The pirates sat and forgot, and they really believed the nine truths and one lie.

Chapter 1710 Marineford Under the Moon

Whether they were pirates or marines, at this moment they all raised their heads and looked up at the night sky filled with the sound of drums.

Beneath the bright moon hanging high in the sky, a pure white figure, seemingly freed from the constraints of gravity, danced joyfully in the moonlight.

The passionate, vibrant drumbeats of freedom emanating from his heart resounded clearly and powerfully throughout every corner of the Marineford battlefield.

Nika's laughter, mixed with the drumbeats, echoed throughout the area: "Hahahaha... Grandpa's back!"

There was no fear or tension in that laughter, only pure joy and boundless anticipation for the upcoming battle.

Luffy craned his neck from the sky, his eyes, narrowed into crescent moons with a smile, quickly searching for his grandfather's figure.

Where is Grandpa?

His gaze swept over the fierce fighting on the front lines, but he didn't see Garp.

His gaze shifted to the rear of the battlefield, to an area where the atmosphere was even more eerie, with explosions and collisions echoing everywhere.

"So Grandpa was there!"

At this moment, a disheveled figure appeared beside Luffy.

Despite managing to construct a defense using magnetism during the devastating lightning and fire explosion, Kidd was still covered in dust and grime.

His ears were ringing from the intense sound waves, but the injury was negligible.

Luffy pointed excitedly towards the distance behind him, "Kid, that man-eating monster you're looking for seems to be fighting my grandpa!"

Following the direction of his finger, even from a distance, one could vaguely see a monster, not human-shaped, covered in dark red biological armor, with huge fleshy wings on its back and a ferocious tail trailing behind it, fighting against an old man with white hair.

The monster's appearance was nothing like that of a typical Zoan-type Devil Fruit user. The aura emanating from it was full of violence and madness, which was highly suspicious.

Kidd had never seen Zephyr in his full form, but he would never forget his distinctive armor.

It was this man-eating monster who attacked him that night!

Under the cover of night, he ruthlessly killed off his brothers in the Kid Pirates, who had followed him to sea, trusted him, and fought alongside him!

The flames of hatred instantly ignited in Kidd's eyes.

"Yes, that's him!"

Kidd's voice trembled with extreme anger, "I will avenge my brothers who went to sea..."

"Then I'll give you a ride," Luffy chuckled, and before Kid could finish speaking, he suddenly grabbed Kid's back with his right hand.

The next moment, an immense force, completely unlike anything a human could possess, erupted from Luffy's arm.

Kidd only felt a blur before his eyes, and he was like a cannonball thrown with all his might, violently flung away by Luffy.

"Straw Hat, you bastard—!" Kidd's curse trailed off in the air, his face contorted by the violent airflow due to the high speed of his flight.

But soon, the curses were drowned out by the howling wind, and his eyes were quickly filled with the burning fire of hatred.

His target is Zephyr!

Other naval forces don't matter!

If any other navy personnel dare to obstruct him, he wouldn't mind fighting them all!

Luffy watched as Kid, whom he had flung away, turned into a tiny black dot and quickly approached the battlefield behind him. He scratched the back of his head and thought, "I think I used a little too much force, but it doesn't matter!"

His gaze returned to the figure kneeling on the execution platform below, looking up at him—his sworn brother, Portgas D. Ace.

Ace looked up at his beloved younger brother, who was dancing joyfully under the moon like a god high in the sky, and at the dazzling white cloud of flames behind him. Tears welled up in his eyes again uncontrollably.

But this time, it's not sadness or despair.

It was an indescribable sense of relief and pride, along with a complex sense of shame, that Luffy had grown to this point.

As the older brother, I'm genuinely happy for him that he's been surpassed by his younger brother.

On the other side of the battlefield, Blackbeard Teach squinted at the pure white figure under the moonlight, his brows gradually furrowing.

The power of the sun god shines so brightly even under the moon.

I wonder if he will still be able to show this joy once darkness engulfs him?

"Luffy, you've become so strong on our second meeting."

Teach muttered to himself, his voice filled with complex emotions, "I really got this Dark Fruit inside me too late."

In a flash, his mind went back to his past. It hadn't been long since Teach had obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit.

For twenty years, he has been in the Whitebeard Pirates, playing the role of a kind, honest, and unassuming good-natured man.

If he had obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit earlier in his life, Teach's ambitions and achievements might have been even greater.

If the Zoan-type Mythical Zoan Fruit, Human-Human Fruit, Nika Mode, could merge with its own darkness to obtain a Mythical Zoan fruit stronger than the Great Buddha Fruit, would it become even stronger when it is in a trinity?

Teach's mind raced as he considered the problem. Although his Dark-Dark Fruit ability was powerful, his physical body was very weak.

If he were to get close to those monsters that refine their bodies, he wouldn't gain much advantage in the short term. He desperately needed a powerful mythical beast fruit to enhance his physical attributes.

Seeing how active Nika was around Luffy, Teach sighed. One wrong step led to another.

When he encountered the Straw Hat Pirates on Drum Island, if he had captured the Straw Hats cleanly and efficiently, wouldn't he have had a chance to steal Luffy's Nika Fruit?

Unfortunately, Blackbeard at that time lacked this "vision".

I didn't know that the Gum-Gum Fruit is actually the Nika Fruit.

If I had known that from the beginning, I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble to try and get my hands on the Buddha Fruit inside Marshal Sengoku's body.

It seems that obtaining the Buddha Fruit and the Nika Fruit is more difficult than obtaining the Buddha Fruit.

If the Blackbeard Pirates were to attack Luffy, it would only provoke the Whitebeard Pirates to target them, and the Navy would be happy to let the two pirate crews fight each other.

Thinking about it this way, the Buddha fruit is still easier to obtain.

Teach lowered his head and cast his sinister gaze once more upon the figure on the city wall, wearing a marshal's cloak and with a solemn expression—the Warring States Marshal.

The opponent hasn't used their Devil Fruit power yet, and hasn't been pushed to the most critical point.

Meanwhile, the Sengoku Fleet Admiral on the city wall was looking up, staring intently at Luffy, who was frolicking under the moon. His face was extremely grim.

"That bastard Garp, he's just creating enemies for the Navy!" Sengoku gritted his teeth, thinking that stripping his good buddy of the honorary title of 'Naval Hero' was too lenient on him.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku knew in his heart that Nika's appearance once again meant that he had stood firmly on the opposite side of the Navy.

Moreover, Nika's appearance clearly boosted the morale of the pirates, while slightly affecting the morale of the Navy.

Nika really has the ability to calm people down.

Im is such a useless piece of trash; he didn't even manage to kill his nemesis while on the back of the Founding Titan!

Sengoku had cursed Im in his mind countless times, and now he'd dumped this mess on the Navy—it was a real headache.