One Piece: Surrounded at Marineford? Just kidding!

Chapter 695: Farewell, Nika!

Leviathan's enormous mouth opened to its limit.

The joints on either side of the jawbone cracked like metal breaking. Dark gold patterns surged wildly along the inner walls of the mouth, stretching the last vestiges of compressed darkness from points of light into elongated rays. The lines were incredibly thin. So thin they were almost invisible. But every inch of space it passed through collapsed, the air twisted into transparent glass tubes, and then shattered.

Marco's blue flames continued to surge forward relentlessly.

His wings were mostly bald. Blue feathers fell one after another, and with each one, his speed decreased. He was thirty meters away from Luffy. Twenty meters. Fifteen meters. But the dark ray was nearing its end. Marco's eyes were bloodshot; he knew it was too late.

Whitebeard swung his Murakumogiri again.

The shockwave, carrying the roar of the earth, surged towards the gravitational field where Luffy was. The ripples were caught the moment they touched the edge of the darkness, like flies trapped in a spider's web. The shockwave's power was peeled away and swallowed layer by layer, ultimately failing to reach even a ripple near Luffy. The white-bearded man's fingers gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Rocks unleashed his black flame sword a second time.

This strike was even heavier than the last. The pitch-black slash, carrying a destructive force capable of cleaving an island, crashed down on Leviathan's side of the neck. The dark gold patterns on the scales glowed for a moment. Half of the strike was swallowed by the patterns, leaving only a scorch mark slightly darker than a hair on the scales. Rocks' pupils contracted slightly.

Everyone confirmed it.

It's too late.

No one could reach Luffy in that half-breath. No one could stop the impending eruption of the dark ray. Whitebeard couldn't. Rocks couldn't. Marco couldn't. Sabo couldn't.

Luffy knelt on the shattered ice. The white light shield of the original divine weapon was now riddled with cracks. His body was riddled with holes, blood seeping from countless wounds, drawn by gravity into thin arcs towards the gigantic maw. He raised his head. The tip of his sword trembled as it pointed at Leviathan's blood-red eye.

He did not close his eyes.

Im saw those eyes.

It wasn't fear. It wasn't despair. It wasn't pleading. The burning thing in those eyes was something Im had only seen twice in eight hundred years. The first time was when he stood before Joy Boy.

The darkness deep within Leviathan's maw completed its final stretch.

The sound surged from the abyss.

Every word seemed to have been steeped in eight hundred years of darkness—cold, heavy, and undeniable. It wasn't a roar, not a shout. It was a farewell utterly calm. Like a judge reading the final verdict and casually closing the case file.

Goodbye, Nika.

Four words.

The weight of those four words striking the icy plains was heavier than that dark speck of light. It wasn't calling Luffy's name. It was calling Nika. Calling that illusory god who had endlessly reincarnated for eight hundred years, endlessly challenging the King of the World. Calling that ghost that Im had to use his Leviathan form to obliterate.

Im nailed Luffy to the execution platform.

Not as Straw Hat Luffy. Not as Monkey D. Luffy. But as Nika's vessel. As Joy Boy's continuation. As the only threat in eight hundred years to make the King of the World utter the word "fear".

This sentence is the final nail in the coffin.

The dark rays erupted.

There was no sound. No light. No warning of an explosion. The instant that extremely thin, jet-black line shot out from the depths of the gigantic maw, everything around it lost its meaning. Space was erased. Time was stretched. Along the trajectory of the ray, the ice didn't shatter, it vanished. The air wasn't compressed, it was negated. It didn't exist within the physical laws of this world. It was pure annihilation.

It aimed straight for Luffy's chest.

As the rays were unleashed, a change occurred in Leviathan's defenses.

The moment the gigantic maw opened to its fullest extent, spewing forth darkness, the dark gold patterns on either side of the lower jaw were diverted to maintain the stability of the rays. The patterns on the surface of the scales thinned. Not disappeared, but their density decreased. From a thick barrier, they transformed into a sparse mesh.

