"Judge! Get out here!"
The furious, thunderous roar exploded across the entire royal capital like a bolt of lightning — as though it were the wrathful cry of a god.
The air and the ground within the capital trembled and hummed under the weight of that single shout.
That rolling, thunder-like voice instantly silenced the bustling heat of work across the city.
All around, the citizens of the Germa Kingdom — men and women hard at labor — looked up in shock toward the sky.
Their hearts pounded like drums in their chests.
Who would dare call out the king's name so brazenly — and even tell him to "get out"? Such words dripped with open contempt!
The clone soldiers, whose minds were branded with commands and obedience, immediately raised their weapons, aiming toward the white shockwave surging down from the distant sky.
At the forefront of that wave was a single, indistinct human figure.
Inside the royal palace, Judge, who was already restless and furious after failing to reach his children, heard the thunderous voice roaring overhead — unrestrained and furious — and his temper instantly ignited.
"Who?!"
Grabbing his golden spear from the sofa, his towering frame leapt into the air. With a booming crash, he burst through the ceiling dome of the great hall, shattering centuries-old murals into dust, and soared outside.
His long golden hair whipped in the wind. Holding his golden spear, he looked up toward the heavens like an enraged lion.
But before he could even see who it was, a blurred, tumbling object came whistling down toward him at terrifying speed — so fast that it screamed past his ears.
"Hmph! Trying to sneak attack me before I've even found my footing? Naïve!"
Judge sneered coldly. His wrist twitched, lightning bursting from his golden spear as he swung it toward the falling blur.
Boom!
The spear, trailing arcs of lightning, slammed into the incoming shadow like a thunderbolt. A deep, heavy impact resounded.
That sound was one Judge knew all too well — the sound of flesh and bone being crushed under immense force.
So this falling object… was a person?
He frowned and turned his gaze downward.
When he saw the figure he had just struck, lying broken upon the shattered stone bridge below — the debris scattering in all directions — his authoritative eyes widened in disbelief.
"Ichiji?!"
Judge dove like a madman, landing beside Ichiji's body in the pit.
There, he saw a massive dent caving in Ichiji's torso — stretching from his ribs all the way up through his collarbone, neck, and into his skull.
The flesh around the dent was split open and charred black. His ribs, collarbone, neck, jaw, and half of his face were shattered, fused into a grotesque mix of scorched flesh and bone. The sight was beyond tragic.
Judge's entire body trembled. His hands shook as he touched Ichiji's body, which was rapidly growing cold, his life slipping away faster and faster. Terror, rage, despair, and confusion — emotions he had never known — collided within him, swelling his chest until it felt like he might burst.
He dropped to his knees amid the rubble, clutching Ichiji's fading body tightly to his chest. His once-dignified eyes were bloodshot, tears streaming freely down his face.
"No! No! Don't! Ichiji!! Don't die!"
"Don't!!"
Judge's voice broke into madness, incoherently chanting his son's name.
As he felt the last warmth fade from Ichiji's body, it was as if his soul had been ripped away — leaving only a hollow shell kneeling amidst the wreckage.
His dull, lifeless eyes slowly lifted toward the sky — toward Rorschach.
"Why?! Why?! My life's work, my masterpiece, my child! Why did you kill him?!"
"Your child was killed by your own hand," Rorschach replied coldly. "I merely returned him to you."
His voice was like ice. He hovered in the sky, looking down at this all-too-familiar place — fury and killing intent roiling within him no less than Judge's own rage.
Hearing that, Judge let out a guttural howl from deep within his throat — like a wounded lone wolf.
"Rorschach of the Navy! I'll kill you!!"
He dropped Ichiji's corpse, his body surging with murderous intent. With a stomp that shattered the ground, he shot into the sky, golden spear in hand, leaving a brilliant arc of light as he thrust toward Rorschach's face.
"So you do know I'm a marine, then?"
As Judge's bloodshot eyes glared at him and the golden spear lunged forward, Rorschach raised one massive hand.
Just as the weapon was about to pierce his face, Rorschach caught it.
Judge's speeding body stopped abruptly, as if slamming into an immovable wall. His grip on the spear couldn't loosen fast enough — his body jolted hard, yet his momentum carried him helplessly forward.
