The summit of Marineford had become a boiling purgatory.
Deafening cannon fire, shouts, and the clash of blades merged into one thunderous roar that pounded at every eardrum.
Whitebeard's world-shaking strike had been barely stopped by Aokiji's ice wall, but the resulting waves and tremors still threw countless marines off balance, their formation descending briefly into chaos.
That instant was all it took.
A brilliant streak of blue flame tore through the gloomy sky like a falling star. It soared over the ice wall with incredible speed, ignoring the rain of bullets below as it shot straight toward the execution platform.
"It's Captain Marco!"
The pirates erupted in wild cheers, as if they could already see their undying phoenix captain rescuing Ace.
Marco's body, engulfed in azure fire, shone with the regenerative flames of the Phoenix Fruit. His gaze was sharp as a blade, nothing in his path mattered.
He had only one target: the man in chains on the scaffold.
"Stop him!" a marine officer screamed hoarsely.
Gunfire and slashing waves filled the air, but the bird of blue fire weaved through them effortlessly, or endured them head-on.
He was almost there; the execution platform loomed just ahead.
From above, Sengoku's fists clenched. Akainu snorted, magma bubbling around him, ready to strike personally.
Then, just as Marco's fingertips were about to brush the cold railing-
Something changed.
It was as if he'd crashed into a thick, invisible syrup, dense, sticky, formless, yet everywhere at once. His lightning-fast flight suddenly slowed to a crawl!
No attack had hit him. No force had blocked him. It was something far stranger, far more unnerving; his every cell seemed to sigh at once, whispering the same thought:
"Flying this fast… is exhausting. Let's just rest a bit…"
The blue regenerative fire dimmed instantly, flickering weakly, no longer blazing with its former strength.
Marco's eyes widened in shock. His stamina wasn't drained; he just… didn't feel like maintaining his phoenix form anymore?
The sensation was so absurd that he almost lost control entirely. His wings beat sluggishly, his once-blinding speed reduced to a pathetic drift through the air.
"What the hell…?"
Even the marines below froze, watching the mighty Phoenix suddenly slow like a dying toy, unsure what to make of it.
Marco whipped his head around and found the source, a man standing lazily in the shadow behind the execution platform.
The figure leaned casually against a support pillar, his slightly wrinkled coat half open, a half-eaten rice ball in his hand.
He was half-dozing, chewing unhurriedly, as if this wasn't a war that would change the world, but a quiet afternoon in his backyard.
And when Marco's gaze met his, the man slowly lifted his eyelids, giving him a single, half-lidded glance, not filled with hostility or killing intent, but pure annoyance… and sleepy irritation.
Then Marco heard him mutter, so softly it should've been drowned by the chaos, yet it reached his ears with chilling clarity:
"Flying that fast… just watching you makes me tired. Calm down and let me finish eating."
The instant those words fell, an overwhelming wave of fatigue crashed into Marco's very soul.
It wasn't physical exhaustion; it was pure, irresistible sloth, smothering his fighting spirit.
Maintaining his phoenix form suddenly felt impossible. The blue flames flickered violently, his eyes drooping. He wanted nothing more than to yawn, close his eyes, and just… sleep.
"Like hell I will!"
He bit down hard on his tongue, pain and sheer willpower snapping him back. Sweat broke out across his back.
He glared at the lazy marine who was still chewing that rice ball, his mind racing in disbelief and fear.
'What kind of power was this?!'
'It didn't just affect my body, it even dulled my will to fight!'
But that brief distraction was enough.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Countless golden light bullets rained down from above, covering Marco's entire flight path. Kizaru had moved in.
He might act laid-back, but his sense of timing was razor-sharp.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Marco, slowed and dazed, couldn't dodge them all. The radiant barrage struck him head-on, blue fire scattering as he was blasted from the sky and smashed hard into the frozen sea below.
"Captain Marco!" the pirates screamed.
The phoenix's regenerative flames reignited, but his injuries were far heavier than expected. Worse, the shock of being effortlessly stopped gnawed at every pirate's morale.
Behind the platform, Renzo finally swallowed the last bite of his rice ball. He brushed off the crumbs, glanced at the crash site, and muttered irritably,
"Told him to calm down… now it's even noisier."
His Domain of Absolute Sloth still quietly enveloped the execution area.
He'd merely strengthened the "slowing" effect just now and added a whisper of "laziness" to Marco's mind, seemed to work well enough.
At least no more birds were flapping around to bother him.
'…Wait.'
His eyes drifted toward the ice field, where a boy in a straw hat was barreling straight toward the platform, shouting at the top of his lungs and knocking down marines left and right.
"Another noisy one, huh…"
Renzo sighed, wondering if he should slow that rubber kid down too, just enough to stop him from breaking anything.
Meanwhile, on the main battlefield, Akainu finally made his move.
"Great Eruption!"
A colossal magma fist exploded forth, roaring toward the Moby Dick, straight at Whitebeard himself!
Whitebeard growled deeply, his bisento glowing with seismic light as he swung back.
Their clash detonated a shockwave that ripped across the entire bay.
The war had entered its fiercest stage.
And at the very heart of that storm, below the execution platform, one strange pocket of silence remained, a tranquil bubble of "sloth."
Renzo, perfectly calm amid the chaos, pulled out a thermos, blew gently on the steam, and took a sip.
It was hot milk with calming herbs, prepared earlier by Sanji.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu