The seas trembled as the fleet made landfall.
Elbaf, the island of giants, where mountains were but hills and forests rose like cathedrals stood before them, colossal and eternal.
The sky was filled with the smell of pine and salt, and the roar of waves breaking against stone cliffs.
As Magnus and his crew stepped onto the shore, horns bellowed across the land.
Not one, not two but dozens. Each horn call was a thunderclap, and from the valley, shapes began to move.
Giants.
Dozens, then hundreds, warriors armed with axes, spears, and shields large enough to flatten ships.
They came with booming laughter, their footfalls shaking the ground until even Bullet tilted his head back to grin.
Brogy and Dorry strode forward, their weapons gleaming, their voices carrying across the gathering.
"ELBAF!" Brogy bellowed. "These men and women come to tear down the throne of gods themselves! To break the chains of the so-called Celestial Dragons!"
Dorry slammed his weapon against the earth, cracking stone.
"Magnus's sister is enslaved, a child taken as chattel by the false gods! Who here would call himself warrior and not march!?"
The answer was not words.
It was the roar of a thousand throats.
Shields clanged, spears were raised, and the air itself seemed to quake.
The banners of Elbaf, adorned with axes crossed beneath the world-serpent, unfurled like storms in the wind.
Magnus stepped forward, his black cloak whipping in the gale.
Shusui gleamed in his hand, its black blade sparking faintly with crackling haki.
He raised it to the sky.
"Then it is settled. Elbaf marches with us. The seas will remember this day as the day the gods were challenged."
The giants roared again, their cry echoing across the horizon like the voice of the earth itself.
Marineford, hours later.
In the war room, the air grew heavier. A fresh report was dropped on the table.
The Admiral of the Fleet scanned it once before throwing it down hard enough that ink splattered.
"Elbaf has joined them."
The words turned the silence into ice.
Kizaru tilted his head lazily, but his eyes sharpened. "Ara… ara… giants and pirates, all on the same side? That's troublesome. They won't just march, they'll trample."
Ryokugyu grinned wickedly. "Good. A forest fire burns brighter when the trees are tall."
Fujitora's fingers tightened on his cane, though his voice stayed calm.
"If the people of Elbaf march, this war will not be a skirmish. It will be a reckoning. Entire nations will watch."
Sakazuki's fist clenched, magma dripping to the floor. His voice was thunder.
"Then we will burn them all. Every pirate. Every traitor. Every giant that dares stand against Justice."
And far above, in Pangaea Castle, the Gorosei listened in silence as the news reached their chamber.
One elder closed his eyes, his tone low and final.
"So the Delmar brothers would rouse the strongest warriors of the seas against the gods themselves. Then it is no longer a march. It is war."