In this era, most cannon fire could barely reach a thousand meters. What really mattered was not range but the absurd power packed into certain specially modified shells and bullets.
Like the one in Garp's hand.
"Ha ha! Where is Roger? Let us cause some real chaos!"
Hoisting a cannonball the size of a small house over his head, Garp swept his gaze over the ships, then finally locked onto the Roger Pirates sailing a dozen ship lengths behind Magnus's Millennium Falcon.
"Found you!"
Seeing Roger's ship, Garp grinned. His muscles seemed to flow under his skin, swelling and hardening with a metallic sheen.
"Fist Bone: Giant Meteor!"
With a thunderous boom, the cannonball left his hand at a speed faster than sound, streaking over a thousand meters in an instant.
It flew straight toward the Roger Pirates behind the Millennium Falcon.
"That bastard!"
The moment he saw his old rival, Roger forgot everything they had said at the start of this war. Things like how they were mainly here to protect themselves, that they had come to help, not to throw their lives away.
Nonsense.
"Today I am definitely going to kill that idiot!"
Roger leapt from his own ship and swung his sword down at the incoming shell. His slash did not slow, cutting across several kilometers of sea toward the distant battleship.
"Ha ha, come on!"
Across that span of ocean, the two men who were meant to be tangled together for decades, and who had already clashed countless times in this twisted era, met again.
To them, nothing else existed but each other.
Magnus could see it at a glance.
Both Garp and Roger had power already grazing the level of an admiral. If they survived this war, they would surely step over that final threshold.
That was the talent of true top tier monsters. Even with Magnus's guidance, he knew Roger's growth rate was not especially fast for someone like him.
But there was a reason for that.
Because Magnus had unified the entire New World, the moment the Roger Pirates entered it, they ran into an iron barrel of Magnus's making.
If Roger had chosen to oppose Magnus, he would have been chopped down by Rocks in their very first encounter. Even if he miraculously survived, he would have found it impossible to move in such a tightly controlled sea.
On the other hand, if he accepted Magnus's goodwill, he would lose most opportunities for life and death battles in the New World, because almost every strong pirate group there was under Magnus's flag.
Magnus was not some kindhearted saint.
Since he had consolidated the New World, then strong pirate crews either bowed their heads or were crushed underfoot.
The only exceptions were people like Rocks, Newgate, and Shiki, pirate captains who had originally sailed as part of the White Wolf Pirates and already carried that mark.
That was why this war was Roger's final chance.
Either he pushed himself to his absolute limit here and now, so that even if he left the White Wolf Pirates later, he could still stand as a true power in his own right.
Because once this war ended, no one could say whether these two sides would remain allies, or walk toward hostility.
Magnus did not care about Roger's dream.
But if Roger turned the world upside down after the war, then he could not blame Magnus for bullying the younger generation.
Following Roger and Garp, both only barely short of admiral level, the rest of the top fighters on both sides began to move. From several kilometers away, the strongest of the World Government and the White Wolf Pirates started to unleash their powers.
Rona's slashes shot toward the ships behind Imu, while Admiral Hines Oran's Devil Fruit power conjured a vast glacier in an instant and sent it crashing into the White Wolf Alliance fleet.
Both Hines Oran and Magnus had fruits that could create land out of nothing on the sea.
But neither side did that yet.
The New World's waters were treacherous and strange. They could freeze over a swath of sea more than ten kilometers across in an instant, but it would only be the surface layer. There was no way to freeze the thousands of meters of ocean beneath that ice.
And with their fleets still this far apart, what would be the point of freezing the sea now?
They would only end up having to sprint across the ice afterward.
Besides, creating a proper battlefield on a frozen sea was not Magnus's job.
His job was simple.
"Imu, I have come to kill you!"
When the distance between the two flagships dropped to less than five kilometers, Magnus laughed loudly and leapt from the bow of the Millennium Falcon.
