Chapter 238: The Reversed Backstab! The Crimson Eye That Sees Through Falsehood
As Whitebeard shattered the cataclysmic meteor volcano with a single blow, and Tatsuya, Luffy, Sabo, and the others advanced irresistibly across the ice.
The morale of the pirates, previously suppressed by the Admiral's pressure, instantly soared to its peak at this moment.
Earth-shattering battle cries rang out through the clouds, and the pirates from the New World, like a pack of wolves, began to advance frantically toward the central plaza of Marineford.
In front of the plaza, scorching steam and acrid smoke filled the air.
Akainu's face was livid. He had originally intended to force his way past the front lines to personally eliminate Luffy and Tatsuya, the two massive variables.
However, a towering figure, insurmountable like a demon god, blocked his path firmly.
"Where do you think you're going, magma brat?"
Whitebeard held Murakumogiri, looking down at Akainu from above.
Akainu was burning with rage; his arms instantly transformed into rolling magma, unleashing a violent and peerless offensive.
But whether it was the "Great Eruption" capable of melting glaciers, or the lethal lava punches during close-quarters combat.
They were all easily shattered like dry wood when they touched Whitebeard's "Murakumogiri," which was coiled with deep, high-level Armament Haki and the power of vibration.
In front of this monster, known as the "World's Strongest Man," who had not been injured as in the original story.
Akainu's ultimate destructive power, which he was so proud of, could not gain the slightest advantage, and the magma splattered everywhere under the impact of the shockwaves.
Realizing that he could not defeat Whitebeard in his prime in a short time by clashing head-on.
Akainu's eyes, hidden beneath his naval cap, instantly became extremely sinister.
After a violent collision, he used the force to retreat, his peripheral vision piercing through the thick smoke, secretly casting a glance at the rear of the Whitebeard Pirates.
There stood a fatal hidden piece he had painstakingly and carefully placed long ago.
On the ice in the rear, Squard the Maelstrom Spider held a huge longsword, but he stood frozen in place like a statue.
In his mind, like a revolving lantern, the heart-piercing lies that Akainu had secretly told him before the war began played over and over:
"Whitebeard has already made a deal with the upper echelons of the Marine... He intends to use the lives of all you subordinate pirate crews to trade for the life of his most beloved Ace..."
"Look, the Pacifista's cannon fire is aimed entirely at you, while Whitebeard's main crew is completely unscathed. This is the best proof!"
Looking at Whitebeard's back in front, like a towering mountain, protecting everyone on the front line.
Squard's heart fell into unprecedented, intense struggle and pain.
He swallowed his dry throat with difficulty, cold sweat the size of beans covering his forehead, sliding down his cheeks continuously.
In the end, his deep-seated hatred for the Roger Pirates for destroying his former comrades, and the despair of believing he had been betrayed by the "Old Man" he respected most, completely overwhelmed his reason.
Squard took a deep breath, forcing down his trembling hands.
Using the excuse that "the battle situation at the front is urgent and I need to report to the Old Man in person."
Holding that huge longsword, he walked step by step through the surrounding comrades toward Whitebeard, who had no defense against his "son."
When the distance between the two closed to within a hair's breadth.
Squard gritted his teeth hard, the veins on his arms bulging like coiled dragons.
His bloodshot eyes revealed a resolute murderous intent. He pulled out his heavy longsword and, with all his strength, stabbed fiercely toward Whitebeard's broad chest.
However, Squard, whose mind was clouded by anger and despair, did not know.
As a transmigrator who knew the original path of this world, how could Tatsuya allow this huge tragedy, which could tip the scales of the war, to repeat itself under his very nose?
Just as the sharp tip of Squard's blade was less than ten centimeters away from Whitebeard's skin.
Just at that critical moment when even Whitebeard himself had let down his guard due to his absolute trust in his son.
The eerie Mangekyo pattern in Tatsuya's eye sockets suddenly erupted with a terrifying spiritual fluctuation that made the soul tremble!
A high-level visual illusion was activated silently in an instant!
Squard's forward-leaning body suddenly stiffened.
In his vision and perception, he clearly felt that the longsword in his hand had successfully pierced through Whitebeard's chest like a hot knife through butter.
He could even feel the sensation of the blade tearing through flesh and the hot blood gushing out.
But in the reality of everyone around, Squard's assassination move was eerily frozen in mid-air.
He was like a wax figure drained of its soul, his eyes unfocused, and that huge longsword hovered in front of Whitebeard's chest, the blade unable to move forward another inch!
Before the surrounding Captains like Marco and Jozu could react to the strange situation.
"Crackle!" A black afterimage wreathed in violent, deep blue lightning crossed the chaotic battlefield at an incredible speed, appearing beside Whitebeard like a teleportation.
