With the grand Navy award ceremony concluded, a new era for the Marines began.
After being driven out of the New World, the Marines spent barely a year rebuilding their strength. Now they were finally returning.
Over the next three months, Sakazuki, now Admiral Akainu, took command of Marine forces stationed in the New World. Powerful officers guarded newly constructed naval fortresses while waves of Marine soldiers continued arriving to reinforce the region.
The message was unmistakable.
The Marines were back.
Warships began patrolling the western edge of the New World near the Red Line, inevitably provoking the surrounding pirate forces.
Clashes soon followed.
For a time, Marine fleets and pirate crews fought a series of intense battles across the sea.
Yet one truth remained unchanged.
The New World was still the pirates' domain.
The pirate forces here were extraordinarily powerful, and behind them stood the influence of the Four Emperors and many other legendary crews. With their secret support, the Marines could only operate within a limited region, the outermost edge of the New World.
Any attempt to push deeper would invite devastating retaliation from Emperor-level forces.
After losing several warships, the Marines learned where the pirates' tolerance ended. They gradually reduced their provocations and stabilized their presence.
Even so, the result was already a major success.
Under the leadership of Fleet Admiral Sengoku, the number of Marine bases in the New World increased to eight, three more than after the war against the Whitebeard Pirates.
Although some bases were still under construction, the overall framework had been completed.
This achievement greatly pleased the World Government, which rewarded the Marines with an increased budget.
Meanwhile, far away in the chaotic waters around Jaya, a long period of tense balance was about to collapse.
Someone had finally made the first move.
A massive conflict was brewing.
As the Marines grew stronger and re-entered the New World, the World Government began considering an even more ambitious plan.
They wanted to completely seize control of Jaya Island and the surrounding waters, the region known as the Golden Sea.
The reason was simple.
Gold.
In just half a year, records showed that nearly five hundred tons of gold had been recovered from the seabed around Jaya.
The number was staggering.
But everyone also understood a crucial fact.
The gold deposits beneath the sea were finite.
Every shipment extracted reduced what remained, and the vast underwater terrain made excavation increasingly difficult.
The waters surrounding Jaya were treacherous. Powerful whirlpools, jagged reefs, and unpredictable currents frequently caused ships to vanish.
Now the World Government wanted to clear those hazards entirely.
Doing so required warships.
And once the Marines were deployed there permanently, it would become easy to claim the entire Golden Sea as their own territory.
This proposal originated from several senior World Government officials.
They had calculated the profits carefully.
Joint mining operations with other forces were no longer acceptable. They wanted complete monopoly.
If the World Government controlled the Golden Sea outright, the officials involved would gain unimaginable wealth.
Not mere hundreds of millions.
But billions of Berries.
Driven by greed, they began lobbying the leadership.
Soon those officials united and submitted a formal proposal to the Five Elders, requesting full annexation of the Golden Sea.
Their confidence came from the current strength of the Marines.
Some even suggested deploying troops from the World Government Army, which normally guarded the Red Line, to support the operation.
With both the Army and the Marines involved, they believed Jaya could be secured easily.
They also convinced several Celestial Dragons.
From the perspective of those nobles, the matter was simple.
All the gold already belonged to them.
Everyone else mining it was merely stealing their property.
With pressure from powerful officials and the approval of the Celestial Dragons, the proposal quickly gained momentum.
In the end, the Five Elders approved it.
But they also saw something others ignored.
War.
Seizing the Golden Sea would inevitably provoke every other major power that had interests there.
Still, they did not care.
The total gold supply was fixed. Whoever started the war first would claim the largest share.
As for the losses that war might cause…Those were meaningless in the eyes of the rulers.
Naturally, the news did not remain secret for long.
The World Government had already rotted internally. Information leaked almost immediately.
Soon every major power received the same message.
The reaction was explosive.
During the previous six months, the population of Jaya had grown nearly tenfold. Pirate crews, merchant groups, and countless treasure hunters had flocked there.
Everyone dreamed of striking gold overnight.
Now the World Government wanted to seize the entire region for free.
No one could accept that.
Even worse, if the Marines gained such enormous wealth, their military power would grow even stronger.
That was unacceptable to the pirates.
Within days, the New World erupted into action.
Powerful pirate crews dispatched elite forces to threaten Marine bases across the New World, placing heavy pressure on Marine operations.
The Marines responded immediately.
Despite privately cursing the situation, they began expanding their New World forces even further.
At the same time, a massive fleet departed from Marineford, heading directly toward Jaya.
Ten thousand warships.
Even the Marines had anticipated rising tensions around the Golden Sea, but they had not expected events to escalate this quickly.
Still, the prize was too valuable to abandon. And the operation had been ordered by the World Government itself.
Retreat was not an option.
Meanwhile, deep within the territory of the Nightfall Pirates, construction had finally reached completion.
Their base stood within the Christi Kingdom, occupying a massive area.
The complex resembled a grand palace.
Apart from the royal palace itself, nothing else in the kingdom could compare to its scale, and in terms of luxury, it even surpassed the palace.
The only thing it lacked was centuries of history.
