Next Bonus, 100!!
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"Who's firing?? Who's bombarding Marineford??"
The sudden, indiscriminate artillery barrage caught everyone on the battlefield completely off guard—Marines, revolutionaries, and pirates alike.
And this bombardment was exponentially more devastating than the one launched by the Winter Blossom Kingdom.
"Look out!!!"
"Incoming! Run!"
Panic etched across their faces, the combatants scattered desperately, seeking any available cover.
"Is it the pirates??"
"Did Whitebeard have another fleet in reserve??"
"No... the fire is coming from the rear..."
The Marines were in absolute shock.
The pirate alliance was equally bewildered.
"What's going on? Did Marine reinforcements arrive?"
The geography of Marineford resembled a crescent moon, curving from the main harbor toward the towering Headquarters building.
Because of this layout, the Whitebeard Pirates had been forced to launch a frontal assault from the bay, and any retreat had to follow that exact same path backward.
However, on the far side of the island lay a secondary, specialized port. It faced directly toward Mary Geoise and was used exclusively for receiving dignitaries from the Holy Land.
Standing amidst the chaos, Jin tilted his head back, his eyes narrowing as he tracked the incoming shells.
"So, they finally made their move."
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"Hmph! Meteor Volcano!"
Sakazuki roared, launching a colossal volley of magma fists into the sky to intercept the falling artillery.
The barrage was so dense and the blast radius so massive that it threatened to annihilate Marines and pirates indiscriminately.
If those shells landed...
The Marine casualties would be catastrophic.
Furthermore, the very act of bombarding Marineford...
For a man like Sakazuki, whose entire identity was predicated on upholding the absolute, terrifying majesty of the Marines, this was an unforgivable insult!
Marine Headquarters was being shelled. Again!
It was a blatant slap in the face to the entire organization!
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Borsalino joined the interception effort, unleashing a blinding swarm of light bullets into the air.
"Thousand Brick Hack!"
"Death Wink!"
It wasn't just the Marines.
Faced with the sudden, apocalyptic rain of fire, the heavy hitters on the pirate side unleashed their own long-range attacks to shoot down the incoming ordnance.
Dracule Mihawk, who had been passively observing the chaos, finally drew Yoru, sending a massive, sweeping shockwave carving through the sky.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The artillery shells collided with the combined interception fire of the island's monsters, detonating mid-air and transforming the sky into a churning sea of fire.
But the barrage was simply too dense. Stray shells slipped through the defensive net, slamming into the bay and the plaza.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Violent explosions ripped through the earth, sending massive pillars of fire and pulverized stone rocketing upward.
These were clearly no ordinary cannonballs. Their destructive yield was staggering. Even Vice Admirals were caught in the blast radius, emerging battered and blackened by soot.
And the most terrifying part? That was only the first volley!
FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!
Before the echoes of the first bombardment had even faded, the terrifying shriek of a second volley tore through the air.
It was a relentless, punishing barrage, seemingly designed to sink the entire island of Marineford into the ocean!
"This is..."
Hearing the distinct, overlapping rhythm of the ceaseless artillery fire...
Douglas Bullet, currently locked in brutal, hand-to-hand combat with Garp, couldn't help but turn his head to stare out at the smoke-choked sea.
And it wasn't just Bullet!
The Marine high command—Sengoku, Garp, Tsuru, Sakazuki—and the pirate leaders like Jinbe and Marco...
Every single veteran on the battlefield wore an expression of absolute, horrified disbelief!
"A Buster Call!!!"
Bullet's eyes turned as cold as the abyss.
There was no mistaking it. This was an attack on the scale of a Buster Call.
Decades ago, it was a Buster Call that had finally brought him down—a defeat he still considered the greatest humiliation of his life.
He craved one-on-one combat!
He sought absolute supremacy through personal, individual strength!
But the Marines had fought dirty, mobilizing a Buster Call fleet to surround and relentlessly grind down his stamina.
He had lost, but he had never accepted that defeat.
But while Bullet seethed with resurrected hatred...
The Marines were entirely paralyzed by confusion and a profound, agonizing sense of betrayal.
The sheer volume and tempo of the bombardment indicated that at least ten heavily armed warships were firing in a coordinated, rolling barrage.
An artillery strike of this magnitude...
Was something even a Yonko armada couldn't easily replicate.
Only the Marines and the World Government possessed that specific kind of terrifying military infrastructure.
The Buster Call!
An absolute, indiscriminate annihilation protocol authorized only by the highest echelons of the World Government.
Its purpose: the complete and total eradication of any location, person, or thing deemed a critical threat to the World Government's rule.
But now...
The ultimate weapon designed to annihilate their enemies... was being used to bombard Marine Headquarters?? It was being dropped directly on their own heads??
"How is this possible??"
"Hey, hey! Tell me I'm dreaming!"
Countless Marines, still locked in life-or-death struggles, stopped dead in their tracks, their faces painted with utter bewilderment.
They were bleeding and dying for the Marines... and their reward was a Buster Call??
What was this?
This was absolute betrayal!
And it wasn't just the soldiers on the ground. The entire world, watching the live feeds or listening to the radio broadcasts, watched in stunned silence.
The shells continued to rain down. Despite the frantic interception efforts of Sakazuki and the other powerhouses, the sheer volume ensured that a significant number broke through.
Under this massive, indiscriminate bombardment, pirates and Marines alike broke rank and fled in terror.
While the world of One Piece was home to countless monsters who could shrug off cannon fire...
Those individuals were the absolute minority.
For the vast majority of the combatants, the lethality of heavy artillery was still a terrifying, insurmountable reality.
In that moment, every soul on the battlefield deeply understood a grim, universal truth:
Caliber is Justice, and Range is Truth!
Sabaody Archipelago.
"W-what's going on??"
"Marineford is being bombed?? Again??"
"Why do I feel like we're watching a rerun??"
"Isn't Whitebeard dead?? Why hasn't the war stopped??"
"Hey! Who the hell has the guts to launch an attack like that??"
The crowds gathered around the screens erupted into frantic debate, while journalists desperately scrambled to unearth the truth behind the sudden bombardment.
"This is a nightmare! How am I supposed to write tomorrow's headline??"
"Every single event that's happened today could easily be the headline of the year, and they're all happening at once!"
"This is the defining event of our era!"
"This war is going to change the fate of the world!"
"Is it ever going to end??"
Rayleigh raised his flask to his lips, only to find it bone dry.
"Whitebeard's death... was it really just the opening act?" he murmured. "The violent transition from the old era to the new... it's happening right before our eyes!"
He lowered the flask, letting out a long, heavy sigh.
The vast majority of the Marine forces were currently engaged at Headquarters. It was impossible for them to dispatch a Buster Call fleet to bomb their own base.
Therefore...
Anyone with half a brain could deduce exactly who was behind this apocalyptic strike!
The World Government!
The Marines were indeed the primary military enforcers of the World Government's order.
But they were not the only enforcers!
The World Government commanded several other powerful, highly classified organizations.
The Cipher Pol agencies!
And the Counter-Terrorism Squad!
Cipher Pol was originally established to monitor the affiliated nations, acting as the World Government's direct intelligence and assassination arm.
But with the advent of the Great Pirate Era, pirates had multiplied like a plague of locusts. To counter this, the World Government had been forced to exponentially expand the size and power of the Marines.
For every new pirate, a new Marine was recruited.
This massive, increasingly bloated military apparatus had slowly morphed into a significant political headache for the World Government itself.
In response...
Cipher Pol's mandate had subtly shifted, transforming them into a sharpened blade wielded by the Five Elders to keep Marine Headquarters in check.
The CIU was a highly specialized strike force explicitly created to dismantle the Revolutionary Army, operating under the direct command of the God's Knights.
During their relentless pursuit of the revolutionaries, the CIU had grown significantly, actively recruiting powerful, ruthless combatants who worshipped the Celestial Dragons.
Following the catastrophic security failure at Impel Down, and the severe setbacks and vulnerability of Marine Headquarters during the Summit War...
The World Government had quietly mobilized massive reserve assets, assembling a fleet capable of initiating a Buster Call.
This was the World Government's counterattack!
And it wasn't just a naval bombardment.
The Five Elders, the God's Knights, and the highest-ranking directors of Cipher Pol had all personally deployed.
Because right now...
Marineford wasn't just hosting the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates. The Revolutionary Army and King Jin were there too. For the World Government, this was a golden, unprecedented opportunity to wipe the slate clean.
Just like they had done decades ago at God Valley.
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