Whitebeard

Crack-crack-crack!

Before everyone's eyes, the air struck by Whitebeard's fist suddenly split open with rapidly spreading cracks.

The cracks spread swiftly, webbing across the air on either side of his body.

"The atmosphere... cracked!" a Marine cried out in disbelief.

Suddenly!

The sea on both sides of the Moby Dick began to swell eerily, forming gigantic waves as large as mountains.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

The entire ground of Marineford let out a deep, muffled rumble.

The earth shook, and warships moored on the sea were lifted high by mountain-sized waves.

Wave after wave piled up in layers toward the distance, gradually forming even larger swells.

Under everyone's horrified gaze, two enormous waves as vast as mountain ranges soon rose from the sea on either side of Marineford!

But before long, the two towering waves subsided and vanished from sight.

After a while, the rumbling earth and the trembling ground both quieted down.

Even the air fell silent, as if nothing had happened.

"What did he do?"

The Marines in the plaza were completely baffled.

Whitebeard had clearly assumed that strange stance and even shattered the atmosphere.

Yet it seemed he had not caused any damage to Marineford.

But whether it was Sengoku, Garp, and the three Marine Admirals who had witnessed Whitebeard's movements—

Or the Shichibukai standing at the front of the crowd—

All of them wore expressions of unprecedented gravity.

The scene abruptly fell silent, the atmosphere suffocatingly oppressive.

As though everyone were waiting for something.

Then Ace's hysterical voice rang out over the silent Marineford.

"Pops! Everyone!"

"I was the one who ignored all your advice and ran off on my own!"

"Why wouldn't you just let me die?!"

"I acted on my own and ended up like this..."

Ace gritted his teeth, his voice choked with sobs and guilt.

If only he could.

He wished with all his heart that what he was seeing was not real.

Ever since he was a child, everyone Ace had met had told him—

That his father, Roger, was the most evil man in the world.

Roger had single-handedly ushered in the Great Pirate Era, stirring up endless bloodshed in a world already riddled with scars.

Countless happy families had been torn apart because of a single speech from him.

He had been born into this world as the most evil bloodline.

His very birth was a mistake.

It filled Ace with a loneliness born of not being acknowledged by the world.

The only things he cherished were his few remaining relatives, along with the family and companions before him.

He had long prepared himself to walk his path alone!

Yet Whitebeard's appearance had completely disrupted the still waters of his heart.

He did not want these precious companions and family members to be dragged down because of him!

He should never have been alive in this world to begin with. His companions should not have come to save him!

"No! I was the one who told you to go."

Whitebeard's deep voice answered his hoarse cry.

Ace froze, then roared:

"Bullshit!"

"Stop lying! You obviously tried to stop me back then!"

Whitebeard turned his head and spoke to the person behind him.

"I was the one who told him to go, wasn't I, Marco?"

A gentle voice immediately replied, "Yes, I heard it too."

Marco, with his pineapple-shaped hair, smiled faintly.

"You've suffered quite a lot, Ace!"

"Across these seas, everyone knows what happens to those who oppose our comrades!"

"Not one of those who hurt you will be allowed to live, Ace!"

"Just wait! We're coming to save you!"

"Prepare to die, Marine Headquarters!"

The pirates' uproarious shouts rose one after another, piercing the skies.

Looking at his stubborn Pops and companions, Ace's eyes brimmed with tears as he bit his lip hard.

Directly beneath the execution platform.

Aokiji said lazily, "A whole bunch of troublesome people have arrived."

Akainu sat with one leg crossed over the other and snorted coldly.

"There's no point saying anything now."

Kizaru raised his right hand to his forehead, wearing an expression of headache. "How unpleasant."

Suddenly, the ground beneath everyone's feet began to rumble once more.

Hum-hum-hum!

It was not just the plaza that was shaking.

The entire island of Marine Headquarters at Marineford was trembling violently.

At the distant edge of the sea, a black line had appeared at some point and was rapidly growing larger.

"It's here. The Seaquake that man unleashed earlier has turned into a tsunami and is sweeping toward us!"

Garp's face was grim.

The black line drew closer and closer.

When everyone finally saw what it truly was—

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

On the waters outside Marineford, the waves surged like a stampede of ten thousand horses, roaring into a terrifying tsunami hundreds of meters high!

The tsunami crashed down in fury, its crest reaching as high as Marineford's Justice Fortress.

The enormous waves stood like two mountain ranges stretching across either side of the island, blotting out the sky and casting the Marine Headquarters plaza beneath an immense shadow.

The terrifying sight rendered everyone speechless.

The Marines' legs went weak, their entire bodies shaking uncontrollably, their eyes filled with incredulous terror.

From the execution platform, Sengoku's roaring voice carried through the thunderous sound of the tsunami.

"Don't think that having superior numbers means victory is assured!"

"If we grow careless, we may be the ones welcoming the end!"

"Edward Newgate! He is the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's earthquake man!"

"That man possesses the power to destroy the world!!"

The second underground level of Impel Down.

At this moment, the battle between Magellan and the prisoners of Infinite Hell had already ended.

After using the Venom-Venom Fruit's horrifying poison to kill over a hundred prisoners, Magellan could no longer hold on. His body broke down, and he collapsed.

The prisoners' faces were filled with rage and fear toward Magellan as they stared fixedly at his body, which was wrapped in dark crimson venom.

The horrifying dark crimson poison was enough to corrode the prison's sturdy floor.

Amid sharp hissing sounds of corrosion—

The dark crimson venom continuously melted through the floor, carrying Magellan down toward the level below.

"Damn it! That madman Magellan killed so many people! I'm going down there to cut off his head!"

One prisoner cursed resentfully.

"Forget about him! That bastard used too much poison. His body definitely can't withstand it. He's probably not far from death himself."

"That's right! The most urgent thing is getting out of here! It looks like Bullet's Haki blockade has been lifted. Could he have already seized a warship and left?"

Seeing the walls around them return to their normal color, the prisoners from Infinite Hell grinned excitedly again and launched attacks at the walls.

Boom! Boom!

Violent explosions rang out without end.

Before long, the wall dozens of meters thick was blasted through by hundreds of prisoners, forcibly opening a passage.

The prisoners surged inside.

Soon, they followed the bridge passage through Red Lotus Hell and reached the first level above the sea.

When all the prisoners excitedly rushed to Impel Down's exit—

They happened to see a towering, mountain-like figure slowly rise from the deck of a pitch-black warship!

Rumble!!