The core structure had already been finished, though some outer sections were still under construction.
Considering the scale of the project, completing it in just three months was already astonishing.
At the center of the palace complex stood a massive square.
And within that square towered the legendary Golden Bell from Skypiea.
The enormous bell hung between two golden pillars more than one hundred meters tall.
Its presence shocked anyone who saw it.
Every morning at exactly eight o'clock, the bell rang.
Its deep sound echoed across Saint Louis Island, broadcast through a system installed throughout the island.
After a month, the residents of the Christi Kingdom had grown used to the daily sound.
But they still felt its strange power.
The bell's tone seemed to cleanse the mind, bringing a sense of peace to anyone who heard it.
Hidden beneath the platform supporting the bell, the Poneglyph that once stood there had already been secretly removed by Marshall D. Teach. Only the former Roger Pirates should know its original existence.
Behind the bell stood the tallest structure in the complex.
The Sovereign Hall.
This enormous black palace towered nearly three times higher than the Golden Bell itself.
Inside, the walls shimmered like a starry sky, inlaid with countless precious gems.
At the end of the grand hall, thirty-six steps rose toward three massive thrones.
The throne on the left was far larger than the others, specially built for Ares.
Below them, at the level of twenty-four steps, stood twenty-four seats, twelve on each side.
Even lower, seventy-two massive black pillars surrounded the hall.
Each pillar was eight meters tall and three meters thick.
Carved around them were lifelike three-headed dragons with wings.
For now, the pillars remained lowered into the floor. A hidden mechanism could raise them whenever needed.
Inside the hall, Marshall D. Teach looked at one of his commanders and smiled.
"Laffitte, you'll go."
"But don't go overboard."
The war for the Golden Sea was beginning.
Naturally the Nightfall Pirates also had interests in Jaya. Long ago, Mostima had already established a hidden base there through the Dark Council.
Such a fortune could not be ignored.
"I'll handle it." Laffitte tipped his hat slightly and smiled.
The division of the Golden Sea could not allow the World Government to gain the majority of benefits.
At the same time, the pirates themselves needed a share.
That was the consensus among the great forces of the New World. The World Government had become too arrogant.
Even with their home advantage, making enemies of so many factions simultaneously was reckless.
In the end, wars like this were decided by high-level combat power.
No matter how many forces the World Government sent, they could not easily defeat the gathered elites of the New World.
Teach was already confident the government would eventually compromise.
Still, if the Marines escalated the conflict further, the Nightfall Pirates might have to send stronger forces later.
For safety, Redyat might need to follow Laffitte eventually.
Laffitte turned away.
Suddenly a pair of crimson bat wings grew from his back. With a rapid flutter, he vanished into the sky beyond the palace.
The hall fell quiet.
Everyone knew Teach was not finished speaking.
He leaned back against his throne and smiled. "It's been too peaceful."
"So… prepare for war."
Three months of calm had made some of his followers restless. Teach did not want weak parasites clinging to the crew.
He wanted elites.
And in the New World, war was the fastest way to create them.
Excited murmurs filled the hall.
A massive sea chart was unrolled across the floor.
It was the detailed map of the Sageros Sea, drawn by Mostima himself.
Dozens of islands were marked across the chart, some already occupied, others still empty.
Teach picked up a pen.
Then he drew a huge arc across the map.
The line extended from the Calm Belt, sweeping across more than forty islands.
It touched territories belonging to several sea overlords, including the Whitebeard Pirates, the Satan Pirates, and even approached the domain of the Beast Pirates.
Nearly half the islands within Nightfall territory were included in the circle.
"Take all of them." Teach set down the pen. "Expand the Sageros Sea by another fifty percent."
The timing was perfect. The New World was already descending into chaos. If they waited until stability returned, expansion would become far harder.
Mostima studied the map silently, memorizing every detail.
Shiryu rested a hand on the hilt of his sword, a cigar hanging from his mouth.
Gar, Wallace, and Mobius all showed clear excitement.
The fish-man Ratoon stared at the map with bloodthirsty anticipation. His aura had grown much stronger since gaining a new ability.
Teach had recently given him an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit.
The Mosasaurus form.
Years earlier, Teach had discovered the mysterious fruit on Thunder god Island. After identifying its power, he had kept it in reserve. [T/N: My notes says it was paramecia and not Zoan... guess author changed it.]
For a brute force fighter like Radon, the fruit was perfect.
Even Slada felt eager to test his current strength.
Across the New World, other great pirates were also preparing.
The Big Mom Pirates dispatched Charlotte Katakuri.
The Beast Pirates sent King, the Conflagration.
The Whitebeard Pirates deployed Marco, the Phoenix.
Even the Flying Pirates sent their third-in-command, Thunder Tyrant Kronos.
Each faction dispatched powerful, mobile commanders capable of fighting independently.
Some pirates lacked flying abilities.
Their ships were coated and began descending toward Fish-Man Island, preparing to cross into the first half of the Grand Line.
The storm was gathering.
At the center of it all lay the Golden Sea.
And soon, the war for Jaya would begin.