Hero?

"What's going on? An earthquake? Has Newgate gone mad?!"

"It's not him. Whoever it is doesn't matter anymore. We should be figuring out how to get off this island! It looks like it's about to sink!"

The effects of Oran's gift continued. The explosion at the center triggered a chain reaction. Although the canyon terrain limited the blast's reach, the outrageous impact still affected the entire island.

The Celestial Dragons began evacuating under the Marines' protection, but taking a group of useless people away safely under these circumstances was no easy task. They had no means of teleportation.

"The Celestial Dragons' ship has capsized! Hurry and rescue them!"

"Saint Rodriani fell in! Pull him up!"

The Marines were run ragged, and the pirates began searching for their own escape routes. The most convenient option belonged to people like Golden Lion, who could fly to begin with.

As for Rocks?

The structure of the Rocks Pirates ensured that no one would fight to the death for their captain.

Rumble...

Under the force of the shockwaves, the mountains of God Valley began to collapse.

The Hex Crystal already contained enormous energy. Hex Craftsmen had relied on this special power to create one unbelievable invention after another.

And destruction was far easier than creation. Stable operation required careful consideration of how to keep the energy balanced, but self-destruction did not. All it required was figuring out how to unleash the greatest possible force.

"Kaido! This thing is yours. Rocks is probably finished. So, do you want to join my pirate crew?"

"Wororororo, Linlin, you should know my answer."

"Mamamama, I suppose so. Don't die, Kaido. We'll meet again if fate allows!"

The powerful pirates on the island began leaving by all sorts of means. Kaido also ate the fruit Charlotte Linlin had given him, transformed into an azure dragon, and flew away.

As for why he could fly the moment he ate it, that was simply normal. The ones who could not even use a fruit's most basic abilities were the abnormal ones.

Several days later.

South Blue, Kingdom of Sorbet.

This was Bear's hometown, and one of the locations where he had delivered the beacons. Some people had been sent to this kingdom through the Hex Gates. Many chose not to remain here and departed by ship after resting up.

They could not stay gathered together forever. They also needed to find new ways to live.

"Mr. Oran, I'm leaving. Thank you for saving my life. I'll wait for you at Merfolk Island!"

Shak solemnly knelt on the shore, then turned and dove into the sea. As a fish-man, he did not need to rely on ships like humans did.

Merfolk Island was etched into his people's very bones. Fish-men naturally had their own ways of returning there.

Shak was not the first person to leave. By now, the people who still remained in the Kingdom of Sorbet were the minority.

Inside an old church stood Bear's former home.

Ivankov was currently tearing apart the newspaper in his hands. Oran could hear the scorn in his voice even before entering.

"Let's see... the utterly vile pirate Rocks attacked God Valley in West Blue for unknown reasons and kidnapped Celestial Dragons who were traveling. Traveling? Those bastards really dared to write that."

"What else would they say? They would never admit to a massacre... No, what they did was even worse than a massacre. You've known the World Government's true face for a long time, haven't you?"

"Oran, you're back? Knowing it is one thing, but there isn't a single word in this newspaper worth believing. Especially this reporter named Morgans. He wrote so many articles, yet not one thing that hit the mark!

He had no idea what happened on that island. He was just making things up.

Hero Garp fought for days and defeated Rocks, saving countless Marines and World Nobles. Just reading it makes me sick.

They might as well rename this paper the Legend of Hero Garp.

You and Bear are the real heroes. At the very least, you saved four thousand people from that island!"

This was the number Ivankov had reached after tallying them up: liberated slaves, the original residents of God Valley, and the people Bear had sent flying. Adding it all together gave a rough estimate like this.

"That's normal. For those in power, guiding public opinion is a basic tactic. The World Government has already done a terrible enough job at it. I'd say they just want to use this opportunity to promote the Marines' strength and support their rule.

As for this so-called hero, what a joke. If they wanted to, they could elevate even a dog to that position.

Is there no information about Celestial Dragon casualties? If there was only one, then this operation was a bit of a loss."

Oran did not care who became the Marines' hero. After all, even Koby could be touted as the future of the Marines.

Although Roger and Garp had joined forces to defeat Rocks, something like Marines and pirates working together could never be openly discussed. In the end, all traces of Roger were erased, and the credit was placed entirely on Garp.

The Marines had also issued a gag order. News of God Valley could still be found now, but according to the World Government's plans, the incident would soon be completely buried in history's darkness and never mentioned again.

"Let me see... As for detailed information, the paper only says there were minor casualties. This reporter really is useless."

Ivankov flipped through a few more pages but found no worthwhile information. There was nothing but the World Government's hollow rhetoric and wanted notices for the remaining members of the Rocks Pirates.

After all, according to the newspapers, the pirates were blamed for the root cause of all this destruction.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise was extremely tense.

Even World Government officials acted with great caution here. Everyone knew that after the Celestial Dragons returned from their trip, they had been in terrible moods. Recently, quite a few people had been executed by Celestial Dragons for all sorts of inexplicable reasons.

"Everyone, this is the current situation. Elatin was brutally killed by the enemy. Another five died from the aftershocks caused by that explosion, while the number of injured is impossible to count."

Gringo was holding a meeting with the members of the Divine Knights. Members of every Celestial Dragon family were also present as observers. For the Celestial Dragons, this was an unprecedented event, one that had not occurred in centuries.

There was also an even more troublesome problem. Between the massive explosion on God Valley and the battle of several monsters across the island, God Valley itself had now vanished from the sea.

The Celestial Dragons wanted to investigate the culprit, but for the moment, they could not find any clues. Oran's appearance had even triggered a series of chain reactions. For instance, Bear had not encountered Saturn on God Valley, making it even harder for the Celestial Dragons to trace any information.

The outside world had been sealed off from news of God Valley, but no such secrecy existed among the Celestial Dragons themselves. In the end, this incident became one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in Celestial Dragon history...