Buildings fell, beasts roared, blades carved the sky.
Even Marineford—lashed by thunder and rain—couldn't drown the fire of Justice burning in their chests.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
"Tsk, tsk… intercepted by some greenhorn not even in our files." A mid-level CP0 executive looked the towering figure up and down with a scornful curl of the lip. "Fresh from the Academy, right?"
"A rookie blocks me? They must truly underestimate us."
He studied the pale youth in the rain-soaked training garb: a face edged into a feral mask, twin horns crowning his head, jet-black wings unfurled like a devil's. But what the agent's sharp eyes fixed on were the boy's hands—trembling, uncontrollably, from the moment he arrived.
A rookie among rookies.
"Do you even know who I am, brat?" he drawled, sudden interest lighting his gaze.
The horned youth jerked his shaking hand upward.
"Poison Dragon!"
Whoosh.
A violet dragon, ten meters and more, exploded from his body and swallowed the agent whole.
"This is… poison?!"
The purple tide stripped his strength in seconds. He clutched at his throat and collapsed with a sick crack of knees on stone. White steam fumed from his skin as it withered and sloughed; a raw, broken howl tore free.
Terror took him. The physique he'd honed over decades—crumbling like paper. Cells died by the millions. Bloodshot eyes locked on the boy—Magellan—every shred of earlier hauteur gone.
"You… little… wretch…"
"So. A Devil Fruit after all… opening with your strongest move…"
Magellan's hands still shook, unready for such killing force. He averted his eyes and murmured, almost apologetic:
"I don't have time to talk."
"Instructor Darren was kind to me. He treated me like anyone else—ate with me, never showed disgust or fear of what I am."
"So I won't let anyone harm his wife or child. No one."
A wistful light touched the young face as Darren's easy smile rose in memory, the gentle timbre of his voice echoing:
"Magellan, your power is great—but that isn't your fault."
"Use it to protect what matters. One day, that power will guard what you hold dear."
"I believe in you more than anyone."
"Maybe I'll need your help myself, someday…"
The words steadied him; the shaking eased.
He stepped past the agent frozen in venom, already beyond saving, and moved toward the next front.
"Darren-sensei, I've decided. At least tonight… I won't hold back."
Magellan strode on, head high, chest set. Behind him, a colossal purple dragon reared, blotting out the storm.
Along his path, CP bodies lay scattered, twisted in grotesque tableau, faces locked in terror and disbelief.
"Kill them all!"
"Don't let the bastards through!"
"This is Marine Headquarters!"
"Vice Admiral Rogers Darren's family quarters!"
"I'm going first! Cover me!"
"Get out of my way! Do you know how much Vice Admiral Darren tips me?!"
"Shut it! He paid for my mother's care!"
"Enough talk! Charge! If we can repay Vice Admiral Darren and protect his wife and child, dying here is worth it!"
"At least my kids won't go hungry!"
"CHARGE!!"
The fight surged as more Marines flooded the garden, ranks reforming under the rain to blunt the CP's relentless press. They gave no ground.
The agents stared, rattled—this wasn't how Headquarters Marines behaved. The curfew should have sealed the district. There shouldn't be reinforcements.
What was wrong with these cowards?
Had they taken the wrong medicine?
They were throwing their lives into the teeth of the World Government—for a "traitorous" Vice Admiral already doomed?
---
North Blue.
Felsek Island.
"Damn you, Little Brat Darren!"
Four voices boomed together; Haki and sound shattered the clouds. Marines miles away blanched.
They could only stare, numb, as the black-haired Giant held all four Gorosei down alone. The sight was so obscene to reason it felt like a nightmare they couldn't wake from.
"You're dead!"
"So are your wife and child!"
"We are immortal!"
Four demons howled, murder and hate made flesh.
Darren planted a foot on Gyuki's back, gripped the Sandworm in one hand, and locked knuckles with Bakotsu's skull. He bared his teeth at Fengxi's tusks and laughed, low and vicious.
"You might be immortal. The other Celestial Dragons aren't."
An urgent cry from the distant Itsumade ripped the air.
The Gorosei jolted as one.
A feral smile cut the blood at Darren's mouth. Black lightning crawled across his colossal frame, then engulfed him whole.
Giant: Demon Form.
"If all five of you are in the North Blue…"
His eyes burned.
"…who will guard the Holy Land?"
The words fell; pupils pinpricked.
An emotion their centuries had nearly forgotten flashed in those ancient eyes.
Terror.
A thought like a blade drove into their minds and froze the marrow.
---
August, Sea Circle 1496.
A frigid wind raced off the sapphire sea and up the blood-red wall of the Red Line, combing the tiers of blue-tiled roofs and white walls, then riding the gusts into the sacred heights.
In the Holy Land, Mary Geoise, tens of thousands of Celestial Dragons and hundreds of thousands of guards idled through their peace, as they had for ages.
Far away, at a cliff's sheer lip—
A broad, powerful hand, slick with blood, rose from below and clamped onto the red stone in the first light of dawn.
Not a single tremor.
To be continued...