A violent shockwave exploded outward. Black and red lightning crackled over his body, his white hair whipping wildly in the wind. Single handed, he gripped Frost Shadow, now tempered into a black blade, and shot forward like a meteor.
"Arrogant."
Seeing Magnus dare charge at them head on, the Five Elders at Imu's side flared with anger. Demonic silhouettes rose up behind them.
But they could not simply transform into their Devil Fruit beast forms. Unlike Marcus Mars, they could not fly. If they turned into beasts here, their ship would not be enough to support their weight. The hull would shatter.
Magnus only laughed louder at the sight of their aura.
"A bunch of shrimps and crabs."
As the words left his mouth, his blade came down.
"Dragon Slash."
This technique he had taken from the swordsman Ryuma. Although Magnus had missed their duel at the Battle of Acropolis Port, he had still learned many tricks for using Conqueror's Haki from him.
That was the true reason he had eventually been able to fuse Haki into his very flesh.
His slash, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, spanned several kilometers in an instant. Though it was born from Ryuma's technique, after the system's final enhancement, Magnus's control over Haki had long since surpassed his teacher's.
For a moment, Imu was dazed.
Magnus's Haki made her think of another man.
A man she had both loved and hated.
Before she could move, the Venus Elder, Izanbaron V. Nasjurou Saint, and the father and son from the God Knights had already struck back.
Magnus had used the slash of a swordsman.
And they were among the greatest swordmasters in the world.
Yet as he surged forward to meet Magnus, Izanbaron V. Nasjurou's face twisted in fury.
"Brat Magnus, give back my Kitetsu!"
Seven years ago in Mary Geoise, Magnus had used Haki to break the teleportation state of both Izanbaron V. Nasjurou and Marcus Mars, then snatched the First Generation Kitetsu from Izanbaron's hand.
There were only twelve Supreme Grade blades in the world. Even someone like Izanbaron V. Nasjurou felt a sting deep in his heart when he lost his treasured sword.
He had not found another Supreme Grade blade to replace it even now.
All he wielded was a normal Great Grade blade.
And without years of honing, it was nowhere near becoming a black blade.
How could he not hate Magnus?
"Kitetsu? What Kitetsu?"
Magnus had completely forgotten. Kitetsu might be one of the twelve Supreme Grade blades, and already forged into a black blade, but no sword could be as suited to him as his own.
And now that Frost Shadow had also become a black blade, it was not inferior to Kitetsu in the slightest.
If Frost Shadow and Kitetsu clashed edge to edge, the one that broke would definitely be Kitetsu.
Because swords were only as strong as their wielders.
Magnus was stronger.
Hearing his answer, Izanbaron V. Nasjurou exploded with rage. Then he remembered something and his anger froze in place.
Sending him alone to face Magnus?
That would be suicide.
It took the combined strength of Izanbaron V. Nasjurou, Claude Saint, and Lucas Saint together to block Magnus's Dragon Slash.
Compared to seven years ago, compared to five years ago, Magnus had only grown stronger.
Back in Mary Geoise, Magnus could suppress Lucas Saint, but not quickly defeat him. After all, Lucas Saint could also use Conqueror's Haki infusion and was no ordinary admiral level fighter.
But by the Battle of Acropolis Port, Lucas Saint was no longer a match for Magnus.
And now…
Feeling that slash, Lucas Saint's expression turned pitch black.
Because he realized something.
If he had to fight Magnus again now, he would be crushed within a handful of moves.
Even his immortality could not save him.
Magnus could defeat him in just a few blows, but with several other powerful Elders at his side, they would not go down so easily.
However…
"King versus king, general versus general. You small fry think you can meddle in the old man's fight?"
Another slash, like a cannon blast, came arcing in. This time, only two of the Five Elders blocked it, but their faces turned grim.
"Rocks D. Xebec."
A man who should never have been capable of bowing to anyone, yet now he stood willingly as the vanguard before a king.
"Old man, if you lose to a woman, even if you die I will never let you hear the end of it."
Rocks took a deep breath.
