Catching Turtles in a Jar

Rumble!!

A massive shockwave, carrying the terrifying force of world creation and destruction, crushed across the ice of the inner bay like an avalanche.

Bang!

Aokiji's flying body suddenly burst into countless shards of ice.

The earth-shaking impact made the entire battlefield of Marineford sway and tremble.

A massive trench hundreds of meters long tore across the sea, but the violent shockwave did not stop. It charged straight toward the plaza!

Just as the terrifying, mountain-toppling impact was about to send countless Marine soldiers flying—

Suddenly!

Several figures leaped over at tremendous speed, standing shoulder to shoulder atop the harbor embankment. Each extended their hands, unleashing Armament Haki walls like towering city ramparts.

Boom!!

The surging shockwave exploded in midair, whipping up a violent hurricane.

"It's the three Admirals!"

A Marine cried out excitedly.

Whitebeard frowned and looked over.

There, atop the embankment, Kizaru, Akainu, and Aokiji stood side by side, each with both hands outstretched, blocking the shockwave Whitebeard had unleashed.

"Gurararara! You Navy brats are quite capable."

Whitebeard laughed, then turned to search the battlefield for Bullet.

He soon spotted Bullet slaughtering his way through the Giant Vice Admirals amid the chaos.

Before Bullet's terrifying strength, even Giant Vice Admirals known for their power could not withstand a casual blow from him.

In barely a dozen seconds, he had beaten two Giant Vice Admirals to death and sent three or four Giants flying when they tried to stop him.

"That damned bastard. Without Admiral-level strength, no one can hold him back." Kizaru gritted his teeth and raised a hand, firing a thick laser beam at Bullet in the distance.

His figure flashed as he charged toward Bullet once again.

"I'll leave the pirates in the inner bay to you." Aokiji spoke coldly to Akainu beside him before charging toward Marco and the others in battle.

Akainu folded his arms and looked down from above at the wrecked sea within the bay.

Just then, Whitebeard's ear twitched as though he had heard some strange sound.

"What was that?"

He listened closely for a moment, a trace of confusion appearing on his face.

The sound seemed to be coming from beneath the ice in the inner bay.

It was as if one coated ship after another was rising toward the surface beneath the ice.

But where could so many ships have come from beneath the inner bay?

He released his Observation Haki and swept it outward.

The next instant, Whitebeard's expression changed drastically, and he immediately shouted:

"Everyone! Get onto the plaza at once!"

At this moment, because of Aokiji and Whitebeard's earlier battle, much of the ice in the bay had been filled back in.

As a result, tens of thousands of pirates, Marines, and prisoners were still fighting frantically across the vast ice sheet.

When Whitebeard's shout rang out, the pirates in the midst of battle froze for a moment, failing to understand what he meant.

Before they could react, dull sounds of ice breaking rang out one after another beneath the harbor shore near the plaza, along the edge of the frozen ground.

Crack, crack, crack, crack!

A dense burst of heavy gear-turning sounds erupted.

Then, under the shocked gazes of the pirates and prisoners, towering walls shattered through the thick ice with loud cracks, forming a long arc-shaped defensive perimeter around the edge of the inner bay.

At some point, the Marines fighting them had begun retreating while battling, drawing closer to the edge near the walls.

Then the pirates saw entrances open one after another at the base of the walls, which stood dozens of meters high.

The Marine soldiers beneath the walls quickly filed inside in orderly lines.

The entrances swiftly closed again.

Yet several thousand Marines who had failed to withdraw in time wore expressions of utter resolve as they fearlessly charged into the pirate ranks.

"Walls? Why are walls rising from beneath the sea?" The pirates stared wide-eyed at the sudden development.

"Such a simple obstacle? The Navy really underestimated our strength! Let me blast these walls apart!"

Grins twisted across some pirates' faces as they rolled over cannons and lit the fuses of their shells at the walls.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The cannon barrels shook as over a dozen shells screamed through the air, exploding against the towering walls and sending up clouds of black smoke.

When the smoke dispersed, the walls were completely unharmed, bearing only a few black marks.

"What? How is that possible? Are these walls made entirely of steel?"

Before the pirates could figure it out, clattering sounds came from the tops of the walls, where one black opening after another appeared.

"Cannons! Those are cannons!"

"There are an unbelievable number of them! And they're specially made large-caliber cannons!"

The pirates stood dumbfounded for a second, then scattered in panic, sprinting away from the base of the walls.

Boom, boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom!

In an instant, the thunderous roar of hundreds upon thousands of shells exploded over the inner bay like a string of firecrackers going off in succession.

Massive customized shells detonated among the pirates and prisoners, instantly killing hundreds on the spot.

But it was not over yet.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Streams of golden laser light pierced across the distant sky from beyond Marineford Island, detonating explosion after explosion across the ice of the inner bay.

"Help! It's Kizaru's lasers! Has an Admiral attacked us? Where are the commanders? Hurry and stop the Admiral!"

The pirates fled in blind panic, blasted into the air by beam after beam of laser light.

"Idiots! It's not Kizaru at all!"

Some calmer pirates took out telescopes and looked toward the distant sea.

Then their faces turned deathly pale.

Several kilometers away, on the frozen ice of the outer sea, burly, mountain-like figures stood in rows, forming a black-and-white wall.

Golden beams continuously shot from their palms and open mouths.

The pirate ships frozen in the outer sea had already been almost completely destroyed.

"It's Tyrant Bartholomew Kuma!"

"No! They're copies of the Tyrant—the Navy's war machines, Pacifistas!"

"Our ships have all been destroyed by the lasers! Damn it! How are we supposed to return to the New World?"

"Pops! Think of something!"

Hearing the cries of his subordinate pirates, Whitebeard clenched his teeth and fists tightly, then struck the wall ahead with a shockwave!

Rumble!

The air split open with crack after crack as the surging shockwave, like a roaring furious dragon, crashed howling into the towering wall.

Bang!

The wall let out a deep explosive boom and shook violently, yet showed no sign of crumbling or collapsing.

Whitebeard's expression turned extremely grim.

"Is Sea-Prism Stone mixed into the walls?"

Before he could make another move, Akainu, standing atop the embankment, began billowing with thick smoke. He raised his right fist and launched blazing balls of magma into the sky.

"Meteor Volcano!!"