When Ace fell helplessly to the ground, his blood quickly soaked the earth beneath him.
"I might have made a big mistake now" Elior muttered to himself, shaking his head. He thought briefly of Whitebeard, Garp, and Dragon — people with deep ties to Ace — but there wasn't much guilt in his heart. He'd killed too many people already. In a world like this, where life was as cheap as grass, such deaths barely mattered.
Still, killing Ace undoubtedly touched off a larger chain of consequences, but compared to the World Government and the Marine Headquarters, killing Ace was trivial.
Had the Revolutionary Army and the Elior Pirates not been here today, restraining the bulk of the Marine's strength, and had Kizaru and the others fought without distractions, the Whitebeard Pirates would have already been defeated. Whitebeard himself was long past his prime — after all, in the original timeline, Akainu had burned two gaping holes through his stomach.
"Ace!!"
From a distance, Sabo watched in horror as Elior's fist pierced straight through Ace's body. It felt as if his heart had been torn apart. A sharp, unbearable pain struck him, and he was terrified even to imagine what might come next.
"I'm going to kill you!"
Sabo roared, his face twisted with rage, veins bulging on his fists as he charged like a bolt of lightning.
"Dragon Breath!"
Facing Sabo's strongest technique, Elior calmly raised a hand—lightning crackled around his fingers.
Railgun.
A bolt of lightning shot forth, clashing with Sabo's move. The violent surge of electricity carried immense repelling force, shattering Sabo's attack and sending him crashing back.
"It's better to get rid of such a troublesome pest now."
The decision was made. Elior appeared before Sabo the moment he hit the ground and stomped down hard on his chest.
Sabo coughed violently, his body nearly caving in under the force. If Sabo survived, he'd only grow more annoying in the future.
"You can go down and reunite with your brothers."
Elior looked down at Sabo, his face cold and emotionless.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the ground beneath Sabo collapsed into a crater from the sheer power of Elior's stomp. Sabo, crushed at the bottom, felt like his body was breaking apart.
The blow was devastating. It may have been nothing to a top-tier combatant, but for Sabo, it was overwhelmingly brutal.
Boom!
Without hesitation, Elior stomped again, the impact sending dirt and debris flying. Blood welled up in Sabo's throat; no matter how hard he tried to hold it back, it still poured from his mouth, his face pale as death.
Against Elior, Sabo was utterly crushed.
They were simply beings from two different worlds—the gap was too vast. Maybe Sabo, two years from now, might have stood a better chance.
"You..."
"I won't let you get away with this... Ace..." Sabo rasped, his voice slurred by the pain, his eyes burning with fury.
"But you have no chance."
In the next instant, Elior's right hand crackled with fifty million volts of lightning, piercing straight through Sabo's chest just like he had done to Ace.
As the lightning tore through him, Sabo's eyes widened, filled with disbelief, pain, helplessness, and rage—the same emotions Ace had worn just before his death.
"I wonder if I'm still in shape to deal with the returning Whitebeard."
Elior knew he had consumed a lot of energy. Ever since arriving at Marineford, he hadn't stopped fighting. Clearly, he was no longer in his peak condition.
After all, everyone he'd fought so far was among the world's strongest.
But he'd have to get used to it—because compared to the World Government, even these opponents were just stepping stones. Elior was killing freely now, but he was far from invincible.
Still, these brutal battles had rapidly sharpened his combat experience.
Elsewhere, Luffy, who had just been knocked back by Elior, rushed to Ace's side at last—only to find him dying.
Ace's eyes were dull, but when they focused on Luffy, a gentle smile spread across his face.
"Ace!"
The sight of the massive, bloody hole in Ace's chest horrified Luffy. He collapsed to his knees, weak and trembling, beside his brother.
"A-Ace... don't close your eyes... please…"
"I won't…"
"Ace...!"
Luffy's mind went blank. His vision blurred with tears. His heart felt like it had stopped beating. It was like a nightmare—a nightmare he couldn't wake up from.
"Ace... brother... I couldn't... protect you…"
Ace tried to lift his hand to wipe Luffy's tears, but he couldn't even reach his brother's cheek. His arm fell lifelessly to the ground.
And just like that, Ace's life ended.
In Luffy's hand, the Vivre Card Ace had given him burned to ashes, scattering helplessly in the wind.
"Ace! Ace! Don't do this!"
"Can you hear me?!"
"Ace!!"
Luffy shook his brother's body, his voice trembling with desperation, but Ace's eyes had already closed forever.
Thud!
Suddenly, Elior casually tossed Sabo's corpse over. It landed right in front of Luffy—side by side with Ace.
"Sabo!"
"Sabo!!"
Luffy froze. Sabo, too, was dead—his chest pierced through, his face twisted in agony.
Unlike Ace, who had passed with a bittersweet smile, Sabo had died filled with dread and refusal to let go—haunted by the fear that Elior might kill Luffy next.
Elior walked past Luffy with calm indifference.
Killing Luffy now would've been easy — one strike was all it would take. But where's the fun in that? The game wasn't over yet.
Besides, Luffy's background was far too complicated. Elior didn't feel like dealing with the potential fallout — at least, not yet.
