I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

Fujitora looked up, drew his sword, and slashed through the air. A faint purple ripple spread out, and the rocky sky island that had fallen from the sky was brought to a stop in mid-air.

Golden Lion then looked at Fujitora properly, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes.

The Gravity Fruit and the Float-Float Fruit are similar in that they both possess the ability to make objects weightless.

At this moment, the two sides are fighting each other from a distance using their respective Devil Fruit abilities. The rocky sky island is being pulled by the two forces and is shaking violently, but it has reached a stalemate and has not fallen yet.

...........

"The Golden Lion is here too?"

Whitebeard leaned on his naginata, took a breath, and glanced at the golden lion in the sky.

Fujitora's gravity manipulation techniques had a significant impact on this seriously ill old man.

He was seriously ill and in poor health, so he was the focus of Blackbeard and the Navy's attention. He was the person who was attacked the most on this battlefield, even more so than Roger.

Let alone him now, even a young man like Whitebeard would probably have difficulty dealing with so many attacks at the same time.

At this point, his body was covered with large and small knife wounds, gunshot wounds, and artillery wounds, with almost no intact skin left.

Even after Fujitora left, his condition did not improve much.

"That's right! All the important figures from your era are here!"

Blackbeard was enveloped in vast swirling darkness, like flames, as he relentlessly unleashed punches, never ceasing his assault on Whitebeard.

"But only you get old, white-bearded man!"

Blackbeard pointed at the golden lion in the sky and grinned:

"The Golden Lion can summon a sky island to fall with a flick of his wrist; his power and strength are as formidable as ever."

"And Roger, Sieg... these great figures of your time have all shone brightly on their respective battlefields. Even Sengoku the Buddha, who was just defeated, has shown strength that is no less than that of a young man."

"Only you!"

Blackbeard looked at Whitebeard before him, his eyes filled with deep darkness, and suddenly a surge of anger rose within him:

"Only when you get old and weak will you no longer be the strongest in the world."

When Whitebeard struggled to raise his fist, a ball of light shimmering on it, and threw a punch, Blackbeard neither dodged nor parried.

"Dark water!"

A burst of darkness erupted from Blackbeard's fist, completely absorbing the ball of light containing the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit in Whitebeard's hand. Then, Blackbeard delivered a heavy punch to Whitebeard's chest and abdomen, causing the old man to vomit blood again and bend over.

Blackbeard finally felt relieved and burst into laughter.

In order to kill Whitebeard as soon as possible, he used a strategy of trading blows to wear down the heavily injured Whitebeard. At this time, the Blackbeard Pirates were also seriously injured.

But now that the Dark Water has appeared, Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit power has been temporarily taken away.

Already plagued by illness and severely injured, Whitebeard had his Devil Fruit powers stolen, leaving him with virtually no power to resist Blackbeard and his crew.

"White beard!"

"You, who only care about your own little family and are already seriously ill and frail, do not deserve the title of the world's strongest!"

The blackness surrounding Blackbeard grew increasingly intense as he gathered his power, preparing to deliver the final blow to Whitebeard as he lost his strength.

"Whitebeard, your era has ended!"

has it ended?

Whitebeard half-opened his eyes, looking at Blackbeard Teach in front of him, then glancing at his sons, Ace and the others, who had escaped and were retreating in the distance.

At this moment, memories of Whitebeard's long life flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.

From his early days as an orphan, to becoming a pirate on Rocks' ship, and then building his own family with more and more sons, his family has grown to thousands.

"It has been a long journey..." Whitebeard murmured, slightly dazed.

"My era? That kind of thing, let it end when it's over..." he said slowly, his tone calm.

“You…” Blackbeard was slightly taken aback. Hearing these words from Whitebeard, his brows furrowed involuntarily.

The era of Whitebeard?

Whitebeard himself never cared about these things... He never cared about the things Blackbeard was always pursuing.

The world's strongest man? One of the Four Emperors? The king of the sea who achieved hegemony by standing before the throne?

These are merely opinions imposed on him by the world.

From the very beginning, all he cared about was his extended family.

He's just a protective father who has worked his way up to where he is now to protect his hometown and his sons.

But he is very tired now.

Ace has been rescued, and his long-cherished wish has been fulfilled. It's unlikely that Sig and Roger will stand idly by.

Whitebeard gripped his naginata tightly, panting heavily. A sharp, stabbing pain shot through his lungs, and even his vision began to blur.

