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As the pressure of their clashing blades exploded in midair, the shockwave of Haki and sword aura forced both Shanks and Garling to slide back, each retreating a step under the rebound.
Shanks' face was grave. He hadn't expected this old man of his to be this strong.
His gaze shifted to Luffy's dying body. His brows drew together, a tight frown cutting across his face as a single thought flashed through his mind—was he still too late?
Saint Garling stared at the son who had appeared out of nowhere and spoke in an icy tone. "Why are you here, Shanks?"
Shanks' expression smoothed into calm, his voice steady and serious. "I'm here to stop this war."
Up in the sky, Marco, locked in combat with the three Gorosei, also noticed the arrival of Red-Haired Shanks. Just moments ago, he had felt that powerful presence descend onto the battlefield.
He glanced into the distance, where the main force of the Red Hair Pirates was racing toward Amazon Lily. One after another, the Red Hair Pirates used Moonwalk to streak through the air and land directly on the island, quickly gathering at Shanks' side.
Looking down at Shanks' crew assembling below, Marco frowned in puzzlement. "Why is Shanks here?"
The battle between Marco and the three Gorosei ground to a temporary halt as well. Shanks' sudden appearance had caught everyone off guard.
Saint Garling eyed his useless son and said coldly, "Shanks, it seems you've already abandoned your identity as a Celestial Dragon."
Shanks remained composed. "I was never a Celestial Dragon," he replied. "I'm just the pirate Shanks."
Saint Garling snorted. He had long since written off this second son of his. Shanks was exceptional—more so even than his eldest, Shamrock.
But the boy had grown up among commoners, and those filthy habits had never washed off. Even after returning to the Holy Land for a time, he'd clearly preferred the life below, the life of a wanderer, over the sanctity of Mariejois.
Too lazy to waste more words, Saint Garling spoke coldly. "Fine. Hand over Straw Hat."
"That's impossible." Shanks' eyes turned ice-cold. "Anyone who wants Luffy's life… will have to step over my corpse first."
Saint Garling listened with cold eyes, a feral smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "What an arrogant brat. Just because you've become one of the Yonko, you think you can talk to me in that tone?"
Ace shouted up to the sky, "Marco, hurry and save Luffy! He's about to collapse!"
Marco frowned at Ace's cry and glanced at the three Gorosei facing him. These old guys clearly had no intention of actually fighting.
If he wanted to kill them, he'd probably have to go to the Holy Land.
"Consider yourselves lucky. Next time, I'll personally come to the Holy Land to find you." With that, Marco turned and flew down toward Ace's position.
Earlier, because Ace had been so desperate to save Luffy that he'd nearly slit his own throat, Marco had been forced to keep one eye on him the whole time, unable to fully commit to battling Saint Warcury and the other three.
Now that Luffy had finally been rescued, Marco had been ready to go all out—kill one of the Gorosei first, then either retreat or continue taking down the rest. After all, without using God's blood, the Gorosei—aside from their immortality—were only on par with ordinary Yonko-level powerhouses.
And with Marco's Conqueror's Haki having reached a legendary level, it was enough to break their immortality. Even if all four joined forces, he could still use a "trade blow for blow" strategy to take them down one by one.
But instead of meeting him head-on, those old bastards had resorted to stalling tactics. He had just managed to overpower Saint Warcury when the man immediately fled, forcing Marco to abandon the idea of finishing things here. If he wanted them dead, he'd have to storm the Holy Land.
The Gorosei's faces were equally grim. None of them had expected the Red Hair Pirates to arrive before the Phoenix Pirates.
At that moment, Hongou, the Red Hair Pirates' ship doctor, rushed over, shouting, "I'm the ship doctor! Let me examine Luffy!"
"I'm begging you," Ace said anxiously.
Hongou quickly pulled out his medical instruments and began checking Luffy. His expression darkened almost at once.
Shanks immediately stepped in. "Hongou, how is it?"
Hongou's face was dark, his jaw tight as he bit his lip and gave a small, pained shake of his head toward Shanks. "It's no good. Luffy's body has already collapsed."
Ace's expression shattered the moment the words left Hongou's mouth. He roared, voice cracking, "What? What are you talking about! What do you mean his body has collapsed? Luffy is only eighteen—how could his body collapse at such a young age?!"
Just then, Marco glided down from the sky. To Ace, it was like spotting a lifeline. He rushed over, grasping at that last hope. "Marco, please, save Luffy!"
Hongou spoke up as well, his tone solemn. "If it's Marco, his Regeneration Flame might be able to do something."
"Yes, Marco, I'm begging you!" Ace added, almost frantic.
Marco said nothing at first. A cluster of blue Regeneration Flames bloomed in his hand and then flowed straight onto Luffy's shriveled body, quickly spreading to cover most of him in an eerie blue glow.
Marco crouched down beside him, eyes narrowing as he carefully examined Luffy's condition. Suddenly, his pupils tightened.
Under his scrutiny, he realized that the cells in Straw Hat's body—the boy destined to become Pirate King—were almost all dead. In this state, the fact that he was still barely breathing was nothing short of a miracle.
Catching the change in Marco's expression, Ace's heart lurched. "What's wrong, Marco? Luffy will be alright, won't he?!"
