At a port not far from the Holy Land, Mary Geoise, dozens of battered Marine warships drifted into their berths, hulls creaking as they scraped the piers.
"Fleet Admiral, you are back."
The speaker was a Rear Admiral with a deathly look, as if he had lost both parents at once.
"What is it, why the long face?" Steel Bone Kong asked. His own mood was grim, but a man in his position still had to ask after his men.
"Fleet Admiral…" The Rear Admiral managed only two words before his voice broke. He could not go on. With a gaze close to despair, he looked past Kong toward the distant Holy Land.
Kong followed that gaze and drew a sharp breath.
The newly rebuilt splendor of Mary Geoise was gone. In its place lay heaps of shattered stone and splintered beams. Smoke still billowed from a dozen places. Every sight spoke of catastrophic devastation.
"What happened?" Kong's fingers clamped around the Rear Admiral's arm, veins bulging, his voice like ice.
"Not long ago, Rakuya showed up and fought the Five Elders," the Marine said, choking on the words. "Then he… he summoned four colossal beasts."
At that, terror flickered across the Rear Admiral's face, the shadow of those nameless monsters still haunting him.
"What, Rakuya came here? How is that possible?" Kong barked. He and his forces had just gone a round with that little devil, and it had not gone well.
"And then?" Kong pressed, eyes dark.
"Then the four beasts ran wild," the Rear Admiral said, voice small with shame. "The Five Elders moved to stop them, but those creatures were too terrifying. The Five Elders could barely get a strike in."
"Are you sure it was Rakuya?" Kong frowned. When they had clashed, the battlefield had been far from the Holy Land. Even if he himself had used Moonwalk without rest, it would have taken time to reach Mary Geoise, and he would have been spent upon arrival. How could Rakuya travel that far and still fight at full strength?
"Fleet Admiral, how could we mistake him? Hundreds of eyes saw him."
Seeing the certainty in the man's eyes, and in those of the Marines around them, Kong's shock settled into a leaden weight. His face turned storm-dark, a fist clenched, then loosened uselessly. He could only accept the fact that Rakuya had razed the Holy Land.
But how did that brat get here so fast? And how was he still that strong after such a distance?
Wait.
Kong stiffened. He remembered Rakuya's peculiar powers. If he recalled correctly, that damned brat could merge with water.
If that was the case, everything made sense. After their clash, Rakuya had simply flowed with the sea straight to Mary Geoise, then fought the Five Elders, then summoned those four unknown titans whose very names sounded dreadful, and finally turned the Holy Land into rubble.
"Damn it." Kong ground his teeth. He wanted nothing more than to flay that brat alive.
Having pieced it together, Kong headed at once to report to the Five Elders and hand over the intelligence he had gathered.
He sprinted through a wasteland. There was not a single intact building in sight.
Not just buildings. Not even a whole brick. Everything had been reduced to powder. Someone ignorant of the truth might have mistaken the place for a desert, a gray, lifeless expanse to the horizon.
"Honored Elders."
Kong strode into a hastily assembled briefing room, bowed, and offered a greeting.
"Oh, Kong. You are back." The long-bearded elder's face was drawn, his aura subdued. Whether from the Holy Land's ruin or something more, Kong could not tell.
Only then did Kong look closely at the elders present. He blinked, startled. "My lord, so you were not captured by Rakuya after all. That brat tried to bluff me, spout big words. I said to myself, impossible. Your strength is beyond him. Clearly he wanted to rattle me and throw off my rhythm."
Seeing the bald, mustached elder, Kong finally exhaled a breath of relief and even smiled. Thank goodness he had not believed Rakuya. The Five Elders were as formidable as ever.
During his babble, he failed to notice the bald elder's face turning so dark you could scrape soot off it. The other elders looked equally strange.
"How did the battle go?"
Asked so directly, Kong flushed with embarrassment. The results were nothing to boast of; even he found them hard to say aloud.
The Five Elders understood his silence well enough.
"Hmph. Useless, the lot of you," snarled the scar-faced elder, tossing him a look of utter contempt.
The long-bearded elder's face was no kinder. His voice brooked no refusal. "Report. In detail."
Kong's expression tightened. After a long pause he said, "It went poorly. Heavy losses."
He held out the after-action report.
The bald, mustached elder took it and skimmed. "Outrageous. How could casualties be this high? What are you people even good for?"
Kong's heart gave two painful thumps under the shout. He had just made the man lose face, and now the elder had his chance to return the favor.
"Were there not many admirals present? Numerous vice admirals as well? Commodores and captains beyond counting, and thirty thousand Marines besides." The long-bearded elder finished reading, his tone cool but edged like a blade. "And this is the result you bring me?"
The words were mild, yet Kong felt the killing intent behind them seep into the room like winter frost.
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