The dissappearrecend of the "Heaven of Sloth" felt like being violently shaken awake from a dull afternoon nap.
Across the entire Marineford battlefield, everyone's thoughts and movements paused for an instant.
Marines stared blankly at their weapons, which had suddenly become heavy again.
Pirates froze in confusion as their enemies abruptly regained speed, their memories still stuck in that thick, sluggish gray world.
"Quick! Reform the formation!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku reacted immediately. His giant Buddha form radiated golden light as he slapped away Burgess and the others who tried to tangle him up again.
But this brief moment of chaos, enough to change the tide of battle, was a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity for certain people.
Marshall D. Teach, Blackbeard, scrambled up from the ground. The fear twisting his face quickly shifted into a deeper, crazed greed.
He glanced at Renzo, who was slowly turning around as if he had just gone out for a walk. A flash of deep wariness crossed his eyes.
But immediately, his gaze was drawn, completely, uncontrollably, toward the towering corpse standing like a mountain not far away.
"Zehahahaha… Zehahahahaha! It's now! It's finally time!!"
Blackbeard let out a low, excited laugh and signaled to his crew.
"Cover me! Boys!"
Burgess and the others understood instantly. They roared and charged toward Sengoku and the nearby Marine commanders, unleashing wild attacks to cause maximum chaos and buy their captain time.
While everyone's attention was locked on the reignited battle and the Whitebeard Pirates' retreat,
Blackbeard slipped through the shadows like an oversized rat and quietly reached Whitebeard's still-standing corpse.
He pulled a large, filthy black cloth from his coat and swiftly, skillfully covered both himself and Whitebeard's upper body.
"What? What's Teach doing?!"
A pirate with sharp eyes noticed and shouted in confusion.
"What is he doing to Pops' body?!"
Marco saw it too. Blue flames exploded around him as he shouted with bloodshot eyes,
"Teach!!!"
He tried to rush over, but Kizaru's Ama no Murakumo Sword pinned him down, preventing escape.
Under the black cloth came unsettling sounds, like something being forcibly ripped apart, mixed with Blackbeard's increasingly deranged, ecstatic laughter.
"Zehahaha… yes… this feeling… this power…!"
A few seconds later, the black cloth was violently lifted away.
Blackbeard emerged, arms spread wide, laughing toward the sky, his face twisted with insane satisfaction.
His left hand was shrouded in pitch-black darkness.
And his right hand,
He spread his fingers and clenched the air.
BZZT!!!
The atmosphere shattered again!
A transparent, web-like crack tore open in the air, exactly like the ones Whitebeard created with his bisento!
The entire Marineford plaza, and even the surrounding broken ice, began to tremble violently!
"The… the Gura Gura no Mi?!"
"No way! How can one person have two Devil Fruit powers?!"
"Teach… he stole Pops' power!"
Both Marines and pirates were stupefied, their minds unable to process what they were seeing. Even the fighting paused for a brief moment.
"He did it! The captain succeeded!"
Blackbeard's crew erupted in deafening cheers, staring at their captain with religious fervor.
"ZEHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Blackbeard reveled in the swirling storm of two overwhelming powers within him. The intoxicating satisfaction and surge of dominance sent him spiraling deeper into madness.
"Do you see this, world?!"
He roared and unleashed both powers at once.
Darkness burst from his left hand, pulling dozens of Marines and chunks of ice toward him.
With his right fist, he slammed toward Marineford's main fortress building,
"Quake!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
Half the fortress shattered instantly, collapsing in on itself like it had been smashed by an invisible giant hammer.
Massive stone blocks mixed with steel bars rained down, killing and injuring countless Marines and pirates below, spreading the chaos and fear even further.
Teach didn't care who he hit. He simply and arrogantly unleashed his newly stolen power.
"Zehahaha! Amazing! This is the world's strongest power!"
Standing atop the ruins like a mad titan, Blackbeard roared:
"This era belongs to ME! Marshal D. Teach!!"
Sengoku stared at the destruction he had failed to prevent, at the collapsing fortress that symbolized Marine honor. Even in Buddha form, he trembled with fury.
"Teach… you bastard!!!"
…...
"Tch. Are they done yet?"
In a relatively intact corner far from the main battlefield, Renzo leaned against a massive block of ice, staring unhappily at the destructive black blob in the distance.
Sanji and Potts guarded him nervously. Falling stones were gently redirected by an unseen "field," rolling harmlessly away.
"Rear Admiral, that Blackbeard… he seems stronger now…" Potts said, voice trembling.
"Mhm. Also noisier," Renzo replied.
He pulled out the rice ball Sanji had packed for him earlier that morning and began unwrapping it calmly.
"Whitebeard quakes, now Blackbeard quakes… can't someone do something new? Like, put everyone to sleep or something."
Sanji: "…"
He was certain that if Renzo wanted to, that "Heaven of Sloth" earlier could've ended the entire battle already.
But clearly, their lazy superior's three-minute enthusiasm had expired. Now he only wanted to finish his rice ball quietly.
On the battlefield, Blackbeard's rampage continued.
Like a child with a new toy, he endlessly created quakes, tsunamis, and devastation, turning Marineford upside down.
Deaths on both sides were skyrocketing, not from each other's blades, but from Teach's insane, indiscriminate destruction.
As Blackbeard raised his fist again to deliver the finishing blow that would completely level Marineford's fortress,
A figure appeared in front of him without warning.
Tall, imposing, with striking red hair that stood out even in the blue smoke. Three scars across his face gave him a fierce dignity.
At his waist hung the famed saber Gryphon. Just by standing there, he exuded a pressure strong enough to quiet the entire battlefield.
CLANG!!
A crisp metallic tone rang out.
Blackbeard's island-shattering punch had been effortlessly blocked by the man's blade.
The quake force vanished completely, absorbed without leaving even a ripple.
Blackbeard's laughter died mid-breath. His pupils shrank. For the first time, fear surfaced on his face.
"R-Red… Red-Hair…"
The newcomer was none other than one of the Four Emperors,
Red-Haired Shanks.
Shanks looked at Blackbeard calmly, his eyes deep as the sea, his voice steady and powerful:
"This ends here."
As his words fell, the rest of the Red-Hair Pirates appeared behind him: Ben Beckman, Yasopp, Lucky Roux.
"Everyone…"
Shanks' gaze swept over the battlefield, over Marines, over pirates, and finally rested on Sengoku.
His voice spread across all of Marineford as if guided by an unseen force.
"Please give me this one favor."
"I will end this war."
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu