CHAPTER 90: CHAPTER 90: TOTAL ANNIHILATION, THE ASCENT OF KARL’S CREW

"Special Hollow: Kamikaze Bomb!"

With two snaps of her fingers, Perona once again detonated the white ghosts she had sent to the warship’s keel, which had ignored all obstacles.

BOOM BOOM BOOM...

Amidst the deafening explosions, all the windows in the lower cabins of the warship shattered simultaneously.

A powerful tremor traveled from the bottom of the ship up to the deck.

Then, the galleon dipped slightly as a massive amount of seawater began to pour in through the large holes blown in its hull.

It wouldn’t be long before this warship was completely sunk.

After the example of Robin being injured, Karina and Perona dared not let Robin use her Flower-Flower Fruit to incapacitate the Marines this time.

Although their combination could achieve a 1+1+1 equals N effect, without their abilities, their current combined strength wasn’t even enough to take on a single Marine captain from Headquarters.

This was because Marine captains from Headquarters had mastered one or more of the Rokushiki techniques, making them true superhumans.

Unable to strip the Marines of their ability to fight, the three women opted for a quick resolution, having Perona use her obstacle-ignoring and attack-immune bomb ghosts to destroy the warships’ keels.

A ship without its masts can still move forward. Without wind, it can use oars or paddle wheels.

But a galleon without its keel has lost its life.

In the original story, the Going Merry’s journey ended in Water 7 precisely because its keel was damaged.

No matter how strong a warship’s exterior defense is, if the keel, which symbolizes its life, is broken, it can no longer advance.

After destroying the second warship, Karina and the others continued their hunt for the next.

After they left, a golden speck of light appeared in the sky above once more.

A giant golden meteor crashed down, creating a massive splash in the sea. The resulting pillar of water shot into the sky.

Although the warship was gone, to prevent the Marines from calling in ships from other locations, Karina believed that complete annihilation was the best method.

A giant gilded meteor—unless faced with a swordsman of the Great Swordsman class, even the strongest swordsman would find it difficult to slice through a golden meteor.

As long as it couldn’t be cut, the golden meteor crashing onto the warship would definitely leave the sea littered with bodies.

Karina didn’t expect a single golden meteor to kill everyone. As long as it inflicted casualties and left the surviving Marines with a psychological scar that would make them afraid to face them again, it was enough.

And so...

With the help of the Float-Float Fruit for flight and Nami, who was high in the sky using her navigator’s talent to mark the directions in which all the warships had scattered, Karina’s group caught up to the third ship in just half an hour.

Then the fourth, the fifth...

It was like a game of cat and mouse.

The warships that were caught by the three women could not escape the fate of having their keels destroyed and a golden meteor crashing down upon them.

This was true regardless of whether a Vice Admiral from Headquarters was on board.

No matter how unbeatable an ability is, once it encounters an ability or move that can counter it, or someone who is immune to its effects, that ability goes from unbeatable to useless.

For example, Usopp, who was immune to the Negative Hollows, or Luffy, who was immune to the Mero Mero Mellow.

If the user is weak and relies solely on their fruit ability, then once their ability is ignored or countered, the battle is essentially decided.

However, people as special as Usopp and Luffy were extremely rare in this world, rarer than the giant pandas of Karl’s previous life.

Therefore, their unbeatable abilities and combination remained an unsolvable puzzle.

Whether it was a Vice Admiral from Headquarters or an ordinary Marine soldier, everyone was equally "weak" before the combination of Karina’s group.

The Marines, who had thought that the two pinnacle monsters, Karl and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, were the most terrifying, never would have imagined that it was Karina and the other two women who were the truly insurmountable mountain.

That day...

Karina’s group hunted for nine hours, and finally, by evening, they had destroyed the keel of the last warship. They then dropped a golden meteor, creating a massive splash.

Nine warships, nearly ten thousand Marine soldiers, various Marine officers, and five Vice Admirals from Headquarters... were completely wiped out!

