Fujitora stood on the deck of the lead warship, expression grave. "Looks like we can't go any closer. Everyone, hold on tight—I'm going to land the warships."
At his warning, the Marines immediately grabbed for railings, masts, and anything bolted down.
The next instant, the entire fleet dropped. The warships plunged like a falling stone, then jolted to a halt just before smashing into the ground, the motion like a massive drop tower suddenly braking.
Under Fujitora's control, the thirty warships then began to descend slowly and evenly, settling onto the island one after another.
As they touched down, Ryokugyu pulled a transponder snail from his pocket. "Lord Five Elders, we've arrived at Egghead Island."
From the other end came only Saturn Saint's voice, issuing a direct order. "This mission is to eliminate Vegapunk and to draw the Phoenix Pirates to your location as much as possible."
Ryokugyu grinned. "Yeah, leave it to us!"
The moment the warships landed, the Phoenix Pirates surged forward to attack.
Ace, wreathed in flames, led the charge. "Fire Fist…!"
With a sharp whoosh, a colossal fist of fire—over twenty meters across—roared toward the Marine fleet.
Beached on land, the warships had no way to dodge.
But even if they'd still been at sea, with Ace's Fire Fist bearing down on them, the warships wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to escape its range.
"He's really a nasty brat. Attacking right away…"
Admiral Ryokugyu stepped forward. His arms morphed into thick vines that stabbed into the ground as he snarled, "Firebreak…!"
With a thunderous boom, the blazing fist slammed into the wall of trees that erupted up from the earth, instantly setting them ablaze.
But each towering trunk was sheathed in Armament Haki. Even Ace's destructive Fire Fist couldn't punch through the barrier.
"Ace, it's Admiral Ryokugyu…" Yamato's eyes fixed on the Admiral, excitement burning in her gaze.
"Yeah. This time, we're taking him down…" Ace stared at Ryokugyu, just as fired up.
Back in the Whole Cake Island war, even with him and Yamato fighting together, they'd only just managed to hold him to a draw.
For the past month, Ace had been training himself to the brink, all to become strong enough to defeat a Marine Admiral.
Facing Ace and Yamato charging at him again, Ryokugyu bared his teeth. "You two damned brats again… Pirate King Roger's son, and Kaido's daughter."
"Brothers, wipe out every last Marine!" Curiel roared, rallying the Phoenix Pirates.
One after another, the pirates threw themselves into the clash with the Marine forces.
High above, Marco hovered in the air, blue flames flickering from his wings as he swept the battlefield with Observation Haki. He couldn't sense any presence from the Gorosei, and that unsettled him.
He'd been sure the Gorosei would come with the Marines—at least one of them on a warship, with the others ready to be summoned in, just like at Whole Cake Island.
"The Gorosei didn't come?" Marco muttered in surprise.
For now, there was still no sign of them. But with the Marines appearing here alone, this was a rare chance—an opportunity to take down both Admirals at once.
Fujitora was hovering in the sky on a wooden board, his coat billowing in the heated air. He turned his head slightly and reminded the Marines behind him, "Everyone, stay sharp."
"Oh!!!" the Marines roared back, their morale surging.
They were determined to use this battle to redeem themselves—and to avenge Fleet Admiral Sakazuki.
Down below, Ryokugyu once again clashed with Ace and Yamato.
He clicked his tongue in irritation. "Fire Fist, Ogre Princess… what are you doing on Egghead Island?"
"Obviously, we're here for Vegapunk." Ace's fist crashed into Ryokugyu, forcing him backward.
In that single exchange, Ryokugyu could feel it: Ace and Yamato had grown stronger than the last time they faced him. His expression hardened.
One was the son of Pirate King Roger. The other, the daughter of Kaido, the strongest creature on land, sea, and air.
Their natural talent was among the best in the world.
Ryokugyu had no doubt that given enough time, both of them could stand at the same height as their parents.
"I never thought the world's greatest scientist, Vegapunk, would side with pirates," he said coldly. "But those who defy the World Government have no reason to exist."
"Forest Descend…"
As his voice fell, countless tree-like vines erupted from his body, surging toward Ace and Yamato. All around them, thick trunks and branches burst from the ground, forming a rapidly spreading forest.
Ace and Yamato watched the sea of trees rise up, their faces growing grim.
But as a Logia user, Ace felt no fear at all—especially when fire so thoroughly countered wood. He glared at Ryokugyu and roared, "Don't think you can just use your ability to drain other people's strength! Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor!"
In Ace's hands, a blazing sphere of fire rapidly took shape, swelling to over fifty meters in diameter, like a miniature sun burning in his grasp.
Back on Whole Cake Island, Ace hadn't understood Ryokugyu's ability. In the chaos, Ryokugyu had secretly absorbed the life force of the Big Mom Pirates and Phoenix Pirates, constantly recovering his stamina and vitality.
No matter how many times Ace and Yamato wounded him, he bounced back almost instantly.
