Blackbeard had not appeared at Marineford.
The smoke of the Paramount War spread from Marineford to every coast in the world reached by newspapers, yet one of the hands that had driven this war never appeared on the battlefield from beginning to end.
Teach understood one thing better than anyone: on that ice, Garp and Kong, two figures at the pinnacle of the previous era, were burning bright at the same time;
Whitebeard, Kaido, and Linlin, three Emperors of the Sea, were unleashing their strength in desperate situations where each had staked their life;
There were five Admiral-level combatants, countless elite Vice Admirals, and Boer, that quiet variable who nevertheless controlled the entire situation.
With all those factors stacked together, wherever Teach placed himself, the answer was the same: he was done for.
He did have the Dark-Dark Fruit, but even that was not invincible. He could not take it.
So he went to Impel Down.
Level Six, Infinite Hell.
When Teach pushed open the alloy doors, reflections flashed toward him from every direction within the dim space beyond-eyes narrowing, brightening slightly, or merely shifting.
Those eyes belonged to people the World Government had deliberately erased from history-living legends, forgotten nightmares, prisoners whose very names were forbidden from appearing in any official document.
Teach raised both hands high.
"The outside world is already changing violently-do you old relics still have the courage to venture out with me, Blackbeard?!"
Eyes of every kind lit up inside the doorway.
It was not his challenge that had stirred them, but the words "the outside world."
Anyone who could endure decades of confinement in Infinite Hell without going mad could still maintain a keen focus on changes beyond its walls.
Teach interpreted that brief gleam in their eyes as a sign of respect for