This was Sengoku's greatest doubt—and his deepest unease.
No one understood Kizaru's strength better than he did. Even if Kizaru couldn't win, with that freakish speed and his Devil Fruit ability, getting a message out—or slipping away—shouldn't have been hard. So what kind of existence could suppress him so completely that he couldn't even send a distress signal?
The thought sent a chill down Sengoku's spine.
But now wasn't the time to dig into it.
"We can't wait any longer!" Sengoku shot to his feet, his face set with iron resolve. "Akainu! Kuzan!"
The office door swung open. Akainu and Kuzan—who had been waiting outside—strode in. Both wore the same grave expressions. Clearly, they'd received the news as well.
"Immediately gather every elite Vice Admiral we can mobilize from Headquarters," Sengoku ordered, each word decisive and carrying unquestionable authority. "Move at maximum speed and reinforce Mary Geoise! We cannot allow the Holy Land's chaos to keep spreading! And we absolutely cannot let a single Celestial Dragon come to harm!"
"Yes!" Akainu responded in a low voice, absolute justice and fury burning in his eyes.
Kuzan frowned tightly, but he understood how serious this was and gave a firm nod.
Marine Headquarters instantly transformed into a massive war machine, operating with unprecedented efficiency. One advanced warship after another was rushed into service. Famous Vice Admirals boarded at speed. Two Admirals took command personally.
Sengoku stood at the harbor, watching the fleet assemble—yet he felt no relief at all.
Kizaru was out of contact. Mary Geoise was under attack. Lulusia's eerie strength and its planning… everything pointed to a storm far beyond anything he'd anticipated already arriving.
All he could do now was hope the fleet reached Mary Geoise in time to stabilize the situation. As for Lulusia, they'd have to wait until the Holy Land's crisis was resolved before concentrating force there.
"Set sail!" Sengoku swept his arm down.
The vast Marine fleet surged forward at top speed, racing toward Mary Geoise!
And at the same time, within Pangaea Castle—seat of supreme authority—the true battle had only just begun to reach its boiling point.
On the floating island above, the clash that defied ordinary understanding didn't last long.
When Nusjuro-sei's massive half-man, half-skeletal-horse body fell from the island's edge and slammed into the ground below, it was as if someone pressed pause on the battlefield.
"BOOOOM—!!!"
A violent tremor kicked up a pillar of dust. Nusjuro-sei struggled to rise. The body he took such pride in was covered in crisscrossing sword wounds—one gash so deep it nearly tore away half his horse torso. And it wasn't simply torn flesh: a faint, dark-red arc of electricity lingered around the wound, like something that could erase all life itself.
That was the mark left by Conqueror's Haki coating.
And it was precisely that power that severely interfered with his regeneration. The wounds closed so slowly it threatened to strip him of his ability to fight.
Nusjuro-sei lifted his head and stared up at the sky, pain—and a trace of fear—filling his eyes.
Then Teresa's figure descended from the floating island, landing calmly in front of him. Compared to Nusjuro-sei, she was in far better shape—disheveled, yes, but nothing more.
In her hands, her enormous blade was wrapped in dark-red Conqueror's Haki, releasing a pressure that made the heart quake.
She didn't even spare the struggling Nusjuro-sei a second glance. In her eyes, he was no longer a threat.
Her gaze swept the battlefield—fast.
Very quickly, it locked onto the edge of the war zone.
Sommers-sei.
The moment Teresa's eyes fell on him, Sommers-sei stiffened as if doused in ice water. His face drained of color.
He would never forget what happened at Lulusia's harbor—how this blonde woman crushed them, the divine guards, along with the "undying" privilege they relied on. Her greatsword, wrapped in an uncanny force, seemed to sever their "root of life" with every swing. Their so-called "immortal bodies" became a ridiculous, fragile joke in front of her.
He had only just escaped the Lulusia Kingdom. He thought he'd finally survived.
And yet—she'd come all the way to Mary Geoise.
Even Nusjuro-sei, one of the Gorosei, wasn't her match. He'd been beaten off the floating island and sent crashing down.
And now… she was looking in his direction again.
Sommers-sei took a step back on instinct, bumping into a member of the God Knights behind him. The moment he recalled that previous battle, his body began trembling uncontrollably.
He no longer dared to provoke her the way he had before, relying on the "undying" privilege.
