Lead-gray clouds hung low over the sea, and the roar of cannon fire made the entire waters tremble.
Bloodstained sails and shattered ribs of ships rose and fell with the swells.
The Charlotte Family's Homies warships interlocked like fangs with the Navy Headquarters' battleships, and the deafening thunder of artillery duels never let up.
Every collision kicked up waves tens of meters high.
It had been barely half a month since the World Government collapsed, and the seas had already plunged into chaos like never before.
The ambitions of the Four Emperors spread like wild weeds, rampant and unchecked.
Napoleon—the giant sword—came crashing down wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, slamming head-on into surging magma.
The explosion of steam blotted out half the sky.
Charlotte Linlin threw her head back and laughed, the shock of her voice rippling the surface of the sea in layer after layer.
The thundercloud Zeus churned at her side, hurling bolts that could melt through steel.
And the flames lit by the sun Prometheus burned so hot the surrounding seawater boiled.
"Mama-mama! Sakazuki! With that little bit of strength, you think you can stop me from expanding my territory?"
Linlin slapped her massive palm on the rail, and the entire warship rocked.
The aura of her Soul-Soul Fruit surged around her, and even the waves seemed to come alive—rolling up like beasts as they swept toward Akainu.
Sakazuki's magma erupted into a towering tide, instantly vaporizing the incoming waves and lightning.
His lava armor was laced with fine cracks, and his breathing had grown heavier than before—
yet the magma at his fingertips only burned hotter.
He gave a cold snort, his voice hard as iron.
"Charlotte Linlin. The era of pirates running wild ends here."
"The purpose of the Navy is to send every last one of you evil bastards straight to hell."
Before the words even finished, his right arm transformed into a gigantic hound's head of molten lava, carrying an apocalypse-level force as it lunged at Linlin.
Sakazuki knew the score: in a straight one-on-one, it would be hard to gain the upper hand.
Linlin's physique and Devil Fruit power were too overbearing—this had to end quickly.
If it dragged on, the Navy's line would only grow more and more disadvantaged.
Linlin, seeing this, laughed even more wildly. She held Napoleon horizontally in front of her and forcibly took the hit—Hellhound—head-on.
The instant blade met magma, the clash of Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki blasted outward.
Nearby warships were shoved back again and again, and the sea itself was crushed into a trench several meters deep.
"That's it? That doesn't even tickle me~!"
Linlin's enormous fist, coated in thick Armament Haki, smashed toward Sakazuki's chest.
She was brimming with contempt. Fleet Admiral, absolute justice—before absolute power, it was all a joke.
Kill Sakazuki, and the Navy's morale would collapse completely.
And then, no one in the New World would be able to stop the Charlotte Family ever again.
On the other side of the battlefield—
Konpira's slash split the air, but only cleaved through a blob of intangible mochi.
Gion flickered and pivoted across the deck, the seastone handcuffs at her waist chiming softly with each movement.
The uniform on her left shoulder was already soaked through with sweat, and every swing of her blade carried an ever-heavier drag.
Katakuri's arms morphed into multiple mochi tentacles, wrapped in pitch-black Armament, sealing off every route she could dodge toward with pinpoint precision.
He stood tall, scarf covering half his face; only a pair of sharp eyes remained visible, locked onto Gion's movements without wavering.
Even the technique she was about to switch to in the next second had already been predicted cleanly by his Observation Haki.
"Marine… your moves are completely transparent to me now."
Katakuri's voice was low and steady, without the slightest ripple of emotion, but the mochi tentacles only grew more vicious.
"Give up. I won't hunt down the defeated."
Gion twisted aside to dodge the tentacle whipping straight at her. The deck beneath her feet was smashed to pieces, splinters exploding into the air.
She bit her lower lip, rolled her wrist, and Konpira traced a razor-sharp flower of steel, severing another tentacle that struck from behind.
But a deep helplessness welled up in her chest.
This guy's Observation Haki is basically cheating.
Every movement, every thought—it's like he lays it out in sunlight before I even make it.
If this keeps going, sooner or later I'll expose a fatal opening.
"The Charlotte Family's greatest masterpiece… you really live up to the name."
Gion's breathing was slightly unsteady, but she still kept the composed air of a vice-admiral candidate, her blade tip leveled at Katakuri's chest.
"But if you think you can make me surrender—try again in a hundred years."
Katakuri shifted his body a fraction, effortlessly avoiding the slash.
He even had room to counter, flicking a mochi blade that skimmed past Gion's hair and split the mast behind her clean in two.
He felt nothing at all. The woman's swordsmanship and nerve were top-class.
But in front of his future sight, all struggle was meaningless.
Once he took her down, the Navy's left wing would collapse completely—and the outcome of this war would be decided.
Not far away—
On another front, Gion's fellow vice-admiral candidate, Tokikake swung his sword in an airtight storm, yet he was sealed in by an endless flood of biscuit soldiers.
Charlotte Cracker stood behind them with his arms crossed, sneering.
From time to time he flicked his peppered pretzel, sending out slashing waves that forced Tokikake to retreat again and again.
"A Navy admiral candidate—and this is all you've got?"
Cracker's tone dripped with mockery.
He summoned dozens more biscuit soldiers, completely sealing off Tokikake's retreat.
"Can't even break my biscuit soldiers, and you still dare come to the New World to provoke the Charlotte Family?"
Sweat slid from Tokikake's temple down his jaw, and inside he was already cursing up a storm.
Damn it—once the World Government fell, these pirates really went completely lawless.
Before, would they have dared go head-to-head with the Navy's main force this openly?
Cracker's biscuit soldiers were already a nightmare to deal with, and Oven and Daifuku kept sneaking in attacks from the side.
He couldn't spare a hand to support Gion—he could only watch as her situation grew more and more dangerous.
The other six or seven Headquarters vice admirals were each tangled up by the Charlotte Family's children as well.
Onigumo's eight blades were driven back step by step under Smoothie's slashes.
Bastille's flames were crushed down hard by Daifuku's genie.
The Navy's line had long since started to buckle, its collapse plainly showing.
And then—
A red-sailed ship split through the billowing steam and came to a steady stop at the center of the battlefield.
The Red Force's sails snapped in the wind. Shanks stood at the bow in a black cloak, his left hand resting on Gryphon at his waist.
His Conqueror's Haki swept outward without warning.
An invisible pressure rolled across the entire sea; the cannonballs colliding overhead shattered instantly into powder.
On both sides, any soldier even slightly weaker began foaming at the mouth and collapsed on the spot.
The earthshaking battle cries that had filled the air were crushed into dead silence in the span of a heartbeat.
"Everyone… do me a favor. Stop fighting."
Shanks' voice wasn't loud, but it rang clearly into every corner of the battlefield.
"The World Government just fell. The New World is already chaotic enough."
"If you keep going, the whole sea will spiral completely out of control—and when that happens, no one will be able to clean up this mess."
Beside him, Benn Beckman had a cigarette in his mouth, a gun casually slung on his shoulder, his gaze sweeping both fronts with calm indifference.
Lucky Roux hugged a huge chunk of meat, chewing happily—yet his posture was taut, ready to move at any moment.