The open waters around Punk Hazard. A sky that had been clear just yesterday now lay smothered under a thick, dark blanket of cloud.
This was the day after Ace had hung up the call.
"Hell of a welcoming committee."
Standing at the Eclipse's rail, Sabo lowered his spyglass. A flicker of gravity crossed his blue eyes.
Ten massive Marine Headquarters heavy battleships had formed a half-moon blockade, sealing off every route out of Punk Hazard. The deck of each ship swarmed with officers, rank from lieutenant to captain, their Justice coats pressed and pristine.
And on the bow of the central flagship.
A tall man in a yellow striped suit stood beside an old man leaning on a black cane, his face sunken and grim. Admiral Kizaru. And someone else.
"Who's the geezer with the cane? Doesn't look like a Marine." Buggy ducked behind Jeno's mech, poking out his red nose. His gut registered pressure on par with an admiral.
"That is the supreme authority of the World Government."
Kuma stood quietly beside Bonnie's mechanical spider. His voice came low and even. "One of the Five Elders. The Warrior God of Science and Defense. Saint Jaygarcia Saturn."
The name hit the deck like ice water. Gasps rippled through the crew.
"A Five Elder came in person?!" Carina swallowed hard. "Captain, what exactly did you say on that call to make him this furious?"
"He didn't come because he's angry. He came because he's scared."
Ace descended the gangway and tossed his dark crimson coat to Chopper.
"The old man runs Science Defense. Vegapunk and every half-finished killing machine on this island are the keys to their grip on the world. He's terrified I'll walk Vegapunk off this rock and burn the rest to ash. That's why he dragged himself out here."
Ace's eyes swept the crew. His tone shifted into command.
"Carina, Beli, Brook. You three and Chopper stay near the Eclipse. Coordinate with Little Eclipse and clean up any small fry trying to get close. No firepower touches that medical bay."
"On it, Captain! With Beli's barrier up, not a single fly gets through." Carina patted the Eye of God.
"Yohohoho. I was just hoping to test this new blade in a proper battlefield arrangement." Brook drew the Seven Star Sword with elegant precision.
"Shark, Urouge, Jeno, Leonora, Kuma. The enemy's core strength. Vice admirals and CP0. That's your fight." Ace glanced at them. "Don't embarrass me."
He pointed at three figures leaping from the flagship, clad in white suits and bizarre masks.
"Those are CP0's top agents. They answer directly to the Celestial Dragons. These clowns love cheap shots. Don't let them land one."
"Relax, Captain. I've got a fresh surplus of strength and nowhere to spend it." Urouge laughed and hoisted the Gravity Lead Pillar onto his shoulder.
Shark said nothing. He silently engaged Samehada's high-pressure water pump.
"Leave it to me." Leonora gripped White Night in one hand and Meteor in the other. Her slit pupils burned with hunger for combat.
"I built this armor out of Poneglyph data! It can take an admiral!" Jeno slammed his mechanical fists together with a crack.
Finally, Ace turned to Sabo and Enel.
"The admiral with the pervy smirk and the light show."
A grin tugged at Ace's mouth. "He's yours."
"Yahahahaha! Finally, finally, I get to settle the score from Sabaody!"
Enel's body erupted in searing blue lightning. Back on Sabaody, Kizaru had toyed with him like a clown, reduced him to a parasite clinging to Ace's back. A man with pride like his had been waiting to pay that debt.
"Don't worry, Ace. We won't let him walk all over us like last time." Sabo tightened his grip on the Flame Dragon Staff. The pink scales along its shaft began to pulse.
"As for the fossil."
Ace flexed his wrists and strode toward the open ground beyond the island's perimeter. The supreme-grade blade at his hip, Ace, had not left its sheath, but the low, violent pulse of deep crimson Haki seeping from it was already warping the air.
"I'll handle him myself."
The open flats outside Punk Hazard.
"Ara ara... traveling this far in weather like this. Nothing easy about this job."
Kizaru touched down first on the ravaged ground, stepping off crescent moons of light. He adjusted his tinted glasses and eyed the advancing Eclipse Pirates with his trademark lazy drawl.
"And facing you brutal rookies, the kind with no sense of restraint... these old bones might just give out today."
"Borsalino. Drop the tiresome act."
Saint Saturn landed beside him, cane striking earth. His pitiless old eyes, brimming with cold authority, locked onto the figure at the front of the group.
"Portgas D. Ace."
Saturn's voice scraped like a wind out of hell. He did not even glance at the other officers. His gaze was a fixed, unblinking line.
He took one step forward, leaning on his black cane. Just a single step from an old man, yet the air across the entire field dropped as if crushed under stone.
"Vegapunk will continue to serve the World Government. As for you."
The cane slammed into the dirt.
"You will vanish from these seas. Along with your ship. And every last one of your crew."
Not a threat. Not a negotiation. A sentence handed down.
Ace folded his arms and met the stare of one of the world's supreme rulers. A cold, mocking smile spread across his face.
"Just you? If you can pull that off, props to you, I guess."
Saturn's eyes narrowed to slits.
"...Then you have chosen the more painful road."
He wasted no more words. Speaking another syllable to an insect about to be crushed was blasphemy against god himself. Saturn's body began to shift in grotesque, unnatural ways. His frame swelled until it loomed, his lower half transforming into enormous spider legs while bull-like horns sprouted from his skull.
Demonic Form: Gyuki.
A nauseating demonic pressure, a force that seemed to bend the space around it, erupted from the monster. Even the broken stone across the field could not withstand it, cracking and crumbling under the weight.
"Before a god."
Saturn's beast pupils looked down upon Ace. His voice rose from an abyss.
"Kneel."
The answer was a pillar of blazing gold-crimson flame and Conqueror's Haki.
BOOM.
Fire detonated around Ace, shoving the demonic pressure back with sheer force. Ace's Conqueror's and the Gyuki's demonic aura collided in midair. The air screamed.
"God?"
Ace's mouth curved into a razor of ice. His right arm sheathed itself in layers of jet-black Armament Haki, the Vermilion Bird's gold flames coiled around it, and the two forces wove together into a pattern of dark gold that made the heart pound with dread.
"I beat gods for sport. Move!"
Ace did not retreat. He surged straight into the demonic pressure and threw his fist forward.
At his cold command, the monsters of the Eclipse Pirates exploded into motion. A pack of tigers unleashed. They tore toward the lineup that represented the world's absolute power without an instant of hesitation.
"Flame Explosion: Fire Dragon King!"
"200 Million Volt: Thunder Dragon!"
Sabo and Enel split left and right, one a streak of blue lightning, the other a storm of violet thunder. They ignored Saturn entirely and locked onto Kizaru. The mental channel had their coordination honed to a knife's edge.
"Oya? Such a warm welcome?"
Kizaru did not dissolve into light to dodge. Instead, his right hand swept across his chest, and a blade forged from condensed photons, Ame no Murakumo, materialized instantly. He swung it up to meet the descending Flame Dragon Staff.
On the other flank.
"Your opponent is me, little girl."
A CP0 agent in a white mask, gripping a slender masterwork blade, flickered into existence directly in front of Leonora.
"Acceleration: Tenfold Sonic Slash."
"Then let's see whose blade is faster."
Leonora did not flinch. White Night in her right hand became a silent silver-black streak, stabbing forward to meet the agent's sword.
Shark and Urouge each locked onto their targets and charged the two veteran vice admirals who had just made landfall.
And at the battlefield's center.
Ace's fist, wrapped in jet-black flowing Haki, and Saint Saturn's massive spider foreleg, bristling with spikes, slammed together in the air with a force that split the sky.
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