"Stop her! Stop her—NOW!!" Sommers-sei shrieked in panic, his voice turning sharp with terror.
His disgrace stood in stark contrast to the God Knights beside him, who still maintained their fighting stances.
Teresa looked at Sommers-sei's terrified expression, the corner of her mouth lifting into a faint, mocking curve.
She didn't strike immediately. She simply stood there, motionless.
But the pressure she brought down on Sommers-sei's group was greater than any attack.
Just then—
Above the floating island, four more monstrous auras erupted at once, like four volcanoes exploding.
The other four members of the Gorosei had stopped holding back. They wanted to end this quickly.
Sensing those presences, Nusjuro-sei forced himself up again and charged Teresa.
"Recovering that fast?" Teresa understood exactly how heavy her attacks were. Even if he'd avoided many fatal slashes mid-fight, under the double reinforcement of Haki and Yoki, even "ordinary" wounds should have been a nightmare.
As Nusjuro-sei rushed in, four God Knights also moved without hesitation, immediately surrounding Teresa.
But inside the five-man encirclement, Teresa's figure always slipped past lethal combinations at the critical moment.
Sometimes her counter-slashes forced the God Knights to turn back into defense, scrambling in embarrassment.
"Damn it—this woman's sword… it's too fast!"
"Her Observation Haki is way beyond ours! She can read every move we make!"
"Don't give her room to breathe! Suppress her together!"
Other than Nusjuro-sei, any one of the remaining four could have been a dominant powerhouse anywhere on the sea.
The shockwaves of the battle devastated everything nearby. The ground split. Buildings collapsed. When Teresa countered even once, her blade could carve through a God Knight's rushed Armament Haki defense, leaving a deep scar across armor and driving them backward again and again.
Even fighting one against five…
Teresa was subtly gaining the upper hand.
Just as she knocked aside two attackers and drove her sword point toward a third man's throat—forcing him to retreat desperately—
A violently ferocious aura, mixed with searing heat, detonated without warning from the rear flank of the battlefield!
"Meigou!"
In the next instant, a gigantic fist of boiling magma—carrying the force to melt everything—smashed toward Teresa's back!
It came far too suddenly.
The attacker was the Marine Admiral who had been ordered to suppress the chaos at Mary Geoise—
Akainu.
Somehow, he had already arrived. And the moment he moved, it was a merciless, lethal ambush. In his doctrine of absolute justice, dealing with a rebel like Teresa required no morality—only total annihilation.
The magma fist locked onto Teresa in an instant.
"Got her!" one God Knight snarled, a twisted smile spreading across his face.
But Teresa's eyes showed no panic at all—as if she had eyes in the back of her head.
As the magma fist was about to connect—
She didn't even turn around.
Her sword hand flipped back at the wrist, and the massive blade snapped into place like a shield, precisely between her back and the magma fist.
"BOOOOM!!!"
A deafening explosion erupted.
The scorching impact slammed into the face of Teresa's sword. A blazing shockwave burst outward, blasting away nearby guards and several clone soldiers who had drifted too close.
Teresa turned her gaze toward the direction the attack came from.
Akainu's tall figure emerged, step by step. His face was dark, and his eyes brimmed with undisguised killing intent.
Teresa lightly flicked the magma off her blade. The mockery at the corner of her mouth deepened.
"A Marine Admiral… ambushing?" Her voice rang clearly across the battlefield. "So this is your 'absolute justice'?"
"For you rebels, there is no justice to speak of!" Akainu's vicious expression sharpened into something even more terrifying. "If it wins, any method is acceptable!"
With the entry of the Marines' highest combat power, the situation instantly became chaotic.
As Akainu engaged Teresa, the Marine commanders and elite soldiers behind him surged into the already-turbulent battlefield of Mary Geoise.
"For justice!!"
"Exterminate the enemy!!"
The Vice Admirals took the lead, each erupting with powerful Haki or unleashing Rokushiki, charging straight at the clone soldiers. Marine troops followed close behind. The battlefield—already a mess—became even more brutally bloody.
Meanwhile, Fleet Admiral Sengoku and the Chief of Staff, Vice Admiral Tsuru, stepped down from the massive flagship behind the lines.
Sengoku's eyes were complicated as he swept over the scene—and the floating island hanging high above.
"Good," Tsuru said softly, her tone carrying faint relief… but even more, a heavy, sinking worry. "At least we didn't arrive too late."
(End of Chapter)
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