The hour that would shake the entire world had finally arrived.
At Marineford, the war for Portgas D. Ace was about to begin.
One hundred thousand elite Marines filled the crescent-shaped plaza of Marine Headquarters, gathered from bases across the Grand Line.
Cannons lined the surrounding walls, the Giant Squad stood at the front, and numerous vice admirals waited with their weapons ready.
There was no laughter or any idle conversation.
Every man and woman gathered there understood who would soon be coming for them.
Edward Newgate—the Strongest Man in the World.
Near the rear of the formation, Sentomaru stood before a unit of Pacifistas modeled after Bartholomew Kuma. The identical weapons remained motionless, awaiting the order to enter battle.
On a raised section overlooking the plaza, five figures stood apart from the Marines.
The Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Or at least, those who had answered the Government's summons.
Gecko Moria grinned as he looked over the enormous army assembled below.
"Kishishishi! They really brought everyone they could find. Whitebeard must have them terrified."
Donquixote Doflamingo stood nearby, his hands resting inside his pockets as his pink feathered coat shifted in the wind.
"Fuffuffuffu… Of course they're terrified."
His red-tinted glasses reflected the towering execution platform in the distance.
"By the time this ends, the world won't be the same. The age of Whitebeard, the age of the Marines, the age of pirates… whoever wins here will decide what justice means from now on."
Moria's grin widened.
"You sure sound excited, Doflamingo!"
"Of course I am."
Doflamingo's smile stretched across his face.
"There's nothing more entertaining than watching an era tear itself apart."
A short distance away, Bartholomew Kuma stood silently with a Bible held in one hand. His face revealed nothing, and unlike the others, he showed no apparent interest in the approaching battle.
Dracule Mihawk remained equally quiet.
The world's strongest swordsman stood with his arms folded, his golden eyes fixed upon the empty sea beyond Marineford's bay.
He had accepted the summons for only one reason.
He wanted to see the distance between himself and the man called the strongest in the world.
Boa Hancock stood at the far end of the line, one hand resting against her hip.
Several Marines occasionally glanced toward her, only to hurriedly look away before meeting her eyes.
Hancock paid them no attention.
Her gaze was directed toward the sea, but her thoughts were not focused upon Whitebeard.
They were focused upon another pirate.
The man who had killed three Celestial Dragons and defeated an Admiral only days before this war.
Shiki had already struck an open blow against the World Government.
If he truly intended to appear at Marineford, Hancock wanted to witness what he would do next with her own eyes.
Doflamingo tilted his head toward her.
"You seem unusually interested in the upcoming war, Pirate Empress."
Hancock did not even look in his direction.
"Do not speak to me."
Doflamingo's grin widened.
"Fuffuffuffu… How cold."
Before he could continue, a sudden wave of noise spread across the plaza.
The gathered Marines raised their heads toward the massive structure beneath the execution platform.
Three chairs had been placed upon the elevated platform overlooking the battlefield.
Two of the figures approaching them were immediately recognizable.
Admiral Aokiji walked forward with both hands inside his pockets, his white Marine coat hanging loosely from his shoulders. His usual sleep mask rested above his forehead, and his expression remained as relaxed as ever, though his eyes showed none of their usual laziness.
Beside him walked Admiral Akainu.
Sakazuki's face was set in a permanent scowl beneath his Marine cap. A red flower rested against the chest of his suit, while the coat draped across his shoulders shifted with every heavy step.
However, the man walking toward the third chair was not Admiral Kizaru.
A white coat covered his broad shoulders, its sleeves hanging loosely at his sides. His short gray hair moved slightly in the sea breeze, and a jagged scar surrounded his left eye.
Monkey D. Garp walked beside the two Admirals with his powerful arms crossed over his chest.
The expression on his face was uncharacteristically serious.
For a brief moment, the soldiers throughout the plaza merely stared.
Then the first shout rose from among them.
"It's Vice Admiral Garp!"
"The Hero is joining the front line!"
"Garp the Fist is fighting with us!"
The reaction spread through the army like wildfire.
The tension hanging over Marineford did not disappear, but the soldiers' backs straightened.
Hands tightened around weapons, uncertainty faded from countless eyes, and the weight left behind by Kizaru's defeat began to lift.
Every Marine knew the stories.
Garp had cornered the Pirate King countless times.
He had fought the legendary pirates of the previous era.
He had stood at the center of the God Valley Incident and emerged as the Hero of the Marines.
If Whitebeard was the greatest monster among pirates, then Monkey D. Garp was the living legend who had spent decades hunting monsters like him.
Seeing him personally take a place beside the Admirals sent a clear message throughout Marineford.
