"Have you heard? The Whitebeard Pirates have launched their war ahead of time!"
"Yeah, the battle is in three days!"
"Why are they in hurry? Could it be that they're afraid?"
That day, after the Whitebeard Pirates spread the news, it caused a massive shock across the world.
Countless civilians were filled with worry and fear.
****
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
In the Fleet Admiral's office.
Sengoku paced back and forth, his face livid.
"Those Whitebeard and Red Hair Pirates are really decisive! The moment they learned we were mass-producing Memory Bread to improve our forces, they moved up the timeline. And they're going to attack is in just three days!" He slammed a fist on the table, gritting his teeth.
"They don't want to give us any more time to prepare!"
"Sengoku," Tsuru said in a deep voice, "at this point, we have no other choice. Even if we can't complete our original plan, we are being forced to fight. Fortunately, there are still three days left. We should be able to increase the strength of at least 100,000 more Marines."
Sengoku nodded helplessly.
He knew that if he were in their position, he would do the same thing and never give his enemy a chance to rise.
"Then we'll work day and night! We must race against time to produce more Memory Bread and do everything possible to improve our strength within these three days! Then, we will fight the Whitebeard and Red Hair Pirates with all our might!"
"YES, SIR!"
****
For the next three days, both the Marines and the pirates desperately worked to improve their strength, gathering weapons and making final preparations for the coming battle.
The storm was about to break.
...
Three days passed in a flash.
The day of the war had finally arrived.
The Video Den Den Mushi once again opened a live broadcast to the world.
Under the eyes of countless people, at Marine Headquarters, Luffy, Ace, and Vista were all positioned on the execution platform.
Below, Fleet Admiral Sengoku stood waiting.
In front of him, more than 800,000 Marine soldiers stood in awe, the sea breeze whipping at their seagull-emblazoned flags.
A sense of chilling tension permeated the air.
"So many people!"
"This number shouldn't be smaller than the pirate alliance, right?" the people of the world marveled.
But their hearts were still filled with uncertainty.
The next moment, with the sound of churning seawater, the pirates arrived.
"The enemy is coming!" a Marine soldier shouted as the alarms began to blare across Marineford.
Amidst the tumbling waves, pirate ships rushed out from the bottom of the sea one after another.
"It's the ship of the Red Hair Pirates, the Red Force! And all the pirate crews under his command!"
Simultaneously, a loud bang like thunder resounded from the sky.
Everyone looked up to see more than 40 pirate ships floating densely overhead, all connected by iron chains, covering the sun.
Leading them was the Moby Dick.
"They're here," Sengoku's face darkened, his heart suddenly growing heavy.
"Sengoku!"
On the surface of the sea, Shanks stood at the bow of his ship.
In the sky, Whitebeard looked down condescendingly at the Marines below.
"Shanks... Whitebeard..." Sengoku snorted coldly.
"Come!"
"Seraphim!"
With the command from both Emperors, a group of replica Emperor-class Seraphim, including their original custom models, came out.
There were twelve of them in total.
"Is this your multi-fruit ability Seraphim?" Sengoku narrowed his eyes.
"That's right, Sengoku. Prepare yourself," Whitebeard taunted.
Sengoku snorted.
"Come out! Marine Seraphim!"
As his voice fell, a total of five hundred Seraphim walked out slowly.
At their front were five Admiral-class models and behind them, the Imperial Angel stood waiting.
Although they might not match the enemy in the quality of their top-tier models, they had more than enough numbers to compete.
"Gurararara, not bad! But we have former Warlords to help!" Whitebeard and Shanks both smiled.
As the words fell, Mihawk and Crocodile walked out from the Red Hair Pirates' side.
From the Whitebeard Pirates, "The Tyrant" Kuma and Gecko Moria appeared, along with the Golden Lion himself.
'So.. they decide to ally with the Whitebeard alliance after all!' Sengoku thought coldly.
If these were the same Warlords from before, he wouldn't take them seriously.
But now, having joined the pirate alliance, their strength had likely increased greatly.
He guessed that, with the exception of Mihawk, the others had all become dual-fruit users.
"Come out!" Sengoku gave the order.
Suddenly, a pink door opened, and six figures walked out step-by-step: the current five Marine Admirals, and the Seraphim Overlord.
"It seems you have also improved," Shanks chuckled.
Whitebeard showed an arrogant laugh.
"That's all? My sons, show the Marines what power we have now!"
"YES!"
Suddenly, many crew members under his command exploded with power.
From both the Red Hair and Whitebeard crews, all the Devil Fruit users unleashed their abilities, revealing that they had all become dual-fruit users.
"RAWRRRRR!"
They roared to the sky, the sound like an overwhelming tidal wave.
"Hmph! Is that all?" Sengoku's expression changed, but he was unwilling to lose in terms of sheer presence.
"Marines, release your Haki!"
