Luffy, having narrowly escaped Ragnar's confusingly hostile grip, didn't waste a second. He rubbed his sore neck, the phantom sensation of cold apathy still lingering. He gave a quick, grateful glance towards the aerial clash—a blur of blue fire against a furious, red-haired warrior—and refocused on his singular, unwavering goal.
"Thanks, Bird-guy!" he yelled vaguely skyward, before once again charging headlong toward the execution platform.
His path was immediately blocked by a wall of Marine officers, but before they could engage, the temperature plummeted. The very air seemed to fracture, a biting frost coating the ground underfoot.
Admiral Aokiji materialized before Luffy, rising from a swirl of freezing mist. His usual sleepy demeanor was gone, replaced by a cold resolve. He held two jagged spears of ice in his hands. "Ice Saber."
"Ara-ra… Straw Hat Luffy," Aokiji drawled, his breath a white plume. "You're really becoming the eye of the storm, you know. It's a real hassle."
Luffy skidded to a halt, his eyes narrowing. He remembered this man. The Admiral who had utterly defeated him, whose power had felt insurmountable.
"Blue Pheasant!" Luffy yelled, his voice defiant. "Get out of my way! I have to save Ace!"
Aokiji sighed. "Some people just don't know when to give up. This is one of those paths you aren't meant to cross." He lunged, his Ice Sabers whistling through the air. His speed was deceptive, fluid and deadly.
Luffy reacted instantly. "GOMU GOMU NO…!" He twisted his body, contorting in a desperate dodge.
SCRAPE!
One saber passed inches from his face. The other grazed his arm, leaving a shallow, instantly numbing cut. Luffy hissed, the intense cold spreading like a virus. "Cold!"
"Raw determination isn't enough," Aokiji said, his expression unchanging as he pressed the attack. He was a whirlwind of ice, forcing Luffy onto a desperate defense. Sharp spikes erupted from the ground, walls of frost blocked escape, and the numbing aura sapped Luffy's strength. With a sharp, brutal thrust, one of Aokiji's ice spears pierced clean through Luffy's shoulder.
"GUAH!" Luffy cried out, stumbling back. Blood bloomed on his red vest, then instantly froze around the wound, a morbid crimson crystal.
"Luffy!" Ace screamed from the platform, his voice pure terror.
"It's over, Straw Hat," Aokiji stated, raising his saber for a finishing blow.
Just as he struck, a flurry of haki roared in the frigid air, followed by the sharp CLANG! of steel meeting ice. "Isshin Ashina, Member of Division Zero, the holy knights of Whitebeard," had parried the strike, his twin swords a blur.
"Forgive the interruption, Admiral," Isshin said, his voice calm but firm. "But his dance card is full. Your next partner is me."
Aokiji straightened, his gaze shifting. "Ara-ra… Sword Saint. You commanders are certainly persistent."
"We will not allow you to harm Ace's brother while we still draw breath," Isshin declared. He glanced back at Luffy. "Go, Straw Hat! We will build the path! You just run it!"
Luffy, clutching his frozen shoulder, hesitated for only a second. With a grateful nod, he turned and sprinted towards the plaza, leaving Vista to engage the formidable Admiral.
His path, however, seemed paved with legends. As he neared the edge of the now-breached inner plaza, a figure stepped into his way. The air grew still. The chaotic din of battle seemed to fade. His hawk-like eyes, piercing and unnervingly calm, fixed on Luffy. It was Dracule "Hawkeye" Mihawk, the World's Greatest Swordsman.
Luffy skidded to a halt, his eyes widening. He recognized this man—the one who had effortlessly crushed Zoro's dream.
"I am sorry Shanks," Mihawk's voice was a low, cold baritone. "Fate has a peculiar sense of humor." He raised Yoru, the colossal black blade, its polished surface reflecting Luffy's battered face. "I am curious to measure the true distance between you and that man. Now… will fate allow you to pass this blade, or does your luck run out here?"
Luffy gritted his teeth. He knew this was a fight he couldn't win. But Ace…
Just as Mihawk's blade began its descent—a movement that promised to cleave the very world in two—a whirlwind of steel and rose petals erupted between them.
SHING! CLANG!
Vista, his face grim, stood between them, his twin swords crossed to block the devastating attack.
Mihawk's golden eyes narrowed slightly. "Flower Sword Vista. Are you so eager to have your blades broken?"
"It would be an honor to cross swords with you, Hawkeye," Vista replied, his arms straining against the immense pressure. "But a swordsman's duty is also to protect. And that boy is the brother of one of my brothers." He pushed back, his footing solid. "That makes my duty clear."
