The air itself seemed to solidify under the weight of the warlords' combined intent. Crocodile's SABLES: APOCALIPSIS wasn't just a sandstorm; it was a suffocating, grinding vortex of razor-sharp particles that tore at flesh and visibility, infused with his will to desiccate and destroy.
"GRAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Edward Weevil was the first to erupt. He wasn't just fast; he was a cannonball of pure, unthinking destruction. He ignored Byrnndi World and Crocodile, his entire being focused on Gunnar, the one who had actually made him bleed.
Gunnar, Armament Haki flaring black around his fists and forearms, met the charge. "COME ON, YOU OVERGROWN APE!"
KRA-THOOM! BOOM! CRASH!
Their clash was a series of seismic explosions. Weevil's bisento, glowing with a malevolent Haki, smashed against Gunnar's Haki-infused magma-ice guards. Each blow sent shudders through Gunnar's entire frame, cracking the stone beneath them for yards in every direction.
Weevil wasn't just strong; he was impossibly, relentlessly powerful. He fought like a cornered Sea King, each swing carrying enough force to topple a fortress.
Gunnar landed a black-hued MAGMA SPIKE* into Weevil's shoulder, the Haki allowing the molten rock to sear and pierce where it previously would have glanced off. Weevil roared, not in pain, but in sheer fury, and retaliated with a headbutt so savage it sent Gunnar staggering back, stars exploding in his vision, his Haki flickering.
"He's… a monster!" Gunnar spat, blood trickling from his nose.
Byrnndi World cackled, watching Weevil's rampage. "Hoohoohoo! That's my boy! Now for the noisy one!" He turned his attention to Ace, who was using his newly awakened Observation Haki to navigate Crocodile's sandstorm and Weevil's collateral destruction.
"MOA MOA – SUPER ACCELERATED DEBRIS STORM!" World stomped, and dozens of massive stone slabs and twisted metal girders, remnants of the shattered castle, levitated.
With a wave of his hand, each piece, now glowing with amplified kinetic energy, shot towards Ace like a swarm of guided missiles, each moving at ten times its natural speed.
"Whoa there!" Ace yelped. His Observation Haki screamed warnings, but the sheer volume and speed of the attack was overwhelming. He dodged one, then two, propelled by bursts of flame, but a third, a jagged piece of sharpened iron the size of a carriage, clipped his leg.
"GAH!" Ace cried out as he was sent tumbling through the air, his flight path disrupted. He crashed heavily near the edge of the maelstrom, his leg burning with pain.
"Nowhere to run, Fire-brat!" World loomed, preparing another, larger projectile.
Isshin Ashina found himself facing Crocodile directly, the swirling sands of Apocalipsis now a suffocating cage.
"Your apprentices are falling, old man," Crocodile sneered, his form flickering within the sand, making him an elusive target. "And you are next. DESERT LA SPADA: CIEN FLORES! (DESERT SWORD: HUNDRED BLOSSOMS!)"
A hundred blades of compressed sand erupted from all directions, aimed at impaling Isshin from every conceivable angle. Isshin's eyes, narrowed in concentration, darted around. His Armament Haki flared along his katana. He became a whirlwind of silver, deflecting, parrying, and slicing through the sand blades with inhuman speed. Each deflection sent a jarring shock up his arms, but he held.
"Your Haki is strong, Samurai," Crocodile conceded, appearing before him, hook raised. "But you are outnumbered and outmatched!" He lunged, hook aiming for Isshin's throat.
Isshin met the hook with his sword, Haki grinding against Haki. CLANG!
Gunnar was being driven back by Weevil's unrelenting assault. The sheer brute force was too much. Weevil swung his bisento in a monstrous overhead arc. Gunnar tried to block with both Haki-coated arms, but the impact was like being hit by a falling mountain.
KRA-BOOOOM!
Gunnar's arms screamed, his Haki dimming under the colossal force. He was slammed downwards, his knees buckling, creating a crater where he landed. Weevil raised his bisento for the finishing blow, a guttural roar tearing from his throat.
"NO!" Ace, seeing Gunnar's plight, pushed through the pain in his leg. "ENJŌMŌ! (FLAME NET!)" He launched a wide net of fire, aiming to ensnare Weevil's arms, to buy Gunnar a precious second.
The flames licked at Weevil, momentarily distracting him. He swatted at them, annoyed.
