In the sky, Carlo, who was being carried away by the shockwaves and continued to be thrown outward while spitting out several mouthfuls of blood, looked toward Puttelocrone with a surging heart.
There, in the center of a massive crater that covered the entire island, a dark green figure shrouded in dust could vaguely be seen.
It was Garp!
He was actually still there.
"Where's Rocks?"
Carlo's golden pupils contracted as the world in his eyes zoomed in.
Then he saw Rocks.
In a deep pit opposite Garp, Rocks lay on his back, blood erupting from his body, looking severely injured.
But he hadn't lost consciousness; he was grinning, revealing a wild and arrogant smile.
"Wahahahaha, this power is truly strong, Garp!"
"Unfortunately, it's not your true power."
"Next time, let's fight again, wahahahaha!"
He patted the soil beneath him.
"Shiki! How much longer are you going to stay down there? If you don't run now, the next one to be beaten by this bastard Garp will be you."
His voice faded.
No sound came from the Golden Lion.
But in the next moment, the island of Puttelocrone, which had been beaten into a crater, suddenly shook violently several times.
Then, amidst a series of earth-shattering cracks, the main part of the island below sea level was torn apart under the control of a great force and rapidly floated up toward the sky!
That's right!
This island, which had been beaten out of shape, was drifting toward the sky, away from the sea.
Like a giant stone bowl!
This was the Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit power.
He was using his ability to send the entire island of Puttelocrone into the sky!
In the center of the island, Garp, whose spirit was on the verge of collapse, moved again!
He clenched his cracked fists and rushed toward Rocks, raising a giant fist high and smashing it heavily toward Rocks' face!
If this punch landed and Rocks didn't dodge, he would likely be blown apart along with the flying island beneath him!
Facing this death blow, Rocks still grinned wildly, lying in place without moving.
At the critical moment.
A tall, blonde figure stepped through the shattered sky, rushing in like a missile, jumping high, and swinging a naginata down toward Garp's head with both hands.
"Void-Severing Slash!!!"
Garp's reaction was extremely fast; he subconsciously raised his fist toward the sky.
The terrifying force erupting from that giant fist actually blocked Whitebeard's world-destroying slash.
But the ground beneath his feet could not withstand it and was shattered into a penetrating crack.
With a thunderous boom.
Garp was knocked out of the void by Whitebeard's blade, falling toward the sea below, which had turned into a chaotic mess.
After knocking Garp down with one strike, Whitebeard breathed a sigh of relief, landed on the broken island, looked at the still-laughing Rocks, and said irritably:
"Rocks, you almost died, and you can still laugh?"
"Wahahahaha, I almost died, but I didn't actually die. As long as I don't really die, isn't that something worth laughing happily about? Wahahahaha."
Rocks laughed toward the sky.
"Happy my foot! The robbery plan was a total failure, we didn't get a single Berries, and a bunch of people died. If I'm not mistaken, even that guy Gan Sui is dead. Don't you feel any pity at all?"
Not far away, the ground split open, and a disheveled Golden Lion flew out from inside.
Hearing this, Rocks replied, "Pity? What's there to be pity about? Everyone dies, and we are pirates. Aren't pirates people who tie their heads to their belts and could lose them at any time? Never mind him; even if you guys died, I wouldn't feel any pity."
"Selfish bastard! This is why you'll never get my recognition." Golden Lion spat, then controlled the island to fly into the distant sky, toward the direction where Carlo and the others had been thrown.
In the sky over there, a large mass of churning dark clouds floated.
Linlin controlled the cloud mass to save Silver Axe, Kaido, John, Wang Zhi, Gloriosa, Stussy, and the others.
Further away above the sea, Carlo flapped his wings and was flying upward.
The heavenly dragon halberd he held was a bit too heavy for him in his currently heavily injured state.
But throwing away the heavenly dragon halberd was obviously impossible.
Perhaps seeing Carlo's situation from afar, Linlin, controlling Zeus, prepared to fly over to pick him up.
