"Hmph!" Admiral Aokiji let out a lazy, exaggerated stretch, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the colossal, sun-blotting tsunami as if it were a minor inconvenience.
A cold, almost bored smirk curled at the corner of his lips.
"Newgate, on behalf of the Marines, your gift is duly received."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Aokiji stomped hard on the empty air, executing the Rokushiki skill, Moon Walk, with casual mastery.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
With a series of rapid, impossibly solid steps on nothingness, his figure shot forward like a bolt of lightning, closing the vast distance to the hundred-meter-high wall of churning seawater in an instant.
When the roaring apocalypse of a wave was just a hundred meters from the fortress walls, Aokiji finally made his move.
"Ice Age!"
As the words laced with an absolute chill left his mouth, a surge of impossibly frigid air erupted from both of his outstretched hands.
The cold wasn't just a temperature drop; it was a physical force, taking the form of crystalline chains of ice that lashed out and bit into the oncoming tsunami.
The moment they made contact—
CRACK! KRRRRSSSHHH!
The sound was deafening, a symphony of a world freezing over.
The seawater flash-froze, the ice spreading outward from the points of contact in rippling, geometric waves of frost.
The entire sea seemed to fall under an enchantment, the churning, roaring chaos solidifying from the center outward until all movement, all sound, ceased entirely.
Within the span of a few seconds, the once-devastating tsunami—a force capable of annihilating Marineford and everything on it—had been completely transformed into a colossal, grotesque ice sculpture.
The monstrous wave was frozen in place, its crest curled over the plaza like a gigantic, icy claw.
The deep freeze didn't stop there; it radiated outwards, transforming the surrounding hundred-kilometer stretch of ocean into a vast, silent glacier.
Having accomplished this monumental feat, Aokiji stepped lightly back to his original position beside the other admirals, his expression as calm and unbothered as ever, as if he'd just dealt with an ant.
Meanwhile, the Navy's top brass, the Vice Admirals stationed at Headquarters, had all rallied their forces and arrived on the scene.
Each of them stared up at the monstrous frozen wave, their seasoned faces filled with a mixture of relief and absolute awe.
"Such terrifying power..." one of them breathed. "So this is an Emperor of the Sea?"
"To summon a tsunami of that scale with a single move… He could destroy an ordinary island as easily as taking a breath."
The thousands of Navy soldiers assembled behind them murmured in astonishment.
Most had only ever heard stories of the Four Emperors.
Now, as they beheld the raw, world-altering power of Whitebeard firsthand, their hearts trembled with a primal fear.
The sheer visual impact of the frozen ocean and the looming ice-wave left every single onlooker breathless.
Then, a deep, resonant groan echoed across the plaza as the heavy fortress gates slowly creaked open.
Emerging from the darkness within were not men, but rows upon rows of identical, hulking figures—the Pacifistas, human weapons created by the genius government scientist, Dr. Vegapunk.
At the forefront of the emotionless cyborg formation stood Sentomaru, gripping his massive broad-axe tightly, his eyes was a mix of vigilance and profound irritation.
As the man tasked with escorting these critical weapons to the frontlines, he had expected to complete his mission smoothly and slip away.
Instead, he had walked straight into a standoff with Whitebeard himself.
"Talk about rotten luck!" he grumbled, his tone brimming with complaint.
"Why did this have to happen right now? Maybe today just wasn't a good day to leave the house."
Despite the impending battle against a living legend, the assembled Marines still believed they would prevail.
Though they were facing an Emperor, it was just one man and his crew.
They had tens of thousands of soldiers, the full might of the Admirals, and a cyborg army.
The odds, by any logical measure, were overwhelmingly in their favor.
"Gurararara! Sengoku, you're still as cautious as ever, I see," Whitebeard laughed heartily, grabbing his Murakumogiri from where it was planted.
He showed not a single trace of tension, even as an endless stream of soldiers and cyborgs poured onto the battlefield.
Sengoku's face darkened.
He had been led to believe Whitebeard would be on his last legs, crippled by age and illness.
He never expected the man to appear here in his former glory, to attack marineford itself.
"Newgate!" Sengoku roared, his voice amplified by Haki. "Do you truly intend to disrupt the balance of the entire world? How many innocent people will suffer if the New World descends into chaos because of your selfishness?"
Whitebeard eyed Sengoku coldly, completely unmoved by his words, his gaze filled with a weary disdain.
"Gurararara, that boy Ron was right about you, Sengoku. I never realized before just how much you Navy folk love your moral blackmail." His voice dripped with a sarcasm that questioned the very foundation of "Absolute Justice."
"What happens to others is none of my concern!" Whitebeard declared, his tone resolute and final.
"My only concern is my family!"
The conviction in his voice was unwavering—he would protect what he held dear, and the rest of the world could sort itself out.
"Besides," he continued, a cruel smirk on his face, "those countries that dutifully pay their Heavenly Tribute to your Celestial Dragon masters don't seem to be particularly well-protected by your Navy either."
Hearing the taunt, Sengoku's expression grew darker.
He knew Whitebeard spoke a bitter truth, but he also understood the Navy's impossible position.
From his perspective, areas under Navy protection were infinitely better off than those left to the wolves.
"Hmph!" Sengoku snorted, a mission from the Five Elders flashing in his mind.
They had wanted him to track down Whitebeard.
Who would have thought the man would deliver himself right to their doorstep?
"Newgate, allow me to test whether you're truly as strong as back then!" Sengoku's voice echoed with confident authority.
As his words faded, his entire body erupted in a blinding, golden light, as if a sun had risen within him.
His form began to expand at a terrifying rate, muscles swelling as if inflated, a golden radiance coursing visibly beneath his skin.
Most astonishingly, even his afro transformed, morphing into a perfectly round, smooth golden Buddha's head.
In the blink of an eye, Sengoku had transformed from a man into a towering golden Buddha, emanating a boundless, sacred radiance.
This was the power of his Mythical Zoan fruit: the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Daibutsu.
"Soru!"
The next moment, the colossal golden figure abruptly materialized directly in front of Whitebeard, his speed was so fast it left every onlooker stunned.
A massive Buddha's palm emerged from the void, radiating a divine light as it aimed straight for Whitebeard's forehead.
The very air seemed to be drawn in by this immense power, compressing and converging until it formed a visible, shimmering shockwave.
"Impact Wave!"
With Sengoku's low roar, the shockwave of pure concussive energy erupted, charging towards Whitebeard at an astonishing speed.
A deafening "BOOM" echoed as the entire battlefield trembled from the force.
All eyes were fixed on Whitebeard as the golden shockwave struck him squarely in the head.
The mighty ruler of the seas, the Strongest Man in the World, shuddered violently as the attack connected.
And then, to the absolute horror of everyone watching, half of his head was blown clean off.
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