It had driven them into a desperate situation—until they realized Ryokugyu could restore himself by drawing on surface water and the life force of living beings. From that moment, Ace understood: to bring Ryokugyu down, they couldn't allow him any chance to absorb life force.
With a deafening boom, Ace hurled the Flame Emperor straight into the newborn forest.
The fireball detonated, and a tide of searing flames roared outward. Waves of hot wind swept across the island, so fierce that both Marines and pirates, who had just begun their clash, struggled to even stay on their feet in the scorching gale.
"It's so hot!" The Marines and pirates closest to Ace and Ryokugyu felt the blast of heat slam into them.
Every breath burned their lungs.
The overwhelming flames incinerated the young forest in an instant, and a towering mushroom cloud of fire and smoke rose into the sky, climbing to a height of ten thousand meters.
Among Logia-type Devil Fruits, the power of fire is overwhelmingly destructive—and against wood, it holds an absolute advantage.
"Is this the end of the world...?" The Marines stared at the towering mushroom cloud in the distance, their throats dry as they swallowed hard.
Just a month ago, their forces had suffered a crushing defeat. Their morale still hadn't recovered.
And now, facing the Phoenix Pirates, their resolve was even weaker.
After all, in both the Marineford War and the Whole Cake Island War, the Marines had never once claimed victory against the Whitebeard Pirates or the Phoenix Pirates.
So even with direct orders from their superiors, confronting the Phoenix Pirates again filled them with a quiet, inescapable dread.
"Ace's gotten even stronger," Marco couldn't help but remark as he watched.
Ace was still at the level of a strong Yonko Commander—but by now, he was probably only a single step away from breaking into the realm of a weak Yonko level.
One really had to admit it: as the Pirate King's son, his talent was monstrous.
Ryokugyu's face was dark as he watched his Forest Descend completely burned away, even the seeds reduced to ash.
He had burned through a huge amount of stamina this time, and couldn't quickly recover. That made this situation extremely troublesome for him.
"You little punk..."
Meanwhile, Marco, sensing that no Gorosei had arrived yet, was already planning to seize this chance to eliminate the two Admirals.
Ryokugyu could be left to Ace. He himself would take care of Fujitora first.
With that decision made, Marco shot through the sky straight toward Fujitora.
But ambushing Fujitora was out of the question. The Admiral didn't rely on his eyes to see.
Even if Marco tried his best to suppress his presence, he wouldn't be able to hide from Fujitora.
As a blind man, Fujitora's Observation Haki and hearing were exceptional, making him extremely difficult to take down with a sneak attack.
In that case, the only option was to defeat him head-on.
However, at that critical moment, Marco suddenly felt a powerful aura spread out, enveloping the entire Egghead Island dome.
At the same time, Jaygarcia Saturn, one of the Gorosei and the God of War for Scientific Defense, was silently transported by a magic circle into the dome above Vegapunk's laboratory.
As a scientist himself—and in order to personally pressure Vegapunk into speeding up research on the Seraphim and Mother Flame—he had visited Egghead Island before. During that visit, he had secretly placed a magic mark on the island, a contingency that now allowed him to perform rapid teleportation.
Hovering in the air, Marco stared at the suddenly materialized Saturn above the dome, shock rising in his chest.
"The Gorosei can teleport without needing to be summoned?"
Up until now, he had believed that the Gorosei's teleportation arrays required them to serve as fixed anchor points, and that spatial transfer was only possible through active summoning.
What lay before him made one thing clear: the key wasn't the summoning itself, but the Magic Circle.
As long as someone had previously set foot on an island and planted a Magic Circle there as an anchor, they could teleport to it at will.
Back during the Whole Cake Island War, the reason Saint Mars had to personally travel all the way from the Holy Land to Cake Island was because the Gorosei had never set an anchor there. Without a Magic Circle in place, they couldn't teleport directly from Mariejois. Mars had been forced to come alone first, then use a Magic Circle on-site to summon the other four.
"Don't even think about teleporting anyone else," Marco said, then shot forward, wings beating as he rushed toward Saturn.
"What is that?" At that very moment, Saturn materialized via teleportation. His sudden appearance in the very heart of the dome instantly put the Phoenix Pirates and Sentomaru on high alert.
The Phoenix Pirates had already seen what the Magic Circle could do. So when another one flared to life in the sky, they understood right away.
"This is a special ability of the Gorosei," Kingdew explained. "They can use Magic Circles to perform spatial teleportation."
"Magic Circle?" Sentomaru frowned in confusion. "Things that mysterious actually exist in this world?"
Harta, standing beside him, added, "I don't know the specifics, but I suspect it's a Devil Fruit ability. On top of that, the Gorosei seem to be immortal. Every one of them is insanely strong, and even Seastone doesn't work on them. Marco figures only Conqueror's Haki can hold them down. For those of us without Conqueror's Haki, going over there would just be pointless."
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