The next day passed without incident. Mary Geoise remained quiet and prosperous, blissfully unaware.
At around two o'clock in the morning, the bustle of the Holy Land had completely dissipated. Countless people slept peacefully in their beds.
The Revolutionary Army, which had been gathering strength for more than two days, could wait no longer.
Dragon decided not to wait.
With Morley's ability, they soon emerged from an alley in Mary Geoise, the ground opening up beneath them like a portal.
Dragon, wearing his signature windbreaker, surveyed the quiet Holy Land. Behind him, a group of Revolutionary Army cadres climbed out of the earth, silent as ghosts.
"Get ready for action," Dragon whispered, his voice barely audible. "Set a fire first to create chaos. During this period, be careful to hide your movements and don't attract attention. Once the fire starts, immediately begin freeing the slaves and escalate the chaos."
"Yes, Mr. Dragon!" the Revolutionary Army cadres responded in hushed tones.
However, just as the Revolutionary Army was about to move, black smoke suddenly billowed from a house in the distance. Then, in a matter of seconds, as if someone had doused it with accelerant, the building erupted into roaring flames.
Dragon's eyes lit up. He raised his hand and pressed it slightly, signaling his people to stop. "Don't move yet. The person I've been waiting for has arrived."
At first, the fire in that single house didn't attract much attention from Mary Geoise. The weather was dry. Fires occurred occasionally anywhere. Nothing unusual.
However, it didn't take long for the situation to deteriorate drastically. The people who came to extinguish the fire couldn't even put out the blaze in that one house. Then another building not far away caught fire. Then another. The fires spiraled out of control. Within fifteen minutes, flames consumed seven or eight locations, and then those separate blazes gradually connected, forming a wall of fire.
There was no doubt now. Everyone had realized that a lunatic was deliberately setting fire to Mary Geoise.
"Hahahaha! Let's move!" Dragon laughed, his voice carrying a note of savage satisfaction.
As he finished speaking, he raised his hand and waved it in a sweeping gesture. Mary Geoise, which had been perfectly calm moments before, suddenly began to blow with powerful wind.
As the saying goes, wind fuels fire. The flames that had been nearly extinguished suddenly roared back to life with terrifying intensity. At the same time, under Dragon's control, the spread of the fire became exponentially faster.
It's often said that water and fire are merciless, and fire is aggressive.
Once flames spread, they become extremely dangerous, nearly impossible to control, and propagate with frightening speed.
Now, Fisher Tiger was pouring oil and setting fires throughout Mary Geoise, while Dragon manipulated powerful winds to fan the flames even higher.
There was absolutely no way this fire could be suppressed.
Unless someone with special abilities like Kuzan could be summoned immediately. The problem was, there was no one with abilities like Kuzan's in Mary Geoise.
It had to be said that although Fisher Tiger and Dragon had never met, they had remarkable synchronicity.
Tiger, who was setting fires everywhere, was genuinely confused by his good fortune. He kept thinking, Has my luck finally changed? Am I the child of destiny? After suffering so much, is this the beginning of my comeback?
Ever since he'd escaped from this hellhole, he'd felt as if Heaven itself was helping him.
He'd worried that Fish-Man Island would be implicated by his actions, but as soon as he'd returned, he'd discovered that Fish-Man Island and the Marines had formed a close relationship, and their ties with the World Government had entered a period of improvement. Fish-Man Island likely wouldn't be implicated by him at all.
As soon as he'd recovered physically, he'd contemplated how to avoid quick Marine reinforcements or some other solution. However, before he could figure it out, before he'd even prepared to ignore the problem and launch a direct assault, the Marines had launched an anti-corruption campaign. A large number of officers who'd been concentrated at Marineford were suddenly scattered across all the seas.
Tiger no longer had anything to worry about.
Then he'd spent two days climbing from the Red Line to Mary Geoise through sheer determination and suffering.
After a short rest, he'd just started setting fires. He'd been lamenting that today's weather wasn't very suitable for arson because there was no wind.
And then, the very next second, powerful winds had suddenly begun blowing through Mary Geoise. That would have been fortunate enough, but the winds seemed to blow strongest exactly where he'd lit his fires. What the hell was going on?
But whatever the reason, it was undeniably good for him.
In this way, under cover of darkness and flame, Tiger set fires everywhere. With the help of the strong winds, he didn't even need to pour oil anymore. He just set the fires and left the rest to Heaven!
Because of this coordination, the fire in Mary Geoise spiraled completely out of control. Even the Five Elders hurriedly got up in their pajamas to take command of the situation.
But it seemed to be of no use. Mary Geoise was being engulfed in flames. Countless people rushed to fight the fires, but extinguishing a blaze was far slower than starting one.
Seeing that Mary Geoise had descended into chaos, Tiger threw away his makeshift torch and turned to run toward the slave detention centers.
At the same time, in the World Government's headquarters building, the Five Elders were furiously shouting orders.
"Search! Someone deliberately set these fires! Find that bastard and arrange for people to extinguish the flames immediately. We must not let the fire spread to the Domain of the Gods!"
"Yes!" A high-ranking CP officer knelt before the Five Elders, trembling.
Now that Mary Geoise had burned to this extent, he knew very well that even if they put out the fire and caught the arsonist, he was probably finished. But what else could he do?
His entire family was in the World Government's hands.
"Contact the Marines and request immediate support. Call Kuzan, call Sengoku, call that damned Finn, and tell them to get here immediately!" one of the Five Elders ordered after a moment's thought.
But as soon as he finished speaking, a World Government official trembled and said, "My lord, regarding the Marines, I'm afraid it's too late!"
"What do you mean?" the Five Elders demanded angrily.
