The location was Marineford.
The time was when the Whitebeard Pirates launched their war and breached Marineford's walls.
The war was still raging.
Battle cries shook the skies, and the relentless roar of cannon fire thundered in everyone's ears. Amid this battlefield, blood and severed limbs sent adrenaline surging.
Fear and dread were almost nonexistent. All that remained was the fierce resolve to give everything when faced with life or death.
Vrrrr!
The sky above Marineford warped, trembled, and rippled with countless patterns.
It was like a pebble cast into a still lake, sending out ring after ring of ripples.
Every powerful fighter present was watching the two figures on the frozen surface of the Inner Bay.
By now, all the Whitebeard Pirates had stormed onto Marineford's Plaza. Only two men remained standing on the ice of the Inner Bay.
This vast battlefield belonged entirely to them.
Blood-red mist twisted and billowed, rippling through space as it rose into the heavens and obscured half the sky, filling countless people with horror and unease.
The aura pulsing around River was far too terrifying, powerful, and vast. It had reached the point of making people tremble with fear from the depths of their souls.
He was like an asura monster straight from hell. Instinct buried deep within their genes made them shudder.
Roar!
Low roars rang out incessantly as the sky behind River rippled violently.
"What a terrifying aura. Is this what you look like when you go all out?"
"To see you like this when I have so little time left... it truly makes me glad!"
Whitebeard bent his knees slightly and slowly clenched his fists, his voice low.
The blue ice beneath him had already been stained blood-red.
Suddenly, the sky ahead shuddered violently. The crimson mist rippled, then contracted,