In the original story, Luffy had already been pushed to the brink of collapse after Ace's death. Now, with Sabo gone too, Luffy was completely broken. The grief was overwhelming.
"Luffy! Ace! Sabo!"
From the fading blaze of the battlefield, Jinbe and Ivankov broke through the chaos, rushing toward them.
They didn't even care that Elior was standing right there.
When they reached Luffy's side, they saw the lifeless bodies of Ace and Sabo. Both of them had lost all signs of life—there was no saving them now.
"Ace-boy! Sabo-boy!"
"Ace! Sabo! This can't be real!"
"Don't scare me!"
Ivankov and Jinbe's faces went pale with horror. No matter how they called to them, there was no response. Only the cold, silent corpses remained.
Tears streamed down their faces. Even the mighty Jinbe couldn't hold back his sobs.
Luffy, meanwhile, stared blankly ahead, his mouth open, his eyes hollow.
Losing two brothers—two people he loved as family—had shattered his spirit completely. The shadow of this grief would not be easy to escape.
"No... Luffy's mind is breaking!" Ivankov, who had some medical knowledge, immediately saw the signs—Luffy was slipping into mental collapse.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, as the sea of flames began to fade, they could see Ace lying lifeless on the ground, Luffy collapsed in grief, and Jinbe kneeling beside them in sorrow.
Garp, who was being held back by World, staggered a few steps.
Even though he already knew what had happened, seeing it for himself — the lifeless Ace — was a reality Garp couldn't accept.
It was as if a knife had stabbed through his heart, a sharp pain that cut deeper than any wound, a feeling like being struck by lightning from the clear sky.
When the World lunged forward again—
"AAAH!!"
Garp let out a heart-wrenching roar, his body trembling. His muscles suddenly bulged with such ferocity that his clothes tore apart at the seams. With a surge of explosive strength, Garp slammed his iron fist directly into the World Destroyer.
BOOM!
It was like thunder ripping across the sky. Garp's punch struck the opponent's sword, amplified a hundredfold by power, and shattered it on the spot. The force of the impact sent the World flying backward, heavily injured.
"What insane strength!"
"What the hell is up with this Garp guy?!"
Garp's fury was erupting in a straight, uncontainable line. The sheer power of his punch stunned the World.
Of course, World didn't realize that Ace, lying dead in the distance, wasn't just any pirate—but Garp's grandson. Now that Ace was gone, how could Garp not go mad with rage?
The very next moment, Garp vanished from sight—charging straight for Elior.
At nearly the same time, another heart-wrenching tragedy was unfolding elsewhere.
That was when Dragon finally realized that Sabo, the boy he raised like a son, was dead too.
The silent grief in Dragon's chest was overwhelming. He couldn't hold back his tears.
BOOM!
In that instant, Dragon struck Bullet with a devastating blow that sent him reeling. But Bullet, lost in the thrill of battle, ignored the damage completely. With explosive speed, he flashed right back in front of Dragon and landed a brutal kick square to his chest — sending Dragon hurtling out of Marineford's plaza, crashing onto the melting ice sheets outside.
"That hurts!" Bullet sneered, wiping blood from his mouth, but he vanished again in the next second.
He couldn't afford to let Dragon escape that easily.
"Looks like the captain's plan is in motion" Bullet muttered with a wicked grin. "This is getting fun."
After all, Bullet had already made up his mind—once all the dust settled, he would have his duel with Elior. To ensure that, he would stop every strong enemy from interfering with Elior's path.
That had been the plan from the very start of Marineford.
That's why Elior could rampage so freely now—because his subordinates had his back.
At the same time, one of the red beads that Ace had worn as an accessory fell from his body, bouncing and rolling across the sloped battlefield until it finally reached Whitebeard's feet.
In the wake of Ace's death—and Sabo's as well—killed by Elior, the entire battlefield fell into stunned silence. Even Sengoku, along with countless Marines and pirate captains, halted their fights. Everyone stood frozen, shocked beyond words.
Sengoku hadn't expected Elior to actually kill Ace... let alone Sabo too!
No one had imagined that Elior would be this ruthless — two pivotal figures from the most powerful forces in the world, dead in one strike after another.
This was a world-shattering event.
More shocking than the time Elior had killed a Celestial Dragon live on broadcast—it was on a whole different scale.
At that moment, Whitebeard slowly picked up the red bead from the ground. It was a familiar object—because it had always hung around Ace's neck.
Now, it lay scattered in the dirt.
Even from afar, where Ace's body lay motionless, Whitebeard could feel the extinguished flame of his beloved son's life. He could hear Marco and the others screaming Ace's name, their voices hoarse with grief and disbelief.
Everyone was either crying or choking on their sobs.
"Ace..."
Whitebeard's tears, uncontrollable, flowed freely down his face. He had never cried in his life, but at this moment—he broke.
On the other side of the field, Elior stood watching Whitebeard, waiting for what he knew was coming — Whitebeard's final eruption.
Ace's death would reignite Whitebeard's fighting spirit, restoring his power to the heights of his prime.
A heart consumed by darkness is three times stronger—rage fuels strength.
By killing both Ace and Sabo, Elior had set the inevitable in motion: Whitebeard, Garp, and Dragon—three titans—were now consumed by wrath.