The servant paused before the tall, ornate door, one hand hovering just above the handle.
From within, faint echoes of chaos still lingered in the air, clashes of metal, distant shouting.
He blinked, brow furrowing, and murmured under his breath, "What in the heavens was all that commotion about?"
His voice, barely more than a whisper, was quickly swallowed by the heavy silence that had now replaced the earlier din.
Still, he hesitated a heartbeat longer, eyes darting to the hallway behind him, just in case anyone else might be brave, or foolish, enough to join him, before steeling himself, only for the door to open from within before he could touch it.
A figure stepped out, clad in the same servant attire.
The servant blinked, confused. He didn't recognise the man, he was certain he hadn't seen this one before.
The newcomer gave a casual sigh. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you," he said lightly, brushing past. "Juniper's currently unfortunate enough to be on Harloss's bad side."
The servant's eyes widened a bit, then slowly relaxed with dawning understanding. "Oh…" he breathed. That would explain the earlier commotion.
He opened his mouth to ask what exactly had happened, but before the words could fully form, the newcomer cut him off.
"Anyway, I've been told to tell Aldric that Saint Harloss has commanded Protocol Pegasus be initiated immediately. Lucky for me, I'm not assigned to this castle, or Harloss, so I won't be doing anything about it."
"Protocol Pegasus...?" He muttered in confusion, however, his expression shifted as he stared at the other like he was looking at an idiot upon hearing everything.
"Not assigned? That doesn't matter," he said sharply. "No matter what Dragon gives the order, we obey. Everyone does. You'll get yourself killed thinking like that."
The unknown servant simply shrugged, already turning away. "Then go ahead and take it off my hands if you care so much."
The first servant bit his lip, clearly fuming but unable to argue with the man's lazy defiance. Words faltered against a brick wall of ignorance as the other walked off, whistling.
He glanced at the closed door again, then clicked his teeth in frustration, trying to recall the quickest path to the armoury, where Aldric would likely be.
He had no idea what Protocol Pegasus was, but it didn't matter.
That message had to be delivered, for all their sakes.
And that other servant…he'd be dead soon enough with that kind of attitude.
As for the other servant...
"Less than an hour. That's how long I have before my cover is blown and I'm found out. And from what I've seen in the previous loops, my chances are close to zero once that time is over."
With a grin brandishing his face, he continued.
"I'm sure I can pull it off in a single loop."
The servant now paced up and down the hallway, wringing his hands nervously. "It really must be bad for Juniper," he muttered, glancing back at the door.
"They've been in there for so long... and not a single word." He bit his lip, frustration etched into his face.
"But I need to give this message to Saint Harloss. What do I do...? I really don't want to end up like Juniper, but if I don't deliver it, I might as well be."
He paused, breathing in deeply, trying to steel his expression, well, as best he could, before finally reaching for the door handle.
But as the door creaked open and he stepped inside, he froze.
His breath caught in his throat, his expression twisting into sheer horror.
"W-What..."
***
The large familiar door to the chamber opened again, this time not with a creak, but the assertive stride of armoured boots against marble.
A woman entered, clad in sleek armour that shimmered faintly with each movement.
Her back was bare, her long violet hair dancing behind her with every step. A contingent of knights followed her in formation, their presence immediately shifting the room's energy.
She barked commands without hesitation. "Secure the palace. Sweep every hall. You, get the medics. You two, seal the perimeter, now."
Then...she stopped, staring for a few seconds as her stern expression softened for a moment.
As she knelt beside the still body of Saint Harloss, gaping hole in his forehead as he lay in a pool of his own blood, her voice dipped into something colder, more personal.
"Forgive me, my lord. I've failed you."
"I swear on my name, I'll find whoever did this."
The air shifted again. Footsteps echoed behind her.
The knights immediately stood to attention. The woman stood and turned, a little annoyed at who was disturbing her mourning despite her having given everyone orders.
However, her expression snapped back into its stoicism as she bowed formally, if only slightly.
"Sir Shamrock."
Shamrock's piercing eyes surveyed the room. "What happened here?"
"We're still unsure," the armoured woman, Sirena, replied.
Shamrock didn't respond immediately. His gaze slid over the destruction, the pools of melted ice and scattered frost, before settling on the podium.
A beat passed.
His eyes lingered longer than necessary on the space where a familiar sculpture once lay.
In that moment, a lethargic voice broke the silence. "What a disaster," it said, dripping with irony and boredom.
Every head in the room turned, including Shamrock's, his eyes narrowing at the sight of two new figures standing at the chamber's entrance.
Shamrock's jaw tensed. "Admirals… what business do you have in the Holy Land?"
Akainu stepped forward, his expression hard. "Makes sense you wouldn't know. You've been clueless about what's happening in your own jurisdiction. If you weren't, this wouldn't have happened."
Shamrock's stare darkened. "What did you say?"
"A Dragon being attacked outside Marie Geoise...well, that's understandable. Rare, but understandable. But within your so-called 'Holy Land' itself? That's a first. Who was it? I'm curious..."
