"Is that... Blackbeard?"
The words slipped from Luffy's lips like a whisper.
"That bastard finally decided to show up?"
The man stood there, his burly frame wrapped in a tattered coat, open to reveal his hairy, sweaty chest. Several teeth were missing from his mouth, and his smile was wild—bestial.
Marshall D. Teach. The infamous Blackbeard.
A guttural laugh echoed across the battlefield.
"Zehahahaha!"
The war between pirates and Marines momentarily came to a halt. Swords froze mid-swing, bullets stalled in the air, and even the roar of Akainu's flames lessened for a brief instant.
"Who is that man...?" Akainu frowned, his eyes narrowing. He didn't recognize the newcomer, but he could sense a certain danger emanating from him. "That kind of aura... it's not normal."
Beside him, Sengoku's reaction was far more intense.
His pupils shrank as if struck by lightning. He didn't know exactly who the man was, but he clearly recognized the figures standing alongside him—all clad in Impel Down uniforms. Men he himself had condemned.
"Impossible..." he muttered. "Those are... Impel Down prisoners?! Why are they here?!"
Several faces stood out among the criminals: murderers, sadistic pirates, monsters long forgotten even in the shadows of the world's most brutal prison.
Among them, one in particular drew the attention of the Marines.
"Shiryu!" Sengoku roared, his brow furrowed as he stepped forward. "You should be locked in the depths of Impel Down! What are you doing here—armed—and with a group of criminals at your side?! Where is Magellan?!"
The former jailer slowly drew his saber, a cigar still clutched between his teeth, and answered with a scornful smile:
"Tsk... Fleet Admiral Sengoku, how tactless of you... asking such a question in front of so many guests." He blew out a cloud of smoke. "Magellan? Let's just say... a man with such outdated ideas has no place in the new era. I chose a new side. The winning side."
Sengoku's face darkened with rage. Traitor. He had long suspected Shiryu's sadistic nature, but never imagined the man would actually defect—and so brazenly.
"Furufurufuru... Looks like things are getting more interesting."
Doflamingo laughed, the eyes behind his sunglasses gleaming with a mix of boredom and excitement. He swung his legs like a child watching chaos unfold with morbid delight.
Kuma remained still. But even he—the silent, enigmatic figure—had his eyes fixed on one of the prisoners. A face he knew all too well...
"Ivankov..." he murmured to himself.
Meanwhile, Moria burst out laughing with his usual high-pitched cackle.
"Kishishishi... This just keeps getting weirder. Enemy army? Ally army? This is beyond comprehension! Kishishishi!"
Suddenly, Mihawk's voice cut through the air:
"Too noisy."
Without changing the cold expression on his face, he unsheathed Yoru. With a simple horizontal swing—effortless—a dark arc slashed through the sky.
The impact was immediate.
ZUUUUM!!!
Miles away, the massive frozen tsunami—created earlier by Aokiji—was split in two. The mountain of ice cleaved like butter under the strike of the world's greatest swordsman. Huge chunks of the glacier collapsed, crashing into the sea in titanic shards.
"That's the power of 'Hawk Eyes'...?" Marines and pirates whispered, stunned.
In the chaos that followed, Blackbeard's ship appeared in the distance, and dozens of prisoners began leaping toward the battlefield. There were hundreds—no, thousands!
"How many did he bring...?!" a Vice Admiral shouted.
"Looks like a whole damn army!"
Not all of them made it ashore. Many of the weaker ones were swallowed by the sea, unable to survive the crossing. But those who did… were the worst. The monsters of Impel Down—the ones forgotten even by the newspapers.
Among the first to arrive, Jesus Burgess stood out, pulling Blackbeard up by the arms out of the water.
"Cough! Cough! Hahaha... Zehahaha!"
Blackbeard collapsed onto the ice, laughing and spitting up water. "That was close! I nearly died out there! Damn freezing sea, Zehahaha!"
Atop the execution platform, Ace clenched his teeth in fury.
"Teach..."
His eyes burned with hatred. Blackbeard's betrayal was still an open wound.
Sengoku turned his attention to the traitor.
"Teach...?" he repeated, now recognizing the name. And then—everything made sense.
But before he could react, a massive presence made the air itself tremble.
Whitebeard had moved.
With his bisento in hand, he leapt from the deck of the Moby Dick, slowly advancing toward the former member of his crew. Each step echoed like thunder. His eyes were narrowed, his expression filled with pain and rage.
"Teach..." he murmured, his voice heavy. "You are the root of all this. Of this entire tragedy."
The pressure spiked suddenly. Whitebeard's Conqueror's Haki exploded, dominating the battlefield. Weaker Marines and pirates dropped to their knees, unable to withstand the suffocating aura.
Blackbeard, now on his feet, raised his hands in surrender.
"H-hey! Wait, Pops! This isn't the time to fight! I... I came to save Ace! Believe me, please!"
An uncomfortable silence fell.
It was as if the world itself had paused to witness such hypocrisy.
Whitebeard looked up at the sky, laughed bitterly... and then his eyes turned as cold as the sea around them.
"Liar."
His fist was wreathed in the seismic waves of the Gura Gura no Mi. The air around him cracked like glass, and the clouds above twisted violently.
"I should've cast you out of my crew the day you killed Thatch."
And then, without warning—
BOOOOOOM!!!
Whitebeard launched a direct punch aimed at Blackbeard. The force of the strike created a fracture in the air that surged forward like a horizontal earthquake, obliterating everything in its path.
The ground shook. The sea roared in fury. The impact was so powerful that the very pillars of Marineford trembled.
And at the center of the destruction...
Was only the beginning of Blackbeard's judgment.
---
(End of Chapter)
"Hmph. If you really want to be useful, then entertain me, try to throw those pathetic power stones at me. Let's see if even your insolence can amuse a king."