When the image finally came into clear view, everyone sucked in a sharp breath, their scalps tingling.
The sight was simply too shocking.
The sea was a vast, blackened expanse—dozens of enormous cake ships accompanied by countless auxiliary vessels, forming what looked like a moving city upon the ocean.
At the very front sailed the Queen Mama Chanter, towering over a hundred meters tall. The obese figure standing on its deck was blurry at this distance, yet the sheer pressure it exuded could be felt even through the screen.
This wasn't a fleet at all—it was a herd of steel behemoths rampaging across the sea.
The reporters were stunned. Just by visual estimation alone, this force easily exceeded a hundred thousand troops. This was nothing short of a full mobilization!
Only now did everyone truly grasp that this war was going to punch a hole straight through the New World.
On the deck of Big Mom's fleet, Charlotte Daifuku glanced toward a distant island and remarked that it looked like a few little bugs were secretly taking pictures.
Oven followed his gaze, then snorted dismissively. "Ignore them. Let them spread the word for us."
Since it couldn't be hidden anyway, they might as well bare their fangs and let the whole world witness Totto Land's might.
The moment Big Mom's fleet set sail, Tenma—thousands of nautical miles away—received the news as well.
Standing on high ground, his gaze seemed to pierce through space itself, fixed on that soon-to-boil sea.
Below him at the harbor, Wano's elite forces had long since completed their preparations.
Ten heavily modified giant warships, each armed to the teeth, every one carrying five thousand fully equipped elite warriors.
Along with numerous escort ships and floating airships, these hundred thousand troops were leagues beyond anything Orochi had ever commanded.
Among them, ninety percent could use Haki, with forty percent proficient in advanced techniques. Coupled with an array of black-tech weapons, this was nothing short of an invincible army.
So Tenma truly hadn't taken Big Mom and Kaido's alliance seriously.
He had even kept back twenty percent of his forces to guard the rear, leaving Kozuki Toki in charge—calm and unhurried to the extreme.
With a single order, Wano's fleet rose into the sky.
If the world had seen this scene, jaws would have dropped. This was a flying armada that put even a Buster Call to shame—vast enough to blot out the sky, descending upon Totto Land like a dark storm cloud.
The storm had finally arrived!
The collision of two Emperor-level forces sent shockwaves crashing through the New World.
The two fleets ultimately encountered one another in the buffer zone between their territories—the Maoyuan Sea.
Normally a lawless no-man's-land, it had now become a forbidden zone of death, where even fish dared not swim.
Only Morgans' reporters had the courage to conduct a live broadcast at such a moment, clinging to their wobbling little boats.
Big Mom's fleet came to a halt. Katakuri's future sight had already locked onto the approaching enemy.
Charlotte Linlin stood at the prow. Though her children filled the deck behind her, her presence alone eclipsed them all.
The once-calm sea suddenly grew restless, waves rolling higher and higher, as if the ocean itself were trembling.
On the horizon, a massive shadow was rapidly approaching, heavy with suffocating pressure.
Standing near Big Mom's side, Katakuri suddenly lifted his head.
His eyes darkened as if soaked in ink, gloom impossible to dispel. Within his crimson pupils flickered an eerie red light, locked firmly on the sky shrouded in thick storm clouds.
"Mother… the Flying General's fleet has arrived."
No one dared doubt the judgment of the Sweet Commander's leader.
On the flagship's vast deck, all eyes snapped upward in unison, following Katakuri's warning toward the heavens.
Whooo—whooo!
The low wind turned shrill. The atmosphere felt like stirred slurry as air currents spiraled into chaos.
The heavy cloud cover hanging low above was violently smashed apart by something brutally solid.
Clouds were torn screamingly to either side.
Within several kilometers, the world dimmed abruptly, as if light itself had been swallowed.
The last remaining rays of sunlight struggled through the gaps between steel leviathans, casting jagged, monstrous shadows upon the sea.
The enormous outline that emerged was only the first vanguard ship.
Then, deeper in the distance, a second towering shadow burst through the clouds.
Then a third. A fourth.
Until countless steel giants poured out of the torn clouds like dumplings dropped into boiling water.
The once-clear blue sky was completely blotted out by a tide of steel. Vast shadows fell over the sea, bringing an oppressive weight that made it hard to breathe.
As the distance closed, the main force—over ten colossal armored warships resembling ancient steel monsters—finally bared their fangs.
Even from several kilometers away, the invisible heaviness pressed down like mountains on every heart.
This was the legendary Flying General's grand fleet!
Wano's hidden fangs, bared at last without reservation before the entire world!
Crack.
On the deck of the Queen Mama Chanter, countless pirates felt their nerves snap taut.
Cold sweat soaked their palms, slicking their weapon grips as they clenched tight, staring ahead with a mix of beast-like battle lust and deep, instinctive fear.
