The four "gods," who had initially worn expressions of absolute disdain, felt their hearts skip a beat at the sight of the massive golden, claw-shaped light tearing toward them.
After all, this was the man capable of slaying a Yonko—his combat power was truly not to be underestimated.
If left unchecked, this single slash could likely destroy several small islands.
But for the four of them, it wasn't an unsolvable problem.
Saint Saturn and Saint Nusjuro simultaneously glanced at the woman in leather pants and bandages, Gunko.
She immediately understood.
Although Gunko belonged to the God's Knights, she still had to obey the direct orders of the Five Elders as the "Highest Authority."
As the golden light was about to reach them...
TWANG!
Gunko activated her ability, and a single arrow shot out.
The moment it touched the Wind Scar, it violently altered the trajectory of the attack.
The Wind Scar, which spanned over 400 meters in width, saw its central energy go completely out of control where the arrow made contact.
Guided by the arrow's strange power, the uncontrolled demonic energy violently clashed against its own normal energy.
KABOOM!
In an instant, the massive Demonic Power slash exploded on the spot.
The terrifying shockwave uprooted all the giant mangrove trees within a one-kilometer radius.
A quarter of the forest on Grove 13 vanished in an instant.
As for the ordinary, unconscious members of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet?
They were conveniently "blown away" by the shockwave to who-knows-where, mysteriously disappearing from the immediate danger zone.
Ray casually swung his blade to the side, signaling that he had officially initiated the war.
The four Celestial Dragons began their counterattack.
Saturn swung the sharp, spider-like claws on his feet, stabbing down at Ray.
Wherever the claws passed, the surrounding trees and ground dissolved inch by inch from bone-corrosive venom.
Nusjuro, drew the First Generation Kitetsu and spurred the skeletal horse beneath him, its four hooves propelling him at extreme speed toward Ray.
Meanwhile, Gunko and the Qilin, Saint Killingham, chose to bypass Ray and charge directly toward the Straw Hat crew.
At this moment, the war truly began.
...
Simultaneously, Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Zephyr's warship had already returned.
Aokiji, Kizaru, and Zephyr were gathered in Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office, sighing in frustration.
Sengoku had just hung up the Den Den Mushi, having received the latest intelligence from their hidden scouts.
"The Five Elders have made their move."
Aokiji's face was full of helplessness upon hearing this.
"Fighting Ray to the death right now is too reckless."
Kizaru, who was slouched deeply into the sofa like a melted puddle, was concerned about another matter entirely.
"Kuzan... you took responsibility for our retreat. You're already facing impeachment. You might even be stripped of your Admiral position, you know~"
Aokiji shook his head, indicating he didn't care.
Whether it was humiliating, or whether he would lose his Marine Admiral status, it didn't matter to Aokiji at this point.
The Marines must win the upcoming battle against Whitebeard.
This victory was crucial, and it had to be an overwhelming, flawless Marine victory against the strongest pirate crew.
The purpose was to give ordinary civilians confidence.
In this era of rampant pirate expansion, it was essential to make the vast majority of the world believe the Marines had the absolute power to defeat evil.
Only then would they support the Marines' work. Recruitment and the expansion of forces could then proceed smoothly.
Therefore, the primary focus of Aokiji and Sengoku's current decisions was to ensure they had the maximum manpower to defeat Whitebeard during the future global broadcast.
Execute the Pirate King's son. Destroy the strongest Yonko crew. Intimidate the pirates. Stabilize public sentiment.
Only with the people's support could the Marines hope to truly restore peace to the world.
Thus, regarding the Celestial Dragons' death incident, both Sengoku and Aokiji chose to bet their futures, absolutely refusing to fight Ray to the death at this time.
Could the Marines defeat Ray? Of course they could.
Would the losses be great? Possibly.
They might need to sacrifice two Admirals just to kill him.
If it came to that, it would be difficult for them to eliminate the Whitebeard Pirates with their remaining strength, and their overwhelming advantage would vanish.
For the sake of a better future, they could only choose not to confront Ray head-on.
Even if both of them might lose their jobs because of it.
The Marines are the future of the world—this is what both of them truly believed.
As for Ray? Since the Celestial Dragons insisted on eliminating him to maintain their absolute rule, then let them handle it themselves.
The most favorable outcome for the Marines would be for both sides to suffer heavy losses.
Ideally, the Five Elders could actually kill Ray, preventing him from crashing the Marine Headquarters battlefield in one week.
