Time dragged on.
The waiting was suffocating.
The morale the navy had painstakingly built up began to waver little by little.
Just as there was one hour left before Ace's execution—
A sudden shout tore through the heavy silence.
"Report to the Marshal! The Gate of Justice has been forcibly opened! We've lost contact with the power room!"
The entire plaza froze.
The Gate of Justice—the first and most impregnable defensive line of Marine Headquarters—had been breached.
For a moment, disbelief filled the air.
But then—
Of course.
If Whitebeard couldn't even break through a gate, how could he possibly sit upon the throne of a Yonko?
An Emperor's influence stretched across seas and nations. Their shadows reached everywhere.
Spies.
Undercover agents.
Corrupted officials.
No fortress was truly impenetrable before such a monster.
The massive gates slowly parted.
Wind howled across Marineford.
The silence deepened.
Everyone understood.
The Whitebeard Pirates had arrived.
"WEEEEEEEE—"
The alarm sirens screamed across the sky.
Beyond the opened gate—
Forty-two enormous pirate ships surged forward like a tidal wave of darkness.
Their black sails blotted out the horizon.
It was less a fleet—
And more a moving catastrophe.
Yet something was missing.
The flagship.
The Moby Dick.
It was nowhere to be seen.
While the navy scanned the horizon in confusion—
Three colossal shadows rose silently from beneath the sea.
Like ancient leviathans emerging from the abyss—
The Moby Dick and its escort ships burst upward into the inner harbor of Marineford itself.
Whitebeard had bypassed the outer defenses entirely.
The navy's artillery lines, warship formations, and crescent-harbor kill zone—
Rendered nearly meaningless in a single move.
From a strategic standpoint—
The navy had already lost ten percent.
"Hehehe… What an entrance."
Gecko Moria grinned wickedly.
Donquixote Doflamingo chuckled.
"It seems your defense plan had… gaps, Vice Admiral Tsuru."
The navy officers' faces darkened.
On the sea—
A towering figure stood upon the Moby Dick.
White beard like a crescent moon.
Massive naginata resting in hand.
Edward Newgate raised his head.
"Ace! Just wait! I'm coming to take you home!"
His voice roared like thunder, shaking the sky itself.
On the execution platform, Portgas D. Ace lowered his head in anguish.
Regret filled his chest.
If he had only listened…
If he hadn't chased Blackbeard…
"Dad! Leave! This is all that bastard Teach's conspiracy! His real strength is—"
SMACK.
An invisible force struck Ace across the face mid-sentence.
His head snapped sideways.
Blood splattered.
He couldn't finish.
But it was too late.
Every gaze shifted—
Toward Xiao.
Whitebeard's eyes finally left Ace.
They locked onto Blackbeard.
Burning.
Furious.
Murderous.
"Teeeaaaaccch…"
The name rumbled like an earthquake.
Whitebeard raised his massive fist.
Muscles bulged violently as the air around it cracked and whitened.
Then—
He punched the void.
BOOOOOOOOM—
The atmosphere shattered.
A condensed sphere of oscillating shockwaves formed instantly—
A compressed apocalypse.
Sea water split.
Clouds tore apart.
The shock sphere roared toward Xiao like a god-slaying cannon.
"NOT GOOD!"
"RUN!"
"Blackbeard, you bastard!"
The Shichibukai scattered instantly.
They had come to spectate—
Not to die in the opening exchange.
This was what it meant to be caught in crossfire.
Lying down and still getting shot.
But Xiao did not move.
He didn't step back.
Didn't brace.
Didn't tense.
He merely lifted one hand lazily.
Endless darkness poured outward.
It twisted, condensed—
And formed a violently rotating black vortex before him.
"Dark Cave."
The battlefield watched.
Two cataclysmic forces were about to collide.
Everyone expected an explosion that would tear Marineford apart.
Instead—
When the shockwave touched the vortex—
It vanished.
Like butter meeting a red-hot blade.
Silently.
Completely.
The navy soldiers behind Xiao felt nothing more than a breeze brushing their faces.
The destruction—
Had been swallowed whole.
Whitebeard narrowed his eyes.
For the first time—
There was no anger in them.
Only acknowledgment.
And a flicker of interest.
The warm-up—
Had begun.
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