The "Heaven and Earth Staff" style featured a grand total of only three strikes.
The first was the Mountain Cleaver. The second was the Ground Rupture. The third was the Sky Shatterer.
Over a grueling two-year timeline of continuous training, Locke had successfully mastered only the second strike, his system hitting a prolonged barrier whenever he attempted to calculate the parameters of the third.
These three maneuvers appeared to be standard physical techniques, but they were mathematically closer to absolute realms of mastery—each strike acting as a flawless, condensed singularity of pure kinetic force.
A single swing, an entire domain.
The exact microsecond an asset processed the algorithms of the first strike, their baseline combat attributes scaled up to an entirely separate tier.
Upon successfully logging the data loops of the second strike, Locke had officially broken through the bottleneck to claim a seat among the elite powerhouses of the sea.
A maximum-intensity deployment of this strike yielded a destructive output that transcended seven thousand combat power units!
The massive staff connected with absolute, devastating precision directly against Queen's exposed spine. Backed by the astronomical, near-impossible weight of the specialized metal composing his custom weapon, the compounding variables generated a cataclysmic surge of force.
BOOM!
"ARRRGH!"
The descending blow struck like a localized meteor, forcefully driving Queen's massive bulk straight down through the bedrock of the quarry floor.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" The remaining infantry of the Beast Pirates experienced a total systemic meltdown, their collective discipline loops shattering into absolute panic.
A Lead Performer anchoring the absolute highest tier of the Governor-General's command structure—Queen the Plague himself—had just been systematically blasted across the field in back-and-forth succession.
If enduring the initial assault from the legendary Phoenix was an acceptable statistical margin, witnessing a completely unmapped wildcard enter the grid to deploy an equally terrifying tier of raw force completely broke their cognitive tracking.
This...
"Any asset who rejects a lifestyle parameter defined by rotting in these cells for eternity, synchronize your coordinates with our vanguard and carve a path out of this hell!" Locke roared. With a casual thought, he allowed his golden iron staff to re-calibrate back to its standard thickness, though he stretched its length variable to span a full ten meters.
WHIP-BOOM!
He executed a massive, sweeping horizontal loop with the extended weapon, instantly deleting an entire sector of encroaching guards from the field.
The frantic, agonizing shrieks of the scattered Beast Pirates infantry echoed endlessly across the basin as the entire layout caved into absolute, chaotic warfare.
"All stations, dissolve your hesitation loops! Advance the line flanking my position to breach the perimeter!" Old man Hyo bellowed. Coating his forearms in a dense, glowing shell of advanced Ryuo, he locked onto the vanguard vector and launched himself straight into the fray.
Despite the master's inspiring demonstration, a significant portion of the enslaved labor force remained trapped within a severe processing bottleneck, unable to finalize the calculation to advance.
This behavioral output was entirely logical.
When a populace has sustained twenty consecutive rotations of the calendar within a localized hell, having an outside asset suddenly materialize to announce that the survival probability has reached an optimum threshold is a data track that common brains struggle to integrate without severe latency.
Has the overarching architecture of the external world truly undergone a structural transformation? Or rather... does the capacity to rewrite this nation's equations genuinely exist?
"Brothers, terminate your hesitation algorithms immediately!" A loud, resonant voice suddenly echoed from the highest point of the upper atmosphere.
"In this theater of war, I am known as Raizo of the Mist! A loyal retainer of the Akazaya Nine, sworn to the everlasting memory of Lord Oden!"
Revealing a distinct, massive box-shaped face and his signature spider-like hair silhouette, Raizo unrolled a massive ninjutsu scroll as his frame glided smoothly through the sky.
"It's the Akazaya Nine! The legendary retainers have genuinely mapped back to our reality!" The eyes of the crowd flashed with an intense surge of pure validation.
SLASH!
A spectacular, high-velocity air-shattering flying slash sliced across the yard, violently cleaving through a dense formation of guards attempting to seal the artery.
A lone silhouette advanced through the blast zone as if entering an entirely vacant sector, seamlessly utilizing a single, fluid draw-stroke to send the opposing infantrymen rocketing through the air like loose leaves.
"Kappa Style: The River of Absolute Purgatory!"
The immense wave of concentrated sword intent backed by Ryuo swept across the quadrant, purging a massive radius of guards in a fraction of a millisecond.
