In the blink of an eye, more than an hour had passed.
The torrential downpour that had started at dawn had long since stopped, and the blazing sunset clouds had, over time, quietly given way to a sky full of stars.
Night had fallen.
Moonlight was clear, a faint silver wash falling across the cliff-top.
Under countless staring eyes, Katakuri — who had been fighting desperately for a long time — finally reached his limit.
Boom!
With a tremendous crash the whole cliff shook. A tall, powerful figure slammed to the ground, carving out a huge pit some ten meters across.
At the center of the split chasm, Katakuri lay sprawled on his back, face drained of color, his body blackened and burnt from the ravages of lightning.
His vision was already blurred. He gritted his teeth and forced an elbow up to try to support himself, but he couldn't hold on. His eyes closed; his arm fell limply.
The trident Mogura rolled away to one side, occasionally crackling with faint electric sparks.
"Brother Katakuri…"
The cliff was utterly silent. Scores of pirates — especially members of the Charlotte family — stared at the scene, stunned, whispering in disbelief.
— For more than ten years he'd been invincible, never tasted defeat — and now Katakuri had been beaten so thoroughly today?
What made it even harder to accept: this fight had lasted less than two hours from start to finish.
Crushed. Completely crushed.
Some of the Charlotte executives, watching the lightning-god figure slowly descend from the sky — Nao — swallowed and felt terror in their eyes.
Having witnessed that fight, they now understood just how overwhelmingly powerful the man before them was.
Not just Katakuri alone: even if the four Sweet Commanders combined, they probably couldn't take on this one person.
Maybe only Big Mom herself could reliably challenge him…
Nao ignored all those gazes. He stepped into the crater, looked quietly at the unconscious, fallen Katakuri, and gently rewrapped the scarf that had been fluttering loose in the wind.
Then he stepped out of the crater and swept his gaze over the silent Whitebeard Pirates and the others.
"The one-on-one segment is over."
His white cape fluttered in the night breeze. Nao's expression was indifferent as he said calmly, "It's time to come at me together, pirates."
"Of course, if the three of you still want to take turns coming at me to die, I won't stop you."
His tone was still as domineering as when he first appeared, but Marco, Vista, and the others fell into a slight silence.
After witnessing Katakuri's total defeat, no one thought this man was just boasting anymore.
"Let's attack together."
Marco glanced at Vista and spoke in a low voice, "Although I don't really want to admit it, in a one-on-one fight, we'd only be picked off one by one by this guy. Only by joining forces do we have any hope of winning today."
"Right." Vista took a deep breath and nodded with a grave expression.
At this point.
Whether it was the Poneglyph or the disputes and grudges between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Charlotte family, none of it mattered anymore.
They had only one goal left.
That was to break through from this terrifying man's hands and bring their crew members caught in this crisis back to their own territory.
A large number of biscuit soldiers also moved from the distant edges to the center of the cliff top battlefield. Cracker, hiding within them, glanced at the unconscious Katakuri in the deep crater, grinding his teeth until they creaked.
He didn't want to team up with the Whitebeard forces — but under the current circumstances he had no choice.
Three against one…
The moment had come. Marco had already transformed into his phoenix form. Exchanging a glance with Vista, the two launched their attack in perfect sync, one from the left and one from the right, charging straight at Nao!
"Kill!"
"Looks like you've finally come to your senses."
Seeing them charge in full force, Nao only chuckled lightly, unfazed. Without a moment's hesitation, he drew the Azakana Sword and brought it down in a sudden, crushing slash aimed straight at Vista!
Vista's pride was his dual-sword style, while Marco's power lay almost entirely in his Devil Fruit abilities.
So…
Against Vista, he would counter with pure swordsmanship.
Against Marco, he would unleash the full might of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
What he wanted was to completely crush the confidence of these two veteran division commanders, whom Whitebeard regarded as his right and left hands, in their respective areas of expertise, right in front of everyone!
Whoosh!
As the sword came down, the air on the entire cliff top seemed to have been sucked away, turning into a fierce gust of wind that erupted from the tip of the sword and swept forward with great force!
