The battlefield roared with chaos. Sengoku led his forces in a fierce clash against Whitebeard, while on another front, Garp and a handful of soldiers battled Roger. Amid the chaos, orders were barked, strategies shifted, and the war's rhythm pulsed through the air.
Fleet Admiral Kong stood resolute beside the execution platform where Ace was held, serving as the final line of defense. So far, the tide of battle favored the World Government. But ever since Lin Xuan appeared, a gnawing unease had settled in Kong's chest. It was a feeling stronger, more ominous, than even the shock of Roger's resurrection.
Suddenly, Kong's eyes caught a glimpse of Roger being sent flying by a brutal punch from Garp. Half of Roger's body crumpled, collapsing in a heap. Ace, watching intently from the platform, shot to his feet, his face pale. Though he'd always denied Roger's significance, seeing him fight to save him had already begun to thaw the ice around his heart. Now, watching Roger take such a devastating hit, tension gripped him.
But in the next moment, Ace's jaw dropped. No blood spilled from Roger's shattered form. Instead, with a swirl of dust, the broken half of his body began to regenerate rapidly. Ace assumed it was some devil fruit power at work.
Roger himself seemed surprised, muttering in awe, "I didn't expect this body to have such strength!"
At the same time, Kong's eyes widened in shock. "This… Roger's resurrection is definitely tied to the Ninja Guild!" he growled. From the moment Roger appeared, Kong had noticed something off—his lifeless aura, the strange cracks on his face, reminiscent of the Ninja Guild members he'd encountered before. Now, seeing Roger's unnatural regeneration, he was certain: Lin Xuan was behind this.
A chilling realization hit him. If Roger was a revived corpse, could the entire Ninja Guild—Lin Xuan, the bald monk, and the others—also be undead, brought back from the grave? His gaze snapped toward Lin Xuan's position on the battlefield, just in time to hear him say, "Fine, let's put on another show!"
In a flash, Lin Xuan appeared beside Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Kong's heart lurched. A deep, instinctive dread surged within him. He didn't know what Lin Xuan was planning, but he sensed something catastrophic was coming.
"Tsuru!" Kong barked, turning to Vice Admiral Tsuru. "Get someone to check on the Ninja Guild's movements—now!"
"Yes, sir!" Tsuru replied sharply, immediately relaying the order.
Her own unease rivaled Kong's. The scene unfolding before her was eerily reminiscent of the nightmare that had unfolded on the Sabaody Archipelago when Kaguya and her group arrived. The Marines tasked with monitoring the Ninja Guild, stationed thousands of miles away, were initially confused by the sudden orders during such a critical battle. But when they checked, their voices crackled with panic over the line: "No… something's wrong! The targets—they've turned to dust! No, wait—they've all transformed into a tree!"
"What?!" Tsuru's voice trembled with disbelief. Dust? A tree? What kind of madness was this?
Beside Kaguya, Lin Xuan didn't need to say a word. She understood his intent instantly. With a wave of her hand, a rift tore open in the sky, and a flood of White Zetsu poured out, crashing to the ground in a chaotic heap.
Sengoku and Garp caught sight of the scene, their eyes widening in horror. "No!" they shouted in unison. The memory of the Sabaody Archipelago disaster flashed in their minds—the beginning of a nightmare they could never forget.
They had to stop Lin Xuan.
But before they could act, their momentary lapse gave Whitebeard and Roger an opening. Seizing the opportunity, the two pirates struck, sending Sengoku and Garp flying. There was no chance to intervene.
Others noticed the disturbance too. The Navy's top brass—the admirals, the vice admirals—abandoned their opponents and charged toward Lin Xuan, desperate to halt whatever he was planning.
Roger, caught off guard by their sudden retreat, blinked in confusion.
Then Kaguya struck.
"Byakugan: Coercion!"
A single glance from her sent most of the charging Navy officers hurtling backward, blasted away by an invisible force. Only a few, like Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru, withstood the ocular technique's power.
But Kaguya wasn't done.
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!"
The air rippled as countless invisible fists materialized, raining down like a storm on the approaching Navy elites. Another wave of officers collapsed under the onslaught.
Only the three admirals and a handful of natural-type devil fruit users among the vice and rear admirals pressed forward.
Then came Kaguya's final move.
"Shared Killing Ash Bones: Barrage!"
Dozens of gray bone spikes materialized out of thin air, streaking toward Akainu and the others with lethal precision. This was a mass-attack version of her deadly technique, capable of targeting multiple enemies at once.
The admirals' faces darkened. They knew these eerie gray bones could pierce even their natural-type devil fruit defenses. A hit would wound them, no question. Frantically, they summoned their Armament Haki, reinforcing their bodies to fend off the onslaught.
The result was chaos.
A deafening explosion echoed as the bone spikes struck. The admirals and their comrades were hurled back, some with weaker Haki suffering immediate injuries.
Roger, newly revived and unfamiliar with the Sabaody war, stared in stunned disbelief. "I had no idea the woman by Lin Xuan's side was this powerful!" he muttered.
And in that moment, Lin Xuan's ultra-dimensional Edo Tensei activated.
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T/N:
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