Future Science Island

New World, Egghead, outer waters.

The once-calm azure sea was now utterly blanketed by an oppressive steel gloom that made it hard to breathe. As far as the eye could see, densely packed large standard warships flying the World Government and Marine seagull flags formed a massive steel noose, sealing off the entire island brimming with futuristic technology.

This was a terrifying assembly that surpassed even a standard Buster Call. The heavy cannons aboard dozens of warships had all been uncovered, their pitch-black muzzles locked firmly onto the island's core.

Yet at this tense moment of deathly silence, the clear sky above, perpetually controlled by technological force fields, was suddenly torn apart by an ear-piercing gravitational sonic boom.

"Rumble—!"

What tore through the clouds was not the storm the Marines had expected, but an enormous object reflecting a cold black gleam beneath the sun!

Propelled by Bartholomew Kuma's causality-level Paw-Paw repulsion, the black giant warship Ashen, weighing tens of thousands of tons, fell like a black meteor from the divine realm. Carrying unparalleled force, it blasted through the sea of clouds high above and plunged violently toward Egghead's outer waters in free fall!

"Th-that's a ship at sea? Why is it falling from the sky?!"

"Are you kidding me?! That's an obsidian hull... it's the Ashen! Rain of the Worst Generation, the man who defeated Kaido of the Beasts, is here!!"

In an instant, the silent Marine formation fell into complete chaos. Countless Marine soldiers on lookout failed to notice even when their binoculars dropped onto the deck and shattered after they recognized that iconic obsidian warship. Piercing alarms immediately rang across the entire sea.

Less than a kilometer directly beneath the Ashen's descent path, a massive Marine Headquarters vice admiral's flagship happened to be anchored there.

"Damn it! To