Marineford trembled.
The afternoon descended heavily over the fortress.
The sky, once open, was now a pale sheet pressed against the world.
The cold was biting, scraping skin like invisible blades — a cruel reminder of the ice wall encircling the battlefield.
Amid pirates and marines, chaos boiled.
Screams.
Commands.
The mingled scent of gunpowder, sweat, and fear.
Some soldiers sweated coldly, fingers twitching on triggers. Others grinned, eager to see blood drip onto the stained snow.
Atop the central platform, Sengoku clenched his fist tightly.
His golden cape snapped behind him, whipped by the cutting wind.
His furious gaze sliced through the plaza.
'He arrived late. Arrived when he could no longer be ignored.'
Beside him, Hancock lifted her chin, her eyes gleaming like twin reborn stars.
A small, victorious smile.
'You came, my king…'
Behind her, invisible to the world, Merlin stood motionless.
Protective runes spun slowly around his pale fingers, ready to unravel the universe if he commanded.
In the center of the frozen arena, Riser walked.
His black coat rippled with supernatural dignity.
The Sharingan spun slowly in his left eye, absorbing every movement, every intent, every altered breath in the field.
The Mangekyō pulsed with silent menace.
But his golden eyes, now tinged by the dawn of chaos, surveyed everything with calm disdain.
Kizaru swung his leg atop the observation wall.
Golden light reflected off his glasses.
"Oooh… looks like things got interesting."
Akainu didn't smile.
Seated beside him, his body tense as a rock about to shatter.
Magma oozed slowly through the cracks in his skin like bloody sweat.
"The insolent brat dares to mock justice?"
Rage rumbled like an earthquake in his throat.
Silence fell when Riser stopped.
In the midst of all.
Between pirates and marines.
Unhurried.
Fearless.
Belonging to no side.
He closed his eyes.
His breathing was slow.
Heavy.
Then — it erupted.
The Conqueror's Haki roared.
The air collapsed around him like shattering glass.
Pirates, marines, revolutionaries — all — began to fall.
One by one.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Bodies dropped like dead leaves under the weight of an invisible storm.
Some still tried to resist.
Their eyes bled.
Their mouths foamed.
Despair dragged them to the ground.
Marineford shook.
The sound of collapsing bodies drowned out the sirens, the screams, the gunfire.
Sengoku gritted his teeth.
Veins bulged in his neck.
Akainu leapt to his feet, his red cape billowing with fury.
"ENOUGH!"
Magma erupted from his shoulders.
The stones beneath his feet melted.
He aimed his incandescent fist at Riser.
"YOU INFILTRATING SCUM! YOU'LL DIE HERE!"
The ice field wavered under the absurd heat.
Riser's figure remained motionless.
His black cape floated, but his body was like a rock in the midst of a tidal wave.
His golden eyes opened.
The Mangekyō Sharingan spun with sadistic slowness in his left eye.
A spiral of distortion formed around his right hand.
The air warped.
Space trembled.
The Kamui activated like a ravenous god.
Akainu charged.
His magma fist exploded, spitting sparks in all directions.
The ground cracked under his boots.
'End him.'
The voice within him was the same as always.
'True justice doesn't hesitate.'
The world converged on a single point — Riser's chest.
But the fist never reached.
Akainu's body began to vanish.
First his right arm.
Then his shoulder.
Then half his chest.
The extreme heat turned to useless vapor.
The power of magma was meaningless against it.
Against something that ignored matter.
Against something that ignored the world itself.
Akainu's mind understood.
And that broke him.
'My justice…'
His eyes widened as he saw his own body unraveling in spiraling fragments.
'…was it insufficient?'
His legs tried to advance, but they stumbled into the void that now replaced half his being.
His stomach turned to vapor.
His heart… never felt the pain.
His back hit the ground, already senseless.
His head turned to the side.
The gray sky seemed to mock him.
He saw the Den Den Mushi recording.
Saw paralyzed soldiers, pirates laughing, others staring in mute horror.
Saw Sengoku, eyes wide, hand half-extended — too late.
'The world is watching.'
His final thought came like a gust of acid.
'I… wasn't strong enough.'
Rage tried to rise one last time.
The magma in his veins tried to ignite the air.
But the Kamui didn't forgive.
The Kamui erased.
The Kamui consumed.
Half his body was already nothing.
The other half wouldn't last much longer.
The world blurred.
The sound drowned.
Justice bled.
And Akainu's body… fell.
Only his legs remained.
Toppled to the side.
Ownerless.
