One Piece: The Archangel's Guide

Chapter 318: A Gathering of Storms

South Blue, on the island of Samuvana'i.

The sounds of battle had finally ceased on the ravaged, smoke-filled island.

The giant warriors from Elbaf watched warily as the Marine soldiers collected the bodies of their comrades, retreated from the battlefield, and departed on their warships.

"After so many years, a battle that really gets the blood pumping!" a horned giant warrior said, slinging his massive wooden club over his shoulder with a grin. "Those little guys just retreated too fast!"

"Feeling those cannonballs hit my body... they're still just as lethal! I'm relieved!" A giant with a huge beard and savage scars covering his face and bare torso watched the fleet sail away. "Looks like my pain tolerance hasn't faded!"

Behind Dorry, a slightly hunched giant, Kashii, turned and laughed. "You say that, but weren't you the one who tried to block a cannonball with your chest and almost got blown to bits?"

"That's right!" the scarred giant replied, puffing out his chest with pride.

Several of the Giant Warrior Pirates, however, were confused. "Boss," one asked Dorry and Brogy, "why did we let those Marines leave? We had the upper hand!"

Dorry's gaze remained fixed on the man disappearing on the deck of the lead warship. "The upper hand? Don't underestimate that Admiral. Besides, the King's most important order was to protect the people here. Defeating the Marines was secondary."

Brogy looked at the giants who were finishing their evacuation and grinned. "The giants are about to be unified... It looks like His Majesty Hajrudin will be a great king, no less than his father!"

Dorry and Brogy shared a laugh, then raised their weapons high. "Warriors of Elbaf! A cheer for this victory, and for His Majesty Hajrudin!"

"OOOOOHHH!!" The roar of the giants echoed across the kingdom.

Aboard the warship, Fujitora stepped over the corpse of a man in a black suit. He walked into the briefing room, his bloody sword still in hand, and faced the terrified officers cowering inside.

Fujitora's face was contorted with a suppressed rage, making his scars look even more terrifying. "I believe," he growled, "I gave the order not to fire on the town or the civilians."

"Y-yes, sir," one of the officers stammered.

"Then... what were those cannonballs... that I was forced to intercept?" Fujitora's hand, gripping his sword Gambler's Fury, trembled. Blood dripped from the blade onto the floor. The stench of blood and the sight of the dead CP0 agent made the officers remember the Admiral's warning. Their faces went pale.

"Admiral, sir!" a young, local officer finally stepped forward. "While you were engaging the enemy, we... we received another order, from a higher authority... They ordered us to open fire, to drive the giants to the center of the island..."

"The Five Elders..."

Fujitora's expression didn't change, but the veins on his hand bulged as he gripped his sword. He was silent for a long, long time. Finally, he sheathed his blade and turned to leave.

Minutes later, he stood on the deck, his face turned to the sky.

"Non-affiliated nations..." he murmured to himself. "No... what... what are the people of this world to you... Five Elders?"

In a certain sea in the New World.

A fleet of pirate ships, all flying different flags, floated on the ocean. Their captains, their faces a mix of arrogance, pity, and malice, watched a distant battle.

A man with long blond hair (Hawkins) took one last look, put away his cards, and ordered his crew to leave.

A short, pudgy man in a suit (Bege), cigar in his mouth, hesitated, but finally gave the order to submerge.

On another pirate ship, several crewmen were panicking. "What do we do? The Captain and the others really charged in there!"

A man with a cross-shaped scar on his chin (X Drake) hung up a Den Den Mushi, his eyes dark as he looked at the frozen sea, filled with the sounds of battle. "Yes, I understand."

On the deck of a submarine, a crew in matching boilersuits shivered.

"It's so cold! Colder than where we came from!"

Their polar bear Mink companion just tilted his head. "Is it?"

Their captain, a tall young man with a fur-trimmed hat and a cursed sword (Law), looked on, his eyes wide with shock. "So this... is the power... of the ones who killed Doflamingo..."

The sea, as far as the eye could see, had been turned into a frozen glacier. A blizzard raged, covering everything in ice, the cold so intense it felt like it was stealing the life from their bodies.

In the distance, rain... of magma... fell from the sky, shattering on the glacier. The magma melted the ice, all while trying to hit a single, white-winged figure who was moving at impossible speeds.

Soldiers from both sides were locked in a brutal melee on the ice. Buccaneer warriors, in perfect coordination with the giant hounds, formed the vanguard, smashing through the Marine formations, allowing their comrades to clean up.

