Chapter 233

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The Commander-in-Chief, Kong and The Five Elders were in truth inside Marineford the whole time. It won't make sense otherwise when the marines were almost at the brink of extinction.

But they were staying back the whole time. It's not as if they were that strong. Kong was a 92 years-old-man, while the Elders were more than 800-years-old. 

Because of age, Kong was much weaker than before, although still stronger than any Admiral fighting down there. Same with the Five Elders.

If not trained, anybody would weaken in this world. Gecko Moria would be a prime example. That man once clashed with Kaido, and how did he die? He died in his sleep, killed by Amon. 

That's what happened with the Elders. They were but a husk of their Prime selves.

Until now, they were depending on Jewelry Bonney's Devil Fruit powers, who had only recently escaped the Mariejois.

She is, just like them, an 800-year-old demon. Her memories were washed off, and she served the government as a brainwashed puppet until she regained some of her mind because of an experiment gone wrong. They would get her back soon of course, but the problem still remained. The problem with her power was, if the target is not herself, she can only make them a kid, or an old man. That's her limitation, she can't make others into their prime adult self, and instead only old or super young. The elders preferred being old men instead of being stuck in mere kids' bodies. 

But how much strength can 5 old men exert? Their bodies were shaped like men in their 80s, so their strength wasn't that impressive. If only they trained their Hakis diligently, like their Master, then maybe in this 800 years, they'd have some chance against that thing.

Against that ancient weapon in the far.

The bald elder was the first to dash towards the weapon of destruction. They were merely admiral level and didn't have any destructive devil fruit like Akainu. That's because their ruler, Imu, didn't like Devil Fruits, not at all. Imu had eaten a devil fruit, but he was very reluctant to use it because if used carelessly it could kill even him. It's that dangerous. 

If not for Imu-sama's displease with devil fruits, all the Celestial Dragons would have all the Godly devil fruits of the world, no? 

That's the problem. They could only rely on their Haki and weapons. But they didn't have any choice left. This was a fucking Ancient Weapon, something that, if used correctly, can destroy the island in seconds. The chance of them destroying it is, on the other hand, is meagre, and maybe even impossible. These five have seen that same weapon wreak havoc in the world before, and even their Prime selves could barely hold against it, but destroy it? 

It's nice to dream, but let's not go overboard. 

The other four elders followed the bald one after a short breath, Kong doing the same. They didn't know at whose side the weapon was, but it certainly wasn't theirs. 

Then they noticed something.

As they reached closer, something became clear… whoever was riding the weapon, was not having a pretty time with it. They were barely controlling it. Now, this did brighten their faces a bit, if the driver can't control the thing, it won't be as dangerous as they thought it to be. Of course, they would still not be able to destroy it, but at least the damage would be minimized.

With all these thoughts running in their mind, they were soon in front of the weapon. People gave shouts at their sight, 6 more Admiral Level enemies had joined the Marines. Tsk, if only they knew how much more danger they were in right now. 

With their respective weapon, they hit the ancient weapon.

Clank!

Bam!

Pong!

Their different weapons made different sounds, yet not even a scratch appeared on the weapon, but it did screech as if it was hurt. That's the point. The driver receives a fraction of the attack done on the weapon since, after all, it is run by the driver's Haki entirely. This meant there is a low chance that they could knock the driver unconscious by attacking the weapon. But their attacks were too weak… 

Just then, a huge fist made of octopus tentacles flew to the weapon of mass destruction and created a large bam sound. 

Turning their head to the left as one, they saw him, Kong. The five elders might have been restricted to not eat any devil fruit, but the formal Fleet Admiral wasn't. He had an interesting power. 

Kong's right hand was a mass of octopus limbs while a pair of eagle wings sprouted out of his back, he floated in the air with his feet looking like eagle claws.

He ate the Manifest-Manifest fruit, a special paramecia. He can manifest the physical characteristics of anything he has eaten, anything. Even without his 3 types of Conqueror's Haki, he was dangerous just with that alone. 

Though unfortunately, he had only eaten some squid, eagle, crab, tuna, sea king meat and beef this morning. He was expecting to fight, so he planned to eat food from strange animals at first, but unfortunately, he had a stomachache just today. 

Bam! 

His other hand turned into a lobster's claw and slammed on the weapon. It didn't bulge again, and this time, it whipped its head like a snake at Kong, who got hit and was flown back to the city, crashing into buildings. 

Almost the entirety of the weapon's body was under the sea even now, and the elders could only imagine how much destruction it would cause just by moving around if it were to come up fully. 

Right now, their goal was to keep it down there.

—★—

Just like the Elders were thinking, the ancient weapon would have been able to destroy the Marineford in seconds. But Vivi was an inexperienced girl. After training for barely 2 months, she still had a hard time controlling the body of the weapon. If she could use the multiple weapons hidden inside the worm's insides, the Marineford battle would end immediately. 

But then these elders jumped in, attacking Pluton, which was basically an exoskeleton of some sort to her, nonstop. It did no damage, but it did hurt.

Vivi struggled to move her head, her worm head and snapped another two elders towards the city yet again. Heh, look at how weak they are. She doesn't even need to use her entire body!

Her cheer came to a stop as she felt a shadow covering her body. There were small cameras around the body, not thousands or hundreds since itd overwhelm her brain, but enough to keep watch of most of her body's sides. From these cameras, the vision streamed into her brain as if she was seeing with her own two, or in this case, 36 eyes. 

A giant hand, big enough to crush the Alabasta Palace into pieces, was coming down towards her head, curled up into a fist. The fist was green as if the owner was a mobster of some sort, and moving her gaze she confirmed it to be exactly that. 

A monster with horns and fangs. It was an Oni, something that her husband supposedly turned into recently. 

She stared at the large fist. The punch won't do much damage, but it would hurt. She would hold on, of course, but nobody liked pain. Amon was gone from her side the moment she penetrated the ice, and now, she was about to get trashed by a giant.

The fist came closer to her face, as she stilled her spirit for the blow, but just then, light, no, lightning flashed in the sky.

Bzzt~

All her 36 eyes, at least the ones that weren't under the sea, locked their gazes at the sky. There, a man with a similarly giant body, wearing white clothes, was falling downwards like a meteorite. No words came from her mouth and she only smiled. Which princess didn't like her Prince coming to save her at the last moment?

Before the giant, Oars Junior's punch could come in contact with her, the meteorite of a man crashed into its neck and shoved it down on the surface of the ice, the sound of old and large bones cracking into pieces filled the area as if lightning roared in the far sky.

Vivi didn't know, but just by the sight of her husband, some had already given up on this war.

The War of the Best was entering its final stage.

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Author's Note: The day has come!! From today onwards, I will upload every day again! Cheers and celebration, everyone!!