Chapter 573

Chapter 573 is called "I Call the Name of This Age "Whitebeard"".

Cover
Carue getting frozen along with a bear he's riding.

Quick Summary
Whitebeard uses his final strength to allow his comrades time to escape. However Ace stops when Akainu insults Whitebeard and is hit with a lethal blow when shielding Luffy.

Long Summary
Whitebeard has decided to stay behind in Marineford alone and destroy everything as well as sink the island into sea while sacrificing himself. All the pirates are trying to evacuate, while Whitebeard holds all the marines back alone. Akainu is able to provoke Ace to stay back by insulting Whitebeard. At the same time Jinbei also decides to stay back to help Whitebeard and evacuate pirates. Luffy finally loses his strength and buckles down dropping Ace's Biblicard. We then find out that Akainu's logia fruit is the natural enemy and superior to that of Ace's logia. While Luffy is down Akainu tries to finish him off, only to be stopped by Ace blocking the hit and allowing Akainu to pierce through his body instead of Luffy's. The chapter ends with Ace's Biblicard shown to burn up leaving very little intact while Luffy watches dumbstruck.

Chapter Notes

 * A commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, Blenheim, is named.
 * This chapter also revealed that there are different levels of logia that allow them to hurt each other.
 * Ace gets fatally wounded by Akainu.
 * Ace's Vivre Card is almost burnt away to nothing.

Characters
1: first introduction