He was barely mustering his last bit of strength, trying to make one last effort to protect his sons one last time—even if the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit was temporarily taken away, he would still have his own power!

"I am a remnant of the old era—"

"Enough!" Blackbeard interrupted Whitebeard's last words with a sharp shout:

"How ugly, Whitebeard."

"You, who have no ambition for supremacy, actually possess such a powerful ability as the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, what a waste!"

"What a waste!"

A surge of intense darkness suddenly erupted from Blackbeard's body.

"From this day forward, this is my era!"

The pitch-black darkness surged like a tidal wave, a profound darkness that could devour even light. In the instant before the slow-moving Whitebeard could swing his sword, it completely engulfed him!

"Dad..."

"Dad!"

The white-bearded man was in a daze as he heard his sons' heart-wrenching cries, feeling as if the sounds were very distant.

Has it failed?

Blackbeard didn't give him a chance to say his last words; he was swallowed up by darkness before he could unleash his final blow.

At this moment, his entire white-bearded body was shrouded in darkness, and he could no longer see anything...

Is this what death is?

But for some reason... he didn't feel the expected pain.

In the boundless darkness, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Whitebeard, you can't rest yet."

The white-bearded man suddenly opened his eyes.

The boundless darkness suddenly receded slightly, and a small patch of light appeared in his vision—a familiar figure.

Surrounding Whitebeard, a dense darkness burned like a raging inferno, slightly different from the pitch-black darkness created by Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit. These strange, jet-black flames did not harm Whitebeard's body; it was almost like a special effect.

"Is this the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit? How strange..."

Whitebeard was somewhat disoriented.

Before he could speak, he saw a wine bottle appear in Sieg's hand. The bottle cracked open by an invisible force, and a strange, pale purple flame floated out and touched his body.

This is Ain's Rewinding Flame, capable of rewinding Whitebeard's body back 12 years. If it were to rewind even further, the changes would be too drastic, especially since Ain, the user of the Rewind-Rewind Fruit, is still on this battlefield.

This could not alleviate his pain and injuries, but it could restore Whitebeard's condition.

If Whitebeard were to return to his youth, like Roger during his terminal illness, although he wouldn't be able to overcome his disease, his condition would be much better, and he would still be able to exert his power.

"Crocas, Law, it's up to you two now." Whitebeard vaguely heard Sigurd's voice continue reading:

"You have five minutes to perform emergency surgery on Whitebeard."

"I will temporarily hold off Blackbeard and the Navy's attack."

In the chaotic battlefield of Marineford, performing a five-minute emergency surgery is unrealistic for a doctor like Crocus, who has no Devil Fruit powers.

Even disregarding stray bullets, with such a noisy environment and the naval attack, a doctor could easily accidentally plunge a scalpel into a patient's internal organ with a slight tremor.

But it's different for Law, the user of the Op-Op Fruit.

He can perform non-invasive dissections on patients and remove an enemy's heart in a second, and with Crocus assisting him, it's not impossible.

Even if Luo Zhen's hand trembled and he accidentally stabbed an internal organ, there was no damage.

............

"What's going on? What is that thing...?"

Blackbeard's expression visibly darkened.

A few meters in front of him, the location where Whitebeard stood was already shrouded in a wall of pitch-black flames, isolating him from the outside world.

The flames were jet black, and their shape resembled the darkness created by the Dark-Dark Fruit, but Blackbeard knew that this was not his power.

Then, he heard Sieg's voice from the darkness, and his expression changed drastically.

The raging dark flames subsided slightly, and a figure emerged from them.

Sig took a roll of white cloth from his inventory, and with a flick of his wrist, he used telekinesis to wrap it up in the air, completely enveloping Whitebeard, Law, and the others, forming a temporary operating room.

Telekinesis can manipulate the air to form a solid air wall, which can withstand ordinary stray bullets.

"Sig... how is Dad?"

Marco flapped his wings and landed beside Sieg, asking anxiously.

In this battle, the Navy had the advantage in numbers, and Marco was repeatedly beaten by several admirals, and was unable to stay by Whitebeard's side the whole time.

Sieg briefly explained a few words, then began to speak:

"You've come at the right time. We need to buy at least five minutes... You'll protect the operating room."

Sig looked towards the Blackbeard Pirates, whose faces were ashen in the distance. Admiral Akainu, who arrived a step later than him, and the rest of the Marines spoke up.

“…I understand.” Marco nodded.