"That closed-off Wano… actually managed to field a force like this?!"
Watching the sky-filling flying fleet bear down on them, Charlotte Linlin couldn't help recalling the once-arrogant glory of Golden Lion Shiki.
Yet Tenma felt even more dangerous than that old lion—his pressure heavier, sharper.
But beyond vague intimidation, what truly made Big Mom's eye twitch with fury was the sheer, undeniable scale of their forces.
She remembered Kaido mentioning that back in Sea Circle Calendar 1502, even at its peak, Wano had only a few tens of thousands of warriors worth mentioning.
Later, it had been reduced to barely twenty or thirty thousand battered remnants.
And now?
Big Mom swept her Observation Haki across the enemy formation—this display held no less than a hundred thousand elite troops!
Meanwhile, she herself boasted fourteen thousand… but a huge portion were Homies made by the Soul-Soul Fruit to pad the numbers.
Was this a slap to her face or what?!
In less than nine years, Tenma's Wano had matched—no, surpassed—the military might of Totto Land she had cultivated over two decades?!
Splash—!
The flying armada didn't remain hovering indefinitely. Aside from the flagship and long-range strike airships, several steel-beast warships thundered down onto the sea.
Their immense draft churned up towering waves.
After all, large-scale warfare still had to return to naval combat.
At the pinnacle of the sky, two new national flags—one black, one white, emblazoned with the letters "M" and "D"—snapped violently in the gale, as if declaring war on the old era itself.
Cloak billowing, Tenma stood firmly at the prow of the lead ship like a god of war.
The top experts of the Oniwabanshu and the reserve elites stood solemnly at his side like stars encircling the moon.
On the deck below, countless fully armed elite samurai gripped their weapons, battle intent blazing like fire as they locked eyes with the enemy ahead.
Two Sea Emperors faced one another across the void.
One dominated the skies.
One stood upon the sea.
One looked down upon all with arrogance.
One raised his head in furious defiance.
Staring at that terrifyingly luxurious lineup, the Totto Land pirates—already fearful of Tenma—felt their legs trembling even harder.
Some even went limp, nearly collapsing onto the slick deck.
As the true enemy appeared, Big Mom's mountain-like body rose abruptly from her throne.
"So much pomp and spectacle… mamamama! Looks like you're dead set on an all-or-nothing battle with me!"
Even as alarm bells screamed in her mind, Charlotte Linlin maintained the madness and tyranny befitting a Yonko.
"This is a new age of surging tides. Trash like you, who only knows how to hide at home popping out kids, belongs in the garbage heap of history!"
Looking down from above, Tenma curled his lips into a mocking smile.
"Picking fights has always been about choosing the softer target. Don't tell me you don't understand that?"
Big Mom laughed in fury, her cackle shaking the air itself.
"Don't think one cheap trick with information advantage means you've already won!"
"When I was crawling through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, you were still playing in the mud!"
"Zeus! Prometheus! Napoleon!"
With a thunderous roar, her three special Homies responded instantly.
Thundercloud, sun, emperor's sword—merging in a flash into her strongest combat form: Thunderlight Blade!
But that wasn't all.
A ruthless glint flashed through Big Mom's eyes as she directly sacrificed years of her own lifespan!
Bathed in that surging soul power, her body expanded again, gaining an even more terrifying boost of Giant-level strength.
This was a war to decide nations and lives. She wouldn't be stupid enough to hold anything back.
Even if it cost more years of her life, it didn't matter.
As long as she killed Tenma and seized the pure gold, everything could be recovered.
Not to mention taking over the gigantification experiments and Wano's mouthwatering trove of resources.
With Kaido already allied in secret, there was no need to conserve soul power.
"Begin! This is war!"
The horrifying pressure of the Pirate Empress swept the battlefield as Big Mom stepped onto her thundercloud and charged toward the flying armada with a feral snarl.
"Tenma!!!"
Her shriek pierced the sky like a vengeful specter as Charlotte Linlin struck first.
Standing atop the massive thundercloud, both hands clenched around the Thunderlight Blade, jet-black Armament Haki wrapped it in an instant.
Locking onto Tenma and the fleet behind him, she unleashed a world-shattering slash.
Hummmm—
The air wailed as a massive purple blade of energy screamed forth, threatening to cleave the sea in two.
Facing this lifespan-burning killing blow, Tenma naturally didn't underestimate it.
The named blade Shidarezura slid from its sheath, cold light flashing.
At the instant the attack arrived, terrifying sword intent mixed with Haki erupted outward.
A perfect arc of slashing force tore through the air, precisely intercepting the purple blade mid-flight.
The next second, Tenma vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already before Charlotte Linlin, an overwhelming offensive crashing down like Mount Tai.
The shockwaves from the collision of Emperor-level power whipped up hurricanes, scattering both fleets into disarray.
