Chapter 21

A terrifying battle broke out between Whitebeard and Akainu. With the help of the potions Markus provided, Whitebeard wasn't quite as weak as he had been just the day before. It wasn't as if he was back in his prime or anything, but his power was definitely higher than it had been in the canon story. Akainu was having a terrible day as Whitebeard constantly crushed him with the power of the Gura Gura no Mi. Even if Whitebeard couldn't infuse Armament Haki into his quakes, they still dealt damage to Akainu. Truly, the Gura Gura no Mi was the most powerful Paramecia capable of destroying anything.

While those two fought, Luffy was attacked by several Vice Admirals at once. He was doing his best but his fatigue and injuries were rapidly catching up with him. A couple of more wounds piled up before he was blown away and caught by Jinbe. Despite his wounds and fatigue, all Luffy did was keep saying Ace's name and trying to move forward. Markus wanted to help him but there were two more events he was waiting for. First, Luffy needed to use his Conqueror's Haki. Second, Ace needed to act like a dumbass and fall for Akainu's provocations.

While battles were happening everywhere, Sengoku ordered more executioners to come to the platform. He hadn't given up on trying to execute Ace. He would just have to wait for the right moment and distract Markus to prevent him from interfering. One of the Admirals would have to go after Markus personally to keep him in check.

While Sengoku was plotting, Marco transformed into his full phoenix form coated in bright blue and yellow flames. Markus looked at Marco and was kind of curious about something... Marco didn't wear glasses so why did his phoenix form have markings that looked like glasses around his eyes? It was weird! Did phoenixes have bad eyesight or something? Well, it was just one of those little curiosities within the world.

While Markus pondered to himself, Marco flew at his top speed directly toward the execution platform to rescue Ace. As he got close, Garp appeared before him and sent him flying with a powerful right hook. When Garp landed on the ground, he looked over the crowd and shouted, "If you snot-nosed punks want to get past me you'll have to do it over my dead body!"

Hearing Garp, Markus felt his petty side telling him to blitz past Garp and appear on the execution platform just to mess with him. He managed to keep himself in check though. If he arrived on the platform he would be expected to rescue Ace. Without the key, which Luffy had, or Mr. 3 using his wax to make a key, there was nothing Markus could do to free him. Even with his strength, it was unlikely that he could break Seastone with his bare hands while fending off Sengoku and Garp simultaneously.

Markus shifted his focus to the fight between Akainu and Whitebeard. It was gaining in intensity. Every blow from the two of them destroyed more of the marine base, especially Whitebeard's indiscriminate shockwaves. However, Whitebeard was slowing down as the fight continued. The restorative effect of the potions was waning as he fought harder against the Admiral. Markus had done what he could but there was really no saving Whitebeard. With each wound he received, his stamina waned a little more.

Eventually, Whitebeard left an opening that Akainu exploited perfectly. Markus might despise the man but he wasn't an Admiral for nothing. Akainu's right hand turned into boiling magma as he plunged it directly into Whitebeard's chest. His aim was slightly off, the blow landed a few inches away from Whitebeard's heart. The blow shocked all of the nearby Whitebeard pirates causing them to take unexpected damage. Jozu started to get frozen by Aokiji while Marco ended up taking a few lasers from Kizaru.

While that was happening, Luffy was begging Ivan for a shot of hormones so that he could continue to fight. Asking Markus for help never even crossed his mind. Ace was his brother and he had to save Ace himself! Ivan ended up giving in and stabbing Luffy with his fingernails transformed into needle tips. Markus watched an interesting scene. While Whitebeard was forced down to one knee by Akainu's blow, Luffy simultaneously rose to his feet with a powerful shout. It was like a symbolic scene of the old generation falling while the new generation rose.

New executioners arrived at the platform and flanked Ace. Sengoku looked at Aokiji, "Go hold off Markus!"

