Chapter 219: Earth-Shattering
On the swaying warship, cold sweat suddenly beaded on Fujitora's forehead. His entire body tensed. "Something is about to explode up ahead!!" he cried out.
As his words fell, the faces of everyone on the warship changed. Almost instantly, Garp, Ryokugyu, and the others also felt a sense of crisis, as if they were shrouded by death.
"Look out, Zephyr!!"
"ICE AGE—" Aokiji appeared in an instant, half of his body dyed white. An endless cold current erupted, spreading out and freezing everything before him.
BOOM!
The next moment, a dazzling firelight rose, directly and temporarily blinding those who were watching. Immediately after, a deafening roar and a terrifying shockwave spread, vaporizing the seawater from a distance.
An extremely terrifying explosion created horrifying ripples in the atmosphere, equally enveloping the Marines and the pirates.
In the distance, Big Mom's face turned pale with shock. She hurriedly infused her soul into the seawater, instantly controlling the giant waves to push her fleet backward and pulling up a sky-blotting wall of water to separate the explosion from her fleet.
An explosion, comparable to a blow from an Ancient Weapon, appeared on the sea, displaying a destructive power that made all the powerhouses present turn pale. Under the extremely terrifying shockwave and heatwave, the ice wall and water curtain shattered and were vaporized from a distance. The fireball spread rapidly, equally swallowing everything in the sea.
On the other side of the sky, the sky-blotting Azure Dragon watched the explosion in the distance, momentarily stunned. Immediately after, an endless regret surged up, filling his heart.
"Damn it! I was so close to experiencing that sense of mortal danger!!"
Terra, in the town of the former Dressrosa.
Thousands of citizens were frozen in the streets. Everyone was staring dumbfounded at the giant fireball and mushroom cloud rising from the end of the horizon.
"What—is that?"
"An explosion?"
In the sky, the members of the Archangel Pirates looked at the terrifying explosion, which was comparable to a blow from an Ancient Weapon, their faces instantly turning pale, their backs drenched in sweat.
Then, the group stiffly turned their heads to look at the other glass bottle in Louis's hand.
"That thing—"
"is a bit ridiculous."
Unlike the others, Louis was in a rather cheerful mood at this moment. He couldn't say for sure if the Dyna Stone could truly be compared to a blow from an Ancient Weapon. But after personally feeling its destructive power, Louis confirmed that this thing did not have the ability to harm him.
Then, Louis controlled the Island Cloud beneath his feet to descend, heading straight for the battlefield.
Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
Training ground of the God's Knights.
The petite, dark figure, who was in the middle of a "Deep Abyss" summon, was frozen in place, looking with some confusion at the empty ground in front of her.
Behind her, the old man with the crescent-moon-shaped hairstyle narrowed his eyes slightly and subconsciously reached for the Vivre Card in his pocket.
Empty...
The giant fireball and mushroom cloud that covered the sea gradually dissipated. The dark clouds that had been scattered by the blast surged in again, and the fierce wind rose once more.
Looking out, on the once-dark sea surface, a giant cavity was deeply embedded, its deep hole reaching the seabed and revealing the molten ocean floor.
Just then, one giant ice ball after another rose from the distant sea and then shattered abruptly, revealing one dilapidated warship after another.
Garp looked at the giant, healing cavity in front of him, a shadow of gloom flashing in his eyes, his face incomparably grim.
"Dyna Stone—"
"Archangel - Louis."
The knowledgeable Garp had, at this moment, already identified the type of explosive from the giant blast. And the Golden Lion Shiki, who had once stolen the Dyna Stones, had then given them to Archangel Louis to heal himself. Therefore, Garp quickly realized that this explosion was the work of the mastermind behind all this, Archangel Louis.
In the distance, on the deck of the dilapidated Queen Mama Chanter, Big Mom sat up, wretchedly. She looked with lingering fear at the cavity in front of her, her face extremely ugly. After a long while, she turned to look at the scattered pirate fleet behind her and ordered loudly, "Smoothie, check the losses! Re-form the fleet!!"
Big Mom had no time to dwell on the culprit of this explosion. She only knew that the Marines, who had also been hit by a wave of the blast, would not let this go. The explosion had happened on the warship that was the location of the exchange. Zephyr, with his extremely powerful Armament Haki, would most likely only lose half his life. But those two Celestial Dragons, who were bound in Seastone... unless Zephyr was willing to protect them with his life, they were absolutely not going to survive.
Soon, the giant cavity, with the roar of churning waves, completely healed. The violent collision kicked up giant waves thousands of meters high.
The two fleets, both having suffered heavy losses and regrouping at the same time, under the command of their respective leaders, opened fire on each other. For a time, the roar of cannons echoed across the entire sea. One after another, cannonballs cut through the atmosphere, attacking the other side with a piercing whistle, either being shot down or falling into the sea.
