"Gorosei, you guys are really persistent," Marco muttered, glaring up at them. They still loomed before him in their demonized forms, their auras as oppressive as ever—each one radiating power on par with a king. His expression hardened.
Now, though, a pair of demonic wings had sprouted from the backs of all four, allowing them to hover calmly in the air.
Nusjuro slid the Shodai Kitetsu back into its sheath and said coldly, "Kaido, I didn't expect you to still be alive."
Kaido listened, then bared his teeth in a wicked grin. "Wororororo! Not only am I still alive, Linlin is too! I might've been on the brink of death back then, but in the end, I survived—while one of you Gorosei has already kicked the bucket. Wororororo, this is gonna be big news!"
Kaido's smugness made the remaining Gorosei's faces twist with displeasure.
Nusjuro snorted. "Fujitora is useless. Those two clearly had no strength left to resist, yet he couldn't even kill a pair of defenseless wastes. The Marines really are becoming more and more worthless."
Saint Peter added indifferently, "From the very beginning, the Marines were just the facade of our world government. They can barely handle small-time pirates. Against an alliance of three of four emperors' crews, their power is naturally lacking."
Nusjuro said with open contempt, "The biggest problem is Sakazuki's incompetence. The last time he struck at the Big Mom Pirates, he took heavy losses and still failed. Making him Fleet Admiral was a mistake."
"Hey! You done running your mouths yet?!" Marco shouted impatiently at the four Gorosei in the sky.
"Kaido-san, Marco-san, we've come to help you!" At that moment, King and Zack flew over to join them.
There were other flyers among the Beasts Pirates thanks to their Devil Fruits, but they hadn't come. Against monsters on the level of the Gorosei, numbers meant nothing. When it came down to Haki, only those with genuine strength could even hope to stand their ground.
In truth, even King and Zack were completely outclassed before the Gorosei. At best, they could avoid being killed in an instant. Without Haoshoku, defeating them was impossible.
Nusjuro gave a derisive snort. "Hmph. So eager to die?"
"Damn it, the Gorosei again…" Ace looked up at Uranus and the Gorosei lined across the sky, his face darkening.
"Damn it! I can't fly!" Yamato said anxiously. "Those guys are all in the sky—there's no way to deal with them like this!"
Marco watched as Uranus slowly pushed its way out of the spatial wormhole, eyes narrowing. "Move now," he said at once. "We can't let them use Uranus. We have to find a way to destroy it."
"I don't need you to tell me that." Kaido threw his head back, jaws yawning wide as he gathered energy once more. He roared, "Dragon Breath—"
Before he could fire, Nusjuro was already there, flashing into place right in front of Kaido. His sword aura came crashing down. This time, Kaido's Dragon Breath detonated before it even left his throat, exploding inside his own mouth. The violent sword pressure ripped through his dragon jaws, and blood erupted from Kaido's maw.
Nusjuro slid his demonic blade, the Shodai Kitetsu, back into its scabbard with a calm, indifferent expression. "Have you already forgotten the injuries you suffered before, Kaido of the Beasts?"
Kaido immediately shifted from his full beast form into his human-beast form. One hand clutched his chin, bloodshot eyes glaring, and he let out a strangled, furious roar. "Damn it…"
His mouth was a wreck. Saint Garling had once severed his masticatory muscles, and though they had only just begun to heal, Nusjuro's strike had torn them open again. The muscles linking his upper and lower jaws had snapped completely; his lower jaw now hung down to his neck—a grotesque, nightmarish sight.
Against a monster swordsman like Nusjuro, staying in full beast form was nothing but turning himself into a gigantic target. He didn't dare meet the Shodai Kitetsu in that form.
Even his dragon-scale defenses couldn't withstand that kind of sword slashes.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Saint Peter intercepted Zack, Saint Saturn blocked King, and Marco now stood facing Warcury. Marco eyed him with open disdain. "Saint Warcury, you really think you alone can stop me?"
Saint Warcury had taken on his human-beast form—a boar's head atop a human body. He answered coldly, "Maybe not for long. But for two or three minutes… I'm confident I can."
Warcury spoke coldly, cutting a glance from the corner of his eye at Uranus looming behind him. "Feel honored. As mere ants, you're fortunate enough to witness the legendary Uranus in your lifetime. This is the strongest power of our World Government, our national treasure. In eight hundred years, it's only been used a handful of times—and this time, it will be used to annihilate you ants. It's honestly a bit of overkill."
