Atop the Red Line, biting gale winds howled past, sweeping up the thin clouds that lingered year-round along the Holy Land's edge. Magnificent Mary Geoise resembled a golden seal embedded in crimson rock, with a fathomless abyss dividing the Grand Line beneath it.
Now, on the cliff at the Holy Land's edge, five figures revered as the pinnacle of worldly power slowly emerged from Pangaea Castle's shadow in human form.
Saint Nusjuro led the way, cradling the First Generation Kitetsu. The hem of his kimono remained motionless in the wind, and age-old ice filled his narrow eyes. Behind him, Saint Saturn walked with slow, heavy steps, his serpent staff hanging at his side; Saint Warcury's blond hair flew in the wind, his gaze sinister; Saint Maz and Saint Shepherd Ju Peter, one tall and one fat, wore equally grave expressions.
They stopped at the cliff's edge, with dizzying emptiness and the distant sea beneath their feet. Fierce winds billowed their robes but could not disperse their authority, which towered above all living beings.
Saint Saturn slowly looked back toward an area deep within Pangaea Castle, shrouded in multiple layers of protection-the source that supplied their "power" slumbered there.
His low, hoarse voice pierced the wind. "Aaron Ball... perhaps you can run wild for a while." He turned back, his hawklike gaze locking onto the silver-white figure in the distant sky, his tone decisive. "But before the world's true power, your farce must end."
He paused and nodded slightly, as though issuing an order into the void. "Then, sorry for the trouble."
The moment his words fell-
Hum!
An invisible ripple spread from deep within Pangaea Castle. Immediately afterward, countless pitch-black "arrows," thick as ink and writhing like living things, shot out from Gunko's Palace like a waterfall flowing upward, like