Chapter 114

Hey guys. Here's another chapter! Unfortunately tho, this is the last one this month, for sure…

When I return sometime around May, I will probably be uploading around 3 to 4 chaps every week. Until then, please do endure ^^;

With that said, I hope y'all have a great day!

Cya

__________________________

*BOOM*

The whole execution platform collapsed and the dusts rose, covering the view of the scene.

Watching the situation, Newgate stood back up and nodded to his men, who nodded back in realization before quickly running towards the back.

"It's fine! Without a key, Portagus D. Ace can't be freed!" Sakazuki's gruff voice boomed across the area, "Don't falter, and simply focus on the eradication of the Whitebeard pirates!!"

Within the cloud of dust,

*Zoom*

a faint flash of purple could be seen. When the dust finally cleared, Rowan was standing without any harm inflicted upon him, with Ace having disappeared miraculously.

Garp's eyes widened upon such a sight, but closed his eyes tight in a relief, and turned his head away from Rowan, as if trying to ignore the latter.

"Ace... where did Portagus D. Ace go?!!" Sengoku, who too was standing right in front of Rowan in his gigantic golden Buddha form, shouted with a vivid urgency within his tone.

Disregarding Sengoku's heated glare towards him, Rowan quickly swept his gaze around the battlefield, assessing the current situation.

'Sengoku, Garp, Akainu, Kizaru, Aokiji, Mihawk, Kuma, Doflamingo, and Moria.' Rowan quickly rolled his brain in a span of a second, 'Mihawk occupied, Kuma not interested in fighting, and Garp... he seems to be quite emotional—is he related to Ace in any way?'

As he was shifting his eyes back onto Sengoku, his eyes briefly met with Newgate's. Although it was the first time they've met, Rowan could see what Newgate intended to do.

'Whitebeard handles Sengoku. If so... Akainu for me.'

Meanwhile, Sengoku was seen to be staring up towards the sky with a realization, "I see... so that's how."

Rowan's eyes sharpened upon sighting Sengoku's behaviour. Nami, Jinbe, and Ace were above at the Prominence, with the former trying to free the latter. If they are exposed to any form of harm, it may result in a detrimental circumstance.

But that was his crew's job to do. As for him, the moment he arrived at the Marineford, he only had one job to do: destruction.

'Hyper Sense.'

When Sengoku lowered his head to face Rowan once more, Rowan's eyes were brilliantly glowing in amber colour, causing Sengoku's eyes to narrow in caution.

'His eyes are...' Not giving Rowan any chance to do whatever he was about to do, Sengoku raised his palm up and blasted an incredible force wave.

*BOOOOM*

Rowan quickly bounced himself upward and managed to avoid Sengoku's attack before it reached him.

'Fleet Admiral is indeed, a Fleet Admiral.' Rowan thought as he saw the demolition of the ground that he was standing on seconds ago, 'And... to think Whitebeard is in such a state—a sickness it seems. In the worst-case scenario, I might have to face Garp and Akainu at once.'

High up in the air, Rowan didn't bother to utilize the bounce force to keep himself floating in the air. As he was freefalling head-first, he finished the assessment of the situation around him.

Garp's dilemma is probably the best opportunity that he will find. Before Garp decides to join the fight, Rowan has to defeat Sakazuki. This meant that he can't hold back, for this war required Rowan's near-maximum output from the start.

'Through the absurdly enhanced use of Observation Haki, Hyper Sense, I am able to see the inner components of my body. I am aware of them. If so...'

It was an idea that Rowan thought of during his stay in the Impel Down. What if his whole body, not only the external section, but every single component from the top of his head all the way to the tip of his foot, becomes imbued by the application of the emission of Armament Haki? Through this application of Armament Haki that Rowan named 'Flow,' his body became resilient enough to—

'handle slight modification.'

Under the watch of everyone, the steam began to emit from Rowan's body as he continued to fall.

*Ba-Bump*

A faint sound of heart beating was heard in Sengoku's ears.

*Tap*

Rowan landed back onto the ground gently.

"What are you about to do now, Grimheart?!"

*Ba-Bump*

The sound of heart beating within Rowan began to get louder and louder as it continued to boom over and over.

'The increased flow of blood, by applying the very force of bounce on my heart.' Rowan grinned as his body lightened up in a golden aura, indicating the use of the Advanced Armament Haki: Emission. 'Increased stroke volume. Increased uptake and gas exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Enhanced capabilities of muscles. The boosted functions of the body through the increased contractility of the heart. What better technique is there than this, to match my title?'

