Click!!!
BOOM!!!
Thunder roared as if the heavens themselves were being torn apart.
Lightning flashed violently across the sky, illuminating a vast mass of rolling black clouds that surged in from the horizon, swallowing the sunlight. A crushing sense of pressure filled the air, so heavy it made every man and woman on the battlefield instinctively tense.
"What's going on?!"
"What is this now?!"
"What's happening to the sky?!"
"What more could possibly happen in this war?!"
All across the battlefield—Marines, pirates, and onlookers alike—everyone swallowed hard, their eyes fixed on the storm above.
Then—
"Look! Up there! Is that… a dragon?!"
A wave of gasps and cries swept through the ranks.
From within the roiling clouds, a colossal, ferocious dragon head—scaled in gleaming blue—emerged, glaring down upon the world below.
"That… that's…!"
Those who recognized the figure froze in disbelief, their voices trembling as they spoke the name.
"Sabo, Ace—do you know who that dragon is?" Luffy asked, his wide eyes shining with shock and curiosity.
"Yeah… of course I do," Sabo said, his expression grim.
"That's Kaido—the former Emperor of the Beasts!"
Ace clenched his fists tightly. "That green dragon… it's the same one from Wano!"
"Yeah! No doubt about it!"
"That's the very dragon the Guild Master defeated back then!"
"The former Emperor of the Beasts, Kaido!"
"He dares to show himself again?! How arrogant can he be!"
The girls of Fairy Tail—Nami, Robin, Erza, Wendy—recognized him instantly, their expressions a mix of astonishment and disbelief.
As realization rippled through the battlefield, shockwaves of chatter erupted among Marines and pirates alike.
"Kaido!!!"
"Kaido of the Beasts!!!"
"The former Emperor Kaido himself!"
"What the hell is he doing here?!"
"Are you kidding me? The situation was already chaotic enough—now he shows up?!"
"Don't tell me… Kaido's joined Fairy Tail too?!"
The Marines, already shaken, shouted in frustration, unable to comprehend the madness unfolding before them.
"Kaido!!!"
"That bastard Kaido!!!"
"What the hell do you want now?!"
Even among the Whitebeard Pirates, Marco, Jozu, and Vista glared toward the sky, shouting angrily. None of them were naive enough to think Kaido had come to lend them a hand.
Just as the battlefield was thrown into turmoil by Kaido's sudden reappearance—
BOOM!!!
Kaido's massive dragon form suddenly convulsed, as though struck by an invisible force.
The enormous azure dragon was hurled from the clouds, crashing down toward the ground like a meteor, the impact shaking the entire bay.
Only then did everyone truly see him.
The once-mighty Four Emperor, Kaido of the Beasts, lay sprawled across the ruins, his immense dragon body scarred and battered, covered with deep, crisscrossing wounds.
"Wh-what the hell…?"
"Why is he like that?!"
In the Sabaody Islands' Live Broadcast Plaza, the crowd of reporters and spectators screamed in disbelief.
"What happened to that dragon?!"
"Where did it even come from?!"
"You idiots! That's no ordinary dragon!" someone shouted. "That's Kaido—the former Emperor of the Beasts!"
"No way! He's still alive?!"
"He disappeared for half a year—and now he's using this war to announce his comeback?!"
"Even if he is back, this entrance couldn't be worse!"
"Look at him! He's covered in wounds—someone actually beat Kaido like this!"
"Who could have done that?! Fairy Tail's leader, Sugisawa Yuuto? Whitebeard? They're both right here on the battlefield!"
"That only leaves Red-Haired Shanks or Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin…"
"Wait! I remember hearing a rumor—something about Kaido and Big Mom forming an alliance…"
"No way! That's impossible! That kind of thing can't—"
The noise in the Sabaody plaza died abruptly.
Because at that moment—
The live broadcast screen changed.
High above Marineford—
The sky itself shattered.
And from the gaping rift between heaven and earth…
They appeared.