Summary:
Luffy breaks down due to the emotional trauma of Ace’s death, causing Jinbe to take him away. The Whitebeard Pirates and their allies then swear to protect him. Enraged, Whitebeard battles Akainu, his torso impaled again, but still defeats the Logie user as he begins to destroy Marineford; divide the land between him and his sons. Surprisingly, the Blackbeard Pirates appear in Marineford with their new crew members. Everyone stares in shock at the supposed prisoners of Impel Down’s Level 6, while Blackbeard states that he is glad he arrived in time to witness Whitebeard’s death.
Ace gave one last smile and died, falling out of his brother’s arms as the last fragment of his living card burned away. Luffy remembered Ace punching him in the head in the past for crying when he thought Ace was dead, after which Ace promised he wouldn’t die and leave his weak little brother alone. Now back in the present, kneeling by his brother’s body, Luffy raised his head and howled in soulless grief.
The Whitebeard Pirates as well as all of Sabaody are shocked by Ace’s death. Luffy remains calm and unresponsive when Ivankov calls out to him – seeing that all the damage Luffy took has taken its toll, Iva assumes Luffy’s shock has caused him to collapse. Akainu takes the opportunity to try to kill Luffy again, but Marco holds him back and yells at Jinbe to take Luffy away.
Before Akainu could chase after Luffy to finish him off as well, Whitebeard appeared behind him and knocked Akainu to the ground, injuring him greatly. Akainu retaliated and burned off part of Whitebeard’s head. In the anime, Akainu only burns off half of Whitebeard’s mustache with one attack and pierces his torso with another, heavier attack. Surprisingly, this didn’t faze Whitebeard, who tossed Akai aside, injuring him further, and in the process caused an earthquake that destroyed the Marine HQ base and split the square in half. This act separated the marines and pirates and isolated Whitebeard with the marines. Sengoku is amazed that Whitebeard still had so much power, while Whitebeard stated that he was not done yet.
Meanwhile, the pirates retreated to their ships. Amidst the chaos, the Marines noticed a shadow behind the destroyed Marine Corps Headquarters building, which turned out to be a giant. He wasn’t alone; they noticed other figures on the scaffolding of the building. Doflamingo laughed while Whitebeard and Sengoku were less than pleased to see Blackbeard and his band of pirates which now included several new crew members recruited from Level 6 Impel Down. Blackbeard laughed as he looked down at Whitebeard and remarked that he was glad he made it in time to see Whitebeard die. Sengoku and Blackbeard exchanged words and Blackbeard explained how he used the Shichibukai title to get what he wanted, which was to break into Impel Down and free the 6th level prisoners: Sanjuan Wolf, Avalo Pizarro, Vasco Shot, Shiryu, and Devon Catarina .