The Marines had lost Kizaru.
But they had not been weakened enough to surrender the offensive.
Aokiji lowered himself into the chair on the left and leaned back.
Akainu took the central position, sitting upright with both hands resting upon his knees.
Garp stopped before the remaining chair.
His gaze moved across the harbor, studying the still water and the empty horizon beyond it.
Whitebeard had not yet appeared.
However, Garp knew Newgate better than most of the people gathered here.
That stubborn old pirate would come.
Even if Marineford were filled with a million soldiers, Whitebeard would still come for one of his sons.
Garp finally sat, keeping his arms crossed over his chest.
Aokiji glanced sideways at him.
"I didn't expect you to agree to this position."
Garp did not look away from the sea.
"Borsalino is down. Someone has to fill the gap."
"You know that isn't what I meant."
Garp remained silent.
Unlike the original defensive formation Sengoku had prepared, Garp would not remain beneath the execution platform as a final shield.
This time, he had been placed among the Marines' main offensive powers.
Sengoku had decided that hiding the Hero of the Marines behind the battle lines after Kizaru's defeat would only make the soldiers believe Headquarters had become afraid.
Garp had offered no objection.
Whatever personal feelings he carried, he was still a Marine.
If he had chosen to remain at Marineford, then he would not stand aside while others fought in his place.
Akainu turned his head slightly.
"Do not allow sentiment to interfere with your duty."
Garp's eyes slowly shifted toward him.
"You should worry about your own duty, Sakazuki."
Akainu met his gaze without flinching.
Neither man said anything more.
Above them, Fleet Admiral Sengoku stood upon the execution platform, looking over the forces gathered throughout Marineford.
The soldiers' morale had visibly changed the moment Garp appeared.
That was precisely why Sengoku had placed him there.
Kizaru's defeat could not be hidden from the world, but the Marines could show everyone that they still possessed enough strength to face Whitebeard directly.
Sengoku adjusted his glasses.
Everything was in place.
The broadcast Den Den Mushi had been prepared to transmit the execution across the world.
All that remained was the prisoner.
The sound of heavy doors opening echoed from behind the execution platform.
The murmuring across Marineford gradually faded.
Every Marine turned toward the staircase leading upward from the fortress.
Two executioners emerged first, each carrying a long-bladed weapon.
Between them walked Portgas D. Ace.
Heavy seastone shackles bound his wrists behind his back. A thick chain extended from the cuffs, held firmly by the guards escorting him.
Ace wore no shirt.
The tattoo across his back remained visible beneath the sunlight, the symbol of the Whitebeard Pirates displayed proudly for every person in Marineford to see.
His black hair hung around his face as he walked forward.
Each step caused the chain attached to his shackles to drag against the stone.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
The sound carried through the silent plaza.
Thousands of Marines watched him ascend.
Some stared with hatred.
Others with curiosity.
Ace did not look toward them.
His gaze remained lowered as he climbed the steps leading to the execution platform.
From his chair below, Garp watched him approach.
For the briefest instant, his crossed arms tightened.
Images surfaced unbidden within his mind.
A crying infant entrusted to him by the Pirate King.
A stubborn child refusing to believe he deserved to live.
A young boy sitting beside Luffy and Sabo, declaring that he would one day become a great pirate.
Garp forced the memories down.
His face remained hard.
Ace reached the top of the platform.
One of the guards pulled the chain, forcing him forward.
He stumbled once before regaining his footing and continuing toward the wooden platform at its center.
Sengoku stood nearby, his expression unreadable.
Ace lowered himself onto his knees.
The executioners moved into position behind him.
From that height, Ace could see the entire bay.
His eyes widened slightly when he noticed his grandfather seated beside Aokiji and Akainu.
Their gazes met across the distance. Neither needed words to understand the emotions in the other's eyes, and Ace was the first to look away.
Sengoku stepped forward and raised a Den Den Mushi, his voice carrying across Marineford and through every broadcast connected to the execution.
"Portgas D. Ace. Tell the world the name of your father."
Ace lifted his head.
"My father is Whitebeard."
"That is not what I asked."
Ace clenched his teeth.
"Whitebeard is my only father!"
Sengoku remained unmoved.
"Your mother was Portgas D. Rouge. To protect you, she carried you for twenty months before giving birth."
A heavy silence fell over Marineford.
"Your true father was the Pirate King—Gol D. Roger!"
Shock erupted across the plaza.
Marines shouted in disbelief, while people watching the broadcast around the world stared at the screens in stunned silence.
Ace lowered his head, his teeth clenched.
Sengoku turned toward the bay.
