"Lord Garling, the Holy Land Guard's defensive line is about to give way. The Marines' offensive is far too fierce!"
A CP member knelt on one knee before Garling, his voice tight with tension.
Garling's expression was already dark.
"Useless. All of them are useless," Garling snapped angrily. "Didn't you say that at sea the Marines reign supreme, but on land the Holy Land Guard could beat the Marines until they lost all sense of direction? And now look at this. It hasn't even been a full day, and the line is already about to collapse?!"
No one else dared to speak, afraid of provoking him at the worst possible moment.
At the same time, Garling felt a growing sense of unease and danger. Whether it was the troops stationed at Mary Geoise or the commanders and knights leading them, they all seemed to be caught in the same trap.
They were too self-satisfied, too used to praise. One by one, they basked in their own boasting, convinced that everything belonging to Mary Geoise was the finest in the world.
But thinking about it carefully, although the Holy Land Guard was made up of carefully selected, powerfully built warriors, equipped with the sturdiest armor, the most advanced weapons, and fed the best provisions, they lacked one crucial thing.
Real combat experience.
Compared to the Marine elites under Ortoren, who had fought countless campaigns and pacified the chaos of the New World, the gap became obvious the moment blades were crossed.
Before the fighting started, both sides were brimming with confidence. Once it began, the Marines pressed them down relentlessly, beating them until they could only scream in pain.
Of course, the Holy Land Guard wasn't completely worthless. With almost no real battlefield experience, the fact that they had managed to hold out this long already qualified them as a kind of elite.
Garling casually swept a glance over the knights behind him, his thoughts turning darker. Including himself, were these so-called Great Knights, rumored to be no weaker than Admirals, nothing more than polished shells, impressive on the surface but hollow within?
After all, they frequently sparred with one another, but sparring was all it ever was. True life-and-death combat was almost nonexistent.
How could Celestial Dragons of noble blood ever put themselves in that kind of danger?
Those thoughts flashed through his mind, but there was no time left to hesitate.
Once the Holy Land Guard's line fell, the CP defenses behind them wouldn't last long either. While CP agents generally had better combat ability and more real experience than the Guard, their style was fundamentally different. CP was, at its core, an intelligence organization. One-on-one fights, assassinations, ambushes, that was their domain. Forming battle lines and fighting head-on in a large-scale war was simply not what they were good at.
"So in the end, we're the ones who have to step onto the battlefield first…" Garling thought bitterly.
Up to this point, both sides had only committed conventional forces. It was still an army-versus-army clash. Whoever deployed power beyond that, individual strength surpassing the level of regular troops, first would be showing weakness, losing ground before the decisive clash had even begun.
But things had already reached this stage. There was no choice left but to go all out.
Garling drew the Blade of Judgment from his waist and raised it high before him, his voice ringing with fervor.
"For centuries, we Celestial Dragons have stood as the world's nobility, the most exalted race upon these seas. That is because our ancestors created this world. We are the descendants of the Creator. And now, a pack of lowly wretches beneath the Holy Land dares to covet our power and status. Such a crime deserves death!"
"We, the God's Knights, are the finest among all Celestial Dragons, warriors of the gods and of the Creator. Today, we will show those despicable traitors our overwhelming, unmatched might!"
As his words fell, all eighteen knights drew their swords at the same time, raising them high.
Behind them, a large number of knightly retainers dropped to one knee in reverence.
Garling nodded in satisfaction, then roared, "God's Knights, heed my command! All units, advance! Crush these rebels! Let the glory of the gods and the honor of the Creator once again wash over the entire sea! Victory is assured!"
With Garling leading the God's Knights into motion, every available combat force within the CP defensive line and the God's Knights' camp surged forward as one, pressing hard toward the Holy Land Guard's front.
The decisive battle was on the brink of eruption.
Meanwhile, inside the Marines' camp, Vice Admiral Dalmatian burst through the tent flap, his face lit with excitement.
