"Rumble!"
The moment Renji finished speaking, a deafening explosion echoed throughout all of Marineford.
Shockwaves spread outward from where Renji stood.
In less than a minute, the frozen sea created earlier by Aokiji began to shatter. The massive sheet of ice cracked apart completely before collapsing into the ocean below.
And that was not all.
The ground of Marineford itself started trembling violently.
A giant fissure spread outward from beneath Renji's feet.
That crack extended across the entire island.
With the power of a single punch, Marineford was nearly split into two.
Because the strike landed directly on solid ground, endless clouds of dust erupted instantly, covering the entire shoreline.
Luckily, the surrounding ice mountains blocked the waves.
Otherwise, that punch would have triggered another tsunami no weaker than the one caused earlier by Whitebeard.
"How is this possible?!"
"That power... it's already not inferior to Whitebeard!"
On the execution platform, even Sengoku lost his composure.
"Whitebeard is already on the verge of death after being besieged by two Admirals. There's no way he could unleash that kind of force now!"
"Then who used that attack?!"
To arrive as quickly as possible, the moment Renji saw Marineford in the distance, he activated the power of the Light-Light Fruit.
That was how he barely made it in time to stop Akainu from killing Whitebeard.
Seeing that Whitebeard had even lost half of his signature mustache, Renji quickly rushed over and supported him.
"Old man, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
Whitebeard shook his head, and could still laugh.
"At least I'm not dead yet, right?"
Renji frowned.
Whitebeard saying he was fine did not mean he truly was.
His eyes swept across Whitebeard's body and quickly locked onto the wound in his chest.
His pupils shrank.
"Who did this?!"
Realizing something was wrong, Renji immediately moved behind Whitebeard.
Whitebeard had always charged straight ahead.
Either the enemy died, or he died.
He had never once suffered an injury on his back.
Yet now, there was a slash wound there.
After calculating the angle, it became obvious.
That wound connected directly with the chest wound.
The blade had pierced through Whitebeard's body from behind.
Two Admirals attacking from the front could never have done that.
Even if every Marine elite attacked together, it would still be impossible.
There was only one explanation.
Whitebeard had been betrayed.
"Not important..."
Whitebeard slowly shook his head.
The dust around them gradually began to clear.
The spectators outside could finally see what had happened inside.
"Instructor Renji!"
The moment they saw Renji, every member of the Whitebeard Alliance fleet erupted in excitement.
"I knew it was you, brat."
Marco looked at Renji supporting Whitebeard and let out a relieved breath.
After all, someone with power similar to the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, and strength enough to repel an Admiral...
In the entire world, only Renji fit that description.
"Good thing you made it."
Jozu also relaxed.
He had already fallen into despair moments ago.
"Bastard!"
Soon enough, after their joy passed, the Whitebeard Pirates began shouting complaints.
"Everyone's out here risking their lives, where the hell did you disappear to?!"
"We thought you got scared and didn't dare come!"
Voices rose one after another.
All of them came from the Whitebeard Pirates' core crew.
Some of the allied captains were also close to Renji, but they still did not dare speak to him so casually.
"Haha..."
Renji laughed awkwardly.
He knew these idiots were worried about him.
After helping Whitebeard back onto the Moby Dick, Renji once again stepped onto the front lines of the battlefield.
"As for me..."
"I went to increase our chances of winning."
Renji's rescue plan had failed.
But the true reason for the failure was not lack of time.
It was because Ace had already been transferred out by Sengoku from the very beginning.
Unless Renji had reached Impel Down immediately, the moment Ace was captured, it had always been too late.
Still...
Thankfully, he and Silvers Rayleigh had prepared a backup plan beforehand.
So the trip had not been wasted.
"So this is Renji... the Pirate Instructor who's been making all the headlines lately?"
The Marines all stared toward him with curiosity.
Before Ace's execution became the center of the world's attention, the biggest news on the seas had revolved around Renji.
Ever since he captured Jack of the Beasts Pirates alive, he had become the focus of every great power in the world.
Captured Jack alive.
Personally trained by Whitebeard.
Given the title of "Pirate Instructor."
What no one knew was that Renji had also caused chaos in Impel Down, led twenty thousand pirates out of it, and even forced Kizaru into a miserable retreat.
Those were earth-shaking incidents no less shocking than the Summit War itself.
The Marines had already heard Renji's name so many times these past days that they were sick of it.
"No way!"
The Marines stared at Renji in disbelief.
"I knew this guy would be strong, but he can even defeat an Admiral?"
"Defeat? What defeat?"
The moment those words were spoken, another Marine beside him immediately refuted them.
"Admiral Akainu was focused on fighting Whitebeard and got caught off guard."
"Plus, he had already exhausted a huge amount of stamina battling Whitebeard, and then that bastard Renji sneak attacked him. That's the only reason he succeeded."
"But..."
It sounded reasonable.
Yet it still failed to convince everyone.
"Even if the title 'Instructor of the Whitebeard Pirates' sounds impressive..."
"By rank, he should only be equal to a Division Commander at best."
"But he's still just a vice commander. How can a vice commander beat Admiral Akainu? No matter how you look at it, it's absurd."
Silence.
Complete silence.
No matter how unwilling the Marines were to think about it...
No matter how much they wanted to reject it, deny it, or twist it into something else...
Facts were facts.
And this one was standing right in front of them, impossible to refute.
"Renji..."
Sengoku narrowed his eyes as he looked toward Renji.
"Your appearance was an accident."
"But that punch of yours also solved the problem of those three hundred warships being unable to sail."
"Report to Fleet Admiral Sengoku!"
"It's bad! There's a traitor! The warships are fighting each other!"
"What?!"
Hearing the words from the Den Den Mushi, Sengoku froze.
His face darkened with disbelief.
"How is that possible?"
"The troops chosen for this Summit War were all carefully screened and approved."
"How could there possibly be a traitor?!"
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