"That's Kawamatsu the Yokozuna! Another core pillar anchoring the Akazaya Nine! The prophecies weren't a sensory illusion... the retainers have truly returned from the ashes...!"
"Listen to my words, citizens of Wano! A total macro-war is detonating across every sector, and the soul of this nation desperately requires the leverage of your blades! Wano Country requires your strength!"
"For this campaign, our forces have integrated exceptionally powerful, godlike allies into the equations; our parameters hold an absolute zero percent probability of suffering another defeat! We command you to reinforce our steel once more!" Kawamatsu declared. Executing a liquid-smooth motion, he returned his long katana to its scabbard, lowering his frame into a deep, respectful bow before the entire assembly of prisoners.
Raizo closely mirrored his protocol, closing his eyes as he delivered a solemn, silent salute to the crowd from his aerial position.
"Ah..." The collective vocal cords of the inmates tightened as if locked in a physical vice. Then, a lone voice cut through the silence, scaling up in volume until it became a roaring chant: "The Akazaya Nine! Is the data verified?! Is Master Kin'emon actively coordinating the operational forces as well?!"
"Kin'emon is currently moving across the adjacent quadrants, consolidating the underground network cells to prepare our lines for the final offensive. Every single asset belonging to the Akazaya Nine is fully active on the board! Today... we have explicitly breached this prison to extract your systems from the dark," Raizo confirmed, his voice echoing with absolute authority.
Hearing the diagnostic report, a profound wave of moisture welled within old master Hyo's eyes. "Kin'emon..."
He threw his head back, letting out a magnificent, booming laugh that resonated through the stone pillars. "So you've finally re-entered the grid, eh?! Talk about forcing our systems to endure an agonizing timeline of waiting!"
"Brothers! Terminate any remaining processing deficits! Our physical frames are already operating on borrowed time; to possess the privilege of dedicating our final vital drops to rewrite Wano's future is nothing short of a supreme cosmic blessing!"
"Every station, synchronize your strides with our allies! Step out into the open, and execute the total war!"
BOOM!
Old master Hyo, Raizo, and Kawamatsu compressed their coordinates, forming an iron vanguard that tore a massive, blood-drenched breach straight through the enemy lines.
"Master Hyogoro speaks with flawless logic! We launch a synchronized breakthrough right now! To secure a future that belongs to Wano, we trade our entire life reserves!"
"Precisely! We push the line to the absolute maximum!"
The enslaved prisoners appeared to have successfully located the definitive purpose of their existence at the threshold of death, the hollow, dimmed color within their eyes instantaneously transforming into a brilliant, razor-sharp light.
"CARVE A WAY OUT!!"
In a single, unified microsecond, the collective morale of the inmate division experienced a spectacular, explosive spike!
Witnessing the radical transformation sweeping the crowd, a warm, satisfied smile broken across the features of Marco and Locke.
Initially, when analyzing the heavily institutionalized, broken psychological state of the inmates, their strategic planners had harbored a moderate margin of concern regarding their utility. Looking at the real-time data loops now, that bottleneck had been permanently eliminated.
"Do not let your processors calculate a scenario of victory prematurely, you trash intruders!"
CRASH-BOOM!
The stone floor violently erupted outward, sending a massive geyser of pulverized rock into the air.
Queen leaped out from the subterranean cavity, his features contorted into an expression of raw, agonizing torment.
Although he was attempting to project his standard, unyielding imperial aura on the surface, a thick smear of dark crimson fluid coated his chin, confirming that his internal systems had just coughed up a severe volume of blood.
The structural trauma he had sustained was undeniably severe.
The surprise vector Locke had engineered by dropping that ground-shattering strike from his blind spot was an absolute anomaly to defend against, delivering an extreme tier of mechanical damage!
"Incorporate a second allocation of my steel into your defensive models!" Locke's eyes flashed with a lethal light. He violently swung the ten-meter golden iron staff through a catastrophic horizontal arc.
The high-velocity was so extreme it generated a piercing, ear-splitting shriek through the acoustic channels. Queen dared not calculate a blocking simulation using standard metrics; he violently crossed both of his massive, cybernetically enhanced forearms in front of his chest to form a hard shield.
ROAR-BOOM!!!
Sustaining the full concussive torque of the ten-meter weapon directly against his forearms, Queen's face twisted into a hideous grimace of absolute agony.
Leaving the sheer kinetic weight of the blow aside, the absolute structural density and hardness defining Locke's golden staff completely bypassed his current understanding of Armament Haki reinforcement.
