Chapter 578: Ambushed
Three battle cries broke the mirror world's silence in a single instant.
The flat ground froze solid without warning. Every person caught off guard found their feet locked to the earth.
Then in the next second, a sky full of light points rained down like a storm.
Behind those points of light came enormous meteors, trailing long plumes of dark smoke, carrying the weight of annihilation as they fell — intent on destroying everything beneath them.
"Damn it all!!"
The expression on the old Celestial Dragon's face twisted in an instant.
He knew those three techniques too well. He had never met those three individuals in person, but their signature abilities were something he understood clearly.
And then the attack from behind made everything worse.
The ground dissolved instantly. Rising mochi coiled upward and wrapped around every person in reach, dragging them down.
Then a woman leaped into the air above them. In her hands a giant heart-shape materialized, which she drew back like a bow and arrow.
When she released her right hand, the heart snapped forward and a storm of pink arrows fired outward in every direction, blanketing the CP0 agents and God's Knights ahead of her completely.
Then Mihawk. The man gripped his blade with both hands and swung horizontally with everything he had. An enormous arc of green light surged outward like a tidal wave, sweeping directly toward the people pinned down by ice and mochi both.
The rain of light bullets landed first.
The ground was riddled with craters in a heartbeat. The weaker CP0 agents and prisoners who hadn't been fast enough died in great numbers.
Hard on their heels came Hancock's pink arrows — those struck from behind turned to stone instantly.
The stronger fighters coated themselves in Armament Haki quickly enough to blunt that wave, barely holding on.
But what followed — Mihawk's ferocious sweeping slash and the lava meteors crashing down from above — was not so easily weathered.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.
The ground shattered. Spatter from the molten rock turned the area into something resembling hell. The howling sword strike was everyone's nightmare.
By the time everything settled, the area was a ruin.
The ground had sunk. The twisted hills and peaks had crumbled. Destruction extended in every direction.
"...Gugh!!"
Pizarro, somehow still alive, raised his head from the wreckage with dust covering his face and stared at the scene around him in blank incomprehension.
What had just happened? What had that all been?
His mind had gone completely white. He couldn't process anything.
"Oh, oh, oh — a surprise carefully prepared, and it appears to have achieved some results after all."
A leisurely voice rang out. Pizarro turned in disbelief.
Before him, beside Katakuri and Mihawk, light descended from above and condensed into the shape of a man he recognized immediately.
Kizaru!!
Pizarro stared at the backs of Katakuri and Mihawk, unable to stop himself.
You absolute traitors! You were working with the enemy this whole time and didn't tell us?!
"Don't relax — the battle isn't over!"
A heavy voice rang out from ahead. From behind a ruined hill, four figures leaped into view.
Pizarro swallowed hard.
Akainu. Aokiji. Fujitora. Ryokugyu.
Together with Kizaru, that was every former and current Admiral of Navy Headquarters, all present.
Add Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman, and Katakuri, a reigning Emperor —
What in the world was this lineup?
Every single one of these people was someone Pizarro would turn and run from on sight. And now they were all in the same place at the same time.
Just thinking about it made his entire body shudder.
But the enemy had not lost their fighting ability.
From the broken ground, figures were rising one by one.
"Damn — we walked into a trap?"
The old Celestial Dragon's cloak was torn in places and his face was coated in dust. He looked back at Katakuri with his jaw clenched tight. "Katakuri, you treacherous — you BETRAYED us!!"
"Betrayed?"
Katakuri's mouth twitched. "What a foolish thing to say. We were never allies to begin with."
"Exactly!" From behind Katakuri, his dear sister poked her head out with a triumphant expression. "Katakuri-nii and Brett have been friends for a long time already! Idiots — did the World Government really think they could recruit us to fight against Brett?!"
The old Celestial Dragon's face had gone iron grey.
"It isn't finished yet, my lord."
Beside him, the foremost shield had removed his mask. His voice was equally grim. "We are not outmatched by so much."
Around him, his CP0 officers remained — the cannon fodder had been wiped out, but the high-ranking officers with real ability had survived.
The God's Knights had lost even fewer.
The ambush had cost them less than a third of their number.
Which meant their side was still a force to be reckoned with.
"Understood." The old Celestial Dragon gave a heavy nod. "We destroy these people first. Then we press the attack."
"My, my — truly worthy of the legendary God's Knights. Even an ambush like that couldn't finish you?" Aokiji sighed from atop a ruined hill, his expression not entirely without tension. "And your presences are frightening, I'll give you that."
He couldn't help it. Among these Celestial Dragons, there were several whose Haki signatures were entirely comparable to his own.
This was the Celestial Dragons' true ultimate power. It was something to fear.
"But fortunately, we still have reinforcements."
Aokiji smiled.
"What?"
The foremost shield's eyebrow shot upward.
What did that mean?
This already terrifying force in front of him — this wasn't everything they had prepared?
"Here we are, here we are! Haha, sorry, sorry — where we were stationed was a bit far from here!"
A bright, cheerful laugh rang out.
Not far ahead, a group was racing toward them at full speed. At the front was a woman with white hair, swinging a kanabō.
"She's —!"
The foremost shield's teeth ground together. "The Shogun of Wano, daughter of Kaido — Yamato!"
"That's me!"
Yamato grinned and stopped, with Wano's retainers and other minority alliance warriors streaming in behind her.
Which of course also included —
"HAHAHAHA! COME AND FIGHT!!"
A man of enormous stature roared with laughter, and just the sound wave from his laugh made the entire space tremble. "I have been looking forward to this!!"
"The King of the Giants!!"
The foremost shield said the name through clenched teeth.
And there was still more. Among the group behind Yamato, some stood out as different.
"Wait — aren't those —"
Pizarro had noticed them. A group of people among Yamato's forces wearing thoroughly sour expressions.
"The Beasts Pirates?"
The remnants of the Beasts Pirates — were mixed into the ranks.
They had come for Kaido's sake.
But even that wasn't the end.
"Oh, is everyone already here? It looks like we're the last ones!"
More laughter drifted in from the other side.
When people followed the sound, they found something that stopped every last one of them.
"Th — THAT'S —!!"
The foremost shield's voice nearly cracked.