However, before Akainu could finish, something else caught his eye.
More specifically, the flood of ice and water on the ground, the ice drifting away from the podium to the side.
Having followed the recent auction in Sabody, he had an idea of what it could be.
"Isn't that..."
But before he could finish...
"You might want to lower the base in your tone. You must've forgotten the immense difference in our hierarchy."
Shamrock finally replied, expression stoic as always, regaining Akainu's attention so easily it almost seemed as though he did it on purpose.
Kizaru's voice cut in, slow and sing-song. "Either way… a Celestial Dragon has not only been attacked, prompting the presence of an Admiral, but also killed. Which is why Sengoku sent two of us."
"So...who was it and where are they?"
Silence blanketed the room as Akainu asked, his sharp gaze shifting across the melting ice, flicking between the pools as though searching for answers, signalling that he wasn't as clueless as one might have hoped him to be.
But then, without warning, all three men turned their heads sharply in the same direction, Shamrock, Kizaru, and Akainu, each one falling into a sudden, weighty silence as their gazes locked onto something unseen by the rest.
Their bodies remained still, but the shift in tension was unmistakable; eyes narrowed, posture taut, as if a single moment had peeled away the layers of confusion to reveal something they all understood at once.
Kizaru broke the stillness first, his tone lilting with amusement. "Oooh... that looks guilty if I've ever seen it."
Akainu's lip curled. "Never mind. Turns out fate has brought me the answers I've sought."
Akainu leapt off the ground, charging toward the nearest wall, and with a BOOM, smashed through it with his bare fist, shards of marble scattering like dust as both Admirals launched into the open air beyond.
Sirena blinked, startled, unable to contain her curiosity. "What...what is it? What did they see?"
Shamrock, already turning toward the door, replied flatly, "A man in tattered rags. Running. Escaping the Holy Land. Heading straight for the Red Line's edge. He's using the mist for cover."
"That has to be him," Sirena growled, stepping forward. "We need to move, now, before he gets away—"
"No," Shamrock cut her off. He continued walking with deliberate calm. "Continue as you were. Secure the palace."
"But—!"
"Don't worry," Shamrock added, opening the door as if this were all a routine inconvenience. "I'll handle it."
Then, he stepped out, letting the surroundings return to their mournful silence.
***
Heavy breaths rang out, each gasp sharp against the quiet mist that coiled through the crags of the Red Line.
Hard footsteps thundered forward, the erratic beat echoing off unseen cliffs as a sweat-drenched man sprinted, his thin, flailing arms speaking to how close he was to collapse.
The mist thickened, until suddenly, with a blinding flash...
PEW!
BOOM!
A beam of light pierced through. Then a deafening BOOM rang out.
His head was driven brutally into the earth with such force that it cratered the ground, a powerful hand locking around his skull.
A knee followed, pinning into his spine with such force that the ground cratered beneath them.
Dust erupted, shockwaves cutting through the mist, clearing the area in a single breathless instant.
Kizaru, now crouched over the pinned figure, chuckled lazily, "You know... for the only man to ever sneak into Marie Geoise and kill a Dragon without anyone noticing... I was expecting a little more flair than this sorry display."
From the haze, molten steps followed.
Akainu scowled, as usual, the heat clinging to him like a second skin.
He knelt beside the subdued man, whose body twitched from the impact.
"Must be hard to speak with your face in the dirt," he said, voice like grinding stone. "But I'm going to ask anyway. Who are you...No…Rather, are you the man in the ice?"
The world stilled. No answer came. Only ragged, wet sobs filled the air.
Then, slowly, the figure raised his head just enough, revealing his near yellow and rather sadly limp hair and hazel eyes.
His face was smeared with blood, tears, and snot, eyes wide with terror. "No..." he whimpered.
"M-My name...is T-Tyburn...I'm a knight to Saint Harloss...h-he said if I don't do this...he'd kill me."
Kizaru's smirk twitched, his usual playful demeanour faltering.
Akainu's brow furrowed deeper, the weight of something unspoken settling heavily over the two admirals. The air seemed to thicken.
Kizaru cocked his head, eyes narrowing slightly. "A distraction?" he mused aloud, his voice still casual but tinged with edge.
But before Akainu could respond, Tyburn cried out, desperation bubbling over. "No! I wasn't meant to fight, I was supposed to guide you here! Just you two!"
The mist around them began to clear, parting like curtains before a stage, revealing a trail of vivid crimson smeared across the earth like careless brushstrokes. It stretched and curled into a message scrawled with unsettling flair.
Akainu rose slowly to his feet, reading aloud with a low growl.
"Lupin was here."
At the base of the sentence, a small metal box hissed and sparked.
BOOM!
It exploded, not with flame but with a hail of scrap, bullets, jagged shards, metal pellets, like a storm of shrapnel.
Most of it sailed harmlessly past the Admirals, phasing through them. They barely flinched.
Akainu scoffed, turning. "This bastard...He wanted us to know. So...who the hell is Lu—"
PSHKH!