"The premise is that you can actually last those two or three minutes," Marco replied. He drew in a deep breath, letting his aura steadily sink and fade. He'd decided to use Observation Kill.
Observation Kill was a technique that fused Observation Haki with Haoshoku. When both of Marco's Haki had reached a legendary level, this ability awakened within him.
Warcury's pupils shrank. All of a sudden, Marco's presence vanished. Marco was clearly standing right in front of him, yet his Observation Haki couldn't sense him at all.
"Is this observation kill?" Warcury had seen countless powers across the seas and quickly recognized the technique. He had never used it himself, but Imu had—and through Imu, he naturally knew of Observation Kill.
In hundreds of years, only a tiny number of top-tier fighters had ever mastered this ability. The former Pirate King, Roger, was one. Rocks was another.
Of those still alive, he knew of only two who possessed Observation Kill: the leader of the God's Knights, Saint Figarland Garling, and his own son, the Four Emperor, Red-Haired Shanks.
He had never imagined Marco would also wield Observation Kill.
This was anything but good news. Marco was already monstrously strong; with Observation Kill on top of that, he would be even more troublesome to deal with.
Marco gathered Haki into his palms, shaping it into blades as armament haki condensed into two Haki Blades—pure energy blades—gripped in his hands. Forged entirely from Armament Haki, these blades were no less sharp than a Supreme Grade blade.
In the next instant, Marco moved. His black flame wings beat once, launching him straight toward Warcury.
At the same time, he pushed his Observation Haki to the limit, and black flames surged along the Hakii Blades in both his hands.
"Armament Haki…"
Instead of attacking, Warcury chose to defend. His Observation Haki couldn't pick up even a trace of Marco's presence; if he lashed out blindly, he'd never land a clean hit.
In the next instant, dense armament haki flooded over his entire body. His already crimson skin darkened and took on a metallic blue sheen, coating Warcury from head to toe.
"Come on!" He clenched his fists and crossed his arms in front of him. His confidence in his armament haki was absolute. His ability already granted him terrifying defense—stacked with that ironclad coating, he was certain that even Marco wouldn't be able to break through.
The two figures closed the distance in a flash.
Marco's twin Haki blades—those crackling energy blades—came shearing down in a single, ruthless stroke. Their bodies passed one another, and in that same heartbeat, Warcury's crossed arms were cleaved clean off. An X-shaped gash split across his chest, and blood burst from his mouth.
"Cough, cough—damn it…" He watched, stunned, as his severed arms tumbled from the sky. When he looked back at Marco, his eyes were wide with shock—and just a flicker of fear.
He had never imagined that the defense he was so proud of would be shattered by Marco so effortlessly.
If Marco had actually been a swordsman, that last hit would have left him in an even worse state. That slash had been nothing more than raw power and Haki—no sword techniques at all.
Marco glanced over his shoulder at Warcury. Ending him here and now would have been easy.
But there were more pressing threats.
Uranus had already emerged more than halfway out of the spatial wormhole. If it fully descended, the consequences would be catastrophic.
With Marco's current strength, killing Warcury posed no real challenge. But Uranus, combined with Imu's spatial teleportation…
It would be like a stealth bomber—appearing out of nowhere to drop destruction, then vanishing just as suddenly.
If he didn't seize this chance to destroy Uranus, Imu could send that ancient weapon to ambush him in his sleep. That would be unacceptable.
Uranus was a pure machine, not a living being; it had no aura for Observation Haki to latch onto.
Even if Marco's Observation Haki were sharp enough to read air currents themselves, the threat Uranus posed to him and the Three Emperors Alliance far surpassed Warcury's.
Without further hesitation, Marco turned his back on the wounded Saint and shot into the sky, wings beating as he flew straight toward Uranus.
"Wait, Marco...!" Warcury shouted, his voice edged with terror.
The more Warcury panicked about Marco destroying Uranus, the more determined Marco became to do exactly that.
"Bastard, stop!" Saturn roared. A spider leg stabbed clean through Zack's body, and he flung Zack down toward Egghead Island like garbage before hurling himself after Marco.
"Out of my way!" Saint Peter also unleashed his power. Facing King, whose strength was far beneath his own, he drove a kick straight into King's chest. King coughed blood and plummeted.