"That is why this execution must happen today. The bloodline of the Pirate King cannot be allowed to continue."
Before he could say more, a Marine lookout suddenly shouted from the walls.
"Ships approaching!"
Dozens of pirate vessels appeared through the mist beyond the bay.
The allied captains of the Whitebeard Pirates had arrived.
However, the Moby Dick was nowhere among them.
Sengoku's eyes narrowed.
"Where is Whitebeard?"
The water inside the bay began to bubble.
A massive shadow rose from beneath the surface.
With a thunderous crash, the Moby Dick burst through the center of the harbor, followed by three additional ships coated for underwater travel.
The Marines froze.
Whitebeard stood at the bow, his bisento held beside him, while the commanders of his sixteen divisions gathered behind him.
His eyes lifted toward the execution platform.
"It's been a long time, Sengoku."
Sengoku's expression darkened.
"Whitebeard…"
Whitebeard's gaze settled upon Ace.
"Wait for me, Ace."
Ace's eyes widened.
"Old man!"
Whitebeard grinned.
"My beloved son is still alive. That's all that matters."
He planted his bisento into the deck and stepped forward.
Then he drove both fists into the air beside him.
Crack!
The atmosphere shattered like glass.
Marineford trembled as two enormous walls of seawater rose on either side of the island, towering high enough to swallow Headquarters whole.
"The sea is rising!"
"It's a tsunami!"
Before the waves could crash down, Aokiji disappeared from his chair.
"Ice Age."
Two streams of ice shot from his hands and struck the approaching waves.
In an instant, both tsunamis froze solid, becoming enormous walls of ice surrounding Marineford.
Aokiji twisted in the air as several frozen spears formed around him.
"Ice Block: Partisan."
The spears shot toward Whitebeard.
Whitebeard swung his bisento and shattered both the attack and Aokiji's body, sending fragments of ice falling toward the sea.
The Admiral reformed below and placed one hand against the water.
"Ice Age."
Ice spread across the entire bay, trapping the pirate ships and turning the sea into solid ground.
Whitebeard looked down at the new battlefield and grinned.
The Marines raised their weapons.
The pirates leaped from their ships.
"Charge! Stop the Whitebeard Pirates!"
"Rescue Ace!"
With Whitebeard's quake and Aokiji's ice transforming the harbor into a battlefield, the war at Marineford finally began.
The battle raged across the frozen bay.
Division Commanders clashed with Vice Admirals and the Warlords, cannon fire tore through the ice, and the Whitebeard Pirates slowly forced their way deeper into the plaza.
Yet despite their advance, the Marines continued tightening their formation around the execution platform.
Amid the chaos, Squard returned to the Moby Dick, his face pale and his hand trembling around the hilt of his sword.
Akainu's words continued echoing inside his mind. Whitebeard had supposedly made a deal with the Marines to sacrifice the allied crews in exchange for Ace's life.
Whitebeard immediately noticed something was wrong.
"Squard?"
Hearing the concern in his father's voice only made Squard's expression twist further.
Without warning, he stepped forward and drove his sword through Whitebeard's chest.
The battlefield fell silent.
"Old man!" Ace shouted from the execution platform.
Marco turned toward the ship in horror, while Squard stood trembling before the man he had trusted above everyone else.
"Why didn't you tell us Ace was Roger's son?!" he cried. "You sold the allied crews to save him, didn't you?!"
Whitebeard stared down at him for several seconds.
Then, instead of striking him, he pulled Squard into an embrace.
"You foolish son," Whitebeard said quietly. "Even after this, Daddy still loves you."
Squard froze.
Whitebeard released him and shattered the walls of ice behind the allied ships, opening a path of escape.
"If you believe the Marines' lies, then leave!" his voice thundered across the battlefield. "But if you still call yourselves my sons, follow me!"
The pirates roared in response.
Whitebeard tore the sword from his chest, seized his bisento, and leaped from the Moby Dick.
"Follow me, sons!"
The morale of the Whitebeard Pirates surged as their captain entered the battle himself.
Whitebeard swept through the Marine lines, every swing of his bisento scattering hundreds.
When Akainu moved to stop him, magma and quake power collided, tearing apart the ground beneath them.
On another side of the battlefield, Marco and Jozu pressed Aokiji from two directions.
Blue flames covered Marco's arms as they transformed into enormous phoenix wings, carrying him through the air above the frozen bay.
Below him, Jozu charged forward with his entire body covered in diamond, every step shattering the ice beneath his feet.
Aokiji raised one hand.
A wall of ice erupted before Jozu, but the Third Division Commander crashed through it without slowing down.