"Grimheart."

Rowan's skin, which was already covered in the black hardening and the golden emission of the Armament Haki, became engulfed in white steam.

*BA-BUMP*

Noticing the shift in the atmosphere, Kuzan turned himself to ice and rapidly flew towards Rowan with the intention to freeze the latter. He could tell that Rowan was an anomaly that the Marine had to get rid of as quickly as possible.

However, having predicted Kuzan's assault ages ago, Rowan's amber coloured eyes directly looked at Kuzan with impassive eyes, which induced a surprise from the latter as he continued to approach the former.

'I got read by him?!' Kuzan then remembered Rowan's final strike back in G-8.

At the next moment,

*BOOOOOOOM*

Kuzan was suddenly blasted down with immense force, causing him to cough out a slight amount of blood.

'I... didn't even see him attack.' That was Kuzan's thought before his body crashed onto the buildings.

Sakazuki watched Kuzan's clash and clicked his tongue, "Tch, what are you doing, Kuzan? Think about the impact that your brash decision will have on the morale of the marine soldiers!"

Rowan took a deep breath in with closed eyes, before his eyes abruptly opened and he vanished.

"Juggernaut..."

In the next moment, Rowan suddenly appeared right in front of Sakazuki, who frowned in annoyance as he quickly condensed a mass of magma onto his right arm.

"Great Eruption!!" Sakazuki roared as he jumped backward while slamming his fist forward towards Rowan. However, at the same time, Sakazuki's eyes widened in surprise as he witnessed Rowan's fist crackling in black-electricity-like energy,

*Thud* *Thud*

Many pirates and marines around the two of them began to fall, for they were crushed under the highly concentrated Conqueror's Haki of Rowan.

'Infusion of Conqueror's Haki?!! A brat like him?!' Sakazuki's eyes widened as Rowan's punch began to drill through his magma effortlessly. 'Kurgh... but Kuzan clearly indicated that Grimheart doesn't have Conqueror's Haki in the first place!!'

"—Sonic Blast!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Rowan's insanely fast and strong punch sent Sakazuki to bulldoze down to the core of the Marineford, creating large cracks all over the platform and causing many buildings to collapse, as the nearby ground cracked into pieces. Many nearby pirates and marines also lost their footings.

"A-Admiral Sakazuki!!!" One marine soldier expressed his disbelief with his eyes popped out and his jaw opened wide. Others were of no exception.

Sengoku, having turned back to his human form, clenched his fists in an anger that Rowan managed to disrupt the war to such an extent already. However, he couldn't afford to throw away his leadership and chase after Rowan, especially since Newgate was standing at some distance away from him.

Newgate witnessed Rowan's beatdown of two Admirals in an instant moment with inexplicable emotion within his eyes, before opening his mouth in a reserved tone, "So you must be the Grimheart pirates."

"Yep." From Newgate's right, Carina nodded with her arms crossed, who appeared out of nowhere.

"""WHAA?!!""" Seeing how Carina appeared without any of them being aware, all the Whitebeard pirates nearby shrieked in shock.

"Grimheart... *Cough*" Newgate squinted his eyes at Rowan, "...Ace's friend huh? Not bad."

"Don't get cocky, you old white mustache." Carina stared at Newgate with slight annoyance, much to others' shock, "Rowan is soon to be the next 'Strongest Man of the World,' hmph!"

"S-she dared to talk to pops like that! Just who is she?!"

"She is 'Phantom Assassin,' the vice captain of the Grimheart pirates!!"

"Cheh, what a cheeky lass." Newgate frowned with faked displeasure, but there was a mix of joy and relief within his eyes.

On the other hand,

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

One by one, the Pacifistas were falling helplessly with electricity crackling all over their body.

"Pacifistas!" Sentomaru looked at his left and right with a cold sweat, "Out of all possibilities, it had to be the user of Rumble Rumble fruit... damn it!!!"

"Don't bother." The man with a black mask and blue electricity crackling around him, Dan, slowly walked from the back casually, "They will be out of commission for some time. After all, don't you think it's a bit unfair?"

"B-Black Mask...!" Sentomaru gritted his teeth before lifting up his palm towards Dan, "Don't think you being Logia will save you from my attack! Ashigara-"

Suddenly, with a flash of light, Borsalino appeared in front of Sentomaru, with his arm blocking Sentomaru's attack.

"Oh~ don't bother, Sentomaru. He's not someone that you can handle... leave him to me." Kizaru said lazily, as Dan lowered his body in caution.