Hearing Sengoku's plan, Markus understood what his aim was. It's not like it was a complicated strategy. Markus picked up the Den Den Mushi still sitting on his head and set it down on the figurehead of the Moby Dick, "Keep filming little buddy."

Markus leaped off of the figurehead and charged toward Aokiji while Aokiji charged at him. As they closed in on each other, they both cocked their arms back. Aokiji's body was quickly covered in frost while Markus's arm was wrapped in bright bolts of lightning. Neither held back as their fists met in the air. The collision caused a shockwave followed by a blast of steam as the heat from Markus's lightning instantly boiled all of Aokiji's ice into steam. As the steam spread, Aokiji's body came flying out of the cloud and slammed into the ground.

Markus slowly walked out of the steam cloud while cracking his knuckles loudly, "Aokiji, last time we met I let you go on a whim. Back then, there was a chance you could have defeated me if I made a mistake. Now?" Markus had a mocking grin, "Now, you don't stand a chance in hell."

Sparks erupted from Markus's eyes and quickly traveled all over his body as he activated his Lightning Armor. With it active his Strength, Vitality, and Agility rocketed to 2,169, 2,377, and 2,505 respectively. With Lightning Armor active there was probably only one person in the world who could contend with him physically, Kaido. The Admirals? Not a chance in hell.

Aokiji climbed to his feet and looked down at Markus, due to the height difference, and frowned, "You really are a monster, aren't you? If you keep growing like this..."

Markus laughed, "There's nothing you can do about it!"

To prove his point, Markus activated his footwork further boosting his speed by another 930%. Markus vanished from sight and the next moment, tens of fist-shaped impact marks appeared on Aokiji's chest, stomach, and face. Aokiji's body was placed through the air by the force of the instantaneous impacts and sent him crashing to the ground further away. Aokiji lay on the frozen water of the bay coughing up blood while more leaked from wounds on his face. Markus appeared not too far away from him and looked down at him, "I can kill you anytime I wish but it's your lucky day. Do you know why?"

Aokiji looked confused and before he could say anything, Markus continued, "Because by the time all of the fallout from today is over, you will become the new Fleet Admiral. Sengoku is through. He'll be lucky if he can avoid becoming a slave to the Celestial Dragons after his failure today."

Seeing Aokiji's confusion, Markus elaborated, "You're probably thinking about Akainu right? I wouldn't worry about him. When I'm done with him today, he won't be capable of contending against you for the position. And we both know Kizaru won't want it. That man is way too lazy to want more work."

Aokiji was stunned. He didn't know what to think. It was pretty obvious that Sengoku's career as a Marine was pretty much over after this entire fiasco. No one could argue that. Even if he managed to kill every pirate here, he'd still be punished for the damage done to the reputation of the Marines. The next people in line for the position of Fleet Admiral would obviously be the Admirals. Kizaru definitely wouldn't want to be the Fleet Admiral and if Markus was true to his word and took Akainu out of the running... Then he would be the only possible replacement.

Markus could practically see the hamster running on the wheel in Aokiji's mind. He pushed further, "I know you're a decent man that knows when to make compromises. With that being the case, I would much rather you become the Fleet Admiral than a rabid dog like Akainu. He'd be more than happy to slaughter entire islands of civilians just to kill someone like me. I might be a pirate but even I find the very idea of harming civilians to be disgusting."

He only spoke the truth. Markus might have some mental issues due to the strange way he arrived in this world but he never once attacked or harmed civilians. Neither had anyone on his crew, for that matter. Most of the time, he and his crew just fought other pirates and occasionally Marines. Honestly, if the Marines left them and their loved ones alone, they wouldn't even clash with them. Their group was much more like a collection of happy-go-lucky adventurers than actual pirates. Minus their small obsession with treasure.

Aokiji sighed and climbed to his feet while wiping blood off of his face with his sleeve. Both of them stopped when they felt a strong wave of force pass over them. They looked in the same direction and saw Luffy surrounded by the unconscious bodies of many Marines. Silence had swiftly covered the battlefield as only those with strong wills remained conscious. Luffy had unleashed his first full power wave of Conqueror's Haki!