When the News Coos monitoring the Buster Call fleet took photos of these scenes and brought them back to the mobile headquarters, Morgans, after looking at the photos, fell into a rare silence.

Without a doubt, if this achievement had been accomplished by a single person, that person would have become a world-famous great pirate, with a bounty that would instantly surpass the one-billion-berry mark.

If this achievement had been accomplished by a pirate crew, that crew would have instantly become one of the great pirate crews in the New World, second only to the Four Emperors.

Because...

The Buster Call, the greatest weapon of the Marines and Mariejois, had never before been confronted and defeated by any pirate or pirate crew.

Now, this Buster Call, capable of annihilating any great pirate crew, had been defeated!

And the ones who defeated it were only three, no... to be precise, four girls.

The shock of this was even greater than if Karl and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon had single-handedly destroyed the Buster Call.

Because compared to the four girls, the former were super-powerhouses who stood at the pinnacle.

"The Paramecia Barrier-Barrier Fruit, the Paramecia Flower-Flower Fruit, the Paramecia Hollow-Hollow Fruit, and..."

Morgans flipped through the photos in his hand, his gaze finally settling on one. His avian face, still in its beast-man form, showed an expression of extreme excitement and fanaticism. "The Paramecia... Float-Float Fruit!"

In the photo, a young girl with shoulder-length orange hair was floating in the air.

"There’s absolutely no mistake. This ability to make any object float in the air is definitely the ability of that legendary great pirate!"

"My News Coos have never been able to gather any intelligence on the Golden Lion. Could it be that he died a few years ago, or even a decade ago?"

"But there are no two identical abilities in this world. This young girl’s levitation power is definitely the Paramecia Float-Float Fruit!"

"Which means, the death of the Golden Lion is basically confirmed..."

"On top of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, this crew is entirely made up of ability users, and each Devil Fruit is a super-rare ability. This is huge news!"

"The New World is about to welcome another great power, second only to the rulers!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Morgans personally wrote the article.

He would publish all of Karl’s crew’s abilities, along with the basically confirmed news of the Golden Lion’s death, in tomorrow’s World Economic Journal.

It had been a week since the Buster Call set out from G-1.

In that week, Morgans’s World Economic Journal had sold out every day. No matter how many hundreds of thousands of extra copies were printed the next day, it was never enough.

The newspaper sales for that month were the best of the year.

In just a few days, he and Karl had achieved a win-win situation.

Karl and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon had gained prestige. After this battle, they would surely have a place in the New World.

Morgans, on the other hand, had made a fortune.

Now, it was time for Morgans to "repay" Karl’s crew.

With the pen in his hand, a tool that could easily create a Supernova, he would elevate Karl’s crew to a "divine pedestal."

The next day...

As countless News Coos carried the freshly printed newspapers to all corners of the world, the people of the world, who had been following the events like a series, eagerly bought one or more copies, ready to see yesterday’s battle report.

However, after they finished reading today’s front-page news, each and every one of them stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning.

Then, on their faces, various complex expressions gradually appeared: shock, disbelief, excitement, nostalgia...

"Completely... completely wiped out. The Buster Call has been defeated for the first time, completely wiped out... is this real?"

"Three women, no... four women defeated the greatest weapon of Mariejois and the Marine Headquarters. Am I dreaming?"

"Why... why was there no news of such people before? Why do people like this only have bounties of thirty million and eighty million?"

"It’s over, justice has been defeated!"

"..."

"The Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the Paramecia Barrier-Barrier Fruit, the Paramecia Flower-Flower Fruit, the Paramecia Hollow-Hollow Fruit, the Paramecia Float-Float Fruit—each one is a super-rare ability. What a bunch of lucky kids. Wait... the Paramecia Float-Float Fruit?!"

"Is... is there something wrong with my eyes?"

"The Paramecia Float-Float Fruit, isn’t that the ability of that legendary great pirate? Could it be..."

