A voice laced with desperation and fury suddenly tore across the battlefield, jarringly loud against the chaos.
"What the hell!?"
Sakazuki, already weakened by the Sea-Prism Stone bullet lodged in his shoulder, was drenched in cold sweat. His eyes, bloodshot with pain and anger, snapped toward the direction of the voice.
On the nearby warship stood a man, his face wild with panic, veins bulging at the corners of his bloodshot eyes, screaming with every last ounce of strength.
A CP agent…
Sakazuki had t him before. Just another cowardly World Governnt official who usually clung to life like a leech. And yet here he was braving a battlefield dominated by the Black Gun himself.
That could only an one thing.
"You've got to be kidding !! The Navy's already paid such a heavy price how can we back down now!?"
Rage erupted in Sakazuki like a volcano reigniting after near extinction. The molten magma coursing through his veins once again surged to life, bursting with ferocious heat.
With a grunt, he dug his fingers into his own mangled flesh and ripped the bullet out Sea-Prism Stone and all.
Beneath the Navy cloak, under the epaulet that symbolized his status, was a gory ss of blood and lava. It was impossible to tell where the man ended and the magma began.
Up above, in the skies, Ozz observed the scene unfold with the detached calm of soone who had seen it all a full minute ago.
It didn't surprise him one bit.
His Kenbunshoku Haki had already picked up on it the man nad Spandine clutching that Den Den Mushi in his arms like it was his last lifeline.
CP's sudden intervention? Sakazuki clearly wasn't having it.
Not even when Spandine was, on paper, the commanding officer of this mission.
"I'm simply carrying out the Buster Call…"
"When will your madness end, Sakazuki!?!"
The voice that roared from Spandine's direction wasn't his own. It carried authority far above his station a voice that radiated the chilling command of an apex ruler.
Instantly, every CP agent aboard the warship dropped to one knee. Even Spandine himself knelt, raising the Den Den Mushi over his head with trembling hands.
From within the transponder snail erged a face that chilled even magma: Warrior God of Justice – Saint Warcury, one of the Five Elders.
"That speed…"
"It can't be…"
The raging magma engulfing Sakazuki's body began to subside. Even with fury and humiliation boiling in his heart, he dared not show it. Not here.
But the way he clenched his jaw, the way the shadow of his cap obscured his face it was clear that the volcano within him was far from dormant.
"This entire fiasco stems from the Navy's incompetence," Warcury roared. "And yet you dare insist on dragging this war out even further!?"
anwhile, at the Holy Land of Mary Geoise.
Within the hallowed halls of power, silence pressed down like iron.
Warcury's eyes were cold. Black lines of fury etched across his face as he berated the Navy's mindless blunder.
Reckless. Out of control. Had they forgotten who ruled this world?
If Celestial Dragons had happened to be in Ohara, would the Navy have "Buster Called" them too, just for being in the way?
They were supposed to be the World Governnt's loyal hounds.
But of course…
That wasn't what angered the Five Elders the most.
If the Navy had truly possessed the strength to kill Ozz the Black Gun in Ohara and complete the "demon purge," they wouldn't be scolding Sakazuki right now.
Far from it.
They would've rewarded him. They might have used this victory to promote both Sakazuki and Kuzan to full Admirals.
But the problem was.
The five n who ruled the world had just reviewed the battlefield footage CP had transmitted.
The longer they watched, the darker their expressions grew.
There was only one way to summarize the entire report:
Crushed. Outmatched. Routed.
Kuzan was already comatose. Sakazuki had taken a bullet. There was no counteroffensive, no hope. And yet the fool wanted to keep fighting?
Was this man trying to destroy the World Governnt?
As the Five Elders raged, Sakazuki rembered his own resolve his willingness to fight to the death.
Under the brim of his cap, his eyes throbbed red with blood vessels ready to burst.
He looked across the carnage mangled bodies of lower-ranked marines, his comrades unconscious and broken then at the untouched CP agents, and at the Five Elders issuing commands from on high…
After a long silence, reason finally won out.
The general who had once stood, ready to die in battle.
Now stood still and silent.
That was answer enough.
"There's really no need for all that political theater, is there, Lord Warcury?"
No one had seen when he'd landed.
But now, there Ozz stood on the deck of the warship.
Surrounded by kneeling CP agents, he remained standing towering above them.
His crimson eyes locked onto the Den Den Mushi without the slightest hint of deference.
Ozz was no fool. He knew exactly what the Five Elders were doing this public scolding of Sakazuki was their way of saving face.
A diplomatic retreat wrapped in moral outrage.
If the tables were turned and Ozz had been the one losing? That call wouldn't be to negotiate.
It'd be to broadcast his execution.
A "King of the Next Generation," captured and publicly executed by the World Governnt?
That would've been the perfect sedative for this world spiraling into chaos.
"Ozz…"
The glowing red eyes on the Den Den Mushi flickered open. The Five Elders glanced among themselves, a rare look of frustration crossing their faces.
"After all this ti in hiding… why now? Why appear here in Ohara, under the shadow of a Buster Call?"
Frustrated as they were, they were no strangers to diplomacy.
Their words were stern. Their tone commanding.
They had just scolded Sakazuki as a gesture of goodwill but in direct negotiations, the Five Elders never bowed.
"Why, you ask?" Ozz stroked his chin and looked up at the sky, as if pondering sothing.
"Well, I'm just sightseeing, obviously. Thought I'd take one last look around before this place gets wiped off the map."
Then, as if struck by a sudden realization, he feigned surprise:
"Don't tell … you thought I was here to investigate the link between the Twenty Kingdoms and "
"OZZ!!!"
The shout was deafening.
The Five Elders' faces went rigid. Cold sweat gathered at their brows. Whatever joke Ozz had been about to make none of them wanted to hear the end of it.
They didn't need research. The fact that he already knew was terrifying enough.
This insufferable bastard!
The CP agents nearby were also aghast.
That… that was almost it! He'd almost said it! The taboo truth that could erase nine generations of ancestors!
If anyone else had known what Ozz knew, the Five Elders would've long since sent a Buster Call to obliterate them from existence.
But of course… this was Ozz.
Nothing was ever simple with him.
Looks like the order concerning him…
Would need to be upgraded again.
At the very least,
It now ranked higher than the Buster Call.
----------------------------------------------------
[ Preview for the next chapter: "Four Billion, Four Hundred and Ninety Million Berries"
The smoke of battle hadn't yet cleared when the world shifted again.
Ozz wasn't here to save Ohara. He wasn't here for revenge. He wasn't even here on a mission.
He'd returned for one reason only.To remind the world who he was.
With a single clash, he had forced the Five Elders into negotiation… and walked away smiling.
No concessions. No casualties he cared about. Just one ssage, burned into the mory of every Marine and Cipher Pol agent on the field:
Ozz is back.
And in return, the World Governnt gave him a number.
4,490,000,000.
A bounty high enough to shake the seas.
The balance of power has shifted.
And the world is watching. ]
(We're a hundred chapters deep on P@treon. Out here, the war's just starting. In there? It's already on fire.)
Impatient? Sa. Hit up my P@treon for future chaos!
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