This change lasted only half a breath.

Half a breath.

10,000 meters above the ground.

Chen Ye's eyes were fully open.

The dark gold Haki had been compressed within his right arm for far too long. It began when Luffy suppressed Im. It began when Nika's power waned. It began when Leviathan emerged from the earth. All the waiting. All the forbearance. All the calculations. All for this half-breath.

He saw the trajectory of the ray as it left the giant maw. He saw the moment the lines on both sides of Leviathan's jaws thinned. He saw the despair on everyone's faces as that jet-black straight line shot towards Luffy's chest.

Chenye's body fell from the sky.

It wasn't flying. It wasn't flashing. It was pure descent. He poured all his weight and power into this strike. The dark golden aura of his right arm was fully released at this moment, erupting simultaneously with the long-dormant Apollo Sun God Fire within his body. The two forces did not conflict with each other. They merged on Chen Ye's right fist, condensing into a pillar of light interwoven with gold and black.

The crimson light illuminated the sky, which had been distorted by darkness.

The oppressive black aura compressed the light into a point of force the size of a pinhead.

Chen Ye's fist shattered the sound barrier. It shattered the air. It shattered the outermost layer of the dark gravitational field. His right arm, like a shooting star falling from the sky, trailing a long golden-black tail of flame, slammed straight towards the side of Leviathan's jaw.

The force exploded the moment it touched the scales.

The golden-black shockwave spread outwards from Leviathan's head. The ice surface shattered into powder in front of the shockwave. The dark gold patterns were forcibly torn apart at the center of the explosion. The scales emitted a piercing metallic wail.

Leviathan's head was knocked to the side.

It wasn't a large deviation. Only a few degrees. But in this battle where life and death are measured in milliseconds, a few degrees is the distance between life and death.

The dark ray deviated from its original trajectory.

It didn't hit Luffy in the chest.

The ray grazed the edge of the original weapon's protective shield, less than an arm's length from Luffy's body. Where the darkness passed, the shield tore apart like paper. White specks of light disintegrated and dissipated at the edge of the darkness. The ray continued forward, striking the ice field behind Luffy.

A furrow was carved into the ice field.

It wasn't an ordinary crack. It was a charred, bottomless chasm. Rays had eroded tens of meters of ice along with the underlying bedrock. The ice on either side of the chasm wasn't melting; it was evaporating directly. White steam shot into the sky, condensing into a low-hanging cloud above the ice sheet.

The aftershocks of the ray overturned all the ice around Luffy.

Large chunks of solid ice were hurled into the air, shattering into ice shards in the lingering darkness. The white light protecting its master, the original divine weapon, exploded completely the instant the ray grazed it. The final ray of light transformed into a thrust, propelling Luffy off the edge of the ravine.

Luffy's body rolled on the ice.

Once. Twice. Three times. He rolled more than ten meters, his fingernails digging into the ice, before finally coming to a stop. His already riddled skin was now covered in countless new cracks. Blood streamed down his forehead, staining half his face. Fragments of his trench coat lay scattered across the ice along his path.

But his hand did not loosen its grip on the sword hilt.

His five fingers gripped the handle of the original divine weapon tightly. His knuckles were dislocated. The bones of his ring and little fingers were twisted at unnatural angles. But he did not let go.

Leviathan reacted extremely quickly.

Before the aftershocks of Chenye's powerful attack had even dissipated, it made a new move. Not to pursue Luffy. Not to continue spewing darkness. Instead, it retracted. The menacing bony fins on its back closed in an instant. The dark gold patterns on its scales, which had been thinning, thickened again at a visible speed. Darkness seeped from the gaps in the scales, condensing into a thick black barrier on its body.

Defensive stance.

A complete defensive posture that leaves no blind spots.

Leviathan's blood-red giant eye left Luffy. It raised its head. Slowly, with a kind of almost human-rational alertness, it looked up at the sky.

Chen Ye stopped at the side of Leviathan's head, which had been knocked aside. The golden-black afterglow dissipated from his right fist. His body hovered in mid-air, level with Leviathan's blood-red giant eye.

