Sabaody Archipelago, Grove 1.
The sickening sound of meat being pulverized echoed through the boulevard. Every wet thud felt like a hammer strike against the hearts of the nearby civilians and pirates, leaving them struggling to breathe.
"Fainted already? I've barely finished stretching."
Urouge stood over Saint Rosward. The Noble's nose was a red ruin, his face masked in blood as his eyes rolled back into his head. Urouge shook his head, the fanatical light in his eyes dimming with disappointment. "Too weak. A body like wet paper isn't even worth the effort of a funeral rite."
"You almost beat the life out of him, big guy."
Leona stepped forward, her shadow falling over Saint Shalria. The noblewoman lay paralyzed on the cobblestones, the air around her fouled by the scent of her own terror. Leona didn't bother drawing her blade; instead, she delivered a casual, backhanded slap.
Slap!
A sharp crack rang out. Several of Shalria's teeth spiraled into the air in a mist of red.
"How tedious," the swordswoman muttered, retreating. Her gaze remained cold, looking completely disinterested. "Trash without the courage to even hold a weapon isn't qualified to be under my knife."
For most of the Eclipse Pirates, Ace's "training" didn't seem to yield much. They lacked any inherent reverence for the world's rules, so striking a "God" felt no different than hitting a common thug. To them, the Celestial Dragons were simply disappointing.
Jeno toyed with the miniature cannon on his wrist, a lip curling in a sneer. "I heard these 'Dragons' were monsters. They aren't even as durable as the mechanical dog I finished yesterday."
Buggy crouched at the very rear, swallowing hard as he tried to hypnotize himself. These are World Nobles! If we hit them, an Admiral comes! Should we run? We should definitely run! It wasn't the bloodline Buggy feared, but the inevitable, world-ending consequences of the act.
Ace watched his subordinates with a detached calm. He wasn't surprised. Most of them simply viewed the Nobles as fodder. To awaken the aura of a King, one needed a specific kind of friction.
One person, however, was different.
Shark stood motionless, his triangular eyes fixed on the three "dead dogs" on the pavement. There was no ripple of emotion in his gaze—only an abyssal indifference that saw through centuries of hypocrisy.
As a former member of the Sun Pirates who idolized Fisher Tiger, he harbored no fear for these people. He could still see the image of Boss Tiger scaling the Red Line with nothing but his bare hands. What truly burned in Shark's throat was the sorrow of the aftermath. After Tiger's death, Jinbe—for the sake of "peace"—had chosen to compromise, bowing to these very trash heaps to become a Warlord.
"How truly absurd..." Shark whispered.
To avoid the wrath of these weaklings, Fish-Man Island had allowed its people to be stolen and sold. The irony was suffocating: once stripped of their titles, these "Creators" couldn't even survive a single punch.
"Do it, Shark," Ace's voice drifted over his shoulder, calm and supportive. "With me here, the age of holding back is over."
"You're right, Captain."
Shark took a slow, deep breath. In his mind, he shattered the image of Jinbe's weary, compromising face. When he opened his eyes, only the law of the sea remained.
"Fish-Man Karate."
Shark's frame blurred, appearing instantly over the unconscious forms of Charlos and Rosward. He pulled his arm back, his muscles coiling like steel cables. The air around his fist hummed with the sound of surging water.
"Five Thousand Tile... True Punch!!"
Boom—!!!
He didn't hesitate. He didn't pull back.
The violent force, carrying the crushing weight of the deep ocean, tore through the chests of the two World Nobles. Their fragile ribs shattered like dry glass, their bodies folding inward like tattered sacks.
"Aaaah—!!!"
Saint Shalria let out a shriek that cut through the silence, but it lasted only a heartbeat. Shark's hand moved in a backhand strike, the edge of his palm severing her neck bone with clinical precision.
Thud.
The three corpses fell in distorted, broken poses onto the land they had once trampled with impunity.
The entire street plunged into a silence more terrifying than the violence that preceded it. Beating a World Noble was a crime; executing three in a row was a declaration of war against the very foundation of the world.
"How does it feel?" Ace asked.
"Refreshing beyond words, Captain." Shark flicked the blood from his webbing, his mouth widening into a grin that revealed rows of serrated teeth. "Compromise is a lie. On this sea, the only truth is the complete crushing of the enemy."
The moment the words left his mouth, a piercing red light erupted from Shark's eyes.
Hum!
A terrifying, dark-green aura exploded from Shark's center. It was a violent manifestation of will—a desire to break free from a century of racial shackles and fight to the death. The shockwave swept the street; nearby pirates who had stayed to watch felt their vision go black, collapsing as they foamed at the mouth.
Conqueror's Haki: Awakened.
"Wuahahaha! What a resolve, Shark!" Ace laughed, his trench coat snapping in the sudden wind. His eyes shone with genuine pride. "I didn't expect you to be the one to break through. Well done!"
Behind them, Urouge and the others were stunned.
"Are you kidding me?" Urouge blinked, looking from the corpses to the vibrating Shark. "I hit them way harder than he did! Why does killing three paper-thin weaklings trigger the King's disposition?!"
Before they could contemplate the mystery, Carina stepped forward, her expression urgent. "Ace, my birds spotted the fleet. Marine warships are closing in on Sabaody. They're coming for us."
High above the sea, nautical miles from Sabaody.
A dazzling golden sphere of light wove through the clouds.
Ten minutes ago, Admiral Kizaru had received Sengoku's order to head to the archipelago to "deter" the Eclipse Pirates. He had been taking his time, drifting leisurely above his warship.
"Moshi moshi... Strange. Is the signal still out?" Kizaru muttered into the black Transponder Snail on his wrist.
Suddenly, the snail began to shriek with a desperate, soul-crushing urgency.
"Admiral Borsalino! A catastrophe! A total catastrophe!!!" the officer on the island wailed, his voice cracking with a sob. "Saint Charlos, Saint Rosward, Saint Shalria... the three World Nobles..."
"They've been slaughtered in the street by the Eclipse Pirates!!!"
Buzz.
Kizaru's expression didn't tighten. Instead, his lips curled downward in a look of profound annoyance and disgust.
"Dead? All three? Oh my, oh my." Kizaru scratched his chin, his voice maintained that slow, agonizing drawl. "This is a disaster. Sengoku's blood pressure is going to burst his vessels, isn't it? And the Elders... they are going to lose their minds."
He pushed up his amber shades and sighed, the sound of a weary salaryman facing an impossible deadline.
"A 1.5 billion berry monster doing something this ridiculous the moment he arrives. The youth have no consideration for an old man's workload. How scary~"
The casual light in Kizaru's eyes finally died, replaced by a gaze as sharp as a laser. Slacker or not, after a murder that shattered the global balance, he couldn't return to Marineford without blood on his hands.
"Looks like I won't be clocking out on time today."
A massive white sonic boom cloud erupted in the sky. Kizaru vanished, transforming into a dazzling cross of light that tore through the skyline, plunging straight toward Grove 1.