That second was all Gunnar needed. Pain, desperation, and a surge of defiant fury ignited something new, Titan physiology, now supercharged by his awakened Haki.
"If I can make lava… if I can make ice… I can make the WORLD TREMBLE!"
He slammed his Haki-blackened fist not at Weevil, but into the already fractured ground beneath him.
"TITAN'S WRATH… EARTHSHATTER!"
It wasn't a punch that travelled. It was an eruption. The ground beneath Weevil didn't just crack; it exploded upwards with the force of a localized earthquake. The air itself seemed to fracture around Gunnar's fist, releasing a concussive shockwave that visually mimicked the Gura Gura no Mi's signature effect.
GURA-GURA-GURA-RAAAA! The sound echoed, distorted, elemental
Weevil, caught completely off guard by the ground literally attacking him, was blasted upwards, his massive frame tumbling uncontrollably through the air, roaring in confused fury.
The shockwave ripped through the courtyard, even staggering Crocodile and Byrnndi World. The sandstorm flickered.
"NOW, ISSHIN! ACE!" Gunnar bellowed, blood streaming from his mouth, every fiber of his being screaming from the exertion. That one attack had taken almost everything he had left.
Ace seized the momentary chaos. Weevil was airborne, World was stunned. Crocodile was their target.
"RIGHT!" Ace roared. Ignoring his injured leg, he poured every last ounce of his strength, his will, into one monumental attack. "THIS IS FOR POPS! **DAI ENKAI: ENTEI – MAXIMA! (GREAT FLAME COMMANDMENT: FLAME EMPEROR – MAXIMUM OUTPUT!)"
A sun even larger, even more intense than before, blazed into existence above him. It wasn't just bright; it was a blinding inferno, so hot it began to vaporize the outer layers of
Crocodile's sandstorm, creating huge pockets of clear air. The sheer gravitational pull of the fire sphere tugged at everything loose. This wasn't just an attack; it was a beacon, a massive, unavoidable distraction.
"YOU INSOLENT…!" Crocodile began, trying to reinforce his sand defenses against the colossal flame orb, his attention entirely consumed.
This was the opening Isshin had been waiting for, the one Gunnar's cataclysmic blow and Ace's blinding inferno had created.
He moved.
Not with the flash of youth, but with the unerring precision of a lifetime dedicated to the blade, every ounce of his remaining strength, his Haki, his very soul, focused into a single point. He used Delicate Step, weaving through the dissipating sand, under the glare of Ace's artificial sun, appearing directly before the distracted Crocodile.
Crocodile's eyes widened a fraction too late as he sensed the deadly intent. He tried to turn, to dissolve, but Gunnar's earthshatter had momentarily disrupted his Logia control, and Ace's Entei was demanding all his focus.
Isshin's katana, glowing with a pure, almost holy dark Armament Haki, was a streak of silver judgment.
"This… is Ashina's… RETRIBUTION!"
HIIIIING-THWUMP!
The sound was deceptively quiet. Isshin's blade, empowered by the will of generations, pierced clean through Crocodile's chest, right where his heart would be, the Haki negating his Logia defenses.
For a moment, there was silence.
Ace's Entei hung in the air. Gunnar was on one knee, panting. Weevil was still tumbling. World stared in disbelief.
Crocodile looked down at the blade protruding from his sternum. A flicker of shock, then disbelief, then a strange sort of resignation crossed his features. Sand began to flake away from the edges of the wound, but not fast enough. The Haki was too deep, too potent.
He coughed, a dry, rasping sound. A trickle of dark blood, his actual blood, appeared at the corner of his lips.
"…Impossible…" he whispered, his voice barely audible.
Isshin twisted the blade, then pulled it free with a sharp, brutal motion.
Crocodile swayed. The massive sandstorm, his Apocalipsis, faltered, then collapsed entirely, dissolving into harmless granules that rained down across the courtyard. The oppressive atmosphere lifted.
He took one shaky step, then another. His golden hook fell from his nerveless fingers, clanging on the stone.
Then, Sir Crocodile, former Shichibukai, conqueror of nations, toppled forward like a felled statue, crashing heavily onto the bloodstained stones of Ashina Castle's Great Courtyard. Unmoving.
A stunned silence descended, broken only by the crackling of Ace's fading Entei and the harsh, ragged breathing of the three victors.
They had done it. Against all odds, the head of the pirates had been severed.