"What is that thing? An eye?"
Yasopp exclaimed, craning his neck to look at the enormous spherical object in the depths of the sky, resembling a giant eye.
At the center of the spherical eye was a narrow, elongated pupil.
And within that pupil, a brilliant blue light shimmered like starlight.
Even from tens of thousands of meters away, the radiance was as dazzling as sunlight!
For a moment, it seemed as though two suns had appeared simultaneously in the sky of the New World!
"It has always hung high above the zenith!"
Doflamingo's expression suddenly changed, and he murmured these words almost unconsciously.
This was an ancient saying passed down among the Celestial Dragons, a proverb about the ancient weapon Uranus.
Shanks' face also turned grave in an instant, his gaze lifting to the sky in disbelief.
"Doflamingo! What are you talking about? Stop being cryptic! I feel a great terror approaching!"
Shiki could no longer remain calm.
A sense of impending doom gripped his heart, tightening like a vise, making it almost impossible to breathe.
Throughout his life, Shiki had stood at the pinnacle of power in these seas.
Yet, this feeling of fear was something he had never experienced before.
"It's Uranus! Uranus! There's no mistake—that is the ultimate weapon wielded by Imu!"
Shanks answered the question on everyone's minds, speaking for Doflamingo.
"Ur... anus?" Yasopp stammered.
"Uranus is an eye? Whose eye? A god's?"
Lucky Roo asked, his mind reeling.
"That's not an eye—it's the moon!"
Doflamingo suddenly had an epiphany and blurted out.
His words left everyone stunned.
Rayleigh watched as massive pillars of magma continued to erupt across the surface of Marineford, recalling the colossal beam of light that had suddenly descended from the sky, piercing through heaven and earth.
"That devastating attack earlier must have been Uranus' method of assault."
Kaido froze.
Then, a chill ran down his spine as he turned his gaze toward Marineford.
There, silence reigned.
The earth-shattering sounds of battle that had once echoed were now gone.
The battle seemed to have ended.
"Caesar..."
Kaido, dazed and confused, stretched out his Azure Dragon form and flew in that direction.
"Kaido! Where are you going?"
Shiki called out.
He didn't hear Kaido's response.
"Let's go check over there!"
Shiki quickly manipulated the ground beneath his feet to follow Kaido.
Fujitora hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the only one left behind - Momousagi.
Momousagi was covered in dried dark red blood, her eyes devoid of luster, her entire being like a lost soul, standing silently behind him.
Fujitora sighed, reopening his scarred eyes to gaze at the endless sky above.
He shook his head and still flew toward the direction the others had gone, treading upon the soil beneath his feet.
All the warriors of Marine Headquarters, including the high-ranking officers, died gloriously to uphold justice on the seas!
The pirates of the Beast God Pirates sought to dominate the New World.
Even if they hadn't come today, eventually, a final battle between justice and evil would have erupted.
This was a difference in ideals, a difference in stance.
The two sides had irreconcilable conflicts.
But...
When Joy Boy revealed his and Imu's origins, revealed what Imu intended to do, revealed the future this planet was about to face.
In the face of the immense catastrophe of the entire world's impending destruction, the so-called opposition between justice and evil became utterly insignificant.
"If... if only we had realized this earlier..."
Flying through the air, Fujitora felt an overwhelming bitterness in his heart, unable to resist the thought.
If the just Marine Headquarters had not persisted in opposing the Beast God Pirates, but instead withdrawn from the New World first, leaving the mess to the World Government behind them.
Or, more directly, if Akainu had led the Marines to independence, no longer serving the World Government.
Then, they wouldn't have reached this current situation.
Perhaps, the Marines representing justice and the arrogant Beast God Pirates could have had hope of cooperating to jointly oppose the World Government and Imu.
But it was all too late.
Moreover, if Marine Headquarters had truly done that, the belief in justice would have completely collapsed.
What difference would there be from death?
As Fujitora, his mind in turmoil, followed Shiki in a daze during their flight, the sky above—the eye of the god-like Uranus—suddenly blazed with blue light, shooting a pillar of light that connected heaven and earth down toward the New World!
Whoosh!
The pillar of light, over ten miles wide, passed within a few hundred meters of the flying group and struck the sea.
Time seemed to stop.
Shiki, Shanks, Rayleigh, Fujitora—all their faces were illuminated starkly pale by the light that bridged the sky and the earth.
"The sea... has vanished..."
Where the massive pillar of light struck the sea, a hole over ten miles in diameter appeared directly.
Dark and deep, its depth unknown.
As if leading to the abyss of the underworld.
The surrounding seawater, seemingly caught off guard, had been carved out by the light.
Shanks, utterly disheartened, nearly collapsed to the ground.
"Is this... Uranus?"
With the fall of this pillar of light, it was as if the bell of doom had been tolled for this world.
Then, under the pale-faced gazes of the dozen or so people, one after another, massive pillars of light connecting heaven and earth shot down from the spherical eye in the high sky, targeting various corners of the New World.
...
Hachinosu Sea.
The last members of the Blackbeard Pirates, Jesus Burgess and Van Augur, stood atop the head of the 180-meter-tall San Juan Wolf, looking at the now completely vanished Hachinosu Island.
Van Augur adjusted his monocle: "According to the accounts of surviving pirates, the one who destroyed Hachinosu Island has been confirmed beyond doubt—it was Captain Teach."
Beside Jesus Burgess stood that grotesquely muscular horse.
He shook his head, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he coughed, "Ahem... whatever Teach's reasons may be, it's all guided by fate. We need only wait quietly..."
Suddenly, the previously calm horse beside him let out a piercing whinny, kicked its hooves, and leaped directly from San Juan Wolf's mountain-like body, plunging into the sea with a splash before desperately swimming away into the distance.
Van Augur and Jesus Burgess were momentarily stunned.
But then, a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth descended from the sky, covering an area of over ten miles around them.
Whoosh!
In the next instant, within the light's coverage, the sea evaporated and pirate ships disintegrated.
Van Augur, Jesus Burgess, and San Juan were completely annihilated into nothingness.
At the coastline of Bakura Town in Wano Country, within Totto Land waters.
Over a dozen pirate ships coated with mochi and candy were swept ashore by the tsunami.
Surviving pirates emerged from the ships, their faces still bearing the joy of having narrowly escaped death.
Only Katakuri felt something was terribly wrong, experiencing a chilling sensation throughout his body.
Suddenly, dazzling points of light appeared in the sky.
Dense and numerous, they filled the skies above the New World.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
...
August 28th, Marineford Era 1522.
On this day,
The New World faced its apocalypse.