Kuzan simply did not know the exact location.
It was hard to say whether he could connect "Ren's intervention" with "Whitebeard's unimaginable strength" because of that.
One was a Warlord of the Sea. The other was one of the Four Emperors. There was absolutely no corresponding intelligence between the two.
But why—
Why did he feel that if Ren had interfered, then Whitebeard being far stronger than the Navy's Strategy Division had planned for would actually make sense?
It was like a fixed impression of, "It's clearly unbelievable, but if it's that guy, then it isn't impossible to understand."
'What a frightening man. To think he's actually left that kind of fixed impression on me.'
Kuzan drew in a deep breath, preparing to act while also refusing to think about that matter any further.
Although he knew it was Whitebeard's open scheme, in order to avoid being wiped out in one wave, he still had no choice but to make a move.
".Using your ability like this, Pops, you…"
Only now did Ace react. With tears in his eyes, he said, full of self-reproach, "When I'm the one who ran out on my own…"
"No. I was the one who told you to go."
Whitebeard cut him off, his gaze gentle as he said, "This is not your fault, Ace."
"Yeah. I heard it too."
Marco nodded. The other division commanders followed suit.
Every single one of these men was a vicious pirate worthy of the name, yet at this moment, they all showed the tolerance and warmth of family.
That only made Ace even more moved, even more tearful, and even more guilty.
Because… many people would die!
Beneath the bay, Ren observed the situation while considering where he should cut in.
At this point, his so-called status as a Warlord of the Sea no longer mattered.
He reached out and clenched his hand. A hilt without a blade appeared in his grasp.
"Is that your sword?"
Mihawk glanced at it, then seemed to sense something and looked up at the sky. "Is the blade up there?"
What his gaze fell upon was the dark thundercloud layer, where he could sense countless bolts of lightning power hidden within.
"Sharp as ever. As expected of the world's greatest swordsman."
Ren shrugged. "Are you planning to be the first one to make a move next?"
"I came here to see just how far I am from the world's strongest."
Mihawk turned his gaze toward the unmoving Whitebeard, a trace of battle intent flashing in his eyes. "Perhaps the words after 'world's greatest' need not be limited to 'swordsman.'"
"Haha, now that's interesting."
Ren chuckled twice, then turned toward Hancock, who had remained silent the entire time. "Since you're unwilling to use that, then stay put obediently. Don't make me unhappy."
"."
The nearby Mihawk and the others showed looks of surprise. None of them knew when the Fiend God and the Empress had gotten involved with each other.
"Ahem—"
Cavendish, holding his hollow fist, coughed twice. Pretending not to know Ren, he said in an arrogant tone, "Hey, Fiend God Ren, was it? Such a low-grade method of flirting is far too boring.
"If you want to become acquainted with the world's most beautiful woman, you should use a more gentlemanly method.
"Wouldn't you agree, incomparably beautiful Miss Hancock?"
He struck what he believed to be a handsome pose and looked toward the heart-stirring beauty.
However, Hancock did not even glance at him.
She merely curled her lips and ignored him, not violating the rule Ren had set for her: "No talking."
After all, from a factual perspective, those red lips belonged to that man.
At that moment, some Navy officers noticed that something was wrong.
"The water level has been rising since just now. What's going on?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Hey, hey! Look over there! What is that?!"
A Marine holding a telescope saw the rising waterline on the distant sea through the lens, climbing higher and higher and higher still!
Or rather, it was a gigantic tsunami rapidly taking shape!
"Don't think that victory is assured just because we have the advantage in numbers!"
Sengoku shouted sharply, his warning voice spreading across the entire battlefield through the Den Den Mushi.
"It may very well be us who are about to face the end of the world, because that man possesses the power to destroy the world!"
He had known what it was from the beginning, but he had not wanted to put too much pressure on his forces. Besides, there was a way to deal with it.
The very moment Sengoku's words fell, all of Marineford felt an intense quake.
It was not an ability.
It was the sea itself trembling.
The ocean shook once more.
Or rather—
A seaquake had erupted!
The violent rumbling made it difficult for the Marines to keep their footing. The two crescent tips on the left and right sides, already having suffered terrifying blows, simply began collapsing on a massive scale.
"It's coming! The seaquake that guy triggered earlier!"
Garp loudly warned them, "Now it's turned into a tsunami and it's crashing toward us! This is what we had to face right from the start! That guy is a quake man who ate the Paramecia-Type Tremor-Tremor Fruit!"
Rumble, rumble—!
The tsunami transformed from the seaquake Whitebeard had unleashed now surged in from both sides of Marineford.
A massive tsunami over a thousand meters tall, rivaling the mountains of Marineford Island itself, entered everyone's vision with a force that blotted out the sky.
Then, with the momentum of the heavens collapsing, it fiercely covered the entirety of Marineford!
"What kind of power is this…?"
"We're done for!"
The enormous shadow brought by the tsunami fell over the faces of the horrified Marines.
A few ability users even felt despair.
No matter what kind of Devil Fruit ability one possessed, before a tsunami of this nation-destroying scale, it seemed meaningless!
There was nothing but death!
"So this is the strongest?"
"Hey, hey! This young master's enemy is on this level?!"
