"Yes!"
"Rear Admiral!"
The roars of fifty elite Marines pierced the sky, echoing across the deck of the Fearless long afterward.
Ryan and Bakel straightened their backs. As they watched Lorne's retreating figure, something called "faith" joined the reverence in their eyes.
The warship cut through the waves, speeding toward Marineford.
Meanwhile, atop the Red Line, in the Social Plaza of the Holy Land, Mary Geoise, the chaos had only just begun.
"Help!"
"Someone, save Saint Charlos!"
"A doctor!"
"Get a doctor here, quickly!"
Dozens of guards scrambled toward the fountain pool and lifted Saint Charlos, his face covered in blood and already deep in a coma, onto a stretcher.
The surrounding kings fell silent with fear. As they looked at the deep crater Lorne had stomped into the ground, every one of their hearts pounded wildly.
"The sky is falling..."
An elderly king supported himself against a stone pillar, his voice trembling badly.
"Publicly executing government agents in the Holy Land, gravely injuring a Celestial Dragon... how dared that Marine rear admiral do such a thing?"
King Stelly of the Goa Kingdom hid at the very back of the crowd. He stared fixedly in the direction Lorne had left, his eyes filled with jealousy and venom.
"Madman!"
"He's dead!"
"The Five Elders will never let him get away with this!"
At that moment, in the Room of Authority deep within Pangaea Castle.
The atmosphere here was a hundred times more oppressive than in the plaza outside.
Bang!
The heavy golden doors were slammed open by an enormous force.
Dozens of Celestial Dragons in lavish formal attire and bubble helmets pushed past the guards at the entrance and stormed into the office that symbolized the highest authority in the world.
"Saint Nusjuro!"
"Saint Saturn!"
At their head was Saint Rosward,