Kaido's confusion lasted only an instant.
But for an existence on the level of Kaido of the Beasts, even an instant was already far too long.
Time began flowing again.
An invisible pressure suddenly pressed the deathly silent sea downward, raising a ring of towering waves.
The air was drained dry, turning thin and scorching, and the Marine soldiers aboard the dog-headed warship felt as if their lungs were being burned, the pain so intense they could hardly breathe.
The wind, the waves, the frozen laughter of the Beasts Pirates—every sound vanished.
In the entire world, only Kaido's breathing remained, growing heavier and rougher by the second.
"Ginrummy..."
Kaido slowly brought the tiny Den Den Mushi to his mouth, speaking one word at a time. His voice was low, like magma churning deep underground.
"Say that again."
"What happened to Jack?"
His tone was calm, but the arrogance and drunkenness in those golden eyes had faded, leaving only a burning blood-red rage.
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Ginrummy's voice trembled violently, carrying sobs and uncontrollable terror.
"Kaido-san... it's true... we all saw it with our own eyes!"
"Jack-sama... he used his mammoth strength. He covered himself in Armament Haki again and again... But..."
"But that Marine... that monster called Zaraki..."
Ginrummy's voice suddenly rose into a heart-rending scream.
"The final slash... it only took the final slash!"
"A dark-gold slash from that huge blade! It cut Jack-sama... from shoulder to waist... split him apart alive—!"
Crack!
A crisp sound rang out.
Kaido's enormous hand, strong enough to crush steel, suddenly clenched shut.
The pitiful Den Den Mushi, along with the message it had delivered, was crushed into powder and fell from between his fingers.
After a silence stretched to its absolute limit, a wave of air mixed with Conqueror's Haki erupted from Kaido as its center.
"WOOOOOOOAAAHHHHHH—!"
It was the most primal roar of an ancient beast whose reverse scale had been touched.
The sound wave turned into a shockwave, cracking the deck of the Beasts Pirates flagship inch by inch. The sea beneath his feet seemed to have been struck by a deep-sea bomb, exploding into a massive depression and raising waves that reached for the sky.
"ZARAKI—!"
Veins bulged along Kaido's neck. His face twisted with rage, savage as a demon.
"I'm going to tear you to pieces!"
Before the words had fully fallen, his burly body shot into the sky like a cannonball.
The sky changed color.
A gigantic blue dragon appeared within the clouds, its body large enough to blot out the sky. Its eyes, larger than lanterns, were dyed crimson with killing intent.
The dragon did not stop for even a moment.
It did not even spare Garp another glance before tearing through the clouds, transforming into a streak of blue light as it shot madly toward the G-18 Branch.
"Kaido-san!"
A black shadow followed close behind.
King the Wildfire spread his black wings wreathed in flames, transforming into a pteranodon as he silently and firmly pursued his lord, disappearing into the sky alongside him.
They were gone.
Just like that, the two strongest combatants of the Beasts Pirates had left behind a ruined deck, a group of pirates silent with fear, and a dead-still sea.
On the dog-headed warship, only after that pressure capable of crushing the soul had completely disappeared did the young Marines collapse to the deck, gasping for breath, their bodies already soaked in cold sweat.
"We seriously underestimated him, Garp-san."
Bogard adjusted the brim of his hat, his gaze beneath the lenses more solemn than ever. He looked in the direction where the two monsters had vanished, his voice dry and strained.
"To finish Jack the Drought with that final slash after he had defended with Armament Haki again and again... That level of strength..."
He did not continue, but the meaning was obvious.
That kind of achievement could no longer be summarized simply with the words "Admiral-level."
But that strength had now drawn a fatal disaster.
"He has completely enraged the most vicious monster in the world," Bogard said, bitterness in his voice.
Garp stood motionless at the bow, his fists clenched tightly.
The face that usually wore an unserious grin was now so dark it looked ready to drip water.
Countless thoughts churned in his chest before finally turning into a cold chill.
That damn brat... did he have any idea what he had just done?
Did he know he was now being hunted by the strongest creature in the world, and that Kaido would not stop until one of them was dead?
