Marco was only seven years old now a tiny little runt.
Whitebeard turned around. A terrifying gleam burst in his eyes as he bared his teeth in a grin.
"Gurarararara! All of you back off!! Find cover and hide!"
Jozu scooped Marco up, and the three of them hurriedly retreated. At the same time, Whitebeard broke into a sprint.
Fast as lightning.
Veins bulged across his arms like thick, writhing serpents.
Whoosh whoosh!
His naginata, Murakumogiri, spun in his hands with a tiger's ferocity as Whitebeard laughed.
"Ares! You finally show your face! Let me see have you gotten stronger these past two months or not?!"
Ares?!
Marco's eyes widened. He stared into the distance, shock flashing across his face.
"Ares is here?! The pirate the Marines call the War God?!"
Jozu was practically vibrating with curiosity. "Has to be! Pops looks hyped!"
Vista grimaced. "With Pops greeting people like that… we'd better be careful too."
Slowly
a figure came into view.
Ares.
His speed was even greater than a leopard on the hunt, like a true giant beast unleashed.
As he ran, glossy tendons and dark, ironlike muscles rolled beneath his skin, carving out brutally sharp lines with every movement.
Thighs. Arms. Chest. Abs. Even that shark-tooth V taper at his waist
one glance and you could feel the explosive power coiled inside him.
Pure, overwhelming strength.
Compared to Newgate's fairer skin, Ares' physique hit with a far more savage visual impact.
Marco's eyelid twitched. "Ares… those muscles are insane. He looks like solid steel!"
Vista sucked in a breath. "Even forged, hammered steel couldn't look tougher than that. What kind of training would it take to build a body like that…?"
"M-Muscle fibers…" Jozu stared blankly. "The lines on him… they're like rebar. That's terrifying!"
Only now did they truly understand what kind of "monster" Pops was always talking about.
Their young hearts
were shaken to the core.
Ares, still charging forward, erupted with black-red lightning around his fist. His expression was arrogant, wild, and fearless.
"Hahahaha! Big Bro Whitebeard watch my progress!"
He threw a punch.
The violent black-red lightning on his fist collided and intertwined with the black-red lightning crackling around Murakumogiri.
Boom!
A shockwave of pure destruction detonated outward. The ground shattered into square slabs of stone that lifted into the air
then blasted away in every direction on a raging gale.
Whitebeard steadied himself, then stood tall with his blade held at rest, grinning.
"Gurarararara! You bastard… you really never slack off, do you?"
"Hahaha! And Big Bro Whitebeard is still in his prime too. Looks like you've found your own goal," Ares said, pulling his fist back
then stepped in and gave Whitebeard a huge bear hug.
Whitebeard reached out, patting and feeling Ares' body like he was testing a weapon. That skin and muscle were hard as iron.
He laughed. "Oi, Ares… your physique is getting stronger and stronger. At this rate, you'll surpass the Supreme Grade Blades soon."
"Still a long way off," Ares said with a grin. "Surpassing a Supreme Grade Blade isn't that easy… though I've been improving faster than before."
Ryuo Haki. The Paw-Paw Fruit's ability. Lightning. Seastone.
Stacked together, those methods did push him faster than before.
But the time was still short, and at Ares' current level
real results wouldn't appear overnight.
Still, he wasn't discouraged.
He wasn't even twenty yet.
He could spend years refining his body polishing it like a blade.
Then
maybe one day
he'd reach something like an anime-world version of…
a mortal body ascending into godhood.
When Pops and Ares finally stopped, Marco and the others rushed over, eyes bright with curiosity as they circled Ares like chicks around a mountain.
Marco gasped. "So this is the War God everyone fears on the seas… Ares. He's as strong as Pops!"
Then, with all the shameless courage of a seven-year-old, he blurted, "Ares can I touch you?!"
Compared to him, Jozu and Vista were a bit more reserved.
But their eyes were burning all the same.
"…" Ares couldn't help laughing. For a moment, he didn't know whether to cry or smile.
Whitebeard threw his head back and roared with laughter.
"Gurarararara! Ares, these are my sons. This one's Marco this is Jozu and that's Vista!"
"Go ahead," Ares said.
Marco barely reaching Ares' thigh reached out and pressed his hand to Ares' leg.
It was oddly smooth to the touch.
And hard.
Like steel.
Marco tried pressing harder only to realize he couldn't push it in at all.
The muscle and skin didn't budge.
Jozu and Vista tried too, unable to hide their fascination.
"It's really like steel," Marco said, eyes shining. "Ares, how did you train this body?!"
Ares looked down at the tiny Marco and chuckled. "Ask your old man."
"Because I didn't come here just to show off. I came to ask Big Bro Whitebeard for help."
"Help?" Whitebeard's expression shifted. He looked genuinely surprised. "With your strength, there's still an enemy you can't handle?"
"Don't tell me you're going after Rocks?!"
"I heard Rocks has been searching for you nonstop!"
Ares laughed. "Hahaha Rocks is someone I'll defeat sooner or later."
"But right now, I'm not confident yet. And the War God Pirates… even compared to a damaged Rocks Pirates…"
"We're still short by quite a bit."
Then he gave Whitebeard a brief rundown of the wager-duel in Wano, from cause to consequence.
When he finished
Whitebeard stared at him, stunned.
He'd thought Ares' changes were already huge.
But now he suddenly felt
he couldn't see through the man in front of him at all.
It was like Ares had become a completely different person.
And yet, remembering that clash just now, he knew Ares was still the same Ares at his core the man who wanted to forge his body beyond even a Supreme Grade Blade.
Whitebeard couldn't help but sigh in amazement.
"Ares… your change is bigger than I ever imagined."
He looked at Ares anew.
Truly, with fresh eyes.
And there was even a hint of admiration in his tone.
"If you win this wager… you'll be the ruler of a country."
"In just two or three months, you've developed this far way beyond anything I expected."
"At this pace… it won't be long before your name replaces the Rocks Pirates' position entirely."
And more than that
Ares hadn't kicked Wano into open war with brute force.
Instead, he was about to take the country with minimal bloodshed.
If Ares really became Wano's Shogun, then as long as he achieved a few visible successes, he could win the people's hearts outright.
No endless civil unrest. No wave after wave of rebellion born from war.
Sure, resistance could still happen
but Ares' plan dramatically reduced the odds.
And once he controlled Wano…
he'd be controlling an entire nation's power.
Marco stared up at the hulking muscle-monster in front of him, stunned.
"Wano… that's the legendary land of samurai."
"Ares, you're going to become Wano's Shogun?!"
Jozu looked Ares up and down and commented innocently, "That kimono looks really nice."
Vista, who was obsessed with swordsmanship, had eyes that practically glowed.
"Samurai?! Their sword styles have to be amazing, right?!"
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