"What was that sound?!"
The vice admirals inside the cabin all stiffened, startled by the sudden shout.
Before they could even react and investigate where the noise had come from, an overwhelming sense of danger surged into their hearts all at once.
"Not good!"
Aokiji and the others, whose Observation Haki was exceptionally sharp, had their expressions darken instantly.
At this moment, sensing the incoming crisis, neither Aokiji nor Akainu bothered with anything else.
Almost simultaneously, the two leapt upward with tremendous force, smashing straight through the ceiling of the cabin and vaulting into the air above the warship.
What entered their field of vision next was a scene of sheer terror.
Beneath the surging sea, a colossal shadow abruptly emerged, coiling at the very center of the World Government fleet.
With Vegapunk's specially developed Sea Prism Stone technology, these warships should have been immune to threats from Sea Kings or other sea monsters.
Yet for some reason…
The instant they laid eyes on that massive silhouette, a chilling numbness crawled across Aokiji's and Akainu's scalps.
The next moment, a deep, muffled roar transmitted through the seawater and reached their ears.
It was as piercing as a dragon's cry, yet as heavy and resonant as an elephant's trumpeting.
"Roooaaaar—!!!"
As the roar rang out, the seawater churned violently.
Immediately afterward, the surging waves seemed to be stimulated by some mysterious force, shooting skyward and flipping more than a dozen unfortunate warships in an instant.
Two of them were even hurled straight into the clouds, giving their crews a brief but terrifying taste of a roller-coaster ride.
"Damn it! We've been ambushed!"
Akainu's eyes turned bloodshot at the sight.
In just a few short seconds, he had already seen at least a thousand Marines swept into the sea by the massive waves, their fates unknown.
As his words fell, torrents of searing magma erupted from his body, clearly intending to vaporize the towering waves ahead.
But before Akainu could act, Aokiji's furious shout rang out beside him.
In the next instant, endless cold burst forth like a raging storm from Aokiji's body, instantly solidifying the magma spilling from Akainu.
"Do you want all those soldiers who fell into the water to be boiled alive?!"
"Coordinate with me!!!"
In the face of the crisis, Aokiji no longer cared about rank or status and directly roared at Akainu.
He swung his arm, summoning a barrage of ice spears that shot toward the nearest massive wave.
Boundless cold followed closely behind, flowing along the ice spears and surging into the wave.
"Ice Age!!!"
Hiss—hiss—hiss—!
Terrifying cold rapidly froze the sky-high wave, spreading like an infectious virus and locking the entire wall of water in place, before continuing to extend downward.
Just as quickly as the wave had formed, the once-boiling sea transformed in the blink of an eye into a vast expanse of frigid ice.
"I didn't use too much force. Now melt the ice with your magma and rescue the soldiers who fell into the sea."
"You bastard…"
Seeing Aokiji not only shout at him without regard for his status but also issue direct orders, anger flashed in Akainu's eyes.
Yet in this critical moment, he chose not to argue. Instead, he followed Aokiji's plan, using the intense heat of his magma to melt hole after hole in the ice, breaking its solid structure.
Fortunately, the Marines and World Government soldiers in this fleet were all elites who had survived multiple battles.
Though they had been tossed around badly, casualties were kept to a minimum.
Meanwhile—
At the instant the waves erupted, the others inside the main ship's cabin also evacuated one after another.
High above, Saint Saturn of the Five Elders looked down at the chaos below, his face twisted with fury.
"A bunch of useless trash!"
In front of several vice admirals, Saint Saturn cursed without restraint.
But then his gaze abruptly shifted behind him.
Not far from their position, a boy wearing a baseball cap stood calmly in midair, unlike Saint Saturn and the others who relied on Moonwalk and flame clouds. He stood as if on solid ground, smiling in their direction.
When Saint Saturn turned his eyes toward him, the boy's smile grew even wider.
"Long time no see, Saint Saturn!"
The boy greeted first.
His voice startled several vice admirals, who hurriedly turned around.
Saint Saturn, however, showed no obvious emotional change, as if he had known of the boy's presence all along.
"Trainer · Red…"
Saint Saturn called out Red's name in a lofty tone. In the next instant, black flames erupted violently from his body.
