The sea near Sabaody Archipelago.
The shadow of war not only hung over Marineford but also quietly spread across this sea area.
"Full speed ahead, damn it!"
Jack stood at the bow of the mammoth, his massive body like a mountain. His face, etched with fanaticism, showed no fear whatsoever toward the five Marine warships ahead.
In his view, the main Marine forces were all at Marineford; these few ships were merely overestimating their strength.
"Lord Jack! The Gorosei are on the other side!" A pirate executive couldn't help but remind him.
"So what?" Jack's gaze was icy as he said deeply, "It's the perfect chance to slaughter them and present them to Boss Kaido as a gift for the start of the war!"
Instead of slowing down, the Beasts Pirates fleet accelerated toward them like a pack of sharks smelling blood.
On the warship deck, Satan Saint leaned on his walking stick, his cloudy eyes watching the accelerating pirate fleet, a sneer twisting his lips.
"Overestimating their abilities."
As soon as he finished speaking, an eerie five-pointed star magic circle appeared beneath his feet, flashing with brilliant purple light.
The air warped, and space vibrated.
In the next second, Satan Saint's human form vanished.
In its place was a monster crawling out of the abyss—its upper body was a bull-headed humanoid with curved horns, while its lower body had transformed into a massive, hideous spider's torso. Eight segmented limbs covered in black carapace supported him on the deck, inspiring dread and terror.
Satan Saint, having transformed into his Ushi-Oni form, made no sound, merely leaping forward.
His enormous body streaked across hundreds of meters of sea surface, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression, and slammed heavily onto the deck of the mammoth!
Boom—
The entire massive ship suddenly sank, and the hard deck instantly collapsed and cracked.
"What is that thing?!"
Just as a Beasts Pirates executive standing behind Jack roared, Satan Saint's pupil-less eyes swept toward him.
There was no attack, no movement, just a glance.
Pop!
The executive's head exploded without warning, splattering blood and brains onto the faces of those nearby.
In an instant, all the shouting pirates on the deck fell silent; the air seemed to solidify.
"Hey, hey, hey, what the hell is this?!" Plague Queen's massive body shuddered, and the cigar in his mouth fell to the deck. "What kind of monstrosity is this? It's even uglier than my failed experiments!"
Meanwhile, on another warship.
Saint Nusjuro, clad in a samurai robe, moved.
He leaped down from the deck; his lower body transforming in midair into a majestic skeletal horse. The horse bones were stark, and its hooves trod upon the churning sea as if it were solid ground.
He gripped the Shodai Kitetsu at his waist with one hand and held the reins with the other, galloping across the sea at astonishing speed, heading straight for the flank of the Beasts Pirates fleet.
Biting cold air emanated from him. Wherever he passed, a thin layer of ice actually condensed on the sea surface.
"Stop him!"
The pirates on one of the ships spotted the monster galloping across the sea and quickly raised their cannons, aiming at him.
But their speed was too slow.
Saint Nusjuro had already swept alongside the ship. He didn't even glance at the pirates on board, merely drawing and slashing his sword with a movement of extreme speed.
In the next second, a black slash, infused with bone-chilling cold, flashed through the air.
There was no earth-shattering boom, only the faint ripping sound of a sharp blade slicing through paper.
The gigantic steel battleship was neatly severed down the middle. At the cut, ice crystals spread at a visible speed, instantly freezing the breach.
The pirates on the ship didn't even have time to scream before they slowly slid into the cold sea on either side, along with the hull that had split in two.
Having succeeded in one strike, Saint Nusjuro did not pause. His horse's hooves stamped forcefully on the half of the ship about to sink, launching him back into the air and toward another battleship.
The same draw, the same slash.
Another battleship was instantly frozen and severed.
He was like the most efficient executioner, carrying out an elegant yet brutal massacre within the Beasts Pirates fleet.
The slaughter was not limited to this.
"Roar—"
On another warship, the burly Saint V. Nusjuro suddenly opened his massive mouth and let out an earth-shattering roar.
That was not just a simple roar, but a Haoshoku Roar containing Conqueror's Haki!
An invisible force of will swept out with the sound wave, turning into a tangible shockwave that instantly covered the several pirate ships ahead.
In an instant, hundreds of pirate underlings on the decks went limp, their eyes rolling back, fainting in large groups, lying scattered all over the place without even a groan.
Before the surviving executives could react, the sky suddenly darkened.
Saint Marcus Mars had completed his transformation high in the sky, turning into a gigantic monstrous bird with a wingspan exceeding a hundred meters—an Itsunade!
He opened his massive mouth, and flames containing terrifying high temperatures rained down like a waterfall.
Boom! Boom!
Two pirate ships whose decks had been cleared by the Conqueror's Haki were instantly engulfed by the sea of fire.
Steel melted in the high heat, the ships' hulls groaned painfully, and amid the rising flames, one could vaguely hear the agonizing screams of the few survivors being burned alive.
In just a few dozen moments, the Beasts Pirates fleet was instantly shattered by the overwhelming offensive of the four Gorosei.
The sea surface was covered everywhere with burning ship wreckage and floating corpses. Screams and explosions rose and fell, resembling a living hell.
On the deck of the mammoth.
Jack, King, and Plague Queen—the three Calamities—had extremely grim expressions.
They couldn't spare the effort to rescue the other ships, because the oppressive feeling emanating from the Ushi-Oni monster before them was simply too intense.
"Bastard! Die!"
Jack finally recovered from the shock, roaring in fury and wielding two massive scythe-like weapons as he lunged toward Satan Saint.
King also spoke coldly at this moment: "Queen, you two stop him!"
King's voice was as cold as ever. He glanced at the rampaging Itsunade in the sky, vigorously flapped the black wings on his back, and transformed into a streak of black flame, soaring into the heavens.
He knew clearly that if he allowed that monstrous bird to continue attacking, the entire fleet would be burned to ashes! Only by killing the monster bird would they have a chance to head to Marineford and join forces with the Whitebeard Pirates for a high-stakes war!
"Understood!" Queen shrieked. His massive body was surprisingly agile; he drew two large cutlasses from his back and positioned himself in front of Jack.
"Jack, leave this monster to me. You go capture the enemy warships!"
Queen stared intently at Satan Saint, his fighting spirit surging.
Satan Saint ignored King soaring toward the sky and paid no attention to Queen and Jack preparing for battle. He simply raised one segmented limb and pointed it at them.
"Is this all Kaido's three Calamities amount to?"
"Truly disappointing."
—