Chapter 319: Only the Victor Has it All!
Chapter 319: Only the Victor Has it All!
In the waters not far from the port where the Death Harbinger was docked, twenty large warships formed a fan-like formation, aiming at the island.
A Navy vice admiral calmly fanned himself, maintaining a serene smile as his slender, pointed mustache gently swayed with the motion of his fan.
A Navy colonel rushed over and gave a salute, reporting, "Vice Admiral Kongming, we are ready!"
Kongming, a Navy Headquarters vice admiral renowned for his strategic intellect, 'Kongming'.
"What about the PX?" Kongming inquired.
"Ready to launch!"
"Good. With the necessary preparations in place, we'll pin down the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew here!" Kongming chuckled, "This battle will be the opportunity to annihilate the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew!"
"However, Vice Admiral Kongming, we have orders from above to try and preserve Cerent," the Navy colonel hesitated for a moment before adding.
"There's nothing worth preserving in this place!"
Kongming glared at him and said, "Our duty as the Navy is to eradicate evil and deal with pirates. The PX will only destroy necessary infrastructure and won't harm civilian lives. Wiping out malevolence is what we ought to do; I don't care about the World Government's ulterior motives."
As an elite Navy vice admiral, he was privy to some of the World Government's shady dealings.
Cerent, a place with gold mines, used to be Whitebeard's territory. But after his death, it was occupied by Maroni, and they initially thought they wouldn't be able to get their hands on it.
Unexpectedly, Maroni collaborated with the World Government. This guy was a force to be reckoned with; his ability to turn people into mindless, slave-like zombies served the interests of the World Government. Coupled with the presence of gold mines, it was only natural for the World Government to ally with Maroni.
The nearby Navy bases, including theirs, frequently visited this area not only for collaborative transactions but also to prevent any pirates from seizing control.
Yes, mainly to prevent the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew!
Recently, the most threatening one has been this crew.
They received the news of the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew's departure through their surveillance ships and spies within their ranks. Vice Admiral Kongming had just returned from a mission in the New World, where he had been suppressing pirate activities.
Upon hearing this intelligence, he immediately saw an opportunity.
There was a chance now to trap the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew on this island permanently.
If they could destroy the island and the ships the pirates were traveling on, they could use it as an anchor point to snipe the remaining members of the pirate crew out at sea.
Once their captain, Sag, was stranded on the island, his crew would undoubtedly come to his rescue. However, with pirates, the strongest was usually the captain. As long as the captain didn't engage in battle, the Navy could take out the rest of the crew one by one on the open sea.
"Once the plan is executed, Sag, trapped on the island, will serve as bait. After defeating the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew, we can call upon a fleet admiral to arrest Sag, eliminating one of the Four Emperors."
Kongming's eyes twitched, revealing his hatred as he gritted his teeth and said, "A ruthless and lawless pirate who brings pain to the people; it would be our negligence if we let him rise to greater power!"
The schemes of the World Government were of no concern to him; he was a Navy man, driven by the pursuit of justice.
Ever since he was a child, when he was harmed by pirates and vowed to use his strategic wit to expel them, everything he had done was geared towards suppressing pirate activities.
Justice would never perish!
Furthermore, the disappearance of the Heavenly Disaster Pirate Crew would be beneficial to the higher-ups, which was why they approved Kongming's proposal. Otherwise, they wouldn't have provided twenty warships.
For the plan's success, Kongming had united most of the Navy forces in the surrounding area, aiming for a decisive strike.
Now was the moment!
Kongming waved his fan, giving the order, and his voice carried through the Den Den Mushi to the twenty warships, which uniformly turned their cannons toward the island.
On the decks of the ships, the Pacifistas, each standing at three meters tall, were also ready. Half of them raised their palms, gathering laser beams, while the others were loaded into the cannons. These artificial weapons were most effective when fired from the cannon barrels—a simple, direct approach that left no room for the pirates to turn the tables.
"Attack!"
BOOM!
Kongming raised his fan and brought it down with force. However, as the order was given, the sky inexplicably flashed with thunder, stirring up a violent wind and pouring rain.
A storm?
No matter; their new-model cannons were waterproof!
CRACKLE!
The thunder from the sky struck down, splitting into countless thin bolts of lightning.
As it fell from the heavens, it turned black and red, striking the warships' cannons and causing their parts to fly off, completely collapsing them.
The standing Navy personnel trembled as the lightning struck, their eyes rolling back as they foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
Kongming's pupils constricted, and he exclaimed, "Haki?!"
Before he could finish his sentence, he sensed something and looked up at the sky.
BOOM!
The already darkening sky was once again illuminated by a startling thunderclap, and amidst the lightning, a terrifying figure leaped into view.
"That's..." Kongming's mouth hung open, his eyes filled with terror.
The figure in the air had white hair and a black cloak with red trim, which danced wildly in the stormy wind. He kicked off from the air, quickly reaching the warships, with a burning, viscous black fire in one hand.
CRACKLE!
Lightning snaked through the black fire, merging with the black lightning erupting from his clenched fist.
"Quite the spectacle. Allow me to join in!"
Sag glared down at the Navy forces with a vicious expression and forcefully swung his arm, shouting, "Hundred Ghosts Assaulting the Tyrant!"
The wind pressure, laced with black and red lightning, was like someone painting in the heavens with an ink-soaked brush, leaving an extremely dense black and red trail that pressed down on the twenty warships.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Masts were snapped, cannons crushed, and the substantialized lightning from the Conqueror's Haki caused the gunpowder stores to explode, setting the ships ablaze.