Just then, a Marine soldier in charge of communications stumbled onto the deck in panic, his expression even more terrified than when he had seen Kaido. In his hand, he tightly clutched a Den Den Mushi receiver.
"Vice... Vice Admiral Garp!"
His voice had completely changed from fear and excitement.
"The G-18 Branch... just relayed the message War Demon Zaraki left before departing!"
Garp whipped his head around, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"Speak!"
The soldier swallowed hard and shouted with all his strength, "The G-18 Branch tried to relay Vice Admiral Tsuru's recall order, but War Demon Zaraki had already left and could not be contacted!"
The communications soldier's voice had already gone completely off-pitch. As if afraid the others would not believe him, or perhaps as if trying to convince himself, he pressed the receiver tightly to his ear while repeating the message, his eyes wide with terror.
"He said Pelo Island still has civilians, wounded Marines, and important facilities, making it unsuitable as a battlefield against Kaido of the Beasts... In order to reduce losses as much as possible, he has decided to actively lure Kaido to the open waters of the Arlans Sea, about one hundred and twenty nautical miles northeast of the G-18 Branch, between Pelo Island and Wano's outer route!"
The deck fell into deathly silence.
Every word was like a lead weight smashing hard into everyone's nerves.
He refused to return to Headquarters?
He was actively luring Kaido?
Bogard's glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose, but he did not notice at all. His mouth opened, yet not a single syllable came out.
That calm mind, which had followed Garp through countless life-and-death battles, had completely crashed.
This could not be called a plan at all.
It was a declaration of a reckless death match!
"What else... did he say?" Garp's voice was terrifyingly low.
The communications soldier trembled even harder. He swallowed, and with a voice almost carrying sobs, repeated the original words that had frozen his soul.
"War Demon Zaraki's exact words were..."
"Emperor Kaido, strongest creature..."
"...is worth one serious slash from me."
"..."
Worth... one serious slash?
It was the calm, matter-of-fact tone of a hunter who had finally found prey worthy of his blade, carrying just the faintest trace of excitement.
"Bwa..."
Garp suddenly let out a low laugh.
"Bwahaha... Bwahahaha..."
The laughter grew louder and louder, but it was filled with towering anger and an almost absurd disbelief.
He slowly raised his head, the muscles on his wrinkled face twitching uncontrollably.
'That damn brat... what did he think Kaido was? Some small-time pirate on the Grand Line?'
'No.'
A thought flashed through Garp's mind, making his whole body stiffen.
In the eyes of the monster who had killed Jack with one slash, a Four Emperor might truly be nothing more than a target "worth cutting seriously."
That gap in perception made Garp feel a chill from the bottom of his heart.
"What do we do... Garp-san?"
Bogard finally found his voice. He pushed up his glasses and forced himself to calm down.
"Do we continue pursuing Kaido, or..."
He did not finish, but the meaning was clear.
Were they going to try to drag that lunatic back alive, or arrive only in time to collect what was left of him? Or were they going to follow the Fleet Admiral's order and ensure their own safety first?
Garp's laughter stopped abruptly.
He suddenly turned around, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the sky where Kaido and King had vanished.
All his emotions finally gathered into a single unquestionable order.
"Turn the ship!"
His roar drowned out the waves and echoed over the entire warship.
"Full turn! Target, Arlans Sea! Push this ship to its limit!"
"I want to see with my own eyes how that bastard gets himself killed... and if there's still room to drag him back, I drag him back myself!"
"Yes, sir!"
After a brief moment of shock, the Marines aboard the dog-headed warship sprang into action.
The helmsman turned the wheel with all his strength, and the huge ship carved a decisive arc across the sea.
The dog-head figurehead at the bow seemed to bare its fangs in that moment, charging at full speed toward the waters where a storm was about to descend.
...
At the same time, along the turbulent route between Wano's outer waters and Pelo Island.
This stretch of sea had originally been crowded with scattered pirate traffic, most of it trying to avoid both Wano's outer waters and the Marine route around Pelo Island.
But a few minutes earlier, the sky had darkened without warning. Sunlight, warmth, and even the movement of the air seemed to have been completely cut off by an invisible force.
Wild winds howled. Waves surged.
