"Fine. This lady will trust you just this once."
Charlotte Linlin tossed the azure dragon fruit in her hand toward Kaido.
"Don't make This lady come looking for you to 'collect the debt' later."
It wasn't that she didn't want to hold Kaido's feet to the fire a bit more, but her Observation Haki sensed that the two little ones who had left earlier seemed to have encountered someone powerful.
Weighing the options, she decided to use this fruit, which was a bit of a "hot potato" for her, to do a favor and earn a promise for the future, while also fulfilling the dying wish of the person who asked her to take care of Kaido.
Watching the Devil Fruit fly toward him, Kaido swallowed it in one gulp like a big dog catching food thrown by its master.
An indescribably strange taste twisted half his face, but a surging sense of power began to churn within his body, while the other half of his face flushed red with extreme excitement.
"Sister Ling! Words cannot express my gratitude! From now on, you are my own sister!" Kaido roared excitedly, feeling the earth-shaking changes within his body.
Charlotte Linlin glanced at him speechlessly, too lazy to say anything more. Her massive blue Dragon Wings unfurled behind her, whipping up a gust of wind as she shot into the sky, flying rapidly toward Ivankov and Kuma.
...
Meanwhile, in the central area of the town on God Valley.
Various pirate factions, fighting over the massive treasure left behind by the Celestial Dragons, had completely lost their minds in the killing. The scope of the battle was spreading, and the situation was completely out of control.
"Report! The island has fallen into total chaos! It has devolved into a massive free-for-all among the pirates! Should our forces retreat? Or should we take the opportunity to arrest the pirates? Please advise, sir!" The Marine communications soldier's voice was filled with helplessness.
However, their superior was powerless to make an effective decision at that moment, able only to stare at the hell on earth before them.
Garp and his adjutant Bogard passed through the devastated battlefield. Everything they saw along the way was the corpses of civilians lying in pools of blood, with target marks printed on their backs.
These tragic scenes pierced Garp's nerves like sharp knives. He stopped abruptly, pulled out a transponder snail, and roared into it, questioning the person on the other end:
"Hey! Sengoku! You guy! Do you even know what is happening here?!?"
The transponder snail mimicked Sengoku's grave and weary expression: "...Garp. Indeed... someone said these baffling words to the Marine before disappearing."
Garp looked at the scene before him, filled with corpses, his expression gloomy:
"If I am not dreaming, then this is reality!"
"You guys, what exactly are you doing?!"
"I am stationed at Marineford, guarding against other Great Pirates taking advantage of the situation! Marshal Aether must ensure everything is foolproof at the Holy Land Mary Geoise!
Zephyr and Tsuru have gone to intercept 'World Destroyer' Byrnndi World. That guy is too much of a threat to the Celestial Dragons; we absolutely cannot let him get close to God Valley."
Sengoku's voice carried a deep sense of helplessness.
Garp was furious, "Then do you know what is actually happening here?!
Those scum who call themselves 'Gods'! They are hunting and shooting people like beasts!! Is this the 'justice' that we, the Marines, are supposed to protect?!"
On the other end of the transponder snail, there was a long, suffocating silence.
"Damn it! These bastards!!" Garp violently cut off the communication, his chest heaving violently.
He looked at the Marine Soldiers around him who, despite their fear, were still fighting the pirates, and a great sense of sorrow and anger welled up in his heart.
Even so, he had to protect these Marines who were sacrificing themselves for justice.
Sacrificing themselves for justice? Perhaps so.
...
Meanwhile, amidst a raging sea of fire and broken walls, Kuma, who had been separated from Ivankov in the chaos, was anxiously looking around, calling out his companion's name.
"Big Brother Ivankov! Where are you?!"
His honest face was full of worry as he wove through the thick smoke and flames, searching for the figure who led them forward.
"Ugh, ahhh—!"
Without warning, an invisible, massive force slammed into him! Kuma flew backward, crashing heavily onto the ground and sliding backward for several meters, plowing a long trench mixed with scorched earth and blood.
