Chapter 258

Whitebeard let out a furious roar.

"Boys, take Ace and retreat—all of you!"

"Pop!"

In the final seconds of his life, Whitebeard gazed at Ace, Ma Erke, and the others, tear-streaked and rushing toward him. A smile crossed his face as he slowly closed his eyes, and the years of his journey surfaced in his mind.

"It really was… a very long voyage."

"No regrets left…"

One of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard, the legendary great pirate hailed as the strongest man in the world—Edward Newgate—died in the Summit War in the year Sea Circle Calendar 1520.

Whitebeard's era had come to an end.

223, Formally Declaring War! A Power That Shocks the World

Whitebeard died standing.

Staring at the scene inside the visual Den Den Mushi,

the entire battlefield, and the whole world, fell into shock and silence.

Ace and Ma Erke and the others rushed to Whitebeard's side. Gazing at the fallen Whitebeard, tears streamed down their faces, and they could not speak for sobbing.

Ace was in such agony he nearly fainted.

On the Marines' side.

Though Whitebeard's death was a good thing for the Marines, Sengoku could not laugh. Inside, he even felt a certain heaviness and a sigh of admiration. Setting aside his position as Fleet Admiral, he had always held Whitebeard's mettle and strength in genuine respect.

Garp stared at Whitebeard, his expression complex as well: "Roger is gone, and now Whitebeard's era is over too…"

"The old era has truly passed into the distance."

Blackbeard climbed up from the ground and let out wild, manic laughter at the dead Whitebeard: "Next is my era—Blackbeard's era!"

"Oh, is that so?"

A flat, unhurried voice suddenly rang out above him.

Blackbeard heard the voice, looked up, and saw Luo En appear above his head. His pupils contracted sharply.

"The Traveler… Luo En!"

A cold bead of sweat slid down Van Augur's forehead.

Luo En looked down from above, his expression indifferent as he gazed down at Blackbeard's crew. His mere presence exerted such pressure that Blackbeard's group felt deeply oppressed.

"Traveler Luo En, we have no quarrel with you, and I have no intention of offending you."

Blackbeard hurriedly said to Luo En.

Before seizing the Gura Gura no Mi, he had no intention of starting a conflict with Luo En.

"I just don't like the look of you."

A flash of brilliant light streaked through Luo En's azure-blue eyes and vanished in an instant.

Shinra Tensei!

A terrifying repulsive force erupted from his body. Under Blackbeard's wide, horrified gaze, it blasted Blackbeard and every member of the Blackbeard Pirates behind him flying.

The force was like being slammed head-on by a train racing at full speed.

The Blackbeard Pirates flew through the air, every one of them coughing blood!

A semicircular crater, nearly a hundred meters across, instantly appeared in the ground.

Luo En drew the Blood Blade Moon at his waist and, in a single slash, sent a sword strike flying toward the airborne Blackbeard crew.

"Round Dance!"

Watching that crimson slash hurtling toward him, Blackbeard, still tumbling backward through the air, saw his pupils contract sharply. He sensed a lethal danger from that single sword stroke.

Enduring several times the pain in his body, Blackbeard activated yet another ability of the Yami Yami no Mi.

"Dark Devour!"

Thick darkness gathered before him, forming a vortex of shadow that warped the very air with its gravity.

The crimson slash Luo En had unleashed struck this vortex of darkness, about a meter across. Pulled by the dark gravity, it stalled for an instant—part of the slash was drawn in and swallowed by the darkness, while the rest crashed heavily into Blackbeard, sending him flying a full kilometer, from the plaza side straight into the inner bay.

"Today, Blackbeard's era ends here as well."

Luo En's pair of azure-blue Rinnegan locked firmly onto Blackbeard. Stage Three of his Observation Haki let him glimpse a fragment of the future; his All-Seeing World grasped every detail.

He raised the Blood Blade Moon, wrapped in dense sword intent, and brought it down in a single slash toward that direction.

The Great Swordsman realm of perfection, combined with Flowing Sakura Conqueror's Haki and the power of the Pika Pika no Mi, made Luo En's crimson vertical slash seem to split heaven and earth, as if it would cleave the entire sea in two.

