The battle on the ice field lasted an entire night.
When the first ray of morning light pierced the clouds and illuminated the bloodstained ice, it finally came to an end.
Norton stood at the bow of the White Pearl, his silver hair stirring in the morning breeze. Several tears had appeared in his black coat, exposing the bronze skin beneath.
Blood coated his knuckles. He did not know whether it was his own or someone else's. It trickled between his fingers, drop by drop, spattering the deck with tiny dark-red spots.
Before him, the ice field was unrecognizable.
The tsunami he had created with his own hands had been frozen into an iceberg by Aokiji, then shattered during the ensuing battle into countless enormous chunks of ice. They lay piled haphazardly across the sea like the ruins of a collapsed white city.
The gaps between the chunks of ice were crammed with the wreckage of warships and pirate ships-broken masts, shattered rails, scorched canvas, and floating corpses.
The smoke had yet to clear. Wisps rose from the wreckage, gleaming gray-white in the morning light. The air reeked of burning, blood, and briny seawater, making it hard to breathe.
Farther away, the enormous Marine flagship lay wedged into the ice at an angle, its keel broken and its hull snapped in two. The gull flag at its bow had burned away, leaving only half a flagpole pointing bare toward the sky.
With Akainu and Aokiji defeated, the Marines retreated!
Three days later.
Newspapers from the World Economy News Paper rained down on every corner of the world.
[Great victory at Demon King Island! Marine force ten times the size of a buster call annihilated!]
"Admirals Akainu and Aokiji retreat with severe injuries! Seven vice admirals lost! More than half of