But Ray would inevitably take out several elites from the Celestial Dragons' side in the process, which would only help the Marines' future independence against the World Government.
The only pity was for the residents of Sabaody Archipelago—they would have to fend for themselves during this clash of gods.
...
Back on Sabaody, Grove 13.
"THUNDERBOLT TEMPO!"
Nami swung her Clima-Tact, creating a terrifying thunderstorm within a 200-meter radius.
She had been saving up thunder bubbles for a long time, just for this moment.
The sky filled with blinding lightning that completely covered the area, all to force the hidden Gunko out of the shadows and inflict some damage along the way.
Robin also unleashed her abilities fully, sprouting hundreds of eyes throughout the remaining forest.
If she could just locate Gunko, there was hope of taking her down—provided they could see her.
But this woman, after using her bizarre arrow to aim at Brook and kicking him flying 200 meters away, had vanished into the forest.
She would then occasionally reappear, and every time her arrow pointed at one of their allies, they were completely unable to evade her attack—even if they saw it coming, their bodies couldn't dodge it.
Attacks launched according to the arrow's indicators seemed to further enhance their destructive power.
Marianne had already lost consciousness after being kicked.
Usopp's long nose was fractured by a sudden strike.
Only Mikita had managed to adjust her gravity when facing an attack, delivering a supersonic kick to Gunko to counter.
However, due to her unhealed fractures from Kizaru and Gunko's overwhelming strength, Mikita was not only sent flying but also temporarily lost mobility in her right leg.
Currently, those still engaged in combat with the elusive Gunko were: Nami, Robin, Mikita, Bonney, Bon Clay, Franky, Usopp, and the currently missing Brook.
...
On another battlefield nearby.
Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Chopper, Galdino, Gem and Bartolomeo were struggling against a literal horde of monsters.
The more they fought, the angrier they became.
They couldn't even lay a finger on that Qilin dude, Saint Killingham.
'This guy's ability was utterly absurd!'
It was said he could extract terrifying elements from others' dreams and bring them to life.
But what in the world were these extracted things?!
All of them were monsters nearly the size of Sea Kings.
Moreover, these monsters all originated from the ordinary pirates in the Grand Fleet who had been knocked unconscious earlier.
Knocked out by Conqueror's Haki, they naturally started dreaming.
Unfortunately, their conscious teammates suffered for it.
Saint Killingham casually performed extractions, replicating the most feared entities from the pirates' nightmares right from the start of the confrontation.
Giant toads, enormous maggots, colossal spiders, massive moths, and werewolves from fairy tales—these were relatively "normal" fears.
But then there were things like giant, menacing versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White... WHO WOULD BE AFRAID OF THEM?!
Zoro's mind was filled with, 'I beg your pardon?!'
The most ridiculous nightmare, however, was a thick, black, hairy leg wearing black stockings.
Yes, just a single leg—100 meters long and incredibly stout—with an attack method limited to blindly stomping downward.
The key point was... it clearly looked like a man's leg, didn't it?
'What kind of messed-up nightmares do these guys have?!'
After Galdino's wax soldiers were stomped on by the hairy leg, the wax reeked so badly of foot odor that Galdino's eyes rolled back, and he fainted from the stench alone.
As for the others...
Sanji couldn't bring himself to kick the dark, giant versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White.
As a result, he was slapped 800 meters away by Snow White, crashing and stirring up a massive cloud of dust.
"Three Sword Style Secret Technique: THREE THOUSAND WORLDS!"
A massive spinning sword slash directly struck the giant werewolf, cutting it down.
Seizing the moment, Zoro turned to rescue Sanji, who was about to be crushed by Little Red Riding Hood's descending rear end.
"Disgraceful fool," Zoro scoffed, pulling Sanji out of the way. "You'll definitely die at the hands of a woman one day."
"Shut up, Moss Head!"
Luffy, meanwhile, had enough.
He had already activated Gear Fourth.
"GOMU GOMU NO... KING KONG GUN!"
With a massive, Haki-coated fist, he obliterated the giant toad, then turned and charged furiously toward Saint Killingham, who stood arrogantly atop a giant tree in the distance.
...
Meanwhile, at the epicenter.
Ray was engaged in a high-speed, deadly combat with the Gyuki, Saint Saturn, and the Skeletal Horse, Saint Nusjuro.
A sky filled with bone-corrosive venom bombs and massive, freezing sword slashes descended upon Ray from all sides.