A huge blue figure appeared and vanished within the clouds. Every time it rolled through the sky, thunder and storms capable of destroying the world followed in its wake.
Behind it was a pteranodon burning with raging flames, its wings stirring the air until even the atmosphere seemed to catch fire.
"W-What the hell is that?!"
The lookout on one pirate ship was so frightened he fell from the crow's nest, pointing at the sky and babbling incoherently.
"A dragon... It's a real dragon!"
"And that bird! Is that a legendary pteranodon?!"
Fear spread through the pirates like a plague.
They could not raise the slightest thought of resisting or fleeing.
They could only stare helplessly as the two mythical beasts occupied the sky above them, as though waiting for something.
The entire route ahead had already become a hell on earth.
On the dog-headed warship, a young Marine stared at the terrifying apocalyptic scene in the distance, his face deathly pale and his legs trembling.
"War Demon Zaraki killed Jack... and now he was really planning to use himself as bait for an Emperor?"
That thought swept across the entire warship like an invisible current.
Use himself as bait for an Emperor of the Sea?
That was not an operation. It was the kind of world-shaking gamble that should have required every top combatant of Marine Headquarters, the authority of the World Government, and years of planning before anyone even dared to speak of it.
But now, this wildly insane guess was being confirmed by Zaraki's unbelievable message and actions.
He was not insane, he was serious!
"It's over..."
An experienced veteran leaned weakly against the rail, staring hollowly at the doomsday scene in the distance.
"We're all risking our lives alongside a madman..."
There was no accusation in his words, only the helplessness of someone crushed by reality.
"Garp-san..." Bogard's voice was unusually hoarse as he held onto the railing and forced himself to stand steadily on the violently shaking ship.
"Even if we make it there now... will it really matter?"
This was not doubt. It was the coldest analysis.
"That is Kaido. Even if Zaraki truly has strength beyond our imagination and can face Kaido head-on, what about the Beasts Pirates? King the Wildfire has already followed him. Queen the Plague and countless Gifters and Headliners are still out there... Once battle begins, it will become a full-scale war sweeping across the entire New World."
Bogard took a deep breath.
The icy sea air filled his lungs, but it could not cool his chaotic mind.
"This ship, along with the thousand soldiers aboard it... if we rush into a battlefield of that level, we won't even be enough to raise a single wave."
Garp did not turn back.
He stood like a silent statue, letting the gale whip his Justice coat behind him.
The warship charged forward through the waves. Everyone could feel the hull groaning under the force of the sea, but no one retreated, because the man standing at the bow was the pillar of their faith.
"We..." Garp finally spoke, his voice seeming to squeeze out from the deepest part of his chest, "are not going there to join the battle."
He slowly turned around, then swept his gaze across the tense, pale faces on the deck.
"We're going there to witness it."
"To witness the end of an era... or the beginning of an even crazier one."
"And..." He paused, the corner of his mouth pulling into a savage arc. "If that bastard really gets himself killed..."
"Then even if it costs me my life, I'll make that overgrown dragon pay him back!"
...
At the same time, along the turbulent route between Wano's outer waters and Pelo Island.
This stretch of water had completely transformed into a demonic realm.
The sky was covered by heavy storm clouds.
Thunder serpents danced wildly within them, while enormous whirlpools formed across the surface of the sea, dragging several unfortunate pirate ships into the abyss like toys.
The blue dragon coiled at the eye of the storm, its crimson dragon eyes looking down at the raging sea below.
The flaming pteranodon circled beside him like the most loyal knight, guarding his furious king.
They were hunting.
Searching for the trace of the prey that had dared challenge their authority.
Far away, in the shadow of an unremarkable reef island, a thin, long figure almost perfectly blended into the stone stood silently watching the two giant beasts of destruction in the sky.
He barely reacted to that terrifying Conqueror's Haki, though the hand hidden inside his cloak had gone rigid, as if the pressure had reached him after all.
After an unknown length of time, the figure slowly withdrew his gaze.
From within his clothes, he took out a black Den Den Mushi with an old, simple design.
Amid the roar of storm and thunder, a faint, crisp click quietly sounded.
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