Chapter 59. Ghost Ship

Ace stepped forwards and raised his hands as if they were guns.

The magma meteors were still far up in the skies about the clouds, only few had fallen beneath the clouds, none had reach sea level.

From the tip of Ace's fingers, blue flames started dancing.

Ace pointed his finger towards the sky and started blasting the meteors with his blue bullets.

The blazing blue flames shot towards the sky, some hit the meteors and some missed, but whenever the bullets hit a burning magma meteor, it was as if the blue bullets were raging beasts as the whole meteor started burning in blue flames then they started vaporising.

Soon, most of the hundreds of meteors started turning blue as flames burnt them. They started releasing huge, huge amounts of black smoke as they got vaporised.

The marine soldiers only saw the red meteors tune blue as they started burning and vaporising. One for one until almost everyone burnt blue. The whole sky took on an unnatural purplish colours because of the blue flames and red magma.

"What the hell... Is that..." A marine soldier dropped his rifle as he looked up to the majestatic views. He understood that this battle was way beyond someone like him and he felt hopelessness. As soon as he did that, many other soldiers followed suit.

They had gone all out for over 2 hours, yet they couldn't even catch up. They had never seen such a monstrous ship before, it should've sunk a thousand times over.

"Pick up your weapons." Akainu commanded in a cold voice, which awoke all the soldiers from their stupor.

Soon the sky started becoming black as the smog of vaporised magma filled the sky. It looked unnatural.

It wasn't like dark grey clouds, rather it was completely black, which cast a dark shade on the sea beneath it. It was as if he darkest hours of the night had arrived.

The area surrounding the Black Pearl was full of mist and steam which made it almost impossible to see them, now with the darkness of the smog. The Black Pearl had really tuned dark.

"Akainu, they are invisible, we are losing them." Suddenly, Aokiji spoke to Akainu, their plans were failing. The Black Pearl was much faster and durable then they had counted on. Even if it was Adam's wood, the most durable wood, it still wouldn't be able to sail this fast.

"It's a ghost ship." Aramaki accidently spoke his mind, which resulted in many soldiers fearing their enemy more and losing morale.

Akainu grit his teeth in anger. They couldn't catch up no matter what.

He thought back to the their meeting in Sengokus office. They discussed that they couldn't go after the Flame Emperor with three admirals, that would leave them open for attacks from the Yonko and other pirates.

So they had to chose 2 out of three admirals to go with.

They chose Akainu for his ruthlessness and his attack power as he had the most destructive abilities in the Marines.

And they they chose Aokiji for his abilities to stop any enemy with his Ice abilities, which also had countless of uses.

Kizaru wouldve been useful in catching up to the Demon Ace Pirates, but could he stop them on his own? No. Aokiji was still the right choice, they might've failed even worse if they brought Kizaru instead of Aokiji.

This knowledge frustrated Akainu more than one could imagine.

"I Will Kill Gold Ace No Matter What." Akainu spoke, as if it had become his life goal.

Someone of this potential couldn't be left alone.

Suddenly they saw light amongst the mist, Ace was using his flames, but they couldn't see what was going on exactly.

The elites of the Marines suddenly felt with their observation Haki that the Black Pearl increased its speed by multiple times, as if it had broken through all their efforts.

"We failed." Aokiji admitted into the den den mushi.

"Follow suit" admiral Akainu commanded.

All the soldiers and elites knew that they had failed but they continued following the Black Pearl.

By the time they had passed all the smog and steam, the Black Pearl was nowhere to be found.

*RING RING* Akainu looked at his den den mushi for a few seconds thinking of how he should explain the situation before answering.

"How did it go, is he dead yet?" Sengoku asked. They had sent a force similar to what they had done for the likes of Shiki and Gold Roger back in the days.

"We failed." Akainu admitted in few words, as he looked at the countless ships in the area.

"..."

Silence took over as Sengoku tried understanding how it could even be possible. He had come up with this plan himself, and he was a master strategist.

"Fine, return to base and prepare a well written report, I want all the details, from both of you... and from Aramaki as well." Sengoku relented as he closed the den den mushi.

Akainu understood who he meant with "the both of you" it could only mean himself and Aokiji.

The Marines returned to Marineford.

The travel back was silent, no one spoke a word.

But all the soldier felt essentially the same. They were horrified as they were sure of it now, the Flame Emperor wasn't just some empty title, Gold Ace was a big player in these seas.

The marines had a new enemy, and the world was in more danger.

Some older soldier remember how Gold Roger had created havoc during his time and then even after his death, he didn't let them rest. With a few words he created a whole new generation of crazy pirates sailing under the black flag.

And today, they had experienced the horror of the name "Gold" once again. The flame empeor did something impossible that would leave a big stain on the record of the marines.

Ace escaped an offensive assault of hundreds of ships, two admirals and Aramaki that everyone knew was on an admirals strength level, there was just no position open for him to get promoted.

The Flame Emperor escaped being assaulted from all sides, and these marines saw how they miraculously did that. And now they felt like another Emperor is on the uprise.

Some wrote letters and documented about the event, as they felt like they saw some historical event that shouldn't be forgotten.

Luckily, the marines didn't have any casualties, that's probably the only thing they could be happy about.

Only Sengoku knew of the results of the assault, so all Marine officers in Marineford, that knew about the ambush, were excitedly waiting for the news, that Akainu would bring them. They fully believed that Gold Ace would fall today and another threat would be uprooted.

Until a few days later when all the ships returned to their stations, the faces of everyone made them realise.... The devils son was still alive.

And that's not the worst of it, by the time they had returned, great news had shaken the world.

The rear admirals, vice admirals and admirals were aware of the fact but the news had just reached the populace.

Golden lion Shiki was defeated by the flame Emperor Gold Ace! Every single marine that had joined in the battle against Gold Ace felt sick to the stomach, because of their huge failure.

And every single island was muttering the name of Ace and Shiki. It had shaken the world.