The captain stared at the surveillance screen.
A strangely designed vessel was descending rapidly toward them, slicing through the crushing pressure of the deep sea like a golden blade. An eerie radiance surrounded its hull, making it look less like an ordinary ship and more like something from another world.
"All personnel, prepare for boarding combat immediately!"
Ivankov's powerful voice rang clearly through the shipwide broadcast system, carrying a gravity and determination rarely heard from him.
"Protect the key personnel and cargo at all costs!"
The moment the order came through, everyone sprang into action. Determination burned in their eyes as they prepared for the life-or-death battle suddenly bearing down on them.
"Damn it... these guys are too strong!"
"We don't stand a chance against them!"
The terrifying strength displayed by the God's Knights had already gone far beyond anything the Revolutionary Army had imagined.
Their presence alone exerted suffocating pressure over the ship, leaving a heavy shadow over every revolutionary preparing to fight.
The defenders desperately scrambled to establish an effective defensive line. Sweat rolled down their faces as they tightened their grips on their weapons, knowing the enemy could break through at any moment.
They never got the chance to finish.
Several figures suddenly appeared like ghosts.
Dense, top-tier Armament Haki covered their bodies, the sheer intensity of it almost tangible.
Their magnificent silver armor gleamed coldly beneath the emergency lights.
Then—
CRAAASH!
The ship's reinforced emergency bulkhead was torn open by brute force.
Metal shrieked as the supposedly secure door twisted apart like thin sheet metal, and members of the God's Knights stormed into the interior.
Among them, the knight at the front stood out immediately.
He was tall and imposing, carrying himself with the immovable presence of a mountain.
In his hand was a long spear wreathed in brilliant sacred flames.
The strange golden fire hissed as it burned, warping the surrounding air with its heat.
His eyes were utterly cold.
There was no anger in them.
No excitement.
Only the detached gaze of someone who considered everyone before him beneath notice.
His eyes swept across the compartment once—
then locked directly onto Sabo, who was organizing the defense.
"Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo..."
The knight's low voice echoed through the narrow corridor like a sentence being handed down from somewhere far above.
"Surrender."
The battle erupted before the final word had even faded.
Sabo immediately swung his steel pipe, coating it in the Haki of his Dragon Claw technique as he charged forward without hesitation.
Flames surged around him.
The steel pipe collided violently with the knight's sacred spear.
BOOM!
Ordinary fire and brilliant golden flame exploded against one another, filling the corridor with blinding light and a scorching wave of heat.
The blast swept outward like a tidal wave, forcing nearby fighters to shield their faces.
But almost immediately, Sabo realized something was wrong.
The knight's strength was absurd.
Every strike carried crushing force.
His movements were so fast that even trained fighters struggled to follow them.
Worse still, his control over Haki had reached an astonishing level, as though it were no longer something he consciously used but an instinct woven into every movement of his body.
And the sacred flames surrounding his weapon possessed an even stranger property.
They seemed capable of suppressing Devil Fruit abilities.
Whenever the flames came into contact with the revolutionaries' powers, those abilities visibly weakened, robbing them of one of their greatest advantages.
"Mr. Sabo!"
Koala cried out in alarm.
Without hesitation, she rushed forward and unleashed Fish-Man Karate in an attempt to support him.
But another knight casually swung his sword.
A razor-sharp flying slash tore through the corridor.
Koala tried to evade, but there was not enough room.
The attack forced her backward and sent her crashing hard into the metal wall.
Bang!
Pain flashed across her face as her body trembled from the impact.
Yet her eyes remained defiant.
Elsewhere aboard the enormous transport vessels, the situation was no better.
The advanced weapons painstakingly developed by Lindbergh—technology the Revolutionary Army had placed enormous hopes in—were proving painfully ineffective.
Under normal circumstances, those inventions should have given them a tremendous advantage.
But the God's Knights possessed Observation Haki so refined that they seemed almost capable of seeing the future, predicting attacks before they were even launched.
Combined with their overwhelming physical strength, that foresight rendered most of the Revolutionary Army's technological weapons nearly useless.
Betty pushed the power of her Pump-Pump Fruit to its limit, desperately trying to ignite the courage and fighting spirit of everyone around her.
The revolutionaries responded.
Their morale surged.
Their fear diminished.
But the God's Knights barely reacted.
Whether because their convictions were simply too deeply rooted or because they had been trained into absolute emotional detachment, Betty's ability had little effect on them.
The power that could inspire ordinary people to rise against impossible odds washed over these knights like a breeze passing across solid stone.
From the very beginning, this had never been an equal fight.
The God's Knights had clearly come prepared.
They had waited like hunters in the darkness for exactly the right moment—
when the Revolutionary Army's forces were scattered, its bases were being abandoned, and its people were vulnerable in the middle of relocation.
They knew the Revolutionaries' abilities.
They knew their personnel.
They knew their equipment.
Every move they made was executed with unnerving precision, as though they were following a detailed battle plan written specifically for this operation.
CLANG!
Sabo swung his steel pipe with everything he had.
The knight met it head-on with his sacred spear.
Crack!
Sabo's weapon shattered.
His eyes widened.
The golden spear smashed through the broken steel, and a scorching sacred force surged directly into his body.
It felt like molten metal flooding through his veins.