Aokiji was shocked but Markus was just smiling. For him, Luffy having Conqueror's Haki was a forgone conclusion. For everyone else, it was an absolute shock. Little did they know that Markus had an even more powerful version that could instantly kill people with a weak will. Aokiji stared in the direction of Luffy, "Hey hey, you must be joking!"

Markus snickered, "Yeah, he's something else, isn't he?"

Aokiji snapped his head around to face Markus, "Why are you talking to me like we're friends? This is a war and we're on opposite sides!"

Markus laughed, "This isn't a war. This is a farce and has been since the moment I made my first move." Markus grew serious as he looked Aokiji in the eyes, "It's only gone on this long because I allowed it to. It's not my place to rescue Ace. I'll leave that to the people who love and care for him. My job is to protect those people from your people. I'm the wrench in the engine."

Aokiji really couldn't understand Markus but what he said was accurate. With precise ease, Markus had dismantled Sengoku's plan piece by piece. Markus slapped Aokiji on the back as if they were friends, though he had to use a little electricity to melt the ice that automatically covered his hand, "Don't think too deeply about it. If I really wanted to destroy the Marines, I would have. The only Marines I want to destroy are the depraved ones like Akainu. You and Kizaru are alright in my book."

Just after Markus finished talking, Whitebeard's voice boomed, "Men! Use all you've got to back up Strawhat!"

Markus shrugged his shoulders and walked away from Aokiji. He wasn't stupid and kept an eye on the man through his Haki while walking. Markus returned to the figurehead of the Moby Dick and collected the Den Den Mushi. He placed it on his head once more, "Let's get a closer look, shall we?"

Markus wasn't sure why he was using the Den Den Mushi to broadcast everything happening on the island. Mostly, he just did it to mess with Sengoku but other than that... Well, it didn't matter. He moved from the figurehead of the Moby Dick to one of the walls surrounding the plaza. From there the fight between the pirates and the Marines could be seen clearly.

From his new position, he could see that Whitebeard wasn't doing so well. He had slowed down significantly and was now bleeding from multiple wounds. He'd even taken a few hits from cannonballs. Markus had only destroyed the majority of the cannons around the bay, the ones further away had survived and were doing their job.

Just by turning his head, he could see Luffy with a small army that included Ivan, Jinbe, and a couple of Whitebeard's crew. Together they were bashing their way through the Marines to get to Ace. As they got closer to the platform an ally popped out of Ivan's giant purple afro, a man named Inazuma. Inazuma was a newkama, like Ivan, and equally as eccentric, though less flamboyant. Inazuma had clothing and hair that was white on one side and orange on the other.

Inazuma actually had a pretty interesting Paramecia Devil fruit. It allowed him to turn his hands into large scissors and cut solid objects as if they were paper. While that alone was pretty nifty, he could also manipulate the objects he cut. Take what he was doing at the moment as an example, he ran in a straight line while cutting the ground then flipped the ground up and created a solid ramp leading to the top of the execution platform.

Luffy jumped onto the ramp and started running up it toward Ace. Kizaru wanted to interfere but Whitebeard prevented him from taking any action. Markus had been observing Kizaru's teleportation ability and speed, so far he wasn't impressed. It took several seconds for Kizaru to transform into light and just as long to reverse the process. Though he could instantaneously move between the two points, the long transformation process practically made him helpless for those few seconds. It also looked like it could easily be disrupted. Whitebeard had only hit him normally, judging by the lack of harm, yet it still prevented Kizaru from teleporting. Granted, that wasn't much of a weakness, but it was something.

While Luffy was running up the ramp, someone much more dangerous than Kizaru made a grand entrance. A section of the ramp in front of Luffy exploded as Garp jumped clean through it and landed in front of his grandson. Markus really felt for Garp. He was being forced to work against the efforts to rescue Ace by his position in the Marines. He had to face one grandson to stop him from saving another that was doomed to be executed.

