Admiration was not an expression someone showed easily.
A person would only look at another that way if they had accomplished something completely beyond imagination... something the observer knew they themselves could never do.
For someone like Whitebeard, who already stood at the peak of the world, such an expression was even more unbelievable.
Looking at Renji, Whitebeard smiled faintly.
"I didn't misjudge you."
Then his gaze shifted toward the prisoners.
Standing at the very front were three familiar faces.
Jinbe.
Emporio Ivankov.
And Crocodile.
Especially Crocodile.
There was quite a history between the two of them.
"Tch."
Seeing Whitebeard's eyes on him, Crocodile clicked his tongue.
"You're still as stubborn as ever."
Whitebeard only smiled.
"So?"
"Would you like to join my ship?"
"I can open a separate division just for you and let you command it."
"No."
After replying flatly, Crocodile walked away with an annoyed expression.
Jinbe and Ivankov also moved off.
The current battlefield situation was unfavorable for the Whitebeard Alliance.
They needed to join the fighting immediately.
If the Whitebeard Alliance collapsed first, then their arrival would no longer be timely reinforcement...
It would only be fuel thrown into a dying fire.
"Charge!"
"Kill them!"
The prisoners had all once been captured by the Marines.
Their hatred toward the Marines ran deep.
Now with the Whitebeard Alliance holding the front line, all they had to do was rush in and reinforce them.
Old grudges and fresh hatred exploded at once.
"Damn it!"
"This is bad!"
The Whitebeard Alliance had always been made up of elite fighters carefully chosen from countless crews.
Even after being divided by the Marines, they had not collapsed.
That alone proved their quality.
Now, with the prisoners from Impel Down joining the battlefield and reconnecting the separated fronts...
They immediately launched a counteroffensive.
The battle lines the Marines had only just stabilized began pushing once more toward the execution platform.
"Fleet Admiral, this can't continue!"
On the execution platform, Sengoku's Den Den Mushi was nearly ringing nonstop.
"We only barely managed to suppress the Whitebeard Alliance..."
"Now the prisoners from Impel Down have joined them too. If we keep holding back, we won't be able to suppress them anymore!"
As battle reports kept pouring through the Den Den Mushi, Sengoku's face grew darker with rage.
If it were only twenty thousand prisoners, then they would just be twenty thousand fools.
No matter how many there were, trash was still trash.
But the problem was that these prisoners came from Impel Down.
Each one was an elite criminal.
Among them were dozens with bounties over one hundred million, fighters at the level of the Supernovas.
Those people alone were enough to tie down a large portion of Marine Rear Admirals and Vice Admirals.
Not to mention Emporio Ivankov, a major criminal of the Revolutionary Army, along with former Warlords Jinbe and Crocodile.
It could be said that the arrival of the prisoners had completely shattered all of Sengoku's plans.
Now, the combined force of the Whitebeard Alliance and the Impel Down escapees meant one thing:
If the Marines continued holding back, they might be overrun entirely.
"All forces engage!"
"Everyone fight at full strength!"
At that moment, Sengoku no longer cared about anything else.
First, he had to deal with the battlefield in front of him.
He stopped using the Den Den Mushi.
For maximum efficiency, he transformed directly into his golden Buddha form.
Sengoku activated the power of his fruit and amplified his voice across all of Marineford.
As his command thundered across the battlefield, more Marine forces began pouring out from the inner fortress.
Among them were large numbers of Rear Admirals and Vice Admirals.
"Seven Warlords!"
"If you don't want your titles stripped and to be hunted by the Marines again... then fight with everything you've got!"
In front of the Marines.
In front of the Whitebeard Alliance.
In front of the escaped prisoners.
In front of the visual Den Den Mushi broadcasting to the world.
In front of every newspaper and journalist on the planet.
Sengoku abandoned all dignity and elegance.
He outright roared in fury.
"Heh..."
Donquixote Doflamingo smiled thoughtfully.
"Looks like Renji's little move really gave that old man Sengoku a headache."
As he spoke, Doflamingo casually stepped out from the rear of Marineford and walked toward the battlefield.
Clearly, he had no intention of provoking an enraged Sengoku.
Besides, even if he fought, he had no need to directly offend the Whitebeard Alliance.
"You."
The moment Doflamingo entered the battlefield, Crocodile blocked his path.
"You should stay away from those weaklings."
"Oh?"
Seeing Crocodile standing before him, Doflamingo deliberately looked surprised.
"Isn't this the former Warlord who got flattened by a Supernova?"
"What, escaping from Impel Down with someone else's help gave you confidence?"
"Or did you forget what happened?"
Nearby, Gecko Moria moved his massive body forward.
"I can join the war seriously now."
"But there's one condition."
"The corpse of Little Oars Jr. must be mine!"
Gecko Moria had originally believed that after Oars was gone, his dream could never be completed.
Yet just as one pillow had been thrown away...
A new one had arrived.
As for being defeated by Monkey D. Luffy, Moria did not care much about that.
Luffy had won through trickery.
In terms of real strength, Moria did not consider Luffy his equal.
"Moria."
Before Moria could gloat for long, Jinbe stepped in front of him.
"Oho~!"
Seeing Jinbe, Moria deliberately exaggerated his surprise.
"Isn't this the idiot who opposed the Summit War so hard that he even gave up his Warlord title?"
At the same time, a huge figure rushed out from the Warlord side without hesitation.
It was the Tyrant himself:
Bartholomew Kuma.
The moment Emporio Ivankov saw him, joy appeared on his face.
He immediately moved in front of Kuma.
"Kuma!"
It was obvious the two were old friends.
Ivankov showed almost no guard against him.
"You're still alive, huh?"
Elsewhere, Dracule Mihawk finally made his move.
Yet to everyone's disbelief...
He was blocked by Buggy.
"Lord Buggy! Charge!"
Some pirates nearby were even cheering and waving flags for Buggy.
"So..."
Mihawk looked at him calmly.
"You intend to oppose me?"
Buggy swallowed hard.
Did he have that kind of courage?
Absolutely not.
But the situation had forced his hand.
So Buggy raised his weapon toward Mihawk and shouted:
"Today... is the day you die!"
The final Warlord, the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, also stepped onto the battlefield.
Standing in front of her was Monkey D. Luffy.
"Big Bro Renji said I can beat you easily!"
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