"Lord Gebinz!"
"Stinking man!"
As the two voices rang out, several nearly transparent threads and several heart-tipped arrows shot toward Doma the Knight of Flares and the others.
Doflamingo, some distance away, had noticed Zhu Mang's movements the moment he acted.
He made no comment on his brutal, indiscriminate killing, regardless of friend or foe.
"The strong rule," and "power is justice" had always been his beliefs.
When he saw Gebinz make his move, he even grew excited.
He had been waiting for this moment for a long time!
"A New World pirate worth hundreds of millions and elite vice admirals from Marine Headquarters were all no match for Lord Gebinz! I was right after all—Lord Gebinz's strength has already transcended the ordinary!"
So he killed the [puppet] under his thread control and stopped, preparing to enjoy the show.
Yet for some reason, after killing several people, Lord Gebinz suddenly stopped where he was!
Seeing Doma the Knight of Flares's attack about to strike his neck, Doflamingo had no time to think further.
He shouted and stretched out both hands, rapidly weaving a defensive shield of Five-Color Strings behind Lord Gebinz's neck.
The heart-tipped arrows, meanwhile, came from the Empress.
She had noticed Gebinz's movements as well.
But as a woman, her insight in certain matters was clearly more delicate than Doflamingo's.
She sharply sensed that something was wrong with Gebinz.
His aura now was completely different from before!
Previously, he had been like a dissolute noble who treated the world with contempt—the noble impression had mainly come from the confidence brought by his strength, entirely imagined.
But now, he was like a butcher with blood all over his hands, eager to choose someone and devour them!
Could this be his true face?
The Empress slightly furrowed her brows, but when she saw Zhu Mang seemingly fail to evade the attack due to being lost in thought, she still instinctively stepped in to help.
"Pah, Navy lapdogs!" Faced with attacks from two Shichibukai, Doma the Knight of Flares did not dare continue his assault and could only retreat several steps for the time being.
He spat, then prepared to attack again and kill this monkey-tailed man who had killed his friend.
However, after glancing once at the Empress and Doflamingo, he turned back around and saw a pair of crimson eyes before him.
"Who did you call a lapdog?"
Zhu Mang grinned savagely and covered his face with one hand.
"Die! Two-Sword Style: Jade-Cutting Slash!" Doma the Knight of Flares roared, slashing at Zhu Mang with both hands.
Boom! Vast energy surged from Zhu Mang's hand, enveloping the upper half of Doma the Knight of Flares's body.
In the blink of an eye, the upper half of his body was completely swallowed by the energy. Flesh and bone alike vanished without a trace.
But the energy wave did not disappear.
It continued flying forward. Wherever it passed, whether Marines, pirates, ships, or buildings, all were swallowed by the wave and vanished without a trace.
The energy wave flew all the way beyond the harbor, finally landing near the pirate ships that had been forced to remain docked because the frozen sea blocked their path.
Bzz— A massive semicircular barrier suddenly appeared and rapidly expanded. Then, accompanied by an ear-splitting explosion, it annihilated the ships, pirates, and seawater within it.
The previously chaotic battlefield fell into an eerie silence.
Even Whitebeard, Aokiji, and Kizaru, who had been fighting fiercely, stopped at that moment.
Whitebeard suddenly turned his head and looked over. Of the forty-three ships that had originally made up the Grand Fleet, more than half had now vanished. The remaining ships, farther away and not directly struck, had also suffered varying degrees of damage. Some had even fallen apart entirely, becoming planks drifting on the sea.
That single attack had conservatively killed more than ten thousand pirates left behind on the ships!
He turned to look at the person who had launched the attack in the distance.
Not particularly tall, nor especially burly, with a monkey tail growing from his backside... Who was that?
Did the Navy have someone like him?
Why were Heavenly Yaksha and the Pirate Empress beside him?
Was he a Shichibukai?
Impossible!
There were only so many Shichibukai, and they were far too recognizable. He was definitely not one of them!
Who exactly was he?
What Whitebeard did not know was that Aokiji and Kizaru had roughly the same doubts at that moment.
They knew about the deal between Gebinz and Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku had exchanged the training methods for the Six Powers and two types of Haki for one chance to have him provide assistance when necessary.
In fact, Fleet Admiral Sengoku had also said that they would most likely not need to use that chance.
The reason he had done so was merely to try to draw the powerful Gebinz into the Navy's camp.
At the very least, he could not let him move closer to the pirates.
Judging from the current battle situation, the Navy clearly held the advantage!
Especially after Akainu's brilliant strike earlier, which had directly blown away nearly half of Whitebeard's face.
Whitebeard looked as though nothing had happened, but in truth, his current state could already be described as a final burst before death.
That was why Kizaru and Aokiji had only used restraining attacks to hold him back, preventing him from freeing up his hands to deal with the other Marine officers.
As long as they stalled him for a while, once that period passed, Whitebeard would be at their mercy!
Perhaps they could even capture Whitebeard, expand their gains, and leave the entire Whitebeard Grand Fleet behind!
But Gebinz's sudden attack had clearly exceeded their expectations.
"Could Fleet Admiral Sengoku be eager to expand the gains, so he decided to completely cut off the pirates' retreat first?" Kizaru and Aokiji exchanged a glance.
Though they were not particularly close, they had at least been colleagues for years and still shared some tacit understanding.
Meanwhile, Sengoku, who had yet to enter the battle and had remained guarding the Execution Platform, stared wide-eyed at the scene.
"Who told him to attack?"
"That bastard killed Marines too! He killed Strawberry and the others!" Garp cursed.
"Something's wrong, Sengoku." Tsuru narrowed her eyes at Zhu Mang and said with slight panting.
She had also joined the battle earlier, using the Wash-Wash Fruit's power to take down several fairly strong pirates. But she was old, and her endurance was not quite enough, so the vice admirals had sent her back, asking her to oversee the overall situation—though in truth, they wanted her to rest properly.
"What's wrong..." Sengoku said subconsciously. Then he looked carefully and noticed some clues as well. "...Something does seem wrong. He has a demonic aura around him!"
"Demonic aura?"
"It's killing intent, like the aura emitted by a bloodthirsty demon!"
"I felt this aura from Rocks before, but his aura is far more terrifying than Rocks's—countless times more terrifying! How many people has he killed? Where did you even find him?" Garp's tone was filled with gravity.
Before you continue