The New World, Red Port. The radiant light from the Sun Tree Eve bathed the churning sea in a shimmering glow. Around the tree's massive trunk—an obstacle as wide as an entire island—a fierce conflict raged. The three top cadres of the Beasts Pirates clashed against the Holy Knights. In terms of sheer numbers, the Holy Knights held a clear advantage with six combatants, not to mention their captain, Figarland Garling Saint, a man whose combat prowess was said to rival that of Whitebeard.
The Three Disasters stood alone against this force. Yet, as King, Jack, and Eneru pressed their assault, the Holy Knights could barely parry the blows. These three were simply too powerful.
"Lunatics! These men are absolute lunatics!" one of the knights cried out. "What kind of monsters are the Beasts Pirates? How do they all possess such overwhelming Haoshoku?"
The Holy Knights relied on their supposed immortality, but that did not mean they were truly invincible. Their unique bloodline, much like the darkness of Blackbeard's Yami Yami no Mi, left them highly sensitive to pain—perhaps even more so than ordinary people. When bullying the weak, they could unleash fearsome power, but the moment they faced an enemy who outclassed them, their facade of confidence crumbled.
High above, King intercepted Figarland Garling Saint. White flame clouds erupted from behind King's wings as he channeled his power. His Nidai Kitetsu was coated in thick, flowing Haoshoku, and he unleashed the destructive shockwaves of the Gura Gura no Mi. He held his own against the captain of the Holy Knights, who possessed strength on par with one of the Four Emperors. King's burning fighting spirit gave him the momentum to dominate the exchange.
If King fought with intensity, Jack and Eneru fought with pure, unadulterated savagery. While King focused on his goal, Jack and Eneru were in their element, reveling in the slaughter. Though each faced three opponents at once, their murderous auras made the six Holy Knights break into a cold sweat. These knights were powerful, having mastered all three types of Haki and wielding formidable Devil Fruits and advanced technology, but against Jack and Eneru, they were clearly outmatched.
Jack's massive physique, inherited from his Ancient Zoan Mammoth Fruit, was near impenetrable. When combined with the earth-shaking power of the Gura Gura no Mi and his mastery of Armament Haki, he treated incoming attacks like irritating insects. Whether it was piercing Thorn Fruit strikes or bullets reinforced with Haki, they barely scratched his skin. Jack didn't bother with precision; he simply swung his weapons to crush everything in his path.
If Jack was a juggernaut, Eneru was a precise, lethal assassin. The incredible speed granted by the Goro Goro no Mi, paired with his Observation Haki—which spanned the entirety of the Red Port—meant the Holy Knights couldn't even lay a finger on him. Eneru darted through the air, striking them repeatedly as if he were merely playing a game.
While the Holy Knights possessed rare Mythical Zoan and Paramecia fruits, they paled in comparison to the Goro Goro no Mi, which stood at the pinnacle of elemental power. Furthermore, apart from Garling Saint, the other six knights possessed strength closer to that of a Marine Vice-Admiral. They were hopelessly outclassed by Jack and Eneru, both of whom had survived the brutal training of challenging Whitebeard in Wano Country. They were at the absolute peak of the current era.
The knights' immortality remained their only saving grace, though it was a source of frustration for their opponents. Neither Jack nor Eneru favored bladed weapons, and their blunt force trauma left the knights in a battered, broken state without fully finishing them off. Still, this only fueled the two pirates' excitement. Neither man was particularly kind; they acted like cats playing with mice, savoring the struggle of their prey before the final blow.
Figarland Garling Saint watched this, his expression hardening. He had known the Beasts Pirates were strong—especially after the incident at Egghead, where it was confirmed they had obtained Whitebeard's Devil Fruit powers. But as a Celestial Dragon who had sat at the top of the world for eight hundred years, he felt a deep, instinctive disdain for them. He had reason to be arrogant; even the legendary Rocks Pirates had never truly threatened the World Government, and Roger himself had walked a path that ultimately served the status quo.
Garling Saint had assumed a former intern of the Beasts Pirates rising to the rank of Emperor was just another ripple in the tide. He was wrong. The current Beasts Pirates had surpassed the legacy of Rocks. Beyond Kaido's own monstrous strength, his three subordinates—King, Jack, and Eneru—had eclipsed the top cadres of the old Rocks Pirates: Whitebeard, Shiki, and Charlotte Linlin. And that didn't even account for the plague-bringer, Queen, a man whose destructive power on Onigashima had rivaled the Ancient Weapon Pluton.
An unfamiliar, cold fear welled up in Garling's heart. Could we actually lose? he wondered, though he immediately suppressed the thought. No. Kaido cannot stand against Imu-sama.
Suddenly, a scream shattered his concentration. Figarland Garling Saint turned to see Soomas Saint, one of his knights, clutching his chest in terror as a bolt of crimson lightning punched through him. Garling's pupils contracted in shock, and the other knights froze in horror. From between Soomas's fingers, thick, bright red blood dripped onto the ground.
"Oh?" Eneru appeared in a flash of lightning directly in front of the injured man, looking down with genuine curiosity. "Did a god actually bleed?"
He had fought these men for some time, and previously, when their bodies were shattered, no blood had spilled. It had felt as if he were fighting shadows made of dark matter rather than living humans. As Eneru looked on, his advanced Observation Haki pulsed, sensing the sudden surge of primal fear within every Holy Knight. He realized the truth of their nature, and his gaze slowly drifted upward toward the sky. King, Jack, and the remaining knights also seemed to grasp the significance of what had just happened. As they all looked up, every pair of eyes widened in realization.