In mere moments, the twenty warships sank into the seawater, burning fiercely. Some less fortunate ships had their keels directly blown apart, causing them to collapse and sink entirely into the sea.
As the impact approached, Kongming had already used Busoshoku Haki to shape and harden his feather fan into a longsword to block.
However, the force of the impact was too much, shattering the hardened Haki, causing the fan to disintegrate into fragments, and sending his body flying backward. He crashed into the broken mast and tumbled onto the deck, blood spurting from his body.
Blood trickled down his forehead, obscuring his vision with a crimson hue.
In his scarlet-tinged sight lay the fallen Navy personnel and a pair of feet belonging to a figure who had suddenly descended in front of him.
"Damn it!"
On a neighboring warship, a Navy commodore, his body battered and bloody, staggered to his feet and crawled over to an undamaged cannon. He aimed it at the figure standing on the deck.
"Can you still stand, Commodore?"
Sag, standing on the deck, drew a flintlock pistol from his waist and aimed it at the warship.
"Now is the time to lie down and behave. When I destroy you, perhaps you'll fall into the water and survive, a hundredfold."
Bang!
The lead pellet fired from the gun instantly increased a hundredfold in size and speed, transforming into a blur as it slammed into the warship.
Boom!
With a single strike, the lead pellet, now the size of a cannonball, first smashed through the warship, then exploded at its center, blowing the entire vessel to pieces that rained down on the surrounding sea, leaving behind a cloud of black smoke.
"Heavenly Disaster!"
On another burning warship, a figure suddenly leaped out, also injured but with a body that had transformed into a sea otter-like creature. He held a shell-like hammer infused with Busoshoku Haki and swung it down.
"I am Navy Commodore Ponsugi, and I will arrest you!"
Facing him was another commodore, Navy Commodore Tucha, who pounced forward with his hands clasped together. His palms, hardened with Busoshoku Haki, turned pitch-black, resembling a beast's claws as he swiped downward.
"I am Navy Commodore Tucha! Heavenly Disaster, don't get too cocky! Tucha's Claw Strike!"
"An animal-type? And Finger Gun?"
A smirk played on Sag's lips as he pointed his flintlock pistol upward and pulled the trigger. "Hundredfold speed."
Bang!
The lead pellet, imbued with Haki, shot out at incredible speed, shattering the animal-type commodore's shell hammer and piercing his head.
Ponsugi's body trembled, and under the force of the penetration, his airborne body arched backward. His eyes dimmed, and he fell into the seawater.
Sag extended his other hand, palm striking toward the lunging Tucha, breaking through his arms, and hitting the upper half of his face.
Bang!
The upper half of Tucha's head shattered, and he fell onto the deck, lifeless.
Neither their strength nor their Haki could withstand a Yonko's attack.
Sag glanced at the fallen Tucha and laughed. "This isn't the first time I've seen this. You never learn your lesson!"
He was about to reach into his cloak for something, but sensing the approaching storm, he clicked his tongue and looked up. "You're getting annoying."
A surging black and red torrent engulfed Sag, shielding him from the storm and calming the area around him.
He pulled out a cigar from his cloak, casually lit it with the nearby flames, and held it between his lips as he slowly walked toward Kongming.
Kongming, who had just raised his head, now found himself staring at the barrel of the pistol aimed at his forehead.
Sag exhaled a puff of smoke and pushed the flintlock pistol harder against Kongming's forehead.
"Not bad. You almost succeeded. But sometimes, being a little off is as good as being completely off."
Strategizing was not exclusive to the Navy; Sag was also a master of planning.
With his ability to see the future, he had known what these Navy forces intended to do.
If they left him stranded on this island and used him as bait to pick off his pirate crew one by one, they might have succeeded!
Even if he survived, it would be incredibly difficult to rebuild his empire, especially now, during the crucial period of vying for territory.
If he fell behind now, he wouldn't just be a little behind; he would lag far, far behind Teach.
"Pi—pirate!"
Kongming's lips quivered as he rasped, "Justice will always prevail!"
"Heh heh heh."
Sag chuckled. "Justice? Evil? You won't find the truth by searching the entire sea. What's right and wrong doesn't matter. Victory is all that matters. As long as I win, there will be plenty of people willing to vouch for me!"
"Don't you know? Even the way I built my empire is now being praised! Hahahaha! Whoo-hoohahaha!"
Indeed, in addition to robbery, Sag's rise to power involved coercion, enticement, and intimidation.
How else could Moria have been persuaded to join his crew?
With mere words?
Hawkins and Urki were also forced to join.
But lately, there had been rumors that his crew joined voluntarily, that he never forced anyone. Even his acts of slaughtering nobles and robbing kings were being glorified, both by foreign pirates and the ruled peoples. They said he was unafraid of power.
"When you win, I'm an evil pirate. When you lose, I'm a calamity that brings ruin! That's the truth of the sea!"
Sag's finger tightened on the trigger.
Hoo!
Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew, instantly freezing the front half of the ship, extinguishing the flames, and turning Sag into an ice sculpture.
Crack!
The surface of the ice sculpture shattered, and Sag twisted his neck to look to the side.
The flames on the damaged and burning warships were suppressed by the cold air, turning into frost. On the sea, a path of ice extended toward a strange-looking large penguin, a bicycle parked next to it, and a vagabond-like figure exuding cold air.
"Kuzan!" Sag sneered.
(End of Chapter)
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