Even the highly advanced, armor-plated alloy segments tracking through his cybernetic modifications began emitting a series of high-strain, fracturing groans. The impact had explicitly pushed his physical components to the absolute threshold of structural failure.
Fissures were actively spreading across his machinery.
Vrumm...
"Phoenix Sovereign: Sky-Piercing Talon!"
Bypassing his guard loops entirely, Marco materialized smoothly out of the thermal currents, driving a blazing, haki-infused heel strike straight into the center of Queen's rotund cheek.
BOOM!!!
A spectacular shockwave rolled across the quadrant.
Queen was converted into a high-speed projectile once more, rocketing backward through the air. Locke refused to grant his recovery systems even a fraction of a millisecond of clearance, continuously cycling his staff through a relentless, high-density barrage of crushing blows.
"You oversized piece of lard, terminate your evasion routines and face the line! Ground Rupture!"
This precise sequence represented the tactical blueprint he and Marco had negotiated prior to breaching the perimeter. While Queen's baseline capabilities were far too formidable to be easily managed by an isolated combatant, his systems completely lacked the processing power to withstand a synchronized, alternating onslaught executed by two world-class powerhouses.
If the strategic goal was to forge an absolute, unshakeable sense of confidence within the minds of the Wano prisoners, the vanguard was required to showcase nothing less than a crushing, dominant display of raw power.
Operating as solo entities, neither of them could guarantee a flawless, rapid suppression of that caliber.
But combining their variables into a single equation...
BOOM!
"AAAAAGH...!"
"Do not let your arrogance scale up, you wretched scum! The exact microsecond I re-align my primary division and map back to these coordinates will mark the definitive deletion of your life signs!"
"Whitebeard Pirates... your signatures are permanently logged into my priority hit list! Do not harbor the delusion that your pathetic crew can continuously project this brand of arrogance within the sovereign territory of the Beast Pirates!"
Queen frantically cycled his short biological legs, his massive belly shaking violently as his voice data blared across the facility to deliver a parting verbal threat.
However, the acoustic tracking data revealed a rapid, steady drop in his decibel metrics...
Within a remarkably limited timeframe, his physical signature had completely cleared the sector, vanishing from the horizon tracks.
The entire assembly of personnel occupying the Udon basin stood thoroughly paralyzed by the readout.
A Lead Performer holding an absolute apex seat among the Three Disasters of the Beast Pirates—Queen the Plague—had actually... executed an immediate tactical retreat?
He had literally delivered a high-profile verbal threat while simultaneously sprinting away from the battlefield at maximum velocity!
"This..." Raizo and Kawamatsu exchanged a long, stunned look, the absolute bewilderment written across their features impossible to mask.
They held an intimate index on Marco's capabilities, but Locke—a seemingly standard, unranked crew member anchoring the vanguard of Drake's ship—had just displayed a tier of raw, apocalyptic lethality that defied standard classifications.
A profound wave of pure shock consumed Raizo's internal processors. Not only was Luffy's older brother a world-altering freak of nature, but even the baseline personnel serving under his flag were hidden titans!
What exact paradigm shift has the global database undergone during our absence?
How is it that every single high-velocity, terrifying youth emerging onto the sea is either directly hard-coded into Luffy's bloodline or operates as an active comrade to his crew?
Running a predictive simulation on the sheer, cataclysmic weight of the military leverage Luffy commanded single-handedly caused a fine layer of cold sweat to break out across the ninja's frame.
He logged a high-priority, permanent note within his core files: It is a supreme cosmic blessing that our nation has established an alliance protocol with Straw Hat Luffy rather than aligning our variables as enemies.
Otherwise... the resulting structural fallout... would represent an absolute nightmare that not even the combined might of this country could hope to survive!
Udon Prison Sector Status: Cleared. Strategic Alliance Synchronization: Complete. Next Target Initialization: The Flower Capital Offensive.
Progress to Wano's Dawn:
The Coast Battle: Active (Luffy vs. Kaido)
The Castle Rendezvous: Active (Nami's Unit / Akazaya Loyalists)
The Prison Liberation: Success (Udon Sector Purged)
The Capital Infiltration: Active (Kenshin & Bell)
The Sovereign Infiltration: Active (Ace & Yamato)
The gears of the new era are locked in motion. There are no options for retreat.