The den den mushi in the engine room screamed, "Reporting to Adjutant Bogard! The power furnaces... the power furnace readings are normal, but our speed has surpassed fifty knots! It's still rising! This isn't scientific! How can there be such speed in these giant waves?!"
Bogard gripped the railing tightly, looking at the wildly spinning compass and speedometer in his hand. For the first time, a look of shock appeared on his usually calm face.
"This is too fast..."
He suddenly looked up at the figure that appeared somewhat blurred in the wind and rain at the top of the lookout tower.
Is it that kid?
But this wasn't over yet.
"How is this little bit of speed enough?" Tatsuki felt the distance of the wind and grinned. "If I let Admiral Sengoku catch up, the show won't be as good."
"Go... even faster!"
The air wings behind him suddenly doubled in size. He exerted full control over the air pressure within a ten-kilometer radius, creating a continuously moving "Low-Pressure Zone" in front of the warship.
Push from behind, pull from the front!
Bang!
A loud sound, close to a sonic boom, exploded on the sea surface.
The entire massive steel warship actually took flight briefly, performing a "leap" over the turbulent sea.
"Fifty nautical miles... ten minutes! Only ten minutes!"
Meanwhile, on a warship seventy nautical miles away from the battlefield.
Sengoku was staring intently at the sea chart, his face ashen. "Where the hell is that bastard Garp?!"
The communications officer was drenched in sweat, his voice trembling. "Re... Report, Admiral Sengoku! We just lost the signal from Vice Admiral Garp's warship!"
"It sank?!" Sengoku was shocked.
"No... no..." The communications officer gulped, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
"It's because the speed was too high, he's moved beyond our monitoring range. Based on the last coordinates sent back, he... he..."
"What about him? Speak up!"
"He's likely already reached the edge of Golden Lion's encirclement."
"What?!"
The teacup in Sengoku's hand shattered with a "snap," and he instantly transformed into his Golden Buddha form. His angry roar echoed through the skies:
"You bastard, Garp!!! I told you to stand by on the perimeter! Who told you to take on a whole grand fleet by yourself?!!"
"It's over... it's all over... My plan to wait for them to wear each other out..."
Sengoku clutched his forehead in pain.
—
Edd War, the eye of the storm.
Dark clouds loomed over the scene as if the sky had been torn open. Purple lightning surged wildly through the clouds, each crackle illuminating the desperate disparity in military strength on the sea.
A total of sixty heavy warships flying the Flying Pirates' flag spread out in a fan shape, their dense rows of cannons locked onto the solitary vessel at the center—the Oro Jackson.
The wind howled, and massive waves surged. Yet, at the center where two of the strongest Conqueror's Haki collided, the sea surface was eerily smooth as a mirror. It was because the very atmosphere was being compressed into immobility by those two wills.
"Shihahahahahaha! Roger!"
A man wearing a kimono and geta, with wild golden hair like a lion's mane, was floating in mid-air.
A cigar was clamped in his mouth, his arms were crossed, and the two famous blades at his waist, "Oto" and "Kogarashi," gleamed with a bloodthirsty chill under the lightning.
Golden Lion Shiki!
The most powerful overlord on these seas at present!
He looked down arrogantly at Roger. "Stop this futile resistance. Your adventure has reached its end."
"Just give me the nod and be my right hand. With the locations of the ancient weapons I know, combined with your ability to hear the Voice of All Things, we would be invincible."
Shiki spread his arms. "Together, the world is ours for the taking. Do you really want to die here?"
On the deck of the Oro Jackson.
Shanks, Buggy, and the other crew members had already gripped their weapons, their faces solemn to the extreme.
Only the man at the bow remained grinning, revealing his signature row of bright white teeth, his wild mustache quivering with his laughter.
"Wahahahaha! Shiki! I've told you many times already!"
Gol D. Roger pressed one hand against the Straw Hat fluttering wildly in the wind on his head, while the other slowly drew the Supreme Grade Blade at his waist—Ace.
Clang!
The blade was unsheathed, and Haki soared to the sky.
A red-and-black shockwave erupted from him, forcefully piercing a hole through the thick dark clouds above.
"I have no interest in ruling the world. If you can't live as you please, then what's the point of being a pirate?!"
Roger's eyes were as sharp as a hawk's, the tip of his blade pointing directly at Shiki in the sky.
"You want my freedom? Then come and take it, Shiki!"
"What an utterly hopeless fool!"
Shiki's expression darkened. "In that case, sink to the deepest depths of this sea along with your ship."
He thrust his right hand high, and the gunners on the sixty-plus warships behind him pulled their lanyards simultaneously.
"All fleet—Fire!!!"
The muzzles of thousands of heavy cannons lit up at once.
Rayleigh adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, his longsword unsheathed. He gave a wry smile. "Now this really is a big problem, Captain."
However, just a second before the first shell was about to leave the barrel—
BOOM!!!
A roar filled with the aesthetics of mechanical violence suddenly erupted from the rear flank of the battlefield, a sound so loud it even drowned out the thunder.
"What's th... Holy crap?!" Buggy's hand holding the telescope shook, and his eyes practically popped out.
Everyone, including Shiki and Roger, instinctively turned to look.
"That is..."
Rayleigh adjusted his glasses, looking toward the rear flank in surprise.
Atop a giant wave a few nautical miles away, a Marine warship with a peculiar style was racing forward at a speed that defied common sense. Two trails of blue airflow exhaust sprayed from its stern, its bow tilted high as it surfed on waves dozens of meters tall.
Even more terrifying, standing on the iconic dog-head figurehead at the bow was a man draped in a coat of justice, his face practically screaming "excitement."