Chapter 320: Total Annihilation of the Legendary Four Brothers?

"Take a look at their condition. I think you'll understand everything," the System said abruptly.

Drake shifted his gaze down toward Luffy and the others. All three were lying inside a massive crater, their clothes torn to shreds and drenched in crimson blood.

Empress Boa Hancock knelt before Luffy, clutching his limp hand tightly while whispering through tears that traced glistening lines down her cheeks.

Around Ace and Sabo, dense crowds had gathered as well, with Yamato and Koala leaning over them anxiously.

Just then, Weitian rushed onto the scene. She channeled soothing flames over the three fallen fighters while exchanging hurried words with Hancock and the others.

Drake wasn't sure if it was a trick of his eyes, but he saw Weitian, Hancock, and Yamato speaking animatedly, relief and pleasant surprise washing over their expressions.

"System, did they know each other before? Since when are they on such good terms?" Drake asked after a moment of hesitation.

"No, they met for the very first time about ten or fifteen minutes ago. However, they infiltrated the Celestial Dragons' quarters together to retrieve the treasure currently in your hands."

"They... went together to get this...?" Drake looked down at the sack of jewels, his expression turning solemn. His last clear memory was ordering Ace, Sabo, and Luffy to plug the breaches in the barrier.

After that, his consciousness had completely blacked out.

He didn't even know when Buggy had shown up.

"By the way, System, what was Buggy doing there...?"

"Oh, him? Thanks to him, your little wife and those women managed to locate the treasure in the first place. His sole objective in coming here was likely looting riches."

"During all the chaotic fighting, he had been hiding inside the Celestial Dragons' palace."

"When the three of them lost their bearings in the darkness, Buggy's sudden appearance resolved the whole treasure issue in one stroke."

The System explained the events matter-of-factly.

And that was precisely what had happened: Weitian and the others had coordinated in the pitch-black gloom, but locating the World Nobles' sanctuary proved nearly impossible while black laser beams continuously bombarded the plateau.

Just as their stamina was pushed to the limit, Buggy's frantic shrieking echoed through the ruins, leading them straight to the Celestial Dragons' vault.

"I see... so that's how it went..." Drake murmured in understanding, before suddenly freezing as the phrasing caught up to him. His face twisted in shock. "Wait, what did you just call her?! Little wife?!"

"That Weitian girl, obviously," the System replied as if stating the most natural fact in the universe.

"I..." Drake stood completely speech-bound.

Down on the battlefield, chaos reigned. Though active clashes had halted, the harrowing spectacle moments prior had terrified every soul present.

Those seemingly unassuming, razor-thin black filaments had carved apocalyptic craters into the bedrock wherever they touched down.

Anyone struck directly by those beams would have faced certain death.

Yet at that very precipice, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had stepped forward. Under the watchful eyes of the entire assembly, the three figures had intercepted beam after beam at speeds invisible to the naked eye.

In the final moments, they had poured every drop of their remaining strength into neutralizing the bombardment, leaving them in their current battered state.

"Were the Legendary Four Brothers... defeated?" someone in the crowd whispered shakily.

"They saved us! If not for them, every single one of us would be dead!"

"Damn it all!"

Shock and horror gripped the assembly—some shaken by the apocalyptic destruction, some mourning the fallen brothers, and others trembling for the safety of their comrades in the moments to come.

"Just who is that person in the sky?! How could anyone command such godlike power?!"

No one answered, for no one possessed the answer.

"Without the Legendary Four Brothers, even with Fleet Admiral Weitian and Leader Dragon leading us, I'm afraid..." The Neo-Marines and the Revolutionary Army shared the exact same dread.

The combat strength of the four brothers had already surpassed the Admiral tier. If even they had fallen into such a state, real hope was rapidly slipping away.

That sight had shaken not only the allied forces, but left the Five Elders and Fleet Admiral Akainu utterly stunned as well.

Akainu was grievously injured with zero capacity to continue fighting, his strength a shadow of its peak.

To subdue him, Kenshin alone was more than enough.

The Five Elders were firmly restrained as well—the once-supreme rulers of the World Government reduced to lambs awaiting slaughter.

Yet if anyone on the field was most shaken, it was undeniably the Five Elders. First, the colossal energy barrier had held off Lord Im's Sky-Burying Dark Tempest.

Then, Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had used their bare flesh to withstand the dark barrage, shattering every baseline assumption the Elders held.

Impossible feats kept unfolding one after another. Fortunately, it seemed everything was finally drawing to a close.

With the Legendary Four Brothers down, the curtains were falling. Lord Im would slaughter every rebel on this plateau, and the World Government would begin anew.

"Everything ends here!"

Shanks, Beckman, Kaido, Big Mom, Garp, Sengoku, Kong, and Dragon—the figures who had once stood at the absolute zenith of the world—all raised their heads toward the Demon Warder hovering high in the firmament.

They knew one of the Legendary Four Brothers remained standing!

That man was the absolute pivot of this entire war.

Unlike the Five Elders, they recognized that as long as even a single brother remained, hope was far from extinguished.

Having clashed with Im personally, Dragon understood her terrifying depth better than anyone. If Drake fell here, even if every fighter on the plaza banded together in unified defiance, they would stand zero chance.

The disparity was not one of mere numbers, but an insurmountable, fundamental chasm in power.

Just then, under the astonished gazes of the crowd, the colossal entity that had hovered motionless in the sky suddenly stirred.

In its combat configuration, the Demon Warder squared its massive shoulders and thrust its chest forward. A sovereign aura swept across the heavens as blinding radiance erupted from its optical array, kicking up towering shockwaves of compressed air.

"What is that?!"

At that exact moment, countless silhouettes ascended the sheer cliffside of the Red Line.

The Whitebeard Pirates!

The Red Hair Pirates!

The Big Mom Pirates!

The Straw Hat Grand Fleet!

In an instant, the high-ranking echelons of every major faction converged upon the plaza of the Holy Land.

Save for the World Government's loyalist Navy.

Down below, the fleet of warships sent to reinforce the World Government had been utterly obliterated, leaving behind only fractured debris drifting across the rolling waves.

A lone Marine officer surfaced from the water, gasping violently for air.

"No! I have to deliver this intel immediately—disaster has struck!" The officer swam frantically toward the base of the Red Line, panic etched into his face.

Bizarrely, the Revolutionary Army divisions previously stationed below had vanished entirely, as though they had never existed at all.

"Drake-senpai! You have to avenge Luffy-senpai!" Bartolomeo bawled, tears streaming down his cheeks the moment he learned of Luffy's condition. "To hurt Luffy-senpai like this... it's absolutely unforgivable!"

The captains of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet wore grim, dark expressions.

Beside them, the commanders of the Revolutionary Army and the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates stood in heavy silence.

ROAR... KABOOM!

High in the sky, the Demon Warder seemed to unleash an ocean of pent-up fury. Its aura surged exponentially, unleashing wave after wave of concussive shockwaves that cascaded downward to rattle the bedrock below.

"Ah..."

Bartolomeo's jaw dropped in sheer awe as the entire assembly looked on in stunned silence.

"That's Drake-senpai's rage! It has to be! With his brothers beaten half to death, how could Drake-senpai stay calm?! He's going all out!"

"Spatial... SEVERANCE!"

A thunderous roar tore through the heavens. In the next heartbeat, the massive arm of the Demon Warder swept across the sky, tracing a clean horizontal rift through the atmosphere.

The entire domain enveloped in dark fog was severed in a single stroke, the sky churning violently as the friction of tearing space screamed across the firmament.