Pirates: A Family Slaughtered, Every Celestial Dragon Must Die!

This man was no pushover.

If Rono wasted time killing Sakazuki now, he might miss his chance to kill the Celestial Dragons.

Given a choice between killing a dog and killing Celestial Dragons, the answer was obvious!

"I'm saved..."

Sakazuki lay on the ground, unable to move, and let out a long breath.

He had nearly died here!

Rono, the Most Evil Criminal, was terrifying!

"Get out of my way!"

Rono roared and stormed toward the massive crowd, fury blazing.

One slash!

Whoosh!

A cold flash of steel rose from the ground!

The dozens of guards, armed to the teeth, were sent flying in an instant!

Three Celestial Dragons appeared before Rono!

One was short and fat with a squashed face, another had mismatched eyes and a bowl cut, and the third was cross-eyed with buck teeth. One look at them, and you could tell they were products of inbreeding.

"Bastard! You... you lowborn scum! What... what do you want?"

"Stop this lowborn scum! You useless fools!"

"Wait! Isn't he... he... he the Most Evil Criminal?"

Faced with Rono, the three hideous Celestial Dragons backed away, hurling curses at him!

Then they realized he was the Most Evil Criminal who had killed Saint Charlos not long ago. Their teeth chattered, and they scrambled to flee.

To the Celestial Dragons of the holy land of Mary Geoise, Rono, the Most Evil Criminal, was a devil second only to Rocks!

This man really would kill them!

"Lucky you. I don't have time to torture you, so die, you pigs!"

With an angry roar, Rono drove his sword through the heart of the short, fat Celestial Dragon in front of him!

There's still time!

His Observation Haki's Future Sight took effect again. He had about one second before someone arrived to stop him.

In that case!

"Die!"

Rono seized the moment. With a roar, he drew his sword at lightning speed and cut the other two Celestial Dragons—the bowl-cut one with mismatched eyes and the cross-eyed one with buck teeth—in half at the waist!

Three Celestial Dragons down!

A Great Deed! Kong, Garp, Zephyr, and Sengoku Crumble ### "Damn it! The Celestial Dragons have been killed!"

"Three of them died at once!"

"We have to stop him! Don't let him strike again!"

Even the fully armed guards hadn't expected three Celestial Dragons to be killed in an instant!

"You worthless guards! What are we paying you for? Stop him!"

"Run! The Most Evil Criminal is no joke!"

"Damn you useless fools! There are so many of you, and you can't stop one man?"

"And those worthless Marines! Isn't there an admiral to protect us? What good are the Marines?"

"Ah! Don't come any closer!"

Seeing three Celestial Dragons killed in an instant, the remaining sixteen panicked!

Their shrieks were as loud as pigs squealing!

For a moment, curses, insults, and the sounds of fleeing filled the air!

"This is bad! We're finished!"

Tsuru stood off to one side, pale-faced and frozen in shock!

If Garp, Sengoku, and Zephyr hadn't been fighting, they would have been stunned to see her expression!

Tsuru was always composed. When had she ever looked like this?

The nineteen Celestial Dragons belonged to different families.

Anyone sent to attend a gathering this grand had to hold an important position in their family!

Three had died at once. If the World Government held the Marines responsible afterward, they might not be able to bear the consequences!

"Damn it! Something's happened over by the Celestial Dragons!"

The massive commotion Rono caused instantly drew the attention of the Marines present!

Zephyr was the first to notice. Hearing the Celestial Dragons squeal like pigs, he looked over and saw that Rono had killed three of them!

"Zephyr, where are you looking?"

"You dare get distracted while fighting me? What, am I not worth your attention?"

Up in the sky, Golden Lion, who was fighting Zephyr, keenly sensed his momentary lapse!

"Lion: Thousand-Cut Valley!"

An evil grin spread across Golden Lion's face as his two Famous Swords, Oto and Kogarashi, unleashed terrifying sword energy!

