Charlotte Linlin's finisher, the "Maser Ho," slammed head-on into Chiyu's awakened Rumble-Rumble Fruit domain, the Thunder God's Realm—Judgment of Sin.
The two ultimate trump cards collided, and raw, howling power tore the sky apart all over again.
One attack fused the might of Zeus the thundercloud, Prometheus the sun, and Napoleon the emperor's blade; the other unleashed an awakened logia, power pushed right up against its absolute limit.
Under that kind of clash, everyone watching felt a doomsday chill crawl up their spines.
While Chiyu and Charlotte Linlin were locked in a fever-pitch duel, the sea battle around them only grew fiercer.
The Three Sweet Commanders—Katakuri, Cracker, and Smoothie—each took on a top-tier opponent. Katakuri was trading heavy blows with Black Arm Zephyr. Cracker went straight for Ashura Dōji. Smoothie, the sole woman among the three, instantly picked her target as well—Empress Boa Hancock.
And it wasn't just the Sweet Commanders. The Big Mom Pirates were stacked with elite fighters. The eldest son, Perospero, wielder of the Candy-Candy Fruit, carried a 700 million Belly bounty.
The third son, Daifuku, user of the Steam-Steam Fruit, was at 300 million Belly. The fourth son, Oven, with the Hot-Hot Fruit, also sat at 300 million Belly. Beyond them were Devil Fruit users of every stripe—the Milk-Milk Fruit, the Mirror-Mirror Fruit, and more than anyone could count.
Even the children who didn't have fruits were frighteningly strong. Outside the family there were heavy hitters like Baron Tamago and Pekoms.
Add in Linlin's armies of Homies—chess soldiers, biscuit soldiers, and the rest—and her overall might was still staggering.
On top of that came their allied crews and partners: pirate crews, marriage alliances, underworld connections, even the Vinsmoke family of Germa 66.
On Chiyu's side, besides Zephyr, Ashura Dōji, and Boa Hancock taking on the Sweet Commanders, there were also Trafalgar Law, Franky, Smoker, Hina, Bred, Box, Barbara, Ain, Binz, Shuzo, Baby 5, and other powerhouses.
From Wano and Zou stood Kawamatsu, Denjiro, Nekomamushi, Inuarashi, and a crowd of seasoned fighters.
This war was not the same as the battle in Wano. Back then, even if Chiyu could stalemate Kaido, his own forces were far weaker than the opposition's, so all he could do was "take the king first."
Now, Chiyu's strength had peaked. Against the Big Mom Pirates, his side could go one-for-one across the board.
The matchup was dead even. And precisely because it was even, the carnage outstripped anything from before.
In the thick of that struggle, a new force suddenly plowed toward the battlefield from not far off, making both sides jerk in surprise.
The Undying Legion had basically zero allies to speak of, so their first thought was that Big Mom's reinforcements had arrived.
But once the Big Mom Pirates got a clear look, they realized those ships were actually Marine warships.
Since Chiyu's Undying Legion was infamous for being ex-Marines who still sailed on top-grade Marine vessels, the Big Mom side naturally suspected the newcomers were Chiyu's backup.
Both sides were shocked. The situation was finely balanced—if either force gained an ally, the scales would tip in a heartbeat.
Chiyu, still battling Charlotte Linlin, glanced that way and narrowed his eyes. "Those are…"
Linlin stared as well, just as confused, watching the distant sea.
Chiyu had already spotted it: those ships weren't his at all. They were bona fide Marine warships. With the exception of the Uchiha and Zephyr's ships, the rest of his fleet only looked Marine-made; Franky had rebuilt them top to bottom. These, by contrast, were the real thing out of Marine HQ.
"Trying to play fisherman while the snipe and the clam fight?" Chiyu frowned, then let out a cold snort.
By the time the Marine warships cut into the battle zone, everyone finally saw who was leading them: one of the Navy's new three Admirals—Green Bull, Aramaki. Instantly, the same thought flashed across every mind.
