"Pops!"
Squard's deep voice rang out from behind Whitebeard.
"…Hm?"
Hearing the call, Whitebeard slowly turned, his massive frame shifting as he looked back.
"Squard, you're alright?"
"I'm fine."
Squard answered as he approached step by step toward him.
"I see. I couldn't reach you before… what's happening at the bay's entrance?"
Still facing away, Whitebeard asked in his low, steady tone.
"Our allied crews suffered heavy losses. I slipped through a side route to get here."
As he spoke, Squard's eyes darted nervously. He couldn't bring himself to face Whitebeard's back head-on.
"Sengoku won't show us mercy. We'll need to throw everything we have into this fight."
Whitebeard's words rumbled deep, unshaken, as though he sensed nothing.
"Pops… you figured out the Navy's strategy, didn't you?"
Squard's voice grew heavier as he stared at Whitebeard's back, his mind already made up.
"Sengoku and I… go way back."
"So it's true… they mean to surround us from the rear. Fine by me."
Whitebeard's calm answer darkened Squard's face at once.
"Whitebeard, watch out for Squard!!"
High above, Jiang Lin, wings blazing in blue flames, shouted desperately toward him.
"It weighs on me… dragging you all into this—"
Whitebeard lifted his massive naginata, Murakumogiri, speaking as though he hadn't even heard Jiang Lin's cry.
"I know. This is a battle for our family. Whitebeard, the pirate, never abandons his sons. That's why you've all followed me into this hell."
"…If only… among your sons… we could truly be counted as one of them."
Squard's low voice trembled as his hand released his scabbard. At that same moment, a black cannonball screamed toward their position.
Shu!
Clang! Shunk!
Two sharp sounds echoed across the Moby Dick's bow. The first was Whitebeard, cleaving the cannonball clean in two.
The second was the blade of Squard's sword driving straight through Whitebeard's chest.
The long blade pierced his body, striking deep.
Gasps of horror rippled through the battlefield. Every eye turned toward Whitebeard's position, faces pale with shock.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
In the stunned silence, Squard's ragged breathing filled the air. His hands shook violently as he pulled his blade free.
"Wh—who did that?!"
"It was… it was him! Whitebeard's own subordinate… New World pirate, the Great Whirlpool Spider, Squard!!"
The Marines shouted in disbelief, pointing at the unthinkable betrayal.
"Whitebeard… why?"
Jiang Lin's phoenix flames roared around him as he stared, confusion and disbelief in his eyes.
He knew Whitebeard could have avoided this outcome—but he had allowed it to happen. This was not what Jiang Lin expected.
"Squard!! Why would you do this?! Answer me!!"
Marco, also wreathed in blue flames, rushed to the Moby Dick's bow. Slamming Squard to the deck with his palm, his voice thundered with fury.
"Shut… shut up! You forced me into this!!"
Squard's face twisted with resentment and rage. There was no trace of remorse in him.
"What did you say?! Do you realize what you've done?!"
Marco's voice shook with anger—he could have killed the traitor then and there.
Clang!
Whitebeard's body wavered, his knees nearly giving out beneath him.
"Pad Pad no Mi loaded. Duration: ten minutes. Cooldown: thirty seconds."
As the system's voice rang out, Jiang Lin appeared at Whitebeard's side, steadying him. He gently pressed Whitebeard's chest with his right hand coated in paw pads.
A massive, crimson paw-print ballooned from Whitebeard's body, carrying away the injury.
"Squard! Bear the weight of your sin—by suffering your own strike in return!"
With a swift kick, Jiang Lin sent the fallen Squard crashing into the crimson paw.
"Arghhh!!"
Agony ripped through him as the wound he had inflicted upon Whitebeard was forced back onto his own body. Blood gushed as his strength collapsed, and Squard slumped limply to the deck.
"Enough of this pathetic farce, Whitebeard! You struck a deal with the Navy, didn't you?! The Whitebeard Pirates and Ace will be spared—that's the promise you secured!!"
Squard dragged himself up, leaning against the ship's side, spitting venom as he raved.
His words made the allied pirates around them recoil in shock.
If what Squard said was true, they—the subordinate crews—were marked for sacrifice in this supposed bargain.
"Listen to me!! We've all been deceived!!" Squard shouted hoarsely, forcing his voice to carry.
"I never knew… that Ace was the son of Gol D. Roger himself. You all know how much I despised Roger! If you'd told me from the start—told me Ace was Roger's son, and that you wanted him to be the next Pirate King—!"
"Enough blather! You talk… far too much."
Jiang Lin pressed his palms together, compressing the air into a white sphere shaped like a paw. Without hesitation, he hurled it at Squard.
"Do you even realize what you've done?! To raise your blade against your own father—you're a fool of a son!!"
But before it could land, Whitebeard shattered the paw with a single quake punch. He stretched out his left arm, and in Squard's wide-eyed shock, pulled him into an embrace.
The meaning of that strike was heavier than the wound itself. For Whitebeard to be betrayed by his own subordinate—for him to fail to even guard against it—meant that in the eyes of the Navy, and especially the rank-and-file marines, Whitebeard was no longer the invincible figure they feared.
The impact on morale was incalculable.
In war, morale decides victory. And now, with Whitebeard's betrayal laid bare, the flow of the battle tilted irreversibly toward the Navy.
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