"He’s dead... the Golden Lion is dead?!!!"

"That legend, who was on par with the Pirate King and the World’s Strongest Man, when did his era end? Why was there no news at all?"

"This is too much. There’s too much big news today. I need to take a moment..."

"This sea is about to descend into chaos!"

"Is a new era dawning?!"

"..."

Everyone’s expression and reaction were different, and the focus of their attention was also completely different.

Ordinary people, who had no full understanding of power, had no idea how rare and powerful those Devil Fruits were, nor what an unbeatable effect they would have when combined. They only knew that the Buster Call launched by Mariejois and the Marine Headquarters had been defeated by four women, three of whom looked like underage girls.

Those who knew about power were stunned by the fruit abilities of Karl’s crew and decided to turn and flee on sight if they ever encountered them. To make an enemy of these monsters, who were incredibly powerful individually and even more unbeatable when united, was simply suicide.

Only some of the old-timers from the previous era were reminiscing about the legends of the past.

Compared to the previous two big news items, the attention of the major figures was entirely focused on the news of the Golden Lion’s death and on Nami.

"Gurararara... Shiki, a guy like you, would you also choose to depart in obscurity?"

On the Moby Dick, Whitebeard looked at today’s World Economic Journal, his face also filled with nostalgia.

He glanced at the deck not far away, as if he could see the figure from over a decade ago, who, after a drink with him, had declared he would disappear for a while and then show this lukewarm era the terror of a true pirate.

Had that farewell been their last?

Recalling the various scenes from the Rocks era, Whitebeard felt a rare sense of agitation. He then took a large gulp from his flagon and sighed, "Before I knew it, another old acquaintance is gone... Roger, Shiki."

Others who had vied for supremacy in the New World in the previous era shared Whitebeard’s thoughts.

After sighing, they also made a mental note of Nami.

The new user of the Float-Float Fruit.

Even if the person who possessed this ability was a weakling with no strength to speak of, as long as her stamina improved, she would become a powerhouse who could intimidate a region.

Just like the nine warships in the photo, smashed by meteors.

The Float-Float Fruit, like the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, possessed a strategic-level deterrent.

BANG—!

In contrast, in the Fleet Admiral’s office at Marineford, Sengoku slammed his hands on the desk, staring at the news of the nine warships’ total annihilation, and gritted his teeth. "What in the world happened?!"

"Why... why did this happen when we dispatched two Marine Admirals?!"

Ignoring Sengoku’s roar, Akainu, who was stationed at Marine Headquarters, said calmly, "An absolute defense that ignores everything, an absolute control that ignores everything, and the golden meteors prepared in advance by the Float-Float Fruit... with such a combination, it’s normal that they could destroy a Buster Call without Borsalino and Kuzan."

"We didn’t lose to them; we lost to a lack of intelligence."

"We didn’t know the strength of that dragon, that it could hold off Kuzan. We had no means prepared to deal with the Barrier-Barrier Fruit, nor did we know they had a user of the Paramecia Hollow-Hollow Fruit, or the second user of the Float-Float Fruit who inherited Shiki the Golden Lion’s ability."

"The price of arrogance..."

Akainu added at the end, "We have no one to blame for this loss."

"..."

Hearing this, Sengoku also gradually calmed down.

Then, a look of regret and pain appeared on his face as he said with extreme self-reproach, "Nine meteors, nearly ten thousand Marine soldiers... in one battle, who knows how many we lost!"

"This is all because of my negligence!"

"Damn you, Dragon Rider Karl... Purupurupuru, purupurupuru..."

Before Sengoku could slam the desk again in a helpless rage, the Den Den Mushi next to him suddenly woke up and began to ring with a vacant expression.

"Your Excellencies, the Five Elders..."

Sengoku suppressed the anger in his heart and answered the call.

"...Yes, I understand!"

After hearing what was said on the other end, Sengoku hung up with a grim expression. He then silently dialed another number.

Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247

~ Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!

~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]