"Also, because the rudder hasn't been in his head for too long, Shiki's strength didn't decline much, so when he first fought the Marine Headquarters, his power was basically still at its peak. After he was thrown into Impel Down, his injuries weren't properly treated, leaving him with chronic internal damage. Then, to escape the prison, he cut off his own legs and replaced them with swords. His strength probably started to fall from that point on."
Aeridar said nonchalantly, "After all these years, an aging Golden Lion can still have the power to float islands and cleave the sky and earth. He more than lives up to his reputation."
"What a monster!"
Hearing this, Doflamingo was a little stunned. Even he couldn't be sure that he could display such terrifying strength with a ship's rudder stuck in his head, his own legs amputated, a body full of old injuries, and the onset of old age.
"Hm?!"
Suddenly, Aeridar looked at the ravaged ground and the white, fluffy landscape of threads, as well as the sixteen giant wave-threads that had pierced through a hill of soil over ten meters tall. He asked in surprise, "Did that glass bastard die?"
"Who knows? If the attack hit, he did," Doflamingo shrugged, wincing in pain as he did.
Because Doflamingo's attack had pierced through Caesar's glass tsunami, when the Glass-Glass Fruit's power dissipated, the over-ten-meter-tall glass tidal wave had reverted back into a mix of soil and stone. With such a tall hill blocking their view, neither Doflamingo nor Aeridar could be sure whether their opponent was alive or dead, even with Observation Haki.
This ability isn't foolproof. A person who has just died still has blood flowing and their bodily functions are still working, so Observation Haki can still "hear" a faint sound. Even with ordinary people, it's only after a while, when their blood coagulates and their body's functions cease, that Observation Haki would notice they have no "sound" and are therefore dead.
The bodies of powerful fighters prolong this process even further. Therefore, even for powerhouses like Aeridar and Doflamingo, there was no way to know for sure, unless they had advanced Observation Haki that could foresee the future, predicting the opponent's status in a few hours or days. But even a future ability user like Katakuri likely couldn't pull that off, let alone the newly-awakened Aeridar.
"I'll go check!"
Aeridar pointed to the unconscious Golden Lion on the ground. "This old man is in your care for now."
Pop!
Without waiting for Doflamingo's reply, Aeridar vanished.
"That's a bit like that Kuma guy's teleportation." Doflamingo's eyebrows raised as he watched Aeridar disappear. He then looked at Shiki on the ground and grinned. "Fuffuffuffu! It's certainly exciting to be put in charge of someone so important!"
A hundred meters away, Aeridar suddenly reappeared next to Caesar.
"Tsk, tsk... You're a mess!" Aeridar shook his head with a look of regret as he looked at Caesar, who had been impaled by sixteen giant wave-threads and was hanging like a tattered sack, with blood still flowing from his wounds.
Truth be told, Aeridar felt a little sorry for him. Caesar was a world-famous pirate and a big shot in the underworld. To die the first time they met, without even a single exchange of blows, was a bit of a letdown.
After pulling Caesar's body off the threads, Aeridar disappeared once more.
"Caesar is dead!"
Reappearing in front of Doflamingo, Aeridar placed Caesar's mangled corpse on the ground.
"How pitiful! Fuffuffuffufu!" Doflamingo looked at Caesar's tattered corpse, a mix of relief and a bloodthirsty smile on his face.
"After a fight this long, the war should be over," Aeridar said calmly.
"Then the rest is up to you, Aeridar," Doflamingo said without a hint of politeness.
"It's on me." Aeridar looked at the wounded Doflamingo, didn't argue, and simply accepted.
....
April 24th, 1519, 5:00 PM.
The sun was gradually setting, and its beautiful glow was the last flash of a setting glory.
The captain of the Garfield Pirates, Duke Garfield Caesar, had fought against Donquixote Doflamingo, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Heavenly Yaksha, and was ultimately defeated and killed.
With Caesar's death, and when Aeridar brought his body to the center of the battlefield, the massive Garfield Pirates fell apart. The same went for the Golden Lion Pirates, as they had seen their captain fly off to fight in the sky, and now only the enemy had returned. They knew what that meant.
The first to resist and try to avenge Caesar, the Ferocious General Ernest, was severely wounded and captured by the combined efforts of Aeridar and Diamante.
As for the first mate of the Garfield Pirates, the Speedster Elroy, he knew the situation was hopeless. He immediately made the wise decision to escape the battlefield as fast as he could.
With the Garfield Pirates and the allied army's morale completely shattered, the highest commander of the Barrid Kingdom, General Dacava, committed suicide on the spot. From that moment on, the Barrid Kingdom's army completely collapsed.
The remaining Garfield Pirates officers, subsidiary crews, Golden Lion Pirates, and mercenaries from the underworld either fled for their lives or were killed. Very few were captured.
The great battle, which had involved two kingdoms, fourteen pirate crews, and the mercenary forces of Germa 66 and the underworld, and a total of over 500,000 people, had begun at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 5:00 p.m., lasting only eight hours.
The forces of the Barrid Kingdom and the Garfield Pirates were utterly defeated, like a flood that had broken its dam. The entire plain was filled with scattered, fleeing soldiers, swarming like ants.
However, aside from the Barrid Kingdom soldiers and some terrified stragglers, most of the Garfield Pirates and their subsidiary crews, as well as the Golden Lion Pirates and underworld mercenaries, headed towards the Port of Florent.
Having suffered heavy losses and even losing their captain, the Garfield Pirates could no longer support the Barrid Kingdom. They knew that with this defeat, the entire island of Aznat would be ruled by the Dunlite Kingdom. They knew that if they stayed, they would be captured or killed.
The Port of Florent was the most important port in the Barrid Kingdom, and almost all the large ships were anchored there. Only by getting on one of those large ships could they safely leave. Trying to escape on a small boat would only lead to being swallowed by the rough weather and waves of the New World.
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