"Thud—"
A human head, its eyes wide with a final, uncomprehending terror, hit the cobblestones with a wet, heavy sound.
"Thud—"
Another one followed. A flash of blade light, clean, cold, and decisive.
Sabaody Archipelago, once the glittering "paradise" for the world's most depraved, had become a slaughterhouse. Blood stained the ground, gathering in small, viscous streams that flowed slowly toward the sea, staining the mangrove roots a dark, gruesome crimson.
All slave traders, without exception, were being publicly and systematically executed.
The Celestial Dragons, the "gods" of this world who had been enjoying themselves on the island, treating human lives as less than worthless, were now reduced to what they truly were: pathetic, blubbering cowards. They cowered like stray dogs, bound tightly in sea-prism stone chains, and were unceremoniously escorted onto the New Marine's warships.
What awaited them was not a quiet prison cell. It was a public execution.
Alongside the legendary pirates being dragged from the depths of Impel Down, these "gods" would be sent to the guillotine, under the watchful, judging eyes of the entire world.
The New Marine would use their blue blood to declare war on the corrupt World Government. Their lives would consecrate the banner of a new era.
"..."
Rayleigh, who had been locked in a tense, silent standoff with Whitebeard, watched the bloody, methodical purge unfold, his pupils contracting.
The Celestial Dragons were beaten, yet no Admiral appeared.
The Marines withdrew their entire garrison from Sabaody.
The Whitebeard Pirates, led by the Moby Dick, are sailing in formation with Marine warships.
All slave traders are being executed on the spot.
Celestial Dragons are being arrested like common criminals.
The New Marine... Mike...
All the seemingly unrelated, world-shaking events of the past few days and weeks suddenly connected, strung together like pearls on an invisible, iron thread.
Rayleigh finally, truly understood.
The mastermind behind all of this wasn't just a rogue faction. The entire Marine organization, from its admirals down to its common soldiers, had completely broken free from the World Government's control. What happened today on Sabaody wasn't an anomaly; it was a microcosm, a terrifying preview of what was about to unfold across the entire world. All injustices would be purged.
He recalled Shakky's words from weeks ago: "Rayleigh, there's an interesting young man in the Marines~"
He recalled Smoker's booming declaration just moments ago: "By order of Mike-san, Supreme Leader of the New Marine…"
Roger… Rayleigh thought, a strange, almost hysterical laugh bubbling in his chest. The Great Pirate Era you started… it's about to be brought to a violent, crashing end by a single young man.
His gaze snapped back to the only man on the planet who could match his own presence.
"Newgate…" Rayleigh's voice was complex, a mixture of dread, respect, and dawning realization. "I'm your target, aren't I?"
If their goal was merely to purge the slave traders, the New Marine's Vice Admirals were more than sufficient. Whitebeard, the "Strongest Man in the World," wouldn't have needed to come personally. And that first, overwhelming clash of their Observation Haki... it wasn't a warning. It was a challenge. Newgate was here on a mission. And that mission, clearly, was him.
"GURARARARA!" Whitebeard didn't answer directly. Instead, he turned his massive head and glanced at the New Marine officers on the docks.
The Vice Admirals, Onigumo and the others, gave a slight, coordinated nod. All civilians and freed slaves have been evacuated. The stage is clear.
That simple, subtle movement sent a chill down Rayleigh's spine. It confirmed everything. The relationship between Whitebeard and the New Marine... it was far, far closer than he could have ever imagined.
"Rayleigh!" Whitebeard roared, turning back, a wide, predatory grin splitting his face, a grin of pure, exhilarating battle-lust that Rayleigh hadn't seen in decades. "Let me test you! Let's see how much you've regressed after all these years of hiding and drinking!"
Before the words even faded, Whitebeard's colossal, revitalized body exploded upwards, launching from the deck of the Moby Dick like a cannonball. His supreme-grade blade, "Ame-no-Murakumo," was wreathed in a world-shattering, crackling aura as it came crashing down toward Rayleigh with the overwhelming, unstoppable force of a falling mountain.
"..."
Rayleigh felt a violent gust of wind, a physical shockwave of displaced air, slam into him, making his old coat flap wildly. He didn't dare be negligent. He couldn't be. He instinctively drew the simple, unnamed longsword from his waist, Haki flowing into the blade as he raised it horizontally to meet the attack.
"CLANG——!!!"
The clash of blades was not a clang. It was an ear-splitting, metallic roar that shattered every window, every bubble, for a mile in every direction. Two overwhelmingly powerful, kingly forces of Conqueror's Haki—the will of two legends—collided head-on, neither yielding an inch.
An invisible, devastating shockwave erupted from the epicenter.
"CRACK... CRACK..."
