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With Kizaru finally brought down, Marco wasted no time.
He raised his arm—and the Phoenix Pirates surged forward like a tidal wave.
Without an Admiral-level powerhouse to anchor the battlefield, the Marines' formation collapsed almost instantly. What had been a disciplined blockade became chaos.
Cannons roared. Blue-black flames streaked across the sea.
Within minutes—
Ten Marine warships were reduced to burning wreckage.
Ten thousand Marines were either slain or taken captive.
It was a crushing, one-sided victory.
When Marco returned to Hachinosu, Brulee was already there in bad shape, surrounded by her younger siblings.
The moment she saw Marco step ashore—with a defeated Admiral in chains—she cried after him, her voice trembling.
"Lord Marco! Please—please hurry! Mama and the others are being overwhelmed by the Marines! You have to save them!"
Marco's expression hardened immediately.
There was no time to celebrate.
He turned sharply to Jozu.
"Jozu. You and Namur stay behind."
His tone was cold and precise.
"Guard the prisoners—especially Kizaru."
"Seastone cuffs and chains aren't enough. Build a water prison. Layer it with Sea Stone restraints. Triple the security."
"No one approaches him."
It had taken everything to capture an Admiral. Marco had not yet decided how to use that bargaining chip—but he would not allow even the slightest chance of rescue.
"Understood," Jozu replied gravely.
Marco turned back toward Brulee.
"Open the Mirror World."
He spread his black wings.
"Brothers—we move. We rescue our allies."
"YES!"
And the Phoenix Pirates vanished into the mirrors.
—
Meanwhile, Cake Island had become a battlefield of fire and blood.
Smoke blanketed the sky.
Cannons thundered.
Homies burned.
The clash between Marines and Pirates had escalated into a full-scale slaughter.
Vice Admirals and commanders found their respective opponents, steel and Haki colliding in explosive bursts.
Casualties mounted on both sides.
But at the center of it all—
Charlotte Linlin was struggling.
Against Sakazuki, she felt pressure unlike anything she had faced in years.
Her famed "iron balloon" body—once believed invulnerable—was being broken down by magma and absolute justice.
"Hell Dog!"
Sakazuki's magma fist tore forward.
It pierced straight through her abdomen.
Molten heat flooded her body.
Blood erupted from her mouth and nose as her massive frame crashed to her knees.
"Mama!" Katakuri and Smoothie shouted in horror.
From across the battlefield—
Aramaki's grin widened.
"Hey… where are you looking?"
"You dare lose focus against me?"
In an instant, a Haki-hardened vine shot forward—
It pierced clean through Smoothie's torso.
Her body began to wither as the Forest-Forest Fruit drained her vitality.
"SMOOTHIE!"
Katakuri's pupils shrank.
Rage detonated inside him.
Without hesitation, he triggered his Awakening.
The ground liquefied into mochi.
The towering trees, the vines, the forest itself—
Began transforming.
Aramaki blinked in surprise as sections of his carefully constructed forest were forcibly assimilated into white, sticky mass.
"Oh?"
"So you can overwrite my forest?"
The battlefield trembled again—as two awakened powers collided in brutal defiance.
And somewhere, beyond the smoke and fire—A black flame flickered inside a mirror.
Even with Armament Haki coating every branch and trunk, Aramaki watched in disbelief as parts of his forest were still being assimilated into mochi.
The trees bent.
Liquefied.
Turned white.
He clicked his tongue, though a crooked grin tugged at his lips.
"Well now… impressive. As expected of the Big Mom Pirates' second-in-command."
At the center of the battlefield—
Linlin's massive body was still impaled by magma.
Her insides burned.
Her vision blurred.
Yet she refused to fall.
Gritting her teeth, she clenched Napoleon in one hand while her other hand seized Sakazuki's torso in a death grip. If she was going down—she would take him with her.
Sakazuki's eyes glinted coldly.
"Just die obediently."
"Great Eruption!"
The magma fist buried inside her body detonated.
A torrential surge of molten lava erupted outward, flooding through her torso. Organs vaporized. Flesh charred. The air filled with the smell of burning blood.
Then—
BOOM!
A massive magma arm exploded out from her back and blasted deep into the forest beyond.
The power of that strike rivaled—perhaps even surpassed—the blow that had shattered Whitebeard at Marineford.
Linlin dropped to one knee.
Breathing ragged.
Smoke rising from her body.
Sakazuki exhaled slowly.
Finally… the monster was falling.
"Mama…!"
Katakuri's heart felt as though it were being crushed.
The invincible empress—Brought to her knees.
Aramaki glanced over, his earlier tension gone.
He grinned broadly.
"Incredible, Brother Sakazuki! Looks like I'll have to try harder myself!"
But just as darkness threatened to swallow her—
Linlin saw them.
Her children.
Katakuri.
