The ship cut across the waves, the storm still trembling from the echoes of Magnus's roar.
The crew stood scattered across the deck, every man and giant silent, every eye fixed on the youngest Delmar brother.
Magnus stood at the prow, cloak whipping in the wind, his hand tight around Shusui's hilt.
His body still radiated the aftershocks of Conqueror's Haki the air was heavy, charged, as though the very sea held its breath.
Beside him, Darius straightened his shoulders.
Though battered from his journey, he faced his younger brother with a soldier's discipline.
"You know what this means," Darius said, voice low but unyielding.
"If we go after Mira, we are declaring war not just on a Celestial Dragon, but on the entire World Government. No pirate crew has ever stormed the Holy Land and lived to tell it."
Magnus did not turn. His gaze was locked on the horizon, but his words cut like iron.
"Good. Then we'll be the first."
A ripple of unease ran through the deck.
Gryphon shifted his massive weight, his laughter nervous for once.
"Storming the Holy Land? Hah… Captain, that's not a fight. That's suicide."
Kael stepped forward, his spear gleaming under the stormlight. His face was hard, but his voice steady.
"And yet… wasn't Impel Down suicide too? And still we stand." He looked to Magnus, conviction burning in his eyes. "If Mira is there, then so are we."
Bullet let out a booming laugh, pounding a fist against his chest. "Damn right! To hell with their holy walls! I've been waiting for a fight worthy of my fists, and if those pampered gods are the next target, then I'll tear their palaces down stone by stone!"
The Elbaf twins, Brogy and Dorry, raised their axes, their voices shaking the ship with thunder. "For our Captain! For war against the so-called gods!"
Even the giant army behind them roared, the sound like mountains collapsing.
All eyes returned to Magnus.
Finally, he turned, his face cast in shadows, but his eyes blazing with a fire none could withstand. His voice carried, heavy and absolute.
"Mira is my sister. She is family. They dared to chain her like a dog. To brand her like cattle. For that… for that alone, the Holy Land will burn."
The ship itself seemed to quake as his haki flared again, lightning splitting the dark clouds above.
"We will march on Mariejois. We will shatter their gilded cages. And when we are done, the world will remember this day not as the rise of pirates… but as the day the Delmar brothers declared war on the heavens themselves!"
The crew erupted, voices shaking the sea, weapons raised high.
The world government had called them criminals.
The world had branded them monsters.
But now, they had given Magnus a cause greater than treasure, greater than conquest.
They had given him vengeance.
And vengeance would lead him straight to the gates of the gods.
---
The deck of the giant ship became a war council.
The wind tore at sails, the sea hissed against the hull and yet the crew was gathered in silence around a map Magnus had nailed flat onto the wood.
It was not just a map, it was a declaration.
The Grand Line sprawled across the parchment, but all lines, all routes, all arrows pointed to one place.
The Holy Land of Mariejois.
Magnus stood at the center, black cloak brushing the map's edges, his finger tracing their path with unshakable precision.
"We sail first to Elbaf," he said, his voice steady, cold and absolute. "Brogy. Dorry. There, your army will be prepared."
The two giant captains exchanged grins sharp as axes.
Brogy bellowed, "Our brothers and sons will answer the call! Every warrior of Elbaf knows the taste of battle, and if it is the gods themselves we are to fight, then none shall stay behind!"
Dorry slammed his blade into the deck with a thunderous clang. "By the time we march, our army will shake the seas themselves!"
Magnus's gaze shifted. "Bullet."
The iron titan cracked his knuckles, his grin wide and feral. "What's my job, Captain?"
"You will be the hammer that breaks their walls. Their gates, their fortresses, their armies, they will all fall to you."
Bullet's laughter rolled like thunder. "Good. I'll crush the heavens with my fists."
Magnus turned again. His eyes landed on Kael, who met his gaze without flinching.
"Kael. The Saru Saru no Mi is yours. You have tasted its power now. Hone it. Master it. By the time we reach Mariejois, I want the world to see why Sun Wukong himself bowed to no god."
Kael dropped to one knee, his spear pressed to the deck. "I will not fail you. I will wield this power for our cause and for Mira."
Finally, Magnus turned to Gryphon.
The scarred giant leaned on his massive club, his eye gleaming with anticipation.
"Your strength is not in numbers," Magnus said. "It is in fury. You will lead the vanguard. Break their first lines. Scatter their weak."
Gryphon's laughter boomed. "Heh! Leave the ants to me. I'll make the streets of Mariejois run red."
The council was silent after that, all eyes turning back to Magnus.
His shadow stretched long across the map, his presence heavy as the sea itself.
He drew Shusui and drove the blade through the heart of Mariejois on the parchment.
Lightning crackled along its edge, the wood beneath hissing and blackening as smoke curled into the air.
"We will tear down their throne. We will cut their justice to pieces. And we will carve Mira free with our own hands."
The map burned where his sword pierced it.
The crew rose as one as giants, pirates, traitors, killers every voice roaring into the storm.
The war council was over.