With a sharp brake mid–Wind Release, Dragon abruptly turned and glared at Aramaki behind him, shouting in fury,
"What did you just say!?"
Aramaki hadn't expected such a strong reaction. Seeing that Dragon had really stopped, he was stunned at first, but quickly snapped back to attention. A mocking smirk crept onto his face as he replied,
"I said—your Revolutionary Army is finished! The Marines have wiped them out in the East Blue! Right in your homeland! Didn't see any of them around, did you? Hahaha!"
Dragon felt like he'd been struck by lightning. The air currents swirling around him suddenly came to a halt.
He had no idea the Revolutionary Army had been completely destroyed. He'd assumed their silence was just them inheriting his tactical mindset—"If an ally is in danger, stay unmoved like a mountain. Always think thrice before acting."
He'd actually been a bit proud of that. In his view, even someone like Joy Boy would need to amass power before toppling the current World Government.
Given the circumstances—just a handful of people and an elephant—he thought rushing in was reckless.
But now, hearing what Aramaki said, the truth crashed into him: the Revolutionary Army didn't hold back—they were gone. He couldn't accept that. He had poured his entire life into building that force.
Saving his own father, Garp, could wait. He had to confirm the fate of the Revolutionary Army first.
His fists clenched tightly. The currents around him turned wild, reacting to his emotions. He gritted his teeth.
"You're saying Lind, Keldeo... all of them are dead?"
Aramaki saw that the chase could wait—Dragon wasn't going anywhere. He turned and pointed his thumb at the giant "Justice" kanji on his back, yelling,
"Use those mangy eyes and read it loud and clear! With these two words on my back, I don't need to lie to you!"
He wasn't just boasting. In both the original timeline and the current one, the Admirals of the Marines—flawed as their personalities might be—had always held firm to their sense of justice. At the very least, basic integrity was never in question.
Not every Marine could claim that, but when it came to Admirals, those two characters—Justice—truly meant something. It was a badge of honor. In a word:
Reputation.
Even if Dragon hated Aramaki to the core, he still believed him.
But belief or not, the news hit Dragon like a freight train. His body trembled as he threw his head back and let out a deafening roar. Several thousand-meter-high cyclones erupted from his body. Thunderclouds surged above him, and streaks of lightning tore through the sky, casting eerie flashes over his twisted expression.
It was terrifying.
Yet Aramaki, also a Logia user, remained calm as ever. Standing atop a single dandelion puff, he raised his arm as a vast forest of vines surged behind him, shielding him from the storm. No matter how fierce the wind became, it couldn't shake the dandelion under his feet in the slightest.
Dragon was no longer thinking rationally. Roaring madly, he unleashed his powers to their limit. The wind intensified, its range stretching all the way to Mary Geoise atop the Red Line.
...
Suddenly, transparent ripples burst from the Flowers Room in Mary Geoise, instantly enveloping the entire Holy Land.
As soon as the storm winds reached Mary Geoise, they became as docile as kittens. Feeling the waves of power coming from the Flowers Room, Nusjuro and the other three instantly turned pale. They dropped to their knees and shouted toward the source,
"Saint Imu!"
Most Celestial Dragons had no idea who Imu was, but when they saw the four Elders' reactions, they instinctively followed suit and knelt. Only Garling merely bowed his head slightly.
...
Outside the Black Red Line, Joy Boy and Carl also sensed Imu's presence. Joy Boy furrowed his brows and muttered,
"That aura... so familiar. One of the twenty from eight hundred years ago? But which one...?"
Carl narrowed his eyes.
"You're not going to act yet, Imu?"
While they pondered, Dragon finally exploded with power. At the center of the storm, he became the eye. From that point outward, the sea boiled with hurricane winds strong enough to capsize warships.
The Wind-Wind Fruit—Awakened!
Even the lightning in the sky was pulled into the maelstrom, forming massive bolts that reached to the heavens, radiating waves of pure destruction.
From the heart of the vortex, Dragon spread his arms wide and roared,
"Divine Tempest!!!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, bolts of thunder shot outward. Meanwhile, the forest behind Aramaki stirred.
A radiant green glow burst from him as countless spores filled the air. In the face of the wind's destructive force, Aramaki revealed the awakened power of the Wood-Wood Fruit—creation incarnate!
The spores exploded in unison. Massive vines shot out, instantly growing into towering trees—lush green but gleaming with a metallic sheen. They blanketed the sky.
The trunks were incomparably sturdy. Even without being coated in Haki, they endured the storm's thunderous strikes. Some trees merged, forming a colossal green bull that charged across the forest toward Dragon in the eye of the storm.
The clash of two Logia types was nothing short of a natural disaster. Hurricanes howled, forests surged, and broken branches whirled in the chaos—a vivid embodiment of "the tree wants peace, but the wind won't stop."
Aramaki had fused completely with the forest, but Dragon stood clearly visible—madly venting the power of his Wind-Wind Fruit. Only when he saw the enormous bull break through the barrier did his frenzied mind regain some clarity.
As Aramaki emerged from the bull's head, Dragon growled coldly,
"Aramaki, during the purge of the Revolutionary Army... you were in on it, weren't you?"
Aramaki raised his chin and laughed.
"Nope! I was in the East Blue, sure—but Saint Carl acted so fast that by the time I got there, your little rebellion was already wiped out. Real shame, honestly!"
Dragon bit through his lip in fury, white steam hissing from the corner of his mouth. His whole body trembled, but he couldn't form a single word.
Seeing that his taunt had hit hard, Aramaki amped up his power. The green bull under him swelled again, now covered in countless spikes. With the force of a thousand storms, it charged forward.
The next moment, the eye of the storm collapsed.
Driven mad by rage and sorrow, Dragon finally tried to raise his defenses—Haki and all—but it was too late. Like a meteor, he was blasted away.
As he flew through the sky, his—
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+150 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg