The weapon in Cain's hand came crashing down.
Aokiji instinctively tried to turn elemental and avoid it, but the instant he caught sight of the black-red lightning coiling around the weapon—so dense it was practically drawing threads through the air—his expression changed drastically.
He immediately leaped away.
But Cain had already seen his next move with Observation Haki.
His wrist twisted sharply, and the long staff reversed its path, sweeping upward from below.
Aokiji had no time to think.
He hurriedly condensed Armament Haki around his head.
With a thunderous boom, his entire body was sent flying backward.
"You've got to be kidding! Admiral Aokiji was knocked away?!"
"Who the hell is that guy?"
"I heard his bounty is only ten million Berries!"
Cries of shock rose one after another, but Cain did not pause for even a moment.
His feet slammed against the ground, and he charged straight toward the execution platform.
The timing had already been moved up.
There was no way Luffy could arrive according to the original schedule, and with the sea frozen earlier than expected, he would only be even later.
Cain could not wait any longer.
He rushed toward the execution platform, making it clear that he intended to face his own grandfather, Garp, head-on.
"Arara. I was careless."
Aokiji slowly stood up.
The arm he had used to block the attack trembled involuntarily, already swollen and red.
He watched Cain's rapidly retreating back, his tone becoming a little more serious.
"I thought you had some skill, but at most, I assumed you could use Haki. I didn't expect…"
Before he finished speaking, biting cold erupted.
Five pillars of ice shot from his palm and, in the blink of an eye, completely froze the charging Cain inside a giant ball of ice more than ten meters thick.
This was one of Aokiji's techniques, a move even more suited to restricting an enemy's movements than his previous attack—
"Ice Ball!"
But in the next second, a massive amount of white mist rose from the surface of the ice ball.
That mist was instantly dried by intense heat, and a tornado of flame shot straight into the sky.
From within the fire emerged a huge creature more than four meters tall, covered in pink scales and bearing sharp horns.
It was Cain in his human-beast form.
"You like playing with ice, huh?"
Cain opened his mouth, and dragon breath gathered within it.
"Then I'll use fire to play along…"
"Fire Dragon Fist!"
"..."
"IN THE END, YOU'RE STILL SHOOTING IT FROM YOUR MOUTH! YOU JUST ADDED ONE WORD TO THE NAME! WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THAT AND YOUR FIRE FIST BEFORE?! AT LEAST BACK THEN YOU STILL WAVED YOUR FIST AND PRETENDED! THIS TIME YOU DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER MOVING YOUR FIST! COULD YOU BE ANY MORE HALF-HEARTED?!"
Ace, who had been staring at the battlefield the entire time, finally could not hold back and shouted his retort!
His voice actually traveled through the loudspeaker in Sengoku's hand nearby, echoing across the whole of Marineford.
The fighting pirates and Marines, even the Warlords, all froze for a moment.
One after another, they turned to look at Ace on the execution platform, then at Cain and Aokiji on the battlefield.
Garp burst into roaring laughter at the side.
Even at a time like this, they were still so lively. As expected of his grandsons!
Vice Admiral Tsuru smiled and shook her head, then looked toward the battlefield.
For some reason, a thought crossed her mind.
'Something feels off.'
Facing Cain's flame breath—or rather, his Fire Dragon Fist—Aokiji created an ice wall hundreds of meters wide in front of him.
The Fire Dragon Fist instantly vaporized it, and the resulting steam was dried away by the heat.
When Cain heard Ace's criticism, he immediately stopped breathing fire and shouted back in his own defense.
"WHO SAYS I DIDN'T USE MY FIST? I SPENT AGES TRAINING THIS MOVE!"
As he spoke, he launched the attack again, mumbling unclearly, "Jeeh ish nah a fisht?!!"
At the tip of the flame breath he spat out, a fist shape had clearly formed.
"SO THE ONLY THING THAT CHANGED IS THE SHAPE?! THE POWER DIDN'T INCREASE AT ALL! WAS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO GO THROUGH ALL THAT TROUBLE?!"
"YOU TRAINED FOR SO LONG, BUT WHERE DID YOUR FOCUS EVEN GO?! THIS ATTACK STILL ISN'T BEING LAUNCHED WITH YOUR FIST! WAS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO CHANGE THE NAME FOR THIS?!"
Ace could not hold back anymore!
Hiding the shame burning inside him, his face flushed red as he shouted another retort.
Facing Cain's attack, Aokiji naturally was not going to foolishly stand there and defend passively.
He quickly dodged aside, then launched a counterattack at Cain, firing several ice balls.
Cain spat out a few fireballs as casually as if he were spitting, completely vaporizing them.
Then, for some reason, a thought rose in his mind.
'Something feels off.'
…
Seeing that the battlefields all around had fallen into a stalemate, Sengoku decided to use this moment to reveal Ace's identity.
Although Whitebeard and Akainu had both entered the field, they had not yet clashed.
Most of the people present had also been distracted by Ace's outburst just now.
So Sengoku picked up the loudspeaker and began questioning Ace.
"Ahem. I am Fleet Admiral Sengoku of the Marines. There is something I must announce to everyone, and to the entire world. It concerns the great significance behind the execution of Portgas D. Ace today. This is not merely an attempt by the Marines to lure in and encircle the Whitebeard Pirates…"
"Ace. Speak your father's name."
As Sengoku's words fell, Garp below stopped laughing as well. His expression turned solemn.
Vice Admiral Tsuru hurriedly comforted him.
"This is not your fault."
"Bwahahaha. The elders can no longer protect the children now. The road ahead is theirs to walk."
Garp laughed again as he spoke.
Clearly, whether Ace could be saved now depended on Cain and the others themselves.
Everyone listened to this crucial information.
One after another, they stopped their attacks and turned their heads toward the execution platform.
Cain's expression did not change at all.
Whether Sengoku revealed this secret or not seemed to have no effect on him or Ace.
Next, Ace answered that his father was Whitebeard, only for Sengoku to refute him.
Sengoku described how, after "that man" died, the Marines had investigated Baterilla, searching every pregnant woman who had conceived within that year, as well as every child born during that period, yet still found nothing.
At the same time, he spoke the name Portgas D. Rouge.
That great mother had kept Ace in her womb for twenty months through sheer will.
And one year and three months after Ace's father died, the child who inherited the world's most evil bloodline was born.
"That child was you. There is no way you do not know this…"
"Your father was the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger!"
In an instant, those words shook the entire world.
On the Sabaody Archipelago, the reporters who were "listening" to Sengoku's speech all stopped taking notes, staring in disbelief as they heard the revelation.
Even on the battlefield, everyone began murmuring among themselves.
Sengoku continued speaking, explaining that when Ace sailed the seas under the surname Portgas D., the Marines had realized that Roger's bloodline had not been severed after all.
He laid it all out, one point after another.
And for some reason, a thought crossed Sengoku's mind.
'Something feels off.'
Then one of his Marine subordinates came running up in a panic to report.
Almost at the exact same moment, Tsuru, Cain, and Sengoku all thought—
Cain: 'Where is Little Oars Jr.?!'
Tsuru: 'Where is Doflamingo?!'
Sengoku: 'Where is my broadcast Den Den Mushi?!'
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