"Gah!"
Sabo coughed up a mouthful of blood.
His legs buckled beneath him.
He dropped onto one knee, one hand braced against the floor as pain tore through his body.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
His expression was filled with anger and unwillingness—
but for the first time since the battle began, Sabo had been forced down.
...
Almost immediately, two highly trained knights moved in like ghosts.
They carried specially made Seastone shackles, and with swift, practiced movements, they forced Sabo's arms behind his back and locked his wrists in place.
The instant the cold metal touched his skin, the last of his Devil Fruit strength drained away.
"Sabo!"
"Chief of Staff!"
Anxious cries echoed throughout the compartment.
Sabo struggled to raise his head and looked around at his companions.
Ahiru's normally lively eyes were now filled with alarm. Morley fought desperately against the knights restraining him, but could not break free. Karasu tried to summon enough strength to escape, only to be pinned down beneath heavy restraints. Betty gritted her teeth and attempted to activate her ability again, but even she had been pushed beyond her limit.
One important Revolutionary Army officer after another was overwhelmed beneath the God's Knights' relentless assault.
Heavy restraints were fastened around them until they could no longer resist.
Ivankov fought harder than almost anyone.
His strength was formidable, while the bizarre powers of his Devil Fruit gave him countless unpredictable options in battle. At first, even against two highly skilled members of the God's Knights, he managed to hold his ground through a combination of experience, ingenuity, and sheer fighting ability.
But the longer the battle continued, the more the environment worked against him.
They were still deep beneath the sea.
The immense pressure outside the damaged submarine bore down upon everything around them, while the worsening condition of the vessel increasingly restricted Ivankov's movements.
At the same time, the two knights attacking him coordinated perfectly.
One pressured him from the front while the other cut off every route of escape. Whenever Ivankov tried to counterattack, one of them covered the other without leaving even the smallest opening.
Under that relentless two-sided assault, even Ivankov began to falter.
His stamina drained away.
His movements slowed.
Eventually, he was overwhelmed and captured.
"Take them away!"
The knight leading the operation gave the order without the slightest change in expression.
He merely waved one hand.
His subordinates immediately surged forward.
Sabo and the others had their arms forced behind their backs and were dragged away from the rapidly flooding Deep Sea Ghost.
The submarine had once been one of the Revolutionary Army's greatest hidden assets, carrying years of preparation and countless hopes toward a new future.
Now it resembled a dying sea beast.
Metal groaned throughout its damaged hull.
Seawater poured through widening breaches.
The captured revolutionaries were forced aboard the God's Knights' cold, golden vessel, stumbling under restraints as armed guards surrounded them.
More than one of them looked back.
Behind them, the Deep Sea Ghost slowly sank toward the endless darkness below.
The vessel carrying years of accumulated resources, research, and hopes for the future disappeared bit by bit into the abyss.
There was nothing they could do to stop it.
This single operation had captured nearly all of the Revolutionary Army's major officers in one fell swoop.
For an organization that had only just entered its alliance with the Eternal Divine Kingdom full of confidence and expectation, the blow was devastating.
The momentum they had built over years seemed to collapse almost overnight.
Their future suddenly disappeared into uncertainty.
The revolution itself now seemed to be standing on the edge of disaster.
...
Almost at the exact moment the Deep Sea Ghost suffered its catastrophic attack, another Revolutionary Army vessel traveling along a separate hidden route was approaching its own crisis.
The command ship—
Dawn.
From the outside, it looked no different from an ordinary merchant vessel.
Anyone passing at a distance would have had little reason to give it a second glance.
Inside, however, was an entirely different world.
The interior had been arranged with rigorous precision and equipped with advanced communications and intelligence systems.
At the center of it all was the heart of the Revolutionary Army itself—
Monkey D. Dragon.
The organization's most sensitive command network surrounded him, screens and instruments constantly displaying streams of information.
Also stored aboard the vessel were historical documents concerning hidden truths of the world—records considered vital to uncovering secrets that the World Government had spent generations concealing.
An officer approached Dragon, who was standing quietly before a window overlooking the sea.
The man stopped a respectful distance away and bowed slightly.
"Chief, we've successfully entered the Eternal Divine Kingdom's outer early-warning perimeter."
His voice carried restrained relief.
"We've confirmed the reception signal through several channels. Everything matches."
Dragon wore his familiar dark-green cloak.
He stood motionless as he looked toward the distant horizon, where the outline of the Eternal Divine Kingdom could just barely be seen.
His eyes were complicated.
After a moment, he gave a slight nod.
Forming an alliance with the Divine Kingdom had been a decision born partly from necessity.
But Dragon also believed it could mean far more than that.
The world had remained trapped in the same deadlock for too long, with countless powers restraining one another while the World Government continued to dominate from above.
Perhaps cooperation with the Eternal Divine Kingdom really could break that stalemate.
Perhaps this was the step that would finally carry the revolution into an entirely new phase.
And yet—
Dragon could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Outwardly, he remained perfectly calm.
But the intuition of a top-tier fighter had been warning him for some time now.
A faint unease lingered at the edge of his awareness.
Nothing obvious.
Nothing he could clearly identify.
Just the persistent feeling that beneath the calm surface of the sea, something dangerous was already moving toward them.
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