*SWOOSH*

Quickly turning a part of his body into the light to dodge a Haki-imbued knife that suddenly appeared with a purple flash, Kizaru lazily gazed at a far distance, where Carina was staring back at him.

"Ho~?"

"Don't you dare forget me, Kizaru!!!" From the top, Marco came crashing down onto Borsalino with his arms sprouted into flame-like wings, to which Borsalino dodged by turning his body into a flash of light.

Reforming his body from Marco's back, Borsalino scratched his head, "One versus three? Oh my~ that's a bit unfair, is it?"

Although Carina was more of a mediator who oversees the overall situation of the Grimheart pirates and acts when necessary, Dan didn't bother to say that out loud.

"I mean, you are literally the light, so," Dan grinned, hiding his nervousness, "we gotta get rid of you first."

Dan couldn't believe it; he was actually going against one of the three Admirals, who are known to be the strongest forces within the Marine.

From the other side, Doflamingo watched such a scene with a wide grin on his face; he was truly enjoying the sudden twist in the war.

"Heheheh, now this is unexpected." Doflamingo muttered before swiping his arm and generating the sharp and hard strings.

*CLANG*

Those strings clashed against the sword belonging to the handsome-looking man with long blond hair, Cavendish.

"Guahaha, you must be shocked by the handsomeness of my face! Oh, how pitiful!" Cavendish winked as he clashed against yet another string produced by Doflamingo.

"And I was wondering why no one was paying attention to lonely me! Glad to see that someone came to play along, heheheh!!" Doflamingo twitched his right hand in an attempt to attach his strings onto Cavendish's spine and gain the control of the latter's body, however,

*Swoosh*

Cavendish dashed towards Doflamingo at a speed where his strings couldn't keep up.

"Heh, not bad." Doflamingo's grin widened as he raised his hand up and quickly sent forth a string that attached itself to the cloud above, before floating up to narrowly dodge Cavendish's attack. Subsequently, he swiped his other hand downward towards Cavendish,

"Five Colour Strings."

Five sharp strings flew towards Cavendish at rapid pace.

"Beautiful Sword: Vent Rosé!"

Cavendish spun and slashed through the strings.

*Swoosh*

Doflamingo's strings were cut in a single strike, and Cavendish grinned back at Doflamingo with confidence within his eyes,

"Guahaha, praise me!! Seems like my beautiful sword, Durandal, is sharper than your measly strings, Joker!"

With the veins popping out of his forehead, Doflamingo chuckled darkly, "I would've been disappointed if you weren't even capable of doing this much."

And on the wall at some distance away,

"Haa, I've let my guard down there, didn't I..." Kuzan stood back up and wiped a trail of blood on his mouth, and gazed at two individuals who were standing in front of him. "Hmm... you managed to break free from the ice, Jozu?"

Jozu glared at Kuzan with a firm expression before shifting his eyes to his right momentarily, "It's thanks to this woman here. Fine control of flame."

Said woman was none other than Carmen.

"It's going to be different from the last time, where we fought on top of the Prominence." Carmen stated in a cold tone, before slamming her right foot onto the ground, "Grill."

"Ah... we are getting to the business right off from the bet. Geez, what a fiery woman. Alright." Kuzan said lazily.

From Carmen's foot, the immense heat began to spread out and scorch the nearby grounds. Jozu immediately moved away from the site to prevent his feet from being roasted.

Kuzan's eyes narrowed as he transformed his right hand into ice and slammed it onto the ground, "Ice Age!"

The cold and freezing ice spread in a similar way, and the steams rose with a sizzling sound as the ice was melted by the incredible heat; Carmen and Kuzan's techniques nullified each other.

"Is that it?" Kuzan said in a monotone as the tridents made out of hard ice formed all around him, "If so, I would be quite diappointed, Flame Empress."

"I'm just warming up!" Carmen snorted, "Beware Aokiji, for it isn't going to be the same as before."

Carmen knew that although her fruit ability holds an advantage against Kuzan, she lacked everything else from physical prowess to Haki. However, at the current moment, she wasn't alone.

"It's the first time I've met you, but," Jozu stated seriously as he gazed at Carmen, "I'll protect you from Aokiji. Let's defeat him together."

"...Of course." Carmen held her right hand up towards Kuzan, and her entire body began to transform into a hot flame.

"Hmm… diamond and flame, what a troublesome combination."

"Flame Empress..."

The temperature around Carmen began to rise rapidly, and the colour of the flame began to change. From red to brilliant white, and from white to-

*Pazz*

The crackling sounds resounded around Carmen, as her whole body was encased in incredibly hot blue flame, with plasma crackling all around her.

