After all, the scandal surrounding Marine Admiral Kizaru had already spread across the entire world.
Even if they desperately wanted to believe it was merely hollow propaganda, they lacked a single shred of convincing evidence to refute the claims.
Worse still, Admiral Kizaru himself had gone completely silent ever since the news broke. Faced with a complete communications blackout, everyone naturally gravitated toward the worst possible assumptions.
They wanted to defend his honor, yet the Admiral was nowhere to be found.
It left them completely defenseless in any argument.
"You're making baseless slander! The Admiral is definitely not the kind of person you claim him to be!" A Marine Vice Admiral stepped forward, his expression exceptionally grave.
"Let me make one thing clear—if anyone else tries to bring up the Admiral's status to stir up trouble, don't blame me for turning hostile!"
"It's Vice Admiral Chaton!" The Marines rejoiced instantly.
"Exactly! The Vice Admiral is right! Admiral Kizaru would never betray the Navy!" a chorus of Marines chimed in unison.
Just as the white-robed agent opened his mouth to snap back, a female Vice Admiral took a sharp step forward. She slowly unsheathed the long blade at her waist, revealing a cold, glinting edge.
"Until the truth is fully brought to light, if anyone dares to weaponize this rumor again, I will personally execute them on the spot under the charges of inciting internal discord and attempting to fracture the World Government!"
With those words, Momousagi's sharp, unyielding gaze swept across the assembled white-robed agents.
Marine Vice Admiral, Momousagi!
Just like Chaton, she was a supreme, elite Vice Admiral considered a prime candidate for the Admiral position.
"You..." The agent wanted to push back, but meeting the icy gazes of the two Vice Admirals, he swallowed his words and kept his mouth shut.
Their combat prowess was far from ordinary. If a standard Vice Admiral came at him, he wouldn't care in the slightest.
However, if these two specific Vice Admirals decided to strike, not only would he be done for, but even the senior officer beside him might not be able to protect his life.
"Silences across all ranks!" A booming voice resonated across the central plaza of the Holy Land.
On a massive platform that had just been erected, four black-robed old men stood overlooking the vast assembly.
The Five Elders!
The sovereign rulers guiding the World Government across the sea.
At this moment, only four of the Five Elders were present. Stepping up slowly from behind them was a solitary figure—Fleet Admiral Akainu!
Beside the platform, two individuals heavily wrapped in bandages drew the focus of the crowd.
Marine Admirals Fujitora and Ryokugyu!
Seeing such monumental military mass assembled at a single coordinate injected a surge of absolute confidence into the hearts of every soldier. With such an untouchable backing, how could they possibly lose?
The World Government was the absolute ruler of this planet. Even if the lawless pirate factions had expanded aggressively in recent times, looking upon these titans anchoring their lines gave the troops an overwhelming sense of security.
This was the true, deep foundation of the World Government!
"Akainu, has Borsalino returned yet?" the Elder wearing spectacles suddenly asked from atop the platform.
"Not yet. We still haven't re-established a link with him," Akainu replied, pulling the cigar from his mouth with a look of visible irritation.
Even he felt unsettled by the rumors surrounding Kizaru.
Logically, he knew such a betrayal should be impossible, yet over the past few days, vivid memory files from the Summit War of Marineford two years ago kept playing in his mind.
Back then, Kizaru had appeared to be going all out without holding back a single fraction of force. Yet when the dust settled, Akainu was the only one who had been battered like a dog.
Kizaru and Aokiji had merely gotten their uniforms slightly dirty—a superficial scratch at best.
Recalling it now, something about that dynamic felt genuinely suspicious.
"He represents a major combat asset. Without him on the field, our overall military output takes a noticeable hit," one of the Elders sighed softly.
Akainu's eyes glinted sharply as he flexed his hands. "You don't harbor any suspicion..."
"Suspicion? Suspicion about what? Those wild dispatches regarding Borsalino?" The Elder scoffed, waving his hand dismissively.
"Are you actually suspecting Borsalino? Don't overthink it. The Marine Admirals are elite assets gathered from amongst the righteous minds across the globe."
"Their identities and backgrounds are rooted entirely in absolute justice—something you should know better than anyone," the Elder said to Akainu.
Akainu went silent. Of course he knew; after all, he had been an Admiral himself.
Now, as Fleet Admiral, he possessed an even deeper understanding of the Admirals' profiles. Kizaru had enlisted in the Navy in his youth.
Having served alongside him for decades, Akainu understood Kizaru's history inside and out.
He wouldn't betray the Navy...
"They would never betray the Navy!" another Elder declared with absolute certainty.
If nothing else, the selection protocol for Marine Admirals was something they personally vetted with extreme care; after all, those individuals represented their absolute highest tier of military power.
Even in Aokiji's case, he had simply chosen to resign from his post on his own accord.
"Understood," Akainu said, drawing a long, deep drag from his cigar before exhaling a thick plume of white smoke.
"Good. Today, we shall systematically annihilate the Revolutionary Army directly upon the grounds of this Holy Land!" The Elder let out a cold snort, turning his gaze toward the horizon.
Out in the distance, a gargantuan mechanical bird was soaring through the sky. Hovering beneath its massive chassis was a sweeping, pitch-black sea of subversives—the Revolutionary Army's grand force pressing inward!
The Marines looked up at the elevated platform with awe and reverence; the figures standing above were individuals most soldiers would never get to see in a lifetime.
The Fleet Admiral, and the supreme rulers of the World Government—the Five Elders.
Even as active Navy personnel, catching a glimpse of these figures was a rare occurrence.
This was especially true for the Five Elders; even during the catastrophic Summit War two years ago, their true faces had remained hidden from the public eye.
Yet today, not only were they present, but four of them were standing together at once!
As for why the fifth Elder had failed to appear, the troops didn't dare guess. Matters of that administrative tier were far beyond their pay grade.
What they failed to realize was that the fifth Elder—a figure they revered like a living god—was currently being clamped tightly in the mechanical fist of an adversary, suspended like a thoroughly beaten hound.
It was a reality that even the four Elders standing atop the platform had completely failed to anticipate.
At this precise moment, their collective focus was firmly locked onto the central figure standing aboard the mechanical bird.
The Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary Army, Dragon!
A name that commanded enough weight to violently shake the entire world. Though they had waged a silent shadow war for decades, this was the absolute first time they were meeting face-to-face.
Neither side had expected their vectors to cross so rapidly. Yet driven by the sudden rise of the Legendary Four Brothers, the gears of the era were accelerating at an unprecedented pace.
And now, the ultimate confrontational reality had arrived!
"Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary Army, Monkey D. Dragon!" The Elders narrowed their eyes, their gazes glued to Dragon's frame without missing a single detail.
Meanwhile, in a high tower adjoining the platform, two white-haired veterans stood watching the high-stakes clash of presence with deep, distant gazes.
"Garp... your son... has finally arrived," Sengoku noted softly, staring at the distant scene.
Garp looked at Dragon—who was leading a vast army while maintaining an utterly calm, impassive expression—his mind choked with a complex, unmanageable swell of emotions.
He had always known this day would come, but he had never imagined it would arrive so quickly.
Before he could even process the shock of Luffy's recent exploits, his long-lost son had delivered yet another massive surprise straight to his doorstep.
FWHOOSH!
The mechanical bird rocketed over the summit, bringing with it a violent gale that swept across the entire plaza, causing flags to snap wildly as loose debris was thrown into the sky!