Chapter 280: The Yellow Flash

The Going Guard cut through the ocean at breakneck speed. Though a hundred miles still separated them from the Red Line, at its current velocity, an hour would be more than enough to close the distance.

If they executed a few short-range spatial warps along the way, the transit time would drop to a mere thirty minutes.

In preparation for the impending clash, every combatant on board—from the Revolutionary Army commanders to the officers of the Dragon Flag Pirates—had retreated to their quarters to make final readiness checks.

Inside his private cabin, Drake's brows were locked in a tight knot as a series of system prompts suddenly materialized before his eyes.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Main Quest Triggered!]

[QUEST OBJECTIVE: Rescue Crew Member "Aokiji" (Kuzan).]

[TIME LIMIT: 2 Hours.]

Scanning the timer, Drake realized with a sudden jolt that the notification had been issued an hour ago.

Which meant less than sixty minutes remained on the clock. The deadline was dangerously tight.

[QUEST BACKGROUND: A key member of your crew has been captured by the most mysterious entity in the world—Im—and is currently imprisoned beneath the Holy Land. Target is in critical danger.]

"Can't Kuzan just stay out of trouble for once? Of all the people to poke, he had to go after Im... Talk about a headache," Drake muttered, shaking his head in exasperation.

Right then, the door to the cabin glided open, and Weitian stepped inside with soft, deliberate footsteps.

"Who were you just talking about that can't stay out of trouble?" she asked, a subtle trace of confusion in her eyes.

The acoustic dampening in the cabin was exceptionally high; she had caught almost nothing prior to breaching the doorway.

"Ah—nothing. You misheard. I was just..." Struggling to invent a plausible cover on the spot, Drake deftly pivoted the topic. "Never mind that. What brings you here?"

Weitian cast a lingering, suspicious glance his way, though she refrained from pressing the matter. "Here."

She extended her arm, presenting a cup she had brought along. Drake reached out to take it, only then noticing that she had personally brewed a hot cup of tea for him.

Setting the cup down, Weitian took a seat on the adjacent chair. After a short silence, she looked up and asked, "What is your true objective for stepping into this war?"

Before he could answer, she quietly added, "Aside from backing your brother, Sabo."

"My objective..." Drake murmured the words, gradually falling into deep thought.

Right... what am I actually fighting for...?

When I really think about it, I don't seem to have a concrete endgame... or rather... a grand dream!

It was only at this exact moment that Drake realized how thoroughly he had integrated into this world. He no longer viewed anything with the detachment of an outsider.

Yet he still lacked one fundamental anchor: a dream. Without a driving ambition, even if he wielded power capable of turning the world upside down, what was he supposed to do with it?

Watching Drake slip into quiet reflection, Weitian refrained from interrupting, content to simply sit beside him in peaceful silence.

"A dream..." Drake's eyes suddenly illuminated. He spun around sharply to address her, his momentum carrying his body forward so fast that he nearly collided with Weitian's face, bringing himself to a screeching halt at the absolute last microsecond.

One millimeter!

A single millimeter was all that separated Drake's lips from Weitian's soft, rose-red mouth.

A delicate, intoxicating fragrance brushed against the tip of his nose. Drake involuntarily swallowed hard, his throat working as his breath hitched.

He had never looked at Weitian's face from a distance this intimate. It was an ethereal, breathtaking beauty that defied description—impeccably sculpted features paired with the subtle, lively arch of her brow and the fine contour of her nose.

Most arresting of all were her vibrant eyes, which seemed like a divine gift, pulling any onlooker into their depths. They held a profound softness intertwined with an unyielding strength.

A living portrait of pure grace.

"You..." The phrase you're beautiful almost spilled from Drake's lips, but in the very next instant, as if struck by a sudden electric current, he recoiled violently back into his seat.

Wait... did I just touch her lips?!

The distance between them had been practically non-existent. When Drake spoke, the gentle movement of his breath made it feel as though their lips had brushed—a detail he couldn't even verify with absolute certainty.

Straining to steady his erratic pulse, Drake turned his head back to look at Weitian. Yet she sat there with absolute composure, eyeing him calmly as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired.

Guess I was overthinking it, Drake offered a self-deprecating laugh in his mind. Yet for reasons he couldn't quite master, a sudden stray thought flickered through his head: What if we actually HAD kissed just now...?