The sound was wet, visceral. Akainu let out a roar of pain as he dropped to one knee, clutching his face, blood gushing between his fingers from a ruined eye.
Kizaru's easy smile dropped entirely as he straightened, only to lurch as something cracked violently against his leg.
CRACK!
He stumbled, grasping his knee with a groan as fresh blood seeped between his fingers.
'What...how...'
They both thought. But perhaps it was the pain that made them ask such menial and stupid questions. Because as they felt the strength drained from their bodies, having felt this a few times before, a single thought struck them at the same time.
'Seastone.'
"He told me to tell you both..."
The two Admirals, half their mind functioning properly enough despite the pain to hear this, turned to the sobbing man who was fortunate enough to be so low that the debris missed him.
"To enjoy the view from here."
They all turned their heads back, staring at Marie Geoise...
***
"You..."
Shamrock stood inside a familiar armoury, Aldric dead at the side and the place a mess, most notably a few seastone handcuffs shaved off, the pieces of it missing.
Shamrock, however, stood before a certain piece of destruction. A stand where a glass case once held a weapon he'd taken note of.
But now, the glass was shattered, the weapon was gone, and all that lay there was a letter. A letter he couldn't help but read over and over.
"Funny, don't you think?"
The letter started.
"You say the lower world and we fellow peasants exist only to amuse you. So...tell me, now that I'm the one laughing...what does that make you?"
Shamrock, his expression dark, tightened his grip around the letter.
"I'll tell you what it makes me..."
"It makes me Lupin, the fucking Genius. Remember this name, for this is the day that a mere man bested the Heavens."
BOOM
The surroundings turned dark as red lightning crackled from Shamrock, the air itself seemed as though it thickened, gravity multiplying by a thousand times.
Shamrock looked up slightly, his eyes dangerous as he crumbled the paper in his grip.
And in that moment...
KABOOM!!!
Outside, the sky above Marie Geoise ignited in hellish red-orange hues as a series of explosions erupted, one after the other in rapid succession.
The sacred spires of the Celestial Dragon capital shattered like glass under the force, ornate rooftops crumbling, marble towers collapsing inward in a cascade of fire and fury.
The largest of them all, the Grand Castle at the centre, groaned under the weight of destruction as an entire right wing was ripped apart, smoke and flame belching into the sky like a dying dragon exhaling its final breath.
Windows shattered from the pressure, sending crystalline fragments raining down on the streets below.
Flaming debris spewed across the city like meteors falling from the heavens, bathing everything in a terrifying, flickering light.
Structures that had stood for centuries were obliterated in seconds, consumed by roaring infernos.
And from a faraway peak, three figures watched in silence.
Akainu stood rigid, his coat fluttering behind him as he stared at the burning city in disbelief, all while Kizaru's usual smug expression disappeared, brows lifted in genuine shock.
Even they, Admirals of the Marines, felt his breath catch.
All the while, Tyburn, almost as though he was expecting it, closed his eyes, continuing to sob.
Before them, the once-mighty Holy Land was engulfed in flame, sky burning as though judgment day had come early.
And all this, this very Holy Land, was brought to its knees by...
"A single man," Akainu muttered, his expression steeling and jaws clenching as he almost forgot the pain in his eye.
"Lupin."
As for a familiar figure in an armoury...
"Do you understand it now..."
Shamrock's expression never changed despite the literal chaos erupting outside. Perhaps because he was ignoring it, not wanting to face the truth...no, rather that he was too angry to care.
"Social Hierarchy is one thing, but this?"
Shamrock dropped the paper as in that moment, he took a vow.
"I promise...no matter what...I'll find you..."
"This is real..."
Meanwhile, not far from the Holy Land but far enough not to have noticed the commotion, a large dome scaled down the wall of the Red Line, guided by ropes.
"This is my Perfect Run…"
Inside this dome, dozens of figures in brown and ragged clothes sit on their knees, wooden handcuffs that were linked with each other by chains restraining them.
"I am smarter."
But one specific figure sat, head down, jet black hair covering his face that remained lowered.
"I am better."
Most likely to cover his deviously wide grin that spanned from ear to ear, so wide that it made his eyes curl into crescent shapes.
"I..."
"Did you hear that?"
One guard asked, paused as if he were trying to catch something. Another beside him also stopped, ear perked, but in the next second, he clicked his teeth.
"Stay focused. We have a personal quest from Sir Harloss himself. We have a long road ahead of us. These Slaves aren't going to transport themselves, are they?"
"I..."
The previous guard apologised as his superior looked out of the window, the mist lessening until they were low enough that they cut through it completely, the sight making the man grin.
The sight of the vast blue sea.
"Alright...To Alabasta!"
The grinning slave looked up, he, too, basking in the sight as he looked as though he was about to leap, the sight seemingly exciting him all the more.
"I...AM LUPIN!"
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This is the first arc to new story. Tell me what you think since I quite enjoyed writing it.
As always, thanks for reading!