Marco looked up at Ace, then slowly shook his head, regret clouding his face. "He can't be saved."
With that, he drew back his hand, and the blue Regeneration Flames retreated from Luffy's body.
Seeing him stop, hearing those words, Ace's pupils shrank violently. He screamed, "How is that possible?! How could Luffy be beyond saving? Marco, use the Regeneration Flame! The Regeneration Flame should be able to save Luffy, right?!"
Marco met Ace's desperate gaze. He didn't offer false comfort; he only shook his head and spoke plainly. "His life has already run out. Most of the cells in his body are already dead. The Regeneration Flame works by accelerating cell division to heal wounds—but Luffy barely has any cells left to regenerate. If I keep using it, I'll only speed up his death. At most, he has an hour left to live."
"H–How could this be…" Ace's legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees. Hearing that verdict, tears spilled freely down his face as he stared at Luffy's withered, emaciated body.
Shanks could hardly believe what he was hearing. He had staked the future on Luffy—the child of destiny he'd chosen, the man who had eaten that legendary Devil Fruit and even awakened it. How could it end like this?
He turned to Marco again, his voice low but tense. "Marco, is he really beyond saving?"
Marco shook his head, answering with solemn certainty. "The cells in his body are all nearly dead. His body's just an empty shell now, and all his organs are about to fail."
He paused, then added, "If it were just a normal fatal injury, I could still keep him alive with my Regeneration Flames. But his life force is completely gone. Even the Regeneration Flames can't bring him back."
Shanks' expression twisted even further at Marco's verdict.
Not far away, the four Gorosei let out a quiet breath of relief when they heard this. With the Red Hair Pirates involved, killing Straw Hat had become far more difficult—but from Marco's explanation, Straw Hat must have overused that Sun God form and burned through all of his remaining lifespan.
They hadn't struck the final blow themselves, but in the end, Imu-sama's order had still been fulfilled.
After exchanging a brief look, the four elders' bodies turned into pale smoke as they dispelled the teleportation technique and returned to the Holy Land.
Watching the Gorosei depart, the Red Hair Pirates also relaxed slightly. Shanks then turned to Hongou and Marco, his gaze heavy. "Hongou, Marco… is Luffy's condition really that serious?"
Hongou nodded, face grave. "Yes. It's worse than we imagined."
Marco shot Shanks a cold look. "Red Hair, you don't think I just said all that to trick the Gorosei, do you?"
Ace, still clinging to a sliver of hope, stepped closer, eyes fixed on Marco. "Marco, is Luffy really beyond saving? Please… think of something!"
The weight of everyone's expectations pressed down on Marco, and he let out a helpless breath. "There really isn't anything we can do."
"If Trafalgar Law were here, maybe he could still save him. But even then… as long as Law's thinking straight, I doubt he'd save Straw Hat."
"Marco, you're saying Law can save Luffy?" Ace seized on the words like a drowning man grabbing a lifeline.
Marco said gravely, "In theory… yes. The Ope Ope no Mi has an ultimate technique called the 'Imortality Surgery,' an Awakening ability that can bestow immortality on someone. It might be able to save Luffy."
Ace's eyes lit up at once. "Then I'll take Luffy to find Trafalgar Law! I'll beg him on my knees if I have to—no matter what, I'll make him save Luffy!"
"It's useless."
Before Marco could respond, Benn Beckman, standing behind Shanks, cut in, his tone just as serious. "That surgery is the Ope Ope no Mi's ultimate technique because it can only be used once in a lifetime. And the price… is the Devil Fruit user's life."
Ace's brief hope collapsed again, plunging him back into despair.
Marco wasn't surprised Benn Beckman knew about the surgery. He went on, "Besides, we don't even know where Trafalgar Law is right now, and Luffy doesn't have that kind of time. There's only one thing I can do for you now."
"I can use my Phoenix Flames to regenerate his body enough to wake him up—just for a short while. It'll be his final burst of vitality. If you have anything you want to say to him, say it then. You'll only have a few minutes. After that… his life will come to an end."
By now, Marco had confirmed it: Straw Hat Luffy, the man destined to become Pirate King, had reached the end of his life.
Even a "protagonist" couldn't overturn everything.
Unless Trafalgar Law suddenly appeared right now and performed the Immortality Surgery on him, with Luffy's current condition, he had at most two hours left.
Maybe everything had already shifted from the moment Marco transmigrated into this world. In the original story, Luffy should have quietly trained for two full years in the waters near Amazon Lily. But now, after less than a year of training, he'd been ambushed by the Marines.
Silvers Rayleigh had died. The Pirate Empress had been captured.
Because of Marco's arrival, the plot had already deviated on a massive scale. The Gorosei themselves had come to Amazon Lily. Even if Luffy awakened the Nika Fruit ahead of time, the gap between him and the Gorosei was far too great. In the end, he'd simply burned himself out and died.
In the original story, Luffy kept breaking his limits, sharpening his Observation Haki, Armament Haki, and Haoshoku Haki again and again, until he finally awakened the power of the Sun God and poured everything he had into defeating Kaido.
The Gorosei, one-on-one, shouldn't be as strong as Kaido was in the original story. But they possess immortality—and they move as a coordinated group of five. Even Nika Luffy couldn't stand against them.
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