After Tesoro's bombardment, Marineford looked like a living hell from afar.
Under Tesoro's control, most of the Lightning accurately fell into the Navy's camp.
With each flash of lightning, several, or even dozens, of naval soldiers were reduced to ashes in the Lightning.
The ice surface and the land in the inner bay are covered with scorched craters and jagged cracks.
Flames shot into the sky, mingling with the deep purple Lightning that continued to fall from the heavens.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of burnt meat and ozone, a mixture that made people nauseous.
Countless sailors scattered like headless flies, trying to dodge the constantly falling Lightning.
Some people desperately tried to squeeze into buildings, while others jumped into ice crevasses to try and hide.
Some people simply threw down their weapons, covered their heads, squatted on the ground, and trembled, hoping to gain the favor of fate.
The officers were shouting at the top of their lungs in an attempt to reorganize their ranks.
But their commands were completely drowned out by the thunder and explosions, and could not reach the soldiers' ears at all.
The pirates, on the other hand, were mostly unharmed.
" Pops —the people from Hachinosu are here!"
"They're helping us fight the navy!"
"Brothers—charge!!"
Standing on the ruins, looking at the hellish scene before him, the Sengoku saw his fingers clench so tightly in his palms that they cracked.
Navy casualty figures skyrocketed to alarming levels within minutes.
Some of the soldiers who fell in the thunderstorm were new recruits who had only been in the army for less than a year.
Some were veterans who had served in the navy for over a decade, while others were elite soldiers transferred from the Four Blues Division.
Some of them are seasoned veterans who have spent many years navigating the Grand Line.
Now they've all fallen.
They fell on the charred ice, beside the burning warship, and among the corpses of their comrades.
Sengoku's gaze swept across the plaza, over the naval soldiers still desperately trying to avoid the Lightning.
The light swept over the wounded who had been blown away by the shockwave, and over the young people who were wailing and holding the bodies of their comrades.
He knew that the situation was no longer under his control.
This war was originally a carefully planned chess game by the navy.
Use Ace to lure Whitebeard into a trap, surround and annihilate the Whitebeard Pirates with 100,000 elite troops, and suppress any possible variables with the three Admiral.
But the reality is, Whitebeard hasn't fallen yet, and Luffy has already wreaked havoc on the battlefield with the Impel Down prisoners.
Three Shichibukai have betrayed us at the same time, and now the core fighting force of Hachinosu has descended from the sky.
The game has completely deviated from its intended course.
But Sengoku was, after all, Fleet Admiral, a man who had weathered countless storms.
He took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the anger and anxiety in his heart.
The most important thing now is not thinking about how to win, but protecting the foundation of the navy.
He knew better than anyone how strong the core combat force of Hachinosu was.
If no immediate action is taken, Marineford today will be a graveyard for navies.
"All personnel, heed my command! Protect the navy's vital forces!!"
The Sengoku's body suddenly swelled, and the Golden Great Buddha reappeared on the battlefield.
The Buddha statue, over ten meters tall, shone brightly with golden light, standing out prominently against the backdrop of the thunderstorm.
He stomped his foot and soared into the sky, heading towards the Thundercloud that was still releasing Lightning.
The moment the Golden Great Buddha soared into the sky, Tesoro, who had transformed into Lightning and merged into the Thundercloud, immediately sensed it.
"Good timing!"
With a thought, Tesoro changed direction and unleashed a torrential Lightning upon the Buddha Form, who was the embodiment of the Sengoku period.
Lightning exploded on the golden Buddha, producing a series of deafening roars.
The golden Buddha was slashed with blackened marks, and the gold paint was burned off by the high temperature, revealing the solid object underneath.
However, the defensive power of the Mythical Zoan Human-Human Fruit, Model: Daibutsu is truly abnormal.
Those Lightning capable of instantly obliterating ordinary naval Rear Admiral,
The blows only left scorch marks on the Sengoku, unable to penetrate the Golden Buddha's physical defenses.
"Shockwave!"
The golden Buddha, an incarnation of the Sengoku, raised his right palm, and the energy within it surged wildly, forming a semi-transparent energy sphere.
The energy sphere grew smaller and denser with each compression, causing the surrounding space to hum and vibrate as the impact energy distorted.
" The Buddha Form Shockwave --!!!"
Sengoku unleashed a powerful palm strike.
A massive shockwave shot out from the golden Buddha's palm, crashing straight into the Thundercloud above.
The shockwave pierced through layers of lightning, scattering the Lightning along its path due to the shockwave's energy, unable to withstand the power of this attack.
The moment the shockwave struck the Thundercloud, the entire sky fell silent for a split second.
"Boom--!!!"
The Lightning still roared, but the Thundercloud, bombarded by the shockwave, had been blasted open with a huge gap.
The gap is over 100 meters in diameter, and you can see the blue sky and sunshine above through it.
Sunlight poured down from the huge opening, casting a bright, circular spot of light on the ground.
The naval soldiers, bathed in the light, were stunned for a moment, then erupted in cheers of relief.
" Fleet Admiral —it's the Fleet Admiral!"
" The Fleet Admiral has broken through the Thundercloud --!!!"
Before Enel could use his Cloud-Cloud Fruit powers to close the gap, the Marine commanders below realized what was happening.
After shaking off Marco's entanglement, Kizaru, upon seeing Sengoku's actions, suddenly transformed into a golden beam of light and escaped the battlefield.
His hands were crossed in front of him, and the tips of his ten fingers simultaneously lit up with dazzling golden laser light.
" The Yasakani no Magatama --!!!"
Countless light projectiles shot out from Kizaru's fingertips, hurtling towards the Thundercloud in the sky like a meteor shower.
The light projectiles swarmed into the Thundercloud, each impact triggering a small explosion that blasted holes into the Thundercloud.
Although each of those holes was small, there were so many of them that when they connected, they almost turned half of the Thundercloud into a sieve.
Sunlight streamed through countless tiny holes, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
The area covered by Thundercloud shrank dramatically, and the number of Lightning also decreased accordingly.
Aokiji also made his move at the same time.
He stood on the ice, his hands outstretched forward, the cold air emanating from his palms clearly visible.
Under his control, the chilling air spread precisely to the heads of the naval soldiers, condensing into semi-transparent ice shields.
"Ice Shield."
While the ice shield cannot completely block the bombardment of Lightning, it can at least reduce its power by more than half.
The naval soldiers hiding under the ice shield were finally no longer passively taking hits and had a chance to catch their breath and regroup.
"All soldiers, take cover under the ice shields!"
"Don't run around! Retreat in an orderly manner!"
"Prioritize the wounded! Drag the wounded to the back!"
The junior naval officers seized the opportunity and began to reorganize their formation.
The soldiers who had been running around like headless flies finally found their leader and, following orders, orderly took cover under the ice shield.
Zephyr, on the other hand, takes a more direct approach.