Marco descended at the same moment, one leg transformed into the talons of a phoenix.
"Phoenix Brand!"
His kick struck Aokiji across the shoulder and sent the Admiral sliding across the ice.
Before Aokiji could recover, Jozu lowered his shoulder and charged toward him like a cannonball.
Aokiji's eyes shifted between the two commanders.
"Honestly…"
Cold air spread around his body as he prepared to freeze the entire area.
"You two are making this troublesome."
Marco climbed higher into the air, blue flames streaming behind him.
"Then get out of our way, Aokiji!"
He folded his wings and descended toward the Admiral.
Jozu attacked from the opposite side, leaving Aokiji trapped between them.
However, before either commander could reach him, Marco sensed something approaching from above.
His eyes widened.
A massive presence descended from the sky.
"Jozu!"
A shadow passed over them.
Monkey D. Garp dropped directly into the center of the battlefield.
The ice exploded beneath his feet as he landed.
Jozu immediately changed direction and drove his diamond-covered fist toward him, but Garp stepped inside the blow and struck his forearm aside with the back of one hand.
The impact forced Jozu several steps across the ice.
Marco was already upon him.
Blue flames surged around his body as he twisted in the air and drove a Haki-coated kick toward Garp's head.
Garp raised one arm and blocked it.
Boom!
The collision sent a shock wave racing across the frozen harbor.
Marco's eyes narrowed.
Even with the momentum of his descent, Garp's arm had barely moved.
The old Marine looked up at him from beneath the shadow of his brow.
"That's far enough, brat. You're not getting past me!"
Marco's expression hardened.
"Not happening."
The phoenix flames around him burned brighter as he pulled back his other leg.
Garp moved first.
His fist drew backward as Armament Haki spread across it. Black lightning crackled around his knuckles, tearing thin lines through the air.
Marco immediately crossed both wings in front of his body.
Blue flames gathered around them, creating layer after layer of regenerative fire.
Garp's fist shot forward.
"Galaxy Impact!"
The punch never directly touched Marco.
Instead, an enormous sphere of Haki erupted from Garp's fist and swallowed the First Division Commander completely.
Boom!
Marco was blasted across the battlefield, his blue flames scattering as he crashed through several walls and disappeared beneath a mountain of rubble, his consciousness fading beneath the overwhelming impact.
"Marco!"
The Whitebeard Pirates stared in horror.
Their strongest commander had been defeated with a single blow.
Garp remained standing within the crater, slowly lowering his fist. His face was hidden beneath the shadow of his brow, revealing none of the emotions behind it.
The Marines erupted into cheers.
"Vice Admiral Garp defeated Marco!"
"That's the Hero of the Marines!"
"We can win this!"
The pirates' momentum immediately faltered.
At that same moment, Whitebeard drove a quake-covered fist into Akainu and sent the Admiral crashing through the plaza.
However, instead of pursuing him, Whitebeard turned toward Garp.
The old rivals stared at one another across the battlefield.
Whitebeard tightened his grip upon his bisento.
"You've hurt one of my sons, Garp."
Garp raised his fist once more.
"You're the one who brought them here, Newgate."
Whitebeard surged forward, quake power gathering around the blade of his bisento until the air itself began to distort.
"Space Destroyer!"
Garp stepped into the attack, his fist coated in Armament and Supreme King Haki.
"Galaxy Divide!"
Bisento and fist collided.
Boom!
A massive explosion swallowed the center of Marineford.
Black lightning tore across the sky as the shock wave swept away every Marine and pirate nearby.
The frozen bay fractured, buildings collapsed, and enormous cracks spread across the fortress itself.
The entirety of Marineford trembled beneath their clash.
Then, amid the destruction, someone noticed a tiny black speck in the distant sky.
"What is that?"
More heads turned upward.
The speck was growing larger.
At that moment, the Den Den Mushi beside Sengoku began screaming.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku! This is bad! Golden Lion Shiki attacked Impel Down, and then—"
Crack!
Sengoku crushed the Den Den Mushi in his hand.
He no longer needed to hear the rest.
He could see it himself.
The dark speck rapidly expanded, revealing an enormous tower-shaped structure descending through the clouds.
Walls.
Watchtowers.
Massive gates.
The great underwater prison itself.
Impel Down was flying toward Marineford.
For several seconds, the entire war stopped.
Marines, pirates, commanders, Admirals, and Warlords all stared toward the sky as the colossal prison approached under the control of an unseen force.
Sengoku's face twisted with fury.
"Shiki…!"
High above Marineford, a lone figure stood atop the descending prison, his coat whipping violently in the wind.
The Golden Lion had arrived.
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