"Two months ago, the Marines submitted an anti-corruption action plan, which the five of you personally approved... Currently, Kuzan and Admiral Sengoku are fighting pirates in the New World while investigating corruption at the three New World Marine bases. Admiral Finn went to the North Blue more than half a month ago. Most of the other high-ranking officers from Marine Headquarters are scattered across all the seas, investigating corruption within the organization. They're not at Marineford and cannot provide effective, rapid support!" the senior World Government official said hastily.
As soon as he finished speaking, the Five Elders remembered that this was indeed the case. Two months ago, Finn had actually submitted an action application to the World Government.
This was something the Marines hadn't done in a long time. In the past, whenever the Marines planned something significant, they'd inform the World Government first. But after relations between the two organizations deteriorated, unless it was a particularly major matter, the Marines made decisions directly and internally. The World Government had no effective way to control Marine movements.
Originally, when Finn had submitted this application, the Five Elders had been quite pleased. They'd thought that recent pressure on the Marines in other areas had made the organization realize that only by following the World Government could they prosper.
Were they coming to surrender?
Anyway, there had been no problem with the application itself, and the action plan seemed sound. The World Government was also actively cracking down on corruption. The Marines wanting to conduct this operation had seemed very appropriate. What's more, they'd submitted the application respectfully. The Five Elders had thought it was time to ease relations with the Marines, so they'd approved it without hesitation.
And now all the Marine officers had scattered across the seas, and Mary Geoise was on fire!
Who could they complain to about this?!
"It's impossible that all the senior Marine officers have left. Who remains at Marineford now? Have them lead reinforcements immediately!" Saint Warcury demanded after a moment of silence.
"S... Sakazuki?" the high-ranking World Government official said hesitantly.
The Five Elders fell silent.
They turned to look at the raging fire, then thought about Sakazuki and his abilities.
Damn it...
"Where is the Army? Where is the Army regiment stationed in Mary Geoise?" Saint Saturn demanded.
After hearing this question, the CP officers seemed to have found a lifeline. It was true that they'd made a serious mistake this time, but there were people who'd performed even worse!
"My lord, the Army regiment was defeated within fifteen minutes of the fire starting. Those... those cowards all fled!" a senior CP official said quickly.
Are you kidding me? The Army regiment in Mary Geoise was filled with fat, pampered sons of nobles who were skilled at eating, drinking, and debauchery. They were proficient in everything except actual military duty. Asking them to fight fires? That was asking them to die.
With all their excess weight, their bodies might make the fire burn even more fiercely.
In short, after discovering that the fire was growing larger, the Army regiment had immediately scattered like rats.
"I'm going to kill those bastards! Send me the Army regiment roster afterward! Not one of them will survive!" Saint Saturn roared.
"Where's Pask? Where is that man Pask?! Why hasn't he arrived yet?!" Saint Peter demanded.
Pask, the current Commander-in-Chief of the entire military, was a high-ranking official who'd risen through the CP agencies.
After the fire broke out in Mary Geoise, Pask had immediately realized he was doomed. As Commander-in-Chief of the entire military, the Army regiment directly under his command had collapsed the moment fires started in the Holy Land. Shouldn't he bear responsibility for this?
It was precisely because he'd wanted to curry favor with and maintain connections among the great nobles that he'd approved the Army regiment's recruitment from the children of nobility.
But once something went wrong, it became like this.
What's more, the highest person responsible for Mary Geoise's security was Pask himself. Now everyone could see that someone had deliberately set these fires.
In other words, it was Pask's dereliction of duty that he'd failed to prevent this incident in time and capture the arsonist.
Judging from the current intensity of the fire, he basically had no way out.
Therefore, in order to earn some performance points with the Five Elders and the World Government at the last moment, to see if he could receive a lighter sentence, this man had personally rushed to the front lines to fight the fires.
However, it was this action that made the Five Elders completely disappointed in him.
You're the Commander-in-Chief of the entire military, and you're personally fighting fires? How much good can you possibly do? On the contrary, without you coordinating command, many dispatch orders have gone awry. This is a capital offense!
All that could be said was that Pask had come from the CP agencies, and he wasn't suited for the position of "Commander-in-Chief," which required genuine military significance. His thinking and behavioral patterns were different from those of a soldier. At this critical moment, if Admiral Sengoku or Fleet Admiral Kong were here, they would immediately organize forces, dispatch units, and coordinate fire suppression in an orderly manner, then accept responsibility afterward.
As for Pask, he just wanted to perform well and have a chance to survive.
But because of this, the Five Elders were completely disappointed with his capability in this position. This kind of person wasn't suitable to be Commander-in-Chief of the entire military. It would be better for him to return to being a spy chief in the CP agencies.
While the World Government's top brass descended into chaos, Fisher Tiger killed several guards stationed at a slave detention center and released a large number of slaves.
At this point, the fire in Mary Geoise began to evolve into a full-scale slave riot, liberation, and uprising.
Then strange changes occurred at the port of Mary Geoise beneath the Red Line. Revolutionary Army soldiers rapidly captured the port and seized control of the bubble elevators and other equipment.
Tiger also noticed something was wrong.
My goodness, why is someone else doing the same thing as me?
After he'd liberated one slave detention center, he'd gone outside to find everything in complete chaos. Gunshots and cannon fire echoed through the streets. He saw with his own eyes an organized, disciplined force, definitely not the Mary Geoise garrison, break into another slave detention center. They'd even prepared a large quantity of weapons and were distributing them to the freed slaves on the spot.
"What is going on?!" Tiger stared at the scene in bewilderment.
Not long after, a breeze swirled around him, and a figure stepped out of the wind itself.
"I presume you are the famous adventurer, Mr. Fisher Tiger?" Dragon looked at Tiger and extended his hand with a smile.
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