The battle on Osgu Island had given him much. Fights that squeezed his potential to the limit were always the most effective way to elevate his Haki.
But he knew that if he kept fighting like that, he would soon hit his ceiling.
And debts were debts.
Rocks was not the kind of man who could pretend he owed nothing.
Only after this war ended would he be able to challenge Magnus fair and square.
"Hey, Newgate, how about the two of us take these six together?"
"Gurararara, that sounds interesting."
Taking on two strong enemies alone would no longer push them to their limits.
So they would not choose two against four.
They chose two against six.
"Ha ha, do not die on me."
Magnus of course knew exactly what was on Rocks's mind.
Perhaps their bond had started with cold calculation, but after years together, Magnus was not made of stone.
Whether it was Rocks or Newgate, facing two immortal admiral level enemies each, their chances were fifty-fifty at best.
But one man against three meant dancing on the razor's edge between life and death.
And yet.
Neither Rocks nor Newgate showed a trace of fear.
They knew very well that there were others on Magnus's side who could share that burden.
If nothing else, Linlin could easily join the fray.
Rocks and Newgate could go one against two.
And Linlin could do the same.
But as men of the sea, how could they say they were not up to the task?
A gale kicked up again.
More top tier fighters had joined the battle. This time it was Kong and Rona.
Old comrades in arms.
Now, when they met again, their blades were drawn.
"Rona, why?"
Seeing her draw her sword behind Magnus and point it at them, Kong finally could not hold back his question.
Five years earlier at the Battle of Acropolis Port, Rona had not appeared. That had let Kong breathe easier. He had convinced himself that Rona had left only because of injustice, that in her heart she was still a Marine who pursued justice, and that working with Magnus had just been a temporary measure.
But this time, Rona had finally chosen a side.
And it was not theirs.
"You have forgotten the justice we have always upheld?"
"Shut up."
All he received in answer was the icy edge of the red haired woman's blade.
"Your justice has nothing to do with me."
"Justice twisted into something wrong is nothing but firewood for a tyrant's pyre."
"Kong, you still refuse to see clearly."
Kong believed that maintaining the current order would make the world better. But the rot in the titan that was the World Government had long since gone beyond the point where cutting and draining the pus would fix anything.
"Feel it for yourself. Since leaving the Marines, my Haki, my Conqueror's Haki, has surpassed the version of you that stagnated inside the institution."
"Rona, do you not have even a sliver of affection left for the Marines?"
"Heh."
Conqueror's Haki crackled along Rona's blade. After leaving the Marines, she had faced hardships and crises, but her days had never been more fulfilling.
Choosing to help Magnus did not mean she saw herself as his subordinate.
She had carved out her own path.
Her Conqueror's Haki, long stalled, had begun to move forward again the moment she walked away.
"I do not think I was ever happy in the Marines."
She had joined to pursue the justice in her heart. But the filth and petty politics inside the institution had disappointed her, and the Celestial Dragons' cruelty had disgusted her.
So she had used chasing Magnus as a way to numb herself.
Then one day, she realized that what Magnus did did not resemble the crimes of a vicious pirate.
It looked much closer to the justice she had wanted all along.
From that moment on, her old convictions meant nothing.
"My justice is the kind that protects ordinary people, not the kind that protects high officials and Celestial Dragons."
"If there is no place for ordinary people in your order…"
"Then I will be the one to overturn it."
Perhaps among all those at Magnus's side, only Rona and Tsuru truly sought to build a completely new order.
Kong was a question from her past, and she answered it with absolute denial.
And Tsuru now faced her own past.
"Tsuru? That is you, right, Tsuru?"
As the top tier fighters clashed, more and more elites dove into the fray. First came the admiral level combatants, then peak pirates and admiral candidates, and after that the ordinary high level pirates and waves of Marine vice admirals.
As the fleets of the World Government and the White Wolf Alliance finally collided in full…
In the midst of smoke and fire, Sengoku saw a familiar silhouette.
(End of Chapter)
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