Chapter 543: The Person Behind the Scenes!
Most of the day had already bled away, yet the Aragami showed no sign of stopping.
If anything, they grew more relentless.
More and more of those creatures fell from the sky, and the pressure on the Marines rose with every passing minute.
By now, even Sakazuki and the others were no longer fighting with the same ease.
Their breathing had grown heavier.
Their movements were sharper, but not as smooth.
Exhaustion was finally catching them.
They were not twenty year old rookies who could swing their fists all night and still laugh about it afterward.
Their stamina was declining, whether they liked it or not, and this kind of nonstop slaughter was a meat grinder.
If it kept going like this, they would not be killed by the Aragami.
They would die of sheer exhaustion.
But retreat was no longer an option.
If the defensive line broke now, these things would fall into the fleet and tear through ordinary Marines like a storm through paper.
"Mmm…"
A sharp, piercing howl suddenly tore across the sea.
"Boom boom boom…"
A deep, thunderous roar followed.
"Zunesha?"
Sakazuki's eyes widened as he stared at the massive shadow appearing not far away.
Zunesha's path was supposed to be fixed, an endless slow rotation within a limited range.
Even if it could change direction, its speed should have been unbearably slow.
Yet what they saw next shattered that common sense.
The giant elephant moved with shocking urgency, charging forward like a beast that had decided to run.
The howl from earlier had not come from Zunesha.
It came from something riding on its back.
The Mink Tribe of Zou.
"Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, we came to help!"
Sakazuki's focus flickered for a fraction of a second.
That was enough.
An Aragami lunged in, seizing the opening and striking straight for him.
A familiar voice rang out again.
Then lightning flashed.
Before Sakazuki could even fully turn, the Aragami that attacked him was already blasted away, sent spinning through the air.
White arcs of electricity lingered in the sky like claw marks.
"Conrad?"
Sakazuki recognized him immediately.
Conrad, a captain from the Dragon Hunter Pirates, a mink warrior himself.
And now, Conrad was in Sulong form, fully battle ready.
Was Sulong not supposed to be something you could use casually?
How was he maintaining it like this?
"I never thought I'd live to see the day we fight side by side with the Marines!"
Conrad's grin looked feral beneath the crackling light around him.
"That's a weird feeling, huh?"
"Meow hahahaha!"
Another powerful presence slammed into the battlefield.
Cat Viper.
The leader of the Nekomamushi gang was already in Sulong, charging into the Aragami like a lunatic.
"Fighting with the Marines isn't that strange!"
Cat Viper roared as he tore forward.
"We don't have some big blood feud, do we?"
"Besides, I'm taking the biggest count today!"
"You mangy cat, shut up and rest!"
Duke Inuarashi thundered, leaping after him.
Lightning erupted again.
White silhouettes flickered across the frozen sea, appearing and vanishing with terrifying speed.
Sakazuki's gaze swept the newcomers.
Every mink he could see was in Sulong.
Not one exception.
Was Sulong really this easy now?
Before he could even finish processing the shock, the battlefield had already been seized.
The Mink Tribe flooded in, tearing through the Aragami with ruthless coordination.
They were not as overwhelming as Sakazuki and the admirals in raw single target destruction.
But their speed, their agility, their electro attacks, and the way their Armament Haki and Observation Haki sharpened in Sulong made them lethal in groups.
They did not need to overpower a monster.
They only needed to dismantle it.
Borsalino exhaled, forcing his focus back where it belonged.
"Now's not the time to stare."
He moved, light scattering as he stepped forward.
"With Zou's warriors here, this gets a little easier."
And it really did.
Conrad and the Mink fighters were not individually unstoppable, but together they became a terrifying tide.
Whether it was a Marine admiral or a Yonko, anyone with sense would feel uneasy watching Zou's warriors fight like this.
Once Conrad's team joined, the rest of the Dragon Hunter Pirates also noticed the shifting battle below.
One by one, they began to add pressure from above, sending attacks down into the swarm.
On the side of the colossal Aragami, the front line of Ryuunosuke, Madara, and Escanor remained locked in place.
But the others peeled away to help cleanse the smaller Aragami.
There were simply too many.
…
Soon, the battle sank into a brutal tug of war.
Ryuunosuke's side still held the advantage, but the Aragami felt endless, like a tide that refused to drain.
The colossal one was worse.
Its defense was ridiculous, and its self healing was just as absurd.
Even Ryuunosuke could not kill it outright in a short time.
Far away, atop a high mountain, two figures watched the war unfold.
"These things were released early," one of them said. "Will that cause problems?"
"Even the extreme ones have shown up," the other voice continued. "Looks like they won't stop now."
Carmel stared at the battlefield, excitement shining in his eyes.
Even while voicing concern, he looked like he wanted to leap in and join the slaughter himself.
The man beside him remained calm.
"Relax. They're only preliminary test samples."
His tone was steady, almost bored.
"The cells from that existence are still extremely useful."
"With bloodline factors added, we can create as many combat creatures as we want."
He paused, eyes cold behind the spectacle.
"We've collected enough data."
"There's no need to stay."
"Let's proceed to the next stage."
Carmel turned, almost unable to hide his eagerness.
"My lord, I want…"
"I'm going back."
The man cut him off without even glancing over.
Then he turned and left.
Vegapunk.
The greatest mind on the seas.
He did not look impressed by the fact that these prototypes were pushing Ryuunosuke and the others into a hard fight.
Vegapunk understood exactly what this meant.
Against true monsters, these things were still not enough.
But those cells, those original cells, were no small achievement.
As long as he lived, creations like this would never disappear.
There was no need to chase excitement now.
He had endured for years.
Waiting a little longer was nothing.
Especially when the second stage prototype was nearing completion.
Let Ryuunosuke and the others destroy the early samples.
It was convenient cleanup.
"Yes, sir."
Carmel's face twisted with reluctance, but he did not dare defy the order.
Soon, both of them vanished from the mountain.
…
The battle dragged on for a full day and two nights before it finally ended late on the second night.
By then, the frozen sea had become a grotesque battlefield.
Corpses of Aragami piled high across the ice, layered like debris after a hurricane.
The colossal Aragami still stood out, its massive body looming even among the dead.
When the dust finally settled, the Marines and the Dragon Hunter Pirates gathered together.
Sakazuki sat down and did not bother with politeness.
"Ryuunosuke."
His eyes were sharp, even through exhaustion.
"What are those things?"
Ryuunosuke leaned back slightly, expression heavy.
"Artificial combat creatures."
He did not sugarcoat it.
"They're mainly made from humans."
He looked at Sakazuki, voice turning colder.
"Now tell me, who do you think could pull that off?"
Sakazuki's answer came instantly.
"Vegapunk."
"That's right," Ryuunosuke said.
"And we only found them by accident."
His jaw tightened.
"This guy definitely has more hidden cards."
"The sea is going to have to face that sooner or later."
His tone sounded almost helpless, but the anger beneath it was real.
Ryuunosuke was not a savior.
He was not a saint.
But staring at those piles of human made monsters, he felt something twist in his chest.
Experimenting on people.
Turning them into weapons.
Then unleashing them like disposable beasts.
In Ryuunosuke's mind, that was unforgivable.
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