The many division captains of the Whitebeard Pirates unleashed a brutal counterattack against the Dragonfang Fleet, slaughtering the unfortunate troops that the Evil Monarch and his allies had abandoned.
"Kill them! Avenge Ace!" "That bastard Souta Kiryuu dared invade our territory—this time, we'll make him pay!" "Make him regret ever crossing us!"
The Whitebeard Pirates, facing a division without any major powerhouse to defend it, flaunted the arrogance of a crew once led by the mightiest of the Four Emperors.
"Whitebeard, you're scum among pirates! You won't fight the Marines, but you'll come after us?" "Those Evil Monarch bastards left us here to die! I'll kill them all!" "Run! Get out of here!"
The members of the Dragonfang Fleet's G18 Division cursed and fled as the Whitebeard Pirates cut through their ranks. Their forces were collapsing, their defeat certain.
On the other side of the G18 Fortress, the Marines led by Vice Admiral Gion—known as Momousagi, the Peach Rabbit—were relentlessly hunting down the remnants of the Beasts Pirates' expeditionary force. The clash was fierce and unending.
Fuz Fu and Sasaki battled Bogard, Vice Admiral Garp's right-hand man. The siblings Ulti and Page One fought desperately against Gion herself. Black Maria, struggling against Tea Dolphin Kaji, was barely holding her ground. Gasping, she summoned the Bat-Man and Elephant-Man—artificial Devil Fruit users—to aid her. Together, they threw themselves once again into the fray against Kaji.
Several massive Beast Giants charged forward after receiving Fuz Fu's order to retreat, clearing a bloody path through the chaos. The war had turned into a rout. They had no choice but to retreat in shame, to return to Wano and lick their wounds.
Across the battlefields where the Beasts Pirates and the Dragonfang Fleet fought, morale was collapsing. When the Rain of Blades, Shiryu, prepared to take flight and withdraw, the Wildfire King—Ember—knew the battle was already lost. The only thing left was to find a way out.
But then, out of nowhere, the Big Mom Pirates returned.
This time, their arrival carried a terrifying new pressure along with it.
Whitebeard turned toward the sea. He recognized that familiar presence instantly.
"Ma-ma-ma! How could you have a war like this without me? If I didn't show up, people might start thinking I'm no longer one of the Four Emperors!"
Big Mom—Charlotte Linlin—rode the thundercloud Zeus across the sky, her face twisted in rage. She would never allow the Marines, Whitebeard, or Red-Haired Shanks to crush Kaido and Souta Kiryuu. If they did, she'd be next.
"Linlin! This war has nothing to do with you! Leave now!" Whitebeard roared, his naginata—Murakumogiri—crashing into the ground. His voice, amplified by the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, shook the battlefield itself.
"Hmph! Don't take me for a fool! You think I don't see what you're doing? You'll kill Kaido and Souta, then team up with the World Government to destroy my Totto Land next!" she shouted back, her eyes blazing.
Shanks being involved, she could understand—he was, after all, a Celestial Dragon's son. But Whitebeard? How could the old fool side with the Marines against fellow pirates? Had he really grown that senile?
"I'm not after you today," Whitebeard growled. "My target is the Dragonfang Fleet. Tell Kaido to retreat while he still can." He knew better than anyone how fragile the balance between the Four Emperors was. If the equilibrium shifted too far, even a crew as vast as his would face unbearable pressure from the World Government.
But today, the Dragonfang Fleet had to pay.
"Ha! You think I'm blind? I can see your first and second division commanders fighting Kaido alongside Garp himself!" Big Mom sneered, glaring toward the battlefield where the Phoenix and the Fire Fist were striking at Kaido in tandem with the Marine hero.
"Neither the Beasts Pirates nor the Dragonfang Fleet are falling today! Think carefully, Whitebeard—Souta Kiryuu will be here soon, and this war won't end until then!" she screamed before flying off toward Kaido's position. She would join him, tear Garp apart, and if those two upstarts—Marco and Ace—got in her way, she'd kill them too.
"You dare!" Whitebeard bellowed, charging after her. The moment she dove toward Marco and Ace, the old man's fury ignited, and he sprinted into battle.
Then it happened—a clash so immense the heavens themselves trembled. Four Emperor-level powers and two Emperor's lieutenants collided. The air itself shattered beneath their combined Conqueror's Haki. The sheer shockwave sent the Phoenix and Fire Fist flying.
"Kaido! You still remember how to fight alongside someone, right?" Big Mom shouted, exhilarated by the chaos. She didn't care that her opponents were two of the strongest men alive.
"Hmph! I'll tolerate you just this once, you old hag!" Kaido grunted. Seeing Whitebeard join the fray, he had no choice but to cooperate.
"Conqueror's Sea!!" the two roared in unison.
Though they bickered, Kaido and Big Mom moved with uncanny synchronicity, forming the stance for their legendary combined strike—the Elbaf's Spear.
"Been a while since I felt something like this!" Garp barked, grinning. His right arm coiled with a storm of Conqueror's Haki. "Fist Bone Impact!"
He lunged forward, fist blazing. The sheer speed ignited sparks as air tore apart around him. The devastating shockwave that followed could have leveled an entire city as it hurtled toward Kaido and Big Mom's combined blast.
"Hmph! I'm not so old that I can't take one hit!" Whitebeard declared. "Quake!"
His fist glowed white, light fracturing the air itself. The moment he struck, reality shattered.
The three overwhelming attacks collided.
The world split apart.
The G18 Fortress cracked into dozens of fragments as the ground convulsed and collapsed into the sea. The cataclysmic shockwaves shattered everything in their path. Vast stretches of land crumbled beneath the ocean's surface.
The sheer force of it left countless Marines and pirates foaming at the mouth, their eyes rolling back as they lost consciousness. Nearly half of the combined armies sank beneath the waves before they could even wake.
Momousagi Gion's eyes went wide with horror as she witnessed her soldiers dying by the thousands. Many of her own female officers—loyal subordinates—were killed before her eyes. The aftershocks of the clash alone had slaughtered tens of thousands, wiping out elite fighters far beyond the reach of rookies from the Blues or the Grand Line.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Red-Haired Shanks roared in fury. His subordinate crews suffered catastrophic losses, some wiped out entirely in the chaos. He stared in disbelief at the fallen captain of the Night Butterfly Pirates, Linaria—his own cheerful admirer, the woman who always joked, "Put it on Shanks' tab." He knew her affection had been genuine.
Now she lay dead before him.
While Shanks' focus wavered, Ember and his allies seized the chance to withdraw, vanishing at blinding speed. The war had spiraled completely out of control. The Emperors' battle would only grow more destructive from here.
...
In the shadows, unseen observers watched the carnage unfold, their expressions a mix of awe and dread.
Morgans of the World News Service was trembling with excitement, squawking uncontrollably as he recorded every moment.
Meanwhile, aboard a small Marine warship nearby, an old man with white hair gazed coldly at the clash of the Four Emperors. His eyes held no emotion—only patience. He was waiting for someone... or something.
His gaze lingered on Fire Fist Ace, the son of the Pirate King and a bearer of the Will of D.
Tonight, that boy would die.
...