On the Grand Line, hundreds of notorious pirates with bounties exceeding 100 million Beli were wiped out in a single day! The Marines captured nearly a thousand people alive, killed the Blood Earl Ulysses, and returned triumphant with a Poneglyph!
Within days, the news had spread across the seas!
The entire world was stunned by the Marines' extraordinary victory!
Riding the momentum of their triumph, the Marines spent the following days purging Alabasta of pirate crews, crushing them one after another.
Sengoku naturally wasn't about to miss such an opportunity. It would have been strange if he hadn't joined in while the pirates were down!
And the purge didn't stop at Alabasta. It soon spread outward, sweeping across the seas.
For a time, pirates all but vanished from the Grand Line, where they had once run rampant!
That was why Sengoku had agreed to Loa's plan!
Without his approval, Loa would never have had the backing to carry it through. Even if he had pressed ahead alone, Kaido and Ulysses would have taught him a brutal lesson.
Sengoku had seen what they stood to gain if it succeeded, so he had agreed to Loa's protection. It was also the best way to purge the seas without upsetting the balance.
For the moment, the Marines stood unrivaled!
Yet even as the Marines celebrated an unprecedented victory, something else drew even more attention.
A Great Dragon—a living dragon—had appeared before the world!
Marineford, Southeast corner.
Every building there had been demolished, and all residents within several kilometers had been evacuated, leaving the area utterly deserted. Around its perimeter, five Headquarters Vice Admirals personally commanded troops to keep everyone out, while the three Admirals took turns on duty, watching the area at all times.
Such tight security was there, of course, to keep