As Sanguinius' words fell—Boom!!
The atmosphere over Pirate Island grew heavy, followed by a thunderous roar that split the sky.
Big Mom Charlotte Linlin, Kaido of the Beasts, and "Blackbeard" Marshall D. Teach—three Pirate Emperors—unleashed their Conqueror's Haki at once.
Crack!!!
The air burst apart. Towering trees that required ten men to encircle, the pirates' constructed dwellings, even the massive pirate fleets anchored around the island—all fell into a momentary stillness.
Then—Rumble, rumble!
The clash of the three Emperors' Conqueror's Haki made the entire island tremble. It simply could not withstand the power of these monsters.
The terrifying pressure of Conqueror's Haki warped reality itself. The whole island began to quake violently. Birds and beasts were startled awake within Pirate Island, and upon sensing the three auras more terrifying than any savage beast, they fled frantically in the opposite direction.
The sky seemed torn apart, the sea twisted. In this instant, whether man-made structures or ancient towering trees, everything on the island snapped like fragile, cheap building blocks.
Ruins and debris lifted by hurricane winds filled every corner of sight like a sandstorm. At the center of Pirate Island, Teach's residence—the massive skull-shaped structure—collapsed with a crash, sending a column of dust soaring into the heavens.
"Mamamama... brat, if you want to kill us, then try it!"
"Worororo... the greatest war in the world, huh? Come on!"
"Zehahaha... end the era of pirates? Noble angel, if you've got the ability, then do it!"
If there was one relatively normal man among the Four Emperors, it would be "Red-Haired" Shanks, and even then, the world still debated whether he was good or evil. As for the other three Emperors, there was no debate at all.
Whether it was the veteran Emperor Big Mom Charlotte Linlin, Kaido of the Beasts, or the newly risen Pirate Emperor Marshall D. Teach from two years ago, they were true, unrepentant marauders.
The three laughed wildly. Wherever their Conqueror's Haki swept across the ground, it was as if struck by overwhelming force. The solid earth twisted and shattered, spraying fragments of stone in every direction.
Within that laughter lay the pride of Pirate Emperors—and a resolve to fight to the death.
Victory meant continuing to roam freely, ruling as sovereign tyrants in the New World.
Defeat meant death. The empires they had built through half a lifetime of struggle would collapse, and the era of pirates would end!
"A futile struggle."
Sanguinius spoke calmly. Facing three Pirate Emperors alone, his eyes turned into radiant golden pupils as holy angelic light burst forth. In an instant, golden brilliance threaded with faint violet lines spread outward from his body.
Without needing words, Kaido acted at once. Veins bulged along his right arm like coiling dragons, the muscles of his entire body swelling grotesquely.
Thud!
He stomped down, dust billowing as the ground instantly collapsed beneath him.
In a single bound, he crossed a distance of over a hundred paces. With a speed utterly mismatched to his massive frame, Kaido appeared before Sanguinius and swung his spiked kanabo, carrying with it a terrifying gale of compressed air.
"Thunder Bagua!"
Crimson-black "lightning" densely coiled around it—Armament Haki layered together with Conqueror's Haki in a dual infusion. The momentum and power radiating from the club were utterly horrifying.
Crack!
Boom—!
An ear-splitting collision. A massive shockwave expanded outward as the pitch-black kanabo clashed with the resplendent crimson-gold longsword. The overwhelming impact swept across the surface of the land like a tidal surge, unstoppable and cataclysmic.
Though their point of impact was in midair, the devastation below was inevitable. Hills in the surrounding area were uprooted under the crushing force. The entire island trembled and split apart.
In the contest of strength, Kaido's eyes were unnaturally clear, devoid of his usual recklessness.
The handsome Sanguinius, standing less than four meters tall, had blocked his signature technique with a single hand—and was even pushing it back.
Such physical strength... it might even surpass that old man Newgate.
Gripping the handle of his kanabo with both hands, thick veins bulging along his massive arms as they trembled slightly, Kaido stared at the weapon being forced back by Sanguinius' single hand. A flicker of shock flashed through his eyes.
This kind of power... how many years has it been?
Ever since that old man Newgate fell from his peak due to age, have I ever been at a disadvantage in pure physical strength?!
Among the Four Emperors, aside from his unimaginable defense and vitality, Kaido's strength was also absurdly overwhelming. On the seas, the only one who had ever consistently overpowered him was "Whitebeard" Edward Newgate before he slipped from the tail end of his prime.