Mihawk's piercing gaze shifted to Vista. A flicker of something—not annoyance, but cold appraisal—crossed his features. "Flower Sword Vista. Your elegant blades are not suited for the crude work of a barricade."
"Perhaps," Vista replied, his swords held ready. "But my duty is to my family. And that boy is the brother of one of my brothers." He would not back down. "Straw Hat, go! This is a fight you cannot win yet!"
Luffy, seeing Vista once again putting himself on the line, felt a surge of gratitude and frustration. He wanted to fight his own battles, but he knew Vista was right.
"Thanks, Mustache-guy!" he yelled again, and with renewed determination, he scrambled past the dueling swordsmen, deeper into the plaza, closer and closer to the execution platform. He was wounded, bleeding, and facing impossible odds, but his will remained unbroken. He kept moving.
While Luffy clawed his way towards Ace, and while other Warlords and Admirals engaged in their own deadly ballets, Admiral Akainu was a relentless storm of molten destruction at the heart of the breached plaza. He wasn't interested in duels. His purpose was singular, brutal, and absolute: eradicate the pirate threat.
He moved through the melee like an angel of fiery death, his face a permanent mask of grim, righteous fury. Where he walked, the ice sizzled into steam, and the air shimmered with unbearable heat.
A group of battle-hardened New World pirate captains, allies of Whitebeard, had managed to break through a section of the Marine line. "Push through!" one of them, a hulking fish-man wielding a massive anchor, roared. "For Whitebeard-oyaji! For Ace!"
Akainu, having just incinerated a pirate ship with a shower of magma fists, turned his burning gaze towards this new breach.
"Insolent scum," he growled, his voice like the grinding of tectonic plates. "You believe you can simply walk into the heart of justice?" He advanced, each step deliberate, radiating an aura of inexorable doom.
The pirate captains steeled themselves. "Don't falter, men!" the fish-man captain roared. "He's just one man!"
"One man," Akainu repeated, a sneer twisting his lips as his right arm swelled and bubbled into a colossal appendage of pure, roiling magma. "Perhaps. But I am the justice that will see every last one of you purged from these seas."
"INUGAMI GUREN!"
His magma arm shot forward, morphing into the grotesque, snapping maw of a gigantic magma hound. It lunged at the fish-man captain. The fish-man roared, swinging his anchor with all his might.
SPLAT! HISSSSSS!
The anchor, capable of crushing steel, met the magma. For a split second, it held. Then, with a horrifying sizzle, the metal glowed cherry red and melted away like wax. The magma hound clamped down, engulfing the fish-man's upper body. His screams were cut short as he was instantly incinerated, leaving only a smoking skeleton that crumbled to ash.
The other captains recoiled in horror. "Captain Gardo!"
Akainu didn't give them time to regroup. His other arm transformed. "MEIGO!"
Another magma projectile, shaped like a smaller, faster hound's head, exploded amidst the remaining captains. The force sent them flying, their bodies seared and smoking. One captain, a woman with wings, tried to fly away, her face a mask of terror. Akainu merely pointed a finger. A glob of magma shot from it like a bullet, striking her wing and instantly melting feather and bone. She plummeted from the sky with a despairing shriek.
Akainu walked through the aftermath, his boots crunching on cooling cinders that were once proud pirates. He showed no emotion, only a cold, unwavering adherence to his brutal creed.
"Piracy is a disease," he stated, his voice devoid of inflection, to no one in particular. "And I am the cure."
His attention was then drawn to a larger disturbance. A section of the plaza, closer to the scaffold, was under heavy assault. Whitebeard's commanders were pushing relentlessly. Akainu's brow furrowed. He began to move in that direction, a walking inferno. But his path was suddenly blocked by a line of Whitebeard Pirates who, despite witnessing his terrifying power, stood their ground, their eyes filled with a desperate, suicidal courage.
"You won't get past us, Admiral!" one of them, a young man no older than twenty, yelled, his knuckles white on the hilt of his sword. "For Ace-niichan!"
Akainu looked at them, these nameless pirates offering their lives. There was no pity in his gaze, no hesitation. Only the cold calculus of extermination.
"Fools," he rumbled, his voice like stone grinding on stone. "Sacrificing yourselves for a criminal. Your devotion is as misguided as your existence."
His entire body began to glow, the temperature spiking to an unbearable degree. The ice beneath his feet instantly vaporized into clouds of steam.
"RYUSEI KAZAN!"
He leaped into the air, his arms transforming into dozens of magma fists, and rained them down upon the defiant pirates. The explosions were continuous and devastating, each one a miniature volcanic eruption that shook the ground.