"...Ignis."

Unlike the all-rounder like Kuzan, Carmen solely relied on her fruit ability in most of the situations. Due to that, she made a drastic improvement in its usage, especially after she gave up on the flashiness in exchange for practicality.

Kuzan stared at Carmen's new form with caution, as he imbued his ice-cold arms with Armament Haki.

While Carmen and Jozu faced off against Kuzan,

"L-look!!! What's with that horse?!!" One pirate screamed in disbelief, as his finger was pointed high above.

"W-wha?!!"

"It's...

it's running in the air!!!"

Indeed, Farul was running on top of the air through the use of Geppo, as if there were a pair of wings attached to him. On top of Farul, Robin was seen to be sitting by with her arms crossed.

"Cien Fleur, Dos Manos,' Robin's eyes focused on Moria's gigantic body, "Clutch."

"Eh?" Moria raised his eyebrow as the absurdly large number of arms rose from the ground all of a sudden, before combining into two large arms and tightly latching onto his neck, "Kek… *Cough* *Cough* D-Doppelman!!!"

Moria's shadow rose and transformed into a figure that depicted the same characteristics as Moria. Before Robin's technique could finish the deed, Moria managed to swap space with his shadow known as Doppelman.

"What a strange yet fearsome devil fruit ability." Within the noisy battlefield, Alfred walked towards Moria as he adjusted his monocle. On his right hand, there seemed to be a gigantic gun-like machinery. "As expected of Gecko Moria, who is known to have gone against Kaidou of the 'Beast' in the past."

Moria frowned upon hearing Alfred's words, having remembered the day of his fall. He retorted with enraged eyes, "Kishishi… don't you dare to speak any further, you bastard…"

Then, Alfred's gentle expression suddenly distorted into a crazed grin, "Fine by me, bastard."

He raised the gigantic gun he was holding as his arms were imbued in Armament Haki, before pressing the trigger,

"3 Reject, 20 Impact, and 5 Flame dials... go to hell."

From the gun, an orange-coloured laser blast exploded out and collided against Moria, while Robin retracted her arms before it was caught in the fire.

*BOOOM*

"Ahhh!!!" Moria's shriek was heard from the smoke that arose from the collision, and simultaneously, a few shadows escaped from Moria's hold.

At the same time, Robin jumped out from Farul with her arms crossed,

"Cien Fleur: Wing."

The huge number of hands sprouted from Robin's back, joined together to constitute huge wings, and flapped to allow Robin to glide towards Moria at a rapid speed.

"Kieeeeee!!!! To think I, Gecko Moria, have to go all out against the likes of you!!!" Moria's angry scream was heard with a clanging sound of metal.

As Robin was now in proximity with Moria, Moria was revealed to have his body size decreased to some extent, while holding blades in each hand. However, Robin didn't panick. Instead,

*ZOOM*

With a familiar purple flash, 4 knives appeared in front of Robin, who let out a confident smile.

"Cien Fleur: Cuatro Manos." The wings behind Robin transformed into four condensed arms, which took a hold onto the knives given by Carina.

*CLANG* *CLANG*

Moria and Robin's weapons collided against one another, and at the same time, Alfred made an appearance above Moria, with his gun pointed towards Moria at point-blank distance.

"D-damn it-"

*BOOM*

"Neigh~!!!"

As the large noise resounded from the clash against them, Farul began to ascend up into the sky, with the intention to retrieve Ace from the Prominence.

"Shoot that horse down!!" One marine soldier cried as he shot towards Farul multiple times, only to see that it hasn't even gone close to hitting the latter.

"Don't waste your ammo on that, you idiot! Focus on the others!"

As the chaotic circumstance ensued, Rowan watched the gigantic hole that his strike created with caution, as Sakazuki walked out of it with his hat, marine justice coat, and redshirt shredded apart. There was a visible purple-coloured wound on his chest.

Sakazuki seemed to be furious beyond belief, with his eyes reeking of bloodlust.

"Pirates. Sneaky as always, huh?" Sakazuki growled.

'He coated himself with Armament Haki at the last moment.' Rowan thought as he smirked towards Sakazuki, "What, you couldn't even react against that? If so, let me show you something faster."

Rowan bent his legs slightly, causing Sakazuki to grit his teeth as his arms were coated by black-coloured hardening and brown-orange-coloured emission of Armament Haki, while the huge mass of magma bubbled behind him.

"Ultrasonic."