As dawn began to break, the Revolutionary Army had nearly taken over God's Palace.
Dragon stood in front of a massive castle filled with guards. They were everywhere, a dense formation. The Revolutionary Army had tried to attack it several times, but they were repelled. Compared to the previous guards, the soldiers in this castle were clearly stronger and more organized. This puzzled Dragon, but it also gave him a sense of clarity.
He figured this castle held the core secrets of the World Nobles. And the fact that Mariejois hadn't sent enough reinforcements to help with the situation in God's Palace was probably because they were confident in this castle. As long as this castle wasn't breached, any other losses in God's Palace were acceptable to them.
At this point, Dragon really wanted to break into this castle and see what secrets it held. But there were some powerful individuals stationed inside. He had tested them a few times and found that this wasn't something he could take down in a short amount of time.
As Dragon was contemplating his next move, a Revolutionary Army officer hurried over. "Dragon-san, Ivankov has spotted a Marine fleet approaching the coast. It's twenty warships, and the flag belongs to former Marine Admiral 'Black Arm' Zephyr!"
"'Black Arm' Zephyr, huh?" Dragon muttered. He took one last look at the castle, then turned and asked, "How's our progress?"
"We're almost done. We haven't been able to take over a few of the World Nobles' homes, but we've already looted a ton of wealth and resources and moved them to Pangea Castle. Morley has already buried everything in the Red Line," the officer said.
"Good..." Dragon nodded. "Prepare for withdrawal!"
After he gave the order, he looked at the tall castle once more. Even though he knew it held valuable secrets, he didn't have enough time to explore them. Under Dragon's command, the Revolutionary Army began an orderly retreat.
As the sky grew brighter, Mariejois's defenses quickly organized an effective counterattack. Many of the slaves who had been running rampant in the night were quickly suppressed. Dragon couldn't do anything about this, but most of the regular slaves had already retreated with the Revolutionary Army and Tiger during the night.
The ones still fighting were either those who had given up on life and wanted to go down fighting the World Government, or they were pirates who had been enslaved. Many of them were once famous pirate captains who had suffered great humiliation as slaves of the World Nobles. Now that they had a chance to get revenge, there was no way they would just retreat with the Revolutionary Army. If they didn't turn Mariejois upside down, could they even be called pirates?
Dragon had no choice but to let them do as they pleased. He had done all he could; the rest was up to fate.
When Dragon and the Revolutionary Army arrived at the port, a fierce naval battle had already broken out. The Marine warships had surrounded the port, and the continuous cannon fire looked like it would swallow the entire area.
As Dragon came down the elevator, he saw Ivankov get sent flying with a punch from Zephyr. The Marine fleet was tightening its circle, trying to make a landing.
However, the port of Mariejois had many defensive cannons, all of which were now under the Revolutionary Army's control. Their retaliatory fire was fierce, making it difficult for the warships to approach. Only a few generals were able to break through the port defenses using their own power.
Dragon didn't have time to think. He transformed into a gust of wind and blocked Zephyr's path. "Ivankov, get the retreat ready!" he said without looking back.
Ivankov didn't hesitate. He immediately ordered the ships to dive. The ships here were all coated. The Revolutionary Army had brought a lot of ships, and with his command, a lot of them were able to dive into the depths of the sea despite some being sunk by the Marine's cannon fire.
"Dragon, what have you done?!" Zephyr roared, his fist imbued with Haki, as he punched Dragon.
Dragon met Zephyr's fist with his own Haki and said calmly, "Sensei, this is a done deal."
"If I take you down here, I might be able to salvage something!" Zephyr roared.
Zephyr and Dragon fought at the port, but in the end, it didn't amount to much. After most of the ships had retreated, Dragon didn't intend to fight Zephyr to the death. He just slipped away.
Zephyr was powerless to pursue him. Besides, now wasn't the time for a chase. The right thing to do was to bring his men up to put out the fire and restore order in Mariejois.
Soon, led by Zephyr, over 20,000 Marines quickly landed in Mariejois. Under the orders of the Gorosei, they took over the city's defenses and began an organized effort to extinguish the fires.
With Dragon gone, the fire was no longer being fanned by his winds. Once the Marines took over, they quickly got it under control. This made the Gorosei realize the huge difference between the Marines and their useless Land Army and Mariejois's so-called defenses.
But even so, it took Zephyr more than two days to extinguish the fire that had swept through the entire Holy Land. In the original story, the fire Tiger started in Mariejois wasn't this big. The World Government was able to put it out in one day.
Now, with Dragon and the Revolutionary Army's help, most of Mariejois was burned to the ground. The economic loss was in the trillions of Berries. A large number of nobles and high-ranking World Government officials died in the chaos. And when the Revolutionary Army attacked God's Palace, they even caused the deaths of more than a dozen World Nobles.
