"ENEMY ATTACK!"
The disbelieving shouts of CP0 ignited this grand feast of war.
For eight centuries, this land hanging high atop the Red Line had been the symbol of the World Government's absolute power. A place even the act of gazing upon filled all "inferior races" with reverence and fear.
It had never been massively invaded. Even those daring to harbor blasphemous thoughts were regarded as mad.
Yet at this moment, that black torrent descending from the heavens surged forward with unstoppable momentum, forcibly dragging this sacred land into the smoke and fire of the mortal world.
"Quick! Protect Their Highnesses! Quickly! Quickly hide the Highnesses!"
The frantic, almost voice-cracking roar was the only clear command amid the chaos, a reflexive response from CP0.
However, that shout had no chance to be fully delivered. A chillingly cold, impossibly fast sword slash, invisible to the naked eye, descended from the sky accompanied by overwhelming killing intent, like a judgment of death cleaving downward.
A ghost-like figure descended from the heavens, wearing a pair of tattered slippers, and landed casually on the immaculate ground of the Holy Land.
That sword slash had been released from his hand. He didn't even spare a glance at the fallen corpse, only tilted his head slightly, tone carrying a trace of impatient laziness, "Tsk, you're making my ears go deaf from all the noise."
Rayleigh stood steadily on the ground, with mottled blood still clinging to the tip of his sword.
His gaze swept around. Everyone who met his eyes instinctively took a step back.
But interestingly, he seemed to have interrupted a certain big shot's pleasure.
Not far from him, a dozen people were clustered around a Celestial Dragon. The Celestial Dragon was holding a gun, and beside him, a slave lay in a pool of blood, seemingly voicing in silence what had just happened.
After witnessing Rayleigh's act of slaughter, the obese Celestial Dragon in ornate garments showed not even a trace of fear over the CP0 deaths.
On the contrary, his eyes burned with fury hotter than his fat, glaring at Rayleigh with a face full of anger and contempt, "Lowly scum! How dare you pollute the ground of the Holy Land with your filthy feet? Defile the land of Mary Geoise? This is utterly unforgivable! You deserve to die a thousand deaths!"
His voice was sharp and twisted, as if the land being tainted hurt him more than the deaths of CP0.
"Tsk, you Celestial Dragons are truly disgusting. No wonder Whitebeard and Shiki both want to kill you," A trace of complex emotion flashed across Rayleigh's face, ultimately transforming into deep disgust.
He lowered his eyelids slightly, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness, yet filled with unwavering resolve, "Sorry, Roger. I'm going to break our promise. I can't just quietly wait for dawn anymore. This world is so rotten, I have to do something."
As his words fell, his figure began stepping forward.
In just a few seconds, he had already passed by that male Celestial Dragon.
Before the sentence had finished, Rayleigh moved.
It wasn't a run. Not a dash. Merely walking forward, step by step…
He walked as if taking a stroll, yet at a speed incomprehensible to ordinary people, instantly closing the distance between them and brushing past the screaming Celestial Dragon, continuing onward.
Everything happened so fast, even the Celestial Dragon himself didn't react.
Until Rayleigh had walked several steps away, the bloated Celestial Dragon's face was still frozen in a twisted expression of rage.
But the next second, a fine red line appeared across his neck.
Immediately after, like a dam bursting, a torrent of blood violently spurted forth, dyeing his luxurious robe red, dyeing the wall behind him red.
Finally, his massive body collapsed with a loud thud onto the ground of the Holy Land, lying in a rapidly spreading pool of blood, striking and horrifying.
———
"COME ON! COME ON! BRING IT ON!"
A deafening roar, accompanied by the terrifying sounds of metal twisting and bones shattering, exploded in the once peaceful and luxurious courtyard of the Shepherd Family.
At this moment, Bullet was drenched in blood and debris, like a war god returning from hell, laughing wildly without restraint.
His burly frame crushed the exquisite flooring beneath his feet. Every step he took made the earth tremble.
Dozens of CP members from the Shepherd Family in black uniforms charged at Bullet one after another, launching attack after attack.
Bullets, blades, and martial arts formed a tightly woven death net, pouring down madly.
Yet this so-called "net of death," in the face of Bullet's body covered in pitch-black Armament Haki, was laughably fragile.
His entire body seemed forged from the hardest black stone. Taking all incoming attacks, blades slashing, bullets ricocheting, not even a white mark was left.
He didn't dodge or evade, just let all attacks land on him, producing dull, heavy impacts.
On the battlefield, he was like a tiger among sheep, his massive fists wielding terrifying force with wild abandon, each swing accompanied by sprays of blood and flying limbs.
He crushed enemy skulls like ripe fruit, tore their bodies apart like ragged paper.
This wasn't a battle. It was one-sided slaughter, a bloody death feast orchestrated by Bullet.
In just a few minutes, the dozens of figures who had surrounded him had all fallen, turned into cold corpses and blood puddles in the courtyard.
The Shepherd Family's courtyard, once a symbol of nobility and safety in the Holy Land, had now become a living hell. The air was filled with thick stench of blood and gunpowder.
"Sigh, don't overdo it too much," Just then, a slightly helpless sigh came from deep within the Shepherd Family mansion, breaking the deathly silence left after the slaughter.
A figure slowly stepped out from the shadows. He wore the uniform of the God's Knights, yet couldn't conceal the oppressive aura emanating from him. At his waist hung a simple long blade. The middle-aged man's face carried a trace of fatigue, but his eyes were as sharp as blades.
"Hahaha, interesting, very interesting. Didn't expect to meet such a strong one right after arriving at the Holy Land," Bullet, hearing this voice, laughed even more wildly. Excitement sparkled in his eyes.
He tossed aside his last "plaything," focusing his full attention on the man who had just appeared.
He could feel that this man was completely different from those before, this was a genuine powerhouse.
"Let me introduce myself, Saint Shepherd Sommers, member of the God's Knights," Saint Sommers ignored Bullet's provocation and simply, somewhat lazily yet ceremoniously, slowly drew the long blade from his waist.
As the blade left its sheath, it let out a clear dragon-like cry, as if slicing even the air apart.
"Douglas Bullet!"
Bullet's response wasn't words, but action.
His crazed laughter still echoed in the air, yet his body had already turned into a black afterimage, instantly crossing dozens of meters, appearing like a cannonball right before Saint Sommers.
A punch enveloped in terrifying Armament Haki shot forward as if to shatter space itself, slamming toward Saint Sommers's face.
Saint Sommers's gaze instantly turned cold, showing not a trace of panic. He raised his blade horizontally in a seemingly simple yet profoundly precise motion, to meet Bullet's world-shattering punch.
BOOM!
The moment fist met blade, it was like two planets colliding with full force. A terrifying shockwave beyond description erupted from the two as its center, spreading madly outward.
The ground cracked and sank with wailing roars. Stone, dust, flesh and blood were lifted by this power, forming a massive black-red circular shockwave.
Surrounding buildings, those glorious mansions symbolizing the Holy Land, under the ravaging aftershocks, collapsed like paper structures, emitting overwhelmed creaks and crashing down moments later in a cloud of dust.
This epic clash had begun in the most direct, most brutal way possible.
At the heart of the battle, the two fighters had no time to care about their surroundings.
In this initial testing clash, they both clearly sensed the power in the other.
A single thought exploded in both their minds at the same time:
'This opponent, is a monster that demands everything I've got.' ×2
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