When "Maelstrom Spider" Squard stabbed Whitebeard, most people's minds simply froze.
Crocodile, who had been knocked back by Diamond Jozu, burst into furious curses.
...He was cursing Whitebeard for falling for it so easily.
Marco, who had been exchanging blows with Flashlight, stared in shock before flying toward Whitebeard, heedless of everything else.
Flashlight fired a few token electron beams but did not pursue him.
Squard took several steps back, pulling his great blade out of Whitebeard's wound.
"Squard! Why did you do this? Answer me-Squard!"
The instant Marco arrived, he pinned Squard to the ground and roared at him.
"Shut up... weren't you the ones who forced me to do this?"
Squard no longer intended to live, and he did not resist. Even as he was pinned down, he shouted what was in his heart.
Whitebeard let out a muffled grunt and dropped to one knee. That stab had already dealt a fatal wound.
"Pops-"
Marco abandoned Squard and hurried to Whitebeard's side in a panic.
"If you keep pushing yourself, your body will..."
As Marco remembered him, the old Pops would never have fallen for a surprise attack, even one from someone close to him.
Whitebeard said nothing, merely raising a hand to stop Marco from continuing.
"End this pointless farce already-Whitebeard!"
Squard climbed to his feet and shouted at Whitebeard.
"You've already cut a deal with the Marines, haven't you?!"
He had an old grudge against Pirate King Roger. Hearing Sengoku expose Ace's parentage had already driven a thorn into his heart.
"The Whitebeard Pirates-and Ace-will all be spared! They promised you that, didn't they?!"
Venting his anger, Squard spilled everything he had heard from Akainu.
And the claim that Whitebeard had "sold out his subordinate pirate crews in exchange for Ace's life"...
Together with the Px-1