Even Big Mom, known as the "Iron Balloon" and a "born destroyer," was now inferior to him in raw physical power.
Kaido let out a roar. "Linlin!!!"
In truth, he did not even need to call her. Big Mom was already moving. They were pirates—at a moment of life and death, who cared about single combat?
"Ikoku!"
Wielding Napoleon—transformed into a gigantic greatsword—Big Mom appeared at Sanguinius' flank. With a ferocious swing of both hands, a colossal sword-wave shock hundreds of meters long slashed toward him.
Slash!!!
The pitch-black and grotesque giant blade-wave tore across the earth like a fanged beast, sweeping forward. Wherever it passed, everything was ground into powder.
Seeing this, Sanguinius spread his free left hand. Golden light erupted as he unleashed a dazzling energy shockwave that collided head-on with Big Mom's "Ikoku."
Boom—!
A heaven-shaking roar resounded.
Sword-wave and shockwave clashed violently. The resulting impact made the earth heave and undulate, the ground rippling like waves, ring after ring of expanding shock circles spreading outward.
The unleashed gale even hurled pirate ships docked at the harbor nearly a hundred meters away.
Splurt!
"Urgh!"
Struck by the Crimson Blade, Kaido's massive body was sent flying. Only after carving a trench hundreds of meters long through the earth did he manage to halt, staggering as he clutched his right shoulder.
A horrifying gash tore through flesh and his purple fur cloak, so deep that gleaming white bone was visible.
"There's something strange about that sword!"
There was no Haki coating upon it, nor was it a "black blade" nurtured by a supreme swordsman. Yet its sharpness exceeded anything Kaido had ever encountered in his life.
Before the Honkai Energy mono-molecular dynamic disintegration field of the Crimson Blade, the body hailed as the strongest creature in land, sea, and air was like a naked maiden—utterly defenseless.
"Black Vortex!"
At that very moment, Teach silently appeared behind Sanguinius, his hand shrouded in pitch-black smoke as it struck toward him.
"Zehahaha... the power of my Dark-Dark Fruit. No matter what type of ability user you are, your powers will be temporarily nullified."
An angelic form... must be a Mythical Zoan Human-Human Fruit, just like Sengoku the Buddha.
As his palm drew ever closer to Sanguinius' resplendent golden power armor, the delight in Teach's eyes became impossible to conceal.
A holy angel devoured by a pirate's darkness—what exquisite satisfaction!
Until—
"Hm?!"
Teach's eyes flew wide open. He suddenly realized that an invisible field seemed to surround Sanguinius. No matter how his blackened claw pressed forward, he simply could not touch that mouthwatering flesh beneath the armor.
"Compared to the other two, you rely far more on this thing called a Devil Fruit. Doubt has already crept into your heart."
Sanguinius spoke calmly. As he did, the hand that had been releasing a shockwave shifted from an open palm into a grasping motion. As though summoned from the void itself, light flowed and condensed. In an instant, a magnificent golden spear, crystalline like glazed glass, materialized in his grip.
Its body shone with brilliant gold. The blade resembled an elongated, hollow teardrop. Along the shaft was engraved the image of Selene as Arbiter, wielding axe and warhammer. Its name was the Spear of Telesto.
Sensing the lethal threat radiating from that teardrop-shaped blade, Teach did not hesitate. Headquarters or not—who cared!
Twisting his waist, he drew his right arm before his chest and abdomen, fist clenched tight.
Hum!
A white spherical aura burst into existence.
"Seaquake!"
In the next instant, Teach swung his right arm violently to the side, smashing his fist into the very air itself.
Crack!!!
The white spherical aura exploded outward through the atmosphere.
The air shattered like broken glass, fracturing inch by inch, spreading terrifying spiderweb cracks through the sky.
As expected, the elongated teardrop spear-tip thrust forward in the next moment. The violet-gold radiance spiraling around it was so sharp that even through the barrier of vibration, Teach felt his entire body scream in pain.
The Spear of Telesto collided with the white spherical aura. Terrifying vibrations spread wildly in all directions. In an instant, thunder roared and explosions echoed without end.
Far above in the distant heavens, the clouds were torn apart by force. Even the surrounding seas around the island erupted into towering tsunamis.
"Emperor Sword—Ikoku!"
Having struck the invisible field without success, Big Mom showed no frustration. Shifting Napoleon from a sweeping slash into a thrust, she aimed viciously at Sanguinius' neck—the one place not covered by power armor.