Under the stunned gazes of swordsmen like Zoro, Spider, and Moxi.

The inner bay of Marineford was split open by this single slash, and the sea beyond Marineford was split open as well, as if a ruler and pencil had drawn a perfectly straight line across a sheet of blue cloth.

Blackbeard Teach, with all his ambition, was cleaved in two beneath that sword aura.

The sea was split open for tens of thousands of meters—a fissure as straight as a line, a hundred meters deep and dozens wide—like the legendary gods parting the sea. Vast beyond compare, it shook the soul.

The ordinary people of the entire world watching this battle through the visual Den Den Mushi screens saw this scene, their eyes nearly popping out of their skulls.

"Eh!!!!"

"A-amazing…"

Nami murmured, dazed.

In the cold, clear eyes of Kujira, there shone nothing but admiration and longing.

Hawkeye Mihawk lowered his head slightly; beneath the brim of his black hat, his hawk-like eyes gleamed with the sharp light of battle intent—the acknowledgment of a worthy opponent.

A flicker of surprise also passed through the eyes of Red-Haired Shanks.

He hadn't expected his swordsmanship to have already reached such a level…

Vice Admiral Moxi, with his mohawk and pinstripe suit, stared at the sea split open before him, rooted to the spot like a wooden chicken, his heart shaken beyond words.

"This kind of slash… was it really unleashed by that boy from back then?!"

"What kind of monster did I actually teach back then!"

Seemingly sensing the Flying Squirrel's emotional fluctuation, Luo En, holding Blood Blade Moon, turned his head to look over, glanced at the Flying Squirrel, and smiled at him.

It was the same smile he had shown the Flying Squirrel the first time he had unleashed a Swordsman slash back in the day—chilling, raising the hair on end.

It felt as if, in the next second, he would raise the blood blade in his hand and swing it toward the Flying Squirrel, to repay the Flying Squirrel's 'painful teaching' from back then.

Thinking of this, Vice Admiral Flying Squirrel couldn't help but shiver, his hair standing on end, and he swallowed hard.

Fortunately, Luo En did not do so.

He shifted his gaze away, and Vice Admiral Flying Squirrel let out a long breath of relief.

Luo En, holding Blood Blade Moon, walked up to Kuina and the others, and the giant stone man, as if it possessed intelligence as well, walked step by step, shaking the ground, to stand behind them.

Under the gaze of everyone—reverent, hateful, terrified, awestruck.

Luo En's expression calm, he looked toward Sengoku and Garp in the distance and spoke: "This war at the top today is not the end of the old era, but the beginning of a new world—the prologue."

Hearing his words.

Whether it was the Marines, the Red-Haired Pirates, or the Whitebeard Pirates still in their grief, all raised their heads to look at him.

The ordinary people before the video Den Den Mushi also held their breath and listened intently to his words.

The entire world was watching.

"The World Government has ruled the world for eight hundred years. The order upheld by the Marines through force, with the Celestial Dragons as the world's noble ruling class, has also existed upon this sea for eight hundred years—long rotten, reeking with a loathsome stench."

Luo En's calm voice rang out across all of Marineford, across the entire world.

"The Marines that maintain this rotten order are no longer the Marines that represent absolute justice upon the sea. Today's defeat proves this."

Fleet Admiral Sengoku could hold back no longer and roared: "Shut up!"

The Five Elder Stars of the World Government could also no longer sit still, their faces dark.

"That bastard!"

Luo En's pair of azure Rinnegan swept across the Marines, the Red-Haired Pirates, and the Whitebeard Pirates, and the calm words that left his mouth made the entire world tremble.

"Today, the Sky Calamity Brigade, the Revolutionary Army, and Amazon Lily have formed an alliance and formally declared war upon the World Government."

As his words fell.

Sabo and Ivankov brought the heavily wounded, unconscious Luffy down behind Luo En.

"Revolutionary Army Chief of Staff Sabo, on behalf of Leader Dragon, declares war upon the World Government."

Pirate Empress Boa Hancock also came to Luo En's side.

Then came one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Tyrant, Bartholomew Kuma.

Seeing this scene, Sengoku clenched his fists, his face extremely ugly.

"Just as I thought!"