"Report! The front line has confirmed it. God's Knights have mobilized!"
The moment he heard that, Ortoren slammed his fist down on the table.
"Good! Sakazuki, according to plan, you'll take command as the core and form an officers' strike force. Go meet this so-called God's Knights head-on. Break them apart. Crush them. Wipe them out. Show them what a Marine Admiral truly is!"
Sakaski rose at once, a sharp glint of excitement flashing in his eyes.
"Yes! For the sake of justice!"
After speaking, he hesitated for a brief moment, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to say the word "loyalty."
Soon, Sakazuki led his unit out of the Marines' camp. Momonga, Yamakaji, Cancer, Onigumo, Doberman, Dalmatian, and the others followed, heading straight for the front lines.
After Sakazuki departed, Ortoren gave another order.
"Kuzan, Borsalino, the two of you will also take your units forward to hold the line. We may despise the enemy, but we cannot be arrogant. Keep your eyes locked on this so-called God's Knights."
At the front, God's Knights, led by Garling, charged straight into the chaotic battlefield. In an instant, they revealed overwhelming strength.
The Marines' offensive formation was nearly torn apart.
Wielding a massive hand cannon, Vice Admiral Strelart fired a single shot, blasting a Holy Land Guard captain into a heap of mangled flesh scattered across the ground.
But in the next moment, a knight clad in heavy armor struck. Two swift slashes cut Strelart's aide clean in half at the waist, followed immediately by a crushing kick to Strelart's chest.
A terrifying surge of power exploded outward. Stelart had risen through merit, and his strength was respectable, bolstered by bodily modifications. Even so, he had only just reached the threshold of a Vice Admiral. Against a knight of God's Knights, he was completely outmatched.
The kick sent his burly body flying backward. He rolled across the ground more than a dozen times before finally coming to a stop.
Before he could even push himself up, the heavily armored knight was already standing before him again. Through the narrow slits of the helmet that covered his entire head, a ferocious gaze shone through.
"Wretched traitor! Today, divine punishment is upon you!"
With a furious roar, the knight brought his blade down on Vice Admiral Strelart.
There was a sharp crack. Strelart barely managed to raise one arm to block, but it was useless. His arm was severed on the spot. That split second of resistance, however, was enough to trigger a device within his body.
Blood and grime covered his face as a crazed grin spread across it. With his remaining arm, he wrapped himself around the knight's leg and laughed wildly.
"I stopped wanting to live a long time ago! Today, you piece of trash, you're dying with me!"
Ever since his entire family had been slaughtered by pirates, ever since he had personally taken brutal revenge on those who destroyed his homeland, ever since he lost both legs in the Battle of Aquino Island, death had already taken root in his heart. Each extra day he lived felt like torment, as if his wife and daughter were waiting for him, calling him to join them.
Now, dying in a blazing battle at the Holy Land, he had finally gotten what he wanted.
In the next instant, before the heavily armored knight's horrified eyes, Vice Admiral Strelart detonated himself.
The violent explosion swallowed them both.
When the smoke finally cleared, the knight's heavy armor was shattered beyond recognition, half his body burned and mangled by the blast. Even so, he had not been killed outright.
As for Vice Admiral Strelart, there was nothing left. He vanished completely from this world, leaving behind only half a cloak, still bearing the word "Justice."
"Damn it, you filthy commoner!" the knight cursed in fury.
The next second, a torrent of searing magma slammed down from above at incredible speed, instantly engulfing him.
The magma exploded outward. Sakazuki stood there, gripping the knight by the throat. His eyes burned with icy killing intent as he spoke in a cold voice.
"He was a Vice Admiral, the pride of our Marines. He was no commoner. You, and people like you, are the real trash and the truly lowly ones."
The heavily armored knight tried to struggle, but Sakazuki gave him no chance. Ruthless, decisive, and merciless, this was simply how Sakazuki fought.
In the next instant, the scorching magma erupted with unstoppable heat, reducing both the knight and his armor to a lump of blackened slag.