As the flames burned, his form rapidly began to change.
"Wait, Saint Saturn—!"
The vice admirals beside him paled in horror at the sight.
At this moment, they were even more terrified than when they had seen Laboon's Surfing assault earlier.
Knowing some of the truth, they hurriedly retreated from Saint Saturn and shouted toward the Marines below who were still in safer zones:
"Everyone, lower your heads!!!"
"Don't look up!!!"
However, the earlier chaos had been far too loud. Very few Marines heard the warning.
Many even raised their heads out of curiosity upon hearing the noise overhead.
What they saw in the sky was a gigantic humanoid spider engulfed in black flames.
"Ahhh—!!!"
Before they could even process what they were seeing, an eerie crimson light flashed through the spider's eyes.
In that instant, the Marines who witnessed it were struck by a mysterious mental shock—their heads exploded, and they collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
It was Saint Saturn's technique · Evil Eye, which slaughtered all Marines below the rank of rear admiral who had seen his true form.
That single wave of attack alone cost the Marines hundreds of lives.
Its lethality far surpassed the monstrous waves Laboon had caused earlier.
"Saint Saturn… he…"
Aokiji froze when he sensed the soldiers' deaths.
Staring at the fallen bodies of the Marines, his expression went blank. He tried to speak, but it felt as though his throat had been sealed shut—no words came out.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk…"
Up in the sky, Red clicked his tongue in disgust at the scene.
"As expected of the lofty Celestial Dragons—so cruel even to your own subordinates."
"I really feel sorry for your men."
"They're nothing more than ants," Saint Saturn replied disdainfully, though a flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes.
He asked coldly, "Brat, why are you unaffected?"
"Affected? By what?"
Red grinned.
"You mean that mental suppression just now—the one that paralyzes the mind and body?"
"Sorry about that."
"If we're talking about playing with this kind of thing, I might as well be your ancestor!"
"Psychic!!!"
The moment his words ended, Red's eyes erupted with pale pink waves of light.
The next instant, surging psychic power poured out like a tidal wave, forming an enormous invisible hand that clenched Saint Saturn tightly.
"What?!"
Shock finally appeared on Saint Saturn's face.
But Red gave him no chance to react. Controlling the psychic hand, he hurled Saint Saturn downward toward the ice below.
Boom!!!
Crack!!!
With a sharp shattering sound, frigid mist exploded across the mirror-smooth ice surface.
This sudden turn of events left Aokiji, Akainu, and the others utterly stunned.
That Five Elder… Saint Saturn… was actually being suppressed?!
Even though they knew better than to doubt the power of the Five Elders, seeing Saint Saturn knocked down by Red's attack was beyond anything they had imagined.
At the same time, even Red himself showed a hint of surprise.
At some point, he had loaded the Mewtwo template—his back now swayed with a purple tail as he muttered to himself:
"So it really is just like in the anime…"
"There are differences even among the Five Elders."
"If we ignore everything else and only talk about physical strength, Saint Saturn is probably around the level of a top-tier Yonko's right-hand man—far inferior to Big Mom."
At the very least, Red didn't believe that with just a beginner-level Mewtwo template, he could so easily toy with Big Mom using psychic power.
As a Soul Fruit user, Big Mom's mental strength surpassed Red's by an unimaginable margin.
It was just that, aside from her Devil Fruit, she rarely had opportunities to use that psychic power.
In fact, her frequent bouts of rage and instability were likely related to her excessively strong mental force.
Big Mom in her youth never had such problems.
Otherwise, the powerhouses of the Rocks Pirates wouldn't have indulged her.
Everything changed after she took control of Totto Land and began devouring the souls of others in large quantities.
"Damn you, insect!!!"
As Red was lost in thought, an enraged roar suddenly erupted from below.
With Aokiji's assistance, an iceberg shot up from the sea, carrying Saint Saturn back into the air.
Despite being slammed into the ice earlier, he bore no visible injuries.
Even so, the humiliation made the black flame clouds around him surge violently, reflecting his inner fury.
This was unbearable!
As one of the Five Elders, when had he ever been in such a sorry state?!
