"Don't do anything rash, Shiki," Charlotte Linlin warned, her voice sharp with urgency. "Are you sure that strike will only break the ice and not shatter Whitebeard to pieces?"
Shiki paused mid-swing, his sword hovering over the frozen form of Edward Newgate. He glanced at Linlin, then at the blazing Prometheus floating beside her.
"Use your fire," she commanded.
Shiki immediately lowered his weapon. Prometheus, sensing the cue, opened its maw and unleashed a pillar of solar flame directly onto the ice-encased Whitebeard.
Sizzle.
Instead of steam, the fire itself froze mid-contact, crystallizing into jagged ice that spiderwebbed back toward Prometheus.
"Let go!" Linlin shouted.
The sun homie severed its flame instantly, but not before frost crept dangerously close to its core. Napoleon's fate was still fresh in their minds—once frozen, even Armament Haki couldn't save you.
"Impossible," Shiki breathed, staring at the frozen fire. "It froze flames... What is that ice?"
"More than ice," Linlin corrected, her eyes fixed on Rosen's Bankai form. "That's Daiguren Hyōrinmaru. And it's evolved beyond simple temperature. It's become rule-based—like the most powerful Paramecia."
She analyzed the situation with grim clarity. "Newgate's shockwaves, Prometheus's flames, Zeus's lightning, our Haki... everything that touched that freezing aura solidified instantly. Unless our raw power can overwhelm this 'rule,' we're facing the same fate."
Shiki clenched his swords. "So even knowing the mechanics—"
"We're still outmatched," Linlin finished. "Without the world's strongest man, we're barely qualified to fight him, let alone win. And that's just one of his Zanpakutō."
As if to emphasize her point, Rosen took a step forward, Tensa Zangetsu in his right hand, Daiguren Hyōrinmaru in his left.
Shiki's eyes narrowed. "Four steps."
"What?"
"His technique requires four steps before full activation," Shiki explained, watching Rosen's movements. "The first three are normal strides, the fourth triggers the freezing. That's why he stopped earlier—interrupting the sequence broke his focus."
Linlin's grin turned feral. "Then we don't let him finish the sequence."
She clenched her fists, Armament Haki blackening her arms. "Zeus! Prometheus!"
Lightning and flame surged forward, not as attacks, but as suppression. They wouldn't land—they couldn't, not against Rosen's Conqueror's Haki—but they might force him to react, breaking his rhythm.
Shiki crossed his blades. "Lion's Symphony—Thousand Cut Valley!"
Dozens of compressed air blades wove a deadly net around Rosen. Not aimed directly at him—cutting space itself to disrupt his footing.
Rosen sighed, almost bored. "Predictable."
He didn't even need to swing. Conqueror's Haki erupted outward in a crimson wave, scattering the air blades like leaves. But the effort forced him to pause mid-step, his second stride interrupted.
"Got you," Shiki hissed.
Linlin charged, her fist cocked back. Without Napoleon, her body was the weapon. "Haki of the Sea!"
The sky itself split. Conqueror's Haki from two Emperors merged into a crackling storm of black lightning, a tangible wave of willpower that could crush the minds of lesser fighters.
Rosen didn't retreat. He simply raised Tensa Zangetsu.
"Getsuga Tenshō."
A crescent of black-and-red energy erupted, meeting the Haki storm head-on. The collision shattered the frozen ground for miles, ice pillars erupting skyward like volcanic vents. Yet Rosen remained rooted, his stance unbroken.
"King's Flame—Draconic Descent!"
A hole opened in the clouds above. From it plummeted a fire dragon, vast enough to swallow a battleship, wreathed in flames hot enough to melt stone. King had arrived.
Rosen looked up, a cold smile touching his lips. "So the remnants finally show themselves."
He casually redirected his Getsuga Tenshō upward. The black crescent pierced through the fire dragon, detonating its core in a silent explosion of light. The debris rained down as burning embers.
"King," Rosen called out, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "Your master fell. Your crew is scattered. The Beast Pirates' era ends today."
From the burning clouds, a figure descended on flame-propelled wings, a mask with curved horns covering his face. "You killed Kaido..."
"No," Rosen corrected, raising both blades. "Justice did."
King's mask glowed, energy gathering at its horns. "Cero Oscuras!"
A sphere of dark energy, capable of leveling a fortress, shot forth.
Rosen met it with his own. "Cero."
The two energy beams collided, but Rosen's—amplified by both Zanpakutō and Conqueror's Haki—pierced through King's attack like a hot blade through wax. The explosion engulfed the Flying Pirates' commander, sending him crashing into the ice below.
Linlin and Shiki moved simultaneously. They knew this was their only chance—while Rosen was focused on King.
Linlin's fist, blackened to obsidian, aimed for Rosen's torso. Shiki's twin swords descended in a scissor-cross, targeting his neck.
Rosen didn't even turn. "Blut Vene."
His veins pulsed with Haki, turning his skin into something harder than diamond. Linlin's fist connected, but the impact sent shockwaves through her arm instead. She gritted her teeth, refusing to flinch.
Shiki's swords fared no better, skidding off Rosen's neck with a metallic shriek.
"Blut Arterie."
Rosen's counterattack wasn't a strike—it was a shockwave. Blood-enhanced Haki exploded from his body in all directions, catching both Emperors mid-attack and flinging them backward like ragdolls.
They crashed hundreds of meters away, carving trenches through the ice.
King burst from the rubble, his mask cracked, wings tattered. He was bleeding, but his eyes burned with defiance. "You think this is over? The Beasts never yield!"
Rosen turned to face him fully. "Then die with honor."
He raised Daiguren Hyōrinmaru. The ice crystals along the blade began to rotate, creating a harmonic frequency that resonated through the air.
"Bankai: Daiguren Hyōrinmaru."
The ice plain expanded. Not physically, but conceptually—the frozen ground became an extension of Rosen's will. In the space around him, everything froze. Not just matter, but movement itself. King's flame went out. The air stopped moving. Sound died.
King's eyes widened as frost crawled up his body. He tried to use Haki, but it too froze within his veins. His final thought was of Kaido's laughter.
The Flame Disaster became a frozen statue.
Rosen turned back to the other two Emperors, who were struggling to their feet. The ice beneath them was already creeping upward.
"Your defiance is noted," Rosen said, his voice calm, absolute. "But the Beast Pirates are finished. You can join your captain in eternity, or you can swear fealty to the New Order."
Linlin looked at Shiki. The Golden Lion's arrogance had vanished, replaced by grim calculation. They had seen what happened to Newgate, to King. They knew what that ice could do.
"And if we swear?" Linlin asked, her voice rough.
"You serve the Marines," Rosen said. "Not the World Government. Not the Celestial Dragons. You serve justice."
Shiki's swords lowered. Not in surrender—in consideration. "The Marines have never accepted pirates."
"I'm redefining what 'Marine' means," Rosen replied. "Strong warriors who will cleanse this world of true corruption. Pirates who abandon their plundering ways can become something more. Or they can become ice."
He paused, letting the weight settle.
"Choose."
For a long moment, the only sound was the wind across the frozen battlefield. Then, slowly, Shiki sheathed his blades.
"The Golden Lion bends his knee to no man," he said, his voice grating. "But the Marine Admiral... that's different."
Linlin grunted, her arms still crossed. "If I get to crush some Celestial Dragon skulls, I'm in."
Rosen nodded once. "Welcome to the New Age."
Behind them, the frozen form of Edward Newgate remained—a monument to what happened when the old world stood against the new. The legacy of the Beast Pirates had ended. The era of Marine supremacy had begun.
—-