Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

"We choose to surrender."

Katakuri said, his voice dry and strained.

A three-meter-tall man knelt on the ground, his spine ramrod straight.

"Please forgive my mother and the lives of my family."

His voice was trembling.

It was a very slight tremor, like the slight tremor of a rice cake about to break when it's stretched to its limit.

Its fangs were exposed, and it was now biting its lower lip so hard that it drew blood.

The new naval soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment.

Cracker stood three steps away, his body inside the biscuit armor frozen in place.

He looked at his brother's back.

The man who had never let his back touch the ground was now kneeling on the road where the icing had crumbled.

His back was still straight, but he was kneeling.

"elder brother......"

The sound of the cracker was squeezed out from between his teeth.

The biscuit armor was trembling, not from fear, but from anger.

"What are you doing!"

Katakuri didn't turn around.

"Cracker"

Cracker ripped off the biscuit soldier's helmet, revealing a distorted face.

"Why are you kneeling!"

The rice cake rose from the ground and silently wrapped around the cracker's ankle.

"Don't touch me!" Cracker kicked the mochi to pieces, took two steps back, and pointed at Katakuri.

"You're not Katakuri! My brother doesn't kneel! My brother never..."

He choked up.

Katakuri never retreats.

Cracker grew up watching his older brother's back.

That back looked like a wall, blocking all danger.

When the old woman went berserk, Katakuri stood in front of her.

When the enemy attacked, Katakuri was always at the forefront.

Katakuri would take the punishment for his younger siblings when they made mistakes.

That figure never bends over.

But now he was kneeling at Shen Jue's feet.

Cracker's hand fell down.

With a ripping sound, the biscuit armor was peeled off his body.

Layer by layer, like peeling an onion.

The man standing at the very back was two sizes smaller than the armor.

"I don't understand." Cracker said, head down, shoulders trembling.

"Didn't you say you never let your back touch the ground...?"

Katakuri remained silent for a moment.

"Cracker," he finally spoke, his voice steadyer.

"Look over there."

He pointed in the direction of the residential area.

Deep within Cake Island, smoke rises from the chimneys of thirty-nine small houses.

"Angel is eight years old this year."

Cracker's breathing paused for a moment.

Katakuri turned his head and looked at Cracker.

Those eyes, which could see into the future, were bloodshot.

"I saw it."

"I can't win, and neither can Mom." He paused.

"Marshal Shen Jue didn't care about the pirates' deaths and injuries on this island."

"Angre will die in the aftermath of the battle."

Cracker's lips were trembling.

"But......"

"No buts," Katakuri interrupted him.

"My current identity is your older brother, not some arrogant and stubborn pirate!"

Katakuri turned back, his forehead touching the ground again.

"Your brother's responsibility is to keep you alive."

Cracker stood still, motionless.

The wind swept across the coast, and the frosting on the biscuit soldiers fluttered in the wind like a silent snowfall.

Then he knelt down as well.

His knee slammed into the frosted pavement, creating two cracks.

Cracker knelt behind Katakuri, head bowed, tears falling to the ground.

"sorry."

His voice was muffled in his throat.

"I'm sorry, brother."

Katakuri didn't turn around, but his back trembled slightly.

Silence enveloped the coast.

Seeing the brotherhood and the unwavering devotion to family before him, Shen Jue looked regretful.

"Why is someone so loyal and sentimental a pirate?"

"What a pity."

Then a strange scream shattered the silence.

"Wedding cake!!!"

The sky cracked open.

This is not a metaphor; the sky really did crack open.

A black and red aura of domineering power exploded from the top of Cake City, tearing the clouds in two and shattering the sunlight into countless blades that rained down.

The ground is bouncing.

The Homies were thrown out of the windows of Cake City.

The chessboard soldiers, playing card guards, and teacup maids screamed and disintegrated in mid-air.

The smiley faces on the wall twisted into crying faces, and syrup gushed from the cracks like ruptured arteries.

The main entrance to the cake shop was blown up.

The door panel tumbled through the air and crashed into the biscuit soldier formation.

The blast of air threw him to the side, and a cookie shard nearly cut his face.

Then she came out.

That's Charlotte Linlin.

Her hair was loose like seaweed, and syrupy saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth.

His clothes were stained with cream and blood, and he was barefoot, leaving half-meter-deep footprints with every step.

The giant sword Napoleon twisted and deformed in her hand, its blade crawling with black and red lightning.

Overwhelming Haki swirled around him.

Her pupils shrank to pinpoints, and the whites of her eyes were bloodshot, swirling wildly in their sockets.

Charlotte Linlin's instincts told her to seek out the call she felt before she did.

She was looking for that thing with a special aura on the sea.

"who!!!"

The sound ripped through the clouds in the sky.

Katakuri remained kneeling.

Cracker was pressed to the ground by the blast wave, his hands gripping the ground tightly.

"Who is it?!"

"I'm so hungry!!!"

"Mother!"

Charlotte Lingling noticed the new navy group.

And Katakuri and Cracker kneeling.

Her gaze, however, was fixed on the three-meter-tall man on the beach, wearing a new naval admiral's coat.

That's Shen Jue.

"you!!!"

Charlotte Linlin lifted up Homie Napoleon.

Napoleon transformed into a scimitar far larger than an old woman.

The blade swelled, and black and red lightning crackled and exploded.

The ground beneath her feet cracked, the clouds above her head swirled, and a powerful burst of Conqueror's Haki exploded in the sky above the beach, distorting the air into ripples.

Shen Jue remained completely still.

He looked at BIG MOM charging towards him with a calm expression, his brows not furrowed, his breathing not disordered, and he didn't even raise his hands from his sides.

He just tilted his head.

"this one?"

BIG MOM's sword came down.

That single strike cleaved through the sea breeze, through the air, and through everything that stood in its way.

The blade, wreathed in Conqueror's Haki, burned in the sunlight, and black and red lightning spread along the blade to the ground, carving a scorched trench in the sand.

Shen Jue raised his hand.

One hand.

Armament Haki hardened from his fingertips to his entire arm, making his arm black and shiny.

There are no unnecessary movements. There are no fancy move names.

Shen Jue simply raised his hand and opened his palm.

The blade struck the palm of the hand.

"clang!!!"

Shen Jue did not shout "Iron block".