Tatsuya let out a cold snort.
He gripped the black blade shusui tightly with both hands, not using the sharp edge.
Instead, he used the broad back of the blade, carrying a powerful, irresistible force, and delivered a heavy, sweeping strike at Squard, who was frozen in the illusion.
"Bang!" Accompanied by a dull sound of bone collision.
Squard, unable to extricate himself from the illusion, was sent flying directly by this immense force.
His body traced a parabola in mid-air, crashing heavily onto the hard ice, sliding backward for dozens of meters before stopping.
The violent physical impact finally broke the shackles of his mind.
Squard vomited a large mouthful of blood, his unfocused eyes trembling violently, and he finally awoke completely from that false illusion.
This sudden turn of events caused an instant uproar in the previously noisy surroundings.
Marco and the other Captains and pirates of the Whitebeard Pirates all looked in shock at Tatsuya, who had suddenly struck and attempted to kill "one of their own."
"Crimson Lotus Tatsuya! What are you doing?!" Marco, his body ablaze with blue phoenix flames, demanded sternly.
Tatsuya, however, didn't care at all about the murderous gazes around him that seemed ready to tear him apart.
He lazily slung the black blade shusui over his shoulder, took long strides forward, and stepped heavily on the huge longsword that Squard had just dropped.
Tatsuya looked down at Squard, who was coughing on the ice, a hint of undisguised mockery curling at the corner of his mouth:
"A brain is a good thing, it's just a pity you seem to have forgotten to bring yours when you left."
"Akainu's third-rate, clumsy attempt to sow discord was enough to make you believe it deeply, and you even pointed your blade at the Old Man who has always protected you."
"Squard, you are truly hopelessly stupid!"
Just as Tatsuya's merciless words fell, he successfully reversed the biggest tragic turning point in this Marineford War.
In Tatsuya's mind, the system's crisp and wonderful notification sound rang out right on time:
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully preventing the'Squard backstabs Whitebeard' event!]
[The host's actions have profoundly changed the world line of the Marineford War, successfully preserving the peak combat power of the World's Strongest Man, saving him from fatal internal injury!]
[Reward obtained: 30,000 Ninja Points.]
Father and Son, a Bankrupt Conspiracy
Hearing Tatsuya's words, and linking them to Squard's strange behavior and the dropped weapon just now.
The members of the Whitebeard Pirates around them finally woke up from their dream and reacted.
Several pirate Captains near Squard were furious; they stepped forward and firmly restrained Squard, who was still vomiting blood, on the ice.
All eyes gathered on that tall, towering man, waiting for his judgment.
Whitebeard turned around slowly. He lowered his head, his eyes, filled with experience and vicissitudes, took a deep look at Squard, who was pinned to the ground.
There was no anger in those eyes, only an indescribable tolerance and heartbreak.
"Let him go." Whitebeard's voice was steady and heavy.
"Old Man?!" The pirates holding Squard were stunned on the spot after hearing this sentence, unable to believe their ears.
But facing the Old Man's unquestionable majesty.
They finally gritted their teeth and obeyed the order, let go, and kicked Squard onto the ice.
Whitebeard withdrew his gaze, turned around again, and left his broad, magnificent back to Squard.
"Gurararara..." Whitebeard let out a low laugh, his tone full of the absolute aura belonging to the King of the Sea.
"Squard, if you still have the guts to assassinate your Old Man in your heart, feel free to try again anytime."
"If you don't have the guts, then grip your weapon and get to the front lines to charge for me!"
Hearing Whitebeard's words, which held no blame but were instead full of endless tolerance.
Squard's last line of psychological defense completely collapsed.
His knees went soft, and he knelt heavily on the cold ice, clutching the ice shards with his hands and wailing loudly.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Old Man! Wuwuwu!"
Squard's wails were filled with endless regret and self-reproach.
"I was stupid, I was misled by the Marine, I actually doubted the Old Man... I really deserve to die!!"
With Squard's tearful confession in public, he directly exposed the Marine's despicable "scheme to sow discord."
These words were clearly transmitted through the video Den Den Mushi on the battlefield to the entire Marineford, and even to all parts of the world.
In the distance, Akainu, standing below the execution platform, felt his facial muscles twitch violently upon hearing this confession, and his face instantly turned ugly to the extreme.
And Fleet Admiral Sengoku on the execution platform clenched his fists tightly.
The wishful thinking they had both painstakingly and carefully arranged was originally the most critical fatal move to weaken Whitebeard in this war.
But they never expected that it would be declared a complete failure so easily.
The complete, peak-power Whitebeard was about to show the Marine his true terror.
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