"YES!"
Instantly, a raging torrent of Haki swept out from the marine soldiers, soaring into the sky and directly suppressing the pirates' aura.
The final war had begun.
*****
"WHAT?!" Whitebeard and Shanks's faces both showed their shock.
They couldn't help but look at each other, seeing the horror in each other's eyes.
Three days ago, they had learned that Leon had invented the heaven-defying "Memory Bread," which was why they had launched the war in a hurry.
But they never imagined that even with such a short amount of time, the Marines had produced so many, enough to grant Haki to hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
"It's a good thing we started the war early," Benn Beckman said, his face serious.
"Otherwise, if we had given them more time to accumulate strength, I'm afraid their soldiers wouldn't just have Haki."
Indeed, this was what Sengoku had originally intended: to use the Memory Bread to copy not just Haki, but also the Six Powers, swordsmanship, and other skills, turning every Marine into a powerhouse.
But Whitebeard and Shanks hadn't given them that chance.
"Heh, Marines... truly unexpected," the shock faded from Whitebeard's face, and he laughed.
The opponent's overall strength had indeed doubled, but that was all.
He believed that the top-tier powerhouses—himself and the multi-fruit Seraphim—were the key to deciding the outcome of this war.
"However, if you are only at this level, then you will lose today!"
Hearing this, Sengoku scoffed.
"Then give it a try! We'll see who has the last laugh!"
With hundreds of thousands of Haki-wielding Marines, Sengoku believed they had more than a fighting chance.
Just as his voice fell, hundreds of pirate ships emerged from the thick fog in the distance, their numbers so dense they almost covered the entire ocean.
"Big Mom... Kaido... what the hell are you lot doing here," Whitebeard said, his expression turning ugly.
"Mamamama! Whitebeard, how can such a big fight happen without us?" Big Mom's voice boomed in response.
The moment Sengoku saw the arrival of the Kaido and Big Mom alliance, his face sank and his heart quickly dropped to the bottom of his stomach.
'So, they still came after all'.
Countless Marines saw this scene, and their faces turned grim.
The Whitebeard and Red Hair alliance was already enough to give them a headache.
Now, another one had arrived, drastically reducing their chances of winning.
"Don't be afraid," Sengoku muttered to himself, trying to stay calm.
"They are not all on the same side."
"Well, well, Whitebeard! Red-Hair!" Big Mom's huge body stood on the deck of her ship, a ferocious smile on her face.
"You two came so fast!"
"Hmph, Marines! Here we come!" Kaido roared, carrying his massive kanabo.
At the same time, the members of their two crews all showed off their own multi-fruit powers.
"Fuck..." Sengoku's eyelids twitched, an unspeakable sense of crisis rising in his heart.
The worst had come to pass.
The first target of Kaido and Big Mom was, and always had been, the Marines.
'Their alliance has so many multi-fruit users...' Sengoku thought, a bitter feeling in his heart.
The number of Devil Fruit users under the command of Kaido and Big Mom far exceeded that of Whitebeard and Shanks.
Countless people around the world watching the live broadcast couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh.
The Marines' new power was indeed shocking, but the combined number of the two pirate alliances was even greater, conservatively estimated to be at least a million strong.
"It's over... the enemy has the upper hand in every aspect. The Marines can't win this battle."
"There's no way. This time the enemy is really too strong."
"Kaido and Big Mom wouldn't miss such an excellent opportunity to destroy the Marines. There is no chance of a comeback."
Countless people in the world showed their despair.
This time, the situation was far more serious than before.
The common people shook their heads, hugging their family members with faces full of sadness.
No one thought the Marines would be able to win this time.
Perhaps, after this war, there would be no more Marines in the sea.
"Hahahaha! Marines! After today, you will be history forever!" Kaido was full of pride.
Without any more nonsense, his eyes became ruthless, and he gave the order to attack.
"Kill! Destroy the Marines!"
"KILL!"
Immediately, countless pirates rushed towards Marineford, their roars resounding through the world.
"Damn it!" Sengoku's face suddenly darkened. He immediately gave his own order.
"Marines, kill all the scum that stands before you!"
The next moment, countless Marine soldiers rushed out, their momentum equally huge, and the two camps instantly bombarded each other.
"Hmph, that's it! My sons, let's smash them too!" Whitebeard and Shanks both ordered, and their own countless pirates rushed toward Marineford like a tidal wave.
"Kill!"
"Marines, prepare to die!"
"Damn pirates, go to hell!"
Men and women on all sides were quickly red-eyed with the fury of battle, and the sounds of clashing steel and explosions filled the air.
Although the number of pirates was greater, the initial contact between the two sides was saturated.
Coupled with the suppression of the various cannons and defenses at the Marines' home base, the pirates in the rear were unable to rush forward all at once.
For a time, the two massive armies were locked in a brutal stalemate.
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