A few white clouds drifted across the sky as several seabirds fled over the water in a panic, flying toward the far horizon. The source of their fear lay below: countless warships, each as large as a small island, belching black smoke across the vast sea.
The warships gathered like dark clouds before a storm and advanced slowly in a triangular formation toward a perfectly round island.
They stopped under orders when they were about ten nautical miles away and anchored at sea.
"Something's wrong..."
The Marines weren't the only ones who felt it. Everyone watching the live broadcast of the war sensed it too.
The reason was simple: the sea was far too quiet. There was none of the tension that should have preceded a great battle.
It was as though the people on the massive island called Golden Crow had no reaction at all to the arrival of their enemies.
As the image drew closer, everyone noticed just how barren the island looked, like a desert wasteland. Apart from a huge statue of a strange three-legged bird that none of them had ever seen before, towering at its center, and stone roads stretching from one end of the island to the other, there seemed to be nothing there.
"Did the Sky Pirate Crew run away?"
That was what everyone who saw it thought.
It seemed only natural.
Faced with such a terrifying Marine force, fleeing would have been the sensible choice.
Yet for some reason, many of them felt a twinge of disappointment.
The Marines, however, had more to consider.
Looking through his binoculars at the empty island laid bare before him, Sengoku felt a sudden unease.
Have we fallen into a trap?
That was his first thought. He turned to Hammond beside him and asked,
"What's going