"Stop!"
A furious shout rang out from beyond the doors like a great bell, making the rubble inside the hall tremble slightly.
Jinbe, a broad-bodied fish-man clad in a blue haori, strode inside.
The moment Jinbe entered the hall, the sight before him shocked him.
Countless cracks split the hall's floor, and more than half the surrounding stone pillars had broken, leaving a scene of devastation.
Even more shocking were the thousands of fish-man thugs lying packed together in the square outside Ryugu Palace.
Their eyes had all rolled back, and foam spilled from their mouths. They had clearly lost consciousness.
"Are these the traces of Conqueror's Haki?"
As Jinbe looked at his unconscious kin strewn across the ground, his expression turned extremely grim.
He could clearly sense the lingering force of an incredibly savage Haki in the air, imbued with a destructive will.
"Are you Rear Admiral Lorne, the Marines' 'Sett'?"
Jinbe drew a deep breath, suppressed his shock, and fixed his gaze on Lorne.
"I am."
Lorne watched Jinbe approach, his hands in his pockets and his expression perfectly calm.
"Jinbe, you're finally here!"
The sight of Jinbe was like the arrival of a savior to Neptune, who hurriedly scrambled up from the floor.
"Your Majesty Neptune, what exactly happened here?"
Jinbe looked at Neptune and asked in a deep voice.
"It was that madman Hody Jones. He brought the people from the Fish-Man District to surround Ryugu Palace. He wanted to overthrow our rule and kill all the humans here."
Neptune wiped the cold sweat from his forehead as he explained, still shaken.
After hearing him out, Jinbe knitted his brows tightly and turned toward Hody Jones, who lay among the ruins, his fate unknown.
"Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous!"
Jinbe rebuked him in anguished fury, then turned his