Slash!

Zephyr failed to defend himself in time, and the sword energy tore through him!

He slammed into the ground, leaving a staggering crater!

When the smoke cleared, Zephyr came back into view!

His once-crisp Marine uniform had been shredded by the sword energy.

Seven or eight bloody wounds had opened across his body, deep enough to expose bone. He was clearly badly hurt!

More importantly, his fighting spirit had weakened considerably!

"Jihahaha! Zephyr, you bastard, this time next year will be the anniversary of your death!"

Golden Lion laughed. Victory was already in sight!

He plunged from the sky and hurtled toward Zephyr like a human bomb!

Damn it. Against someone this strong, I can't afford to lose focus for even a moment.

Zephyr barely caught the blow and regretted his mistake!

He could no longer fight Golden Lion on even terms as he had before. He was losing ground!

At this rate, Zephyr would soon be defeated!

Meanwhile, Whitebeard and Sengoku's battle played out almost the same way.

Has something happened to the Celestial Dragons? Sengoku worried.

He couldn't help glancing over!

What he saw sent his heart pounding!

Rono had killed three Celestial Dragons!

"Sengoku... you seem distracted!"

Whitebeard spotted his opening and grinned in triumph.

"Murakumogiri!"

With the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit behind it, Whitebeard's Great Swordsman-level slash struck home!

Sengoku's golden Buddha was blasted hundreds of meters back!

Blood gushed from Sengoku's mouth, and his Buddha Form vanished!

Back in human form, Sengoku clutched his bleeding abdomen, his face grim.

I'm finished!

How could I let myself get distracted while fighting someone as strong as Whitebeard?

That was how battles between fighters of their caliber worked!

If both sides fought with everything they had and nothing interfered, they might battle for ten days and nights before a victor emerged!

But a full-scale war was far too chaotic for that.

There was no avoiding outside interference.

Once either side saw an opening, the battle could be decided in moments!

"Gurararara! Nicely done, Rono!"

Whitebeard could tell his slash had seriously injured Sengoku.

Sengoku couldn't even maintain his Buddha Form!

Whitebeard was sure he could defeat him before long!

Elsewhere, on the battlefield where Rocks faced Kong and Garp, something similar had happened!

Kong had lost focus because he was worried about the Celestial Dragons.

Garp was different. He didn't care whether the Celestial Dragons lived or died.

He had been distracted because he saw his friends Sengoku and Zephyr struck down in an instant!

Rocks seized the opening, leaving both men gravely wounded!

And judging by their injuries, Kong and Garp were in far worse shape than Zephyr and Sengoku!

After all, they were facing Rocks, the overlord of the seas!

"Hahaha! You've done us a great service, Rono!"

Rocks burst out laughing. Even he hadn't expected things to go this smoothly!

Garp and Kong had been gravely wounded in such a short time!

And Zephyr and Sengoku were losing ground too!

The Marines' defeat was now inevitable!

With luck, the Rocks Pirates would do more than kill these Celestial Dragons. They might wipe out most of the Marines' fighting strength as well!

If that happened, Rocks's next target wouldn't be a group of Celestial Dragons. He would strike the holy land of Mary Geoise itself!

Without the Marines holding him back, the people in Mary Geoise would be no threat!

The throne of the King of the World would be his for the taking!

And it was all thanks to Rono killing three Celestial Dragons!

Their deaths had triggered a chain reaction among the Marines!

The entire sequence had happened almost simultaneously, in just one second!

That was war. One seemingly small event could decide the outcome of an entire battle.

Just like the blow from a loyal son's sword that pierced Whitebeard during the Paramount War!

Because Whitebeard had been stabbed, Marine Admirals Aokiji and Kizaru had found openings against Marco and Diamond Jozu!

The Marines had turned the tide of that war in an instant!

But this time, it was the Rocks Pirates who had turned the tide against the Marines!