The strange thing was, neither side moved directly forward to engage in the most common form of naval warfare, boarding. Instead, they both tacitly maintained a certain distance and fired passionately, and began to move toward the distant island.
Marine HQ Vice Admiral Fujitora drew his Supreme Grade sword and, with a raise of his hand, pulled down meteorites from space. Accompanied by long, fiery tails, they smashed toward the distant pirate fleet.
"Report, Vice Admiral Garp!"
"The losses have been tallied!"
"More than half of the warships are missing!"
"The surviving warships have also suffered extensive damage. Many soldiers were killed by the high temperature and the shockwave."
This series of battle reports made all the flag officers present fall silent. Even Ryokugyu was no exception.
Just then, Aokiji, carrying a giant ice crystal, came from the distance with Geppo and landed directly on the dog-headed ship.
"Zephyr?!" Seeing Aokiji return with Zephyr, Garp subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
Aokiji handed Zephyr to Bogard and said in a deep voice, "Instructor Zephyr is seriously injured. He must be treated immediately."
"I understand! The medics will treat him right away!" Garp's adjutant, Bogard, nodded firmly and then left with Zephyr.
"Wait!" Ryokugyu looked at the unconscious Zephyr and asked with wide eyes, "What about those two Celestial Dragons? How are they?"
To this, Aokiji's brow furrowed. "I only found Instructor Zephyr. I didn't see anyone else. Maybe they were summoned back."
Just then, Fujitora subconsciously gripped his cane-sword, his expression becoming incomparably serious. "Everyone, I'm afraid there's no time for idle chat."
Garp and the others heard him and subconsciously looked in his direction.
Fujitora raised his face, which had two deep scars, to face the dark clouds in the distance. "A rather incredible monster has arrived," he said in a deep voice. "If I'm not mistaken, that should be the legendary Kaido of the Beasts—"
Looking up, in the distant dark clouds, a coiling figure was high in the sky. Amidst the flashes of lightning, a dazzling white light shone, illuminating section after section of a body covered in hard scales.
A dragon claw, covered in deep blue scales, abruptly shot out from the dark clouds, grabbed a burning meteorite, and instantly crushed it. Immediately after, a dragon tail, covered in thick black fur, extended. In addition to kicking up a fierce hurricane, it swept through the successively falling meteorites.
BOOM!
With a series of sounds of rock exploding, the entire meteor shower, which was powerful enough to sink any fleet in the world, was completely shattered, turning into countless fragments of rock and dust that were swept up by the wind.
On the deck of the Queen Mama Chanter, Big Mom looked up at this scene, a crazed smile on her face. "Ma~ma~mamama. As expected of one of the strongest fruits at the pinnacle of all Devil Fruits! That guy Kaido came too?"
"Then again, with Charlotte Linlin's relationship with him, it's not strange that she could call Kaido here," Garp stood at the bow of his dog-headed ship and muttered to himself.
High in the sky, Kaido, in his Azure Dragon form, coiled, hiding most of his body in the dark clouds, treating the lightning within as if it were nothing. He lowered his giant and ferocious head, landing directly above the pirate fleet, which had lost far more than half its number, a hint of mockery in his dragon eyes.
"Worororo! How unsightly, Linlin! To actually have half your fleet sunk."
Big Mom heard him, a shadow of gloom flashing in her eyes. In fact, the number of ships that had disappeared in that explosion was far more than half, closer to seventy percent.
Seeing that Big Mom did not speak, Kaido turned his dragon head and aimed it directly at the distant Marine fleet. "Garp! You ice-brat—"
The next moment, Kaido opened his cavernous mouth, filled with fangs, and let out a fatal roar, which turned into a thunderclap that enveloped the entire Marine fleet.
"Kaido... one of the few people in the world who possesses the title of 'strongest'," on the deck of the warship, a few drops of cold sweat subconsciously trickled down Ryokugyu's face.
"He's just an apprentice brat from the Rocks family," Garp took a deep breath, untied the Justice cape from his back, and let it be blown away by the wind. Then, his entire body burst forth with an astonishing Conqueror's Haki. Black and red lightning flashed out of thin air, coiling around his iron fists.
Just then, Fujitora's face changed again. He spun around to look in another direction. "That is—"
A pale golden light came from the end of the horizon. It arrived in an instant, enveloping the entire sea area and turning it into a golden canopy, changing the face of the sky.
Aokiji subconsciously reached up to cover the wound of his severed arm, feeling the faint ache. "Archangel - Louis," he muttered.
The next moment, a flame-wreathed spear fell from the sky, vaporizing the clouds and mist along the way, and forming a pincer attack with the thunderclap, landing directly on the Marine fleet.
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