As Sengoku slowly stepped onto the Fleet Admiral's viewing platform behind the Execution Platform, the air over Marineford seemed to tighten in an invisible hand.
In front of the harbor, the waters surrounded by layers of warships and fortifications began churning violently. Bubbles surged up from the depths, like a giant pot heated from below and about to boil.
Doflamingo adjusted his pink sunglasses, his eyes narrowing into long slits behind the lenses.
His tongue swept across the corner of his mouth, his voice barely containing his excitement. "They're coming."
Kizaru tilted his head and dug at his ear with his little finger, his tone as lazy and drawn-out as ever. "How terrifying."
Ace clenched his teeth.
The Seastone Handcuffs locked his wrists behind his back. He saw the backs of row upon row of Marines' heads before him, saw the bayonets polished to a gleaming shine below the Execution Platform. But he could feel it. That man was approaching, like a mountain rising from the seabed. "Pops..."
The surface burst open four times.
The first ship to break through was the Moby Dick.
The Whitebeard Pirates' flagship lifted its bow from the depths, the whale emblem on its hull gleaming beneath the wash of seawater.
Edward Newgate stood with his head held high at the bow, his twelve-foot frame like an unshakable white tower.
The Supreme Grade Sword Murakumogiri rested against his shoulder at an angle, seawater still running down its blade.
Behind him, the commanders of fourteen divisions lined up in turn. Farther back stretched a densely packed fleet of affiliated New World pirate crews, the flags on their masts snapping in the wind.
His aged yet powerful voice swept aside the silence above the battlefield, crashing straight into the walls of the Execution Platform and into Ace's