"Do you even see the Navy anymore? You dare besiege and attack a naval branch, Judge — you've gone completely lawless! Who gave you such courage?!"
Gripping the captured spear in his left hand, Rorschach raised his right — and slapped.
Smack!
The blow split the air, sending a gale rolling outward.
It landed squarely on Judge's left cheek. Half his face instantly swelled; his cheekbone sank inward, and a dozen bloodied teeth flew from his mouth.
He shot downward like a struck shuttlecock, flung hundreds of meters down, crashing into the capital below. He smashed through part of an armament factory and crashed diagonally into a blood-stained square, gouging a massive crater into the ground.
All around, the laboring citizens froze.
That terrifying, cold, and merciless king — Judge of the Germa Kingdom — had been struck from the heavens like a rag doll, now lying limp in the pit like a dead dog, struggling even to rise.
The sight was so shocking that every forced laborer — people taken from across the North Blue — stood dumbfounded, completely forgetting their work.
A single question rose in all their minds:
Who was the man in the sky?
"I heard... the king shouted just now... he called him Marine Rorschach."
Someone murmured hesitantly from the stunned crowd.
"Marine Rorschach? That name... it sounds familiar."
Voices of confusion and disbelief spread quickly.
Then, when Rorschach landed lightly in the square, still gripping the golden spear, and the crowd clearly saw his face — chaos erupted.
"I knew I'd seen him before! That's Lieutenant Rorschach! A year ago, during the Prince Kingdom coup, he saved me!"
"What Lieutenant Rorschach? Don't talk nonsense — that's Major Rorschach! I read about him in the papers — he fought alone against thousands in the Paradise seas, defeating countless vicious pirates and saving civilians!"
"You're both behind the times! He's no longer a Major — Rorschach is now the youngest Vice Admiral in Marine Headquarters! Codename: Blue Scale! He's the pride of our North Blue!"
"Vice Admiral Rorschach came to save us? Please — I can't keep working here... I'm so tired... I just want to go home... I haven't seen my family in over a year..."
Someone began sobbing.
But soon, the excited chatter fell silent — fear sweeping through them.
From every corner of the capital, waves of heavily armed clone soldiers were converging on the square.
Cannons and rocket launchers were raised by clone soldiers, surrounding Rorschach in tight, overlapping formations.
Hundreds, thousands of clone soldiers brandished blades and charged across the square toward him.
From within the crater, Judge staggered to his feet, dizzy and battered.
He was a pitiful sight — his face swollen and dented, drool and blood spilling from his lips.
His left eardrum had burst — he could no longer hear.
His left eye was pitch black — the retina detached, leaving him half-blind.
Only his right eye, bloodshot and filled with hatred, still glared at Rorschach.
His shattered jaw twitched, trying to form words — but all that came out was a feral roar:
"Kill him!!"
"Kill!!"
At his command, every clone soldier in the royal capital surged forward like a tidal wave, attacking Rorschach.
Behind the front lines, the artillery units loaded their cannons — ignoring the comrades already charging ahead.
They lit the fuses and fired.
Cannonballs screamed through the air toward Rorschach's position.
Missiles, rockets, torpedoes — countless high-tech weapons unleashed in an overwhelming barrage.
Bullets poured forth like torrential rain.
Yet, in the face of this all-encompassing onslaught, Rorschach's expression didn't waver.
His tall figure shuddered once — and then, a dominating aura burst forth, coalescing into a black-and-red sphere of power. It expanded outward in an instant, sweeping across the entire royal capital.
At the same time, a storm of lightning erupted from his body.
Tens of thousands of writhing electric serpents unfurled across the sky, centered on Rorschach, blanketing the entire Germa Kingdom.
Every cannonball, every bullet that came near froze in midair — suspended within that storm of crackling power.
Bolts of lightning pierced through the air, spearing through the bodies of over ten thousand clone soldiers.
In the crackling, thunderous explosion of sound, those clone warriors — the soldiers Judge had spent decades creating to fulfill his dream of uniting the North Blue and reviving Germa's former glory — were reduced to blackened husks, carpeting the streets of the capital.
Judge stood there, staring blankly at the sea of corpses stretching before him.
His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
His mind had fallen into complete, hollow despair.
End of Chapter)
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