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Chapter 71: The Dragon's Roar
Kaido's arrival was not subtle. The sky, already stained red by Akainu's magma and choked with smoke, darkened further as the immense, serpentine form of the Azure Dragon coiled through the clouds. His voice, a booming mix of drunken melancholy and violent glee, washed over the battlefield, momentarily freezing the frantic action.
All eyes lifted. Marines felt a fresh wave of dread.Ā Another Emperor? Now?!
The Whitebeard Pirates, already reeling from their father's injury and the betrayal, stared in horror. An enemy of Whitebeard was here to feast on their carcasses.
On the execution platform, Sengoku's face turned ashen. "Kaidoā¦! Damn it!" This was the worst-case scenario. A second Yonko intervention could turn their decisive victory into a catastrophic free-for-all.
Garp cracked his knuckles, a grim focus returning to his eyes. A new, external threat was something his Marine instincts could latch onto.
The other Admirals tensed. Kizaru's playful demeanor vanished. Aokiji's breath frosted the air around him. Akainu's magma burned hotter, his fury at Levi's interference now compounded by this new variable.
Levi, standing over the crater his Cero had created, slowly lowered his hand. The shimmering black blade of Reiatsu dissolved into mist. He looked up at the dragon circling above, his expression unreadable.Ā The snitch arrives. Right on schedule.
Kaido's great head lowered, peering down at the scene. His gaze swept over the wounded Whitebeard, the triumphant Marines, and finally settled on Levi. "Uh-huh-huhā¦! So you're the new pup who made waves. Captured Rayleigh, humiliated Doflamingoā¦ and now you've bloodied the old man. Not bad. Not bad at all!" His tone was one of appraising a interesting new weapon.
Then his voice shifted, becoming a roar that shook the fortress walls. "BUT YOU'RE ALL FOOLS! WHILE YOU'RE FIGHTING HERE, THE RED-HAIRED RAT IS DIGGING IN YOUR PANTRY!"
The declaration landed like a bombshell.
"What?!" Sengoku shouted.
"Shanks?!" Marco gasped, hope and fear warring in his heart.
Kaido laughed, a sound of pure, malicious joy. "That's right! Red-Hair Shanks! He's attacking Impel Down right now! Probably to free his precious first mate or that straw-hat brat! Your precious prison is about to be turned inside out! Uh-huh-huh!"
The strategic implications exploded in every commander's mind. Impel Down breached? The legendary criminals of Level 6 unleashed? Rayleigh freed? It was a nightmare.
Sengoku's mind raced. They had no signals from Impel Down. Gion was there, but against a full Yonko crewā¦ He made a decision instantly. "Aokiji! Kizaru! Disengage and prepare for immediate deployment to Impel Down! Maximum speed!"
It was a brutal choice. It meant pulling two Admirals from the war at its climax, risking Whitebeard's forces rallying. But the potential fallout from Impel Down's collapse was unthinkableāa flood of the world's worst criminals into the seas.
Aokiji nodded grimly, already turning to freeze a path to the coast. Kizaru began to glow, preparing to become light itself.
But Kaido wasn't done. "Leaving so soon? The party's just getting started!" He took a deep breath, his massive chest expanding. A swirling vortex of fire and wind gathered in his maw.
Bolo Breath.
A catastrophic beam of concentrated fire and concussive force spewed downward, not aimed at any single person, but at the center of the Marineford plaza, at the massed ranks of soldiers and the execution platform itself. It was an act of pure, indiscriminate chaos.
"SHIELD!" Sengoku bellowed, his body erupting in golden Buddha light.
But Levi moved first.
He didn't look at the beam. He looked at Kaido. And he pointed.
A thin, almost invisible line of black Reiatsu lanced upward from his fingertip. It didn't try to intercept the Bolo Breath. It piercedĀ throughĀ it, a needle through a waterfall of flame, moving with impossible speed and precision.
The Reiatsu thread struck Kaido not on his scaled hide, but on the spiritual pressure that radiated from himāhis will, his consciousness.
Reiatsu Needle: Soul Sting.
It was not a powerful attack. It was a surgical one. A pinpoint strike of spiritual interference.
Kaido's roaring concentration fractured. The Bolo Breath, a technique requiring immense focus, wavered. The beam flickered, its aim shifting wildly. It carved a smoking trench through the air to the left of the execution platform, obliterating a fortress tower and part of the bay wall instead of the central plaza.
Kaido roared in surprise and irritation, shaking his massive head. "What was that?! A mosquito bite!"
But the distraction was enough. Sengoku's enlarged Buddha palm swatted upward, deflecting the remnants of the wayward blast. The immediate crisis was averted, but the message was sent: Kaido was here, and he was an active, chaotic combatant.
Levi lowered his hand. "Your information is noted, Kaido," he said, his voice somehow carrying over the new din. "But your timing is inconvenient. This is my stage."
The sheer, arrogant presumption of the statementādismissing a Yonko as an inconvenient interloper onĀ hisĀ battlefieldāleft friend and foe alike stunned.
Whitebeard, clutching his burnt chest, let out a pained, wheezing laugh. "Gurararaā¦! You've attractedā¦ bigger flies, brat."
Levi ignored him, his gaze still on Kaido. "You want a fight, Beast? Wait your turn. Or better yet, go deal with Red-Hair yourself if you're so concerned. I have a legend to retire with dignity."
He then turned his back on both the dragon in the sky and the wounded emperor on the ice, a move of unimaginable confidence or madness. He looked toward the execution platform, to Sengoku. "My apologies for the interruption, Fleet Admiral. Shall we conclude the main event? The distraction," he glanced at Kaido, "will be handled."
He was retaking control of the narrative, forcefully. He was declaring that the climax of this warāWhitebeard's fallāwould happen on his terms, and that even the intervention of a second Emperor was a subplot he would manage.
Kaido, enraged and intrigued, coiled tighter in the sky. "YOU DARE?! I'LL CRUSH YOU!"
But as he prepared to dive, a figure landed on the ice between Levi and the general direction of Kaido's threat. It was Admiral Akainu, magma dripping, his face a mask of absolute, burning rageābut it wasn't directed at Levi anymore.
"The Beast is mine," Akainu growled, his voice like grinding tectonic plates. He glared up at Kaido. "You want to interfere with Marine justice? Then burn in magma."
Akainu had been sidelined, his plan co-opted, his moment stolen by Levi. Here was a clear, uncomplicated enemy. A Yonko to fight, to purge. It was a chance to unleash his fury and contribute to the victory in a direct, brutal way he understood.
The battlefield had suddenly, impossibly, split into three staggering focal points:
The Duel:Ā Levi vs. the wounded, enraged, but still catastrophic Whitebeard.
The Chaos:Ā Akainu positioning himself against the newly arrived, rampaging Kaido.
The Race:Ā Aokiji and Kizaru preparing to bolt for a crumbling Impel Down.
And at the center of it all, orchestrating the chaos, stood Levi. He had provoked Whitebeard into a final, spectacular duel. He had subtly manipulated Akainu into occupying Kaido. And his very presence had forced the deployment of two Admirals to handle the crisis he had anticipated at Impel Down.
The world watched, hearts hammering, as the war escalated beyond anyone's predictions. The Age of Whitebeard was ending not with a whimper, but in a symphony of chaos composed by the Black Crow.
(End of Chapter)
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