Schemes and Interception

Just as the Ice Continent battlefield was ready, Marine powerhouses leaped down from their warships one after another, setting foot on the Ice Continent.

"Are you kidding me? They brought this lineup to deal with us?" Ace sucked in a sharp breath.

The Three Admirals—Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru—were all here. Behind them stood at least twenty Vice Admirals. With that kind of force, they would have a seventy or eighty percent chance of winning even in a direct decisive battle against the Whitebeard Pirates! Let alone against just him and Yamato.

"Their target probably isn’t just us, right?" Yamato, usually so scatterbrained, keenly caught the crucial point this time. "These guys probably want to capture us alive, then use us against the Whitebeard Pirates and Yota!"

"That won’t be so easy." Ace lightly clenched the gauntlet in his hand, a brilliant smile appearing on his face. "Let’s go, Yamato! We’ll use that move!"

"Okay, Ace!" Yamato smiled as well.

Blazing flames erupted from Ace’s hands. Cold air faintly radiated from Yamato’s spiked club. Then, the two attacked at the same time. Exploiting the violent temperature difference between ice and flame, they unleashed a strike fierce enough to nearly make the air explode.

Sky Rift!

The expressions of the three Naval Admirals changed slightly. They attacked together, their projected Armament Haki forming an enormous wall that blocked the terrifying gale rushing toward them.

Violent Havok, terrifying air currents, and shrieking roars filled the entire battlefield in an instant.

After a series of cracking sounds, the entire Ice Continent had actually been shaken into two pieces by that clash.

Once the Havok had completely passed, the three seemingly uninjured Naval Admirals were revealed. They bore no wounds, but the Marine coats draped over their shoulders were already covered in tears.

"What a nuisance. That should be an attack similar to the Supreme King Sea Kaido and Charlotte Linlin unleashed together, shouldn’t it?" Akainu casually tore off his now-meaningless Marine coat. "It seems that even if it weren’t for that plan, we would still need to clear out this evil younger generation!"

"Ohoho, how truly terrifying." Kizaru still had that inscrutable air about him, though his expression had become a little more serious.

"Move! All of you, attack together!"

In an instant, the three Naval Admirals, two Naval Admiral candidates, and more than a dozen Vice Admirals charged forward at once.

No matter how formidable Ace and Yamato were, they could never withstand so many people joining forces. Forget them—even if two Four Emperors were here, the outcome likely would not have changed.

Thus, despite their desperate efforts and their considerable growth in strength, they only held on for an hour or two before being captured by the Marines in a vicious group beating.

"Alright, prepare to return." Leading a group of prisoners, Akainu spoke to a CP0 agent beside him. The masked agent nodded and stretched out a hand. A faint mist swiftly covered the entire Marine fleet, after which the whole fleet vanished without a trace.

This agent was a Mirage Fruit user, capable of using mist to create lifelike mirages. It was precisely with this ability that the Marines had been able to launch such a surprise attack.

"We found them—the Marine fleet!"

For some time now, Violet had been scouting the surrounding area almost every day at Yota’s instruction. Today, she had finally discovered the Marine fleet hidden by a mirage.

Originally, the Glint-Glint Fruit’s farsight and X-ray vision abilities could not be used together. However, after Violet gained the Byakugan’s abilities, the two powers fused into one. She could truly be called the legendary Clairvoyant.

Since Yota had already made preparations, the Marines’ attempt at concealment only made them stand out even more.

"Where are they?" Yota asked with a frown. In fact, he had sent Flying Thunder God Den Den Mushi over from the very beginning, but the Marines had clearly been extremely cautious. The Den Den Mushi had long since been destroyed.

Furthermore, Ace and Yamato did not really understand what the Den Den Mushi could do. Otherwise, if they had made a call when the battle began, Yota could have appeared right beside them immediately.

Of course, it was not too late to make amends now. So long as the two had not been delivered to Mary Geoise, they would be safe. After all, the World Government still intended to use them as bait.

"They’re sailing through the Calm Belt right now!" Violet said in surprise.

"The Calm Belt? They really have ideas." Yota nodded in realization. "No wonder they didn’t need supplies along the way. The Marines have clearly built quite a few secret bases in the Calm Belt."

"But now that they’ve been found, they can forget about leaving!"

Without hesitation, Yota shot into the sky, transformed into a dragon, grabbed Violet, and plunged toward the Calm Belt.

Calm Belt, Marine fleet.

Kizaru, who was sunbathing, suddenly felt that something was off.

"The wind direction seems a little strange. Isn’t this the Calm Belt?"

The Calm Belt was a place in the Pirate World utterly devoid of wind and waves. But wind was simply moving air, so although there was no natural wind in the Calm Belt, a sailing ship would still create a faint sensation of wind as it traveled.

However, Kizaru felt that the wind blowing against him seemed to be slightly off from the ship’s direction of travel. It did not feel entirely like wind created by the ship’s movement.

"Ha, what am I thinking? How could there be natural wind in the Calm Belt… What’s that?"

Kizaru looked up in surprise, drawing the curiosity of many sailors aboard the ship. Before long, everyone raised their heads.

It was not only the ship Kizaru was on. The other vessels seemed to have spotted the strange sight as well, and all turned to look toward the horizon.

In the distant sky, a vast expanse of dark clouds spread outward, rapidly bearing down on the entire fleet.

If this were the Grand Line or the Four Seas, it would have been perfectly normal. Weather at sea could change at any moment, and on the Grand Line, this level of weather shift would not even count as a minor inconvenience.

If it were in the New World, clouds of this scale could even be considered good weather.

But where were they? This was the Calm Belt! Since the Calm Belt had no wind, how could there be clouds? Much less clouds racing toward them at high speed!

"Enemy attack!" Among the three fleets, the aggressive Akainu was the first to spring into action. Without another thought, he condensed magma around his fist and violently blasted it toward the dark clouds.

Volcanic Meteor!