Under Kong's extremely exaggerated, improved Shigan, the ground shattered like a block of tofu.
Seeing this, Issho quickly drew his sword to lift the remaining Marines, who numbered less than a thousand from the original fifteen thousand, with his Devil Fruit power.
Below them, the ground—no, the island, had been completely shattered and was collapsing downward.
"There's no way we can keep fighting like this," Kuzan said, standing on a floating piece of rock next to Issho.
"The Fleet Admiral wants to end this in one go, doesn't he, ne~~" Borsalino said with a grin.
"With this many people, this old man can't hold on for much longer. Let's return to the warships," Issho said.
It wasn't that he wanted to flee. It was that they couldn't fight anymore.
After the initial massive battle, his own meteor, Alucard's River of Death, the destructive fight between the ice titan and Garp, and other destructive actions, this small island had been severely damaged.
Now, with Garp's punch and Kong's Shigan, there was no place left to stand. How could they fight?
RUMBLE!!!
The island completely collapsed. The undead army of the River of Death had no ground to stand on and all fell into the ocean.
Alucard, who had turned into bats, was hit by an endless rain of rocks, sinking toward the seabed.
Kong used his Observation Haki to shout, "Garp! Two o'clock! That brat is falling. But don't be careless! Give him a finishing blow!"
"..."
Garp blew on his right fist and charged in the direction Kong had pointed. He unleashed a heavy punch, and the explosive pressure passed through layers of rock like an invisible hammer, hitting Alucard directly and forcing him into the ocean.
BOOM!!!
The surface of the sea exploded, and the ground, which had been turned into rubble by Kong's Shigan, had reached its limit and could no longer support anyone's weight.
Kong used Geppo to leap nimbly into the air, looking no different than he did on solid ground. Garp jumped onto a large rock, which temporarily supported his body.
"If he's a Devil Fruit user... he's definitely done for." Garp stared at the churning center where Alucard had fallen into the ocean.
"It's not enough!" Kong suddenly said. He took a miniature Den Den Mushi out of his pocket and told the person on the other end, "All warships, get into position immediately and head to the nine o'clock direction. Prepare to fire!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Den Den Mushi responded.
In less than ten minutes, over a dozen warships arrived. However, a large warship that could originally hold a thousand people now only had a little more than a hundred Marines on it. If Kong hadn't kept the last five thousand at the rear, not even a hundred people would be on each ship.
"Fleet Admiral! Garp-san!" a Rear Admiral shouted, steering his warship toward Garp and Kong. The two leaped onto the ship's bow.
"Less talk, more action." Kong pointed at the place where Alucard had sunk. "Bomb that area. Use every last cannonball you have. And fire with everything you've got!"
The Rear Admiral, who had not been directly involved in the fight and was responsible for guarding the rear, didn't understand the reason for Kong's order. But a Fleet Admiral's order was not to be questioned. It was to be carried out immediately.
Following the commander's orders, the cannons on the side of the dozen warships turned, aimed at Alucard's sinking point, and fired.
The explosions of water were endless. Because there were also many bodies of Marines who had died in this operation, many pieces of flesh and blood were blown into the air, making it impossible to tell if any of it was Alucard's.
Kuzan, Borsalino, Strawberry, Momonga, and the others, who were wrapped in bandages and casts, walked out of the infirmary and saw this scene.
Kuzan squinted. He sounded like he was reciting a tongue twister. "Alucard the Immortal... can he die?"
"If he's a Devil Fruit user, he definitely won't survive. But if he's not..."
Momonga paused for a few seconds. "...then he should have drowned, right?"
The bombardment lasted for more than twenty minutes until all the cannons on the dozen warships were empty. The shaking gradually subsided.
'Twenty minutes... even I wouldn't be able to hold my breath that long,' Garp thought.
"He's dead... right?"
Logically, no one could survive a situation like that, but could Alucard be described by logic? He was an existence that defied all logic.
But now, they couldn't give an order like, "Find the body, dead or alive."
"Retreat!"
The first person to say these two words wasn't Kong, the Fleet Admiral, but Garp.
Kong didn't say anything, which was a sign of his tacit approval. The warships turned around, returning to the nearest branch to regroup.
Out of twenty thousand men, less than six thousand remained. Five thousand of them had been kept at the rear, so if they had been sent into the fight, they would have suffered even more losses.
For the current Marines, fifteen thousand wasn't an unaffordable number, but losing that many, including high-ranking officers, without taking down Alucard... it was a result that was not just difficult to talk about but unimaginable.
"...We need to protect those twelve countries."
Suddenly, Kuzan jumped from another warship onto Kong and Garp's ship and suggested, "Just in case, if Alucard is still alive, he will definitely seek revenge. And at that time..."
"I know," Kong interrupted Kuzan. "But the matter is complicated, and there are twelve countries involved. We can't just send forces there on a whim."
"..." Kuzan sighed heavily. "I understand. I hope... he's dead."
In the southwestern seabed of the sunken Torabia Island, a coffin lay quietly on the deep-sea sand. Around it were all kinds of broken limbs and bodies, and the sea had been stained a light red.
On the face of the large, black coffin was a line of letters that translated to, "The Bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame."
The coffin lid slowly opened. The first thing that extended out wasn't a hand but Alucard's head and his tongue, licking up the remaining blood in the sea.
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