"This regeneration… feels unnatural."
Lady Karina of the Great Mother's Line narrowed her eyes. The Elder known as Masu had just been shattered into fragments—and was already piecing himself back together, bones fusing and flesh knitting with eerie speed.
Even she, who had seen countless jutsu and fought creatures older than nations, found that unsettling. Not even Kaido's draconic body could recover so fast. But then again, the Five Sage Lords weren't ordinary shinobi—they were ancient ghosts wrapped in skin, monsters who had lived since before the First Hokage's wars. Maybe they'd learned tricks no mortal should.
Karina's grin returned, wide and terrible. "Let the old man and the Sage Lord keep killing each other."
She drifted back from the battle, leaving the shattered plain to them. She wasn't stupid enough to waste chakra now. Let the beasts tear each other apart; she'd harvest the corpses when the dust cleared.
Her clan's followers—Cracker, Snagg, and the others—retreated as well, their banners fading into the smoke. For the moment, the Mother's forces were out. But that withdrawal carried its own pressure. Both the Allied Fleet and the Red Fang Clan knew it—if Karina rejoined the fight, the tide would turn instantly.
Among the allied shinobi, Vice Commander Gion and the swordsman Bogart exchanged grim looks. They cursed the Sage Lord who had shattered their plan. They had been so close to crushing the Mother's Legion and the Beast Horde together. Now, thanks to the Sage Lords' impatience, the battlefield was in ruin.
Admiral Garp's condition was uncertain, and their alliance with the Whitebeard Clan had collapsed into chaos.
If only Garp had followed orders—hadn't thrown himself between Whitebeard and Karina's attack—Whitebeard would be dead or dying by now, the Sages still in control, and the Four Emperors broken.
But no. Because of that single blunder, the entire war was unraveling.
Deep beneath the waves, the Iron Fist himself floated motionless, pretending to be half-dead. His ribs throbbed from Karina's attack, though his haki had absorbed most of it. He only wanted this nightmare over. But then he saw Ace—the Flame Prince—fall from the sky, smashed unconscious into the sea by Masu's blow.
Garp's teeth ground together.
He shot upward, breaking the surface, dragging Ace's limp body toward Whitebeard's flagship—the Moby Whale. He hurled the young man onto a lower deck, where the crew erupted into shouts.
"His chest is crushed—internal rupture! Get the medics!"
"Find Captain Marco! We need the blue flames, now!"
Ace's body trembled on the blood-slick wood, his breathing shallow. Masu's tail strike had nearly severed his life—worse than the lightning blow Luffy once took from Kaido himself.
From the sea, Garp's face darkened. Seeing Ace still alive, he turned and swam back toward his own fleet, coughing blood for effect before collapsing on his hound-prowed ship.
Meanwhile, Marco staggered aboard the Moby Whale carrying Whitebeard, the old man's frame trembling from battle. The instant Marco heard Ace's name, he bolted for the lower decks, blue fire igniting behind him.
Whitebeard himself turned his gaze toward the horizon—and froze.
Masu's body, already healed, now pulsed with golden sigils. Two new summoning circles opened beside him, each brighter than the sun.
The old pirate's knuckles tightened around his halberd. "So… the Five Sage Lords mean to finish this today."
Across the field, Shanks of the Red Fang Clan watched the sky distort. His face darkened. This wasn't what he had planned. The Sages' intervention would destroy everything—Kaido, Whitebeard, everyone.
"Kaido! Enough!" he shouted, turning from their duel. "This isn't our fight anymore. The Sage Lords have made their move. This is no longer a war between clans—it's the ninja world against the gods who rule it!"
Shanks didn't want Whitebeard to die, nor Ace's lineage to end here. Without the Whitebeard Clan, his own Red Fang Clan would crumble next. Between the Beast Horde, the Mother's Legion, and the World Council's armies, no one would survive.
Only by joining forces could they delay the inevitable—a full-scale world war that would erase every village and clan. Only by holding the line could the Will of the Pirate King, now reborn in the young shinobi Luffy, have time to rise.
"Five Sage Lords…" Kaido's eyes burned red with fury. He hated them as much as he hated Shanks. But he hated being manipulated even more.
Masu's summoning finished. The air split apart as two monstrous forms burst forth—an enormous boar cloaked in molten rock and a skeletal warhorse trailing frost and mist. They galloped across the sky as though the air itself were solid, thundering straight for Whitebeard's ship.
"DEFEND!"
Whitebeard's roar split the heavens. No creature touched his sons while he still drew breath. He swung his halberd, its quake-forged edge crashing toward the three incoming beasts.
"Whitebeard! Your curtain falls today!"
Masu's voice boomed from the storm clouds.
The boar, Topman of the Burning Fang, opened its jaws. "Conqueror's Howl!"
A shockwave of raw will ripped across the sea, shaking the Moby Whale to its bones. Its twin tusks lengthened into blazing blades, cleaving downward like twin suns.
His partner, Zambaron the Bone Horse, galloped over the deck, freezing every plank he touched, the frost snaring Whitebeard's captains mid-step.
Masu himself descended as a colossal black bird—its serrated beak gleaming like a guillotine—diving for Whitebeard's skull.
"RRRAAAH!"
Whitebeard's halberd met the boar's fangs, Haki clashing against Conqueror's energy, the explosion rattling the sea itself. The ship splintered, waves leaping skyward like walls of glass.
The black bird shrieked, veering in from the side. Whitebeard twisted, releasing one hand from his weapon, thrusting his fist forward—Quake Release!
The shockwave smashed into the bird's chest, hurling it away in a storm of feathers and blood. But the old titan had no time to breathe; the molten boar slammed its tusks against his halberd again, driving him backward through the wreckage.
The Moby Whale groaned, its deck collapsing beneath them as Whitebeard was thrown into the lower cabin, dust and flame swallowing his figure.
And above, the sky still burned with the sigils of the Sage Lords.
...
Hey everyone! Want to read ahead and unlock up to 100 early-access chapters? 📖Plus, enjoy even more exclusive novels! Join my Patreon now and dive into the adventure!
patreon.com/Rawink00