Neigh—!Rumble—!
On Mount Corvo, the shrill cries of warhorses and the bellows of the undead knights intertwined into a chaotic din, accompanied by the deafening, rhythmic shockwaves of colliding fists.
A short distance away, Kuzan and Sengoku stood atop a conjured pillar of ice that rose roughly twenty meters into the air.
"To think your control over ice has reached such a level. You've grown," Sengoku observed calmly, standing beside Kuzan.
A closer look revealed that the massive platform of ice was not even fully anchored to the ground; rather, it was hoisted above the battlefield by a single, remarkably slender column of frost balancing the sheer weight of the structure above.
"Well, it's just a matter of managing the ice's equilibrium and center of gravity, nothing to write home about. After all, I'm surrounded by monsters these days," Kuzan replied, scratching his head. At his feet sat a single Visual Den Den Mushi.
Had Kuzan not been personally shielding it, this final recording snail would have long since been destroyed in the crossfire of the fierce clash below.
Down on the battlefield, Garp's white Marine uniform was completely dyed crimson with blood. His body was already riddled with over five gaping puncture wounds.
"Raaahhh!"
Though only a few dozen remained of the thousands-strong Impaler's Crusade, the undead knights pressed forward without a shred of fear, leveling their lances to impale Garp.
Faced with a dense wall of thrusting spears, Garp flung his arms wide, catching the spear shafts tightly beneath his armpits. With a thunderous roar, he physically hoisted the knights, and their mounts, clean off the ground and into the air!
"Haaahhh!"
Bellowing in fury, Garp swung the massive bundle of lances like a club, battering the surrounding warhorses and sending them flying.
Within half a minute, the final dozens of the vanguard fell, their bodies dissolving back into the blood pool on the ground, temporarily exhausted from the fray.
Standing atop a small ridge, Alucard wore a look of pure rapture. He murmured in a low voice, "To think a human frame, entirely unaided by a Devil Fruit, could be forged to such a magnificent threshold..."
"Haha..."
Alucard tilted his head, the corners of his mouth tearing open into an even wider, maniacal grin. "Exquisite. Truly, those who harbor absolute conviction are the absolute finest targets."
Garp clenched his fists, walking toward the base of the ridge with an indomitable aura. He pointed a finger directly at Alucard above. "Brat, your lackeys are completely wiped out. Now get down here and face me yourself!"
"Incredible..."
"Is that really an old man in his late seventies?"
"He's terrifyingly strong... Garp the Fist."
"To think he can actually trade blows with Alucard to this extent..."
Through the Visual Den Den Mushi guarded at Kuzan's feet, spectators across the world broke out into a frenzy of heated discussion.
Suddenly, within the town housing Marine Base G2, a young voice cut through the nervous murmurs of the crowd.
"I'm going to join the Navy! I want to be a hero just like Garp the Fist!"
Vice Admiral Comil and the surrounding officers turned their heads. The speaker was a young boy, no older than twelve or thirteen.
In his wake, the surrounding crowd erupted into a chorus of matching shouts.
"Me too! I want to enlist as well!"
"I want to become a man as badass as him!"
"We have to protect this world from the pirates!"
Simultaneously, voices demanding enlistment echoed across various corners of the globe. At the sight, many Marine officers felt hot tears of relief well up in their eyes.
Vice Admiral Garp... You did it. You actually pulled it off.
Back on the battlefield of Mount Corvo.
The moment Garp issued his challenge, Alucard took a step forward, seemingly about to leap down from his high perch.
However, at that exact critical juncture, the sudden intrusion of several distinct signatures caused the pupils of the four men present, Alucard, Garp, Sengoku, and Kuzan, to snap instantly toward the mountain path below.
Two minutes later, a small group burst through the treeline and onto the mountainside, leaving the three Marines thoroughly stunned.
It was the Straw Hat crew: Luffy, Franky, Brook, and Usopp.
"S-Straw Hat?!" Buggy shrieked in absolute terror from behind his screen.
"Luffy?!"
At the New Marineford base in Mariejois, Princess Vivi, who was currently under Marine custody, gasped in sheer shock.
"Hehehe, first he intrudes upon the Summit War, then he meddles in Gran Tesoro, and now he breaks into his own grandfather's battlefield?"
Aboard the Dragon, Dr. Vegapunk let out a sinister chuckle. "Well then, let us see how this alters the final equation."
"Grandpa! I'm here to save you!"
Catching sight of Garp covered in blood and riddled with puncture wounds, Luffy let out a desperate cry. He threw his arm backward, stretching it an immense distance to latch onto a shattered tree trunk, preparing to launch himself across the field.
Garp didn't say a word. He merely shot a sharp glance at Kuzan.
Understanding the silent command, Kuzan leaped into midair. Tracing a wide arc with his right hand, a massive glacier erupted from his palm, slamming into the earth directly in front of Luffy's trajectory.
"Ice Age!"
The frost collided with the ground, instantly forming three massive walls of solid ice that towered dozens of meters high, cutting off the Straw Hats' path.
"A-Aokiji?!" Usopp shrieked, stumbling backward in fright.
Luffy dropped into a fighting stance, barking fiercely, "Get out of my way, Aokiji! I'm going to save my grandpa!"
"He doesn't need a pirate to save him... Monkey D. Luffy."
Kuzan allowed half of his body to dissolve into raw frost, his tone freezing over. "In this war, you are nothing more than an outsider. If you don't want to be caught in the crossfire, take your crew and leave this island immediately."
Pausing, Kuzan glanced around before adding, "Though out of the three brothers, you're the only one who showed up? I recall Sabo of the Revolutionary Army and Ace of the Whitebeard Pirates are also Vice Admiral Garp's adopted sons."
At that moment, aboard the Moby Dick, Ace's expression darkened completely, while Sabo, stationed inside a hidden Revolutionary Army safehouse, lowered his head in deep shame.
They had chosen not to go, partly because they understood Garp's true intentions for this battle, and partly due to the heavy constraints of their respective factions.
Luffy, however, had neither grasped the profound significance behind Garp's war nor considered the weight of his own current position. He had simply rushed blindly into the fray out of pure instinct.
On the other side of the ice walls, an ominous, malevolent aura erupted like a raging tempest, causing goosebumps to prickle across everyone's skin worldwide.
"The Bird of the Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame."
The moment Alucard finished his incantation, the flowing pool of blood on the ground surged skyward like a cataclysmic tsunami. The raw, murderous intent saturated within it belonged to an entirely different dimension compared to the vanguard he had summoned earlier.
"Very well, Garp. The true battle begins now!"