Smoothie.
The younger ones.
Memories pierced through the haze.
Her eyes snapped open.
With a furious roar, she tightened her grip on Sakazuki.
"Even if I die… I'll drag you to hell with me!"
Her Conqueror's Haki flared one final time.
Sakazuki's expression changed.
Napoleon descended—
A blade filled with every ounce of her remaining life force.
He crossed his Haki-coated arm in defense—
Too late.
The slash cleaved clean through.
His left arm was severed instantly.
A brutal sword shockwave tore across his body and hurled him backward over a hundred meters, carving a deep trench through the battlefield.
Blood sprayed.
Steam rose from exposed flesh.
Yet Sakazuki did not fall.
He stabilized himself through sheer willpower, magma boiling violently around him. A horrific sword wound ran diagonally across his chest.
He coughed blood.
"…Tch. Careless."
His eyes locked back onto Linlin.
Her injuries were catastrophic—worse than Whitebeard's at Marineford. Her internal organs were nearly gone.
Even so—
She had nearly taken him with her.
"Hmph. A final struggle before death."
"Brother Sakazuki!"
Aramaki's expression twisted with alarm at the sight of the severed arm.
He immediately commanded his vines to retrieve it and rushed to Sakazuki's side.
"Quick! Reattach it—I'll assist!"
Sakazuki grabbed the severed limb without hesitation and pressed it back into place.
"Life Return!"
His muscles convulsed violently as he forced blood vessels and tissue to reconnect.
At the same time, Aramaki transformed his arm into intertwining branches and drove them into the wound junction.
"Forest Healing—Life Force!"
Green saplings sprouted from the reattached limb, glowing faintly. Their vitality seeped into Sakazuki's flesh.
Muscle fibers reknit.
Bone fused.
Blood flow resumed.
Under the combined force of Rokushiki mastery and the Forest-Forest Fruit's vitality, the grotesque wound began visibly healing.
Across the battlefield—
Pirates and Marines alike watched in stunned silence.
Aramaki did not stop.
The branches sprouting from his back twisted and thickened, transforming into living conduits of vitality. One after another, they pierced into Sakazuki's body, pulsing with emerald light as torrents of life force flowed through them.
Under that unnatural nourishment, the horrific gash across Sakazuki's chest began to knit together. Burned flesh fused. Torn muscle reattached. Even the severed arm, crudely rejoined moments ago, visibly stabilized as veins and bone reconnected beneath the bark-like tendrils.
Steam rose from his body.
He stood straighter.
"Mama…"
Katakuri arrived at Big Mom's side—and froze.
Through the massive, charred cavity in her abdomen, he could see daylight.
He could see Sakazuki.
He could see Aramaki.
The wound was so catastrophic it no longer resembled something survivable. It looked like an execution.
Blood poured from Linlin's mouth and nose. Her vision blurred. Yet even now, madness and defiance burned in her eyes.
In a hoarse, broken voice, she growled—
"At the cost of ten years of my life… heal this wound."
Her own soul responded.
A violent surge of life force erupted from her body.
Her once vibrant pink hair rapidly faded to gray. Her bloated frame withered and tightened as though decades passed in an instant. Wrinkles deepened. Age spots bloomed across her skin.
Time devoured her.
But the gaping hole in her abdomen began to close.
Flesh regenerated.
Bone reformed.
The magma-burned cavity slowly sealed itself as if reality itself were being forced to obey her will.
Aramaki's grin faltered.
"What the hell…? What kind of monster is this?! Even that injury can recover?!"
Sakazuki's jaw tightened.
"These Yonko… they truly are aberrations. You can't measure them by common sense."
Aramaki let out a short laugh, though unease lingered in his eyes.
"She said ten years, didn't she? So that's the price. She burned ten years of her own life to survive."
Half a minute later, the external wound had fully closed.
But Big Mom's breathing remained ragged. Her internal organs were still scorched beyond recognition.
Her face darkened.
Even sacrificing ten years… wasn't enough.
She clenched her teeth.
"Five more years… heal my internal organs."
Again, she tore lifespan from herself.
Another five years vanished.
Her aura trembled violently as charred organs regenerated. Blackened tissue regained color. Her heart resumed its rhythm. Her lungs filled fully once more.
The damage was repaired.
But the cost was unmistakable.
Her body had drastically transformed.
The once towering, massive Empress now appeared gaunt—almost skeletal. Her pink dress hung loosely over her diminished frame. Her gray hair fell lifelessly around a face lined deeply by age.
She looked decades older.
Because she was.
Katakuri stared in stunned silence.
His Observation Haki told him everything.
Her aura was unstable.
Chaotic.
Flickering.
She had sacrificed fifteen years of her life in mere moments.
At sixty-seven years old—she now carried the burden of eighty-two.
And even so, the fire in her eyes had not gone out.
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