The solid, mangrove-root ground beneath them fractured like spiderwebs, deep fissures spreading rapidly outward. The surrounding buildings, already damaged, didn't just tremble; they disintegrated, toppling like dominoes, collapsing into massive piles of rubble.
After a brief, titanic struggle, both men leaped back simultaneously, their feet skidding on the broken earth.
"Huff—" Rayleigh exhaled sharply, his arm trembling, a trace of heavy gravity flashing in his eyes.
As the former legend... He flexed his slightly numb wrist. The moment his blade had met Newgate's, he'd sensed it. The man's strength… it was even greater than he had anticipated. And that had just been a probe.
They were both relics. They were old. With age came the inevitable decline of the body, the waning of Haki. Even if they could momentarily tap into their prime, it was a fleeting burst, impossible to sustain.
Yet, Newgate's casual strike had just exerted a monstrous, crushing pressure on him. As if…
As if he were still in his prime.
How is this possible?!
"Rayleigh!" Whitebeard bellowed, already swinging his bisento again, giving the Dark King no chance to think, no chance to catch his breath. "If you can't even block this next one…"
His muscles bulged grotesquely, veins writhing like pythons beneath his skin as the volcanic, revitalized power within him erupted. Yes! This is the feeling! The boiling blood! The exhilaration of fighting at full, unrestrained strength! It felt incredible!
"QUAKE SPACE!!!"
Whitebeard roared, his bisento slashing forward. The Haki wrapped around the blade merged perfectly with the terrifying, shattering power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
"BOOOOM—"
The world recoiled. The heavens and the earth seemed to bend. The air itself vibrated, space visibly distorting and cracking around the blade's edge. A razor-sharp wave of pure, condensed, annihilating energy surged toward Rayleigh.
Everything in its path—the solid ground, the collapsed buildings—wasn't just broken; it was pulverized into dust. Even the sky above was torn asunder by this overwhelming power, revealing a yawning, pitch-black void behind the crack in reality.
Before the slash even arrived, its terrifying pressure wave hit Rayleigh, making his breath hitch, his skin sting, and every hair on his body stand on end in mortal terror.
"Damn it!" Rayleigh gritted his teeth, his mind overwhelmed with shock. This power… this Haki… This is definitely Newgate at his absolute peak!
There was no time to think. Whitebeard's world-shattering strike was upon him. He had to go all-out. Otherwise, this was his end.
"NEWGATE—!"
Rayleigh unleashed his own Conqueror's Haki without restraint, pouring every last drop of his will into his simple sword. The blade instantly ignited with a dazzling, silver-white radiance.
"BLADE—STORM!!!"
With a furious roar, his wrist flickered at a speed that defied his age, so fast that dozens of afterimages trailed behind it.
"Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish—"
In a single, blinding instant, countless razor-sharp sword slashes poured forth from his blade, a tempest of pure Haki crashing head-on into Whitebeard's unstoppable shockwave.
Two forces capable of annihilating the heavens and the earth collided mid-air.
No probing. No holding back. This was an all-out clash of legends.
"BOOM—!!!"
An earth-shaking, reality-bending explosion resounded, so loud it was felt more than heard. A blinding white light swallowed everything, turning the sky into a blank void. The violent, concussive shockwaves surged outward like a tsunami, obliterating the entire grove, vaporizing everything in their path.
"Protect the warships!" the New Marine Vice Admirals and the Whitebeard Commanders roared in unison, joining forces to create a massive defensive barrier to shield the fleet from the cataclysmic fallout.
"Thud—"
A battered, smoking figure was sent flying from the epicenter, tumbling through the air like a kite with its string cut, before crashing heavily into a crumbling, distant building.
"Crash—!"
The building finally gave way, collapsing in a deafening roar, sending a massive plume of dust and debris billowing into the sky.
"Cough… cough…" A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Rayleigh's mouth. He was buried in rubble, his chest heaving, his body screaming in protest. He was severely injured.
"Thud— Thud—"
Heavy footsteps echoed through the silent, smoking ruins. Whitebeard's towering figure slowly emerged from the dissipating dust.
He was completely unharmed. Not a single scratch. His breathing was steady, not the slightest bit disturbed.
"Old man…" Whitebeard looked down at the battered form of his old rival and sighed faintly, his voice tinged with a strange, nostalgic pity. Time truly spared no one.
"..." Rayleigh struggled to stand, to push the tons of rubble off him, but his body refused to obey. A sharp, agonizing pain forced a muffled groan from his lips.
"Mike-san is willing to spare your life!" Whitebeard said, stepping forward. He pulled a familiar, thick document from his coat. A New Marine contract.
"Sign your servitude agreement, Rayleigh."
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