"Father!"
Marco hovered in the sky, his Phoenix form flickering with regenerative flames as he weathered Kizaru's light clones. Even with his body riddled with holes like a beehive, he remained defiant. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it—Edward Newgate, the world's strongest man, kneeling.
Marco's expression shattered.
His hands turned ice-cold. A chill worse than any ice fruit spread through his veins. "What happened?!"
"Marco!" Vista shouted, dodging a magma fist. "What's wrong with the old man?!"
"Tell us!"
Marco didn't answer. The sight of Whitebeard on his knees—kneeling—before Rosen sent a shockwave through the battlefield that eclipsed even the Admirals' attacks. For the Whitebeard Pirates, Edward Newgate wasn't just a captain. He was their sky.
And the sky was falling.
A wave of despair washed over the pirates. Their fighting spirit, already strained by the Admirals' onslaught, began to hemorrhage. The affiliated crews faltered first. Swords lowered. Feet shuffled backward. The will to fight evaporated like sea mist under Akainu's magma.
"This is over," Sakazuki growled, his fist still smoking from Meteor Volcano. He couldn't sense Rosen's Haki, but Newgate's aura—once a roaring inferno—had dimmed to a dying ember. "Your captain has been defeated."
Kizaru flicked his finger, and a laser blast slammed Marco from the sky, carving a trench in the deck. "Araraara... You should just surrender. No need to die pointlessly, hm?"
"Shut up!" Marco roared, flames erupting as he forced himself upright. "Whitebeard's sons don't know the meaning of surrender!"
"Then they'll learn it in death," Akainu snarled, launching another volley of magma meteors.
But the damage was done. Whispers spread like plague through the ranks:
"They took down Whitebeard in seconds."
"Rosen... he's a monster."
"It's hopeless."
Diamond Jozu, eyes bloodshot, transformed his body into diamond, Armament Haki blazing like black fire. "If we're dying anyway, let's take as many of them as we can!"
The Whitebeard Pirates roared, a final, desperate battle cry. Cornered beasts with nothing left to lose.
Yet even that rage was extinguished by overwhelming force.
Kuzan raised a hand, and a glacier erupted from the sea, freezing charging pirates mid-step. He didn't kill them—he just stopped them. A mercy compared to what came next.
Sakazuki's magma fists rained down like hellfire, boiling the ocean itself. Kizaru's light clones multiplied, a storm of lasers shredding the Moby Dick's sails. The three Admirals fought with perfect coordination, and the Whitebeard Pirates' lines crumbled.
Then—
A shadow fell.
Not from the horizon. From above.
"Wh—?!" A pirate gasped, looking up.
At first, it was just a speck, high in the atmosphere. Then it grew. And grew. Within seconds, the speck became a dot, then a boulder, then an island—a landmass covered in forest, plummeting toward the battlefield like a meteor.
"Is that...?" Boltaro's eyes widened. "Big Mom's doing?"
"No," Kuzan muttered, his own expression tightening. "This isn't her power. This is..."
"An island?!" Voices screamed across the decks. "It's falling!"
Panic erupted—but not among the Whitebeard Pirates.
They laughed.
"HAHAHA! Let's all die together!"
"Drag the Marines down with us!"
"Don't let them escape!"
The pirates became anchors, clinging to Marines, grappling their legs, using their own bodies as chains to prevent the Marine soldiers—especially those in combat suits—from retreating. They knew what this meant. An island falling from the stratosphere would obliterate everything.
Only Admiral-level power could stop it.
And Marco had just locked Kizaru in a suicide grapple.
"Hold the Admirals!" Marco roared, flames consuming his body. "Don't let them intercept!"
"You're insane," Kizaru said, but even his lazy demeanor cracked as he saw the island's shadow expand to cover half the battlefield.
Akainu's jaw clenched. He recognized this scale of power. He'd seen it once before, years ago, during a demonstration at Marineford. "So it's him..."
He didn't hesitate. He abandoned his magma barrage and drew back his fist, preparing to obliterate the falling island with a single, cataclysmic blow.
But the sea erupted before he could strike.
A torrent of water, reinforced with advanced Armament Haki, surged from the depths like a serpent, screaming toward Akainu.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
The Fleet Admiral spun, redirecting his magma fist. The collision produced a shockwave that flattened waves for miles. The water vaporized instantly, but the attack had bought precious seconds.
Jinbe surfaced from the boiling sea, gasping but defiant.
"A Warlord," Akainu hissed, his eyes burning with absolute hatred. "Jinbe. You dare interfere?"
"Whitebeard showed me kindness," Jinbe answered, his voice steady despite the tremor in his arms. "I'm merely returning the favor."
"Kindness?!" Akainu's rage spiked, his magma churning. "Pirates know nothing but betrayal and weakness!"
"On land, you'd crush me," Jinbe admitted, bracing himself. "But here, on the sea... I can at least buy them time."
Akainu's killing intent locked onto the fish-man. "Then die with them."
Above them, the island descended—a cataclysmic hammer ready to fall.
Rosen watched from the Kong's bridge, his eyes cold. "Zephyr. Gion. Secure the perimeter. The Whitebeard Pirates are finished."
"And the island?" Gion asked, her hand on her sword.
Rosen's lips curled, barely a smirk. "I'll handle the island."
He raised his hand. Haki—not Armament, but a different, terrifying color—began to swirl around him, dark and oppressive. Conqueror's Haki, dense enough to crack the air itself.
"Let's show them," Rosen murmured, "why the era of pirates is over."
The island was seconds from impact. The battlefield held its breath.
And Rosen's Haki roared to life.###
—-