[RUMBLE RUMBLE—CRACKLE—BOOM!]
"Mamamama——!"
Standing alone at the bow of the Queen Mama Chanter was Charlotte Linlin.
With both arms outstretched high above her head, she faced the sea wind, towering waves, and torrential rain. Her gaze locked on the distant downpour of violet lightning.
She laughed wildly, without restraint.
"Gol D. Roger!"
"This thunder and lightning... let it be ONE PIECE's farewell fireworks! From today on, these seas will return to the era of the Rocks!"
Charlotte Linlin laughed louder and louder.
"How ironic. How utterly ridiculous. The Pirate King's era didn't even last two full years. Remarkable job, World Government!"
As soon as the words left her lips, the laughter stopped. Her eyes now burned with terrifying fury. She glared across the battlefield at Sengoku and Garp, gritting her teeth as she growled, "You've broken the rules of the game."
"Hmph!"
Suddenly, a cold, domineering snort seemed to echo across the entire battlefield. A deep hum followed—then a burst of radiant golden light erupted from a Navy warship.
A colossal golden Buddha standing tall, its expression cold and unmoved as it gazed at the thunderclouds above.
"Don't get too arrogant in the face of justice—"
The towering golden figure, like a divine being stepped straight out of ancient myth, raised one massive palm and slammed it skyward. In an instant, a pale golden, semi-transparent shockwave erupted forth. It expanded rapidly in mid-air, streaked with arcs of golden lightning.
[CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!]
The golden shockwave, blazing with light and thunder, shot straight into the thick storm clouds overhead. No matter how violently the purple lightning serpents within the clouds struck at it—how wildly they lashed—it didn't budge an inch.
[BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!]
A deafening explosion followed—so massive, so overwhelming, that even spectators thousands of kilometers away felt its force rattle their bones. On the battlefield, all sides—enemy and ally alike—briefly halted their attacks, frozen by the impact.
"The heavens... just split open!"
Far beyond the frontlines, aboard a pirate ship racing toward the fight, the crew stood in stunned silence, staring at the sky that had just been blasted open by golden brilliance.
The storm clouds were gone.
The deep blue sky reappeared.
The howling winds died.
The torrential rain stopped.
Every trace of the violet thunderstorm had vanished.
The sky... had cleared.
"This is insane... Is this really how powerful a Navy Admiral is?"
Stussy gasped, covering her mouth in disbelief. Even she had never witnessed a clash between beings of such overwhelming force.
And if someone like her was this shaken, one could only imagine how stunned—how terrified—people around the world must be.
"MaMa, it hurts! Waaaah~~"
A thundercloud streaked with purple electricity came floating back toward the Queen Mama Chanter, sobbing pitifully in a childlike voice as it hovered beside Charlotte Linlin.
"Mamamama, you're one of my very souls, Zeus. You can't die that easily," BIG MOM said with a wide, toothy grin, gazing at the weeping thundercloud.
At that moment, her second son, Katakuri, stepped out from among his siblings, trident in hand.
"Mother," he asked calmly, "are we joining the battle?"
"No, hmm—"
Just as Charlotte Linlin was about to respond to her most capable son, her eyes suddenly turned toward a distant stretch of ocean.
There—far across the waves—something had appeared. Something that would drive most people to the brink of despair.
A wave.
A colossal wave.
A massive tsunami, surging with roaring seawater and towering several hundred meters high. Its area wasn't vast, but it was more than enough to engulf the entire Navy fleet.
"What the hell is that?!"
"This is insane! Captain, we have to run—now!"
The pirates locked in combat with the Navy were thrown into panic. Fear spread across the already chaotic battlefield like wildfire, and even the lower-ranking marines began to waver.
"Bwahahahahaha!!"
Suddenly, Garp's hearty laugh echoed across the sea.
"Whitebeard! You finally made it. I've been waiting far too long!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Sengoku saw Garp vanish from the warship with a thunderous boom—his speed surpassing even the sound barrier—as he launched himself straight at the oncoming tsunami.
"That bastard took off again…"
Sengoku shook his head helplessly, then sighed.
"Well, maybe it's for the best. If he's made a move, that wave won't reach us. Let him deal with Whitebeard."
With that, he turned his attention back to BIG MOM in the distance.
There was still one troublesome woman left to deal with… though strangely enough, she hadn't made a move to approach at all.
...
"Looks like that brat gave this old man a top-grade punching bag!"
Standing atop the sea using Geppō, Garp grinned at the approaching super tsunami, baring two perfect rows of white teeth.
From his distance and angle, the towering wall of water—hundreds of meters high—looked like it was about to pierce the sky itself. Compared to it, he seemed no more than a tiny ant standing before an apocalyptic force of nature.
