Every eye turned toward Bai Tza.
No one knew how this bizarre entity had suddenly appeared. But given that the monstrously powerful Sea King from moments ago had blundered into Marineford just to escape her, it meant the newcomer possessed terrifying strength.
As her voice faded, Bai Tza finally planted her tail upon the earth, her naked gaze sweeping across the battlefield. Yet, despite her clear sight, her eyes did not reflect a single person present.
At this moment, the standoff between the Marines and the Pirates was completely shattered. Every ounce of attention was now locked onto Bai Tza.
"A mermaid?" someone whispered uncertainty from the crowd, staring at her form.
Aside from a few facial differences, Bai Tza's current appearance bore a striking resemblance to the Fish-Men of this world. This similarity instantly led them to misidentify her.
"Hey, you! Mermaid over there! This isn't a place where you can just run wild, and that goes for your Sea King, too!" a Marine soldier barked toward the shore where Bai Tza had landed.
The writhing tentacles flanking Bai Tza's cheeks twitched, pausing for a fraction of a second.
"Ignorant mortals," she hissed with a low chuckle, extending a hand toward the All-Devouring Narwhal.
Finally, the All-Devouring Narwhal ceased its struggles. Its massive frame stopped thrashing, its head bowed low, and its body began to warp and ripple like a disturbed reflection on a water surface. The creature's gargantuan mass rapidly imploded, shrinking within the blink of an eye to the size of a common goldfish. It hovered in Bai Tza's palm, swimming in light, buoyant circles.
This single display struck everyone dumb.
Eyes bulged in sheer disbelief, staring at the remarkably obedient monster resting in Bai Tza's hand. Just moments before, the combined, desperate efforts of the entire harbor had barely sufficed to hold that Sea King at bay. Now, this suddenly appeared mermaid had subjugated the Sea King with nothing more than a wave of her hand?
"You've got to be kidding me!" someone shrieked in horror.
Cradling the All-Devouring Narwhal in one hand, Bai Tza stepped fully onto the shore, gliding forward as she spoke to no one and everyone at once:
"I have no interest in humans, nor the insignificant species of this world. For I have already decided that I shall rebuild my ancient kingdom right here, Atlantis!"
With a single, brief declaration, Bai Tza seemed to dictate the destiny of everyone present. Her gaze swept in all directions, meeting countless bewildered stares.
"Naturally, the first step is that my kingdom must be submerged in water."
She spoke as if stating a simple fact. To validate her decision, the ocean surrounding the Crescent Harbor suddenly began to vibrate, swelling violently. Wave after wave surged higher, and Marineford slowly began to be swallowed by the encroaching tides.
Throwing her arms wide, Bai Tza laughed maniacally. "How about we designate this very spot as the capital of New Atlantis?"
The moment the words left her mouth, a streak of golden light plummeted from the sky. Fleet Admiral Sengoku descended from above, throwing a devastating, high-altitude punch straight at Bai Tza.
"This is Marine Headquarters! You will not spout your delusions here!" he bellowed.
Simultaneously, Akainu made his move. His rolling, molten magma arms, which had been smoldering the entire time, erupted forward. The scorching magma shaped itself into a snarling, hideous hound's head, lunging fiercely at Bai Tza.
It was blindingly obvious that no matter how chaotic the situation became, one thing was certain: a monster had just surfaced in Marineford demanding world domination. Without question, anyone making such claims was an absolute enemy of both the Marines and the World Government.
Up on the execution platform, Kizaru quietly watched his two colleagues attack. He instinctively raised his hand to join, but after a moment of deliberation, he pulled it back.
Something felt entirely wrong.
The two onslaughts converged, one from the sky, one from the front, each carrying unparalleled destructive force. Bai Tza's lips curled downward into a frown, but she did not move an inch. To the onlookers, she appeared completely defenseless, until Sengoku and Akainu's attacks collided, shattering her form into a violent splash of crystal-clear seawater.
"Is she dead? That freak?"
"Hard to say... probably?"
Muttered conversations rippled across the plaza.
Though their strikes had seemingly connected, Sengoku and Akainu's expressions remained grim.
Bai Tza was not dead. The puddle of water scattered on the ground merely flowed back into the sea. In an instant, the entire ocean surrounding Marineford began to churn with uncontrollable turbulence.
A massive volume of seawater surged upward as a tsunami materialized out of thin air. Cresting at over a hundred meters high, the wall of water rose like a monument of absolute despair. Within the surging torrent, Bai Tza's form coalesced once more, standing proudly atop the hundred-meter apex.
Her voice carried a raspy, ancient resonance, echoing across the vast sea with primordial grandeur.
"Behold your new master, Bai Tza!"
The tsunami swelled even higher at her command. The faces of everyone below turned pale as Bai Tza's ancient, god-like whisper echoed in their ears.
"Water is the veins, the very heart of this world. The rising and falling of the tides are nothing less than my own heartbeat!"
The waves piled higher and higher, crashing forward with the momentum to topple mountains and overturn seas.
Not far away, Zoran floated silently in midair, content to watch the spectacle unfold. Within his perception, he could feel that Bai Tza had fully synced with a primal force inherent to the core of this world. Most demons possessed this innate ability, and Bai Tza was no exception.
At this very moment, she was recovering her strength at a breakneck pace. Even if this speed was nothing remarkable compared to Zoran's own, even a fraction of a Demon Sorcerer's true power represented a vast, unbridgeable chasm to the natives of this world.
"How... how are we supposed to fight that?"
Every human within Marineford looked up instinctively at the sky, staring at the apocalyptic tsunami bearing down on them. The bad news was that their enemy wasn't dead. The far worse news was that she possessed absolute dominion over seawater, the single most terrifying element to any Devil Fruit user.
The torrential waters cascaded downward.
Taking the brunt of the initial impact was Fleet Admiral Sengoku. His entire body shuddered violently. His giant Golden Buddha form managed to resist for a mere fraction of a second before the golden light was forcibly snuffed out, swallowing him into the deep.
Massive volumes of seawater began to flood inland.
"Pops! Let's use this chance to grab Ace and get out of here!" someone from the Whitebeard Pirates shouted. Their primary objective had always been to rescue the man on the execution platform.
Whitebeard's weathered, resolute face hardened with gravity. What should have been a straightforward operation had now spiraled completely out of control.
Before Bai Tza, there were no allies or enemies. They, or rather, Marineford itself, were merely her targets. The Marines and the Pirates were just collateral damage to be swept away in the process.
Whitebeard gripped the empty air with both hands, preparing to use his Tremor-Tremor Fruit abilities to shatter a path forward for his crew. However, the tsunami had already surged past a hundred meters, rendering it entirely irresistible. The boundless waves carried a bizarre, incomprehensible energy, the ancient magic of the mermaid-like entity.
Bai Tza's silhouette manifested within the cascading torrents.
One after another, strange, runic characters made of seawater materialized in the air, rapidly interlocking to form a massive, glowing magic circle. From the center of the array, a majestic, primordial aura erupted.
Bai Tza, the Water Demon, was finally unleashing her true magic.
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