Two broad-bladed swords whistled harshly through the air as the executioners tightened their grips and slashed viciously toward Ace's neck.
"Ace!"
Luffy, sprinting across the ice, opened his eyes wide and let out a heart-wrenching scream.
Two burly Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals swung a giant axe and a long sword down from either side at once, cutting off Luffy's path.
"Get out of my way! Don't block me!"
Luffy's charge was forcibly halted, and the ice beneath his feet cracked over a wide area.
As the two execution blades came within inches of Ace's flesh, Luffy's chest heaved violently, his eyes bloodshot.
Hum!
An invisible shock wave swept outward from Luffy.
Dozens of ordinary Marines charging toward him rolled their eyes back and collapsed stiffly onto the ice. Even the two Vice Admirals blocking his way looked shocked, their movements delayed for a moment.
It was an unconscious burst of Conqueror's Haki.
But this Haki was not yet mature and failed to knock out the two executioners on the platform.
The two enormous blades merely paused in midair for a moment before continuing downward with even greater force.
"We won't make it!"
Behind them, Jinbe shattered a Navy Officer with a palm strike and tried to leap up, only to be driven back by the incoming Marine gunfire.
Beside the wreckage of the Moby Dick, Whitebeard tightened his grip on Murakumogiri.
He had just taken the potion, and his depleted vitality was undergoing a violent reconstruction. There was no way he could reach the Execution Platform in the mere half-second it would take those blades to fall.
Just as the blades were about to touch the fine hairs on Ace's skin, a dazzling white light tore through the smoke.
A piercing electrical crackle rang through the air.
Hatake Sakumo abruptly