"What terrifying power…"
Seeing such overwhelming sword energy, Vista froze for half a step, his eyes narrowing. With no time to think, he drew both swords in an instant and shouted as he slashed forward to meet it head-on.
Boom!
The two sword energies collided violently in mid-air, exploding into a dazzling azure light, followed by violent air currents surging all around them.
Vista instantly felt a tremendous force like a mountain torrent continuously impacting his body, making it difficult to even think of resisting.
He couldn't take a single step forward!
How can this be... Vista gritted his teeth and tried his best to block with his swords, but it was useless. His body was sent flying back like a kite with its string cut.
Only after being driven dozens of meters away, carving two deep furrows into the ground, did Vista finally managed to steady himself, breathing heavily.
Nao, on the other hand, showed no change in his breathing after unleashing that terrifying slash. He didn't even spare Vista another glance.
As he sheathed his sword, his right fist—wreathed in crackling lightning—was already driving forward toward the incoming phoenix.
Raikiri!
Carrying a fierce gale, the mighty thunder erupted, instantly engulfing the Phoenix who had spread his wings to attack!
Zzzt!
Azure-blue lightning burst outward, sending ripple-like waves through the air. The phoenix at the center of the thunderous explosion could no longer maintain its form, dissolving into endless ghostly blue flames that scattered wildly in all directions.
The next instant.
A phoenix face wearing glasses emerged about ten meters above, its expression grave, speaking in human tongue: "Phoenix..."
"Brand!"
His wings, wrapped in blue flames, suddenly flapped. Accompanied by the whistling gale, an incredibly strong shockwave, like a giant white python, shot down and enveloped Nao below!
The Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Phoenix was remarkably versatile, and Marco, as ship doctor, had developed it largely toward healing and wide-area support. But among his few offensive techniques, Phoenix Brand was without a doubt one of his strongest.
In another timeline, years later, he would use this very move to knock the Big Mom Pirates' ship off a waterfall, and even disrupt Queen the Plague's laser cannon, leaving the calamity coughing blood.
The fact that he was using this move right from the start showed just how seriously he was taking Nao.
Whoosh!
The shockwave was blisteringly fast, too quick for ordinary eyes to follow — but unfortunately for Marco, his opponent wielded the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
The electromagnetic field had already been laid out across the cliff top. Almost the moment the shockwave was about to swallow Nao, his figure suddenly disappeared without a trace.
In the next second, behind Marco, lightning condensed into a human form.
His rich combat experience also made Marco react the moment he saw the shockwave miss. He suddenly turned his head to look.
His speed was fast enough, but he was still a step too late.
The moment he appeared, Nao had already raised his index finger with an expressionless face. Lightning condensed on his fingertip, and the dancing electric light roared out like a thunder dragon, instantly illuminating the side of Marco's face as he turned.
The phoenix's pupils contracted into sharp pinpoints — the sign of mortal danger…
Boom!
——
Under the moonlight, on the sea.
Two Marine warships were sailing side by side at full speed.
Aokiji stared at the distant horizon. Judging by the pace of their journey, if nothing went wrong, he estimated they could reach Hall Island within the hour.
"Marco… Katakuri…"
He muttered the names quietly. Aokiji didn't know how he felt right now. With so many top fighters gathered on Hall Island, he ought to be restless, worried, desperate to arrive as soon as possible and provide backup.
But then he thought of Nao…
Aokiji smirked faintly. Somehow, he had a premonition — that this trip might be wasted, just like when he'd rushed to Dressrosa before. If he was lucky, maybe he'd only get to sip whatever scraps of soup were left behind.
"Vice Admiral Kuzan!"
Suddenly, the scout's alarm rang from the watchtower:
"There are pirate ships ahead — several of them — sailing at full speed straight toward us!"
Aokiji blinked, then strode quickly to the bow and looked out.
"The Babibu Pirates — captain with a 200 million bounty."
"And the Kain Pirates — captain worth 170 million."
From the deck of the Thunder Eagle, Onigumo lowered his telescope, his brow furrowed.