When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left but a vast, smoking crater where the pirates had stood, the ice around it melted into a bubbling, muddy pool. Akainu landed lightly, his uniform singed but his resolve untouched. His gaze then shifted, unerringly, towards the two figures—Ace and Luffy—who represented the greatest threat to his unyielding vision of order.
The breach in the Wall of Siege was now a gaping wound hemorrhaging pirates into the heart of Marineford. Despite the Admirals' terrifying power, the Whitebeard Pirates, fueled by desperation and sacrifice, were making headway.
"Keep pushing!" roared a division commander, deflecting a Marine's strike. "We're almost there! Don't let their deaths be in vain!"
On the Moby Dick, Whitebeard watched the agonizingly slow advance of his sons. He saw their courage, and he saw the brutal efficiency with which Akainu was cutting them down. His massive fists clenched. The time for remote command was over.
"Gurarararara…" A low, dangerous rumble vibrated in his chest. "It seems these Marine dogs need a more… personal reminder of who they're dealing with." He turned to his remaining commanders. "My sons! You have carved a path through hell itself! Now… it is time for your father to join the fray!"
His voice, amplified by his sheer will, boomed across the ice, a clarion call. "HOLD NOTHING BACK! WE WILL TAKE ACE AND LEAVE THIS ACCURSED PLACE! I AM COMING DOWN!"
A roar of exultation erupted from the pirates. Their Emperor was descending!
Whitebeard gripped his colossal bisento and leaped from the high deck. He landed on the frozen bay with a THUD that sent cracks spider-webbing across the ice for hundreds of feet, causing nearby Marines to stumble and cry out. He stood there, a towering colossus amidst the carnage, the aura of power radiating from him a suffocating pressure.
"Diamond" Jozu, his body shimmering, immediately moved to his captain's side. "Where you go, we go, Pops!"
"Gurarara! Good, Jozu!" Whitebeard grinned, a fierce, battle-hungry light in his eyes. "Then let's remind them why the sea trembles at our name!"
Together, the Emperor and his diamond-hard commander advanced with an inexorable, terrifying momentum. Whitebeard swung his bisento in wide, devastating arcs that shattered ice and carved paths through the enemy ranks.
The sight sent a fresh jolt of fear through the Marines. Admiral Akainu, who had been a relentless engine of destruction, immediately registered Whitebeard's descent. His burning gaze locked onto the Emperor. The head of the serpent was now within reach.
"Whitebeard…" Akainu growled, magma bubbling around his fists. "You've finally decided to get your hands dirty. Good. I'll send you to hell personally!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku, watching from the command platform, saw his chance. He's on the ice... his attention divided... This may be our only chance.
His face hardened into a mask of grim resolve. He raised his hand.
"THE TIME IS NOW!" Sengoku's voice cut through the roar of battle with chilling finality. "PORTGAS D. ACE'S EXECUTION WILL BE CARRIED OUT IMMEDIATELY! PREPARE THE BLADES!"
A gasp of horror rippled through the pirate ranks. Ace looked up, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and resignation. The two masked executioners behind him stepped forward, their massive, gleaming glaives raised high.
"NOOOO!" Luffy screamed, fighting with renewed, frantic desperation, but he was still too far.
"POPS!" Marco cried out, breaking off his aerial battle with Ragnar momentarily, his face a mask of anguish.
The executioners tensed. The world seemed to hold its breath.
"EXECUTE!!!" Sengoku roared.
The glaives began their descent. Time seemed to slow. Ace closed his eyes.
SHIIIIING! FWOOSH!
Instead of the thud of blade meeting flesh, there was a sharp, cutting sound, followed by a rush of wind and… sand? The executioners cried out, stumbling back. A swirling, razor-sharp whirlwind of sand had erupted from the ground, blocking the blades and lashing out, slicing at their hands.
From within the dissipating sand devil, a figure emerged, a cigarillo smoldering between his lips, a massive golden hook glinting on his left hand. It was Sir Crocodile. He stood between Ace and the executioners, a barrier of golden sand swirling defensively around him.
"Hmph," Crocodile sneered, blowing a smoke ring. "I didn't break out of that hellhole just to watch one of Whitebeard's brats get his head lopped off so easily." His gaze flickered towards Whitebeard, then back to the stunned Sengoku. "And I despise the World Government far more."
He then looked over his shoulder at Ace, a complex, almost unreadable expression on his face. "Don't thank me, Fire Fist. Just don't die so pathetically."
Ace stared, dumbfounded. "C-Crocodile…?! Why…?"
Sengoku was apoplectic. "CROCODILE! YOU BASTARD! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"