Chapter 216: Free-for-All
In this era, most cannon fire only reached about a thousand meters, but compared to range, some specially modified shells and bullets had absurd destructive power.
Like the one in Garp's hand.
"Haha! Where's Roger? Let's raise some hell!"
Hoisting a cannon shell the size of a house over his head, Garp swept his gaze across the clustered fleets until he found what he was looking for: the Roger Pirates, trailing a dozen ship-lengths behind Silas's Millennium Falcon.
"Found you!"
Grinning wide, Garp's muscles seemed to flow and bulge, taking on a metallic sheen.
"Galaxy Impact!"
With a thunderous boom, the shell left his hand at supersonic speed, streaking across over a thousand meters in a blink.
Its target was the Roger Pirates behind the Millennium Falcon.
"That bastard!"
The moment Roger saw his old rival, he forgot everything they'd said at the start of the battle. Things like how they were here mainly to survive, to lend a hand rather than throw away their lives.
Nonsense.
"I'm cutting that bastard down today!"
Roger leapt from his ship in a flash. One slash met the incoming shell, then carried on without losing momentum, cleaving across kilometers toward the distant warship.
"Haha, come on!"
Separated by kilometers, the two rivals who were meant to clash for decades—and already had for years in this timeline—collided yet again.
Everyone else vanished to them.
Silas saw it at a glance.
Whether Garp or Roger, the two were already brushing the Admiral level. If they lived through this fight, they would step into it.
That was top-tier talent. Silas's guidance had helped, but he knew Roger's growth speed, relative to his own potential, wasn't even that fast.
There was a reason.
Silas had consolidated the New World into an ironclad White Wolf Alliance. The moment the Roger Pirates entered the New World, they faced a sea ruled by Silas.
If Roger chose to oppose Silas, Rocks would have cut him down first. Even if he survived Rocks by luck, the situation in the New World would choke him at every step.
If he accepted Silas's goodwill, then he lost the chance for life-and-death growth in the New World, because the majority of truly strong pirates there were already under Silas.
Silas wasn't a saint.
Having unified the New World, he forced strong pirates to bend the knee or be broken.
The only exceptions were pirates like Rocks, Newgate, and Shiki—born from the White Wolf Pirates, already stamped with its mark.
That made this battle Roger's last chance
Either push himself to the limit here and now, so that even after leaving the White Wolf Pirates, he could stand as a force of his own.
No one knew whether these two sides would become enemies after today.
Silas didn't care for Roger's ideals.
But if Roger turned the postwar world upside down, then Silas would not hesitate to crush the upstart.
After Roger and Garp—two near-Admirals—made their moves, top fighters on both sides unleashed their powers across thousands of meters.
Rona's slashes roared for the ships behind Imu. Marine Admiral Hines Oran's fruit summoned a massive glacier in an instant, slamming toward the White Wolf Alliance's vessels.
Both Hines Oran and Silas could conjure temporary land on the sea.
Neither did it yet.
The New World's waters were erratic. You could freeze a dozen kilometers of surface, but only the top layer, never the depths.
At this range, freezing the sea would only force both sides to sprint on foot the rest of the way.
And creating an ice battlefield wasn't Silas's task. His task was—
"Imu, I've come to kill you!"
With less than five kilometers between the flagships, Silas laughed and sprang from the Millennium Falcon.
Furious wind blasted outward. Black-red lightning danced around him. His white hair whipped like fire as he gripped "Frostshade," now forged into a Black Blade, in one hand and streaked forward like a falling star.
"Arrogant."
Seeing Silas charge straight at them alone, the Five Elders bristled in fury. Demonic shadows rose behind them.
But they couldn't assume their Devil Fruit beast forms—not like Saint Marcus Mars—because they couldn't fly. If they transformed here, the deck beneath their feet would not support them.
Staring down the four Elders, Silas barked a laugh.
"Just a pack of small fry."
His blade swept out as he spoke.
"Dragon Slash!"
A technique born from Shimotsuki Ryuma's style. Silas had missed his duel with Ryuma at Acropolis Port, but he still learned much about Conqueror's usage from the legendary swordsman.
It was the root of why he could finally merge Haki fully into himself.
Conqueror's Haki-wreathed steel crossed thousands of meters in an instant. Though he had learned from Ryuma, with the system's final enhancement, Silas's mastery of Haki had already surpassed his teacher in application.
For a heartbeat, Imu felt a strange pang.
Silas's Haki reminded her of someone.
Someone she both loved and hated.
Imu didn't need to move. Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuroof the Five Elders and the father-and-son duo of the God's Knights had already leapt.
Silas had sent a swordsman's cut.
They were among the finest swordsmen in the world.
But as Ethanbaron rushed to meet Silas, rage twisted his face. "Brat Silas, return my Kitetsu!"
Seven years ago in Mary Geoise, Silas used Haki to break the teleport of both Ethanbaron and Marcus Mars, and took Izanbaron's First Kitetsu in the opening.
There were only twelve Supreme Grade blades in the world. Losing the First Kitetsu had left even Ethanbaronin in agony.