He violently shook his head to clear the thought. What in the world am I thinking about?!

What Drake failed to register, however, was that beneath her flowing sleeves, Weitian's slender fingers were clenched tightly into trembling fists. Her entire frame had frozen stiff, even if her expression managed to preserve a perfect, unruffled calm.

"Anyway... I've figured out what I need to do," Drake said, clearing his throat as he adopted a serious tone. "As for this campaign... what are your plans?"

Meanwhile, across the central plaza of the Holy Land, Red-Haired Shanks stood like an unyielding god of war, blade in hand. Every assault launched by Yonko Kaido was neutralized by his casual, effortless parries. For a brief window, Kaido was reduced to barely holding his defensive line.

BOOM!

Draped in his dark captain's coat, Shanks drove his boot into the stone, causing long fractures to spiderweb through the ground.

HUMMM...

The visible, razor-sharp Haki coating his blade violently agitated the surrounding atmospheric currents, emitting a harsh, continuous hissing sound.

"Again!" Kaido bellowed, refusing to yield a single inch. It grated on his pride that Shanks' absolute combat mass seemed to edge out his own by such a distinct, unbelievable margin—it almost felt like they weren't operating on the same tier!

"THUNDER BAGUA!!" Kaido poured every ounce of his monstrous strength into the strike. Purple and blue lightning saturated the domain as he swung his spiked kanabo forward with catastrophic force.

CLACK... BOOM!!

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

Pitch-black Conqueror's lightning crackled wildly across the void. Kaido gritted his teeth, his face flushing dark red under the crushing counter-pressure as the bedrock beneath his boots sank lower and lower into the earth.

"ARRGH!" A wave of agonizing screams suddenly erupted from the Revolutionary Army ranks off to the side.

Shanks' brow furrowed. With a sharp upward flick of his long blade, he generated a concentrated burst of kinetic force that threw Kaido's heavy weapon clear back, sending the titan staggering.

Dropping low into a swift stance, Shanks condensed his immense aura into a sharp point. In the next microsecond, he vanished into a blur of residual shadows, reappearing directly before Admiral Ryokugyu. His sword carved a series of lightning-fast arcs through the air, sending waves of flying slash energy surging across the field.

The gargantuan vines that had encircled the entire battlefield were severed inch by inch, exploding into pulverized wooden debris within a fraction of a heartbeat.

ROAR... KABOOM!

A fierce gale howled across the battlements, whipping through Shanks' crimson hair.

Directly flanking his position, Supreme Commander Dragon collided violently with Admiral Fujitora. A wild tempest erupted around them, casting violent shockwaves across the entire plaza.

BANG!

Dragon breached Fujitora's defensive sphere, converting his frame into a high-velocity streak of green light that slammed flush against the Admiral's chest.

"Gagh...!" Fujitora was sent flying back hundreds of meters, a trail of fresh crimson leaking from the corner of his lips.

The battlefield shifted in a microsecond! The two Admirals who had been tasked with locking down the field found their lines breached simultaneously, as both Dragon and Shanks bypassed their primary opponents to deliver crushing blows to the Marines' defensive anchors!

It was a tactical shift no strategist on the field had anticipated.

After all, those were two Marine Admirals!

Deep within the subterranean chamber, Im—who had been resting with his eyes closed—abruptly snapped his gold pupils open. A subtle flicker of surprise registered in his gaze as he evaluated Dragon and Shanks on the screen. Yet it was merely a fleeting flicker; a second later, he closed his eyes once more.

Beside him, Aokiji looked on in profound shock. Even through the translucent projection screen, he could clearly register the overwhelming, domineering pressure radiating from those two figures.

Pure, unadulterated dominance!

Down at the absolute base of the Red Line, a sudden, brilliant flash of golden light illuminated the coastline, instantly drawing the focus of both the Big Mom Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates who were locked in open combat.

As the blinding radiance receded, a solitary figure materialized along the crest of a jagged sea rock protruding from the waves.

"Marine Admiral... KIZARU!!"

Every pair of eyes down on the shoreline snapped wide to absolute circles. The individual stepping onto the field was none other than Borsalino—the Marine Admiral who had been at the absolute center of global rumors and controversy!