The Navy wasn't here as anyone's ally. Their goal was obvious—wait for both sides to bleed out, then finish them all.
Curses flew from both fleets. Green Bull Aramaki stood at the prow, staring at the colossal fight raging ahead.
The sunglasses hid any flicker of emotion. "Looks like they're really going at it…" his Vice Admiral muttered, shaken. "It's a Yonko crew, after all—and Uchiha Chiyu's Undying Legion, whose power might already outstrip a Yonko outfit…"
"A sea battle on this scale is once-in-a-generation stuff. It could wake the dead."
"Admiral, what are our orders?"
A cruel smile tugged at Aramaki's mouth. "Weren't the orders already given? Fleet Admiral Sakazuki entrusted me with my first major assignment, and I have no intention of letting him down. Pass it along—drive straight at the Big Mom Pirates. Throw everything we've got and wipe them out."
At his word, HQ's elite squadrons knifed toward Totto Land's waters. Gunfire screamed; artillery thunder rolled; shells rained down on the Big Mom fleet.
Every watcher froze. "The Navy's attacking the Big Mom Pirates?!"
"Why?!"
"Isn't the Undying Legion their public enemy number one?!"
"What is going on?!"
Both the Undying Legion and the Big Mom Pirates were bewildered. But the Big Mom side erupted in fury.
They were already all-out against Chiyu's forces, and now an Admiral had jumped in? The fallout would be catastrophic. Katakuri roared, "Green Bull, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Hands in his pockets, Aramaki gave a chilly, dismissive grin.
"As a Marine Admiral, I don't owe a pirate an explanation. Annihilating the Big Mom Pirates is an order straight from Fleet Admiral Sakazuki. Your story ends in extinction."
Rage and despair rippled through Big Mom's ranks. Sure, Marines and pirates were born enemies, but for years Totto Land and Marine HQ had held a delicate equilibrium.
Not peace, maybe, but no full-scale clashes either. For Sakazuki to suddenly order their eradication—and to strike right when Uchiha Chiyu had them under pressure—was a deliberate move to drive them to the grave.
No one was angrier than Big Mom herself. Her fight with Chiyu was at a boiling point, but an Admiral had barged in and loudly vowed to erase her entire crew.
How could she possibly stomach that?
"What 'Admiral' bullshit!" she snarled. "You think you can wipe out my crew?"
She broke off from her duel with Chiyu and hurtled straight for Green Bull. That was Charlotte Linlin to the bone—reckless, impulsive, doing exactly as she pleased.
Aramaki's brow ticked. He immediately ordered the line to open fire. Shells streaked out in a roaring curtain, turning the sky into a continuous chain of explosions.
Linlin slipped through them with ease; a casual sweep of her hand threw out surges of lightning and flame, detonating more shells midair.
Facing a Yonko head-on made even HQ veterans blanch. "Admiral Aramaki, look out!"
Aramaki just sneered, refusing to budge. Linlin whipped Napoleon in a savage arc.
"Hahaba!" A brutal shockwave condensed into razor-edged sword aura and blasted at the Marine flagship. Aramaki lifted an arm; half his body swelled into towering trees, and a riot of vines surged outward, layer upon layer of barriers rising to meet the strike.
It didn't matter. Linlin's power overshot his estimates. On impact, the wooden bulwarks were pulverized, and the sword aura kept tearing forward. Aramaki's face tightened.
"A Yonko is a Yonko, huh…" He clapped his hands; Armament Haki rolled over his forearms, turning them pitch black, and he braced, catching the force with his body.
Even so, the blow punched him into the deck and shattered a third of the ship's hull.
Chiyu knew Green Bull was the Forest-Forest Human, a man with near-limitless natural force at his beck and call, master over plants, trees, entire jungles.
Even so, in Chiyu's eyes, he still lagged behind the original trio—Kizaru, Akainu, and Aokiji. Against a veteran Yonko like Charlotte Linlin, he'd be outgunned. It didn't help that he was the youngest Admiral, barely around forty.
