North Blue, Felsek Island.
The battle on the frozen sea held in a tense stalemate, yet both sides kept one eye on the island's heart, where an ominous disturbance pulsed and grew.
Deep within the island.
The click of a severed Military Den Den Mushi line echoed, and a suffocating stillness followed.
"So… this is the World Government's true power?"
Darren's dry voice split the silence.
The Gorosei's aura turned to ice.
"What did you do?" Saturn snarled, crimson malice burning in his aged eyes as the dead line's steady beep seemed to slap him in the face. Dragon's sidelong look only drove the vein in Saturn's temple tighter.
How had anyone breached a Cipher Pol black site?
Darren shrugged, the corners of his mouth hooked in mockery. "I didn't do anything. I'm right here, aren't I, Saint Saturn, Excellency?"
"You're courting death."
Crimson flared in Saturn's pupils. A black spider leg, crackling with Conqueror's Haki, speared for Darren's skull—
Boom.
The air bucked. Kuma and Ivankov slid back through grit and frost. The leg stopped ten centimeters from Darren's brow—pinched clean off by a scarred, iron hand.
A wet snap, a spray of green. Saturn grunted and reeled.
Beside him, the boar-demon Fengxi lunged. The island groaned under Topman Warcury's bulk.
"Darren, this is your last line crossed."
Stone shattered beneath his charge. His voice rolled like thunder. "Do you really think you can defy the World Government? One final chance—kneel and submit."
His lantern-wide eyes flashed cold. The roar that followed broke over the land with a tidal surge of Conqueror's Haki.
ROAR.
BOOM.
Black-red lightning webbed the sky. The weight of it drove wind and cloud to heel.
Dragon, Kuma, and Ivankov stiffened. Kuma planted himself like a breakwater, boots gouging furrows as the pressure shoved him back. Ivankov ducked in his shadow with a wince.
Even Dragon's breath thinned to thread. Under that crush, his body felt ready to fragment into wind.
He glanced at Darren—and blinked. The Vice Admiral stood there unflinching, taking the brunt of Warcury's will head-on.
His Haki… stronger than before.
The shockwave rolled to the sea's edge, felling young Marines like scythed wheat.
"That Haki—!"
"What's happening?!"
"Damn it, I can't move—!"
"Conqueror's Haki—!"
Sengoku, Big Mom, and the others froze mid-strike, heads snapping toward the island. Kaido grinned wide, eyes gone wild.
"Worororo! That pressure—makes my blood sing!"
Kuzan's heart hammered. "Even Roger's wasn't… this heavy, was it?"
Kaido slammed down through the gale. "No! Roger's was stronger than that old boar's! That's why Rocks lost!"
Thunder Bagua.
Kuzan met him, loosing a blade of cold.
Ice Pheasant Beak.
The thunder-drenched kanabo shattered the bird in a burst of frost. A magma hound lunged through the glittering spray, bellowing fire—
Red Lotus.
The detonation pulverized ice for kilometers. Then, from the island, a second aura surged—equal, opposite—and collided with Warcury's, splitting heaven and land into black and white.
A deadlock.
---
"Half a day ago, your Conqueror's Haki might've smothered mine," Darren said, smiling faintly as his own will rose like a tide without shore.
He could feel it in his bones—the blood of two hundred thirty-eight Celestial Dragons still hot on his hands, his spirit roaring for the fight.
Conqueror's Haki: 89.999.
Nearly ten points higher than before the Hunting Competition.
He let it pour out. The release felt like tearing shackles from his ribs.
"Damn you—your Conqueror's Haki!"
Warcury stared, pupils pinpricked, as the "insect" before him met his will storm for storm.
That level wasn't in the reports…
His head snapped toward the regenerating Gyuki.
"Jaygarcia Saturn—what did you do?"
Saturn's mouth flattened. "He watered his ambition with Celestial Dragon blood," he rasped.
Dragon flinched. So killing World Nobles could do this?
Warcury's gaze slid back, knife-cold. "Do you really think you can win, Darren? Even if you live, can your family and friends say the same?"
Kuma, Ivankov, Dragon—all three blanched.
A name flashed in all their minds: Toki.
Darren's pregnant wife.
Dragon staggered, color draining from his face.
"Didn't expect that, did you?" Warcury taunted. "CP0 has already infiltrated Marineford."
Five sets of eyes locked on Darren, hungry for fear, panic—anything.
They found nothing. Only a steady, level gaze.
"I told you," Darren said. "My power. My rank. My allies. My resources. None of it came from you.
"And you can't take them."
Purupuru, purupuru…
A short ring trilled from Saturn's pocket. He drew his Military Den Den Mushi and answered.
"Report, Saint Saturn, Excellency. The target has been located."
Saturn cut a look at Darren, lips curling. "Secure the target and bring him to the Holy Land, Mary Geoise."
A pause. Then, "Excellency… the target has a protector."
Saturn froze.
Warcury froze.
The other elders froze.
A… protector?
No one but the World Government could pass the Gates of Justice and walk into Marineford at will. And the Headquarters' elite were here, on Felsek.
How could there be any "protector"?
Where did a protector come from?
"Who is it?!" Saturn snapped, eyes bursting with bloodshot fury.
On the other end, the CP0 agent swallowed, voice ragged.
"…Former Marine Headquarters Admiral 'Black Arm' Zephyr, and his students."
To be continued...