Ronan's footsteps came to a stop right in front of the shivering Celestial Dragons.
"Y-you… you filthy commoner! Lowly breed! You dare come near me?!" one fat Celestial Dragon roared, blustering despite his fear. "I-I am a descendant of the Creators! A World Noble! If you harm me, the World Government will erase you and your country from this world completely! Y-you… and every last one of your relatives will die without even a place to be buried!"
Threats were their go-to trick.
Ronan's gaze didn't waver in the slightest.
Another Celestial Dragon—one who looked a little "smarter"—seemed to realize threats were useless and immediately swapped to a sweet, tempting grin:
"W-wait! Young King of Lulusia-sama! I… I acknowledge your power! Strong! Very strong! Spare us! As long as you spare us, I can speak to the Gorosei-sama and restore your status as an allied nation! No—I'll get you even more privileges! More land! Countless riches and Berries! What do you want? A Devil Fruit? Powerful slaves? Even… even a position as a Marine officer? I can give you all of it! We can cooperate! You have the power, we have authority and wealth—together, we can rule this sea!"
Faced with those shameless expressions, Ronan still said nothing.
Because at that moment, a "ding" sounded in Ronan's mind.
A quest had triggered!
Ronan hadn't expected it to trigger now. He'd assumed it would pop before the battle and had been thinking this campaign might bring him a pile of unexpected Quest Points. Instead, it only triggered now—~one quest.
Without hesitating, Ronan focused his consciousness on the panel in his mind.
Quest: Faced with the World Government's strike, display your revenge through the deaths of Celestial Dragons!
(S-rank quest, time limit: one hour. Gain 50 Quest Points for each Celestial Dragon who dies. Completion reward: 500 Quest Points. Failure penalty: -800 Quest Points. Accept?)
Holder: Ronan
Quest Points: 350
Abilities:
- Armament Haki (Mastered; 1200 points to upgrade to Perfect)
- Physical Arts (Proficient; 1200 points to upgrade to Perfect)
- Observation Haki (Proficient; 700 points to upgrade to Mastered)
Special Skill: Lucky Roulette (1000 points per use)
Staring at the quest on the panel, Ronan was seeing this type for the first time. He hadn't expected killing Celestial Dragons could come with extra Quest Points. His eyes swept over the nineteen of them in front of him—and to Ronan, they were nothing but glaring, shining stacks of Quest Points.
"Accept."
On the other side, as Kizaru pulled out, it was like the final pillar propping up the crisis had been yanked away. His departing figure didn't just take the Marines' top-tier deterrence with it—it also delivered a message:
This place is done. Every man for himself.
That single move sent the pressure on the God Knights skyrocketing, their hearts sinking straight to the bottom.
Garling, the commander of the God Knights, had his ornate outfit torn to rags, split open with gashes from greatsword strikes. Blood seeped nonstop, dyeing him into a walking blood-soaked wreck.
His peripheral vision swept the battlefield at high speed. Shamrock was being completely suppressed by Beth's berserk sword pressure—his defeat was only a matter of time. Shepherd Sommers was even worse; under Alicia's attacks he was already covered in wounds, his movements slowing more and more. The outcome was decided.
Garling's chest filled with violent regret. He never would've imagined that a tiny Lulusia Kingdom could be hiding so many terrifying monsters. And Teresa, Beth, and Alicia—each of those three women had shown power that wasn't inferior to his. There was also that lightning controller who had been tying down Kizaru the whole time, and even that catwoman who had casually faced three Vice Admirals and cleanly killed one of them…
This force had already blown past the limits of what their deployment could handle.
"A blunder! A catastrophic blunder!" Garling howled internally. "We should've deployed everyone! We should've brought every member of the Knights! We should've even requested that-sama…"
But there was no undoing it.
Right now, the most important thing was surviving. As long as he lived and made it back to Mary Geoise with the intelligence from here, there would be a chance to come back and crush them later.
As for those Celestial Dragons… Garling's eyes flicked toward the cluster of World Nobles in the distance, and there wasn't the slightest trace of responsibility in them.
Cold-blooded selfishness—he put it on full display.
With that thought, Garling didn't hesitate for even an instant. He erupted with everything he had left, forced Teresa's stabbing blade aside, and used the recoil to fling himself backward—except his direction wasn't toward the Celestial Dragons at all.
He bolted straight away from the harbor, sprinting for the depths of the royal capital like a man fleeing for his life!
"Hm?" Teresa's brows lifted slightly, surprise flashing through her eyes. She hadn't expected a God Knights commander with real strength to ditch every companion so cleanly and run alone.
"Heh… interesting." The familiar smile at Teresa's lips deepened. Not anger—interest, thicker than before.
She chased after him without the slightest delay. Hunting prey like that was far more fun than flattening idiots who fought to the death.
The moment the God Knights' commander ran, it was like the first domino had fallen.
…
Shamrock, Shepherd Sommers, and the other two members who were barely hanging on saw that Garling had actually fled—and they immediately abandoned their opponents too.
"Withdraw!"
"Split up!"
Almost at the same time, the remaining four God Knights each unleashed their trump cards, forcibly shaking off their pursuers and charging in different directions—madly rushing into the royal capital.
There were no ships left at the harbor. The only way out was to slip into the massive, tangled civilian districts of the royal capital. If they could vanish among tens of thousands of people… maybe they'd have a slim chance.
In this moment, those knights who called themselves "the spokesmen of the gods" treated the civilians they'd always hunted at will as their final life-saving straw.
With the God Knights fully routed, the World Government's high-end strength at the harbor collapsed in an instant. The surviving Marines lost the will to resist entirely.
"We surrender! We surrender!"
"Stop killing us! We'll drop our weapons!"
Begging voices and the clatter of weapons hitting the ground rose and fell in waves. The living Marines and guards threw down their arms, hands on their heads as they dropped to their knees, faces ashen.
Alicia didn't even glance at the opponent who'd escaped her. She followed Teresa's direction and chased after them—because Garling, the leader, was the most important target.
And Beth's gaze snapped first to the distance, toward the two still fighting Doberman. The next second, she shot over there.
(End of Chapter)
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