora was on the verge of death. If it weren't for the powerful vitality of the Mythical Zoan and his own willpower that kept him looking okay, he would have survived.
Furthermore, Teach was somewhat wary of Sora's dying counterattack, and might rush in and kill him.
This is also due to Teach's lack of experience. If he really knew the true situation of the air, he could have killed the air even if he was just flying a kite. He was fully capable of that.
After leaving the Golden Sea, Kong collapsed and fell into a coma. He is currently being treated in the highest medical ward of the Marine Headquarters. Even after a month and a half, Kong is still unconscious.
The video is almost over now.
They had no time to pay attention to anything else; everything had to wait until they returned to Marine Headquarters to deal with it.
The safety of the air force is extremely important to them; if anything were to happen, it would be a huge blow to the navy.
After all, from the Navy's most difficult period to its glory, Kong was the spiritual pillar of many Navy personnel, as well as Garp and Sengoku.