As Marco drew nearer to Uranus, he finally grasped the true scale of the ancient weapon towering before him. The Haki Blades in his hands stretched longer, Black Flame igniting along their length. He roared, "Watch me tear you apart!"
His Black Flame Wings shifted form, turning into something like roaring rocket thrusters that blasted him forward, accelerating him straight toward Uranus.
Below, in the midst of his clash with Nusjuro, Kaido bellowed, "Go, Marco! I don't care if it's an ancient weapon—destroy it for me!"
"Go, Marco!" the pirates below echoed, faces flushed with excitement as they howled their support.
Marco was just about to reach Uranus when a transparent barrier suddenly materialized in front of him. He smashed into it face-first. Agony shot through him as the invisible wall bounced him back hard.
Kaido froze in shock, and the pirates below stared wide-eyed, equally stunned.
"Damn it, what's going on?!" Gritting his teeth through the pain, Marco forced his eyes open—and his pupils shrank. Now that he was looking for it, he saw it clearly: a yellow energy barrier wrapped around Uranus. It had been invisible until the instant he collided with it; only then had it flared into view.
"So I was hitting this?" Marco's face darkened. His speed had been insane just now, and even so, the barrier had swatted him away like nothing. Was this Uranus's built-in defensive shield?
As he hesitated for that brief instant, a powerful sense of danger exploded behind him. He began to turn, but a massive, gaping maw was already lunging toward him.
Too late to dodge, Marco could only defend. The giant sand worm clamped down on him. Marco shoved both hands against its fangs, muscles straining as the crushing bite force tried to snap him in half.
"Saint Peter, huh?" Marco instantly knew who it was. Even while trapped in the creature's jaws, his Observation Haki had already identified its master.
Marco braced his feet against the sand worm's lower jaw and forced his hands up against its upper fangs, straining to tear himself free in one explosive motion when Saturn suddenly appeared beside him, his voice like ice.
"Die, Marco."
With Marco's arms and legs fully occupied trying to pry open the monster's massive jaws, his chest was left completely exposed. One of Saturn's saint's spider legs thrust straight through his torso.
Marco screamed, a spray of fresh blood bursting from his mouth—only for it to be instantly consumed by the Black Flame.
"Marco!"
The pirates below roared in anguish at the sight.
But no matter how they shouted, they were powerless to interfere now, forced to watch in helpless frustration from the ground.
"Damn it…" Marco ground out, forcing himself to endure. As a Phoenix Fruit user, his tolerance for pain was monstrous; even a wound like this wasn't enough to break him.
With a furious roar, Marco's power surged. Black flame erupted from his body like a tidal wave, flooding the sandworm's entire maw in an instant.
The creature shrieked in agony, the Black Flame searing its insides, and reflexively spat Marco out.
The moment he was free, the Black Flame cloaking Marco's body began rapidly knitting his torn flesh back together. At the same time, Warcury grew back his arms, and under the power of immortality, his own injuries closed as if they had never been.
The three Gorosei spread out, forming a loose triangle around Marco.
Facing them, Marco felt a dull throb behind his eyes. He glanced up at Uranus. The energy barrier that had briefly become visible when he'd crashed into it was now fading, turning transparent again until it looked as if it had never been there at all. He clenched his jaw.
"Damn it, does Uranus also have defensive capabilities?"
Saturn replied coldly, "Uranus is the treasure of our world government. It wields not only the greatest destructive power but also the strongest defense. Even Pluton, one of the three Ancient Weapons, cannot break through Uranus's energy shield."
At that moment, Saint Peter also shifted into his Human-Beast Form. His gaze was frigid as he spoke.
"In truth, we all gave you a chance—and Imu-sama gave you a chance as well. As long as you submitted to us, you could live. But you chose the path of death."
Warcury said coldly, "We will remember your name. Though you're just a lowly insect, you've caused us considerable trouble. Perhaps in the next few hundred years, there won't be another insect as formidable as you."
"However, no matter how formidable an insect is, it's still just an insect. Being trampled to death and swept into the trash is your destiny."
Marco's mouth twitched as he listened. "Damn it, can't you guys stop showing off? If I don't kill you old geezers, I'll take your last name!"
Saturn snorted and replied icily, "Hmph. You, an insect, think you're worthy of sharing a surname with us?"
"What the f—" Marco swore, then shot forward, charging straight at Saturn.
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