"Lord Saturn!"
The vice admirals locked in combat with Shark and the others froze mid-clash, their blood running cold. A member of the Five Elders, the highest authority in the world, cut in half by a single pirate's blade?
"Kizaru! Cover me!"
Saturn lay in a spreading pool of blood, his body severed below the waist. The words came out as a ragged, guttural roar aimed at the distant admiral.
He had discovered something worse. His vaunted hyper-regeneration, the immortality he prided himself on, was failing. Suppressed by the rule-negating touch of Dark Water and seared by the divine flames of the Vermilion Bird, the wounds crawled shut at a pathetic crawl. Black smoke still rose from the charred edges where flesh tried and failed to mend.
If this continued, his undying demon body would burn to ash.
"My, my. What a troublesome situation this has turned into."
Kizaru, locked in his grueling fight against Sabo and Enel, let out a weary sigh at Saturn's call. His body dissolved into a piercing gold flash, slipping free of the pincer attack in an instant. He reformed directly in front of Saturn, the Ama no Murakumo already condensed in his grip. His eyes, wary and sharp behind those brown sunglasses, fixed on Ace, who stood a short distance away with his blade now sheathed.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Two figures landed beside Ace.
Sabo dropped down, the Flame Dragon Staff resting on his shoulder. The pink dragon head at its tip still vented thin wisps of heat. A few laser burns marked his body, but his breathing was steady.
Enel drifted cross-legged in the air, irritable arcs of blue lightning crackling across his form.
"He runs fast, I'll give him that." Enel glanced at Kizaru and sneered. "This god was just getting warmed up."
"Seems even an admiral's light-speed can't protect the World Government's dignity." Sabo tugged his hat lower, a mocking grin on his face.
Ace let out a long, slow breath. That last strike had drained him, but the raw exhilaration of finally mastering the sea's highest power flooded through him. He laughed openly, a free, fierce sound.
"What's this? Calling for help already?"
He tapped the flat of his blade against his shoulder, eyes on the ruined Saturn hiding behind Kizaru.
"Portgas D. Ace."
Saturn bit down on the agony. The deep wrinkles of his ancient face betrayed nothing. He took stock of his lower body, slowly, painfully beginning to regenerate, then glanced toward Vegapunk's lab, still standing intact in the distance.
He understood the math with cold clarity. If this fight dragged on, he would die here, killed by a madman with no bottom line. And if the battle restarted, Vegapunk's life's work would be obliterated.
"Stand down."
Saturn forced the words out. His cold, oppressive stare locked onto Ace.
"Now. We can discuss the terms you mentioned earlier."
"Stand down?"
Ace did not sheathe his blade. He took a step forward instead.
"Wasn't it you who said the World Government doesn't accept any terms from pirates? Who swore you'd wipe this ship off the sea?"
The grin vanished from Ace's face. In its place settled a suffocating, lethal cold.
"Now I've beaten you into this mangled wreck, and you want to sit down and talk. Do I look like one of your trained dogs, old man? Called off one second and whistled back the next?"
Saturn's voice stayed level. "Portgas D. Ace. If I initiate a top-priority Buster Call here, or summon the other four Warrior Gods, none of you leave the New World alive. No matter how strong you are."
"Go ahead and try."
Ace flipped his left hand. A cluster of searing crimson-gold flames, the divine fire of the Vermilion Bird, danced on his fingertips. The heat was so intense the air around it shimmered and warped.
"Gamble on it. See if the five of you can kill me first. Or see if I use these flames to burn Vegapunk, every last scrap of that genius five hundred years ahead of its time, and all the research data on this island into a pile of worthless white ash."
"You wouldn't dare."
Saturn's ox-like eyes, which had remained utterly still through everything, finally contracted.
If Vegapunk died, the highest classified projects under development would die with him. The completed Seraphim. The next generation of PX units. Everything still trapped in his mind, never committed to paper. Half the World Government's trump cards for ruling the seas, gone.
This pirate had his fingers locked around the one throat he couldn't protect.
"What do you want." Saturn drew a deep breath.
"First."
Ace raised one finger. His stare bored into Saturn without a flicker of retreat.
"One of my crew is sick. Vegapunk is in the middle of moving a top-tier cultivation system onto the Eclipse. It'll take a few days. During that time, I don't want to see a single Marine ship near this island. No interruptions."
"If even one shell lands on this island."
Ace's eyes turned to polar ice.
"I promise you, your sacred science shrine will be the first thing buried with it."
Saturn weighed the demand. Protecting Vegapunk was the overriding priority. Pragmatism won. "Fine. The Marine fleet will withdraw to one hundred nautical miles."
"Second."
Ace raised a second finger. A dangerous, knowing smirk curved his lips.
"Since your Marines love chasing people across the whole damn world, you'll give me an official Letter of Marque. The World Government will publicly declare the Eclipse Pirates exempt from proactive Marine interference. Same as the Seven Warlords. Except I don't take your orders."
"Impossible."
Saturn's refusal was instant. "The World Government will never publicly recognize independent privileges for a single pirate crew. It would destroy the Navy's credibility."
"Won't recognize it?"
Ace's smirk went cold. He turned toward the distant Eclipse. "Sabo. Enel. Get ready. If there's nothing to discuss, we sink this island."
"Wait."
Watching Ace move without a heartbeat of hesitation, fully prepared to burn it all down, Saturn understood. For pirates like these, who had thrown away their lives long ago, face meant nothing. But the World Government could not afford to lose Vegapunk.
"I can issue a classified internal directive. All Marine fleets will be ordered to avoid the Eclipse's course unless absolutely necessary. A public statement is out of the question."
"A classified directive works. As long as I stop seeing those annoying warships circling me like flies."
Ace extinguished the flames in his palm. He slid the Supreme Grade Sword, Ace, back into the sheath at his hip.
He did not look at Saturn again. With Sabo and Enel flanking him, he strode toward the research facility's interior.
On the shattered plaza, Saturn watched that insolent back recede. His eyes were frozen murder.
"Portgas D. Ace."
The words came out low, a vow ground between teeth. "One day, I will make you pay the most excruciating price for this arrogance."
"Ara ara. What a terrifying young man."
Kizaru watched the whole exchange, one hand adjusting his sunglasses. His gaze followed Ace's departing figure, and the lazy drawl in his voice had thinned. Something heavier had crept in.
"It seems this sea is truly about to meet a storm that nothing can stop."
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