An Unexpected Incident on Thunder God Island

Before them lay a vast sunken crater, as large as ten football fields. Ice and fire adorned its edges in starkly separate halves, proof of the battle that had taken place here.

Within the central depression, corpses were piled atop one another like torn sacks, packed densely together. Thousands upon thousands of bodies filled over half the crater.

The frigid wind froze some of the corpses, their faces at the moment of death clearly visible; blazing flames licked at others' torsos, burning their bones to ash.

A mass grave?

No, this was a natural disposal plant!

It used the lingering effects of the powers that Akainu and Aokiji had used to permanently alter the terrain to process corpses in one concentrated location.

This was not like hell. It was hell!

"That's why I decided to flee here. Forget pirates—even Marines were used to avoiding this place. It was as safe as could be."

Caesar wore a mask as he said, "Most of these were surrendered members of the Whitebeard Pirates from the Summit War. The extremists among the Marines believed throwing these pirates' corpses into the sea was a desecration of the ocean, so they found a place to dispose of them all together."

Seeing the Straw Hat Pirates fall silent as a group, Caesar shook his head.

"You really are lucky, Straw Hat Pirates."

"You provoked the Azure Dragon Admiral like that and still survived... Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that, just like when you chose to save me, the radiance of humanity still remained in you."

"I know that man. That sort of radiance is what he hopes to see, so even pirates can be tolerated to some extent."

"But that protection will not shield you for long. If you keep going, one day,