Markus felt his whole body tense. He was ready to act at a moment's notice. He even set the Den Den Mushi down next to himself before activating his Lightning Armor so he could react faster if he needed to. Luffy and Garp shouted back and forth but in the end, they both threw punches. Garp clearly held back which allowed Luffy to use his Gear Second and punch Garp clear off of the ramp and bury him headfirst into the ground. Garp made no effort to get up. In the end, he really couldn't fight against his own grandson.

Seconds later, Luffy finally touched down on the platform between Ace and Sengoku. Ace looked shocked and a little happy while Sengoku's fury was reaching new heights. Someone actually dared to step on the platform? Worse it was someone of Luffy's caliber. If it had been Whitebeard or Markus that would be one thing, the two of them were extremely powerful. But Luffy? Luffy was a weakling in comparison to them.

While Luffy fumbled around with the key to Ace's cuffs, Sengoku transformed. As a man who had eaten the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Daibutsu, Sengoku was able to transform into a gigantic golden man, modeled after Buddha. At the same time as Sengoku changed, Kizaru fired off a laser that broke the key Luffy was holding. Markus tensed further, crouching down and ready to leap off of the wall in an instant.

While Sengoku lifted his arm to attack, one of the guards Luffy had rendered unconscious, woke up. The guard was Mr. 3 in disguise. Luffy and Mr. 3 worked together to defend against Sengoku's blow. Luffy used his Gear Third to make himself into a gigantic balloon while Mr. 3 used his wax power to create a strong dome around himself and Ace. Sengoku's powerful blow crushed Luffy's stomach, pressing him down against the execution platform. The pressure of the blow crushed the execution platform and sent all four men falling toward the ground.

They seemed to fall forever but on the way down, Mr. 3 managed to make a copy of the key to Ace's cuffs allowing Luffy to finally free him. With Ace freed from the Seastone handcuffs, his power immediately came back. With a massive burst of orange and red flames, the three pirates landed together in the plaza. Ace and Luffy calmly walked out of the flames while leaving Mr. 3 in a pile on the ground behind them.

Seeing Ace and Luffy caused everyone on their side to shout and roar. The already extremely high morale of the pirates grew further while the Marines felt like life was hell. Everything they'd done so far had been a complete failure. They were losing, badly, and there wasn't anything they could do about it. Some Marines still tried though, they shot at Luffy and Ace with their rifles and flintlocks. For obvious reasons, that didn't work on either of the brothers. The Marines ended up accidentally shooting each other through Ace or having their bullets returned to them by Luffy. Without Armament Haki, guns were completely useless on the two of them.

Markus deactivated his Lightning Armor to allow his Willpower to recover and enjoyed watching Ace using his fire to blast Marines. If he was being honest, Markus was a bit jealous of Ace's Mera Mera no Mi. As much as he loved his Goro Goro no Mi, fire was just so cool and iconic! He just couldn't bring himself to steal Ace's Devil Fruit or let Ace die to get his hands on it. So, he picked the Goro Goro no Mi and hadn't looked back.

As the two brothers fought in perfect harmony, Aokiji stepped in. Both Aokiji and Ace fired off massive elemental attacks that clashed against each other. The two men had diametrically opposed elements. Fire and Ice clashed together with neither one winning. Whitebeard looked over toward Ace with a soft smile, it was time. He stood tall and shouted for everyone to hear him, "Listen carefully Whitebeard Pirates! What I'm about to tell you now is my final 'Captain's Order'!"

His words caused quite a commotion among his crew. Whitebeard ignored all their questions and complaints, "THIS IS WHERE YOU AND I SPLIT UP! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!! STAY ALIVE AT ALL COSTS!! RETURN TO THE NEW WORLD IN ONE PIECE! GO ON ALL YOU BASTARDS!!"