Though the invisible field could defend him, Sanguinius was not one to simply endure blows without retaliation. After blasting Teach away, he reversed the direction of the Spear of Telesto.
The blade extending from the pirate bicorne hat—engulfed in the flames of the "sun" Homie—collided with the spear's edge.
Clang!
Brilliant sparks scattered. The fanged blade revealed a pained, almost human expression. Fine cracks visibly spread across its surface.
"Mama, it hurts!" Napoleon cried out.
Because Napoleon had been created using a portion of Big Mom's own soul, damage to the Homie inflicted pain upon her as well.
She had extracted countless lifespans and souls to forge a weapon rivaling the Supreme Grade blades, and yet it had suffered such damage in a single clash?
Big Mom's pupils contracted. At close range, she unleashed a shrieking sonic assault layered together with Conqueror's Haki.
"Kaido!"
Boom!
Charging forward once more, Kaido had already entered his dragon-man form. Though the massive wound on his right shoulder had not healed due to the strange energy eroding it from the blade, his physique swelled even further in this hybrid state.
Azure scales like heavy armor covered his body. A dragon tail extended from his lower back. The horns atop his head thickened. His fleshy, brutal face became even more ferocious. Combined with the savage aura he radiated, he looked like a demon incarnate.
"Ragnaraku!"
Leaping into the air, he spun his kanabo, black "lightning" coiling around it, before smashing it down with devastating force.
"Excellent."
Casting Big Mom aside, Sanguinius held sword in one hand and spear in the other. He neither dodged nor retreated, instead meeting the attack head-on.
Boom!
A towering shock cloud exploded into the sky. The ground within several hundred meters instantly cracked and sank. The next moment—
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Vajra Arrow!"
"Blazing Destruction—Mother Flame!"
"Seaquake!"
In merely a few breaths, the battlefield fractured relentlessly. Cracks spread across the land in dense networks. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, those fissures extended to the horizon.
The four combatants were like primordial beasts. Wherever they moved, annihilation followed.
Gigantic craters formed one after another amid their clashes, only to be erased by the shockwaves of the next collision.
The entire island—dozens of kilometers of Pirate Island—was rewritten by their battle.
Countless abyssal chasms carved across the land, intersecting and overlapping, cleaving the island into fragments. It was disintegrating. Seawater and groundwater surged upward through the cracks as the ocean began to pour in.
From a distant vantage point, everyone watched in stunned silence. Some were members of the Yonko crews. Others were reporters from the World Economic News.
Yet every single one of them wore the same expression—shock beyond belief.
"The Admiral can't hold on..."
"I... I must be dreaming. Mama is actually..."
"Boss Kaido and the other two Emperors together—and they can't even handle one Imperial general?!"
They could not even see the figures of the four fighters. Only continuous thunderous booms reverberated between heaven and earth. But the sight of Kaido and Big Mom occasionally being blasted out of the battlefield was enough to tell the story.
One against three—and still holding the upper hand.
What kind of power was this?
Forgive them. On these seas, in most people's eyes, the pinnacle of combat power had always been the Four Emperors and the Navy Admirals. Now a being capable of fighting three Emperors alone had appeared—it was simply inconceivable.
"Big news! Big news! The New World is about to welcome a new Pirate Emper—ptui! A new ruler!"
"Quick, send word to President Morgans! The Great Age of Pirates really is ending!"
...
"Aaaagh—!"
Brushed by that resplendent Crimson Blade, Teach let out a pig-like shriek. Caring nothing for the dignity of a Pirate Emperor, he convulsed and rolled across the shattered ground.
It was not that Teach could not endure pain. It was purely the fault of the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Though categorized as a Logia, its black hole properties meant that even after elemental transformation, attacks were drawn into his true body.
Thus, unlike other Logia users, he could not evade attacks through intangibility—and his sensitivity to pain was several times greater than that of ordinary people.
"Huff... huff..."
Kneeling on the ground, Teach gasped for breath. At that moment, he realized something he did not wish to admit.
He truly was the weakest link among the three Emperors.
Success because of the Dark-Dark Fruit. Failure because of the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Compared to Kaido and Big Mom, Teach's physical body was far too frail. Without Armament Haki or Devil Fruit abilities, even an ordinary flintlock musket could injure him.
When had Kaido or Big Mom ever feared concentrated volleys of muskets and cannons?
