Inside the Oasis Hotel, Diarmuid was eating something, saying with a hint of resignation, "It looks like resources are starting to run short in the city?"
"To be precise, the resources circulating on the market are scarce. Most people are hoarding them to cope with the threat of war," Hina said, glancing at Diarmuid.
A few days ago, they could eat well and drink fine wine. Although prices were skyrocketing, Diarmuid clearly didn't lack the money.
Now, they were reduced to simple fare. The fruits and vegetables were noticeably stale. Yet, even this was considered a good meal; such supplies were basically nonexistent in the Alubarna marketplace. Money couldn't buy them!
"War really is..." Diarmuid clicked his tongue.
"Destructive," Hina completed the sentence.
"Indeed. Where is Vergo?" Diarmuid asked curiously.
"He went to find his girlfriend," Hina said with a smile.
Before Diarmuid could ask, Hina continued, "Her name is Windsor, El Windsor. She's one of Alabasta's great nobles. Before the war started, Vergo advised them to leave Alubarna, but they didn't make it in time... or perhaps they hesitated too long."
"I get it. They must have too much wealth in the royal capital to bear leaving it behind, hahaha," Diarmuid laughed loudly.
"Probably. The situation is extremely dangerous now. The rebels could breach Alubarna at any moment. Vergo was worried about his girlfriend's safety, so he moved over there..." Hina said with a chuckle.
"What a thoughtful boyfriend," Diarmuid remarked, also amused.
The instant Diarmuid finished speaking, a cannonball suddenly struck the Oasis Hotel, though not their floor, but one below.
Diarmuid frowned, stood up, and looked out the window.
Sure enough, a section of the defensive line on the city wall had fallen. The cannons, which should have been aimed outside the wall, were now roaring toward the city itself!
It seemed that even with Belo Betty and the Revolutionary Army joining the fight, even using the power of the so-called Pump-Pump Fruit to rally morale, they still couldn't turn the tide for the Royal Army?
Expanding from that single point, the breached front quickly widened. A large number of rebels swiftly flooded into the new battlefield. Then, under Diarmuid's gaze, the rebels who had scaled the wall quickly opened the northwest city gate of Alubarna.
Seeing this, Diarmuid said with a tone of slight regret, "Alubarna is finished..."
Hina also stood next to Diarmuid, watching as the gate was thrown open and masses of rebels charged into the city on their camels.
"Sixteen days. After a siege that lasted sixteen days, Alubarna has finally fallen," Hina said, her voice filled with a trace of emotion.
At this moment, they were truly driven mad, truly insane.
A million rebels besieged Alubarna for sixteen days straight, rotating their relentless assault day and night. It was rumored that the corpses were nearly piled as high as the city wall itself.
The death of comrades, the psychological trauma of war, the ecstatic thrill of conquering Alubarna, the tension of life and death… all the factors caused by the war finally stripped the rebels of their humanity.
The rebels who poured into Alubarna were like demons, unleashing a massacre within the city. Whether they were Royal Army soldiers or civilians who couldn't escape in time, anyone who appeared before them was attacked.
Some utterly crazed individuals were even striking down their own people!
However, at that very moment, the ground at the city gate suddenly changed. It was as if a breach had opened underground, and large numbers of Revolutionary Army soldiers poured out, quickly moving to eliminate the rebels who had charged into the city.
The surprised Royal Army soldiers gradually reacted.
The rebels, who had been in a killing frenzy, slowly regained some sanity under this fierce resistance. They began to secure the gate, constantly sending in reinforcements.
Then, intense street fighting erupted near the gate, and a battle to seize control of the entrance was staged once more.
Yet, at this point, it held little significance. The fall of Alubarna was already inevitable.
"Follow me! Drive these damned ruffians out!" Captain Pell rushed over with a squad of elite Royal Guards, roaring.
This elite squad quickly joined the ferocious street battle.
Pell's blade rose and fell, taking down a rebel soldier. Before he could speak, he suddenly felt an immense sense of terror.
Frankly, this was a sixth sense, an instinctive vigilance, that only very powerful fighters possess. Pell wasn't normally qualified; he shouldn't have felt this warning.
But after fighting for over ten days in the meat grinder of war that was Alubarna, Pell had gained some growth. While his actual strength might not have improved much, his life-and-death sixth sense had become remarkably sharp.
The moment the sense of crisis appeared, Pell threw himself forward.
The next second, a powerful slash swept across the spot where he had just been. Everyone caught in the path of the attack—rebels, Royal Army, and Royal Guards—was instantly annihilated and cleanly sliced in half.
Pell realized the attack wasn't aimed at him; he had just happened to be in the way.
Before he could recover from the terrifying shock of the slash, he saw that a section of the tall city wall had been destroyed. A clean cut had been made, carving a passage wide enough for three people in the wall.
"Impossible... The city wall, with just one strike..." Pell stared at the breach in horror.
From beneath the smoke and dust of the wall, a figure slowly emerged.
He wore a nobleman's attire, topped with a feathered hat, and carried a large, cross-shaped blade strapped to his back. His eyes were as sharp as a hawk's, and just meeting his gaze sent a shiver down one's spine.
"A Warlord of the Sea..." Pell swallowed hard, his voice strained.
Clearly, the person who had struck first and cleaved the city wall was none other than one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the World's Greatest Swordsman, Dracule Mihawk.