To this day, he hasn't found a second Supreme Grade to replace it.
He held a mere Great Grade sword.
Without years of tempering, it was worlds away from a Black Blade.
How could he not hate Silas?
"Kitetsu? What Kitetsu?"
Silas had completely forgotten. Even as one of the twelve Supreme Grades, the First Kitetsu was still just a sword. No blade rivaled his own.
Frostshade was a Black Blade too now, and no worse than the Kitetsu.
Blade to blade, the one to break would be Kitetsu.
Because its wielder was weaker.
Hearing that, rage drenched Izanbaron's face—and then he paused.
One-on-one against Silas?
That was suicide.
Silas's Dragon Slash took the combined efforts of Ethanbaron , Saint Claude, and Saint Lucas to block.
Compared to seven years ago. Compared to five.
Silas had grown stronger.
In Mary Geoise, Silas could suppress Saint Lucas but not finish him quickly. Lucas had mastered Conqueror's coating and wasn't a normal Admiral.
At Acropolis Port, Saint Lucas was no longer his match.
And now—
Just sensing that slash left Lucas grim-faced.
He realized that if he fought Silas again here, he might be crushed in a handful of exchanges.
Not even immortality would save him.
Silas could crush him quickly, but add several other strong Elders, and the tide might turn.
But—
"King to king, general to general. And you small fry think to meddle in the old man's fight?"
Another cannon-blast slash screamed in. Two Elders managed to stop it, but their faces had turned grave.
"Rocks D. Xebec."
The man who should never have bent his knee now willingly cleared the path for his king.
"Old man, if you lose to a woman, I'll never forgive you, even in death."
Rocks drew a deep breath.
The Oss Island battle had repaid him in full. Battles that wrung out his limits were the best way to sharpen his Haki.
But he also knew that if he continued like this, he would reach his ceiling.
Still, debt was debt.
Rocks wasn't so base as to forget favors.
After this war—
He would challenge Silas fair and square.
"Oi, Newgate. How about the two of us take all six of them?"
"Gurararara. That's interesting."
Fighting two strong foes alone would never push them past their limits.
So—
They wouldn't go two-on-four. They'd go two-on-six.
"Haha. Don't die."
Silas understood Rocks's heart completely.
It started as pragmatism.
But after years together, Silas wasn't made of stone.
Against two immortal Admirals, whether Rocks or Newgate, victory would be a coin toss.
Face three alone—and it became a dance with death.
Even so—
Neither Rocks nor Newgate showed fear.
They knew.
Silas had others who could share the burden.
Linlin, for one, could join the fray anytime.
Rocks and Newgate could handle two-on-one.
So could Linlin.
But as men of the sea, how could they admit they couldn't?
A gale rose.
Another top-tier clash erupted—Kong and Rona.
Colleagues of the past.
Sword and fist now.
"Senior Rona, why?"
Seeing Rona draw steel against them at Silas's side, Kong finally voiced his question.
Five years earlier, at Acropolis Port, Rona hadn't appeared. Kong was relieved. He thought Rona had left because of injustice, but still stayed true to Marine justice, and that her alliance with Silas was only expedient.
Now she had chosen.
Not to stand with them—but with their old enemy.
"Have you forgotten the justice we've upheld?"
"Shut up."
Only the red-haired beauty's cold blade answered him.
"Your justice has nothing to do with me."
"False justice is kindling for the wicked."
"Kong, you still can't see it."
Kong believed maintaining the current order would make the world better. But the rot in the World Government's giant carcass couldn't be lanced and drained anymore.
"Feel it for yourself. Since leaving the Marines, my Haki, my Conqueror's Haki, has surpassed the stagnant one you've nurtured there."
"Rona, do you feel nothing for the Marines?"
"Heh."
Conqueror's Haki wrapped Rona's blade. She had faced countless hardships after leaving the Marines.
But life had never been fuller.
Choosing to help Silas did not make her his subordinate.
She had carved her own path.
Her Conqueror's Haki, once stagnant inside the Marines, surged forward the moment she left. That was proof.
"I was never happy in the Marines."
She joined for justice, but the petty games disgusted her—and the Celestial Dragons' evil made her loathe them.
So chasing Silas had been her numbness.
Until one day, Silas's deeds looked less like those of vile pirates and more like the justice she sought.
Her old convictions faded.
"My justice protects ordinary people—not government officials, not Celestial Dragons."
"If your order has no place for ordinary people—"
"Then I'll topple it."
Perhaps among those beside Silas, only Rona and Crane fully intended to build a new order.
Kong was a question from her past. Rona answered with a clear no.
Crane had her past waiting, too.
"Crane? Is that you, Crane?"
As top fighters clashed, more and more powerhouses entered the fray. Admirals first, then the peak great pirates and Admiral candidates, followed by the great pirates and ranks of Marine Vice Admirals.
As the World Government and the White Wolf Alliance fleets finally crashed together—
In the smoke, Sengoku saw a familiar silhouette.