Live Broadcast Square
Gulp—
Gulp, gulp—
Tens of thousands of reporters and onlookers packed into the Live Square stared at the left-side projection screen, where the image of Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, flickered into view.
Everyone swallowed hard.
"What's going to happen to the war now?"
"Why is Red-Haired Shanks here of all times?"
"Don't tell me… is he really going to join his former captain to fight a common enemy?"
"To be honest, that possibility is VERY high."
"Oooh—look! The red-haired Emperor is making a move!"
Under the stunned gazes of the crowd,
black and red lightning—wild, violent, oppressive—
split across the entire sky.
"Ah—bah! Bah!! What is that black-and-red lightning!?"
Sea Rogue Skullachimanap screeched, almost choking on his own spit.
"I've never known what sort of ability the red-haired Emperor Shanks even HAS!"
"No, that lightning is different from Fairy Tail's magic,"
said Capone "Gang" Bege, captain of the Fire Tank Pirates.
"It's not Devil Fruit lightning. We saw Pirate King Roger, Emperor Kaido, and the Sea Overlord Rocks all use this. They wove it into their attacks!"
"This must be a power only the strongest fighters in the world can possess,"
murmured Sky Island monk Urouge.
"Armament Haki? No… no! This is far beyond the Armament Haki I know,"
Rear Admiral–turned–pirate X Drake said, shaking his head.
"Ooohhhhh—!"
"The black-and-red lightning… exploded!"
"What—what's happening!?"
"Everyone on the battlefield—they're collapsing!"
"Hey, hey, are you kidding me!? The Marines AND the Whitebeard Pirates—"
"There were still 70,000 to 80,000 fighters left!"
"But… but more than eighty percent just fell over in a SINGLE instant!"
"What the hell is happening!?"
Reporters and spectators screamed in horror.
Every face twisted into expressions of shock so extreme they looked like they'd seen ghosts.
No one could understand—
let alone accept—what they were witnessing.
"This… this… THIS was the work of Red-Haired Shanks!?"
Urouge yelled.
"Conqueror's! That's Conqueror's Haki!"
Bege shouted.
"I've heard of that power! Only one person in a million can awaken the spirit of a king!"
"You're kidding, right!? Of course I know Conqueror's Haki—but I've NEVER heard of anyone with Conqueror's this powerful!!"
Skullachimanap's voice cracked as he screamed.
"All the Marines on this battlefield are the elite of the elites, and the Whitebeard Pirates aren't weak either. How could a single King's Haki—"
Even Drake's voice trembled.
"This power is beyond human limits."
Nearby, Killer stared in horrified silence—
then slowly turned to look at his best friend, Eustass Kid.
They had made plans—
After entering the New World,
their first target would be Red-Haired Shanks.
Compared to the other Emperors…
Shanks was low-key.
He didn't have Whitebeard's monstrous physique, Kaido's inhuman body, or Big Mom's terrifying durability.
He looked like the most "normal" one.
In Kid's eyes, that made Shanks the easiest target.
But now—
seeing this scene—
the truth hit them like a hammer.
The Four Emperors were on a level far beyond imagination.
Even Shanks, the "ordinary" one, was a true emperor who ruled the sea.
"No… impossible!"
Kid muttered, shaking his head violently.
"No way! The world can't be this unfair!"
Marine Headquarters – On Top of the Battlefield
"Please… give me your approval, and let this war end here."
As Shanks' voice echoed across the devastated battlefield, everything grew silent.
But that silence lasted only a second.
"Give YOU face? What does your 'face' even mean?"
A voice dripping with contempt rang out across the ruins.
Rocks D. Xebec, the Sea Overlord, answered Shanks' request with cold, brutal rejection—
not with words alone,
but with his mere presence.