Boom!
A colossal golden figure descended from the sky and slammed into the battlefield with the booming resonance of a temple bell.
Bathed in radiant light, a Great Buddha manifested — Navy Admiral Sengoku the Buddha, towering over the shattered ground.
Bullet's steel shell had cracked from the earlier shockwave. His core form erupted out from within the fractured metal, spitting out blood as he stared up at the towering figure before him.
Sengoku's expression was grave. Without hesitation, he raised his massive palm and brought it down. Bullet clasped his arms in defense as his entire body became enveloped in a hemispherical shockwave the moment Sengoku's palm struck.
Bullet gritted his teeth, straining to hold his ground, while Aokiji materialized behind him and launched twin ice spears.
"ICE Two-Thorn Spears!"
Although the spears did not pierce Bullet's Haki defenses, their impact still forced him to stagger, destabilized by the brutal force. Immediately after, Sengoku's palm slammed him into the ground.
Sengoku scanned the field, then called out in a commanding voice to Kuma and the others.
"I will take this front, leave the rest to you."
With that, Sengoku's figure blurred and he rocketed toward Lloyd's position.
At the sight of Sengoku's movement, Roger felt a chill of dread. No sooner had the thought passed through his mind than Sengoku's blow struck his back, and Lloyd's blade flashed in a horizontal arc across his abdomen.
Roger's eyes widened and blood erupted from his mouth. Without Haki shielding him, he would have been bisected instantly.
At the sight of their captain in tatters, Silvers Rayleigh and Jabba abandoned their own battles and sprinted toward him.
Lucia descended from the air, blade supporting her on the ground. Her face was pale, her breath ragged. Jabba was the third-in-command of the Roger Pirates; she had fought relentlessly to remain on her feet, but every drop of stamina had been drained from her body.
Thankfully, Lloyd had already cleared this area of threats, so she was at least no longer surrounded by danger.
Elsewhere, Akainu and Kizaru had combined their might, holding Rayleigh at bay so he could not rush too far forward.
When Jabba reached Roger's side, he lifted both axes in a roar to strike at Sengoku. But before he could, he was sent flying by Lloyd's strike, then yanked back by a cloak of darkness, only to receive a devastating knee strike to the face.
Despite being one of the strongest among the Yonko First Mates, Jabba was no match for Lloyd's calculated brutality. He lost a tooth from the impact, and had Roger not intervened, his skull would have been shattered.
It was a lesson in overmatching, yet Jabba refused to yield. Even at the cost of a front tooth and what felt like years from his life, he drove onward relentlessly in what he called helping his Captain.
And this time, his target was Lloyd.
With Sengoku's intervention, Lloyd's burden was eased. Seeing Jabba charging at him, Lloyd shoved Roger aside, letting Sengoku momentarily block, and turned to meet Jabba head-on.
Roger watched, helpless and horrified, as if reliving the moment Whitebeard once saw Oden charge forward — he shouted in futile warning:
"Don't come over here, Jabba!"
But it was too late.
Jabba and Lloyd collided, their clash echoing like thunder. Within moments, both of Jabba's twin axes slipped from his grip and skidded across the broken earth — rolling, by coincidence, toward Shanks and Buggy, who were locked in combat with a squad of Navy soldiers nearby.
Shanks and Buggy froze at the sight of the axes. Shanks turned his head toward the center of the battlefield, and that was when he saw something that would haunt him forever.
Jabba's body was lifted into the air by Lloyd, who gripped him by the throat. Jabba's flesh had withered to something like dry leather. If not for his tattered uniform, no one would have recognized him.
With a gentle tug, Lloyd severed Jabba's head from his body, then flung it toward Roger.
Buggy paled so thoroughly that his iconic red nose seemed to drain of color. A thin thread of snot lolled from his nostril as his voice failed him.
Shanks stood frozen for a heartbeat, whispering in disbelief,
"Jabba died just like that?"
Roger lifted Jabba's head from the ground with trembling hands and let out a guttural, heart-wrenching cry,
"Jabba!!!"
Sengoku saw this overwhelming grief in Roger's eyes, and for the first time that day, his assault paused.
But Lloyd did not grant Roger the luxury of mourning.
There was no cinematic pause, no dramatic close-up. Reality offered no courtesy.
Lloyd swooped above Roger, expansive wings blotting out the sun, casting him into an eerie half-shadow.
Then Lloyd raised Muramasa and slashed toward Roger's head.
Crack!
The impact echoed like shattering glass, and a forceful shockwave hurled Roger backward.
Lloyd folded his wings elegantly and spiraled through the air several times before landing, then straightened his posture. He regarded the battlefield with cold detachment and spoke without warmth,
"Whitebeard, you haven't gotten weaker, are you trying to amuse me?"
Whitebeard stood at Roger's side, his face drawn and pale.
Sengoku was momentarily struck by what he saw — the right half of Whitebeard's face was so mangled it scarcely looked human, distorted in spirals around his right eye.
If Sengoku knew Naruto, he might have thought Whitebeard resembled someone cosplaying Obito.
Whitebeard looked down at Roger, whose eyes were still glazed with grief, and in a deep, gravelly voice he said,
"Roger, if you don't want to fight, then step aside."
Roger stood frozen, tears streaming down both cheeks as he stared at Jabba's severed head.
Seeing the pain etched on Roger's face, Whitebeard's expression softened and he exhaled wearily. Several of his most beloved "sons" had been lost in Lloyd's advance — loss he understood all too well.
Lloyd sensed this moment of vulnerability and chose not to prolong the mourning further. He charged forward again, blade raised toward Whitebeard.
Whitebeard, having wrestled with Lloyd before, already knew his ruthlessness. Lloyd did not telegraph his strikes; one moment he spoke calmly, the next his blade was at your throat.
Prepared for this, Whitebeard swung Murakumogiri upward as Lloyd closed in.
Their blades collided in an earth-shaking shockwave that blew the head from Roger's limp grip. Roger's body shook violently, and in that instant, he was forced back into painful awareness.
Roger looked up at Lloyd, who was already locked in battle with Whitebeard. His hatred for Lloyd ran as deep as his pain.
He gripped Ace's hilt with white knuckles and slowly rose to his feet. Yet instead of charging at Lloyd, he turned his gaze toward the wider battlefield.
Even the elite members of the Roger Pirates were falling now. Roger spotted Dolinger and Mimon lying motionless in their own pools of blood.
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