The Gorosei stood on the highest floor of the World Government Headquarters, looking out at Mariejois. There was no sign of its former glory. It was a burnt mess of ruins, like a living hell. The heat from the fire, combined with all the other problems, had the Gorosei on edge, with blisters on their lips.
In their office, they looked at the World Government officials, Land Army generals, and CP agency leaders who were all kneeling on the floor, including the Commander-in-Chief, Pask. The Gorosei were filled with rage.
"Do any of you have anything to say?" the bearded Gorosei asked in a low voice.
Pask immediately looked up. "Sirs, sirs! I have already..."
"You are the one who deserves to die the most!" the Gorosei with the famous blade suddenly roared. In front of everyone, he didn't give Pask, the Commander-in-Chief, a chance to explain. He quickly drew his sword.
In the next second, he beheaded Pask without a hint of mercy. Blood splattered all over him and the floor. Pask's lifeless head rolled on the ground, his eyes wide open, and the room fell silent.
The Land Army generals, who were just lazy nobles waiting to die, had never seen anything like this. They peed their pants in fear.
After beheading the Commander-in-Chief, the Gorosei with the sword looked at Zephyr, who was standing to the side. "Zephyr, contact Fleet Admiral Kong and tell him to come to Mariejois as fast as he can."
"Yes, sir!" Zephyr said, standing at attention and saluting. Zephyr wasn't given a hard time at Mariejois. After all, the Marines had little to do with this incident, and their rescue was timely. If it weren't for Zephyr, Mariejois would still be a burning mess.
"And, your Marine's so-called 'Anti-Corruption' operation will be put on hold. Summon all the Marine generals involved to return to Marineford immediately. For now, you will have to take on the difficult task of leading the Marines here in Mariejois and handling the security issues," the sword-wielding Gorosei said.
Zephyr nodded again. "Yes, sir."
"As for you degenerates!" the sword-wielding Gorosei pointed his sword at the people kneeling on the floor, a look of disgust in his eyes. "You all deserve to die a thousand deaths!" With that, he motioned with his eyes, and guards quickly came and dragged the high-ranking officials out.
The Gorosei had made it clear. All of them would die. No one paid attention to the wailing and begging of these useless parasites. Zephyr also quickly left the office. Soon, only the five Gorosei were left.
"It's been confirmed. The holy vault in God's Palace was not breached. It is still intact..." the blond-haired Gorosei finally said.
The other four Gorosei sighed in relief. They could handle the economic losses in Mariejois and the deaths of so many people, even the deaths of a dozen low-ranking, useless World Nobles. But the holy vault deep inside God's Palace absolutely could not be damaged. Because that was the World Government's—no, the World Nobles'—most important trump card!
"Now, let's figure out how to handle the aftermath," the bearded Gorosei said in a deep voice.
"We can't hide this. So many slaves have escaped, and the Revolutionary Army was involved..." the bald Gorosei said. Besides, how could they hide the fact that Mariejois was burned to the ground? It's not like they could say a World Noble accidentally set off a firework.
"Don't mention the slaves. Announce that the Revolutionary Army launched a conspiracy against Mariejois and set fires, causing thousands of deaths and trillions of Berries in economic losses. The Mariejois Land Army was completely wiped out, and Commander-in-Chief Pask died heroically in battle... If we can't hide the news, we'll make it sound tragic and heroic," the blond-haired Gorosei said after thinking for a moment. They had to decide on the overall direction. This couldn't be hidden, but it definitely needed to be sugarcoated.
"There must be consequences! There must be consequences for these damned parasites!" the bald Gorosei said furiously. He was truly angry now. The Holy Land was burned to the ground? The damned Revolutionary Army swaggered around, looted God's Palace, and then calmly retreated? This was the most humiliating thing that had happened to the World Government in 800 years!
And what was even more frustrating was that this didn't happen because the enemy was too clever or too strong. It was all because of the Mariejois defense forces themselves. These bastards had embezzled and been negligent in their duties, causing such a huge problem, and now the Gorosei had to clean up their mess. No wonder the Gorosei were in a bad mood. They wouldn't be able to rest until they got rid of all these bastards.
The fire in Mariejois might have burned the Holy Land to the ground, but it also removed some of the decay from the World Government's ship. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise?
"We will definitely deal with those people harshly. But... what about the positions they left behind? Should we let the Marines fill them?" the bearded Gorosei asked.
"No, we can't let power be concentrated in the Marines' hands like that. We'll have the CP agencies fill them!" the blond-haired Gorosei said. He paused for a moment, then continued, "But we can give the position of Commander-in-Chief to Kong. We should give the Marines a little something so our relationship doesn't get worse. Didn't that Diarmuid already signal that he was willing to compromise? When he returns to Marineford, tell him to come to Mariejois for a meeting."
Up until now, the Gorosei still thought that Diarmuid submitting the anti-corruption plan was a sign of him "submitting."
"Then let's summon Stussy back first. She's a capable person," the sword-wielding Gorosei said after thinking for a moment.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]