"This direction... Vice Admiral Kuzan, they might all be coming from Hall Island."
"Most likely."
Aokiji's eyes gleamed. He stepped into the sky with Moonwalk, darting ahead until he hovered above the pirate ships.
He crossed his arms in front of him. Several invisible waves of air instantly formed, surging outward with a crushing chill that swept down in a sudden shockwave.
"Ice Age: Time Capsule!"
Whoosh!
The torrent of freezing cold fell upon them. The pirates had only just spotted the Marine ships and were preparing to open fire when, in an instant, their ships became massive sculptures of ice.
On the decks, almost all of the pirates froze where they stood. Only a handful of the stronger captains, thanks to their various abilities, barely managed to resist.
This strange ability... It's Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral Kuzan!
The pirate captains were horrified. They frantically tried to turn and abandon their ships to escape, but they were a step too late.
In the next instant, a smiling Aokiji had already appeared in front of them.
A moment later.
When the Thunder Eagle and the other warship arrived at the massive frozen battlefield, Momonga and Onigumo leapt aboard the pirate ships. They found that Aokiji had already finished interrogating the survivors — he stood there rubbing his chin with a frown, while several pirate captains knelt on the deck, shivering and begging for their lives.
"How is it, Vice Admiral Kuzan?"
Onigumo asked, "Did these pirates come from Hall Island? What's the situation there?"
"The situation…" Aokiji drawled lazily, "Much smoother than I expected. Katakuri went down just after nightfall, and Cracker got fried unconscious about an hour ago."
"Huh?" Onigumo was stunned. He and Momonga looked at each other. "You mean..."
"Yeah. The only ones left fighting Nao are the two Whitebeard Pirate commanders."
Aokiji glanced at the kneeling pirate captains. "These guys bolted right after Cracker was defeated. Once they realized they couldn't get the poneglyph, they panicked about being the next ones to suffer and rushed to pull out."
Only to run into you?
If we'd known, we might as well have stayed on Hall Island… the pirate captains looked up at him with bitter, resentful eyes.
Onigumo and Spider Momonga, on the other hand, sucked in a sharp breath.
Marco, Katakuri — those were heavyweight names in the New World. Yet Nao was single-handedly pressing down four top-class monsters of the seas, and had already taken out half of them, dominating the fight…
As expected of Vice Admiral Nao.
"Almost feels like support isn't even necessary anymore."
Aokiji shrugged. "But we'll still push on at full speed. The meat's all gone for sure, but there are still plenty of greedy idiots on that island. If we move quickly, we can wipe out as many as possible in one sweep."
"Yes, Vice Admiral Kuzan!"
Momonga and Spider Onigumo responded crisply. Aokiji's adjutant, a Rear Admiral, hesitated as he looked at the kneeling pirate captains.
"Sir… what should we do with these pirates?"
Aokiji looked around at the frozen battlefield he had created.
"Kill them all. We don't have the manpower or time to drag them to Impel Down."
The pirate captains instantly jerked their heads up in terror, eyes wide.
Eh?! That's not like you at all. Even the other Rear Admirals and Commodores shot him surprised looks.
"Special circumstances."
Aokiji scratched his messy hair, looking troubled. "But I guess… without realizing it, I've been corrupted by that guy Nao…"
——
The rest of the voyage went even more smoothly than Aokiji expected.
Roughly forty minutes later, the warships reached Hall Island.
In the dark night, they could still see many hidden pirate ships moored along the coast.
Aokiji used his Observation Haki at full power to scan the area. He could clearly sense that there were still many traces of pirates hiding in the large primeval forests on the island.
"So many rats who just won't give up…"
The arrival of the warships hadn't been detected by them yet, which made Aokiji secretly sigh in relief. At least this time, he'd catch some of the soup. And not thin broth either — it smelled rich and fatty, not meager at all…
But the real meat was still the main prize.
He came to a high ground, looked up, and looked over the lush forest toward the cliff in the distance. When he saw the scene under the moonlight, he was slightly stunned and subconsciously blurted out:
"Scatter, Senbonzakura?"