He merely glanced at Pell, immediately judging him to be a weakling.
He had no interest in such opponents and wasn't here for a mere massacre. His hawk-like gaze quickly moved away from Pell. He seemed to be searching for the Revolutionary Army experts, looking left and right.
Concurrently, on the top floor of the Oasis Hotel, Diarmuid witnessed the scene and said, surprised, "I didn't expect Mihawk to be this proactive! What benefit did Crocodile promise him?"
"Perhaps he was just bored," Hina said with a smile.
And at that moment, Mihawk suddenly sensed something. As a top-tier swordsman and master fighter, he was extremely sensitive to being watched.
He wouldn't sense anything if mere weaklings looked at him, but if there was a threatening gaze, he would instantly become aware of it.
Perhaps this was his fighting instinct.
Diarmuid had only been observing Mihawk from the top floor of the hotel from a distance.
Mihawk already noticed the anomaly and sharply looked up.
In that instant, the eyes of the two men crossed over the chaotic battlefield.
The next second, surprise flashed in Mihawk's eyes. He wasn't called Hawk-Eyes for nothing; even from this distance, he recognized Diarmuid immediately.
What is going on? Why did I find a Marine Admiral hiding inside the city the moment I breached Alubarna?
Aren't we supposed to be on Mariejois's side?
But he quickly realized something else. Admiral Diarmuid was inside Alubarna, yet the city had been breached without any sign of him fighting. This meant he might not be here to cause trouble.
Was he simply on vacation? Traveling? Or, like Mihawk himself, bored and just watching the excitement?
If it were anyone else, Mihawk might have chosen to engage, but he chose not to confront Diarmuid. It wasn't that he feared Diarmuid, but he felt that since Diarmuid had no interest in showing his face, there was no need to ruin his fun.
Of course, this was solely out of respect for a fellow powerful individual. It was also because Diarmuid was not a great swordsman; otherwise, Mihawk would have drawn his blade without a second thought!
"Fascinating. It seems even more interesting things are about to happen here." Mihawk suddenly smiled, then turned and walked toward another direction.
Following Mihawk's entry, the rest of the Seven Warlords of the Sea also began to flood into Alubarna.
Donquixote Doflamingo manipulated his Parasite String, making several rebels and Royal Army soldiers serve as a small square formation, shielding him from cannon fire and bullets as he strutted in through the gate.
He was dressed in his typical flamboyant manner, making him extremely conspicuous on the battlefield.
After entering, he first glanced at the Oasis Hotel, a wicked smile playing on his lips, before continuing to play his perverse game in the chaotic battleground.
As for Hancock and Jinbe, they didn't enter through this gate. They broke through the city wall from a different direction, a blind spot for Diarmuid, and led the rebels into Alubarna.
With the fall of multiple gates, Alubarna's entire city wall defense was declared a complete failure. Large numbers of Royal Army soldiers began to retreat toward the Royal Palace, which was designated as the third line of defense.
As for the second line of defense?
That was the street fighting currently raging throughout Alubarna!
The flames of war, originally confined to the city walls, had now spread within the city. Many houses were set on fire, and the cannons that had faced the outside world were now thundering against the city itself.
Outside the city, still on the dune, Crocodile stood watching the situation in Alubarna.
Nico Robin, wearing a sun hat, glanced at her slightly darker skin with some resignation, then suddenly asked, "Aren't you going in? The city wall defenses have already been breached..."
Crocodile's lips curled into a slight smirk. "Not yet."
After a short pause, Crocodile asked, "Check if those CP agents have gone in."
Robin found Crocodile's question strange, but naturally nodded. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and whispered, "Blooming: Flower-Flower Frenzy..."
It was obvious that Robin, personally trained by Gion, was far more proficient in her Devil Fruit ability than she was in the original storyline.
Robin quickly retracted her ability and nodded. "They've entered the city."
"Excellent," Crocodile said, a cruel smile forming on his face.
"You're not planning to take them out too, are you?" Robin asked, suddenly surprised.
"How could I?" Crocodile denied, then added without sincerity, "I am a Warlord of the Sea, someone who obeys Mariejois's orders... aren't I?"
Meanwhile, protected by formidable CP9 agents like Who's-Who, Kaku, and Kalifa, Spandine, wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a shield, cautiously entered Alubarna through the chaotic battlefield.
"Quick! Organize your men and seize the Royal Palace for me! You must capture Cobra and that Princess Vivi, and they must be alive!" Spandine ordered, glancing at the Royal Palace not far away.
"Weren't we supposed to leave that task to Crocodile?" Kalifa asked, annoyed.
"Crocodile? Is that man trustworthy? If he catches Cobra and Vivi, that will be the problem. He'll definitely try to blackmail us for more benefits!" Spandine grumbled.
"Move!" Who's-Who wasted no words, directly accepting the order. With a single step of Soru, he vanished from the battlefield.
The moment he disappeared, Kalifa, Kaku, and Blueno all executed Soru, vanishing simultaneously, looking highly professional.
Only Spandine was left stunned. He cursed, "Aren't any of you going to stay and protect me, you bastards!? I'll settle scores with you idiots eventually!"
Finally, he hesitated, then began to move cautiously along the wall, heading toward the Oasis Hotel.
If he remembered correctly, his big 'golden leg,' Diarmuid, was inside there.
Was there any safer place in all of Alubarna?