This scene was witnessed by every strong warrior on the battlefield.

Whitebeard stopped Murakumogiri. The old man tilted his head back, his gaze following the golden-black trajectory of the attack towards the sky. His lips moved slightly, but no sound came out. However, the residual vibrations from Murakumogiri had dissipated. He knew that in that brief moment, if it hadn't been for that punch, Luffy would no longer exist.

Lox sheathed his black flame longsword. He didn't speak. But the way he stared at Chen Ye changed. It was no longer scrutiny. No longer wariness. It was an almost instinctive acceptance. He could count on his fingers the number of people in this world who could deflect Leviathan's head with a single blow.

Shanks forced Shamrock to retreat.

One strike. Clean and decisive. Shamrock was knocked back several meters, and before he could even charge back, Shanks had already stopped. He looked up at the sky. His only remaining arm gripped the hilt of the Griffin. He saw Chen Ye. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he simply exhaled softly.

Zoro peeked out from behind the rubble. His three swords were already drawn. He looked up following Chenye's attack trajectory, his gaze lingering on Chenye for two seconds before he looked away and fixed his gaze on Luffy's direction again. He didn't rush over. Not because he didn't want to. He judged that Chenye had already taken control of the battlefield.

Aruru stood beneath the dome of the Elbaf Royal Palace.

The old giant elder's fingers gripped the edge of the stone slab tightly. The relief on the slab depicted the image of the ancient demon Leviathan. He looked at the golden and black figure in the sky, then looked down at the stone slab. His lips trembled.

"The Sun God..." His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

All eyes on the battlefield were fixed on Chen Ye. The Navy. The Pirates. The Giants. The remnants of the Knights of God. The Allied Forces soldiers. Everyone. They saw the golden-black meteor falling from the sky. They saw Leviathan's head being knocked aside. They saw that dark ray, powerful enough to annihilate everything, brush past death.

There was a moment of silence on the ice field.

Luffy lay on the broken ice.

He coughed. His breath was tinged with blood. The red blood sprayed onto the ice, instantly freezing into dark ice shards by the low temperature. His chest heaved violently. Each breath felt like his lungs were being ripped apart by a rusty saw.

He is still alive.

Luffy turned his head. His vision was blurry. Blood covered his left eye. He could barely see with his right eye. He saw the figure hovering in the sky. The remnants of the golden and black intertwined power still swirled on that person's right fist, facing off against Leviathan's blood-red giant eye.

He recognized the person.

Luffy's lips twitched. A voice squeezed out from deep in his throat. Hoarse. Intermittent. Like sandpaper rubbing against metal. But every word was clear.

"Chen Ye...you bastard."

There was no gratitude. No excitement. Just those three words. But those three words carried more weight than any lengthy discourse. He had been pulled back from the brink of death. He knew perfectly well that if Chen Ye had acted even half a breath later, he wouldn't have been left with even ashes.

But he's still alive. He's still holding the sword. He can still speak.

Chenye did not respond to Luffy immediately.

He lowered his eyes. Observation Haki swept over Luffy's body. His heart was beating. Weak, but steady. His breathing was rapid, but recovering. The flame of life had not been extinguished. Although only a wisp of smoke remained, it was still burning.

Then his gaze shifted to Leviathan.

The side of his jaw. The spot where he struck. Chen Ye examined it closely. There was only a shallow golden scorch mark on the surface of the scales. Less than half an inch deep. The dark gold patterns around the scorch mark had already been repaired. Not even a crack remained.

Chen Ye's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

His right fist was imbued with a dual burst of dark gold domineering energy and the fire of Apollo, the sun god. This punch was enough to shatter an island. But when it struck Leviathan's scales, it only left a scratch.

Its defensive strength is more troublesome than a regular god-level shield.

Chen Ye etched this conclusion into his mind.