"Those bastards from the 6th Division... they're way too strong," a pirate gasped, watching a Buccaneer send a dozen Marines flying.

"I can't imagine... what it would be like to have them as an enemy."

"It's not just them! Even those dogs are terrifying!"

As the pirates caught their breath, other figures shot up from cracks in the ice. Fish-Man soldiers leaped out, dragging Marines into the depths, while others swam beneath the warships, tearing their hulls apart.

High above, a squadron of beautiful women (Flügel) with wings at their waists dove from the sky, their lovely, smiling faces a stark contrast to the death they dealt.

In a corner of the battlefield, the sound of armored footsteps, thud, thud, thud, echoed. Though quiet, the sound was clear, even over the din of cannon fire.

A pale, menacing figure, wreathed in a personal snowstorm, became visible.

The nearby Marines, sensing the danger, opened fire.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The bullets bounced harmlessly off the figure.

Their attack had, however, drawn its attention.

Two crimson, glowing eyes pierced the blizzard, locking onto the Marines. An invisible force, a wave of pure, primal terror, slammed into them.

"What... what is that?!"

"A GHOST!!"

Several Marine Captains screamed, collapsing to the ice, their minds broken, their weapons falling from limp hands as they lost control of their bodies.

The figure, Yelena, ignored them and continued walking.

A Vice Admiral, having just finished off two pirate captains, spotted her. "DIE!"

He used Moon Walk and Shave, becoming a black blur as he shot toward the armored figure, his Haki-coated Shark-Cutter sword aimed to cleave the "Snow Monster" in two.

As the blade was about to hit, the creature looked up. Its crimson eyes, visible through the gas mask, met the Vice Admiral's.

"!!!"

Faced with the Wendigo's specialized terror, even a Vice Admiral's will faltered. An alien, crippling fear flooded his heart. His face went pale, his Haki evaporated.

A hand, ending in razor-sharp claws, shot out. It caught the Shark-Cutter sword... and crushed it.

As the metal fragments flew, a heavy, spiked war hammer swung in a slow, unavoidable arc.

THUD.

The Vice Admiral felt no pain. His body was blasted backward, disappearing into the snowstorm.

Far away, Ulti, in her snow-woman form, watched the officer fly past. "He just had to pick a fight with her. Idiot."

Beside her, Page One (in Spinosaurus form) grumbled, "You should talk. If she heard you call her 'that violent woman,' you'd be next."

"Tch! What's the big deal? She'd never really hurt me," Ulti said, then leaped onto her brother's head, nuzzling him. "Just like I'd never hurt my Page-kun!"

"Get off..." Page One sighed, then looked into the distance. "Looks like we have uninvited guests."

Ulti looked. A red-haired man (Kid) and his crew were walking arrogantly toward them.

"Who's this moron?" Ulti tilted her head. She didn't recognize him, but his arrogance was almost on her level. "Eh, whatever. He's probably here to fight the Marines—"

"Hey! You two trash-mobs!" the red-haired man yelled. "Where's your 'Archangel'? I heard he has a Poneglyph!"

"..."

Page One's dead-fish eyes turned murderous. He transformed into his full hybrid form.

Ulti's face became a mask of cold, bone-chilling rage. "That... really pisses me off. Lord Louis isn't someone trash like you gets to meet."

In the next second, both she and Page One vanished, attacking from both sides.

Yelena, meanwhile, had reached the center of the two main battlefields. The snowstorm around her subsided. Her shadow, cast by the sun, was long and twisted, the icicles on her antlers looking like she was wearing a tattered veil of human skin.

She stood on the ice, her gaze falling on a distant clash of swords.

A flying green slash, hundreds of meters wide, cut through the ice, heading straight for her. The wind pressure alone made the black smoke of her awakened form shimmer.

Yelena casually raised her war hammer and swung.

KRA-BOOM.

The massive green slash shattered into a million emerald-green particles.

The duelists, a woman covered in blood (Kuina) and a man with hawk-like eyes (Mihawk), both paused, staring at the newcomer.

An Awakened Zoan? Mihawk thought. As expected. Someone who is on par with an Emperor... has, of course, awakened their fruit.

In the other battle, Akainu, who was fighting a monstrous, girlish-looking figure (Alina), also looked over. "So, you've finally shown yourself, after you've changed the battlefield?" His body erupted in magma.

The other two Warlords (Doflamingo and Weevil), who had been toying with their opponents, also turned.

"The Archangel Pirates' second-in-command... the one who's said to be an Emperor's equal?"

They couldn't understand why someone so powerful would ever choose to serve another.

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