Cavendish and Urouge, their pride wounded, widened their eyes. For the first time, they truly understood what kind of enemy they were standing against.
Mihawk said nothing, but his gaze grew increasingly heated.
Ren and Hancock had already exchanged information, so both of them knew what would happen next.
The tsunamis on both sides piled up into the sky, reaching their highest point in a way that covered heaven and earth. Then they were about to transform into seawater carrying terrifying potential energy and crash down.
From the three chairs beneath the execution platform, a tall man abruptly stood up. Cold air radiated from his body, leaving conspicuous ice marks on his seat.
It was none other than one of the Three Admirals, Aokiji Kuzan.
A Logia user of the Ice-Ice Fruit!
Whoosh—!
Amid a sharp whistling sound, Kuzan's figure flashed, crossing over a thousand meters in distance and arriving in the high sky between the two towering tsunamis.
Then he stretched both arms to the left and right. From his palms, two long, slender pillars of ice shot out, striking the seawater that was about to collapse down.
"Ice Age—!"
His voice rang through the air above the harbor in the next instant.
What followed was an endless sound of freezing.
Crack, crack—crack, crack—
The vast quantity of seawater composing the tsunamis froze at a visible speed from top to bottom.
Those tiny ice pillars, as thin and insignificant-looking as fingertips, unbelievably froze the giant tsunamis that could have destroyed Marineford.
From the wave crests to the wave bottoms, and then down into the bay, fixed support points formed, temporarily restraining the enormous blocks of ice and preventing them from smashing down directly.
In just a few seconds, Kuzan had temporarily resolved the crisis Whitebeard had brought.
"How exaggerated. That scale and output speed…"
Ren thoughtfully recorded the differences. Clearly, back in Mock Town, Kuzan had not truly gone all out.
At the same time, he hid his hand behind his back and quietly used a black-gold card.
Space-Time: Temporal Mist trait—activate!
Mist adjusted to be extremely thin yet still effective spread through the changing weather, diffusing across the entire battlefield.
While the only person who had been staring at him was fighting and unable to pay attention to him…
This was the perfect chance to harvest a wave of time units large enough to make him rich overnight!
"Aokiji, you brat…"
Whitebeard's eyes shone like torches as he looked toward Aokiji, who had frozen the tsunami with a single Ice Age.
Aokiji was still high in the sky, lowering his head and calmly meeting Whitebeard's gaze.
His attack was not over yet.
"Dual Thorn Spears!"
Aokiji waved both hands, condensing four ice spears out of thin air and hurling them forward. They shot out as fiercely and swiftly as arrows loosed from a bow.
But that was only the surface. The true killing power lay in the extreme cold contained within them!
"Go blow cold air at someone else."
Whitebeard raised an eyebrow and threw out a simple, unadorned punch.
Crack—!
The atmosphere distorted, and quake force swiftly transmitted through the air.
The incoming ice spears were shattered to pieces in an instant, after which the force brutally crushed into Aokiji's body.
Crack—!
One fissure after another appeared across Aokiji's face and body. It looked as if he had been struck from afar.
But an attack not coated in Haki could not injure a Logia ability user.
He seized the opportunity.
His body, emitting icy mist, shattered into blocks and fell onto the surface of the sea inside the harbor, condensing into an ice sculpture with no human shape.
Water splashed up, then froze over in the blink of an eye.
As the ice sculpture rapidly transformed back into Kuzan, extreme cold erupted and froze the entire sea surface within the bay.
Naturally, that also included the bottoms of Whitebeard's four ships, which were all frozen into one whole by Aokiji.
Under these circumstances, the enormous ice blocks on both sides, large enough to cover the sky, could no longer cause any damage.
At the same time, the main target's mobility had been restricted, ensuring there would be no possibility of them running away if they could not win.
It also divided the battlefield, forcing the ships outside the bay to be unable to directly enter.
Those pirates had to charge in, and when retreating, they would also have to withdraw to their ships before they could leave.
In short, this was not a reckless move.
As for the negative effects, it was hard to say how much seawater would actually affect these New World pirates.
"The ship's frozen."
"Yeah. But this gives us a foothold."
Seeing their ships frozen, the crew of the Whitebeard Pirates did not take it seriously.
"Go! Show the Navy what we're made of!"
"Oooh!"
Whitebeard and Aokiji's brief clash had only just ended.
The members of the Whitebeard Pirates, led by their respective commanders, began jumping off the ships one after another.
At the same time, the shore batteries and cannons that had repeatedly suffered heavy damage finally began to show their power, though their scale had been greatly reduced.
Even so, they maintained fierce firepower, bombarding the pirates and ships on the ice with shell after shell.
Boom—boom—boom.
Towering flames appeared alongside continuous explosions, causing some obstruction to the pirates on Whitebeard's side.
But they were New World pirates after all. Their strength was excellent, and they did not lack powerful fighters capable of resisting cannon fire.
At the same time, the cannons on all four pirate ships immediately launched a counterattack, targeting and eliminating the shore batteries one by one.
For a time, artillery fire filled the harbor, and both opposing sides poured out their firepower with all their might.
Once strength reached a certain level, not to mention bullets, even cannon fire could no longer pose much of a threat.
(End of Chapter)