Purposeless.
Without redemption.
The blood evaporated into crimson vapor over the snow.
Marineford froze.
The wind cut like silent blades.
The Navy's flags fluttered too high, too alone.
Sengoku fell to his knees.
His hands trembled.
Veins bulged from his forehead.
"No…"
The whisper was lost in the void.
"Not here…"
His gaze searched for something — anything — but found only horror.
One of the Navy's three great powers had been disintegrated before the entire world.
Not by a war.
Not by a fair battle.
But by a single hand.
Riser.
Standing in the middle of the plaza.
Untouched.
Calm.
His black cape still swaying against the dead wind.
The Sharingan spun slowly in his left eye, like a bored king watching broken pieces fall from the board.
Hancock clasped her hands to her chest.
Her smile was almost pity.
Merlin, still invisible, tilted his head in silent respect.
The Den Den Mushi captured everything.
On every island.
Across every sea.
In every castle, every village, every ship lost in the New World.
The world saw.
The world knew.
The old balance crumbled.
And Riser Phenex reigned over the ruins.
He took a step forward.
The snow crunched under his black boots.
The Mangekyō Sharingan faded slowly.
His golden eyes shone alone.
He raised his chin, looking at the soldiers still standing — at the pirates still alive — at the sky itself.
A smile cut across his face with surgical precision.
His voice, when it came, wasn't shouted.
It was whispered.
And for that, it was heard even more.
"When I spoke of being a Shichibukai…"
The wind swirled around him, as if reality itself listened.
"…I never said I'd be like you."
Silence bit into Marineford.
Each word fell like hammers, nailing the new history into the hearts of men.
The sun, filtered through ice and smoke, painted Riser like a statue of living shadow.
He took two steps forward.
The ground creaked under his black boots.
The Den Den Mushi zoomed in on his face — the broadcast exploding across screens worldwide.
Gold in his eyes.
Blood in his smile.
"I offered to be a Shichibukai…"
His gaze cut through the plaza like a divine scalpel.
"…so you'd give me a stage."
The world's breath caught between his words.
"And now that all eyes are on me…"
The wind spun in circles around the king who swore loyalty to no one.
"…I no longer need your chains."
"I am the new weight on the scale."
The wind swirled, carrying bloodstained snow like cursed dust.
"Those who bow may live."
His voice dropped even lower.
"Those who resist… will be erased."
The echo of that promise pierced every heart in Marineford.
Sengoku, still kneeling, clenched his teeth so hard the taste of blood filled his mouth.
'Stand, damn you… stand, or they'll win!'
Whitebeard planted his trident into the deck of the Moby Dick.
His massive chest filled with air.
The scar on his face pulsed as if it breathed too.
His eyes crossed the plaza, finding Ace bound on the platform.
His son.
His reason.
His legacy.
His left fist slammed into the deck.
The planks shattered into splinters.
The tsunami dormant in Edward Newgate's veins awoke.
His voice roared like thunder born from the earth.
"ATTACK!!"
Whitebeard's fleet exploded into motion.
Ships surged, cannons roared, tattered sails swelled with the war cry.
Pirates leapt from the edges, swords in hand, eyes alight with the promise of rescuing Ace.
Marineford's ground shook.
The ice cracked in deep fissures.
Sengoku rose like a desperate wall.
Blood pulsed in his temples.
His hand came down like a hammer.
"EXECUTION! NOW!"
The command ricocheted off the walls.
The soldiers still standing ran.
The executioners, trembling, approached Ace.
The blade gleamed in the dead afternoon light.
Ace raised his face.
His eyes burned.
Not with fear.
But with acceptance.
Pirates clashed against marines.
Dust, fire, and ice danced together in a ballet of death.
And above it all, Riser stood motionless.
His black cape floated with brutal majesty.
Merlin, invisible, took a step closer, his gaze fixed on the unfolding future.
Hancock clutched her chest.
Her heart beat to the rhythm of the man now breaking the world with silent steps.
"Riser-sama…"
The whisper faded in the gale.
High above, Kizaru tilted his head slightly, as if watching an intriguing play.
"Ooh… looks like the stage he wanted… is already too small."
And from afar, far beyond the Den Den Mushi's reach, eyes watched.
Celestial Dragons.
Underworld kings.
Revolutionaries.
Those who had ruled in the shadows began, for the first time in ages, to feel the weight of fear.
Because a new name had been carved into the blood-red sky.
Not as a hero.
Not as a tyrant.
But as a king without chains.
And the world… was not prepared to survive him.
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