"Admiral Aramaki! Are you alright?!" Splintered deck planks heaved as great trees thrust up through the wreckage; Aramaki stepped out, seemingly one with the forest around him.
"So that's a Yonko. Not going to be easy." Linlin roared, "You lay a finger on Totto Land and even an Admiral dies!"
Seeing his power skew plant-based, she spiked Prometheus's flames to the limit. "Heavenly Feuer!" Prometheus ballooned in an instant and spat a storm of blazing fireballs that stitched across the Marine lines.
Aramaki wrapped the fleets in forest to block, but plants feared flame, and he started to slip behind.
What puzzled him was how Chiyu stayed his hand. If Marines and Undying Legion joined up here, Linlin would go down hard—yet Chiyu had been watching since the first exchange. What was the man thinking?
Was he planning to play fisherman instead? He didn't have time to dwell. Linlin's assault grew more unhinged and terrifying by the second, and the warships groaned under the strain. Aramaki poured on the power.
"Kinniku Mori Mori!!!" In a heartbeat, forests burst from the sea and tore skyward, swelling into a rolling sea of trees. Under Aramaki's control they merged, shaping into a colossal treeman, mountain-tall and terrible.
Fused with Aramaki, the giant took on his form—massive, imposing, a green sigil etched across its chest, golden eyes burning like beacons. He bellowed and drove a titanic fist straight at Charlotte Linlin.
She didn't flinch. Napoleon flared, and she unleashed everything. "Elbaf's Spear… Weiguo!!!"
Even Chiyu would have been outmuscled by that blow; Aramaki stood no chance. The circular shockwave of sword aura hit and the giant treeman shattered—half its body ripped away in an instant. Even an Admiral couldn't hold back a scream.
Chiyu shook his head. As expected, Green Bull was a bit green in front of Charlotte Linlin. But out on the water, while Aramaki ate it, the fleets he'd brought were carving the Big Mom Pirates apart.
They'd arrived fresh and fully stocked, while the Yonko crew had been slugging it out with the Undying Legion, taking losses and wearing thin.
And an Admiral's task force meant Vice Admirals by the dozen—elite pillars anywhere you put them. Under a coordinated pincer from Marines and Undying Legion, the Big Mom Pirates were buckling, teetering on the edge of collapse.
Even Katakuri, wringing out everything he had, couldn't fight the two strongest forces on earth at once.
Linlin saw it too. She wanted to kill Green Bull quickly, but that wasn't realistic. Outclassing him was one thing; finishing him was another.
As a Forest-Forest user, his vitality was obscene. Even after the treeman body was destroyed, a single green sprout let him regrow himself.
He was drained, yes, but far from finished. As long as he kept her tangled up, the Big Mom Pirates' downfall was inevitable.
Seething, Linlin realized she couldn't take him down fast and vented her fury on the other Marine ships.
That gave Green Bull exactly what he needed. He seized the opening, became a giant treeman again, and hammered a Haki-wrapped punch into her back—right as she was pouring power into another barrage.
Even a steel-balloon body couldn't shrug that off. Aramaki's Armament Haki was honed to its peak—more than enough to rupture organs from the inside, doubly so on a blindside hit. Linlin coughed a mouthful of blood; her face went stark white.
For a heartbeat, she went nearly feral. "Die. Go to hell!" she screamed. "Maser Saber!!!"
She fused Zeus, Prometheus, and Napoleon into one and hurled a raging blade of lightning-wreathed flame. Aramaki, stunned that she could still explode with that kind of power while wounded, faltered.
The strike punched through him, lightning and fire chewing through the treeman remains, determined to burn everything to ash.
The warship under his feet split apart, carved into floating wreckage by that single stroke.
In the space of a few breaths, Charlotte Linlin and Green Bull Aramaki had torn each other open—an outcome no one on that ocean had seen coming.
~~~
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