Yet there wasn't the slightest trace of fear or hesitation on his face. Instead, his expression brimmed with exhilaration, as if he were eager—itching—for what was to come.
"Hsss—"
Garp took a long, deep breath, gathering power within his body. An explosive, masculine, and domineering aura erupted from him. His entire frame tensed slightly, and the thunderous crack of muscle and bone echoed from within—his limbs and spine drawn taut like a fully loaded bowstring.
"Haah!!"
With a thunderous shout, the terrifying man poured all his strength into his arms.
A dark, metallic sheen surged visibly across both of his arms, condensing rapidly into his right fist. Streaks of dark red lightning began to spark off the surface. The surrounding air itself appeared to warp from the pressure.
The massive black-and-red fist tore through the air before him, unleashing an explosive shockwave so intense it seemed to rupture the very atmosphere. With a deafening blast, it smashed straight into the oncoming super tsunami.
[BOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!]
Words failed to describe the sound—was it thunder? A volcanic eruption? Or simply a deep, bone-rattling rumble? For a moment, it felt as though everyone's ears had ceased to function entirely.
But their eyes—oh, their eyes saw everything with absolute clarity.
In that instant—yes, in just that single instant—the colossal wave looming before Garp's tiny silhouette was gone. Vanished. It didn't crash down, didn't recede. It simply evaporated into nothingness.
And yet, to the naked eye, faint traces still lingered—like fragmented illusions of the wave being shredded apart by the force of the punch. Or perhaps not. Perhaps it was only their minds trying to make sense of what they'd just witnessed.
But by then, no one was focused on the tsunami anymore. All eyes had shifted to the aftermath—the residual shockwave unleashed by Garp's devastating punch.
After disintegrating the super tsunami, the remaining force continued to surge forward, splitting the sea in two. Still wrapped in flickering red lightning, it roared ahead with unstoppable momentum—crashing down like a mountain upon the pirate ship in the distance, a vessel shaped like a whale.
"That's the Whitebeard Pirates! That's the Moby Dick!"
The reporter from the news agency stood frozen, his nerves long since numbed. Everything he had seen today had utterly shattered his understanding of reality.
Staring at the screen, he watched a towering man wielding a naginata, standing resolutely atop the whale's head—Moby Dick's bow—and murmured to himself: "So... he came too?"
"Gurararara! Your damn fists are still as hard as ever!"
Edward Newgate faced the roaring punch-force head-on, letting out a hearty laugh as he raised his Murakumogiri.
As the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit surged within him, a milky-white halo appeared on the crescent-shaped blade of Murakumogiri—
At the same time, Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki surged over the weapon. Crimson-purple lightning exploded outward, cracking through the air.
"Pops!"
In the next moment, under the stunned gazes of Marco, the others behind him, and people all over the world, Murakumogiri slashed forward like a bolt of lightning.
The shockwave from his quake-infused blade collided in midair with the incoming punch-force, less than 20 meters from the Moby Dick. At the point of impact, the sea itself cracked open—a massive dark chasm tearing across the surface.
Fist and quake battled for dominance, crimson-black lightning clashing violently with violet-red bolts. The resulting waves of force formed walls of compressed air, pushing back the ocean with overwhelming might.
Moments later, the remnants of Garp's punch-force were completely shattered by the quake energy.
"Gurararara!"
Edward Newgate looked up at Garp, who stood in midair with Geppō, and laughed heartily.
"Garp! I came here to confirm just one thing. If you answer me, I'll stay out of this!"
"And whatever I say, you'll just believe it?"
"Yes!"
"Hmph. I'm under no obligation to answer a pirate," Garp replied disdainfully, showing not the slightest courtesy to the pirate emperor before him.
He tilted his head back and roared with laughter.
"Hahahahaha! Ask whatever you want, but my answer's always the same—my fists!"
Hearing this, the crew of the Whitebeard Pirates immediately bristled with anger.
"I see... So it was a lie after all."
Edward Newgate suddenly muttered a sentence that made Garp's face change dramatically. He turned his head at once to look toward Sengoku, frantically signaling with his eyes—I didn't say anything! I swear!
"That idiot!"
Sengoku, who had just reverted from his Great Buddha form and was keeping his eyes on BIG MOM, sighed deeply and rubbed his temples with a weary palm. They'd been baited.
Thankfully, there was quite a distance between their position and Whitebeard's, so at least his voice hadn't made it into the projection broadcast being fed through the Den-Den Mushi by the Public Affairs Division.
"Wororororo! With a scene this grand, how could I not show up!"
Just then, a mythical blue-scaled dragon descended from the sky. Reeking of booze and roaring with laughter, he dove straight toward the two massive cargo ships at the center of the battlefield.
"BIG MOM! WHITEBEARD! As for the ONE PIECE—I'm claiming it for myself!"