Chapter 528: Whitebeard’s Fury Unleashed

Whitebeard grabbed Blackbeard’s jaw in a vice-like grip with his right hand.

Suddenly he unleashed the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.

Blackbeard, seeing this, immediately begged for mercy. “Stop, Pops! Please, stop! I’m your son!”

Whitebeard didn’t budge in the slightest.

“Are you really going to kill me?”

With a thunderous boom, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit’s power exploded outward, the shockwave instantly blasting a massive crater into the ground.

“Aaargh!”

“Pops, that was awesome!”

“Wait, look at that guy!”

As the smoke cleared, Blackbeard was somehow standing up again.

Even after taking such a brutal attack at point-blank range, Blackbeard didn’t have a scratch on him. His physical prowess was frankly beyond human.

No wonder he’d managed to leave three scars on Shanks’ face.

“Pops, finish him—end him now!”

“He’s hanging by a thread! Finish him off, Pops!”

Whitebeard hefted Cloud Cutter and strode forward.

His left fist gathered power as he swung straight for the fallen Blackbeard.

If this punch landed, Blackbeard would be lucky to survive, let alone remain whole.

Bang!

Clang!

Blackbeard frantically fought back, drawing a golden pistol from his waist and firing several shots at Whitebeard, but every bullet was blocked by Cloud Cutter in his left hand.

“Waaah!”

Whitebeard’s brutal fist crashed into Blackbeard’s face, shattering several teeth and sending him tumbling backward like a ragdoll.

“All together! Kill him!”

Shiryu and the others rushed forward, quickly passing Blackbeard without hesitation. A hail of bullets and Shiryu’s savage blade followed.

“Teach, today you die!”

Clang!

Whitebeard whirled Cloud Cutter in a seamless defense. Not a single bullet got through. As Shiryu charged up, Whitebeard brought the blade down from above—breaking Shiryu’s sword in a single strike, leaving a deep gash across his chest.

Shiryu dropped to one knee, still stunned that his blade was shattered in one move. Before he could recover, Whitebeard kicked him with savage force, putting a massive hole in his chest. Shiryu was dead before he hit the ground.

This violent display didn’t terrify Lafitte and the others—instead it only riled their bloodlust. They kept firing their pistols without pause.

“Is this really all you’ve got, Teach?”

Jesus Burgess tried throwing his fists up to block Whitebeard’s path, but he wildly underestimated Whitebeard.

Right now Burgess wasn’t even as strong as a Navy vice admiral, not like in the original timeline after Blackbeard gave him a Devil Fruit.

Against Whitebeard in his prime, he was just a moth to the flame.

Whitebeard didn’t even hesitate—his left hand shot out, flattening Burgess’s head in an instant, sending him to the afterlife before he even knew what hit him.

“Marasaka! Run!”

Lafitte was sharp enough to realize the danger. After losing two comrades—one to a kick, one to a punch—Whitebeard’s power was far more terrifying than they had imagined. Charging forward now would just mean dying for nothing.

But even if they wanted to run, that depended on whether Whitebeard would let them.

Avalo Pizarro was just about to use his Island-Island Fruit power to move underground and evacuate the others, but Whitebeard’s keen eyes caught his actions immediately.

“Devil Fruit powers, huh?”

With a burst of strength, Whitebeard hurled Cloud Cutter. The blade shot like lightning through Pizarro’s chest, pinning him firmly to the ground.

“Ugh… I…”

Avalo Pizarro didn’t even finish his sentence before his hands dropped uselessly at his sides.

Vasco Shot, at the front of the group, saw Whitebeard without a weapon and, for some reason, decided to charge.

Firing both pistols at once, he tried to use his Devil Fruit power to ambush the unarmed Whitebeard.

But Whitebeard was no ordinary man. He’d fought in dozens of battles, many far more brutal than today. To sneak up on him on a battlefield like this? Impossible—unless he was already down for the count.

Bang!

As Shot rushed up, Whitebeard drew power into both hands and smashed them together. In a flash, Vasco Shot’s body exploded, spraying red like tomato juice everywhere.

Catarina Devon realized things had gone south. She darted behind Blackbeard, looking for a chance to escape.

Van Augur, Avalo Pizarro, and Lafitte had already retreated to the shelter behind Blackbeard.

“So, Teach, these are the crew you recruited?”

“They couldn’t even put up a fight.”

“Pops, let me go. I swear I’ll never lay a hand on any Whitebeard pirate again.”

Blackbeard knew exactly where Whitebeard’s weakness lay. The old man was, after all, not young anymore.

If Whitebeard died, his pirate crew might not unravel immediately, but they wouldn’t last long. All Blackbeard needed to do was wait, and Whitebeard would be lost to history soon enough.

If he could get Whitebeard to promise, maybe some of the crewmates could survive.

“Of all people, your word is the least trustworthy, Teach!”

Whitebeard didn’t fall for it. And anyway, thanks to the Pure Gold he’d used, he’d live for decades—possibly centuries—more. Blackbeard’s threats meant nothing.

Not only did that threat fail, it made Whitebeard realize letting Blackbeard go would be a disaster. The Whitebeard Pirates would never be free from Blackbeard’s ambushes.

“Pops, no, don’t, please don’t!”

Blackbeard struggled desperately, but mortally wounded as he was, he couldn’t even get up. Whitebeard had already retrieved Cloud Cutter and pressed its tip to Blackbeard’s chest.

“Thatch, Pops has avenged you.”

“No, don’t, Pops! Please!”

Squish!

With a crisp sound, Cloud Cutter plunged through Blackbeard’s chest in the middle of his pleading.

To be sure, Whitebeard twisted the blade inside, pulled it out, and lopped off Blackbeard’s head for good measure. Even if he had nine lives, he wasn’t coming back from that.

Rumble!

Just as Whitebeard finished, a deep rumbling shook the ice at the harbor—jagged ice chunks thrust up by some terrible force.

As everyone in the Whitebeard Pirates stared in shock, a wall of darkness began to rise at astonishing speed.

“What the…?”

“If none of you want to leave, then none of you will.”

Now that things had settled, Sengoku stepped forward.

He didn’t know why these pirates hadn’t escaped right away, but it didn’t matter—the Navy’s plan would roll on.

Armed and ready, the Navy unleashed a barrage of cannonfire at the wall. Pirates trying to escape toward the wall were immediately caught in a storm of explosions.

“Marco, why haven’t you started evacuating everyone?”

Whitebeard felt both angry and proud inside.

He understood these kids wanted to help and take him with them, but their hesitation was putting the whole Whitebeard Pirates in even more danger.

“Pops, we just wanted to…”

Boom!

Before Marco could finish, a blazing fireball punched a round hole through the newly risen wall, smashing straight through the front of Navy Headquarters.