Intense pain swept through his entire body instantly. He struggled to get up, but due to internal trauma and external injuries, he fell weakly to his knees.
Before him appeared an old man holding a cane, with a stiff and stern face.
It was none other than one of the Gorosei, Satan Saint.
Ominous black electric arcs swirled around him; clearly, the long-range strike just now had come from him.
Saturn looked down at Kuma, who was kneeling on the ground, his eyes devoid of any warmth:
"Remnant of the Bacania Tribe. For you, fate has long been decided. Either put on the shackles and survive as a slave, serving the 'Gods' until death; or be purged on the spot, turning into the dust of history. There is no third path. This is the Order determined by eight hundred years of 'history'."
Kuma lowered his head, breathing heavily, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth and dripping onto the scorched ground.
He did not immediately retort, but instead looked at the ground and asked softly, in a tone of childlike innocence and confusion:
"Old Grandfather... are you... noble from the moment you are born?"
Without waiting for Saturn to answer, he continued on his own, his voice gradually rising, filled with unspeakable grief and indignation:
"Destined to be noble from birth... destined to be a slave from birth... this... is too strange!"
His fists, wearing heavy shackles, clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, and his massive body trembled.
He raised his head, and in those eyes that were originally honest, a fire was Burning like never before—the light of conviction and resolve!
Toward Saturn, and toward this unfair world, he let out a roar from the depths of his soul:
"If you can only be a slave from birth, then such a life has no meaning for existing at all!! If... if I have truly grasped some kind of power because of that fruit right now..."
He felt the strange energy within his body that he was not yet familiar with, but which was truly present, and roared word by word:
"I want to be like the legendary 'Sun God' Nika! To liberate all oppressed people! To save all the poor people who, like me, were branded from birth!! Even if... even if I can only save one more person, it would be enough!!"
The boy's roar echoed in the sea of fire, full of unyielding will and tragic ideals.
On Saturn's calm, unruffled face, for the first time, a trace of an extremely subtle fluctuation appeared, but it was not emotion; it was a deeper coldness and murderous intent.
"A foolish and dangerous thought. It is precisely because of such 'delusions' of yours that total destruction is brought upon you."
The red light in his eyes suddenly blazed, like an abyss opening its gaze, "That is why you must be made to... disappear from this world."
An even more powerful pressure descended, and black electric arcs condensed again, aimed directly at Kuma's head!
Just at this critical moment—
"Hey! You old man with the cane over there!"
A crisp yet powerful female voice came from high above, breaking the desperate, murderous atmosphere.
Saturn paused in his actions and looked up toward the sound.
He saw Charlotte Linlin's massive figure diving rapidly from the permeating smoke! A wild and dangerous smile was on her face, and the huge nodachi in her hand had already been swung!
"Discriminating against a child's dream will bring retribution, you old thing!"
As she spoke, a terrifying sword energy spanning dozens of meters, wreathed in pink-purple electric arcs, slashed horizontally toward Saturn's waist!
Swish—!
The sword energy swept through Saturn's body without any obstruction, cutting him and a large area of ruins behind him in two!
However, after Charlotte Linlin landed, she looked at Saturn's body, which had been cut open but was rapidly closing and recovering under the wrapping of thick black energy, and pursed her lips in annoyance:
"Tsk~ another one that can't be killed? Is the higher-ups of your World Government wholesale distributors of immortality? What a pain!"
She turned her head and roared at Kuma, who was stunned behind her by this earth-shattering sword strike:
"You Bacania Tribe brat! Didn't you just say you wanted to become a liberator like Nika? Just shouting slogans is useless!"
She pointed her giant blade at Saturn, her voice like thunder:
"Then get moving for This lady! Go find your companions, go save the people you want to save! Leave this old immortal blocking the way to me!"
Her figure stood like a mountain between Kuma and Saturn, taking on the full brunt of that devastating pressure.
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