But at that moment, Linlin's expression suddenly changed drastically, and she shouted toward the ascending Carlo from a distance.
"Watch out! Carlo!"
There was no need for Linlin's reminder.
Carlo, with his eight-star Observation Haki Total Clarity fully expanded, had already sensed the rapidly approaching danger behind him.
In the sky above the sea behind him, streams of pitch-black oil rose into the sky, madly coiling toward him.
"To make us suffer such heavy losses, even Gustav died in battle—damn Rocks Pirates, you must pay the price for this!"
Haines' resentful face emerged from the rolling black waves.
Countless rising black tides transformed into a giant black hand a hundred meters wide, grasping at Carlo above!
"Especially you, the brat who betrayed justice! This old man will clean house for the Marine!"
"Old man!!"
Looking at Haines rushing toward him, Carlo's eyes were fierce. He directly gave up on continuing to ascend, gripped the heavenly dragon halberd, and dove down sharply. The wings on his back flapped in reverse, accelerating his speed as he charged toward the grasping giant black hand.
The golden wings flapped, and the airflow was stirred up, turning into ten-meter-long arc-shaped wind blades.
The wind blades rotated and whistled, then merged into a small tornado pillar, spinning like a top as it drilled into the palm of the grasping black hand, pushing the thick oil aside.
Carlo followed the momentum down, his Observation Haki firmly locked onto Haines' main body, which was not concealing its location.
The heavenly dragon halberd in his hand pierced straight down!
"Heavenly Dragon Star-Piercing Strike!"
"Hahaha, you think you can defeat this old man? Naive! Arrogant!"
"Go to hell! Brat!"
Seeing Carlo not running but instead attacking with the heavenly dragon halberd, Haines laughed wildly. His giant face split open, and he bit directly toward Carlo.
Looking at the mocking face of Haines, a deep sneer also appeared on Carlo's cold face.
"Arrogant? You're the arrogant one!"
"The one who dies will be you!"
Red lasers lit up from his eyes, and while piercing through the surging black ocean, they also ignited it!
Flames leaped across the black ocean, reflecting Haines' shocked and angry face.
He seemed completely blindsided that Carlo would dare to actively ignite and detonate his massive elemental body.
The next moment.
An earth-shattering explosion outlined a giant mushroom cloud that shot a thousand meters into the sky.
The explosion's airwave knocked away Linlin, who was rushing over from above intending to rescue him.
A massive depression was also blown into the vast sea below.
The sea for dozens of kilometers around vibrated and churned violently.
In the hurricane sweeping through heaven and earth, Linlin barely managed to stop herself from being thrown away and looked down.
Seeing the massive destruction caused by the explosion below.
Even her expression couldn't help but change.
"Carlo... he couldn't be dead, could he?"
Kaido clung to the cloud mass and snorted: "Hmph, although I'd love for him to die, I have to admit that Carlo is a cockroach; this kind of explosion won't kill him."
On the flying island, Rocks, Whitebeard, and the Golden Lion also cast their gazes downward.
However, there was no look of worry on their faces.
On the contrary, Rocks' smile grew wider.
He seemed to see something, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl into an arc.
"Decisive in action! Ruthless in style! Crueler to himself than to his enemies! Someone like Carlo is destined to become a peak powerhouse of the world!"
"If the previous 1.8 billion bounty was somewhat inflated for him."
"Then after today, I expect very few people will doubt it again."
Amidst Rocks' murmuring.
From within those churning waves of fire, a charred figure trailing black smoke soared into the sky, shooting straight toward the firmament.
Directly below him, an old man in a white military uniform, wearing a coat of justice and with hair as white as snow, stared with eyes full of disbelief as he fell powerlessly toward the churning sea below.
In the center of his forehead, a bloody hole had pierced through his head from front to back!
The former Marine Admiral, codenamed Grey Snake, Haines, died in the Battle of Puttelocrone!
The killer: Marine traitor, Fourth Division Captain of the Rocks Pirates, Sorus Karlo!