Moreover, the Dark-Dark Fruit's greatest ability—nullifying other Devil Fruit powers—was ineffective against Sanguinius. Aside from causing large-scale destruction, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit seemed unable to inflict any truly effective damage.
He was not Whitebeard, after all.
A flurry of flashy moves—yet when you looked at the damage dealt, it was -1 HP.
The damage he inflicted was not even as fast as the other side's passive regeneration. Teach's mentality began to crumble.
Every time he was struck, the Dark-Dark Fruit's peculiar properties caused him to black out briefly. It drove Kaido and Big Mom to curse him furiously.
But why—why was his Black Vortex not working?
Not long ago, through a coordinated assault, Kaido and Big Mom had even unleashed their combined technique, Hakai. In that instant, they managed to tear open a tiny gap in the invisible field surrounding Sanguinius, creating an opportunity for Teach.
And Teach had not disappointed. One hand unleashing Seaquake, the other Black Vortex, wearing a grotesque grin as he finally managed to press his hand of darkness against Sanguinius' body—but...
Why were his wings still there? Why had he not lost his Devil Fruit ability?
Then the void field built into the power armor rapidly repaired itself. Teach's grasping hand was forced out, and he was blasted deep into the ground by Sanguinius' look of visible disgust.
Without even looking, Teach could feel the strange gazes from Kaido and Big Mom. Their expressions clearly asked: This is a life-and-death battle! Are you acting?!
"It's over."
Sanguinius gazed indifferently at the pirate leader writhing in pain, his body convulsing and motionless.
He tossed the Spear of Telesto into the air, caught it, and hurled it.
Teach only felt his vision blur. An unimaginable impact struck his chest directly. His body was embedded into the earth, carving a trench of flesh and blood nearly a thousand meters long.
"Puh—ahhh—!"
The violent friction against the ground shredded the clothing on his back. His flesh became a mangled ruin, pain layered upon pain. Unable to resist, he spat out shattered organs and frothing blood, on the verge of death.
"Damn it... there's something strange about his armor, his weapons—about him entirely!"
Leaning on his chipped kanabo, his body covered in countless massive wounds that refused to heal, Kaido's expression grew incomparably heavy.
"This time... we may truly be finished."
Just a single opening had rendered Teach completely combat-ineffective.
No matter how much Kaido despised Teach, the man's strength was real. Without him, the pressure on Kaido and Big Mom would only intensify.
Prison did not frighten Kaido. He was used to it—it was like going home. But judging by Sanguinius' attitude, this was annihilation.
"Kaido, do we flee—or fight to the death?!"
Panting heavily, inhaling sharply through clenched teeth, Big Mom glared venomously at Sanguinius, hatred burning in her eyes.
Kaido did not answer immediately. He tilted his head back and began, "If we were to surren—"
Before he could finish, Sanguinius rejected the notion decisively.
"Denied. For the glory of the Blood Angels. Accomplices may be sent to labor reform, but ringleaders must die as a warning to others."
As he spoke, Sanguinius spread his pure white wings. Feathers of platinum-gold energy drifted down like a sea of light.
Then they transformed into dazzling meteors streaking across the sky, piercing through Kaido in an instant.
Rumble—!
The remnants of the shattered island trembled before collapsing. What remained sank, leaving behind a colossal abyssal whirlpool in the sea.
"One left."
Sanguinius turned slightly, his gaze settling upon Big Mom, who was fleeing across gelatinous waves at astonishing speed. His expression remained devoid of emotion.
Extending his hand, he grasped.
From within the spiraling oceanic maelstrom, the Spear of Telesto returned to his grasp.
He took aim.
"Wait—"
Sensing something, Big Mom began to shout—but before she could finish, she saw a cerulean blade-edge fill her vision.
Splurt.
Blood sprayed through the air. A massive headless corpse toppled. In an instant, the gelatinous sea beneath Big Mom's feet vanished.
The Homies created through the power of the Soul-Soul Fruit—the "saber" Napoleon, the "sun" Prometheus, and the "thundercloud" Zeus—lost their anthropomorphic forms.
Together with Big Mom's headless body, they were swallowed by the massive oceanic whirlpool formed by the disintegration of Pirate Island.
The Four Emperors—annihilated.
Sanguinius exhaled lightly. The Spear of Telesto dissolved into particles of light. The Crimson Blade slid back into its sheath.
Raising his chin forty-five degrees toward the sky, he spoke calmly,
"The Conquest Campaign is over. It is time to inform Lady Arisa."