And yet, he had just been knocked down by a pirate's attack!
It was utterly unacceptable.
If not for the sheer number of witnesses, he might have slaughtered all the soldiers present.
Now at the same height as Red, Saint Saturn didn't hesitate at all. He raised his massive, pitch-black spider legs and thrust them toward Red at terrifying speed.
Yet Red remained calm, his eyes like still water—there was even a trace of disappointment within them.
"Is that all you've got?"
Now that Saint Saturn's Evil Eye had been countered, this kind of crude physical attack was all he had left.
Red let out a soft sigh.
In the next instant, his body vanished from its original position, evading the Five Elder's strike.
"What?!"
Saint Saturn's demonic eyes widened in disbelief at Red's teleportation.
But immediately after—
"Great Eruption!!!"
Unlike the arrogant Celestial Dragons, Akainu—who had already gathered intelligence on Red—was fully prepared.
The moment Red's figure disappeared, Akainu had already locked onto his new position.
Scalding magma erupted from his fists like a volcanic explosion, roaring toward Red.
"Huh?! Another expert?!"
Feeling the searing heat, Red didn't have time to think. With a flicker of thought, he quickly summoned a Hyperspace Hole beside him.
One end intercepted the incoming magma, while the other was aimed directly at Saint Saturn.
In an instant, Akainu's attack vanished into the pitch-black spatial vortex—only to reemerge behind Saint Saturn, still carrying its terrifying momentum.
Sizzle!!!
Without any suspense, Akainu's magma smashed directly into Saint Saturn's body.
The horrifying heat melted him instantly, dragging him down toward the sea once more.
"Gah—ahhh…!"
Saint Saturn screamed miserably, utterly unprepared for being struck by Akainu's attack.
Aokiji frowned deeply at the sound.
There was no time to think.
Seeing Akainu's redirected attack dragging Saint Saturn toward the ocean, Aokiji—assuming Saint Saturn was also a Devil Fruit user—plunged his hands into the sea below.
"Ice Age!"
Whooo—!
Apocalyptic cold erupted once more, rapidly extending the frozen sea toward Saint Saturn's falling trajectory.
Boom!!!
Only seconds after returning to the air, Saint Saturn suffered a second crash.
And this time, the attack that struck him came from his own side.
The intense heat melted the ice on the sea's surface, releasing thick white steam that obscured everything.
Suddenly, a blood-red glint flashed from within the steam.
It was followed by Saint Saturn's furious roar:
"Sakazuki!!!"
Having been struck by Akainu's attack, Saint Saturn flew into a blind rage.
"Th-this…"
Akainu, who had been "praised" by name, wore an expression as uncomfortable as severe constipation.
He desperately wanted to explain that it wasn't an ambush, that the enemy's methods were simply too devious.
But as the iron-blooded hardliner and strongest admiral, he found himself utterly unable to apologize or explain in front of tens of thousands of Marines.
At that moment, Aokiji suddenly spoke up:
"Saint Saturn, the vice captain of the Straw Hat Pirates seems to possess spatial manipulation abilities. Long-range attacks appear ineffective against him—and may even backfire."
"I believe what we need most right now is close-quarters combat, forcing him to repeatedly use his spatial abilities."
"Such a powerful ability must consume a tremendous amount of stamina. Once his strength is exhausted, we can defeat him easily."
As expected of the Ice-Ice Fruit user—even in such chaos, Aokiji calmly analyzed a strategy against Red.
Whether it was correct or not could be debated later.
But judging from the situation, it was certainly more effective than Saint Saturn's and Akainu's reckless attacks.
However—
Upon hearing Aokiji's suggestion, Saint Saturn, panting heavily, slammed his spider legs into the ground, smashing several craters into the ice, and roared:
"No need to waste that much time!!!"
As his words fell, four massive magic circles suddenly appeared around him.
At the same time, identical pitch-black magic circles emerged beneath the feet of the other four Five Elders, who had been in constant contact with Saint Saturn back in Pangaea Castle.
In the next instant, their figures vanished from Pangaea Castle—
—and reappeared on the ice at the edge of Totto Land's waters.
(End of Chapter)