"Kill him!!!"
As Roger's final roar, filled with despair and madness, echoed over Loguetown like a curse, Yas had already reappeared aboard that unremarkable Marine warship in the East Blue.
He stood at the bow, as though that confrontation, enough to overturn the king's will of an entire era, had been nothing more to him than casually crushing a particularly noisy ant on his way home.
"Lord Azure Thunder, you're back."
The Marine major cautiously approached him, his voice trembling slightly with awe. He did not even dare raise his head to look at Yas's face.
He could clearly sense that, although Lord Yas's appearance had not changed at all, the cold, vast, inhuman aura emanating from him was more than ten times as terrifying as before!
It felt like the difference between a piece of ice and an iceberg. They seemed to be the same substance, but their inherent mass and oppressive presence were worlds apart.
"Head back."
Yas spoke those words calmly, his gaze turning toward the Grand Line.
"The New World."
"Yes! Turn back at once! Destination, the New World!" As though granted a pardon, the major immediately turned and shouted orders to the crew with all his strength.
The warship turned its bow, cutting through the wind and waves.
And just as Yas left the East Blue, a storm far greater than he imagined was brewing furiously in the dark corners of the world at an unprecedented speed.
The New World, Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Inside the Fleet Admiral's Office, the atmosphere was so oppressive it seemed ready to drip water.
Kong, Sengoku, and Garp, the Marines' three highest decision-makers, stared fixedly at an emergency report that had just arrived from the World Meteorological Center.
"An unexplained 'celestial phenomenon split' lasting three minutes appeared over Loguetown?!"
Kong's