Hot.
It was unbearably hot.
They were clearly standing on a thick ice field, surrounded by glaciers on every side, yet the air had already grown scorching, as if the summer sun were baking their entire bodies. The sound of ice cracking and splintering kept ringing in their ears.
Whether they were warriors of the Sky Pirates or soldiers of the Marines, sweat began to roll down their foreheads. But no one cared anymore. As they stared at the enormous fireball descending from the sky and flying toward Sengoku on the Marines' flagship, every one of them had only one thought in mind.
Run.
Run as far away as possible.
This was not a battle they could take part in.
Facing the enormous fireball rushing toward him and feeling its searing heat, Sengoku showed no fear at all.
He had already experienced an attack like this before, and that time had been even more terrifying than this.
With that thought, he raised both palms high. Golden light shone from them as black Conqueror's Haki wrapped around them.
"Buddha's Wrath!"
In that instant, his strike, imbued with Conqueror's Haki, collided with the enormous fireball.
It was like a meteor crashing into the earth.
The blinding light was so intense that no one could keep their eyes open.
Then came a massive explosion. The violent shockwave swept up the nearby Marines before they could dodge.
The enormous glacier frozen by Kuzan began to crack and splinter. Visible fractures spread across it like a spiderweb, and the entire glacier started to collapse as seawater surged up from within.
"S-So terrifying..."
The people who had managed to escape by luck had not even had time to steady themselves when the violent shaking beneath their feet threw them into panic once again.
They were like lone boats adrift in a storm, watching helplessly as seawater burst up from the shattered ice and gathered together.
"The True Thousand Hands!"
In an instant, a colossal Thousand-Armed Buddha, its height impossible to measure, towering between heaven and earth and formed from seawater with countless arms, appeared before everyone's eyes.
"Hey, hey... You've got to be kidding. That size is ridiculous!"
At that moment, everyone present stared dumbly at the enormous monster before them.
Compared to this colossal Thousand-Armed Buddha, Sengoku's huge Buddha form was so small that it could not even match a single hand.
Sengoku was dumbstruck, but he no longer had time to be shocked.
Every watery arm of the Thousand-Armed Buddha began to move. As cold air spread, they froze into gigantic fists of ice, all aimed directly at Sengoku's position.
"You've got to be kidding me. Just how far has this guy developed his Devil Fruit? He can even do something like this?"
The moment Sengoku understood Yemu's intent, panic finally seized him.
"I won't let you have your way!"
Sengoku instantly transformed into a streak of golden light and charged toward the colossal monster.
His idea was simple. As long as he destroyed the enormous Thousand-Armed Buddha, the attack would naturally fail.
But he was thinking too simply.
"Summit Buddha Transformation!"
As Yemu's voice fell, the countless giant fists of ice turned into a dense rain of punches and descended on Sengoku.
Sengoku's massive Buddha form was not even as large as a single fist.
"Hey, hey, hey. This is bad!"
Everyone on the battlefield could see how terrifying this move was.
Even though Sengoku's Mythical Zoan had given him astonishing defense and physical strength, could he really endure such a relentless barrage of terrifying attacks?
"Boom... boom... boom..."
The answer, of course, was no.
At that moment, even with the dual protection and offensive power of Haki and his Devil Fruit, Sengoku could not withstand the impact of thousands of fists as large as small mountains. After destroying countless giant fists of ice, he still failed to get close to the huge Buddha's body. Exhausted, he was overwhelmed by the endless fists that followed, smashed down blow after blow until he was driven into the towering glacier below.
"Boom... boom... boom..."
Yemu's attack still did not stop.
Only now, most of his attacks were aimed at the dozens of enormous warships frozen atop the raised glacier.
Even though those warships were extremely sturdy, under the countless giant fists falling from the sky, they were still mercilessly destroyed.
The Marines watching this scene froze where they stood, their eyes filled with fear and confusion.
This war had clearly been going on for half a day, yet all the previous attacks had only destroyed two warships. But the moment Fire Dragon Yemu made his move, a single attack destroyed fifteen of the Marines' warships.
"This... This is Fire Dragon Yemu's power...?"
"You've got to be kidding. This isn't power a human can reach..."
"Even Fleet Admiral Sengoku..."
Not far away, Admiral Zephyr and the future Three Admirals, all held down by their own opponents, watched the scene with their expressions changing drastically.
Thirty warships, and seventeen of them had already been destroyed. If the destruction continued, the Marines on this battlefield would lose every means of leaving this place, leaving them with no path of retreat.
More importantly, the Marines and the World Government had spent a huge amount of military funding to build these thirty warships. That meant the Marines' future development would be greatly restricted.
But none of that mattered now. What mattered was whether Sengoku could still hold on.
That single attack had made everyone understand.
Fire Dragon Yemu's power had already surpassed Sengoku's as Fleet Admiral.
As for Zephyr, there was no need to even mention him. At this moment, aside from Garp, there was probably no one else who could have stopped Yemu's attack just now.
"Boom..."
Just then, beneath the dense barrage of the enormous Thousand-Armed Buddha, the massive glacier formed from the frozen, rising sea finally collapsed with a thunderous crash. Icebergs fell into the ocean, sending huge waves surging up.
As golden light flashed, Sengoku's figure leaped out from within and landed steadily on a floating iceberg.
But when he looked behind him at the shattered wreckage of the warships sinking along with the icebergs, a rage unlike anything he had ever felt before surged through him.
At that moment, he had lost the composure of a Fleet Admiral.
He clenched his fists tightly. He no longer thought about anything else. In his mind, there was only one thought left: kill Yemu and win this war.
With that in mind, he hesitated no longer and roared.
"All Marines, heed my command! We have no way out now!"
"Whether for the justice we carry on our backs, or simply to survive."
"We must win this war. Only victory will let us live!"
At that moment, Sengoku's roar resounded in the hearts of every Marine soldier.
No matter how afraid they were, with the Sky Pirates surrounding them from every side and their warships destroyed, perhaps this truly was the only road left to survival.
"Do desperate troops always win? Not necessarily."
Watching this scene, Yemu knew the most critical moment of the war had arrived.
As long as the Sky Pirates could endure this short stretch of time, the war would fall completely under his control.
So he did not hesitate either and spoke at once.
"Now is the time to show the power of our science. Begin Phase One of the operation..."
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