"So it's finally come to this."
On the deck of the Twin Goddesses, Yemu stood alone, looking out at the distant battlefield and at Zephyr charging straight toward him. At last, his body shifted.
An Admiral joining the battle meant this war had finally reached its climax.
So he took out his Phone Shell.
"Begin Operation Hunt."
"Yes, Yemu-sama!"
As the order was given, a small air door appeared beside Yemu.
The four children beside him slowly walked out from within.
They were Ayala, Erza, Yamato, and Reiju.
Strictly speaking, children should never have been allowed to witness such a bloody battlefield. But for the sake of the four girls' growth in the future, they had to understand just how cruel war truly was.
"Is everything ready?"
Reiju, the youngest of the four, was only four years old, while Ayala, the oldest, was only twelve. Yet as they looked at the battlefield before them, where corpses lay everywhere, blood flowed freely, and screams of pain filled the air, the four little girls were calmer than the last.
"Mm. Don't worry, Yemu-nii-san! Every unit is ready and has entered combat status!"
Ayala was the one who answered. Though she was only twelve, under Yemu's focused training, she already carried herself with the maturity of an adult.
"Good. Then watch carefully. This war will decide our future."
...
Just how terrifying was the power of an Admiral?
Before Zephyr, those fearless Germa Corps soldiers were like ants standing in front of an elephant.
Black Arm Zephyr merely swept his arm lightly, and the strong Germa Corps soldiers were all sent flying.
Led by Zephyr, the Marine soldiers advanced as if there were no one in their way. They crossed the center of the battlefield and reached the shore of Golden Crow Island, less than a thousand meters from the Twin Goddesses.
Fire Dragon Yemu's figure was already clearly visible, making the Marines feel as if victory was right in front of them.
"As expected of an Admiral!"
"Zephyr-sensei is amazing!"
"Capture Fire Dragon Yemu, and we win this war!"
But just then, an enormous shadow covered the sky. Zephyr raised his head and looked up, only to see that at some point, a massive rock as large as an island had appeared overhead. Its shadow swallowed the Marines as it rapidly plummeted.
The Marine soldiers instantly went pale with fear, but Zephyr roared without concern.
"Don't be afraid! This isn't the Holy Land Mary Geoise! Don't expect the same move to work twice!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Zephyr leaped into the sky, moving so fast that the air around him warped.
"Break!"
Dark Armament Haki wrapped around his right fist, shining with a strange luster.
Zephyr punched the enormous falling meteor head-on.
"Crack... crack..."
With the sound of something splitting apart, visible spiderweb-like cracks spread across the rock, followed by countless tiny fractures.
"Boom..."
Under Black Arm Zephyr's powerful impact, the entire massive stone instantly shattered into countless fragments and burst apart.
A rain of stones began falling from the sky, but because of the force of the impact, not a single piece landed on the battlefield.
"S-so strong!"
"So this is the power of a Marine Admiral!"
"Hey, hey, that's not a monster anymore. That's a beast!"
After doing all that, Zephyr landed back on the ground as if he had only done something completely trivial. He continued staring at Yemu in the distance and roared.
"Keep charging!"
"Oh!"
In an instant, the Marines' fighting spirit soared higher than ever before. That was the immense confidence brought by Zephyr as an Admiral, after he had displayed strength far beyond ordinary understanding.
But just then, everyone suddenly noticed something.
On the distant ice, in front of the frozen Twin Goddesses, a red-skinned figure had appeared at some point.
"That's..."
"It's the fish-man Fisher Tiger..."
"The navigator of the Sky Pirates..."
Even though he stood there alone, he gave off the presence of a final, unshakable barrier protecting his captain. It was a force that no one was allowed to cross, causing every Marine soldier to instinctively stop in their tracks.
At that moment, Zephyr, as an Admiral, stepped forward and stood at the very front.
"So you've finally shown yourself, Fisher Tiger!"
"Marine Admiral, Black Arm Zephyr!"
Tiger stood in front of Yemu, guarding the final line of defense. Looking at Zephyr, who was not far away and practically within reach, his emotions surged.
"So this moment has finally come! But as the navigator, I won't let you Marines get anywhere near my captain!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tiger raised his fist high, then slammed it down, shattering the ice and seizing the entire ice sheet in his hand.
"More More 100x · Fish-Man Karate · Rough Shark!"
Veins bulged on Tiger's forehead. The Marines felt the world beneath their feet begin to shake, and sharp, piercing cracks rang through the air as the ice split apart.
"Rise!"
"Boom..."
In an instant, under everyone's horrified and disbelieving gazes, the entire frozen sea seemed to be lifted with the ice beneath the Marine soldiers at its center. A massive glacier was forcibly raised by Tiger, as if he meant to flip it over entirely.
The huge commotion drew everyone's attention.
As the massive ice surface rose higher and higher, the densely packed Marines standing on it instantly tumbled into a heap. They slid down the ice and fell into the freezing seawater.
Terrified screams and cries of pain rang out without end.
If that enormous glacier truly flipped over, every Marine here would be buried in the deep sea beneath it.
As an Admiral, Zephyr made his decision immediately. He leaped up, ran straight along the ice surface, chose the perfect point to strike, and brought down a blow with all the strength he had.
"Boom..."
The glacier that had been about to overturn was cut cleanly in half under that overwhelming force, with Zephyr's point of impact at the center.
"Rumble..."
The entire glacier split apart. After losing the force lifting it upward, it crashed back down with a thunderous roar.
The Marines on the glacier felt as if they had been riding a seesaw.
A moment ago, they had been sliding down uncontrollably. Now they were being thrown back up.
But at least they were saved.
Countless Marines who had fallen into the sea struggled to swim back up. Looking at Fisher Tiger not far away, they cried out in terror.
"M-monster..."
And through the view of the TV-B, an island-sized hole could be seen in the massive glacier.
Half of the ice was slowly sinking, while the other half, the section occupied by the Marines, floated alone on the surface, as if cut off from the rest of the world. The sea was filled with Marines crying for help as they desperately tried to swim.
Looking at this scene, for some reason, a strange thought rose in everyone's mind.
"Could this also be a trap set by the Sky Pirates?"
***
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