The thick stench of blood churned through the hall.
Shattered stone lay scattered on either side of the steps, and the corpses of four of the Five Elders lay strewn about.
The giant black boar Saint Warcury had transformed into stood before the throne's steps, heavy blasts of hot air pouring from his nostrils.
He had watched helplessly as his four colleagues fell dead one after another, shock, fury, and panic flashing in his eyes.
"You sinners from the lower world know nothing of the world's rules."
Saint Warcury growled, a layer of glossy black keratinous armor covering his enormous boar body.
Black light flowed across the armor as it solidified, its defensive strength rivaling Seastone of the greatest hardness.
"The World Government has maintained peace for eight hundred years. It was the Celestial Dragons who gave order to these seas!"
"Without the God Clan's rule, the Four Blues would long since have been carved up by pirates and thugs!"
To maintain the Celestial Dragons' absolute authority, the Five Elders would never allow anyone to break these sacred shackles.
Once they fell, the lowborn wretches of the lower world would overthrow the World Government, and the privileges of divine rule would vanish.
Saint Warcury charged on his four thick hooves, the ground cracking inch by inch beneath his immense weight.
Two golden tusks several meters long thrust through the air, heading straight for Lorne's chest.
This was the physical strength he had accumulated over centuries, his tusks wrapped in Advanced Armament Haki.
He would smash this order-breaking madman into pulp.
Lorne stood where he was, his expression unchanged.
"Order isn't a fig leaf for you to stand above all living beings and plunder the world."
Facing the charging figure, Lorne planted both feet firmly into the hard white marble floor.