Whitebeard

Crack-crack-crack!

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the air struck by Whitebeard's fist suddenly split open with rapid cracks.

The fractures spread swiftly, webbing across the air on both sides of his body.

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

Suddenly!

The waves on both sides of the Moby Dick began to rise eerily high, forming gigantic swells the size of mountains.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

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

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

Wave after wave piled upon one another and surged into the distance, gradually forming even greater crests.

Before everyone's horrified eyes, two enormous waves, as massive as mountain ranges, soon rose from the waters on either side of Marineford!

But soon, the two towering wave crests sank back down and vanished from sight.

After a while, the rumbling of the earth and the shaking ground both subsided.

The air became quiet as well, as though nothing had happened.

"What did he do?"

The Marines in the plaza had no idea.

Whitebeard had clearly assumed that strange stance and had 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 Seven Warlords of the Sea standing at the very front,

all wore expressions of unprecedented gravity.

The scene fell silent at once, and the atmosphere became terrifyingly oppressive.

It was as though everyone was waiting for something.

Suddenly, Ace's hysterical voice rang out across the silent skies of Marineford.

"Pops! Everyone!"

"I was the one who ignored everyone's advice and ran off on my own!"

"Why didn't you just leave me to die?!"

"I acted on my own, so I ended up like this..."

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

If he could,

he wished more than anything that what he was seeing was a lie.

Ever since he was little, everyone Ace had met had told him

that his father, Roger, had been 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 scarred beyond recognition.

Countless happy families had been torn apart because of a few words from him.

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

His birth itself had been a mistake.

That filled Ace's heart with the loneliness of never being acknowledged by the world.

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

He had long been prepared to walk his path alone!

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

He did not want his cherished companions and family to be dragged down because of him!

He should never have existed in this world in the first place. 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 shout.

Ace froze, then roared:

"Lies!"

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

Whitebeard turned his head toward the people behind him.

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

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

Marco, with his pineapple-like hairstyle, smiled faintly.

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

"On this sea, everyone knows what happens to those who oppose our companions!"

"Not one of the people 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 cries surged into the sky one after another.

Watching his stubborn old man and companions, Ace's eyes welled with tears as he bit down hard on his lip.

Directly beneath the execution platform.

Aokiji said lazily, "A troublesome bunch has arrived."

Akainu crossed one leg over the other and snorted coldly.

"It's useless to say anything now."

Kizaru raised his right hand and pressed it against his forehead, wearing a headache-inducing expression. "How unpleasant."

All at once, the ground beneath everyone's feet began to tremble again.

Bzzzz!

It was not just the plaza that was shaking.

The entire Marine Headquarters island of Marineford was swaying violently.

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

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

Garp's face was grave.

The black line drew closer and closer.

When everyone finally saw its true form—

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

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

The tsunami crashed forward in fury, its crest rising even with the Justice Fortress of Marineford.

The massive waves were like two mountain ranges stretching along either side of the island, blotting out the sky and casting the Marine Headquarters plaza beneath a vast shadow.

This terrifying sight left everyone speechless.

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

From the execution platform, Sengoku's hoarse roar carried through the thunderous sound of the tsunami.

"Don't think that because we outnumber them, victory is assured!"

"If we let our guard down, we may be the ones facing destruction!"

"Edward Newgate! He is a Tremor-Tremor Fruit earthquake man!"

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

Impel Down, Level Two Underground.

By now, the battle between Magellan and the prisoners of Infinite Hell had ended.

After using the horrific poison of the Venom-Venom Fruit to kill over a hundred prisoners, Magellan could no longer hold on. His body gave out, and he collapsed.

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

The terrifying dark-red poison was enough to corrode the prison's sturdy floor.

Amid sharp hissing sounds of corrosion,

the dark-red venom continuously melted through the ground, carrying Magellan down toward the lower levels.

"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 take it. He's probably not far from death himself."

"Right! The urgent matter is getting out of here! It looks like Bullet's Haki blockade has been lifted. Could it be that he already seized a warship and left?"

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

Boom! Boom!

Thunderous explosions rang out without end.

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

The prisoners rushed in all at once.

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 black warship!

Rumble!!