"Huff..."
On the frozen ice, amid the scalding steam, Kuzan exhaled a breath of cold air, released his elemental form, and quickly retreated from the battlefield.
This time, the monster-like woman across from him did not pursue him, but Kuzan felt no joy at all.
He raised his head and looked at the Marines collapsing not far away, his expression grave and his eyes somewhat lost.
"Is this the collapse of justice?"
To him, this defeat could no longer be described as a simple loss in battle. It was the defeat of the Marines' justice.
The main battlefield clearly had not been decided. In fact, the Marines had still held the advantage. As long as they endured, victory would certainly have belonged to them.
But there were no ifs in war.
Once morale collapsed, it was not so easily gathered again. Even they could do nothing about it now, let alone when they were all being held down by their opponents. Unless Fleet Admiral Sengoku could defeat Fire Dragon Yemu at this very moment.
But was that possible?
In the distance, Anne had also released her Devil Fruit form and returned to her human appearance. Her beautiful eyes swept over the surroundings, filled with delight and pride.
"Not bad. You really did it!"
Just then, something no one expected happened.
Sakazuki's roar rang across the entire battlefield.
"Stop joking around! The Marines haven't lost yet!"
"Ryusei Kazan!"
Before everyone's eyes, the entire sky began to turn crimson. Countless streams of red-hot magma rained down from above, but they did not fall toward the Sky Pirates. Instead, they struck the very front of the fleeing Marines.
The scorching magma descended from the sky, directly destroying the route the Marines were using to escape.
Countless Marines running at the front were struck by the magma rain. They let out agonized screams as they were burned into charcoal and lost their lives.
The sight shocked everyone.
"Why, Vice Admiral Sakazuki? Why are you attacking us?"
"Sakazuki, what are you doing?"
"Why are you attacking your own people?"
At the center of the battlefield, Sakazuki, who was fighting Erik, looked at all of this with a face full of anger.
"What am I doing? I'm simply carrying out the Marines' justice. Without the Fleet Admiral's order, they fled in the face of battle. They're nothing but deserters who bring shame to the Marines."
Hearing Sakazuki's furious words, the Marines froze, then began to tremble.
As Marines, becoming deserters was indeed deeply shameful. But they had only run because others were running.
They did not want to die.
Behind them, the Sky Pirates were chasing them down under the lead of those enormous monsters. And ahead of them, Vice Admiral Sakazuki had personally cut off their escape route.
It had to be said that Sakazuki's cold-blooded act did gather the Marines' scattered morale again for a short moment, but only for a moment.
The Marines might still be moved by Sakazuki's words, but the CP soldiers did not care.
Besides, they were not deserters. Their commanders had been the first to flee.
After a brief panic from being attacked by Sakazuki, faced with the pursuing Sky Pirates, the nearly ten thousand CP soldiers still chose to keep running.
This once again affected the Marines' morale, which had only just temporarily stabilized.
Watching this, Sakazuki was furious.
"Damn CP..."
Not far from him, Erik looked at Sakazuki with a trace of admiration in his eyes, though his mouth said something else.
"Oh? Looks like CP doesn't really listen to your orders, Vice Admiral Sakazuki. Do you want me to give you some time to deal with your internal affairs first?"
"You damn pirate!"
At that moment, Sakazuki's anger erupted like a volcano, but there was nothing he could do.
Just then, everyone on the battlefield sensed a terrifying aura erupting from not far away.
That was...
Drawn by that presence, everyone looked into the distance.
There on the ice field stood Fleet Admiral Sengoku in his Mythical Zoan Daibutsu form.
At that moment, pitch-black aura mixed with black lightning wrapped around his entire body, releasing an astonishing pressure.
The whole world seemed disturbed by that aura. Heavy clouds began to churn, countless hurricanes rose, and heaven and earth fell into chaos.
Seeing this, Garp's expression changed drastically.
"Sengoku... Has he finally taken that step? But..."
...
"What is this...?"
At that moment, Sengoku, his opponent, said nothing. He only stared at Yemu with eyes like an asura's, yet Yemu felt a will that had cast aside any fear of death.
He could feel it clearly.
Through the Conqueror's Haki wrapped around Sengoku's body, Sengoku's will was affecting his heart.
Along with it came the surge of power inside Sengoku.
The Sengoku standing before him now had already surpassed the man Yemu had once defeated in Impel Down.
"So this is the power of will?"
Just like the meaning behind the existence of the Cheer-Cheer Fruit in the One Piece world.
In this world, will truly could affect a person's strength.
A powerful will could awaken the potential hidden in a person's heart. Under absolute resolve, one could unleash astonishing power.
That was Sengoku at this moment.
Now that the war had reached this point, perhaps the Marines' defeat was already settled. But as Fleet Admiral, he still wanted to make one final effort.
Not only for the Marines, but also for the justice he had always carried in his heart.
Right or wrong no longer mattered at this moment.
Just as Rayleigh had once said when teaching Yemu about Haki, no matter which type of Haki one wanted to master, it required the same kind of strength. Unshakable conviction.
Sengoku might think about whether his justice was right or wrong in the dead of night, but at this moment, killing Yemu was the only thing he held onto.
And under that unshakable conviction, the power of Haki would reach its peak.
In an instant, under the eruption of Sengoku's Conqueror's Haki, even though it had not been fully released, everyone on the battlefield could still feel his killing intent.
"Is this your decision, Fleet Admiral Sengoku?"
Feeling the will revealed in Sengoku's Conqueror's Haki at that moment, Yemu was deeply shaken.
Sometimes, refusing to accept an enemy's justice did not mean refusing to respect it.
At least in this moment, the will Sengoku displayed was enough to earn the respect of everyone on the battlefield.
But respect did not mean mercy.
"You're not the only one with a reason you can't lose, Fleet Admiral Sengoku!"
"Boom..."
Like thunder exploding, a terrifying aura erupted from Yemu's body at that moment...