Marine Headquarters.
The core fortress that symbolized justice and power had once gleamed beneath the sunlight, its sturdy buildings reflecting a brilliant shine. But now, it was shrouded in an oppressive atmosphere unlike anything anyone there had ever felt.
When the legendary sight of nine dragons pulling a ship slowly approached like an abyssal beast, carrying a force great enough to overturn mountains and seas, the terrifying shadow it cast fell over all of Marine Headquarters like a vast curtain from the heavens.
The shadow seemed to have actual weight, pressing down until people could barely breathe.
At the same time, the alarms across Marineford suddenly screamed.
That shrill sound was like the wail of doomsday, slicing through the once-calm air and echoing through every corner, sending chills down everyone's spine.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku, standing on the observation platform, instantly turned livid.
His eyes widened, fury burning inside them. His clenched fist shot out and smashed hard into the steel railing beside him.
With a thunderous crash, the sturdy railing shattered on the spot, fragments flying everywhere like arrows.
The force made his Fleet Admiral's cloak, the symbol of supreme authority, whip violently behind him like a flag struggling in a storm, showing the rage churning inside his chest.
"Outrageous! This is open provocation!"
"Do those bastards think we won't shoot them down?"
Sengoku roared in fury, his voice ringing through the area like a great bell.
"What do they think Marine Headquarters is? Some amusement park they can fly over for fun?!
"We carry the duty of maintaining peace and order across the sea! How could we tolerate such reckless arrogance!"
But his furious roar received no answer.
The surroundings fell into deathly silence, as if even the air had frozen.
Every Marine officer stood with their head lowered, silent and stiff as though rooted in place, their bodies trembling faintly.
Beads of cold sweat rolled down from the brims of their caps, dripping one by one onto the ground. The tiny sounds were strangely clear in that terrible silence.
Fear and helplessness filled every pair of eyes, because all of them could clearly see the enormous main cannon on that terrifying battleship Pluton aimed coldly at the heart of Marineford's core buildings, as if it could spit out world-ending fire at any moment.
"F-Fleet Admiral…"
A rear admiral finally gathered the courage to speak, but his voice shook uncontrollably, like a leaf shivering in a cold wind.
"You know, don't you? Pluton has firepower beyond imagination. It can easily destroy an entire island…"
Beside him, the telescope in Vice Admiral Tsuru's hand slipped loose and fell to the ground with a sharp crack.
Spiderweb cracks instantly spread across the lens, just like the state of her heart at that moment.
Known for always being calm and composed, she too had rarely lost her usual steadiness.
Her lips trembled slightly, and there was a trace of fear in her voice.
"Sengoku… look at this formation. They're sending us a preview of our own funeral."
Suddenly, above that deep and mysterious sea, a dazzling flash lit up from Pluton's bridge like a blade cutting through the darkness.
The light came so suddenly that it shattered the tense silence in an instant, like a shock bomb quietly dropped by fate.
In that moment, every battle-hardened, imposing Marine officer instinctively tensed at the same time, their backs straightening like bows drawn tight.
Some of them even reached by instinct for the cold, heavy swords at their waists, the patterns on the hilts seeming to tremble along with their strained nerves.
But when they looked closely, they realized it was only a massive Divine Kingdom flag slowly unfurling from the bridge.
The flag was bright as fire, and the red divine emblem upon it shone painfully beneath the blazing sun, its light so sharp it seemed ready to pierce through the soul.
"Bastards!"
Vice Admiral Doberman's eyes went wide with rage, his face flushing red. The veins on his forehead bulged like winding little snakes.
He abruptly drew the shining sword at his waist, its blade flashing with a cold light as though he wanted to cut down everything before him.
But at that very moment, Momonga reacted swiftly and clamped down hard on his wrist with terrifying speed, gripping so tightly that Doberman could not break free for a moment.
"Don't be stupid! Look carefully!"
Momonga urgently pointed toward the faint mysterious blue glow moving within Pluton's main cannon. His voice shook slightly, yet it remained filled with reason and restraint.
"Look at the power gathering in that cannon! If it really fires, that one shot could wipe Marineford, this entire military fortress, completely off the map and turn it into ruins!"
Even more suffocating and chilling was the way the nine divine dragons cast their vast, majestic gazes downward.
They were like overlords from an ancient age, carrying endless authority and pressure.
Each dragon's eyes were like the eyes of judgment, deep and cold as they swept over the statues in the Marine plaza, each one a symbol of honor and history.
When the lead dragon's gaze slowly passed over the plaque engraved with the words Absolute Justice, it actually let out a deafening snort of laughter that echoed through the sky.
That laugh carried undisguised mockery, as though it were expressing contempt and doubt toward this so-called Absolute Justice.
The dragon's voice rolled through the entire space, making a chill rise in everyone's heart.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku's face turned as pale as paper.
His hands gripped the shattered railing so tightly that his knuckles went white.
His sharp nails dug deep into his palms, drawing thin streams of blood that slid down his fingers and dripped onto the deck, yet he did not notice at all.
His eyes were wide open as he watched the nine dragons pull Pluton over Marine Headquarters as if entering an unguarded land.
They passed openly and grandly through the sky above the fortress.
The shadow cast by the massive hull fell like a heavy mountain, covering the entire military district and trapping everyone beneath a suffocating pressure.
When the last dragon tail lightly swept past the Gates of Justice, a suppressed sob suddenly sounded from the observation platform.
Everyone followed the sound and saw that it came from a young female officer who had only recently graduated.
Her shoulders trembled faintly, tears spilling uncontrollably from her eyes.
The people around her looked at her, but not a single person blamed her.