As the two Emperors clashed high above, the massive fleets below finally moved.
Totto Land's warships accelerated wildly. On the open sea, the most primitive—and effective—tactic remained boarding combat.
It was their only way to leverage numerical superiority.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cannons roared in unison. Shells rained down like blackened hail, screaming toward the flying fleet.
At that critical moment, Dracule Mihawk, holding the black blade Yoru, stepped forward.
The world's greatest swordsman merely took one step, yet his sword intent froze the air.
Then he swung.
A colossal green slash tore across the sky, cleaving countless shells cleanly in half.
Explosions blossomed like tragic fireworks midair.
Mihawk then leapt, diving from the heavens.
Another peerlessly sharp slash swept out.
A pirate ship carrying a thousand men was instantly torn apart. Pirates screamed as they fell into the sea, while Homies dissolved into motes of soul-light.
On a safer rear airship, Zoro, blood boiling, pressed a hand to his sword, ready to jump down and wreak havoc himself.
He barely took two steps before Nami grabbed the back of his collar.
"Zoro! You moss-headed idiot! We agreed you were only here to see what real war looks like!"
"Huh?!"
Ten-year-old Zoro scowled, pointing below.
"Maria Fang and Yamato are already fighting at that age—why do I have to just watch?!"
Thump!
Despite being smaller than him, Nami slammed a fist into his head without mercy, knocking the future great swordsman flat.
"This war is on a totally different level! You smug little brat!"
With Tenma not around, Nami finally dropped the good-girl act entirely.
Holding Wado Ichimonji, Kuina watched the battlefield below—already a meat grinder—and nodded.
"Nami's right. This scale of war isn't something you can join yet. You haven't fully mastered Haki or advanced swordsmanship. You'd just be throwing your life away."
Zoro clenched his teeth. If even Kuina—whom he still couldn't beat—said so, he had no choice but to restrain himself.
Yet his gaze burned hotter than ever, the desire to grow stronger surging wildly.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar figure and roared again:
"Then why is Trafalgar Law already down there cutting people up?!"
"What?!"
Nami and Lammy followed his pointing finger and gasped.
"ROOM—!"
A figure in a white spotted fur hat stood squarely in the heart of the battlefield.
His eerie surgical space was deployed with masterful ease, enveloping three fast boats at once.
Within that absolute domain, Law didn't even need fancy swordplay.
With a simple flick of his finger and twist of his wrist, the Homies charging as vanguard were instantly bisected—heads and bodies separated, floating eerily in midair.
"That bastard is abusing his ability again! Ugh—Robin told me to keep an eye on you guys!"
Nami's headache contrasted sharply with Lammy's starry-eyed admiration.
"Big brother is amazing!"
"Let him be. Those Homies can't even use Haki. They're just disposable cannon fodder to burn ammo."
From the flagship command platform, Robin, calmly overseeing the battlefield with the Flower-Flower Fruit, spoke evenly.
"Robin-sama, the enemy fleet has entered optimal firing range!"
Reports flooded in from the flying gunships.
The tactics were clear: frontline boarding below, long-range suppression from above.
A cold glint flashed through Robin's eyes as she gave the order decisively.
"Execute Plan A. Open fire!"
In an instant, dozens of pitch-black barrels in the sky locked onto the Totto Land fleet.
"Everyone evade! Incoming bombardment!"
Perospero, constantly watching the sky, shouted a warning—though he didn't take it too seriously.
In pirate naval warfare, cannon fire was the most common and easiest attack to dodge.
"No—those aren't cannonballs! Get out of the way!!!"
Katakuri's face changed drastically as he screamed.
Mochi exploded from his hands as he tried to weave a massive interception net—but he was still half a beat too slow.
The falling attack answered every doubt—and crushed all hope.
Bzzzzzz—!
There was no sound of shells loading. Instead, a teeth-grating hum of compressed energy came from the barrels.
Shooooom—!!!
What fired wasn't a solid projectile, but blinding beams of annihilation!
Dozens of light beams formed in the barrels, then screamed downward, tearing through the air.
This was Wano's latest trump card, developed by the Technology Team using memory alloys and ancient tech—
The new electromagnetic cannon.
The electromagnetic beams were terrifyingly fast, rivaling even Kizaru's lasers.
Their explosive destructive power surpassed ordinary light attacks by far.
In a single instant, dozens of beams fired in succession. Even Katakuri, with future sight, could barely protect a few nearby ships.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
When the beams struck, the ships were pierced clean through, detonating violently.
Three warships were obliterated midsection, massive explosions sending pillars of smoke skyward.
Countless pirates and soldiers screamed as they were instantly vaporized—or hurled into the air by shockwaves, raining back into the sea amid splintered wreckage.
The war between Emperors had truly begun.
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