Leviathan's dark barrier continued to thicken. It didn't pursue Luffy, nor did it continue to unleash its dark rays. It withdrew all its power, condensing it on its surface, layer upon layer. Dark gold patterns and black matter alternated, like countless stacked shields.

It has been on guard.

Chen Ye saw through this. From the moment Leviathan burst from the ground, it had never truly ignored this observer high in the sky. It locked onto Luffy. It charged up. It unleashed rays. All its attacks on Luffy were real. But in the intervals between each action, it reserved room to turn and defend.

Im had been waiting for Chen Ye to join the game.

The sound surged from the depths of Leviathan's gaping maw.

It was no longer the cold, judgmental tone of before. This time, there was something in his voice. It was anger. It was old resentment that had been building up for who knows how long. Every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

"oh?"

Leviathan's blood-red giant eye locked onto Chen Ye. Its vertical pupil contracted into a thin slit. Dark energy seeped from the gaps in its scales, spreading towards Chen Ye like countless black tentacles.

"You finally couldn't resist and made your move."

Im's voice echoed across the ice field.

"You damn bastard."

Six words. Each word carried a real, palpable killing intent. Not the kind of cold indifference that looks down on ants from a high place. It was real, burning hatred that needed to be forcefully suppressed.

Chen Ye discerned the message behind that hatred.

Im wasn't surprised. It wasn't surprised that Chenye would make a move. It wasn't even surprised that Chenye chose this moment to act. What surprised it was—

"I thought you would keep watching." Im's voice was low, like a groan from the earth. "Watching this Nika container be wiped away. Watching the last glimmer of hope extinguished. Only then will you move."

It paused for a moment.

"It seems you're more impatient than I thought."

The subtext of this statement is clear. Im had been calculating the timing of Tatsuha's attack. It considered Tatsuha the biggest variable on the chessboard. Every attack it launched against Luffy was a test of Tatsuha's bottom line. And Tatsuha's attack exposed his bottom line—Luffy cannot die.

Chen Ye did not respond.

He hovered high in the sky. As the golden-black embers dissipated, his figure appeared eerily still against the dark backdrop. He watched the dark barrier around Leviathan thicken. He watched the dark gold patterns flowing across its scales. He watched his own reflection in its blood-red giant eyes.

He was calculating.

Leviathan's dark barrier had completely enveloped its body. It no longer displayed any offensive posture. All its bony fins were retracted. All its markings had turned defensively. Dark matter had solidified into a second shell on its surface, darker, thicker, and denser than its original scales.

Then, the killing intent arose.

It wasn't a slow spread. It was an eruption. The vertical pupils in Leviathan's blood-red eyes suddenly dilated. Dark energy surged from its body like a tsunami, overwhelming everything.

The temperature on the ice field plummeted instantly, falling below the limits of human endurance. The surviving blackwater monsters crouched low, their limbs trembling as they lay on the ice. Some dissolved into puddles of black liquid, seeping into cracks in the ice. Instinct told them: Stay away from the center. Stay away from the place where the two beings confronted each other.

The center of the war of gods has shifted.

He switched from Luffy to Chenye.

Im focused all his attention on the figure high in the sky. Leviathan's blood-red eyes stared unblinkingly at Chen Ye. New changes began to appear on the surface of the Dark Barrier. The dark gold patterns were no longer simply covering the surface. They began to weave, intersect, and overlap, forming a structure more complex than a codex.

It is preparing.

Prepared for Chenye.

Chen Ye's right arm hung at his side. The dark gold aura receded from beneath his skin and re-entered his body. He knew that the attacks he would face next would not be as forgiving as before. Im would no longer be distracted by Luffy. He would not give anyone another chance.

The darkness of Leviathan is boiling.

The ice field was trembling.

Chen Ye raised his head and met the gaze of the giant, blood-red eye.

His expression remained unchanged. From beginning to end, it was an almost indifferent calm, as if he were looking at a math problem awaiting an answer, rather than an ancient demon capable of destroying the world.

A storm is brewing between the two.

It hasn't started yet.

But everyone knew that the real storm was about to break.